By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The SEC football season starts on September 26^th.

Millions of college football fans, like me, in the South have that day circled on the calendar.

SEC football junkies tune into the SEC network to soak up all of the information we can regarding the upcoming season.

The SEC Network talking heads are asked their opinion on a variety of topics and one of those topics I heard recently was ‘who was the best returning quarterback in the SEC going into the 2020 season?’

That question was raised this week on the network and the answer given by one on the talking heads was Kellen Mond of Texas A&M.

I raised up in my chair and said ‘no way, can that be true’ because the obvious answer to that question from my perspective is Kyle Trask from the University of Florida.

Let’s do some stat comparisons from 2019:

Kyle Trask:

CMP: 237

ATT: 354

YDS: 2,941

CMP%: 66.9

TD: 25

INT: 7

Kellen Mond:

CMP: 258

ATT: 419

YDS: 2,897

CMP%: 61.6

TD: 20

INT: 9

As you look at the stats on paper you will see that the yards were similar between the two starting quarterbacks.

You will notice that Trask had a much higher completion percentage than Mond.

The most glaring stat is that Trask threw for more touchdowns 25 to 20 on 65 less passing attempts.

The thing that separates Trask right now from Mond, in my opinion, is confidence.

Confidence is a quality at the QB position that brings calm to the rest of the football team.

You could see it in Trask when he came off the bench last September when he led a huge 4^th quarter comeback against Kentucky in Lexington after Feleipe Franks went down with a season ending leg injury.

Other than the 2018 classic seven overtime win over LSU, you haven’t seen that confidence in Kellen Mond in his entire Aggie career.

Mond is a pretty good QB, don’t get me wrong, but when the big games on the schedule roll around he just doesn’t seem like a confident QB in those games.

Mond led the Aggies to an 8-5 record in 2018 with a Texas Bowl win over Oklahoma State.

Trask led Florida to an 11-2 record that included an Orange Bowl win over Virginia.

Even in the two losses against LSU and Georgia, Trask handled the pressure of those two games well.

Yes, we know the SEC West is a better division than the SEC East currently.

Florida travels to Texas A&M on October 10^th to play the Aggies. This game will match up the two top returning QB’s from 2019.

This will be a huge road game for Florida as the Gators deal with high expectations in the SEC East for the first time in 4 years.

Dan Mullen is building this thing back at UF and this game in College Station will be a huge measuring stick as to where they are.

The Aggies have to take the next step in 2020 or the heat may begin to build under Jimbo Fisher. I expect this to be a classic game.

Let me leave you with this question about this contest. With the game on the line in the 4^th quarter, which QB do you want under center Mond or Trask? Give me Kyle Trask please.

Kyle Trask is the best returning QB in the SEC.

Here come the Auburn fans whining about how I have disrespected Bo Nix.