Coaching and Florida Gators recruiting updates: Podcast

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we discuss the latest on the Florida Gators recruiting visits that took place last weekend when seven players took official visits.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre also discuss Mike Summers’ leaving and when Jim McElwain is looking to add two coaches to the staff.

Andrew and Nick also discuss the basketball team and their latest win over the Georgia Bulldogs at home last Saturday.

TRANSCRIPT:

 

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, it’s supposed to be the off season. What’s all this news about all the time? I mean, I guess it goes back to your saying that it’s never dead in Florida recruiting and Florida football.

Nick:                         Yeah. There’s never an off season with Florida. Never a dull day. It is what it is. Got kids on campus this week, and Mike Summers not on campus.

Andrew:                 Yeah. There was a loud boom that was heard, and I think that was Florida fans for some reason. It’s crazy, but there is that opening, and you and I had said and speculated that it was going to happen. We had basically gotten to the point where we thought it was going to be after Signing Day, but Mac’s a loyal guy, as you say. As we’ve said before, some of the conversation probably went a lot like this, and that was, “Coach, probably should look for another job, because after February 1st you’re not going to be needed around here anymore.”

Nick:                         Yeah. I guess. Someone said to me like, “That seems like a lateral move,” and it’s like, “Man, where have you been?”

Andrew:                 Lateral it is.

Nick:                         It is what it is. You got to start finding some coaches here. It’s been over a month since Geoff Collins left. Now you’ve got two openings, so you got to start making some moves here if you’re Jim McElwain in filling some of these spots.

Andrew:                 We talked about this a little bit on the site on Monday, earlier today. We’re taping this on Monday. From everything we’ve been told Mac would love to have both guys in place this weekend, and I think it will. He would like to have them on the road this week to be able to get out and recruit. I think that particularly happens. Like you said, this wasn’t a situation where Mac was caught off guard with the offensive line. He was ready to make a move anyway. The crystal ball stuff, there was a little bit of smoke there, as we said, but Mac was never going to pay him a million bucks to be just the offensive line coach, because he has seven other, six other, assistant position coaches that aren’t making a million bucks. You just can’t do that, and there’s still a question of how good Cristobal really was as a coach.

Like you said, he has to. Now you’re down an offensive line coach. No kids are going to commit. No offensive linemen are going to commit without an offensive line coach. In the instance of Geoff Collins spot goes, you’re not missing a position coach, so you can take a little bit longer in that hiring.

Nick:                         I think you are a missing a position coach, because no linebacker is saying, “D bass is the linebackers coach.”

Andrew:                 It’s Randy Shannon, and he tells people, “I’m the linebacker coach.”

Nick:                         Then the secondary is saying, “Well, where’s our coach?”

Andrew:                 It’s Torrian Gray.

Nick:                         That’s not the safeties coach. You’re missing a coach.

Andrew:                 You’re missing a coach, but you’re not missing a position group. Yes, Geoff Collins coached DB, or coached safeties. Torrian also helped there. In the past Torrian’s coached the whole DB group. It’s a point we can make here. If Tim Skipper goes to linebacker coach kids are probably going to still call Randy Shannon the linebacker coach, because Randy Shannon’s one of the best linebacker coaches in the business. While I see your point, you can’t, kids aren’t committing to play DB for Geoff Collins, committing to play DB for Torrian Gray.

Nick:                         I think that’s a good spin on it, but you’re still missing a coach, and you’ve got to, and now, because of it, you’ve got Drew Hughes out on the road. That’s not in his job description. Now you’re trying to make it to Signing Day with one less guy, and to me your just asking more people, and it’s kind of what we’ve talked about with McElwain. It’s he want more support staff. He wants more people around him. He’s seen how it works at Alabama, and that’s what he wants to create here. Now not only do you not have as many people as Alabama, you don’t even have as many people as every other school in the country, because you’re still down one more coach.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but I think you kind of turned the conversation a little bit. What I was saying was I wasn’t making an excuse for the coach. What I was saying was it’s different. Offensive lien you got to have a coach there that is saying, “Hey, I’m going to coach you next year.” Right now you have a position coach for every place. Now, if you’re recruiting a running back, and Tim Skipper moves to linebacker, you damn sure better have a running back coach in place. What I was saying was you’re not lacking a position, missing a position coach or someone that’s going to coach the position, in regards to Collins. Shannon’s your linebacker coach. He’s your DC.

Now, as far as leg power on the road, you’re absolutely missing it, and it sucks, and it hurts, because what Drew Hughes does back in the office is great, and that’s what you need him to do, to be working it from there while you have that extra guy out on the road. So, yes, you are missing that guy. What I was saying was you didn’t miss a position coach with the Collins departure.

Nick:                         Yeah. We still disagree on that. I think you are.

Andrew:                 Hey, wouldn’t be the first time we disagree. Probably won’t be the last time we disagree. I will say this, they need to have two coaches. They need to figure it out and get them in by this weekend. You’re going down the stretch, and you need to have that taken care of and make it happen. You got to.

As far as offensive line goes, I wanted to hit on this real quick with Mike Summers. There’s never been a negative word said about Mike Summers as a person. I know me. I was particularly hard on Mike Summers, and for his recruiting, and even his coaching style. We’ve heard it. Mac kind of called him out in the post press conference of the Outback Bowl, and that was that while the position guys respected him, they didn’t react to him. They didn’t come out with a fire. There was no motivation tactic in Mike Summers. He was a great technique coach, but wasn’t a, in my opinion, what you needed out of an offensive line coach. I just personally wanted to say that, while we pick on Mike Summers, and even Greg Nord too, they’re both incredible people. Good guys. In the business side of things, that’s where they lack.

Nick:                         Yeah. We’ve kind of talked about it before where it might be tough to recruit, just based on age. You’re talking about, how old was Mike Summers?

Andrew:                 Mid 60s, wasn’t he?

Nick:                         You’re having to go, and Mike Summers doesn’t know, what’s a 16 year old watching on TV? What’s a 16 year old into? What kind of music is he listening to? I think it’s tough. It’s part of the job, but it’s probably tough to find some kind of common ground, something to talk about, other than talking about football.

Andrew:                 So you’re saying Coach Summers doesn’t know what a savage is?

Nick:                         Maybe, maybe not, but I’m just saying. When I’m 60, probably not.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I mean, I’m 29 here, and I have to ask you sometimes, what does this mean? Let’s move on a little bit from that, and let’s talk a little recruiting, Nick. You talk about all the kids that were on campus this weekend, and for the most part everything we’ve heard was really good, as far as that goes. I’ll recap it real quick, and then we can go in deeper with that.

You had Cam Smith, the Maryland defensive tackle, on campus. Had wide receiver James Robinson on campus, athlete Eric Stokes on campus, safety Devon Hunter on campus. You had linebacker Levi Jones on campus, and then you had the two commits, Elijah Blades and Ventrell Miller. They were all on campus over the weekend, and I think it was a good first weekend for Florida.

People are griping and grumbling, “Well, Florida didn’t get a commit this weekend.” January you’re not getting commits from the big guys when they still got visits left. We can talk about that all we want. You can say I was spinning that. It happens. It just does. Florida State got a kid this weekend that was a defensive end, who’s best offer was Florida State. It was probably one of those where they said, “Listen, you’re either in, or you’re out.” He committed, bada bing, bada boom, it’s over with.

Nick:                         I’m trying to think of why would you think that a Devon Hunter, why would Devon Hunter commit this weekend?

Andrew:                 Especially when he has an announcement set for Friday. You know what I’m saying? Same thing with Levi Jones. I understand. Trust me. I understand. People are dying for good news, and begging for good news. It just doesn’t happen like that right now in January. These kids have announcement plans. If you’re a 17 year old kid or 18 year old kid, and you’ve made it this long, might as well make it to Signing Day and have that party that you’re going to have and everything else. I just doesn’t happen. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t good news though. We’ll start, let’s go ahead and start breaking it down.

James Robinson, Nick, you and I said this on Friday, the visit this weekend was about repairing his relationship with Kerry Dixon. Everything we’ve been told is that that relationship went really well, and James Robinson had a great visit, and hung out with Feleipe Franks a lot. That was his player host, which I thought was pretty smart by Florida. Get that quarterback that could potentially be the guy for Robinson there. So, things went really well for James Robinson. Now he has two more visits planned, and that’s been the plan all along. It is. It is what it is. I do, I think Florida’s in great shape. I think Florida improved their chances with James Robinson.

Nick:                         Go back, what was the issue with James Robinson? We’ve mentioned that Florida was doing well with him, and then all of a sudden they weren’t, and he had the quote from Under Armour week that was like, it was almost like when a girl stops talking to you out of nowhere.

Andrew:                 That all goes back to Florida was recruiting some other guys. There was some question, kind of still is some question, of whether or not he’s going to qualify and that kind of stuff, so all that went into it. Robinson’s family wants Florida, and Robinson’s always said that Florida was his dream school, so they repaired that relationship this weekend. That was big. You got Robinson now looking at visiting Alabama or maybe Ohio State, and then the last weekend is Ole Miss. Quite frankly, I think both of those are just courtesy visits, visits to have fun. Robinson’s a kid from Lakeland, didn’t take many unofficial visits. He’s going to have fun.

Nick:                         I’ve always said it, “If someone’s going to pay for you to fly across the country, if someone’s going to pay for you to go somewhere, let them do it.”

Andrew:                 Let them do it. That’s right. Let’s go to Levi Jones, though. That was probably the biggest guy on campus as far as name recognition and as far as need, and, once again, Florida improved their chances a ton. His dad is a guy that played for Randy Shannon back in the day at Miami, and that’s something that Randy was able to do is really reconnect with Shannon and get the dad on their side. That was the first ever visit for those, for him and for his parents to come to Florida for a visit. That was huge. His dad said that they exceeded expectations, and that things went well. The key with these guys is this, and that is that that is going to be a family decision. They’ve had two sons play before, as well as dad, Robert, who’s played in college and in the League. They know what they’re looking for. They’re not going to fall for BS. They’re not going to fall for this, that, and the other.

They’re going to go for the best, and that’s, right now it looks like Florida’s got a good shot. They were able to see the business school. That’s where Levi wants to do, and they also know Joe Haden, and Joe Haden’s one of the biggest reps for Florida out there. So, you’re looking at Levi now, he has the UCLA visit, the USC visit, A&M, and then Florida State. You got four more visits. There’s pros and cons to that. Four more, you’re the first one. That’s a bad thing. The good thing for them is they set the bar high, and also that means he’s going to be taking four visits in a matter of a 14 day period, so that could wear him out. You got to weigh the pros and the cons there, and also remember that Florida’s going to get two more chances to go see him in person, so that’s another big positive.

Nick:                         Are those midweek visits officials?

Andrew:                 Yes.

Nick:                         How does that work? They go just like a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?

Andrew:                 Yeah, or they go like get in on a Tuesday night, spend all day Wednesday and Thursday there, and then they leave like midday Friday and go to the other place. Good thing for UCLA, USC is what is it? They’re like 45 minutes?

Nick:                         Yeah. You’re right there.

Andrew:                 So that will be a little bit different when he goes from Texas A&M to Florida State, so that’s a lot of traveling. Maybe for Florida fans sake, that he’s wore out when it gets time to go to Florida State, and he’s just tired.

Nick:                         That’s quite possible. What’s the sales pitch there?

Andrew:                 I think the biggest thing with Levi is this, that Levi is one of the most athletic linebackers that I’ve seen in a long time. You and I talk about it. We talked about it with Morrison. We talked about it with JD, Jarrad Davis, and that is their stock in the NFL drops a little bit when it comes Combine time, because they don’t run very well. Well, that’s opposite of what Levi Jones does, and that’s something his dad said that Randy Shannon was talking to him about, “Listen, you can play any of the positions. We can even slide you down to a little rush guy, rush linebacker on 3rd down, or we can put you in pass coverage, that’s something Florida don’t have.”

You think about it, and he’s pretty much accurate. Outside of maybe Kylan Johnson, do you really feel good with Vosean or Reese running with a tight end or a linebacker? I personally don’t, but Levi’s a guy that does. I even think I said this on one of our Under Armour podcasts, sideline to sideline is what he does, and that’s what he’s really good at. Is he the biggest hitter, probably not, but he’s just an all around really good athlete and good linebacker, and he’s a guy that probably finds a way to get on the field next year.

Nick:                         That’s a tough position to be able to get onto the field, when you look at those young guys.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but I think it’s worth saying, and that is that Florida, outside of the three guys that played this year, everything’s pretty much open behind that.

Nick:                         Yeah. I would say you’ve got probably three guys there that are good, but there is that Daniel McMillian, that Will linebacker spot, that’s still open.

Andrew:                 I think Jeremiah Moon fills that, but we’ll see. Now, let’s talk about a guy that Florida had a good visit with, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough, and that’s Devon Hunter. I think that they had a really good visit with Devon Hunter, but I just don’t see it being enough. When you look at Virginia Tech, that’s where he was planning, I mean, that’s where many people pegged him to commit to in December, when he was supposed to make a decision, and I think that’s what it will ultimately be on Friday.

Florida did a good job of impressing him on the trip and all that good stuff, but at the end of the day it’s just I think it’s going to be tough to lure him away from Virginia Tech. Yes, I know I’m going to hear, and, Nick, you’re going to hear, “Florida missed. They didn’t close out on him.” Listen, he’s from Virginia. Virginia Tech was the school, and everybody’s on him there. He probably steps on campus there and plays Day 1. With the emergence of Marcell, and Nick playing well, he probably doesn’t play next year at Florida. So, that’s the one that I don’t think they made up enough ground on was Devon Hunter over the weekend.

Nick:                         What is something that they could have done differently? Or is it just something like you just said, where not much you can do differently?

Andrew:                 Outside of moving the University of Florida to Virginia, I don’t think there was much they could have done. I mean, when you think about that being home, and that just kind of won out on the trip, and that sucks, but, hey, it’s what happens with it.

I wanted to talk about Cam Spence though, Nick, and that was the defensive tackle that’s the Maryland commit that visited over the weekend as well. Is a guy that’s kind of, I don’t want to say an unknown, but is a guy that hasn’t been talked about a ton. That’s because he has been committed to Maryland for so long. He played at IMG his junior year, and then went back up to Washington DC, where he plays at now. 6’3”, 315 pounds of defensive tackle, that’s a monster, and that’s what Florida needs.

The thing that helped Florida out a ton was Mike London, Maryland’s defensive line coach, left Maryland to be the new head coach at Howard, and London and DJ Durkin were telling the defensive line commits, “Don’t worry about it, London’s going to be here.” Well, that didn’t happen. They haven’t had a defensive line coach hired either, so guess what? Florida, Rumph pulls back in the mix. They had a great trip this weekend. Cam Spence is one of the smartest young men I’ve ever spoke to as far as just details and that kind of stuff. Really smart guy, wants to be in sports broadcasting, sports journalism, department, and, Nick, I think you can I can agree, Florida’s got one of the best programs for that.

This is going to go down to the wire, and it’s going to depend on who Maryland hires as their defensive line coach. If they hire someone he likes, probably sticks with Maryland, or at least helps them out with it. If they hire someone they don’t like, or don’t hire anyone at all, I think Florida’s your next option there. So that’s going to be something to look at. 6’3”, 315 pounds, again. You need that guy.

Nick:                         Where does he go to school?

Andrew:                 Washington DC, St. Johns College up there. Same school as offensive lineman Calvin Ashley that is from Orlando that’s going to Auburn.

Nick:                         To me, I said it before, and maybe I’ll back off it a little bit. I said it before on our last podcast that Florida shouldn’t be recruiting that hard against Maryland. I get the whole, he’s from up there. That does play into it, but, like you said, it’s going to be who do they sign? Who do they get to fill that spot? Because it’s really just about relationships when you’re talking about recruiting, and you’ve got to have somebody, one of your coaches, Rumph, whether it’s Rumph, whether it’s Shannon, whoever clicks with him, has to be able to kind of close on a kid like this, especially when you’re looking at someone that can play a position where you’re going to be very thin next year.

Andrew:                 Right. I’m with you. Trust me, I understand the whole Maryland thing. I think that it’s a little different with Maryland and those Virginia kids, and that is it’s a big kind of circle, the DMV, right up there, and you see some guys leave, and you see some guys that just want to stay home, and I get it. They shouldn’t be recruiting against it, but when you’ve had a guy that’s been committed up there for so long it’s just one of those things. It’s tough. It’s tough to flip anyone that’s been committed to a school so long, because they just get so comfortable up there and get that feeling of home. Once again, you should be able to get kids away from Maryland, but I do think it’s tougher with schools like Maryland and Virginia Tech that are up in the DMV area, where they just kind of all stick together and form a bond.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s different for every kid, too. Distance might be a big deal to somebody. It might be not a big deal to somebody else.

Andrew:                 Right. Want to run through the rest of the visitors real quick, and that was Ventrell Miller, the linebacker. Had a great trip, committed. He’s going to shut it down. He says no more visits. He was recruiting James Robinson, another Lakeland guy like himself. He was recruiting Levi Jones, so everything went well with Ventrell.

Elijah Blades, everything came back that it was very positive on that. Still likely takes some trips, but Florida’s still very good on him. The key to remember here is this, A, he’s been committed to Florida since the summer, but, B, his relationship with Tim Skipper is almost like a father/son/brother relationship. It’s just a strong, strong bond, and his parents loved Gainesville, and that was big for Florida going down the stretch. I feel like Florida did enough to keep him in the mix and keep him committed.

Going to go to the last one, and that was Eric Stokes, Jr., the athlete. Very fast guy, raw as an athlete. Kind of got the impression that maybe Florida wasn’t pushing all in for him yet, but I think that he’s a guy that they could maybe go on late if they can’t find, if they miss out on a guy like Brad Stewart or CJ Henderson, two guys that I feel like are pretty much in the class already, but so that’s it. That’s kind of where you’ll see. You’ll see some guys come in and visit that maybe Florida’s not pushing hard for, but are trying to line up as backup plans, and Stokes is one of those guys that I think kind of fits that mold for Florida.

Nick:                         Fits the mold for Florida. Who’s the main recruiter there?

Andrew:                 It’s a tossup. Torrian Gray has been recruiting him really hard. Also, Rumph has been by there, but I will say that I think it’s Torrian Gray more. That’s the guy that Stokes says he has a better relationship, but Rumph does recruit that area as well, so it’s kind of a dual effort there, but give the nod to Torrian Gray.

Nick:                         Little off topic real quick. How has Torrian Gray been perceived? We kind of talked about it last year around this time. How has Torrian Gray been doing as far as perception and building relationships with these guys?

Andrew:                 You had to turn this negative didn’t you, Nick? You had to get these people coming at me.

Nick:                         I’m just asking.

Andrew:                 Yeah, you’re just asking. Florida Twitter is ready to burn fires.

Nick:                         They always are.

Andrew:                 With Torrian, here’s the deal with Torrian. I think he is a really, really good recruiter. Don’t get me wrong about that. Really good recruiter. Really good person. When I tell people he’s still adjusting to the SEC they laugh, and they say, “What’s different from the SEC to Virginia Tech?” We’re just now talking about why Florida shouldn’t lose kids there. At Virginia Tech you’re not recruiting, you’re recruiting a few of the kids that the big ones are, and then you’re recruiting some of the other guys that the big ones aren’t. It’s tough to have to go recruit your whole class against the likes of Saban, against the likes of Ohio State, against the likes of LSU. It’s tougher. You have to manage it, and it’s different.

I tell people that he’s still swimming a little bit and trying to get used to the SEC, and that’s the case. That doesn’t mean he’s not a good recruiter. I think he is. It’s just taking him a little bit of time to get adjusted to recruiting in the SEC. I think he ends up regaining that big name as one of the top guys. As far as coach wise, and the reputation, he has that. It just takes a little bit of time to adjust, and people shouldn’t freak out about it. It just takes a little time to adjust when you’ve been at somewhere like Virginia Tech your whole coaching career.

Nick:                         Okay.

Andrew:                 Does that make sense to you?

Nick:                         No, no, I’m just saying that, yeah, I thought that was a good answer. I thought that was a good answer, and, for me, it explains things. Does it explain things for Gator Twitter? Probably not.

Andrew:                 They’re ready to fire him tomorrow.

Nick:                         They’ll probably hear this on Wednesday or Thursday, and you’ll get some tweets.

Andrew:                 Tuesday morning at 5:15, after this is released at 5:00 in the morning, I will probably be getting a tweet that says, “Can we fire Torrian Gray?” No, you can’t. No. Going forward though, Nick, so we’re going to go back on Friday, we’ll break all the visits down, but Florida’s once again on the road this week. They’re going to be out recruiting all week, and still trying to finish it up. They’ll be visiting several 2017 kids, 2018 kids, and just trying to lay the groundwork for next year, while trying to finish up this year. Drew Hughes is out on the road, until they get a new coach. I do think it happens this week, just not sure of the date, or day of it, that it happens, but I do think they do.

I mean, there is starting to turn a little bit of momentum towards Florida’s way. Getting more kids on campus. Once they’re getting on campus they’re doing well. I’ll say it. I’ll say it like it is, Nick. This class isn’t where it needs to be today. Will it end where it needs to be? Maybe, maybe not. It’s not going to be from a lack of trying from Florida, but it’s also there’s still some hope that this class is going to be where it needs to be. You got to hold out hope.

Nick:                         Even with a very strong finish, I don’t think this class is where it needs to be. There’s two different I say you look at that.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         The first way of looking at that is what can you realistically finish with, and do you do that? Then, maybe, you could say, “We’re where we need to be.” If you look at it from the standpoint of, what have you done this year, and now is the class where it needs to be? I don’t think there’s a way you get to that point. Did that make sense?

Andrew:                 Yeah, it does, and I think we talked about this a little bit in the past, and that is Florida, now, Florida should be able to land the top of the top, the best of the best. When Florida’s going strong, they do that. Is Florida doing that this year? No. I mean, they may. They may end up getting a guy like Levi Jones, a guy like James Robinson, who I think are the best of the best.

You missed on the big offensive linemen as far as the big name guys. Can you still fill a really good class at offensive line? Yes. I think that, while this class has a chance, and could end up being really good, it may still lack a little bit of the huge, huge names that you would expect from Florida, and that sucks, and that’s not where it should be. The one thing I’ll say is this, and that is that this recruiting class should be better that you’ve been to Atlanta two years in a row.

Nick:                         This class coming up, 2018?

Andrew:                 No. I’m saying this 2017 class you would expect it to be better, because you were in Atlanta two years in a row.

Nick:                         Okay. Well then, what’s the issue?

Andrew:                 One of the issues just left. I mean, one of your issues just left, and there’s no way to sugarcoat it. I mean, it is what it is. Mike Summers was an awful recruiter. I’ll say it, and I’ll say it until I’m blown in the face, “Anybody but Mike Summers and the guys that were working Alex Leatherwood’s recruitment, anybody else wins the guy,” and I’ll stick to that. It may not be the popular belief, and someone’s going to say I’m just bashing on Mike Summers, because he left. Nick, how many times have I told you that? I’ve told you that all along. I know I’ve told you that 10 or 15 times probably.

Nick:                         Yeah. Pretty much just been saying it since he’s been here.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but it was more of a this year thing, and if you’re going to the offensive line, which, in my opinion, is where things lacked the most this year, it’s on one guy. You know it sucks to say, because, like I said, he’s a nice guy, but it’s on one guy. ‘18s got to be better, for sure, but there is still that hope to get some of the big names. You go on Signing Day, and you pick up a Levi Jones and a James Robinson, you’re feeling pretty damn good about yourself. You find a way to flip maybe the Gaddy twins or Cam Spence that visited this weekend, feeling pretty good about yourself.

So, you’ve got a chance, kind of like they did last year with Tyrie Cleveland, to make some noise and get some big name guys, and that will be good, and that’s what they need to do. In my opinion, there is a chance that the class can be pretty good. Will it be great? Probably not, but where you were talking a couple weeks ago, good is better than what it was going to be.

Nick:                         You can almost get into, I give you a pass for your first recruiting class. You had 30 days. Give you a pass on that one, but I kind of get to the point where fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me kind of thing. Where you’re looking at you had a bad class your first full now class, now if this next class is bad, then I think you might have some issues.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         That’s still a year away.

Andrew:                 Yeah, and I’m with you on that. I’m just not into giving passes for this year.

Nick:                         I’m not giving passes for this year, last year.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but I’m just saying I’m not into giving passes for this year, but I do think that the problems are being addressed, and I’ll leave it at that. Sound good?

Nick:                         That sounds good.

Andrew:                 I hate to, I just feel like I’m beating someone when they’re down, and I don’t want that to be the case. He’s gone. He’s moved on. We can all thank him for that.

Nick, basketball. Big win this weekend, and I’m going to say this, and that is that this team has something special about it. I was watching the game, and Florida’s trailing to Georgia, but it reminds me of kind of the Scottie Wilbekin teams a couple years ago with Will Yeguete in that this team may be down, but they’re not out. It’s a lot different than last year. Last year if they were down by any certain margin they were probably out of it. It wasn’t the case, but Florida’s got to find a way to start stronger and get woke up quicker, because the Tennessee game and now this game, back to back games, you’re not going to always get lucky and come back.

Nick:                         No. It’s, we talk about it, it’s different on the road than it is at home. I think you’ve got to be able to, is it nice that you hang in there and are able to hold out and get a win at home? Yeah, but just take care of business at home. Don’t get into that position where you’re down at halftime, this or that. Just take care of business at home. Don’t make it close.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Got to start stronger. So they go up to #19 in the AP poll this week, and then they’ve got a tough game against South Carolina, who made their way back into the poll. So, that should be a good one for Florida. Again, this is a different team that is a whole lot different in that they’re able to sustain that, starting slow, and they’re able to make up for it, but they got to start faster, like we say. Good team though, so far. Good team so far. Good start to the year.

Nick:                         How about Canyon Barry? Canyon Barry.

Andrew:                 Did you know he’s Rick Barry’s son?

Nick:                         Yeah, and I watched the game on mute too.

Andrew:                 If I have to hear that, let me ask you this, Nick. This is off topic. What’s more run into the ground, Rick Barry is the son of, I mean, Canyon Barry is the son of Rick Barry, or Tim Tebow and Riley Cooper were roommates?

Nick:                         Yeah. Only because, I mean, I don’t really listen to the games, because I’m at the game. So I don’t really hear that as much, but I was trying to put myself into someone’s shoes that is watching the game on TV, rather than being there, but, yeah, both of those are …

Andrew:                 You wasn’t at the games when Tim Tebow was there.

Nick:                         Oh, you’re talking about way back?

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         That’s blown up.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It was retarded. Yeah, he’s playing well, but I’m going to say this though. The guy that’s surprising me the most is Smooth, Keith Stone. I’ll be honest, when he committed two years ago I’m sitting here thinking, “Okay, he might be a good bench guy,” but, man, he is coming up big after big after big the last few games. Did that against Bama, did that against Tennessee, and then him and Barry were the reason that this team was able to come back against Georgia over the weekend. So, props to Mike White and his guys, because they got the guys rolling, and Barry is a big part of it. Surprised he didn’t get Player of the Week though. He averaged 20 points this weekend. They could have gave it to him.

Nick:                         It’s interesting, because both he and Stone playing well, but, and White was asked it after the game, “How do you make it move?” Yeah, they’re playing well. How do you change the starting lineup when you’re on like a six game winning streak?

Andrew:                 It’s tough, and then you have to balance this, and that is that you need a guy to come off the bench to give you that spark, so what do you lose if you do have a guy like Barry or Stone come off the bench to go to a starter? What do you lose there? I think it’s a balancing act that he has to do. Maybe it’s one or the other. One thing I’ll say too is I’ve just been disappointed by Devin Robinson. He started off the year, and he looked like he was going to be a new person and was going to play well, and it’s back to the same old Devin Robinson. It’s kind of like one of those things of, you just had us fooled for the first couple weeks.

Nick:                         He just fooled us?

Andrew:                 Yeah. He fooled us into thinking he was a good player.

Nick:                         Ouch. Yeah. I think he is still an older guy, senior. You’re going to need him.

Andrew:                 Junior.

Nick:                         Junior, sorry. So, don’t give up on him now. To me, I really do like, I need to see more out of KeVaughn Allen, but I really like Keith Stone, and I think I said that about Keith way back when we had the first, what was it called? The first open practice, and I said, “This is a kid that can kind of shoot. He’s long. He can defend, and he can create his own shot.” I didn’t know if Canyon would be able to create his own shot this early. You had seen some of it at other schools, but those are kind of smaller schools. To me, to be able to see what he’s been able to do as far as creating his own shot, getting open, those things, and against the teams he’s done it, I think he’s going to be your go to guy the rest of the year.

Andrew:                 Yeah. The thing that bothers, I mean, it doesn’t bother me, but the thing with KeVaughn Allen is this, and that is that teams are just trying to take him out of the game. They know that he’s Florida’s best player. Alabama, they’re face guarding him every time, and basically they’re saying, “Anybody but you are going to beat us. It’s just not going to be you, big dog.” That’s kind of where it is. A guy like Stone or Barry continuing to play well should help KeVaughn get the ball more, be able to get some more touches. That’s there. South Carolina this weekend, Nick, or this week on Wednesday night, so that’s a big one.

Got to talk NFL ball though, Nick. What a weekend.

Nick:                         Yeah. My Dolphins are done, but the Falcons took care of business.

Andrew:                 That’s right. Rise up, baby. Is Russell Wilson still seeing Brian Poole?

Nick:                         What a hit. Surprised Brian Poole wasn’t suspended, fined, kicked out of the game, kicked out of the NFL, for hitting a quarterback, but legal hit.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That was a monstrous hit. Him and Kiki are playing so well. It’s just really good. That Dallas/Green Bay game though was an incredible game, but, man, how fun, and it might not even be fun for me, I don’t know, but how fun is that Green Bay/Atlanta game going to be? It’s going to be a straight shootout there. I’m wondering, personally, for myself, I just feel like Dan Quinn is one of the best defensive lines in the business. I think he’ll have something up his sleeve for Mr. Aaron Rodgers.

Nick:                         Aaron Rodgers is playing probably better than any player in the League right now.

Andrew:                 Yeah. He is.

Nick:                         The amount of time that he creates in the pocket, the things he does in the pocket, it’s just, it’s ridiculous, and then you’re asking guys to cover wide receivers for five, six, seven, eight seconds. That’s not going to happen.

Andrew:                 What the problem is too is those guys are moving and adjusting their routes to help Aaron Rodgers. I mean, that play at the end of the game to Jared Cook, good grief.

Nick:                         3rd and 20, he’s throwing it from running the opposite way, across his body, feet aren’t set. The catch is as good as the throw.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was going to say.

Nick:                         The throw, threw a laser.

Andrew:                 And threw it through two guys that were defending him there. Just an unbelievable play from Aaron Rodgers, and kickers can make their shot.

Nick:                         The NFL has no room for missed kicks. You start missing kicks in the NFL, and they’ll find someone who won’t miss them. So, that leads to what you saw there at the end of the game, where you really saw four made 50 plus yard field goals in crunch time, because one of them you had the time out called.

Andrew:                 Exactly. Nick, let’s play a little game. Who’s going to be in the Super Bowl?

Nick:                         I’m going to go with, I want to pick the Steelers, but I don’t think I can. I was thinking yesterday, you get all these stories, these nice stories all year long, and then what teams are you left with?

Andrew:                 Same old, same old.

Nick:                         Except for the Falcons, I think, the same old, same old.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I mean, to be fair, you look at that, you look at the Cowboys’ game, and the Cowboys are close once again. Chiefs, Andy Reid once again close, so it’s tough, but you’re still not getting out of it. Who you got?

Nick:                         I’m going to go with Green Bay and New England.

Andrew:                 You know who I’m going with on the NFC. So, NFC I got Atlanta, last game in the dome. Hope and pray that happens, and you never pick against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, sorry. Just don’t do it. Who you got winning it?

Nick:                         Green Bay. I think they’re too hot right now. They don’t even have a running back.

Andrew:                 No, they’re playing a receiver at running back.

Nick:                         They’re doing all this. They don’t have a running back.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         What happens if they draft Leonard Fournette?

Andrew:                 Stop it.

Nick:                         Dalvin Cook.

Andrew:                 Stop it. Stop it. That would be nasty. I mean, they still got Eddie Lacy. He’s hurt right now, and, I mean, let’s not act like he’s chopped liver.

Nick:                         They weren’t really happy with Eddie Lacy and his weight gain before.

Andrew:                 Well, ask Will Muschamp. He’ll tell you to move him to tight end. I’m going to say, man, I want to say Atlanta so bad, but, Nick, you know me about them jinxes. New England.

Nick:                         New England. Okay.

Andrew:                 I don’t want to jinx my boys. We’ll hope.

Nick:                         You can’t do that. I’m not going to let you off the hook. I’m not going to let you say those things, because everyone knows who you want to pick. So, now you’re just picking both.

Andrew:                 Fine. Rise up, baby.

Nick:                         There you go.

Andrew:                 Rise up. That’s all that matters. Alright, Nick, let’s get out of here. We’ll see everyone on Friday. We’ll once again have our view of the official visitors. Maybe we’re talking some coaching news then as well, and if it’s any big coaching news, we’ll have a special podcast for that, but we will for sure be back on Friday. So, Nick, tell the people where they’ll find us. We’ll get out. We’ll see everyone on Friday.

Nick:                         www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. On iTunes, @GatorCountry. Search us there. That’s the podcast. You can also find the podcast in transcript form and audio form on the website. On social media, @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. You can find me, @NickdelaTorreGC, and he’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.

Andrew:                 That’s right. Plenty of news this weekend, Nick, on the site, so if you’re not a member yet, I suggest you probably make that move. There was a lot of good stuff, football, baseball, basketball. You name it, and there was some good stuff on the site. So, let Nick or I know if you want to join, and come over and join the best. As they say, there’s only one best, the rest are pretenders, and we’re not a pretender. As always, champ, chomp. Go Braves. Mark, Butch, still suck.

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.