Kyle Trask saves Florida season with improbable win over Kentucky | Bleacher's report

When Feleipe Franks was fired from what we later learned as a dislocated ankle at the end of the season, we immediately felt that the AP No. 9 Florida quest for the The 2019 college football game he had left.

The Gators were 21-10 on the road at the end of the third quarter and had just surrendered the ball to a Kentucky team that dominated the trenches for most of the night. Franks might have been able to tap into his bag of mischief for some sort of miraculous return of this scenario, but to throw an inexperienced quarterback in this fire should have been an impending disaster.

Kyle Trask was ready for the job, but he could save for this season for the Gators after leading them to a 29-21 win on Saturday.

"It was obviously a very difficult time for the team as he is an excellent leader for us," Trask told Molly McGrath of ESPN after the win. "But at the end of the day, we're still here to win the match."

The junior redshirt–who was, by far, the lowest-ranked player in Florida's 2016 recruiting class and had never tried to play in a match decided by less than three touchdowns– seemed unbearably comfortable from the start.

Trask's first four attempts were all successful as the Gators ran 54 yards in less than two minutes. Although he was not credited for the pressing touch of Lamical Perine, who brought the Gators to an unbeatable score, he made this possible with an impressive awareness of what looked like a piece. broken:

In subsequent possession of Florida, Kentucky got a phenomenal rebound on a punt to allow Trask to corner the Gators' 5-yard line. Still imperturbable, he led the offensive at first three tries, reversing the pitch and putting pressure on the Wildcats.

After a straight arm of Sawyer Smith and two 15-yard penalties against the Kentucky defense, Trask is allied with Kyle Pitts on a 30-yard drive to get into the United Kingdom. 10. Trask ended the comeback with what turned out to be the decisive landing.

FLa Lorida scored 76 rushing yards to defeat Kentucky 19-0 in the fourth quarter.

Trask finished the 9-for-13 total for a 126-yard rush, in addition to the four-yard six-point run. No bags, no interceptions, no tweets and no nerves displayed.

Solid work from a quarterback who probably did not expect to take a single press.

"Next man up" is an unfortunately common chorus among the coaches of the SEC East this season. South Carolina lost quarterback Jake Bentley because of a broken foot during the first week. Terry Wilson, of Kentucky, had a torn patellar tendon at the end of last Saturday's win against East Michigan. And now, Florida has to adapt to life without Franks for the first time since 2016.

"We think we have three quarters starting in our room," said Florida head coach. Dan Mullen said McGrath. "Now everyone could see what kind of quarterback we knew [Trask] was all the time. "

Trask has had a relief performance for years in Lexington, but will he be the starter next week against Tennessee?

As Mullen has hinted, there is a third man in the lineup who has not seen the pitch against Kentucky – but who, according to them, would become the starter if Franks ever gave up the title. Last year, Emory Jones was among the top 100 rookies and one of the commitments made by Florida's 2018 class.

Jones is a double threat guy, though, so it's not really surprising that the Gators chose to play the backup game that more closely matches Franks skills. Even if the parts Florida called before Franks 'injury did not work well, it would have been a brutal and probably unsuccessful pivot in the game for Jones' heavy packages.

But give Mullen and Co. a full week to plan the use of Jones and it's a safe bet that he will be heavily involved in the offense.

The big question then is: Will the Trask and Jones law firm be enough to keep Florida in the hunt for the playoffs, given the lack of a star and a line offensive that was the greatest weakness of the team well before the start of the season?

With all due respect to you in Tennessee, next week's home game against the Volunteers and the one against Towson will serve as warm-up points for the real challenges. Florida hosts number 8 Auburn and travels to LSU number 4 on the first two Saturdays of October, followed by the world's largest outdoor cocktail against No. 3 Georgia on November 2nd.

Even with Franks, the Gators would have struggled to win at least two of those three games. Without their leader, even a 1-2 showing looks optimistic.

Once again, who thought at the beginning of the fourth quarter that Florida had a chance to come back to beat Kentucky?

Every season, there seems to be a university football team with a horseshoe almost three times a week for three months, winning enough victories in the mouth of defeat to at least play in the New Year's bowl, otherwise the playoffs . Between the way the Gators won this game and the draw against Miami, they could be the unlikely contenders of this year.

Kerry Miller covers college football and college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.