Guts? Glory? Trust? Timing? The Elements of Kyle Trask Development Into A Tight Window Passer
There have been times, like the early November game against the Vanderbilt Commodores, that Florida Gators Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson watches from the coaches box as his play call unfolds below him…and experiences mild anxiety for the briefest of moments.
“There were a couple of throws [that] Saturday where it was like, ‘Oh, no. Yes, yes, yes.’ You get a little different perspective from up in the box. But, everything always looks different through his eyes when you’re at field level.”
The he being quarterback of the No. 6 Florida Gators and current Heisman Trophy favorite, Kyle Trask.
The story and journey of Trask has been told and retold and used as a coaching tip and Sunday School lessons and countless ESPN nuggets to this point so we won’t meander with preamble and retell the entire thing here. Instead of focusing on who Trask was and what’s he become, let’s examine who he currently is in terms of quarterbacks: an expert decision maker with just as much guts as intelligence.
Despite Trask’s tendency to throw into a window so tight that Brian Johnson might briefly consider jumping though his to stop his quarterback, the Gators—who own the second best passing offense in college football and the best among Power 5 teams with 369.6 yards per game—are finding success more often than not behind Trask’s decisions and pinpoint accuracy.
“If I’m throwing it to someone, it definitely seems like a good idea in the moment,” jokes Trask.
“That kinda comes from just the trust that I have in my receivers, because pretty much all our receivers we have, I’ve been able to throw to them for at least a couple years now. If not almost a whole year with the whole guys. There’s a lot of chemistry that’s built up in terms of just being on the same page. Finding those open windows, especially when a team’s dropping a lot in zone coverage, just to have that chemistry like I said to be on the same page and trust each other and the timing and things like that.”
He won’t get labeled a gunslinger, because he’s more apt to throw a six yard slant than a 45-yard bomb; although he has thrown a first down pass of 25 yards or more 30 times thus far this season (three more than Alabama quarterback Mac Jones for comparison). Coupled with his 71.4% completion rate and 34-3 touchdown to interception ratio, Trask can’t even be labeled a risk taker…nothing he does seems to be a risk.
With only three interceptions all season—and against all SEC defenses mind you—Trask has proven capable of consistently putting together those good ideas in the moment. He’s done very little to waver his confidence that if he makes a throw, it will go well.
It’s trust in his pass catchers–13 of whom have made a reception this season—that begets that trust in himself.
“I would say a little bit of trust and timing, really. If you don’t have that timing, then you might throw it and that window’s going to close before the ball gets to your receiver’s hands. It just comes from practice and just repetition,” explains Trask.
Adds Johnson, “I think [Kyle] has a good feel for where people are and he plays with great anticipation, so he can see stuff happening a little bit early. I think that allows him to play with a great feeling.”
It helps, having guys like tight end Kyle Pitts who can win any 50/50 ball that any mere mortal dares to battle him for; or Kadarius Toney who can contort himself into any shape needed to reach the ball that Trask puts in his area; or Tre Grimes who has the length to outbox any defender and make tight windows seems wide open; and the list goes on and on.
Kyle Trask is a special talent and don’t let that get lost in the shuffle of this prose; but it’s more than just repetition, as Trask alluded to—or guts or confidence or luck or any other number of factors that create a quarterback Johnson and Head Coach Dan Mullen can trust. It’s the intelligence and wherewithal when the bullets are flying that has developed Kyle Trask into that trustworthy passer and Heisman contender.
Dan Mullen dropped the timbre of his voice when diving into his explanation. His ever present sarcasm bringing an element of humbleness to his answer, Mullen attempted to summarize how a "quarterback whisperer” goes about creating a guy like Kyle Trask.
“I’ve got to whisper when I do this, right. Whisper or something like that,” he jokingly says in hushed tones.
Recruiting is a big part of the equation according to the coach. But Mullen didn’t recruit Trask. That would typically mean doubling down on the second part of the equation, as the staff did with Feleipe Franks. However Trask having a year and a half as the backup in the offense meant he had more time to grow.
“You spend your time making sure they understand all the important things,” explains Mullen.
“The first thing we always teach all the quarterbacks is you better understand protection, that’s self-preservation right there. You better know every protection, how we are going to protect you, where are your hots, where are your sites, how to check protections.”
The Gators offensive line has given up eight sacks for a loss of 49 yards on Trask this season through eight games. Understanding the aforementioned protections is what Johnson credit’s to Trask’s ability to move the pocket. That in turn creates more time for a window to open, proving the entire process works hand in hand.
Referencing again the Vanderbilt win, Johnson says, “I thought the receivers did a great job of not stacking behind defenders and Kyle maneuvering and sliding in the pocket to give those guys times to come free. When you’re watching on the film, the windows were not as tight as you would have initially thought watching from the press box.”
But that’s just the beginning, as Mullen continues.
“A lot of people understand – I’ll give you this one, on what to do – a lot of people just coach guys what to do. Well, that’s not going to develop a quarterback. That may get them to a limited extent. If you’re just coaching what to do and then you kind of coach them a little bit on how to do it, but it’s the why we do it is really how you develop a quarterback.
“They need to understand exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing and if when they do that, then they have a grasp of how the offense is supposed to work and what we’re trying to accomplish within the play. And then you set up your practice schedule and installation of everything you do around quarterback development.
“And then, I think Brian does an unbelievable job of coaching them. I coach them well and, I don’t know, I think we do a pretty good job of coaching those guys. Within each game plan, within the big picture of the offense with understanding of how to attack defenses, and then how to use a specific game plan to attack defenses, then we set up practice to maximize their development. That’s it like in 30 seconds.”
The explanation encompassing an entire offensive philosophy may be brief but it’s payoff is vast…and it slows down time each moment the ball leaves Kyle Trask hands, seeing a window open only to him.
Comments