Florida football: Top five performers against Florida State

2. Kyle Trask

Being on the sidelines of the Sunshine Showdown for a fourth consecutive year, Saturday night was the first time Kyle Trask played a snap in this historic rivalry game.

Starting in just his ninth collegiate game at quarterback, all eyes were on Trask to deliver Florida’s first home win against archrival Florida State since 2009. Entering the game Trask had already thrown for 2,293 yards with a completion percentage over 65 percent, including 21 touchdown passes.

Trask would get off to a hot start on Florida’s first offensive drive of the game, completing 6 of 8 passes for 69 yards that included a 19-yard touchdown throw to Freddie Swain. Aside from the touchdown itself, the most important play of the drive came from Trask himself when he called his own number on the ground to convert 4th and 1 deep inside Seminoles territory.

Following a Seminoles touchdown on the pursuing drive, Trask split time with redshirt-freshman quarterback Emory Jones to lead the Gators 75 yards down the field to retake the lead on a 1-yard touchdown rush by Dameon Pierce.

After forcing Florida State to its first punt of the evening, Trask took the helm at quarterback again to pursue Florida’s third offensive touchdown in its first three drives of the game. It would only take Trask three pass attempts to lead the Gators 85 yards down the field on a drive that featured an electric 47-yard gain by Kadarius Toney and a 25-yard touchdown reception through several broken tackles by Swain.

Two Florida drives later, Trask would throw his third and final touchdown pass of the evening in the back of the endzone to Van Jefferson to give the Gators a 27-7 lead five minutes before halftime.

While the Gators only scored 10 points after halftime, Trask remained efficient by completing 9-11 passes for 96 yards on both of Florida’s second-half scoring drives combined. Trask also refrained from giving the Seminoles any sort of momentum defensively by avoiding reckless turnovers and unnecessary sacks.

Trask ended the game completing 30 of 41 pass attempts for 343 yards, three touchdown passes and a quarterback rating of 92.3.

Trask not only met expectations on Saturday night by securing Florida’s first home victory against the Noles in ten years, but he grew his legacy tenfold by becoming the first Gators quarterback to throw for more than 300 yards against a Florida State defense since Rex Grossman threw for 303 yards in a 31-14 road defeat in 2002.