Breaking down the Under Armour All-American Game

Gator Country brings you the latest podcast breaking down the Under Armour All-American practices featuring four Florida Gators commits and several big name Florida targets.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the latest news surrounding the Florida Gators chances with several big name targets including Maryland quarterback commit Dwayne Haskins.

Andrew and Nick also break down how each prospect did during day one of the Under Armour practice, plus some notes on how they could help the Florida Gators.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? This is your man, Andrew Spivey, the goat is back today, guys. In Orlando with my man, Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, say hello to the people.

Nick:                         Hello. Long day in Orlando, very hot here. Not as hot as last year though, which is nice, and we’re pulling double duty. We’re still awake.

Andrew:                 We’re still awake. It’s better than digging ditches on the side of the road or pulling the garbage or anything like that.

Nick:                         No complaining.

Andrew:                 No complaining at all. Orlando has been good to us. Yesterday, had a long day on Monday. You guys are listening to this on Wednesday, so two days ago. On Monday had a long day. Most of the guys for the Under Armour game checked in. We were able to speak to those guys for that. Nick, you were also able to talk to Jalen Tabor, Jarrad Davis, Trip Thurman, and Kelvin Taylor. Is that right?

Nick:                         Yeah. You nailed it.

Andrew:                 Talked to those four guys, and then Tuesday we had practice. First day of practice. Probably when you guys are listening to this we’ll be at Wednesday’s practice. Let’s start with the first day, Nick. Check in day. Guys come in, get their pads and get everything, all their Under Armour gear. We were able to talk to a lot of guys. You were able to talk to a few guys as well. I guess, anything stand out from what you hear, from what I had told you, or anything you saw, that kind of stuff?

Nick:                         First, to me we’ll talk about Mack Wilson. He made some headlines trimming his list down to three. I don’t understand when somebody says, “I want to leave my home state.” Mack Wilson’s from Alabama. He said, “I want to leave my home state. My final three schools are Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.” To me that is like when a player says, “I’m committed, but I’ll make my final decision on Signing Day, or I’ll make my final decision on this day.” It’s like, you’re committed, why are you even committed then?

Andrew:                 Right. I guess my thing is this. I won’t lie and say anything about Mack Wilson. I know Mack really well, know a couple of his friends, Perine, Jawaan Taylor, those guys. My biggest thing for him is I think he’s just a confused young man that is still trying to figure out where he wants to go, and that.

Nick:                         I talked to him today after practice one on one, just he and I. I think it’s everyone in Alabama, especially someone as good as him, there’s some pressure. It’s kind of like kids from Louisiana. There’s outside pressure that they feel, and feel like you have to stay in state. You have to stay close to home. I think Alabama was being kept in the race by Kirby Smart, and when Kirby goes to Georgia now that’s why you’re seeing Georgia pick up some steam. I asked him about Jeremy Pruitt, and he really didn’t have Georgia in the running at all until Kirby Smart went there. He said to me, “I really don’t have a relationship with Coach Pruitt, so I would need to kind of get that relationship up to par if Alabama was going to be able to keep me in state.” In my opinion, because of his relationship with Kirby Smart, and then because of his relationship with Randy Shannon and the Florida coaching staff, I really think it’s a two team race there.

Andrew:                 That’s where I’m at. I continue to say Florida, Georgia. Mack Wilson is a guy, and there’s a few guys every year that are these guys. Jerrell Willis was one in Louisiana, Speedy Noel was that guy. Several guys are like this. They want to make their own name. That’s Mack Wilson. If you ever have the chance to meet Mack Wilson he’s a guy that has a mohawk kind of deal going with a little gold top, and he’s kind of a he wants you to know who Mack Wilson is. He wants to make his own name.

For me, that was the thing that was helping Florida a ton when it was a Florida Alabama race. Now Georgia’s in the mix, so now you’re facing two out of state teams. Now Florida has to recruit even harder, because he has that preexisting relationship with Kirby Smart that’s gone back for four years now. This relationship started back when Mack Wilson was a freshman. Now Florida has a good staff with Drew Hughes, Kirk Callahan that’s done a good job there. Now’s the time where Randy Shannon’s going to earn that title of being one of the best recruiters in the state when he goes up and has to go recruit Mack Wilson against Kirby Smart.

This is what it’s going to turn into, whether Randy Shannon can beat Kirby Smart head to head. For me that’s where it is. I think right now it’s Georgia is the favorite to land him, even though he’s never stepped foot on campus, because of Kirby Smart.

Nick:                         Yeah. That was something he brought up to me. He said, “Coach Smart has been recruiting me since I was in ninth grade,” so it’s not just a situation where he’s built a relationship with a coach over a few months or even a year. This is as soon as Mack Wilson got to high school he started building a relationship with Kirby Smart. We’re talking four years now. I do think, like you said, he’s someone that wants to make his own name, and that’s not going to help Alabama. I think what was helping Alabama, what could have maybe changed his mind to have him stay in state was Kirby Smart. That’s not the case anymore. I think this will kind of go down to signing day for Mack Wilson, who in my opinion was one of the most impressive looking, just as far as first off the bus kind of thing. Also looked good on the field today going through drills once they got into 11 on 11 stuff.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was going to say. Here’s the thing. Jawaan Taylor is his best friend. Tony Nelson is his best friend. They’re both going to Florida. Perine, Lamical Perine, is beginning to become very good friends with Mack. All of those guys are going to visit together on the 29th at Florida. That’s going to be big for Florida, that relationship there. Now my thing is does Georgia try, how much does Georgia get involved with Jawaan Taylor? Jawaan Taylor’s pissed off at Kirby Smart because of not offering him at Alabama. Can he change that? Change it around of Nick Saban didn’t want you to have a offer that kind of thing. We’ll see. Now Kirby’s got a negative recruit against Saban. That’s going to maybe cancel each other out as well there. For me that’s where it is.

I want to go to another guy though. We talked about Mack Wilson a little bit, but maybe the guy that stood out and caught my attention the most, and it was a negative impact for Florida, was Jayvaughn Myers. Jayvaughn Myers goes in to check in. He decommits from Florida after the Florida State game, and he says that he doesn’t have a good relationship with Florida. He turns around then and say, “I had two great in home visits with Coach Callahan over a weak period of time.” You can’t have it both ways, Jayvaughn. You either have a good relationship with him, and you have good conversations, or you have a bad relationship, and you don’t have good conversation. You can’t have it both ways. For me, there’s more to it. It was a cop out for Jayvaughn. He didn’t like the big defensive back class at Florida. He got out. I will say this as well. He didn’t look good on the first day of Under Armour camp. Josh Hammond beat him several times. Eli Stove, Nate Craig.

Nick:                         Josh Hammond just plucked a ball of his head today.

Andrew:                 He mossed him, as they would say, as the goat would say. He got mossed. My thing for him is is he a good player? Yes. Is he a guy that Florida can afford to lose a little bit? Sure, if they’re able to replace him with a guy like Kristian Fulton, who made even more news when he said he was going to visit Florida on the 29th for that last official visit. We all know it’s best to get the last word. Florida gets the last word here as he’s going to take an official to LSU on the 15th. Two-week period of time before he gets to Florida. I really like Florida’s chances against LSU in that, even for a home state prospect, if Florida can win over dad and get dad’s okay for Kristian to go out of state. Kristian might be the best pure corner Florida’s recruiting, pure corner. Chauncey Gardner’s the best athlete, but Kristian Fulton may be the best pure corner.

Nick:                         I was incredibly impressed with Kristian Fulton today. We’re talking, when you say athlete, of course you want your guys to be athletes, and Chauncey Gardner is athletic as anybody that he’s on the field with. Fulton, I’m not going to make a comparison to Vernon Hargreaves as far as a player. I haven’t seen enough of him, but it’s that kind of knowledge of the game, and it’s not only knowing, he’s not a player that you say, “You just need to go cover this guy.” Fulton is a player that understands the defense he’s in, what the other 10 people around him are doing, and he understands what the offense is trying to do to combat that. You see that in how confident he plays, his backpedal, his footwork, his eyes. He’s not starring at the receiver’s head and being faked out. He keeps his eyes on the hips, watches where the receiver’s center mass is, because that’s going to tell you where he’s really going. I did see him get beat once. Saw him drop a couple of interceptions, but as far as being polished and being a smart player he was the defensive back the probably impressed me the most today.

Andrew:                 If you’re going to talk about defensive backs that impressed, you can talk about him. You got to talk about Chauncey Gardner. Gardner’s a guy that he’s going to play all over the field. He’s going to play nickel. He’s going to play corner. He’s going to play safety. He’s going to play all over the field. In my opinion he’s a nickel back, and he’s a very good nickel back. He made a couple of really good plays today, including a little tip drill, one-handed interception that maybe was in bounds, maybe wasn’t in bounds. We didn’t have replay. Again, he was just all over the field, and that’s what you wanted to see from Chauncey Gardner. He’s not a guy you want to line up man to man and let them go one on one with him, but you want him in the nickel to where he’s able to be all over the field. When he’s all over the field, he’s doing well, and when he’s shit talking, trash talking like he does, you know he’s on his game. Eli Stove, Sam Bruce, found that out first hand as he was definitely all over there.

Gardner also made news on Monday by talking about he’s recruiting Dwayne Haskins. He’s recruiting other guys, and he says simply this, he said, “I’m going to tell people they need to visit Florida, because they need to see how great Florida’s going to be.” Big thing is Chauncey’s now on campus. He’s hosting these guys over the next month. That’s big, because Chauncey is that alpha male, I guess, of the class. He’s going to get the Nick Washington recruiter of the year award, spoiler alert there for you, Nick, but he’s going to be that guy. He’s going to be big for this class in January, but he’s also big in these All-American games, because he talks so much, and then he backs it up on the field with his play.

Nick:                         Yeah. He is a talker. He was getting into it, like you said, with Eli and with Sam. They were going back and forth. It was all good natured. It was all in fun, but that’s the kind of player he is. He’s confident. He’s going to let you know that he’s confident. To me, I don’t know if I would comfortable, kind of like you said, putting Chauncey out on a island, out on the boundary, out on the outside, field side, but as far as putting him the nickel, letting him play close to the line, getting his hands on somebody, or even letting him play safety, very big kid, strong kid. Nasty attitude. I wouldn’t mind seeing him maybe even moving back to safety, but he’s definitely a guy you want on your team, and you and I off air were talking about this a little bit.

He’s the guy, I compared him to Kevin Garnett. If he’s your teammate, you love him. If you’re playing against him, he’s going to make you want to punch him in the helmet by the end of the game. Definitely a kid that Florida’s going to like, and like you said, he’ll be on campus next week, and maybe, maybe not, the recruiter of the year. I have yet to announce my award that I created, thank you, Andrew. It’ll be huge for guys when they start taking these visits coming up. We’re talking about these next three weeks where Florida will be hosting a ton of guys, to be able to have somebody like Chauncey there to show them around and to talk to them and help recruit, that’s going to be huge.

Andrew:                 You go to, we talked about the DBs, and this is something McElwain brought up Tuesday at his press conference. Someone asked about Callaway being the player, big time receiver, and they asked, “Do you say this to freshmen, or to incoming players? They can play early, make an impact,” and he goes, “Yeah. Look at the targets on our board.” Just in this Under Armour game alone there’s Auburn receiver commit, Eli Stove, Nate Craig-Myers, Tyrek Cleveland, Hammond, as we talked about, Sam Bruce. I know I’m forgetting somebody here. Keith Gavin’s also in the game. Not really a Florida target anymore.

There is there, but the guy that I want to talk about next real quick is Tyrek Cleveland. Nick, you and I talked about this off air a little bit. The guy can open up the field. He’s a guy that’ll blow the top off the offense. He’s a guy that will just run by you. 6’3”, a big guy that can go get the ball. High points the ball like you like to see it. Runs really good routes, and Florida and TCU are battling for this. Florida’s going to get the last visit. He’s committed to Houston just in words. From Jacksonville.

I like Florida’s chances here, and a lot of people in Texas are saying the same thing. They like Florida’s chances here, and would that be a big pickup for this offense, because Florida needs a big playmaker in Tyrek Cleveland, especially losing Demarcus Robinson who was their starting ex this football season.

Nick:                         Yeah. To me the wide receiver core is really impressive. I’ve talked a lot about Sam Bruce. To me he was kind of invisible today, at least in the first day. The most impressive receiver and a guy that’s committed, but still looking is Tyrek Cleveland. This is a home run hitter, someone who can stretch the top off of defense, knows how to go up and get the ball. I think a lot of people are still sleeping on Josh Hammond, and maybe it’s just kind of a thought of Hammond, maybe he’s kind of like Frankie, a smaller guy. Not the case at all. Josh Hammond’s very tall, long arms, knows how to go up, high point the football. Knows how to use his size, and that’s something that a lot of receivers kind of have to taught. It’s not like an instinctual thing where you know how to use your size and your length to your advantage. I think Florida is really getting a great sleeper pick here in Josh Hammond, but definitely still in the running for some of these wide receivers, and there are a lot of good ones here.

Andrew:                 Yeah. You just said Hammond. I guess, my three receivers, for the record I watch team Armour the whole game, or the whole day, because that’s what most of the Florida picks guys were, and if I was going to name the top three receivers I would say it was Cleveland, Auburn commit, Eli Stove, and then Josh Hammond. Hammond made plays and made plays all one on one time. He beat Jayvaughn Myers up and down the field. That boy got whipped. Then he beat Kristian Fulton, who you and I both agree was one of, if not the top cornerbacks there, several times. Hammond is, like you said, a long athletic guy, maybe 6’, but he’s got really good speed, really good bursts, and really good hands.

A guy that’s similar to Hammond is Eli Stove, the Auburn commit, who I like a lot. I said he, at 6’ he reminds me like of a power forward in basketball. He has a big frame, and he shows a good target to the quarterback that allows him to be open even when he’s not open, because quarterbacks are trusting his hands. He beat Chauncey a few times at the slot, and he’s down to Auburn, Florida. Going to take that Florida visit on January 22nd, Auburn on January 15th. If was picking right now I’m saying Eli Stove is the next slot, and the slot for this class outside of Jerry Massey, who’s already committed and going to enroll. Stove, don’t sleep on Stove. He may be 6’, but he can play all over the field, DB, receiver, kick return, everywhere. He’s doing really good. Back to return, Chauncey Gardner did a little bit of that today as well, as did Tyrek Cleveland, and both of them looked good.

Nick:                         With Stove, until you just said that that he’s 6’, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that after watching him today. He does not play like somebody, if we’re going to call 6’ small for a receiver he doesn’t play like a small receiver. That’s important, because you can be small and play like you’re small, or you can be small and play big. To me he didn’t play small, and that’s the big distinction in my mind with his game.

Andrew:                 Right. I think the thing is, and I had this conversation with Sleeper Athletes, if you guys don’t know him he’s the guy that’s on Twitter.

Nick:                         We had him on the podcast.

Andrew:                 Knows his game a lot, and he and I were talking about it. This is really no knock on any of these guys that I’m about to mention, but there’s a difference between being a good slot receiver and being a good athlete that has to play slot receiver. Brandon Powell, he was a running back…

Nick:                         He’s not a guy that…Stove is not a guy that’s limited to being a slot receiver because of his size.

Andrew:                 Right. That’s what I was going to say. A guy like Powell is a slot receiver because he’s not a outside receiver. He’s a guy that you just want to get the ball to. Stove’s not that guy. Stove is a true receiver that is a really good athlete. Powell is a really good athlete that just plays receiver. There’s a difference there. That’s why Stove is there. Stove’s electric with the football. He beats Gardner and makes it look easy, and Gardner is no slouch of an athlete. I like Stove a lot.

Nick:                         I like that, because there was a play right before Gardner was in very good coverage on Stove. They ran the rep back after an incompletion from Woody Barrett, who good luck Auburn in your passing game. They ran an incompletion back. He beats Gardner on the next play, and to me you know Chauncey’s going to talk, but Eli turned around after he caught that ball and was asking Chauncey where he was. To me, I liked that. Chauncey is a lot as far as personality. He has a lot of personality, and to me to see Eli kind of not cave to that or not back down to that, and kind of give it right back to him, tells you a lot about what he is as a player and a competitor.

Andrew:                 I guess the difference for me is this, and this is no knock on Sam Bruce, but Sam Bruce was just lost on the first day. He was a guy that didn’t catch very many balls, was just lost. Then you see a guy like Stove at the slot making plays, and you’re like, there. A real quick note on Bruce. Everybody’s going to ask. He’s still committed to Miami, even though Kevin Beard doesn’t look like he’ll be there. Going to visit Florida on the 29th, and then Miami on the, uh Florida on the 22nd, Miami on the 29th. I don’t know. I really don’t know what this kid’s mind is. I think Florida has a shot, but does Florida run out of room if a guy like Stove wants to commit? We’ll see. We’ll just kind of see where that goes there.

Nate Craig-Myers is the other big receiver, and quite frankly Florida’s trending down and trending down in a hurry on a down slide big time. Not even sure he’s going to take a visit to Florida in January. Says he may take an unofficial. Right now I’m going to go ahead and say I think it’s North Carolina, and if not North Carolina then maybe Ole Miss slides in. I don’t think it’s Auburn, and I don’t think it’s Florida State. I think North Carolina is the out of state school, and if he wants to stay in state I think it’s Florida. Right now I’m leaning towards Nate Craig not being at Florida, unless he takes a visit, but Nate Craig did have a very solid day on day one as well. He looked good in practice. Looked like his old self before his injury.

Nick:                         I didn’t see too much of Nate Craig. We tried to split up to see as much as we could, so I was on the other field watching some quarterbacks, specifically Dwayne Haskins, working over there. I did get caught watching Daylon Mack, because he is unblockable and a fun player to watch, but I was really trying to get some live, get my eyes on Haskins with some live throws, stuff like that. I’ll believe you with Nate. Nate is a long kid, knows how to play receiver, and you’re seeing some of that.

A lot of these kids are All-American’s but they’ve kind of just gotten away on talent alone, and you know a guy like Antonius Clayton doesn’t play against great competition in high school, and some kids can just get away with it. I think when you come to these All Star events kids who are smart football players and know how to take advantage of their size, rather than just rely on their natural ability, kind of start to separate. Nate’s a kid who’s not just an athlete. He knows how to take advantage of his size, and he knows how to play the game. He’s a smart football player.

Andrew:                 Speaking of Antonius Clayton, we’ll go here with him next. Did anybody block him? I don’t know.

Nick:                         I watched him get held one time.

Andrew:                 A few times. From my counts I was back and forth watching one on one for our seven on sevens for the offense, and then I was watching one on ones as well. By my count Antonius Clayton was four for four in one on ones against EJ Price and Willy Allen, who were two of the top tackles in the country. Then he goes to team drills, and back to back sacks. Then the next one he’s forcing a fumble, because he hits the running back as he’s getting the hand off. Clayton is a big guy. He comes in at 6’4”, 215. He can gain weight. He’s going to gain weight, but I tell you what, good luck blocking that guy, because that guy is coming off the edge, and he’s coming off the edge with a fierce first step, with a very good movement. He does a very good swim move, very good dip his shoulders and goes in.

Good player there, and he said it as well on Monday when he came into the Under Armour game, locked into Florida. Doesn’t plan to take any other visits, and he’s recruiting guys. He says, “I want the best class in the nation, in case somebody gets hurt that the next guy comes in and plays just as good with me.” Then he kind of had a message for Cece Jefferson. He wants to start over Cece next year, because he says he’s not scared of competition. If I am anybody else I’m like, okay, this is good. I like seeing this stuff. Clayton, in my opinion, won day one, and Florida fans should be very happy about what they’re getting out of that defensive end.

Nick:                         That’s not cocky. That’s the kind of confidence you want. You don’t want a guy to come in and think, I have to sit because so and so’s here. You want a guy to say, I trust in me. I’ve bought stock in me, and I like me right up there with anybody.

Andrew:                 Yeah. The thing is it’s like Chauncey Gardner, and I know we’re going to get off this a little bit. Chauncey Gardner is an arrogant guy, or he’s a confident guy, but not an arrogant guy. He is a trash talker, but he backs it up. I’m going to say this, and it’s going to sound weird when I say it, but it’s about the only way I know how to say it. He’s a fun loving charismatic guy. He cracks you up. He talks trash to Sam Bruce, but the next moment he’s high fiving Sam Bruce. I was talking to his head coach today, and he goes, “Most of those guys are like big time partiers and that kind of stuff.” He goes, “Chauncey Gardner’s view of partying is going to watch film or play PlayStation.” That’s what I like to see out of my big time corner that likes to trash talk.

Nick:                         Yeah. That’s the thing. We’ve talked a lot about him being, Chauncey being a trash talker, but he is such a nice kid, a nice guy, that the trash talk really is just a part of the competition for him, and there’s malice behind it. You see him going back and forth with Sam, going back and forth with Eli Stove, and they’re giving it back to him. When they give it back to him it’s not like now we have to fight. It’s, good, that’s what I wanted. That’s the kind of response I wanted from you.

Andrew:                 I’m in your head now. Thank you. I’m in your head.

Nick:                         To me it’s kind of just like a…

Andrew:                 Mind game.

Nick:                         In this setting. If Chauncey’s playing for Florida, and they’re against Georgia it’s probably not the same kind of friendly, but in this kind of setting you’re practicing against your own teammates. These are guys that are in a similar position to you. To me it’s kind of like we’re at practice, don’t let me win this rep easily. I’m here to get better. If I beat you I’m going to give you shit about it, because I want you to get mad, and I want you to go harder the next rep, because that’s going to make me better. That’s what I’m getting from it, at least in this kind of practice setting. When it’s next year and it’s against Tennessee I don’t think it’s going to be that same kind of attitude.

Andrew:                 I hope it’s not.

Nick:                         I think in this sense he’s trying to push guys to another level so that it’s that iron sharpens iron. Now you’re playing your best, because you’re pissed off at me, and that’s only going to make me better, because I still have to keep covering you.

Andrew:                 Chauncey starts being friends with Tennessee players and Georgia players, I don’t know if Chauncey and I will be friends anymore, Nick. I don’t know. Chauncey and I have become a little good. I think we’re cool. He wants to get tattoos together. I don’t know about all that business, but come on, Chauncey. Hit him up and tell him that Andrew’s not a tattoo guy. We’ll see. He’s just a charismatic guy. The guy he’s working on, the guy you just talked about, Dwayne Haskins. He is what we call the money maker this week. Every Florida fan wants to know about him, and quite frankly he’s the real deal. That is the real deal of the quarterback.

He’s the best quarterback there is here at the Under Armour game. He’s good. He can sling it. He throws what I call a heavy ball or a hard ball. He’s very accurate. The biggest thing for me, Nick, and we talked about this yesterday was he handled media interviews correctly. He handled it in a way, he didn’t run from it like Jacob Eason did, or Feliepe kind of did. He got up, answered the questions, kept everything close to the vest, handled things. I can’t guage the kind’s interest. I’ll say this, I don’t think he goes to Maryland. I just don’t know where he goes. I don’t think it’s Ohio State. Is it Florida or Maryland or LSU or A&M? I don’t know. Just get a feeling he’s not sold to Maryland.

Nick:                         I definitely don’t think he’s sold to Maryland, and this is what I was talking to somebody today, and we kind of came to a thing, and I think we both thought it made sense, and we both kind of agreed on it. It’s that Maryland is the easy choice right now. Is he sold on Maryland? No. You’ve committed to Maryland. It’s close to home. You’re close to your family, close to your friends. You don’t have to decommit from anywhere to go to Maryland. Right now Maryland is your safe choice. You’re not going to make anybody mad by going to Maryland. Sure, Ohio State fans want to see you in Columbus. Florida fans want to see you in Gainesville, but they’re not going to be mad at you for sticking with your commitment.

When you decommit, especially when you’re decommitting from the in state school, that’s hard. That’s hard to do. Do I think he’s sold? No. I think if he stays at Maryland it was the easy choice to make, and that’s not a knock on him. This decision a lot of kids rush into it, but it’s not a four-year choice. This is you’re making a choice for the rest of your life. It’s a tough decision.

Andrew:                 I think it’s what you said. It’s a easy choice. Someone said, he’s going to Maryland because he hasn’t decommitted. No. Some kids just don’t want to go through that decommitment process, and if he ends up going to Maryland why decommit? That’s my thing. Decommitment means nothing. That word commitment, decommitment means nothing. It really does, who cares. He’s an open prospect in my opinion, and he’ll make a final decision on Signing Day, or whenever he makes a final decision. My thing is this. Dwayne Haskins can play at Florida next year. That’s something I can’t say about some other guys right now.

Nick:                         No. I think Dwayne Haskins, I’ve said it on Twitter. I’ve said it everywhere. The order of quarterbacks for Florida was Eason, Haskins, Franks, Trask. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts in my mind about that. I don’t think Trask or Franks are ready to play. From what I’ve seen from Haskins you might take your lumps, because he’s a freshman, but he makes decisions. There isn’t a throw on the field he can’t make. I watched him put 10 yard outs from the opposite hash, from the left hash thrown to the right side of the field, throw those on a rope. Watched him throw deep balls with some touch. Watched him when they got into 11 on 11, make reads, and make decisions. He doesn’t second guess himself, pump fake, and then put himself into a situation where I have to scramble. He is a good quarterback, tall, fits the build, smart kid. In my opinion performed a little bit better than Jack Allison today, and he was in a group with Jack Allison and Malik Henry. Malik Henry didn’t look anywhere as close to as good as those two guys did. In my opinion Haskins was the best quarterback I watched today.

Andrew:                 Let’s talk about a couple other guys real quick before we get out of here. Landon Dickerson, offensive lineman from North Carolina. Going to visit Florida on the 15th. Right now Florida State Tennessee are probably his top two guys. Can play guard or tackle. Florida has a shot here, because nobody sold his commitment, sold him yet, and gotten a commitment. He’s going to visit Florida on the 15th. He’s a guy that doesn’t like to waste time. He wants to play early. Florida’s got a shot there. Brett Heggie is another offensive lineman, committed to Florida at center. Played really well against some of the bigger guys today during practice on Tuesday. He says he’s recruiting Marcus Tatum and Bryan Burns a little bit. He says only one official visit’s going to happen for him there.

The next guy that I want to talk about a little bit with you, Nick, is Shavar Manuel. He’s a guy you and I talked about it yesterday. He looks like a gigantic football player. He’s a very good looking football player. He was injured during his season with a hip injury. Didn’t play as well in some of the team stuff today as he did in the one on ones. Did look a little bit better in the one on ones then he did in his senior tape. The fact of the matter, he’s a big guy, 300 pounds, defensive tackle. You get him. You work him out, get him in shape. Chris Rumph can do his job there.

Nick:                         Yeah. I really wasn’t impressed with any of the IMG kids today, if I’m being honest. Maybe still dealing with the hip injury, maybe taking some time to get used to it and to build some confidence up. Today also was the first day. Definitely not impressed at all with Saivion Smith, the big name cornerback from IMG, but I wasn’t that impressed with Shavar either. I think it’s I need to see more, but from day one I was not all too impressed. What a kid looks like in one practice in Under Armour that I’ve seen is not what he will be four years from now. It’s like you said, coaches get paid a lot of money, so you have to recruit kids on what you think you can make them, because you are going to be the coach. You’re going to be the one that’s molding them into that player.

Andrew:                 You can’t teach 6’4”, 300, 290 either. That’s there.

Nick:                         I don’t know. I might weigh 300 pounds by the time we leave Orlando, but I’m not 6’4”.

Andrew:                 That’s true. The thing is for this is he’s down to Florida, Florida State basically. USF is still in there. He says he’s going to, may announce at the Under Armour game. Don’t believe it. He ain’t announcing. He’ll be a kid that’ll announce at 1:00 in the morning one night and piss me off, because I have to wake up and write a commitment story. I think he’s Florida’s to lose. I really do there. Good kid. Very good kid. Good manners, just a good character guy there.

Last guy we’ll talk about real kid with you, Nick, is linebacker Dontavious Jackson out of Texas. Everyone kind of thought he was just taking a visit to Florida just to take a visit. 6’2”, 235 pounds, in that area. Says Randy Shannon’s been recruiting him the hardest of any school since November. He’s going to take that visit on January 15th, and Texas was kind of the leader most people thought, but a lot of people are telling me he’s worried about Charlie Strong leaving. I don’t think there’s anything Charlie Strong can tell him on his official that makes him believe he’s going to be there, and we kind of see what Randy did with David Reese when he went head to head with Charlie Strong. Can he do it again with Dontavious Jackson?

Jackson reminds me a lot of Morrison, and I don’t say that because of middle linebacker. I say that because Jackson’s more of that hard hitting middle linebacker that’s going to stop the run than he is going to be guarding your running back in the back field. He’s a guy that you kind of want to get out of there on 3rd down, but play him on 1st and 2nd. Nick, you and I both can agree, Florida needs that kind of player in this class, whether that’s Mack Wilson, David Reese, Dontavious Jackson, whoever it is. They need a Mike Linebacker that can stuff the gaps on runs.

Nick:                         Yeah. You know what’s nice? It’s nice that you talk about a coaching change might be affecting this recruit, and Florida might actually be the benefactor of that, because the past two years that’s something other schools were using against Florida. You said you love Coach Muschamp, but is he even going to be there?

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Nice for Florida to actually be on the other end of that now.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Absolutely.

Nick:                         A benefactor instead of on the wrong end of it.

Andrew:                 Like you said, Florida having the same staff this year. We talked about it before. That’s great for recruiting. That’s great for team. Great staffs stay together for a couple years. Nick Saban seems to never lose a coach unless he wants to lose the coach. Maybe Mac can do that for a little bit.

Nick:                         Mac also jokes that Nick Saban wanted to lose him.

Andrew:                 Mac also says he’s not a very good football coach, and I think you and I both can agree that he’s kind of under, he needs to take lessons from Chauncey Gardner. That’s what we need to do. I need to put Chauncey Gardner and Jim McElwain in a room together and let their egos kind of collide and make like the perfect ego for both of them. That’d be awesome. Can we make that happen?

Nick:                         I guess we can try.

Andrew:                 They can do it over a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Nick:                         That damn peanut butter and jelly.

Andrew:                 Maybe Chauncey likes the crust. I had peanut butter and jelly chicken wings the other night.

Andrew:                         Nick takes me to an all you can eat. Nick, you can agree with me. I might look like a fat guy, and I am a fat guy. I don’t eat a lot. Nick takes me to an all you can eat, and Nick’s over here eating like 50 chicken wings. I feel sick after eating 12.

Nick:                 I think I could eat 50.

Andrew:                         You ate close. It was like 46.

Nick:                 Then I got back to the room and had some cookies.

Andrew:                         And had cookies, my cookies. I don’t know, Nicholas. I don’t know about you here. Good week so far. More to come. We’ll be bringing day to day coverage of the Under Armour game as well as the Citrus Bowl. Have this stuff coming. Have a really good photo gallery from Kassidy coming on Tuesday night. It’s probably already out when you guys are listening to this. David Bowie will have a real good one from Wednesday. Then we’ll have some good galleries from Friday and Saturday for the Citrus Bowl as well as the Under Armour game. Hope to have some more great coverage coming your way. I know Nick’s planning some good features on the Gator early enrollees. So those will be coming after next week, or after this week when Nick gets home. I think that’s about it, Nick. Anything we want to add before we get out of here?

Nick:                 No. That’s it. As always, pictures, videos, going up on Twitter. A little bit more than we put on Twitter goes on the message boards for all of our members, but you can find us @NickdelaTorreGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. @GatorCountry on Twitter, and we’ve got some fire edits coming out on Instagram, so if you’re not following us there pop open that Instagram. It’s @TheGatorCountry. We will have a ton of stuff Wednesday, Thursday. Citrus Bowl on Friday. Under Armour All-American Bowl on Saturday. Then I am sleeping Sunday.

Andrew:                         Then you’re sleeping Sunday. Then a couple weeks of recruiting, and then we’ll be back together in the Senior Bowl. Good stuff, Senior Bowl. For us it’s a fun week. I love the Senior Bowl. It’s an awesome event. It’ll be a good time. If you’re not on Gator Country yet now is perfect time to get there. Tell a friend about it. Hit me up on Twitter. Hit Nick up on Twitter. Might hook you up with a deal if you call me the goat and talk nice to me. Butch and Mark, you know the drill, as always. I continue to not like you guys. Until next time. Chomp, chomp, and go Braves.

Nick:                 You stay classy, Gator Country.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.

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