Florida Gators QB Kyle Trask's Heisman Odds Revealed
After nearly a full season as the team's starting quarterback, Gators quarterback Kyle Trask will have high expectations entering 2020 as the team's unquestioned - at least by many observers - starting quarterback.
While the Gators will be fully locked in on winning not only the Southeastern Conference this season but also the national championship, individual awards will still be on the front of many player's minds as they set on their path to making it into the NFL - the ultimate goal.
According to WilliamHill, the Gators' signal-caller is currently listed as having 30/1 odds at winning one of the most prized possessions in collegiate sports, the Heisman Trophy.
Last season, Trask completed 251 out of 354 of his passes for 2,941 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions, one of the more efficient quarterbacks in the country. While Trask is not inherently mobile as many past Heisman Trophy winners have been, he has one of the more accurate arms (66.9 completion %) in the SEC and led the Gators to nine wins as the team's starting quarterback a season ago.
While this may be true, Trask is still listed as the fifth-most likely SEC quarterback to win the trophy behind or tied with Georgia quarterback Jamie Newman (10/1), Alabama quarterback Mac Jones (22/1), LSU quarterback Myles Brennan (28/1), and Auburn quarterback Bo Nix (30/1). The majority of the contenders are quarterbacks - a non-quarterback has won the trophy only three times since 2000.
Odds courtesy of William Hill
There will certainly be objections to Trask's ranking amongst observers, especially because two of the quarterbacks (Newman and Brennan) have yet to play significant downs for their respective teams, and in Newman's case, he has yet to play a single down for Georgia after transferring from Wake Forest.
Trask will have an uphill battle to prove he can be just as good as the quarterbacks listed above, the majority of which come from perennial winners in recent history. While Florida has won over the past two seasons, they are still getting rid of the negative image left by a four-win season in 2017 which is what ultimately would usher in Gators head coach Dan Mullen and his staff.
The Gators have also lost significant offensive talent via the draft, four starting wide receivers left for the NFL, and starting running back Lamical Perine - a Trask safety net -, was also drafted, leaving the offensive backfield with a bit of an unknown moving forward.
At the top of the chart is Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields (7/2). Fields is one of the most explosive quarterbacks in all of football and should be one of the first quarterbacks selected in next year's NFL Draft. Second on the list is Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence (4/1), who is expected to be the No. 1 quarterback taken in the 2021 NFL Draft and has a great chance of going No. 1 overall in his own right.
It is unlikely Trask wins the Heisman last year, even without his odds leading this to be true. Typically, a Heisman-winning quarterback has a "special" trait observers can point to or is slated to be the best at his position entering the season. For Trask, he has yet to show that he has that. Time will tell, however, it's a logical placement for Trask simply due to that.
Don't get it twisted, however, Trask is a more-than-capable quarterback and has exhibited a winning mindset and ability throughout his playing time last season, and the Gators should be excited about that.
