Gators duo recognized after helping lead Gators to win over Georgia
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Florida’s Kyle Trask and Evan McPherson were named Southeastern Conference Players of the Week after leading the Gators to a 44-28 victory over Georgia on Saturday, the conference announced on Monday.
Trask was recognized as the SEC Offensive Player of the Week while McPherson was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.
Trask was 30-of-43 with 474 yards passing and four touchdown passes on Saturday as he continued his record-breaking season against a Georgia defense which ranked No. 12 in scoring defense and No. 13 in total defense nationally coming into the game.
Trask’s 474 passing yards is the second-highest total in school history and just eight yards shy of Tim Tebow’s single-game school record of 482 set in the 2010 Sugar Bowl. The redshirt-senior set a single-game school record for passing yards against Georgia by the end of the third quarter, which he finished with 412 passing yards.
Trask threw for 300-plus yards against an SEC opponent for the sixth time in his career, tying Doug Johnson (1996-99) for the fourth-most 300-yard games versus SEC teams in school history. Rex Grossman (12 – 2000-02), Danny Wuerffel (10 – 1993-96), and Shane Matthews (nine – 1989-92) are the only Gators with more 300-yard games against SEC teams.
Trask posted the eighth 300-yard passing game of his career, passing Johnson (1996-99) and Chris Leak (2003-06) for the fourth-most 300-yard passing games in school history. Trask has thrown for 200-plus yards in 13 consecutive games with 200-plus passing yards, tying Grossman (2000-02) for the second-longest streak in school history.
Additionally, Trask was named to the Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 and the Manning Award Stars of the Week for his performance on Saturday.
McPherson made three field goals on Saturday from 51, 50 and 34 yards. The junior kicker stayed busy against the Bulldogs as he was also was 5-of-5 on PATs and recorded nine kickoffs. Overall, he went 3-of-4 on field goals for the day.
With makes from 50 and 51 yards, McPherson became the third Gators kicker with five made field goals of 50-plus yards. McPherson joined Eddy Pineiro (two 50-yarders against UAB in 2017) and David Posey (51- and 50-yarder against Florida State in 1975) as the only Gators in history with two 50-yard field goals in a game.
For the season, McPherson is 8-of-9 on field goals and a perfect 21-21 on PATs.
