Sunday, 4 a.m.
The old quarterback looked pretty good, relatively speaking. He still has some arm. He can still move his team.
But the new guy?
The new guy has the world on his right bicep.
Kyle Trask threw for 356 yards and six touchdowns Saturday night, leading the Florida Gators to an easy 63-35 rout of the Arkansas Razorbacks. Arkansas is quarterbacked by Felipe Franks, who Trask once backed up at Florida, who threw for 250 yards and two scores.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!
Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
But Trask continued to have a record year for a Gator quarterback. He has now played six games this season, and he's thrown for four touchdowns or more in all of them. Saturday night was the second time he's thrown for six.
For the season, Trask has thrown for 2,171 yards and 28 scores.
With star tight end Kyle Pitts missing the game with a concussion, Trevor Grimes caught six passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
The Gators play at Vanderbilt Saturday at 1 p.m.
Houston 56, USF 21: South Florida's out-of-tune season continued to limp along Saturday afternoon as the Bulls were blasted by the Houston Cougars.
The Bulls fell to 1-7, giving up the game's first 42 points. Cougars' quarterback Clayton Tune threw for three touchdowns and ran for two to lead the rout. Tune passed for 165 yards and ran for 120.
It was the seventh straight loss for USF, and the seventh straight game in which thy gave e up 28 points or more.
Houston also scored on an 85-yard fumble return by Derek Parish and a 78-yard punt return by Marcus Jones.
USF played without 13 players.
“It’s obviously a very disappointing loss," said first-year USF coach Jeff Scott. "The first half just got away from us really quickly. I’ve got to congratulate Houston. They played well, they coached better and they played better. Really disappointing day overall. Probably the only bright spot was coming out after halftime in a very tough situation, I felt like our guys really fought back. We had a little stretch there, we drove down around the 10-yard line and had the fumble for a touchdown. After that, we scored three touchdowns in a row and getting ready to kick off, it was a three-score game and I felt like we could maybe hold them, go score again and get it to a two-score game and maybe on-side kick it after that. We just gave up a couple plays and they put it away We’ll regroup, learn from it and move on. That’s all you can do at this point.”
USF returns to Raymond James Stadium to host Navy on Saturday.
Miami 25, Virginia Tech 24: Down the stretch, Miami quarterback D'Eric King is the king.
King, with his team trailing 24-13 midway through the third period, led his Hurricanes on drives of 75 and 82 yards to pull out the victory for the ninth-ranked Miami team. UM is now 7-1 on the season, losing only to Clemson.
"Wow," said Miami coach Manny Diaz. "That's all I can say, wow. I mean what an effort. The resilience of this team week in and week out is special. It's not shown for the three and a half hours on game day. Some of the things we had to overcome this week just to get here, just to play. And just the attitude that our guys kept, the way they wanted to go play. So proud of them. They, week in and week out, with all the adversity that they have to face, find a way to make it. "
For the day, King threw for 255 yards.
Diaz was pleased that his team took over in the fourth period.
We have seen teams wear down and not be able to hang," Diaz said. "Our guys are able to play a lot of snaps and still play very well in that time of the game. Last week it was Harley on the slant. This week it was Pope on the slant. Not just to make the catch, but also finish, run out of a tackle, and make it happen. I think Virginia Tech played hard over four quarters, but we were able to maintain our energy level over 60 minutes."
UM plays against Georgia Tech at home Saturday night at 8 p.m.
N.C State 38, FSU 22: Maybe things weren't that bad under Willie Taggert.
The FSU Seminoles lost their sixth game in eight tries Saturday night, and their third straight. The fell behind N.C. State 35-9 after three quarters before rallying to make it close.
The Seminoles were quarterbacked by freshman Chubba Purdy, who threw for two touchdowns. Receiver Ontaria Wilson caught seven passes for 117 yards.
“Chubba, you can see the confidence he has, continuing to grow with each rep," said FSU coach Mike Norvell. "There’s still some things that happen that he would like to have back, but he’s going to continue to grow.
"With every opportunity that he gets, it’s critical for his development. I’m very excited about who he is and what his future is. The demeanor he has is incredible. Doesn’t seem to get rattled, or too high or too low in any moment.
Norvell praised his team's effort.
“The guys that are in that locker room, they compete. They were competing through the very end of that contest. It’s an emotional game, it takes everything. There are guys who are doing an incredible job of investing. They are continuing to work and compete.”
FSU plays at highly ranked Clemson Saturday at noon.