Florida football: Kyle Trask expected to play against LSU this weekend

In his Monday news conference, Florida football head coach Dan Mullen said quarterback Kyle Trask will play at LSU this weekend.

Following a scare Saturday against Auburn, Florida football quarterback Kyle Trask is scheduled to play Saturday at LSU.

Florida head coach Dan Mullen told reporters Monday afternoon during a news conference, the redshirt junior will play in Baton Rouge.

“Kyle should be good to play this week,” Mullen said. “He came back into the game and finished the game for us, so obviously he should be good to play.”

Auburn’s Marlon Davidson fell on Trask’s leg in the second quarter of Florida’s 24-13 win over the Tigers. Mullen said Trask suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Mullen called it a “light sprain.”

At halftime of the game, Mullen told CBS he hoped the Southeastern Conference would try “to keep quarterbacks safe from dirty plays,” implying Davidson fell on Trask on purpose.

The injury, at first blush, looked similar to the injury that knocked former starting quarterback Feleipe Franks out for the season against Kentucky.

On Monday, AI.com reported Davidson defended the tackle.

"“When I’m out there to play, I always play between the rules,” Davidson said. “I’m always out there trying to take care of each other, and they should take care of me, too. But I was devastated after that (injury to Trask). I went to the sideline and my coach had to pull me to the side and say, ‘Man, you just got to continue to play football,’ because my mind was all on him.“Like, I hope he gets up, I hope he feels better, I hope it’s nothing serious. Because, at the end of the day, man, it’s football. You want to see everybody be great.”"

Davidson went on to say he was just “trying to make a play.”

Trask was attempting to find Josh Hammond over the middle for a pass when it fell incomplete.

Emory Jones came in at quarterback to finish the drive, which culminated in a 41-yard field goal, putting Florida football up 17-13.

It would stay that way until Lamical Perine‘s 88-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that put the game away for the Gators.

I will say whether Davidson meant to do it or not, it does bring about a larger question about defensive players taking shots at opposing quarterbacks.

You have Franks — which I do think was an accident — but you have the infamous ankle-twisting by Kentucky’s Kash Daniels.

Of course, you also have this weekend’s injury to Missouri quarterback Kelly Bryant by a Troy defender.

Quite frankly, there is no place for this in college football. We are talking about student-athletes and this kind of intentional behavior cannot go unchecked.

I think Mullen might be on to something when he suggests the SEC (and the NCAA for that matter) needs to protect these student-athletes by levying some kind of punishment on players who conduct themselves in this manner.

They will deny it, but the video doesn’t lie. Just like with video replay (and how was Auburn not called for targeting on Trask? But, I digress), if the video shows evidence of wrong-doing, suspension from future games, ejection from the current game, revocation of a scholarship, whatever.

It needs to be done.