GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the latest Florida Gators coaching news, plus preview the Gators junior day this weekend.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre also preview the Florida Gators baseball and softball teams as Tim Walton and softball gets underway this Friday.
Andrew and Nick break down how they think the Gators diamond teams will do this year, plus how big this weekend’s junior day is for Florida.
TRANSCRIPT
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, it’s about to be our favorite time of the year, my friend.
Nick:Pitchers and catchers reporting.
Andrew:Pitchers and catchers reporting is always a good thing. Softball starts on Friday. Some teams started on Thursday, and then baseball, a week from Friday it gets underway.
Nick:Baseball should be exciting. Softball, we’ll talk to you about how they’re going to be, but baseball is stacked. They were actually picked on Thursday to win the SEC outright again.
Andrew:Who do they start with next week?
Nick:William & Mary, the Tribe.
Andrew:Okay. Then it’s Miami, right?
Nick:Yeah. William & Mary, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Then back to back with JU. Tuesday the 21st they’ll be in Jacksonville, and then 22nd they’ll be in Gainesville. Then Miami’s in town.
Andrew:Big weekend. Gators softball heads down to Tampa for their annual trip down to the USF DeMarini Tournament. Always some good talent down there. Michigan and Florida is always the big dog. Nick, let’s get some football news here, before we move on. Still no other changes. I know Brad Davis has put on his Twitter account that he’s the OL coach, and Corey Bell’s put he’s the DB coach. Coach Seider still has nothing.
Nick:Coach Seider is sticking to the plan.
Andrew:Yeah. Nothing is new on that.
Nick:Florida hasn’t announced anything, but it was pretty easy to put those pieces together.
Andrew:I think there might be another piece that comes down the road, and that determines where Seider coaches. If Tim Skipper moves, and so on with that, but that’s not anything that’s been done yet, but should be done soon. You got spring ball. We’re taping this on the 9th, so 19 days away before spring ball starts. You would think something would be coming down the alley pretty soon if it was going to happen.
Nick:Yeah. You saw Gene Chizik. After Signing Day there’s always that furious coaching shaking and moving, going all places. Chizik stepped down today at North Carolina. I thought maybe it was done, just based on the time and how spring is coming up. Spring’s a little early this year for Florida. I don’t know what you’re waiting for, and the longer that it goes I start to think maybe it’s not going to happen.
Andrew:The only thing that I say is just with them not announcing it something’s up with that. To go on a little further with Chizik, they hired North Texas’ defensive coordinator to come over there, and there was no spot open. You knew someone was having to leave. There had been rumors a little bit that Gene wanted to get out, talking about going back into broadcasting. That’s kind of what he did. Also, wanting to be around his family more. Good move for him.
One thing Florida did announce this week though, Nick, was Director of Player Personnel, Drew Hughes leaving to South Carolina. That was huge.
Nick:I tweeted it out. Drew Hughes is not supposed to be out on the road recruiting. That’s not what he signed up for, not part of his job description. All three years that he’s been here he’s had to. He’s been here four years, all three years under Mac, based on coaches leaving, just based on not having enough coaches, he’s had to do a coach’s job and go out on the road and recruit. He’s the in-house guy. He really, and I believe this, and I think you’d back me up on this, he does the job of three people, and was probably getting underpaid just doing the job of one person.
Andrew:I would agree. I think that the thing that a lot of people don’t know is what he does. He’s the guy that’s out here watching film on these guys that Florida is getting way out ahead on. He’s the guy that’s offering Lamical Perine before everybody. He’s the guy that was very high on Daquon Green before everyone. He was one of the ones that picked up on TJ Moore before Auburn and all those other guys. He’s the guy that does all that stuff, as well as aligning visitors on campus.
We could talk about the struggles Florida’s had in recruiting all we want, but I think we would both agree that it hasn’t been for lack of getting them on campus. They’ve been getting the top of the top guys on campus. You and I even made this comment last year around Friday Night Lights that that was probably the best Friday Night Lights you and I have seen in a long time. The atmosphere was back. The quarterback camp was there. That was good.
It’s something that I think is maybe not noticed a ton. He’s not a guy that gets a lot of credit for what he does. When you talk to these guys, Antonneous Clayton, one of the big reasons he’s at Florida right now is because of Hughes. When everyone was lying to him about coordinators, this, that, and the other, not Florida, but other schools, the one thing that was true was Drew. The Alabama guys. I think that it’s kind of a lost art of how much he’s appreciated, but you could kind of tell when Mac went to war to keep him. Muschamp wanting him back as well was big.
Nick:That’s a thing. I keep talking about it, the relationships. It’s like you said, he’s really the first person that is talking to these guys, and does a great job as far as scouting and finding talent. You mentioned Lamical Perine, but not just him. I think you can look at all those guys, Litton, Moon, and Jawaan Taylor, little Jawaan not Wanny. All of those guys. It’s not just those four. It’s south Florida, Jacksonville.
Andrew:Malik Davis says that the reason Florida landed him was because of Hughes continuing to contact him when there was no offer out there.
Nick:Yeah. Coaches have work to do, their game plan. Drew Hughes isn’t dialing up Xs and Os. He’s not coaching scheme on the field, technique. His job is recruiting. To keep him was huge. It was huge for the program, huge for recruiting. It would have been, in my opinion, all that momentum you built up, I don’t want to say you ruin it, but all the momentum you had built up kind of slows down if you lose the guy that’s really the engine of your recruiting machine.
Andrew:Right. I think that’s a good point. It’s one of those that you lose a lot because of that, because of having all those relationships built, all the momentum you had. I think one of the big things that we’re not even talking about is his relationship with James Robinson. Robinson was a guy that was turned off by Florida for a little bit, because of what transpired. Florida wasn’t recruiting him a ton, because he did have some off the field issues.
Hughes continued to recruit him a little bit, and I think that those are the things that we don’t talk about. Every coach lands these kids, but it’s somebody behind the scenes that’s doing the work for that staff. You don’t ever talk about this guy was the key here, but there is someone. For Florida, that is Hughes.
Nick:Huge to keep him. We’ll have to figure out what kind of extension or what it is, but whatever it is, huge to keep him.
Andrew:I think it’s safe to say he got paid.
Nick:Bags were dropped there.
Andrew:Legal bags were dropped there.
Nick:Bags were dropped at Drew Hughes’ front door.
Andrew:I think that’s huge. When you continue to talk about getting momentum and that kind of stuff, that’s what you don’t want to lose. You look at Urban Meyer, and I won’t say that I’m fans of these guys or anything, but Urban Meyer’s had the same Director of Player Personnel for eight years now. His five at Florida, and three at Ohio State, or four? Nine years. Mark Pantoni, that’s been his guy. You look at what’s going on there. Consistency and continuity is something you like. I think that was a big thing to keep him. Not only that he didn’t go to Will Muschamp, but you just didn’t lose him in general.
Nick:Yeah. Same thing with Mickey Marotti, keeping those same guys around.
Andrew:Exactly. Let’s move on. Let’s talk some diamond sports, my friend. This is what we love. I could do a lot with softball here. I could almost cover that year round if I had to, if somebody was stupid enough to pay me.
Nick:I’ll be honest. I haven’t really looked at the softball team yet, so I’m going to be asking you questions. They didn’t make it back to Omaha last year, in an upset.
Andrew:Oklahoma City.
Nick:Same thing. They didn’t make it back last year. A lot of people were upset about that. You lose a lot of senior leadership, don’t you?
Andrew:You lose your five seniors. I think it’s different, and I say this, it’s a different five seniors. This was the five seniors that really, I don’t want to say put Florida on the map, because Florida has been on the map for a while, but they got those two championship trophies in Gainesville. That’s something that had been missing. I think that you lose a lot in those five, because of just what they meant to the program.
The good thing for Florida, and it’s kind of like what we talk about with Sully here in a second, there’s never a loss of talent. It’s just an infusion of talent year in and year out. When you talked about Florida last year, their pitching staff, you said, “It’s great. They return all three, and they added the Gatorade Player of the Year, another pitcher that’s a freshman.” They lose a lot, but they also return a lot. The talented freshmen coming in are good.
Florida comes in, starts the year #3 in the country. Predicted to win the SEC. I think it’ll be them or Auburn. Auburn is #2 in the country, actually just be #1, Oklahoma, on Thursday night, so it’s going to be a very tricky season, like it always is in the SEC. It’s going to be a tough season.
Nick:What is the strength? Last year you had a ton of pitching. Is that back this year? Is the strength the starting pitching? Walton is very baseball minded when it comes to his pitching staff. It’s very different than most softball coaches, and Florida’s rotation looks a lot different, just on the fact that they have a rotation. I guess that’s what I’m going for. They don’t have a rotation at all, most college teams don’t.
Andrew:Most teams are one girl pitches all three weekends. I mean, Walton’s just out here #1 ERA lady out there in Delanie Gourley, follow that up with #3 in Aleshia Ocasio, and don’t worry, on Sunday you get to face the real heat in Kelly Barnhill, who set the Florida record last year with 19 strikeouts in one game. Excuse me, 18 strikeouts. Not too bad.
It’s a strength that Florida has, because at any given moment they can rotate another one in. We talk about on Friday if Gourley is going down, or is getting beat up, if they start hitting her, you just bring in someone else. That’s something a lot of teams don’t have. Most are lucky if they have two. Florida has three, and then have another lefty who I said was the Gatorade Player of the Year coming in this year. It’s someone that I think that’s what Florida is going to rely on this year. Is the power going to be there? I think they have some power bats. The biggest question for me is who’s going to lead off? Kelsey Stewart was a staple there for four years. Who’s going to really be that speed that Florida has?
Also, another big thing for Florida is really just how they rotate on the infield. There’s a lot of pieces there, and there’s a lot of girls that are really good, but how do they all gel together? I think that’s going to be a big thing. Aleshia Ocasio is going to play some at third base, some at right field. We’ll see how that meshes together. Does it go to someone else? Does it look better with her not playing third base? She hasn’t done that her whole career. It’s just a lot of moving pieces. I think the talent’s there. It’s just all about meshing, finding that right line up. You and I, Nick, we know that right lineup might not be there until the World Series. You’re going to continue to tinker with that day in and day out.
Nick:That’s kind of like with baseball. They do the same thing. That first month, before SEC play starts, you’re kind of figuring things out.
Andrew:Right. Kind of trial and error. It happens in SEC play. I think you always will look to kind of see where you can get better. It’ll be interesting to see. Like I said, there are four really talented freshmen that I think will get to play a lot, and it’ll just be really interesting to see how it goes. Like I said, you lose Kirsti Merritt at center field. She was that staple at center field. Most notably for her robbing the home runs. Kelsey Stewart, being that leadoff hitter. You knew pretty much she was going to get on at least twice a game. Where is that going to come from?
You have Justine McLean, who is kind of like a Kelsey Stewart. She’s a slapper, can get on base a lot. Then you still have your power bats in Amanda Lorenz and Kayli Kvistad. I think as far as offense goes it will be fine, but every year you rely on one thing. Is it pitching or hitting? I think Florida’s going to rely on pitching. They’re not going to need a ton of runs with these three ladies, and then whatever the freshmen do. You’ll rely on pitching, and that gives you time for your offense to come around. As we always say, if you can get pitching to go that allows your offense to really grind in and get there, and it takes the nerves off. They’ll be fine. They won’t have to be pressed in 1-0 games a lot.
Nick:Those 1-0 games, those kind of wear on you. They can give you momentum, but just that stress and the tension of that really wears on a team, especially over the long haul. It kind of happened to Florida too.
Andrew:Killed them last year in the Georgia series. It was a one run game, and then they hit a three run walk-off to end their season, because the offense was slow. That’s what I’m saying, I think that the offense will come around. I think it just might take a little bit of time to really find that piece. You don’t have the guaranteed leadoff hitter in Stewart, or the guaranteed two hole hitter in Merritt. So, who’s going to be that? Who is that going to be, and will that adjust through the first month before you get into SEC play in March to see how you want to roll it out day in and day out?
Nick:Where do you see them going this year?
Andrew:Nick, I think you will agree with me here. Baseball and softball is all about pitching. When you think about the three ladies and the freshman they got, it’s tough not to say that they’ll be right there competing for the SEC title and competing to get back to Oklahoma City. I think if you ask Walton, just like if you ask Sully, if you don’t get to the World Series, it’s a failure. I think that’s where Florida’s kind of set themselves up. If you don’t get back, it’s a failure. I think last season was a failed season, because you didn’t get back there. When you have the three arms they do, getting back to Oklahoma City should be the goal.
Nick:Who starts opening day?
Andrew:You’re asking me the million dollar question. I don’t even know if Tim Walton can tell you right now. Me personally, I think that they’ll probably go Kelly Barnhill, because Walton has this funny thing about throwing his youngsters out there to go. Last year it was Kelly Barnhill against Michigan, the freshman. He threw a freshman against Michigan. He wants to get his young ladies out there, his younger talent out there early to get their feet wet.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he went Barnhill, the sophomore who had a really good year last year. Wouldn’t surprise me if he went with the freshman either, to be honest with you. I’m guessing, because I don’t even think Walton knows. He would tell you at times last year he would wake up the next morning and tell you who was going to start.
Nick:That’s interesting. You said there was some power?
Andrew:There is some power with Kvistad and Janell Wheaton, and then Amanda Lorenz. All three of those are girls that can really hit and can hit not only for power, but for average. I think that’s where that will be. When you look at Lorenz, she had eight homers as a freshman. Kvistad had 11 last year, but both of them hit over .350. It’s a little bit of a difference.
Nick:Mix. You’re not giving up the power for average.
Andrew:I think it’s a little bit different of a team than you’re used to seeing with Walton. When you had Lauren Hager, Bailey Castro, it was the long ball. You lived and died by the long ball. I think this team will be kind of like last year’s where they’re more of a doubles team, a team that’s going to get on, have a high on base percentage, and they’re going to lead the country in hit by pitches, I’m sure.
Nick:That’s a funny stat. Makes no sense.
Andrew:No. Let me ask you this. Let’s transition to baseball. I feel like it’s almost the same thing when I ask you about baseball. They’re going to rely on pitching, right? With Faedo being the potential top 10 draft pick next year. Isn’t that kind of the same way you’re looking at with Sully?
Nick:What do you mean?
Andrew:As far as it’s going to be pitching, they’re going to be led by pitching.
Nick:Yeah. It’s interesting. Florida lost, what was Logan Shore picked? I think he was picked 36th overall.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:You had the six pick, and then the 36 pick. Those were two of your three weekend starters. You lose that, and nobody feels bad for you, because you’ve got another probably top 10 pick. Obviously, he has to stay healthy and have a good season, but Alex Faedo is better than he’s ever been. He led the SEC with 13 wins last year. You have him.
Brady Singer as a sophomore went to the Cape Cod League. That’s the most prestigious summer league for college baseball players, and was named the #1 prospect. There are rising seniors, rising juniors. He was a rising sophomore, and he was named the #1 prospect. He can’t even get drafted for another two years. I’ve been out to see him throw. He’s topping out at 98. He’s added a changeup. His slider’s nasty. The confidence he’s throwing with. I was talking to Sully at practice this week, and he said, “He’s in midseason form already.”
Then you’ve got Jackson Kowar. He’s 90-94. He’s got a big league changeup, and he’s developed a slider that he’s throwing to both sides of the plate, backdooring it to lefties. Not afraid to throw it down and in on righties. It’s very impressive that starting pitching.
Then you’ve got guys that you’re looking at that are young to fill in on the weekends, and nothing’s really solidified with the bullpen yet, but Sully keeps saying, “With the three guys we have on the weekend we might not need much bullpen.”
Andrew:Now, is Jackson Kowar fully healthy now?
Nick:Fully healthy. He’s good to go. He could have pitched last year at the end of the season, but they kind of just said there was really no reason to.
Andrew:Okay. When you look at the bullpen it seems like everyone that Sully brings out of the bullpen is throwing 90, 95.
Nick:Everybody.
Andrew:Is that still the case this year? What are we looking at now in the bullpen?
Nick:There’s a couple guys that they’re in the low 90s. I watched Nick Long. He’s a freshman from Sarasota. He in the fall was high 80s guy, and he came back, and he’s been throwing 90-94. He’s looked very impressive. He’s 6’, about 190 pounds, built well. He’s a guy that Sully really likes a lot.
There was Garrett Milchin, who is from Windermere. He got hit on the hand in a scrimmage. We have media on Friday. Haven’t gotten a report on the x-rays there, but he’s another kid. He’s 6’5” righty, fluid motion. He’s in the low 90s. Who else? There’s a couple.
Those two are the guys I’m looking at, but then there’s some two-way players. Andrew Baker, he had surgery on his hand. He’s going to play in center, and also, he’s being looked at right now as someone who can come in and be your closer. A little shorter, lefty, 5’9”, but good command. Really is able to throw strikes, and that’s something that Sully stresses. Then, Austin Langworthy, the other one. He’s going to start in left field right away. He’s another smaller guy, 5’9”, throws lefty, hits lefty. He’s got a ton of power. They’re excited about him in left field, and he’s another guy. Last year there was one guy that didn’t throw 90, and they might have four or five this year. Frank Rubio, shout out to St. Thomas, he was up to 92, 93, and he’s got that low three quarter arm slot.
Andrew:That was something I was going to say. Sully doesn’t really use the traditional closers, kind of closer by committee or more of a matchup. Is that kind of what you’re expecting again this year?
Nick:I asked Sully that, because he said, “Frank Rubio might be the guy that leads our team in appearances, kind of like Kirby Snead last year.” I asked Sully, “Well, I know he’s an older guy on a very young team, but because of that arm slot are you situationally using him? If the team coming up has three lefties coming up, and you’re in a jam, are you bringing in Frank Rubio?” He said, “It would depend on situations,” but he has no problem throwing Rubio against lefties, but there’s so many.
He has so many lefty arms. Baker can come out of the bullpen. Cole Maye, who’s 6’7”, he’s a freshman, the one that came in from North Carolina, enrolled early. He’s a lefty arm. Langworthy’s a lefty arm. He just has a lot of these guys that he can bring out. Nick Horvath, forgot about Nick Horvath. A lot of guys that he can mix and match, and he loves that. He loves pitching changes, loves situations. They keep me at the ballpark late.
Andrew:Let’s move over to offense a little bit here. JJ Schwarz is a guy that is probably, I would say he’s the most noteworthy guy for Florida, just because of his freshman year. Had that sophomore slump. Is it because he doesn’t have protection? What is it for him, and what have you seen this spring so far, this winter so far? Do you think he returns back to shape of freshman year, or is it still up and down for JJ?
Nick:Me and another writer were kind of going through the lineup, and, first off, I think the most impressive player to me has really been Jonathan India. He’ll be a sophomore. I think you’re going to look at a lineup with Guthrie leading off, and Liput probably hitting two. India at three, and then you put Schwarz at four. Then you’ve got a lot of bats that you can stick in there. Nelson Maldonado, Keenan Bell, Langworthy will probably hit lower in the lineup. It’s going to depend on those guys behind him.
I think it was really tough for JJ to go from freshman year. There was no way he could match that. He had seven homeruns in a week, and then hit seven all last year. There was no way he was going to match that. The bar was set too high. I don’t think he really struggled, he still ended hitting over .300. I don’t where you say, “Look what he did as a freshman. He can get better.” It’s kind of like, maybe he just had a really good season. He’s still a great baseball player, but maybe he just had a really good season.
I think he’ll be fine. He’s going to play more first base this year as well, so that will be something to keep an eye on. When you put him at first base, the guys that they have over at first are all lefties with Keenan Bell and Christian Hicks, so you get another lefty bat in the lineup if you can put JJ at first, and you put somebody else in the DH spot.
Andrew:I think the thing that I was kind of getting at as far as JJ goes is JJ seemed more, and I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but he seemed like he was striking out more. It kind of, to me, looked like at times he was maybe trying too much, was pressing a little bit.
Nick:I’d agree with that.
Andrew:I think that was a little bit like you said, that was trying to live up to freshman year. I’m going to ask you the same question you asked me. What do you think is the goal this year? I mean, of course, every goal is to get to Omaha, what do you think?
Nick:Their goal is to win the last game of the season, and that’s the goal every year. It seems to me that there was maybe some tension a little bit later on in the year with some of the juniors, some of those draft guys. It seems to me that there’s been some talk like this team’s closer. There’s no guys that are just out there for themselves. To me, that was a big deal, because you lost a lot of talent. Dane Dunning, Pete Alonzo, Buddy Reed, the pitchers that we mentioned, the starters. You lost a lot of talent, but to me it seems like this is a very tightknit group, and those sophomores played a lot. They played a lot of baseball, and they’re going to be counting on them, probably even more so than the juniors.
Andrew:How do you think they stack up? Who’s going to be the biggest competition in the SEC for this season?
Nick:Vanderbilt’s always going to be good. Everyone in the SEC is so good.
Andrew:LSU has a pitching staff.
Nick:LSU has a staff. I think for Florida it’s going to be South Carolina. South Carolina was picked second. Florida received 10 first place votes in the East, and South Carolina received four. You can’t vote for yourself, so Sully had to vote for somebody. To me, South Carolina’s going to be up there. Texas A&M will be another team. LSU is always going to be great.
Andrew:Okay.
Nick:Vanderbilt should have a good team as well.
Andrew:LSU’s got what’s his name?
Nick:LSU’s got Cole Freeman, who came on last year. Antoine Duplantis came on last year. He can hit the tar out of a baseball.
Andrew:What is the junior? I’m drawing a blank.
Nick:Alex Lange.
Andrew:Lange. Yeah.
Nick:They get Kramer Robertson back as well. Lange, Greg Dykman.
Andrew:They’re loaded. They’re monsters. That’s going to be a good team.
Nick:Another thing kind of going against Florida, once they get into SEC play they never have back to back home series. They start off at Auburn, and you have to travel to Auburn after playing Florida State at home. Then you host LSU. That will be a great series, but it just goes back and forth. They don’t really have any long home stands, kind of bouncing all over the place. Then you get South Carolina towards the end of the year. That’s going to be right around finals time. That’s always a tough little series there.
Andrew:Yeah. Pack it out. Pack out baseball and softball, it should be fun as well. Nick, before we get out of here I wanted to run over. Florida’s going to have a smaller Junior Day. They’re going to take them to the basketball game when Florida takes on Texas A&M. Going to have their first so-called Junior Day with all the new coaches on campus. It’ll be more of like an elite Junior Day, some of the top of the top guys. Some of the guys they’re going to be playing host this weekend are Sevyn Banks. He’s a corner, safety guy out of Orlando. He’s Marcell Harris’ little brother. He kind of made name for himself, because he was on TV when Marcell committed. He was the little kid with the Gator jersey. Not so little anymore there.
Then they’re going to have safety Randy Russell coming up from south Florida. Running back Chris Curry, and wide receiver Russell Brown from Lehigh Acres. Going to have the offensive lineman William Barnes from Apopka. He’s really close with Martez Ivey. Then they’re going to have the speedster, Anthony Schwartz, one of the fastest kids in the country, from American Heritage. He’s a receiver, 6’. Then maybe the best cornerback in the country, Patrick Surtain, Jr. Everybody knows his father from the NFL. He’ll be up this weekend.
Smaller group. It’ll probably expand more. Smaller group, but it’s going to be big time talent coming on. First really chance to see how Davis, Corey Bell, Seider, really all the guys, gel together. This is a different group. All in general it’s a younger group, see how they gel.
Nick:Tell the people what Junior Days are.
Andrew:Basically Junior Day is an introduction. It’s basically you get on campus. You meet with the staff, get a campus tour, all that good stuff. They’ll take them to basketball, let them watch the game, hang out with the coaches a little bit. Then they’ll take them back to the football offices, take them to the facilities. Just really sit down and meet with them, get to know them a little bit more, explain how they’re going to recruit them, when they’ll be able to come see them, all that good stuff. It’s basically just the first introduction of being a senior now, because these guys are the guys that they’re focused on now. It’s really time to turn the page of you’re no longer a junior in our books. You’re now the class we’re after. A lot of these guys it’s the first chance they get to come up on campus.
I’ll say this, Nick. One thing that I notice, Florida’s after some bigger receivers this year, especially this guy Russell Brown, 6’3”. Maybe Mac’s turning it up.
Nick:They got one in James Robinson too.
Andrew:They do have Anthony Schwartz, and I haven’t seen the kid run in person, but they say he’s one of the fastest kids in America. Florida speed, never turn that away. From American Heritage too, where Florida just signed three guys in TJ Slaton, Marco Wilson, and James Houston.
Nick:Tyrie Cleveland’s a bigger guy. You’re maybe starting to find a little pattern.
Andrew:It’s okay.
Nick:Just find guys that can play ball.
Andrew:Just find guys that can play ball. Exactly. Be kind of interesting to me to kind of see what happens with Brad Davis. You have Brad Davis being a relatively unknown offensive line coach, how he connects with William Barnes. William Barnes is one of the bigger targets for Florida in this class. He’s from Apopka. If he likes Florida a lot, just be interesting to see how the two gel together. I don’t know enough about Brad Davis to say, “This is his personality.” Everything I’ve been told about him is that he’s a young recruiter that gets along well with kids. We’ll kind of see how that goes.
Mike Summers never had a problem once they were on campus. It’s just they never gelled really well. That’s something I expect with Davis to see really how he gels. Then Corey Bell has a lot of DBs coming in as well. Be interesting to kind of see what DBs are saying about him once they meet with him as well.
Nick:That’s a big tie down into my neck of the woods down there in Miami too.
Andrew:Yeah. It’ll be interesting to see really how they connect with everyone. That’s something we’re starting to see a little bit this week. Florida’s offering more and more kids, some out of state guys as well. I think things are going well. I talked to some people about Corey Bell. Had one of my South Carolina friends, he called me out of nowhere the other day. He goes, “Damn, I didn’t realize you guys got Corey Bell. You’re going to love that guy.” I was like, “Why do you say that?” He was like, “He’s a super nice guy, gets along really well with kids, recruits really well, and is just down to earth.” I was like, “Cool.”
Then, I was telling you this, Nick, before we got on that people were saying Ja’Juan Seider is a lot like Tim Skipper when he gets around the kids, and that is that he’s very relatable with these guys, and guys really like him. Skipper’s had a lot of success recruiting. That’s something Seider has as well.
The more I learn about these guys, the more I think Mac is turning things around. Like I said, it’ll just be interesting to see how Junior Day goes, what these kids and parents are saying once they’re able to get around the whole staff. Some of these guys it’s their first time to meet these guys.
Nick:Super important, especially when you have three new coaches, to not just have DMs or a text or a call, to put a face to that name, to get that one on one time, to start building that in person relationship.
Andrew:Right. Exactly. Like I said, it’s close the book on 2017, open it up to 2018. When you have a guy like William Barnes, who’s been on campus a lot, now he’s coming on campus, and you’re saying, “We’re focusing on you. At this time next year you’ll already be signed. We want you to replace Martez at left tackle.” So on and so on with all these guys. They’re now the focus of the class. They’re no longer the guys that are behind the 2017 guys.
Nick:Big weekend. When does Florida start getting commitments?
Andrew:They got two already.
Nick:Right.
Andrew:These Junior Days you sometimes see one or two pop out. Like I said, you’ll have a Junior Day this weekend. They’ll have kids on campus next weekend. They’ll have them on campus really all the way through the end of April now, because you think about spring practice. They always have kids on campus for spring practice. It’s something Mac does.
He doesn’t like a Junior Day that’s just loaded with hundreds of kids, something he got from Saban. When you have so many guys you’re not able to really get to know them, so they try to split it up to where they have multiple Junior Days. That way they’re able to have smaller numbers, and they’re able to get to know them more. That’s something he learned from Nick Saban, and I like it a lot. Muschamp at times would have 75 kids on campus. It’s like, no way those coaches knew all 75 of those kids. So, guess what? Somebody goes home feeling like they didn’t like them. They end up being a great player, but they hold that against Florida.
You look at it, the way Florida has spring practice you’re basically going to have kids on campus all the way through the spring game, which is April 7. Then after April 7 they hit the road.
Nick:I’m trying to think. How many Junior Days will they have? I agree that I think that’s smart. It’s like when you’re in school, and you have a smaller class size. You get more facetime, like that theory. It’s easy to have a Michigan ordeal where you have too many people on campus, and all of a sudden some intern sends one of your top recruits a thank you note for being at the party. “I wasn’t there.”
Andrew:Like I said, they’ll have kids on campus this weekend and next weekend. I guess you can call that a Junior Day, so to speak. Then they’ll have them all the way through. It’ll be good. Florida will get enough kids on campus. Don’t worry. Next February they’ll still sign plenty of kids. As they always say, “It’ll be all right.” Fans are already griping because Lorenzo Lingard committed to Miami this weekend. I had to quickly remind those guys that, remember, Miami loses their commits every year.
Nick:They have a little habit of that.
Andrew:They might start calling themselves Decommitment U.
Nick:Is that official?
Andrew:Let’s stick with it. Mark, Decommitment, Richt. Let’s stick with that. Decommitment U. I like it. I think we’ll stick with that. Nick, we’ll get out of here. We’ll see everyone on Tuesday. We’ll recap softball.
Recap basketball. The Gators had a big win against Georgia on Tuesday. Got another good win against Texas A&M on Saturday. Right now they’re in a three way tie for first place with Kentucky and South Carolina. We’ll have all that. We’ll have Junior Day coverage, softball coverage. You name it, we got it. Next weekend will be baseball.
Tell the people where they can find us. Before that, Nick, I have something to say. We got a new deal. Finally convinced Ray to get us a big deal, a coupon code for everyone. If you’re thinking about coming to join us, I got a nice coupon code. It’s a great deal. It’s a good amount of money off. Let me know. You got to DM Nick or I. We’re not just going to tweet out the coupon. Let Nick or I know. We’ll get you that code, and get you on board.
Nick:Good for you. Andrew’s always fighting for the people.
Andrew:Fighting for the people. I’m a man of the people.
Nick:www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. You can check us out on iTunes as well. Search @GatorCountry. Subscribe there, never miss a podcast. If you don’t have iTunes, if you don’t have an Apple, you can check us out on the website. The podcast is there in transcript and audio form. Transcript might be late to this one, but it’ll be up there.
Andrew:Will be late, but it’ll be there.
Nick:It’ll be up there. Also, on social, @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. Go click, follow, subscribe. Do what you do over there. Also, me, @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC on the Twitter box.
Andrew:Hit us up. Like I said, let us know if you want in. We’ll get you this coupon and get you on board. Good things are happening. As always, guys, we appreciate it. Chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Mark, you still suck. Butch, you still suck.
Nick:You stay classy, Gator Country.
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Transcript by Five Stars Transcription