Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators big recruiting weekend last weekend, plus talk about the basketball team.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre also break down how the new coaches are doing in recruiting, plus update you on how this staff is different from years past.
Andrew and Nick also recap the Florida Gators softball season-opening tournament and talk about the upcoming baseball season for the Gators.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here again with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, softball under way. Pitchers and catchers reporting today. Junior Day, baseball starting, basketball, lacrosse. You name it, it’s going on.
Nick: Lots of stuff going on. It’s a busy time of year with softball getting going last weekend at the USF tournament, baseball gets going this week with William & Mary, and then, of course, recruiting. Recruiting’s back on after basically a one week hiatus.
Andrew: I want to talk about this, Nick, real quick. The reason I bring it up is some people accuse you and I of being hard on the new hires. I personally didn’t take it as us being hard. I personally took it as you and I having some questions that we wanted to be answered. Not that it was a bad thing, just simply us looking. I do feel like we’re a fair and balanced podcast here, and so when we find out the information we relay it back. That is that we’ve heard nothing but positive things about the new hiring, the new coaching staff at Florida.
What Ja’Juan Seider, Corey Bell, and Brad Davis did over the weekend with connecting to these kids was impressive. The kids really liked them. For the first time in a really long time, offensive linemen walked away saying that they liked chilling with their offensive line coach in Coach Davis. That’s not to say that they didn’t like Summers. It was just they didn’t connect on a personal level. They didn’t have that relationship, tight-knit relationship, with him. That’s something we heard this weekend. Like I said, we’re fair. I’ll say that a lot of my questions about how these guys would come together has been answered.
Nick: Everyone I spoke to out at Junior Day on the players’ standpoint really enjoyed Coach Davis. Talked to a couple staff members, and they all really enjoyed, are enjoying, all three of the new coaches. I had one person say, “I think Ja’Juan Seider is the best recruiter on staff.” They said that with the caveat of, “You know how good I think Tim Skipper is as a recruiter.” It’s really a testament to the staff hires. Listen, people are saying, “Portland State, where are they getting these guys from?” You’re really looking for people that can connect to kids on the recruiting trail, and then once you get them there you want to see how they develop them. Right now, the connections are being made on the recruiting trail, and we’ll see. Spring practice is not too far away. We’ll see how they are as coaches on the field too.
Andrew: It’s like I said to you over the last week. Name me 10 offensive line coaches. Can you name every one of them in the SEC, Nick? I can’t. I’m just going to be honest. I can’t.
Nick: No. My dog, Herb Hand’s there.
Andrew: Herb Hand. You got Brent Key, but that’s about it. I can name a few more. When the rumors are going around that Silverfield or whatever from Memphis was a candidate, you and I both said, “Who?” We had to go research it to find out who it was, because we didn’t know.
Nick: That’s another thing. One rumor comes out, and then people just, for whatever reason, that’s if you don’t get that guy, then everything else is screwed. Then you don’t get that guy, and you hate the hire. It’s like, you didn’t know who that guy was before you read Football Scoop, who’s been wrong about Florida all season long. Football Scoop said it was going to be this guy. Well, they’ve thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall, and not a lot of it’s been sticking.
Andrew: Exactly. Like I said, and I was very open about my opinion, I was wondering how good he would be. I didn’t see it as a bad thing. I didn’t see it that it was me being critical. It’s just I was wondering. It was just something I had a question about. It’s been answered, and I think it’s good. The Twitter that these guys are doing, the, not momentum, but keeping Florida on timelines. We talk about this a lot, but keeping Florida in the news for good things.
Keeping it on Twitter. Twitter is the news station for these kids, and to keep Twitter going with the Florida positive stuff of Ja’Juan Seider or Kerry Dixon, or Drew Hughes, whoever it may be tweeting stupid stuff on Twitter. I say stupid. It’s not stupid, but it’s the little popcorn gifts, that kind of stuff. It’s keeping them thinking about Florida, so guess what? They’re probably hitting up the coaching staff or just whatever.
It’s a good thing. I think that’s a positive. Then, like you said, to hear these kids talk about how they related to these guys was a huge positive for Florida as well.
Nick: Yeah. That’s going to be the biggest thing. People loved Mike Summers, but you really wouldn’t hear that much until they were already playing for him.
Andrew: Right. Like I said, it wasn’t that Summers was a bad man. I don’t want people to take that away. He’s a super nice guy. It’s just, Nick, we all know this. You don’t talk to your grandpa the same way you talk to your best friend or someone you’re close with. It’s just you don’t. You don’t talk to your grandpa about your girl or anything like that, but that’s what Brad Davis is. He’s closer to their age. I don’t mean close to their age, 20 years, but still younger guy.
Nick: 20 years, Mike Summers was coaching football when Brad Davis was born.
Andrew: There you go. That’s what I mean. Does that make sense to you, Nick, what I was saying?
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: Any other thing that you gathered from anything over the weekend about that, about those guys?
Nick: There’s just a buzz right now around these new coaches. You and I, I think, were critical that it took so long to get them into the fold. I was critical saying, “Drew Hughes is out on the road recruiting. He shouldn’t be there. That’s not part of his job. You should have a full coaching staff, especially when you’re coming into National Signing Day. When you have to finish strong, why are you going at it without a full deck?”
I think maybe you still can’t make a decision now. There’s momentum going in the right way, because of the job the coaches are doing. I think they’re doing a good job, like you said, on the social media, but it’s something where I’ll wait to see what they do on the field too. Ron Zook got a ton of talented players in, and won eight games. There is a coaching aspect of it that you have to get. It’s just as important.
Andrew: Right. Absolutely. The thing I will say about a guy like Brad Davis, and I’ve asked tons of people about him, about his coaching style. Every one of them said he’s going to be a mean SOB, going to probably be the meanest guy on the football field, and the nicest guy off the football field. For me, that says everything I need to know. Everything I need to know about my offensive line coach. Nick, I think you’ll back me when I say this. I’ve said this since forever, probably since this podcast started with you and I. I want my offensive line coach to be mean. I want him to be nasty. I want him to be a guy that intimidates his players on the field, intimidates the other team, and makes them want to kick the guy in front of them’s ass.
Nick: Yeah. He’s more of a yeller than Mike Summers was, for sure.
Andrew: Exactly. Let’s move on to Junior Day, Nick. A lot of talented guys were on campus this weekend, like you said, including Clemson transfer Jake Fruhmorgen was on campus this weekend.
Nick: Yeah. I’m not very high on him.
Andrew: You weren’t?
Nick: I’m not very high on him as a player. I mean, he seemed to really enjoy the visit. I’m just not high on him as a player.
Andrew: Okay. It’s interesting that you say that, because I don’t know a ton about his situation, because it’s a little different, because he did leave. Everything that I’ve been told is that he left because some things were going bad for him up there after he got hurt. To me, it’s interesting why he left. If he’s fully back involved with football, if he fully loves the game, then I think you take a shot with him. He did start 13 games for Clemson, so if he’s back healthy, then I’m cool with it. I’m cool with the tape. I do think he’s a talented player. I’m just kind of interested to see where he is about how much he loves the game.
Nick: I asked him. I knew the answer, but I asked him, made sure that he was going to have to sit out a year, which he will. It didn’t seem to bother him. He said he needs to get bigger and stronger. I’m looking at him and thinking, yeah. When people are saying, “He started 13 games for Clemson, they’re the national champions,” I’m looking at him in person and saying, “He’s right. He does need to get bigger. He does need to get stronger.” He probably should have redshirted his freshman year.
Andrew: Right. I think that that’s what we’re kind of looking at now that you talk about him having a whole year off from ball, because he has to sit out for transfer. Maybe he does get to be healthy and get to rehab and get bigger and stronger for that. I’m all for taking it. I know you have some questions about it, Nick. I’m all for taking it, even if it’s simply depth and experience for him. Starting that many games for a team that won the National Championship, we can say whatever we want to say about him leaving, you don’t start 13 games at Clemson starting as a true freshman if you don’t have talent.
Nick: Yeah. That’s fine. That’s all fine and dandy. You can say stuff like that. I was never really impressed. I remember watching him a little bit his freshman year, or his senior year of high school. He’s a big five star, Army All-American. I was never impressed, and based on stories, stuff I’ve heard of how it ended at Clemson, not impressed.
Florida wants him. The coaching staff wants him. They know more football than I do.
Andrew: Guess what, Nick? He’s a five star.
Nick: Everyone wants those seven stars.
Andrew: That’s what I’m about to tell you. Let’s talk about the other kids that were on campus, Nick. It was a talented group of guys that came on campus this weekend. I told someone that I thought it was one of the more talented – they didn’t call it a Junior Day, but I’m going to call it a Junior Day – that they had in a long time. When you look at some of the guys they had on campus, you look at the offensive linemen in William Barnes. He’s one of the top guys from Apopka. He was on campus. They had the running back, Chris Curry, on campus. He’s a player.
They had tight end Judge Culpepper on campus. They had the safety from Atlanta, Miles “Spider” Sims. I want him to go to Florida just so I can say, “Hey, what’s up, Spider?” They had the #1 cornerback in the country, Patrick Surtain, from American Heritage on campus.
They had a lot of really good players on campus, Nick. It was more of a south Florida favor this time around. Last time they had some Georgia kids, that kind of stuff, on campus, but overall just a really positive day that they gained some really good momentum on, and they got these kids on campus early.
Nick: I talked to a couple of staff and coaches. They loved those Heritage kids. Thought they looked great when they came in. All these kids are getting weighed and measured, height, arm, hands. Florida’s coaches don’t really rely on what the recruiting services say a certain kid is. They go ahead and measure them when they get there.
Andrew: Yeah. They’re not worried about what so-and-so says or this says or that says. You got to. Nick, how many times have we looked at kids and said, “Wait. You’re 6’5”? No, you’re not.”
Nick: All the time. Yeah.
Andrew: No. You’re not. It’s always interesting to see. Like I said, they gained some momentum. I’ll run through a couple kids that they really gained momentum on. The running back, Chris Curry, from Lehigh Acres down there. He’s a guy that came on campus, probably Miami as his leader, left, and said that now Florida was right up there with him. You look at Judge Culpepper, the son of former Gator Brad Culpepper. He came on campus, says now he wants to make an early decision. Positive for Florida there. To get those Heritage kids, like we said. Anthony Schwartz, who might be the fastest kid in America this year, the receiver, on campus. To get Patrick Sartain, to get Andrew Chatfield, who had, Nick, 22.5 sacks his junior year.
Nick: That’s a huge number.
Andrew: That’s a huge number, for an impressive American Heritage team, so it’s not like he’s the only player on that team. They had Sevyn Banks on campus. That’s Marcell Harris’ little brother. He’s very impressed with Corey Bell as well. Then, like you said, the offensive linemen were all impressed with Brad Davis. All in all, I thought it was a really positive weekend for Florida. They gained some momentum with these guys. They’ll have more prospects on campus this weekend, followed by players on campus through spring practice.
The thing that I was sitting her looking at and noticing is that when this staff now, and I say staff now, because when you look at guys like Skipper, Rumph, Shannon, Dixon, and then the three new guys, plus Drew Hughes, plus Coach Mac, it’s a group effort now. There is no weak links, except for the worm man, on staff anymore. You’re starting to see when players come on campus it’s a group effort to get them, and it’s paying off. You see that with the offers coming out. You see that with last weekend. It’s finally starting to come together. As one person told me, “Mac was frustrated with 2017, even though they finished in the top 10, and he wasn’t going to allow it to happen again.”
Nick: I saw Coach Rumph was with George Wynn, who’s director of player personnel. I saw Corey Bell with Randy Shannon, and Tim Skipper with Brad Davis. You’re just building relationships with the coaches, and then you’re building relationships with players. A player might know Tim Skipper because he’s a running backs coach, but Chris Rumph’s his area recruiter, so he’s going to have a relationship with both of them. If you can have a strong relationship between the coaches, that’s going to help get those recruits, because you’re having that kind of crossover all the time.
Andrew: Right. It’s not a bad thing. We talked about this with the guys last year and the year before that. Say a guy like Randy Shannon leaves next year to go be a head coach. Ja’Juan Seider was his other recruiter, was recruiting him, so guess what? There’s still a relationship there. That’s what I think is positive, and it’s something that I think is a good thing for this staff.
Nick: I’m interested to see how they’re going to split up territories.
Andrew: I’ve kind of figured it out a little bit. I was told that Tim Skipper is now going to recruit New Orleans all the way to Pensacola. I think that is the smartest move the University of Florida and Drew Hughes made. To have Skip going to Pensacola, recruit Jacob Copeland, is huge. If Skipper’s recruiting Alex Leatherwood last year, Leatherwood is a Gator, not an Alabama Crimson Tide. We won’t talk about that no more, but to have him recruiting Pensacola is huge. Huge. Huge. He gets it. It’s an hour from Mobile. He recruits Mobile well. To have him recruiting that area is huge, in my opinion.
Nick: I don’t know how much you’re going to get in the panhandle area, but he has done a great job in Louisiana, and he’s done a great job in Alabama. Florida continues to put an emphasis on the state of Alabama.
Andrew: Yeah. I think it’s great. I do. I really think it’s great, for sure. I’m interested to see really who recruits Orlando, if it’s Kerry Dixon that recruits Orlando, or if it’s Bell or whoever it may be. I’m kind of interested to see how that goes about there. See maybe who recruits all the way in the panhandle, outside of Pensacola, who recruits the panhandle. Who recruits South Georgia, that kind of stuff. We’ll get all those answers soon. It doesn’t really matter until they get out on the road, so we’ll see how that goes once they get there.
Nick, the prospects did get to go see the basketball game this weekend. Gators continue to roll, my man.
Nick: Six in a row now?
Andrew: Six in a row.
Nick: Canyon Barry set the record for most consecutive free throws made. All underhand.
Andrew: All underhanded. Yeah. Let me ask you this, Nick. This is off topic, but why did Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard, what’s big man for the Clippers that can’t shoot? DeAndre Jordan. Who do those guys not shoot underhand?
Nick: Because you look stupid. That’s it. That’s what I think.
Andrew: Shaquille O’Neal might hold the record for most points ever scored by a basketball player if he shoots underhanded.
Nick: He’s a Hall of Famer already though.
Andrew: I mean, I’m not talking bad about Shaq. Shaq’s one of my favorites, but, man, I don’t know. I’m just surprised more people don’t do that.
Nick: It’s not an easy switch. It’s something Canyon Barry’s been doing for six years.
Andrew: You would think, as much time as an NBA guy has, they would be able to do that.
Nick: It’s a pride thing. You look stupid. It’s a pride thing.
Andrew: LeBron James looks stupid when he cries for a foul every five seconds, but we don’t complain about that.
Nick: You need to and sit low for a basketball game, and it’s not just LeBron James. Every player in the NBA whines all game long about fouls.
Andrew: Okay. I’m just letting you know.
Nick: Letting me know.
Andrew: I’m just letting you know that it’s crazy. You know what I’m saying? You don’t think it’s crazy that they cry every play?
Nick: No, they do, but it’s just like people pick on LeBron for it, but I had really good seats, like second row seats, for a Heat game, and it’s everybody. Mario Chalmers is bitching about not getting calls. They’re playing the Nicks, and Carmello Anthony’s complaining about not getting calls. Tyson Chandler was on the team then, and he’s complaining about not getting it. No matter what, I would not be an NBA ref. No matter what you call you make. It’s like an MLB umpire. No matter what call you make, half the people playing think you’re an idiot.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: And they’re going to let you know about it.
Andrew: Yeah. Like I said, I’m just trying to figure out why more didn’t do that. Whatever it may be. Basketball continues to roll, Nick. Still tied for first place. I’m not going to sit here and say that I think they’re completely better than Kentucky. I do think that Florida’s a more complete team. The one thing that continues to confuse me is how they go through those draughts. Both halves they will go through a 3-4 minute draught where they just can’t make a shot. What’s your explanation of that? I think we lost Nick for a minute.
Nick: I said why do you think that? I have no idea.
Andrew: For me, I think it’s a little bit of two things. I think it’s a little bit that, and I say this kind of tongue in cheek, but Kevaughn Allen should be the guy. I think none of the guys are selfish. Kevaughn Allen needs to be selfish more. Just shoot the ball. Canyon Barry is a guy, and I don’t want to call him selfish, but he doesn’t have a problem driving to the rim, taking the foul, or forcing a shot if he needs it. I think at times they get too unselfish, and it just piles up on them.
Nick: I think though this team reminds me a lot of the Final Four teams from a while back. The chemistry that these guys have, there’s a lot of guys that have been playing with each other for a long time here. The chemistry they have, I think that that makes up for a lot of those deficiencies. They’ve bought in completely on the defensive side of the ball. They play hard there. They’re hustling nonstop throughout the game. Do they go through some scoring lulls, yeah, but I think they make up for that on the defensive end. I think this is probably the best team Florida’s had in probably four years. Since the team that lost to Michigan. What was that, three years ago?
Andrew: Yeah. It would have been Kasey Hill’s freshman year. I’m with you. I think that it’s the most complete team, for sure, and I think it’s a team that has a chance to go far in the tournament, if they’re able to continue to play good defense.
Nick: To me, I’ve talked about it before, I think defense is all effort. It’s just if you want to play good defense, you’ll play good defense. If you want to put the time into it, not just during the game, but you want to put the time and the effort into it in practice, and you buy in, you’re going to play good defense. If you don’t, James Hardin could play great defense. He has no interest in it.
Andrew: Right. You see that in the fourth quarter and in the playoffs, these teams that suck on defense are really good.
Nick: It’s all effort, to me. Especially in the NBA, when you’re that good.
Andrew: Right. I think a little bit of Florida is that they understand they have to be aggressive. They understand that they have to fly to the ball, and, it’s like I said, I think they’re a good defensive team, like Mike White wants them to be, and I think that it’s a team that is going to make it to the second weekend of the tournament. Over the weekend, they were named, CBS did the top 16 seeds for the first time, and Florida was #11. That would make them a three seed in the tournament.
Nick: Not what you and I would have predicted before the year, but what do we know?
Andrew: Had you told me before the year, I would probably have said they were a five seed, which would have made them one of the top 20, 25 teams in the country. Had you told me that, I’d have probably said that’s correct. I didn’t think they would be a three seed. I mean, who’s to say they don’t move up? Really, outside of South Carolina at home and Kentucky on the road, it’ll be interesting.
Nick: Those are really the two tough games, and then you’ve got to think of where are we going to go. Those two tough games end the season, then what do they need to do once they get to the SEC Tournament time?
Andrew: Right. It’s one of those things that’s kind of crazy, because if you lose to Kentucky, then Kentucky moves up. If you lose to South Carolina, South Carolina moves up. If you lose to Arkansas in the Championship game, or you lose to Georgia in the Championship game, probably don’t move down.
Nick: No. That’s true.
Andrew: We’ll just kind of see. Play Auburn on Tuesday night, Nick. That’ll be interesting to see how they’re able to continue that, not streak, but continue that high level of play. When you look at how they’ve been playing the last six games, had you told me they went to Georgia and won like they did on Tuesday after beating Kentucky I’d have probably laughed at you. I’d have thought they had a letdown a little bit. For me, Nick, and we talk about this all the time, it’s playing, continuing, not letting a trap game, like we talk about in football, happen against Auburn and Bruce Pearl on Tuesday night.
Nick: Yeah. What do you expect to see tomorrow from the team?
Andrew: Auburn’s not good. They should be fine. Again, it’s one of those things where how does the team come out and play? There’s a lot of teams that I think can come out and play just okay and win. For me, if Florida comes out and doesn’t play hard on defense I think it’s tough for Florida to win. It’s a little bit of what we talked about about their offense. I think it just kind of depends on how they come out intensity wise.
Nick: They’ll go into that matchup Tuesday night as the #15 team in the country in the AP. They moved up two more spots after last week.
Andrew: Gonzaga, still undefeated. What if I’d have told you that at the beginning of the season?
Nick: Florida’s losses, I think they’ve got five on the year. Duke, Gonzaga, Florida State, South Carolina, and who’s the fifth? I’m missing one.
Andrew: Florida State.
Nick: I said Florida State.
Andrew: Vanderbilt.
Nick: Vanderbilt. Five losses all by 26 points, and you look at Duke might be taking a little bit of a hit with missing Mike Krzyzewski for a while. Gonzaga’s up there. Florida State’s still a good team. Lot to be excited about when you’re looking at this Florida Gators team this year.
Andrew: Can you spell Krzyzewski?
Nick: No.
Andrew: I just wanted to know. Wanted to see if you could spell that.
Nick: Sure can’t.
Andrew: Okay. Let’s talk a little softball, Nick, before we get out of here. We can talk a little baseball. Florida goes down to their annual USF Wilson DeMarini Tournament down in Tampa, and kind of have a big weekend. 5-0, Nick, beat two top 25 teams in Michigan and USF over the weekend. Michigan was #6 in the country. They beat them 2-1 in extras, and then South Florida, who beat Michigan, they run ruled them, 8-0, over the weekend.
Nick: Kind of what you expected to see from this team, what you had kind of talked about in your preview.
Andrew: Yeah. Outscored the opponents 33-3, and it was a big weekend for them. This team is just a team that is so complete, Nick. When you look at the pitching staff of Barnhill, Delanie Gourley, Aleshia Ocasio, it’s just a team that is really good in pitching, and then what’s even crazier about that is they have a freshman who was Gatorade Player of the Year last year in Florida, and she just threw a complete game on Sunday of five innings, four strikeouts, couple Ks. She’s the fourth pitcher. Probably won’t see much time this weekend.
Overall it was just a really good team, and they were led on offense by Amanda Lorenz, who had three homers this weekend. Florida overall had nine homeruns this weekend. Big offense production for them.
To me, it just kind of shows, Nick, this team’s ready to play from the start out of the gate. To beat two top 25 teams, beat a team like Michigan, and then run rule USF after playing four games over the weekend, just getting through playing a game while USF had been resting, to run rule those guys? To me, that just shows a lot about this team.
Nick: Barnhill looked great.
Andrew: Barnhill looked great. Let me pull up the numbers real quick. Overall this weekend, let’s see here. Trying to pull up how many strikeouts she had, because she had a ton of strikeouts. She had 19 strikeouts this weekend in 13 innings pitched.
Nick: Let me figure this out. How is Tim Walton going to mix that up? You’ve got some power pitchers, and you’ve got some experience as well. How are they going to mix that up, that rotation?
Andrew: I think it’s like you said last week in that Walton’s a little different with his team than most softball teams, because most softball teams, for instance, Michigan, they had one pitcher who pitched the whole 10 innings against Florida the other day. Florida threw Barnhill for seven. You’re sitting here thinking, “Okay. We just knocked out their stud.” No, we’re just bringing in the ERA leader from last year, Delanie Gourley, to pitch the next three innings.
The way I think things are going to shake out is that he’ll continue to go with the three rotation of Ocasio, Gourley, and Barnhill. He’ll have the freshman, Katie Chronister. She’ll come in and pitch some as well. Then you’ll probably have Delanie as the girl who comes in in relief if there’s anything going on. For me, I think it’s something different, because when you look at Gourley, Gourley’s more of a movement pitcher. When you look at Ocasio, hers is more of an off speed, and Barnhill’s more of just straight juice. She’s going to try to sling it by you. It’s a little bit different all the way around you go. I personally think it’s an awesome rotation to have, and not a better pitching staff in America.
Nick: You had a big test against Michigan. What was that game like for you? Couple extra innings there. Almost as long as a baseball game.
Andrew: For me it’s fun. Nick, we talked about this on Saturday night.
Nick: I hate that stupid rule.
Andrew: Yeah. In the preseason tournaments, these games count, but they’re called preseason tournaments, they use the international rule, where they put a runner on second base. They don’t do that during conference play, but they do do it in postseason play, where they put a runner on second to start the extra innings. It was eighth inning and ninth inning, Florida got runners on with that runner on second. They didn’t score. Same thing with Michigan. They didn’t score, and it was a pressure packed game to be a game that early in the season.
We wrote this, myself and Baileigh, that Florida’s really trying to get that leadership up after losing those five really good seniors. To me, it showed a lot about how this team had responded, how this team had come together so early that they were able to get that game. Nick, you and I both know, baseball is a game of inches. A ball barely touched a glove, or a ball hit a certain spot, and the game’s over. Michigan wins the game there, or Florida wins the game. To be able to battle in that game, to me, was something positive, something that’s going to set this team up.
I say this all the time, and that is pitching wins championships in baseball, and this team is really good. Same thing goes in softball. When you got a great pitching staff, the sky’s the limit. My Atlanta Braves were the biggest beneficiaries of that.
Nick: The Braves aren’t very good, and they probably won’t be very good again this year.
Andrew: Whatever. You know what I mean though. Pitching. Sully’s the same way. Everything is the same way. It is what it is. If you can get a good rotation in softball and baseball, chances are you’re going to be a really good team, especially a team like Florida in softball, because softball’s a lot about making adjustments, seeing out the pitcher, waiting them out. It’s only a rise ball, curve ball basically, changeup. To be able to throw three different ladies at them in back to back days is just something you don’t have very much of.
Nick: No. You look at Florida on baseball field, Sully’s team. Sully’s weekend rotation is probably could be as good as it was last year, and last year I kept saying, “They have the best weekend rotation in the country.” We talked about last Friday that it’s rare for a softball team to even have a rotation.
Andrew: Right. Most of them have two pitchers, and they rely heavily on one. I’m going to look at this. I’m going to break this down real quick for you, Nick, and then we’ll move on to baseball. They played a total of 33 innings this weekend of play. Ocasio threw seven. Gourley threw eight. The freshman, Katie Chronister, threw five, and Barnhill threw 13. Barnhill had the most, but not by much. It was broken down big time. When you looked at USF, they had the same pitcher that threw three times this weekend.
Nick: Yeah. How pitches did the Michigan girl throw?
Andrew: 190, 10 innings.
Nick: That’s wild.
Andrew: It doesn’t do the same effect that baseball does, but the same motion 190 times you have to imagine she wasn’t still getting the same velocity, same movement on her pitches that she was early on. Gourley was just in there for three innings throwing, big difference.
Nick: It’s a huge difference. Not really concerned about hurting a girl’s arm, but like you said, you start getting tired and not getting the same kind of movement, same kind of command.
Andrew: I wanted to say this real quick. I know we said we’re going to move to baseball. I want to say this. One thing for me is this, Florida’s got to find a five hole hitter. Janelle Wheaton is hitting in five hole right now, hitting below the Mendoza line. If you’re not familiar with that, that’s .200. She’s hitting below .200 right now. Just really struggling. Florida’s got to find a five hole hitter, or Kayli Kvistad is going to walk. She might break Barry Bond’s record for most walks in a career, or in a season. She has nine walks through five games, Nick, and through just 15 at bats. She’s walked nine times. They have to find someone behind her to really protect her. She’s three for six at the plate, with three RBIs, but when you walk nine times, that’s tough.
They’ve got to find that five hole hitter, but that’s something that comes. We always say the first month of the season is really when you build your lineup. I’ll judge it after then, but if I’m taking away one thing from the weekend it’s that Florida needs to find a five hole hitter.
Nick, real quick, softball has Jacksonville on Wednesday. Then baseball and softball are both at home this weekend to start the season. We’ll talk more about it on Friday, Nick, but just give us a quick rundown of how this last week for Florida does. Give us the rundown. What’s going on? Set the weekend rotation for us.
Nick: It’s an easy week. Everyone’s excited to not be, the inner squads are kind of running down, so everyone’s excited about that. You’re going to get a William & Mary team that’s a veteran team. They return all three of their starters for the weekend. They return seven of nine position players. Florida’s going to be a younger team. They always are.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: When you get a team like William & Mary coming in, I remember last year Sully was amazed. They had Harvard come in for a weekend, and you think, “It’s Harvard, it’s probably hard to get kids in there. They’ve been playing baseball indoors. They’re not going to be ready.” All of a sudden, Harvard throws three guys all throwing in the mid 90s. You’re looking around like, “That’s not what we expected with Harvard coming in.”
You should see some good pitching this weekend from both sides of the mound. The Tribe of William & Mary, veteran guys, and Florida is going to be throwing three guys, one of which who will be a first round pick this year, 100%, and the two guys on Saturday and Sunday will probably be first rounders too in the next year coming. You’ll get Alex Faedo Friday. Brady Singer will pitch on Saturday, and then Jackson Kowar will throw on Sunday. That’s high 90s, lot of talent. That’s going to be in one day a very rich, rich rotation.
Andrew: That’s big, for sure. Like I said, we’ll talk more about this on Friday. How big of a work week is this for Florida to how big of it is just normal season? I say normal season practice. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s not as hard of practice. It’s more working on the fine tunes of batting practice, infield practice. It’s not very much scrimmaging. How much is this week a normal game week compared to a normal practice week?
Nick: Florida’s schedule, they won’t even really be practicing much in this first week, after this week. Until conference play starts, they have two midweek games.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: You’re playing five out of the seven days a week, so you’re not really practicing. After this week, Tuesday they’ll be up in Jacksonville playing JU, and then you come back. Wednesday you play. Thursday you might just take BP before you have Miami coming in Friday. It’s really not a situation where there’s going to be a ton of practicing while you’ve got five games every seven days.
This week of practice it’s just, don’t get hurt. Not really scrimmaging anymore. They’ll still have a couple scrimmages. They wanted to get some of the younger guys some innings. Last week was the last time that the weekend starters threw. They all threw six innings last week, and they won’t throw again until their scheduled starts.
Andrew: Okay. It’s more of that. I’m guessing they’ll throw a bullpen again this week to get them ready?
Nick: Yeah. They’ll throw a bullpen, but they won’t be throwing in any of the scrimmages that’ll happen this week.
Andrew: Okay. That’s kind of how it is during the season. They’ll have a bullpen, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday, for that. What’s the week like? Any availability this week?
Nick: I think Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday. We haven’t gotten that out yet, but we’ll go Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and we’ll get it out. I’ve got my previews coming out, split it up into infield, outfield, and then the pitching staff.
Andrew: Sounds like a winner to me. We’ll get out of here. Once again, if you haven’t taken advantage of our nice little coupon code, hit us up. Let us know that you want to join Gator Country, and we’ll get you that coupon and get you on board. We got recruiting coverage. Football coverage starting here in a couple weeks. Baseball, softball, basketball, everything else you can think of. Nick, tell the people where they can find us. Once again, hit Nick or I up for that coupon code.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in transcript and audio form. If you have an iPhone, you can go to the podcast store. It’s @GatorCountry. Subscribe there, never miss an episode. On social media, @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. You can follow me, @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter.
Andrew: Absolutely. Some good stuff going. Nick, I kind of started the year strong with my gif game for softball. Pressure’s on you.
Nick: There’s never any pressure on me when it comes to gifs.
Andrew: Can I at least get props for mine?
Nick: It’s alright. It’s okay.
Andrew: Nobody likes you anyway. Didn’t even ask your opinion, honestly. Just wanted you to feel important. Guys, as always, we appreciate you. We’ll see you guys on Friday. As always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Mark Richt, you still suck. Butch, I don’t even know about you anymore.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.