Tuesday's Take: Kyle Trask Is The Best Returning QB In The SEC

With Joe Burrow, Jake Fromm and Tua Tagovailoa all departing after the 2019 season, who else better than Kyle Trask?

© Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

It sounds insane. Mentioning a Florida quarterback and "best" has sounded awkward since Tim Tebow graduated over a decade ago. 

The absence of good, or even average, quarterback play in Gainesville since Urban Meyer roamed the sidelines makes it sound wrong, but it's not. Kyle Trask is the best returning quarterback in the SEC. 

And honestly? It isn't particularly close. 

If you have read my column on my belief that Emory Jones should be next year's quarterback for Florida, this take from me may come as a surprise to you. Yes, I believe Jones should be UF's man behind center in the fall. Yes, I think the ceiling is higher with Jones and yes, I think mobility takes a Dan Mullen offense to a level Trask can't reach. 

But no, that does not mean that at this current moment in time, Jones is the better quarterback.  

He may prove to be, but right now we have an extremely small sample size to go off of from Jones. But for Trask? We have 25 touchdowns to just seven interceptions with 2,941 yards in 2019. 

What other quarterback in the SEC not named Jake Fromm, Tua Tagovailoa or Joe Burrow is going to give you that sort of production? What quarterback that will have the SEC logo on his chest in 2020 comes even close? 

Bo Nix? The Auburn quarterback who had nine less touchdowns and just one less interception and lost to Trask head-to-head? Kellen Mond? The Texas A&M quarterback that threw five less touchdowns and lost five games? Ryan Hilinski? The South Carolina quarterback who only threw 11 touchdowns and, like Nix, lost to Trask head-to-head?

Tennessee's quarterbacks Jarrett Guarantano and Brian Maurer combined still have seven less touchdowns on the year than Trask. Ole Miss's quarterbacks John Rhys Plumlee and Matt Corral only combined for 10 touchdowns and 2,272 yards.

As far as the rest, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Arkansas don't have any passers worth talking about. Kelly Bryant is also departing from Missouri, and Trask was better than him anyway, statistically, in the win column and head-to-head. 

I give you all of these names and numbers to prove that while you may think that there has to be someone right now in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge or Athens that must be better than the guy who didn't start in high school, there's simply not. The Manvel, Texas, native was brilliant all season. 

He had a few hiccups, like the first half of the Orange Bowl and a shaky performance for most of the Georgia game. But that does not mean that he was anything short of remarkable for the Gators. 

The season could've easily drowned on Sep. 14 in Lexington, Kentucky. Florida was down 11 in the third quarter to a bad UK team and then-starter Feleipe Franks had just suffered a horrific leg injury. 

But the career backup was prepared. He stepped in as if to prove that having Franks in there instead of him was a mistake in the first place. 

And he played with that edge all season. He seized the job and now Franks is on his way out of town knowing he'll never get that job back because of how brilliant No. 11 was. And that brilliance carried him to be the fourth-best QB in the SEC in 2019, and the first three will all be playing on Sundays instead of Saturdays next season. 

So, yes, it sounds insane. 

But the best quarterback in the SEC until further notice is in Gainesville.