As the 2019 season began, he wasn’t even someone that was expected to make an impact. Kyle Trask got his first start with the Florida Gators this season in game four and by the end of the season he finished with the most statistically significant seasons as a passer at Florida in more than a decade. He will enter the 2020 season as the top dog in the SEC at the position.

A year after Feleipe Franks became the best quarterback at Florida in more than a decade, an injury to Franks pushed Trask into an even better season than Franks had. Oh by the way, these two things happened in the first two years of the Dan Mullen tenure as the head coach at Florida.

But this isn’t about Mullen, that’s for another time.

In 2019, Trask finished third in the SEC in several statistical categories for quarterbacks. The position isn’t all about yards and touchdowns. Those certainly matter and scoring touchdowns is why the offense is on the field, but the passer rating, a measure of four components (completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdowns per attempt, and interceptions per attempt), is a frequently used metric in ranking quarterbacks. In terms of Trask, his 156.6 rating to conclude the season among quarterbacks that had a minimum of 15.0 pass attempts per game and played in 75% of the games on the schedule, was second in the SEC.

Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa would have been second, but he missed too many games. Of course LSU’s Joe Burrow was the king of most of the quarterback stats in 2019. The key here is that with Tagovailoa’s announcement to enter the 2020 NFL Draft on Monday, Trask will enter the season in 2020 as the tQB with the top passer rating in the SEC.

Eliminating Tua and Burrow next year as they finished their eligibility, the theme continues for Trask. He will return as the SEC’s leader in yards per game (245.1), total yards (2,941), and completion percentage (66.9%) from the 2019 season.

All of that from a guy that in the mind of many was third on the depth chart of three quarterbacks at Florida before the season started.

Trask should have some key components returning to make his job even easier next season. Instead of lining up behind an offensive line that lost four starters, he now will have to take snaps from a new center, but more or less four returning starters up front.

Trask and the offense also got good news over the weekend when junior receiver Trevon Grimes announced he will return for his senior season. Grimes will have to step up his game with four major targets in Van Jefferson, Tyrie Cleveland, Josh Hammond, and Freddie Swain all moving on after finishing their senior seasons in December.

Trask will also have the top tight end in the SEC returning with Kyle Pitts having a huge sophomore season finishing with 54 receptions for 649 yards and five touchdowns in 2019.

It’s been a long time since the Gators entered an SEC season with a quarterback as the top player at his position in the SEC. That appears to be the case for 2020 and now Kyle Trask will have a ton of experience to draw from for what Gator fans hope even a better year.