Florida Football: Kyle Trask has to prove himself once again tonight

Florida football fans know the story of Kyle Trask all too well. He wasn’t even a top 2,000 prospect in the class of 2016 who arrived in Gainesville almost by accident. Trask only got his opportunity to be the starter for the Gators because Feleipe Franks got hurt.

Trask would go on to torch SEC defenses for a season and a half and probably would have won the 2020 Heisman and a national title if Todd Grantham knew any defensive play calls besides “Engage 8.”

But the NFL doesn’t care about your sentimental stories; they care about results. Now in year three of his NFL journey, Trask has once again to prove himself over the flashier name ahead of him.

Florida Football: Put me in coach, I’m ready to play

The Tampa Bay Buccanneers drafted Trask in the second round of the 2021 draft. For the past two seasons, he has been stuck behind some guy named Tom.

Now that Mr. Tom is gone from Tampa, one would think that Trask would be next in line to be the starter. Except in the offseason, the Buccanneers went out and got some guy named Baker.

The NFL is a cut-throat league, and to be fair, if you can’t beat out Baker Mayfield for the starting job, then you probably don’t need to be a starting QB in the NFL.

With Tampa Bay getting set to play their first preseason game tonight, word on the street from the shadows of Raymond James Stadium is that while the competition is still ongoing that Mayfield came into camp with the inside track in part because he is the more experienced QB of the two.

This creates the classic dilemma of how one is supposed to gain experience if they are never given the chance to gain experience. If you have searched for a job, you know the feeling.

The plan for Tampa is that Mayfield will start tonight, and Trask will start the second preseason game next week against the Jets.

If Trask wants to leave no doubt as to who should be the starting QB, he has two games to seize the moment, even if they are preseason games. Given that he has thrived as the underdog his entire football career, we wouldn’t count him out just yet.