Dawg pounded podcast: Florida Gators dominate Georgia

The Florida Gators are celebrating a big win over the Georgia Bulldogs and the Gator Country team is here with our weekly podcast to talk about that big win in Jacksonville.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the Florida Gators dominated the Bulldogs on Saturday, plus they talk about how their three players fared during the game.

Andrew and Nick end the podcast by looking ahead to this week’s game against the Vanderbilt Commodores, plus how the Florida Gators under Jim McElwain have gotten to where they are at now.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 Hello, Gator Country. This is your man, a very happy Andrew Spivey. My man, Nicholas de la Torre is with me. I can guarantee you guys one thing, he’s a happier camper than Mark Richt is right now. Nick, am I right or what?

Nick:                         You’re right. Andrew that sh– all weekend, all week, all season, so he is happy to not have to sit here and eat crow. He is puffing his chest out on Twitter. I think we both feel a little better than Mark Richt. I got Miami fans mad at me over the weekend, Andrew.

Andrew:                 It is. Nick, I had the little photo though of the coach walking away.

Nick:                         Yeah. You completely glossed over the fact that Miami fans are mad at me.

Andrew:                 Yeah. No. I love that Miami fans are mad at you. Everybody in America’s mad.

Nick:                         I’m Mr. Miami. I am one of them.

Andrew:                 Even poor Duke fans are mad at Miami right now. What a way to lose a game. This podcast would not be a pleasant podcast, it would be rated R for bad words if Florida lost a football like Duke did over the weekend. Man, Jacksonville was awesome. It was great. It was a great environment, and the game was a sloppy game, but I think we both can agree, Nick, that the Gators just dominated the football game from start to finish.

Nick:                         To me it was really sloppy offensively, definitely not what Florida wanted to look like offensively, but at no single point in that game did you feel like Georgia had control or that Georgia was going to win. From a defensive standpoint, Florida put their foot on Georgia’s neck from the opening kickoff and kind of just left it there. They didn’t let Georgia do anything. Georgia, 69 rushing yards. That’s the lowest total since the 2012 Outback Bowl when Michigan State held them to 51. The 223 total yards is the lowest in more than two seasons from Georgia. Florida’s defense did not the Bulldogs do anything, put them in the pound. Locked it up. Threw away the key and walked out of the building.

Andrew:                 Absolutely. What was that retard Mark Richt doing? First of all he starts Faton Bauta, who is not a very good passing quarterback. 2nd and inches, pass. 3rd and inches, I’m going to run with Brandon Douglas. 4th and inches I’m going to run with Brandon Douglas.

Nick:                         I think when he ran with Brandon Douglas Sony Michel had come off the field.

Andrew:                 Where’s Keith Marshall, your best back? After Michel. Then what is funny you go to the goal line by running the ball, this is when it’s 20-3, and it’s 1st and goal on the 2. You run a play action with your quarterback, and he throws a pick. I’m sorry. That doesn’t even need me to pick on Mark Richt. It’s laughable as it is. The joke is going to around that Mark Richt and Brian Schottenheimer aren’t a good team, and it was. That was Will Muschamp bad play calling at the offensive staff on Saturday. The Gators just took advantage. Five turnovers overall. Duval, Jacksonville native Nick Washington with the first touchdown of the game. That was pretty cool. The man himself, Antonio Callaway, with a nice little touchdown. Of course, my man, my pick, Taylor made, Kelvin Taylor, 2 touchdowns. Taylor made.

Nick:                         I think, I’m not really going out on a limb here, but I think Kelvin Taylor at some point in time will be joining his dad in the Florida Georgia hall of fame. He has absolutely dominated Georgia. He’s got over 300 rushing yards, more than 50 carries, 4 touchdowns in three games against them. There is something about that. We asked Kelvin, “Kelvin, what is it about this game that you play so well?” He said, “This is my house. This is the Taylor house.”

Andrew:                 Maybe he can petition Jacksonville to draft him. He may be a hall of famer, pro ball every year if he gets to play his home games in Everbank.

Nick:                         Jim McElwain joked, maybe for Kelvin’s sake we should move all of our home games here. I don’t know if Kelvin would complain about that. He kind of, to me, just continued to show what he had shown all year long. You saw a glimpse of it last year in the Georgia game, but it’s just a completely different running style. It’s an angry style.

Andrew:                 Confidence.

Nick:                         It’s confident. It looks like he’s pissed off. As a running back you kind of just take punishment and take punishment, and it looks like Kelvin Taylor just got fed up about playing a position where you get tackled every time you touch the ball. He said, “If I’m going to get him, I’m going to try to make someone else get hit along the way.” He’s running behind his pads, staying low, and he, I would say, this season has delivered more punishment than he’s took.

Andrew:                 Yeah. There’s a couple things I want to speak on real quick of that. A, the job Tim Skipper has done with Kelvin Taylor is remarkable. Tim Skipper is a great football coach, but he earned every dime he’s getting for Florida this year on the work he’s done with Kelvin Taylor. Not physically, but more mentally. Mentally Kelvin Taylor’s a better football player. Kelvin Taylor’s always had great vision. That’s not something you can teach, but he was hitting the holes with the vision with a burst that Kelvin Taylor hasn’t hit in a long time. A burst on a zone play. Florida didn’t run power yesterday, contrary to reports on Twitter. It was all zone and stretch that they were running a lot with that, and it was there.

The other thing is the offensive line were opening massive gaps. Nick, my fat butt could have run through those holes they were so big. That’s a testament to this offensive line. Someone asked me today. Do you think the offensive line got better during the bye week? I said, “1,000% they did.” They had some holes when they had Halter at right tackle and when they brought Riles in at left guard some. McElwain’s going to continue to do that. Mike Summers is going to continue to do that, but that’s when they had problems. When they had their starting five in there with Fred Johnson, I guess you could say starting four and Fred Johnson, they looked a lot better. The pressure on the passing game was more so when Treon was out of the pocket on play action, and you’re always going to have a come free on that.

Nick:                         Getting back to the offensive line, credit to them. Again, credit to Mike Summers. For how old Mike Summers is for him to be able to connect with these kids, 18, 19, 20 year old kids, it’s incredible. He’s a phenomenal coach, and I think a coach that’s been around as long as he has he must be doing something right. To get that kind of production out of three freshman, a redshirt sophomore, a senior who’s arm is being held together by some chewed bubble gum, I think the job he’s done you really can’t say enough about. Talking about Kelvin Taylor and Tim Skipper, I think Skip might have saved Kelvin’s career, just as far as like you said the mental game. Kelvin’s always had the skill, but to get him to … Thursday in practice, getting yourself ready.

Andrew:                 That’s big. To me, that’s big. My thing for Kelvin is Kelvin was always a good runner, but he didn’t understand the mental makeup of what made him a good runner.

Nick:                         He wasn’t a good running back.

Andrew:                 Correct.

Nick:                         He’s very good with the ball in his hands, but he was a good runner, not a good running back. Right now Kelvin Taylor is a much better running back.

Andrew:                 Right. You and I talked about this as well. His pass blocking has been leaps and bounds better than it ever was. I said last year when people said, why is Matt Jones playing and Kelvin Taylor’s not? I said, pass blocking. He sucks at pass blocking. That’s not the case this year. Very good. We would be very bad people if we didn’t talk about the other running back in the game, your boy Jordan Scarlett, who you and I reported last week was going to see much more action this week. 9 carries, 96 yards. He had a 60 yard run. That was big. McElwain joked he thought he was faster than that. He still looked like a football player. You and I mentioned it, and we were like, that’s the Jordan Scarlett we were expecting.

A little back story. Nick, you know this. The listeners don’t. A little back story is we were told that Scarlett met with Skipper and McElwain and those guys, and they went over his old film and said, where’s this football player? That kind of hit home with Scarlett. Now he’s starting to seem in his spot, unnecessary with Cronkrite being out next weekend, but Scarlett’s going to get the blunt of the carries in the first half with Kelvin Taylor. I think that this really may jump start Scarlett from a perspective of not just this year, but going forward. This may be the time we look back and say that bye week before Georgia in 2015 was the time Jordan Scarlett became a football player.

Nick:                         It’s tough. It’s easy when you’re removed from a situation to say, if you’re not playing you need to be professional and you need to suck it up. Their humans. You watch them on TV, and they can become larger than life, but when it comes down to it these are 18, 19, 20 year old kids. Think back to how you would handle situations when you were 18, 19, 20. Jordan Scarlett has been the man at running back no matter what team he was at, university or St. Thomas, since he was 16 years old. He comes now, gets a lot of carries in the first game, probably thinks, this is going to go well. Kelvin Taylor’s the starter here, but I’m going to get my share. Gets 8 carries, scores a touchdown. Then 4 carries, and then he doesn’t play for a month.

Andrew:                 That’s huge.

Nick:                         Mentally what does that do to you? That drains your confidence. You start doubting yourself. Am I just not good enough? Do I even need to be here? Did I pick the wrong school? So much comes into that, and then that can affect your game. For him to come in against LSU, only get 1 carry, but it’s a huge spot. It’s on 4th down. You pick up 11. Then you get in against Georgia after meeting with you coaches, and the coaching staff tells you, these are the things we need you to keep doing in practice. These are the things that maybe kept you off the field. Then once you get that talk with them, make those corrections, and you see a play out on Saturday. I made the corrections the coaching staff asked me, and they were men. They were true to their word. I got more run. I got more carries. 9 carries, 96 yards. He was 4 yards away. If Mark Herndon doesn’t get in there Jordan Scarlett was 4 yards away from getting 100. It would have been the first time Florida had two 100 yard backs in the same game since the last time.

Andrew:                 I was hoping for it so bad. You hit the nail on the head. It’s very easy to, I’m not playing, why should I go hard? It’s very easy to do that. As I said, this is a different coaching staff. Mac, if there’s one football coach that’s going to keep his word I think it’s Jim McElwain. As far as, you practice, you’re going to play. That has shown with a lot of guys. You practice hard, you play hard. You’re going to play. That is it. Overall it was good.

Going to the receivers, Antonio Callaway, he just continues to impress. This guy.

Nick:                         Could you imagine if Florida had not gotten Antonio Callaway late in the recruiting process like they did?

Andrew:                 Where’s your offense?

Nick:                         I don’t know. You look at the offense, and outside of that Jake McGee had 3 catches for 23 yards. C’yontai Lewis had the 1 catch in the 1st quarter, 1 for 25. Brandon Powell had 1 catch for -3 yards.

Andrew:                 First of all, what is up with the cocktail party? Is passing not allowed for Florida?

Nick:                         You do what it takes to get a win.

Andrew:                 Alright, Jim McElwain.

Nick:                         You do what it takes to get a win. Until Mark Richt figures out how to stop a running play why put it in the air?

Andrew:                 You’re asking me to burn on Mark Richt, and that sucker he ain’t never going to. I’m okay with that. As long as he continues to lose, good for him. He sucks as a football coach. Back to Callaway.

Nick:                         It’s really remarkable what he’s been able to do at Florida, and it’s not just you see the one-handed catch. You see the 66 yard touchdown.

Andrew:                 The punt return.

Nick:                         The punt return. He’s doing the little things. He’s blocking. It’s so rare to see a guy that is really your best player at that position, and a freshman, do those little things. That to me says that he is unselfish. When Jim McElwain talks about, “I think they’re starting to understand the why.” Antonio Callaway knows the why. He wrote the why. He does everything. This is a kid when you watch him, when you watch Kelvin Taylor run to Antonio Callaway’s side, and you see the effort that he gives blocking. When you see those little stand passes and the effort Antonio Callaway gives when he’s not getting the ball. Receivers are known to be drama queens and not run routes hard when they know that the ball’s not coming their way. You don’t see any of that from this kid, only 18 years old.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing with me, and I’m not making this comparison when I say this.

Nick:                         Don’t do it.

Andrew:                 He does the little things like Julio Jones does.

Nick:                         There you go.

Andrew:                 Like an Amari Cooper does. Like the great receivers, the good receivers do. That is make blocks, play football as a football game, as a team game. The one thing that I like with Callaway is the stand passes. By the way, guys, that’s the correct name for this pop pass, screen pass that they’re running is the stand pass, when they just stand up and throw the ball. It’s a stand pass. That’s what Nick and I are referring to when we say that.

Nick:                         We’ll let you know when we’re wrong, but we will always figure it out, correct it. Stand pass. There you go.

Andrew:                 He catches the ball, and he goes. That’s what you’re supposed to do there. The corner’s 5 yards off the receiver. Catch the ball and go. Get 5 yards. It’s okay to get 5 yards. It’s okay, especially when you’re Callaway, and you put up a 60 yarder. You still have 36.7 yards per catch. That was pretty good. It was really good on him. Kind of finish off the offense, Nick. Let’s go to Treon real quick. It’s a situation that I’ve thought a lot about today. I rewatched a little bit of the game on the computer. Treon never got comfortable to me. That was the biggest thing is he never got comfortable in the game.

We all know he is a rollout quarterback. He’s not going to stand in the pocket and be that guy, but he just never got comfortable in the football game, and it showed. I don’t know why that was. I really wish I could say it was this or that that did it, but he just never looked comfortable in the game, and that hurt him.

Nick:                         To me the issues that we’ve talked about with Treon Harris are there, and they’re not going away. It’s not the anticipation stuff, that’s not going away this season. Maybe you can get better on that in the off season when you have more time to work on yourself, because right now, Jim McElwain said it during the bye week. “We worked on ourselves.” That’s one week. You’re not going to change 19 years, 18 years of muscle memory and the way you play the game in a week. Maybe you can work on that in the off season.

Those problems with Treon are not going away. It’s up to the coaching staff to play away from those, to play to his strengths. To me, I think right now Treon Harris is what he is. That’s good enough for Florida to win football games. It’s just if you’re expecting him to come out, his line against Georgia 8 of 19, 155 yards. He goes through really long stretches of 6 incompletions, 7 incompletions in a row, 8 incompletions in a row. It happens almost every game.

To me, Treon is what he is, and it’s up to the coaching staff to develop a game plan that will allow him to be successful, and if that means more running, relying more on the running game, then you’re glad that you got Jordan Scarlett and Jordan Cronkrite behind Kelvin Taylor as well. Treon, in my opinion, is a good quarterback, and he’s a gamer. He’s the kind of kid that will play better on Saturdays. It’s just those little things about him right now that he’s not going to be able to fix and change in season.

Andrew:                 The thing for me is this. This is going to come out kind of hurtful a little bit, I guess you could say. Treon was the backup quarterback. You can’t expect that you are going to get Will Grier status from him. It is what it is. It is what it is with Treon. He is a gamer. He’s a good quarterback. He is a starter for a lot of teams, but he doesn’t have that arm accuracy to throw from the left hash to the right sideline. He doesn’t have that arm strength. That was big for Grier to do that. the game plan is fit for Grier, and they’re trying to adjust to Treon, but you can’t adjust. You can’t throw away the whole offense and get a new offense for Treon. You just have to do things he’s more comfortable with. That is the rollout game a little bit.

I don’t like Georgia. I don’t like Mark Richt as a coach. I do respect Jeremy Pruitt as a defensive coordinator really well, but Georgia’s got some athletes on the defensive line. They were taking away that rollout pass a lot, because it’s a free guy off the edge. Treon just missed way too many wide open passes. At the end of the day one thing is for sure, Nick. Guess what that is?

Nick:                         What’s that?

Andrew:                 Mark Richt went down a loser on Saturday, and the Gators are one game away from Hotlanta. Had you told me at the beginning of the year the Gators were going to go to Hotlanta, I’d of said, “Okay, Jim McElwain’s doing a hell of a job.” Guess what? He’s doing a hell of a job, and this is a good football team. That defense, by the way, for Florida, might have one of the best defensive performances I have seen in a very long time from the Gators.

Nick:                         I think Keanu Neal hit someone hard enough that the guy might have just evaporated.

Andrew:                 It seems like every week it’s Keanu launching somebody. That poor guy was dead. I didn’t tell you this during the game, Nick. I thought about this. Do I get credit for that hit? I called for a big hit by Morrison on Chubb. Do I get credit for calling that, because that was like a signature hit?

Nick:                         Antonio Morrison had a big hit, but it was definitely not on Nick Chubb, and I told you it should be on Nick Chubb, because that would be very dirty playing.

Andrew:                 Sony Michel. Why I do I keep calling him Chubb? Sony Michel. I do get credit for Keanu’s big hit though? It was on Sony Michel, right?

Nick:                         No, you don’t get credit. No.

Andrew:                 I’m just saying do I get credit for a big hit in the game? Can I get partial credit?

Nick:                         I guess, if we’re going to give handouts, sure.

Andrew:                 No. It’s not about participation ribbons.

Nick:                         You can get a participation ribbon if that’s what you want.

Andrew:                 No thank you. I don’t want a participation ribbon at all. I really do want for us to talk about this real quick. I’m being all serious when I say this, but in the game yesterday did it really not show what a good football coach in McElwain is able to scheme against a guy like Mark Richt? There’s no other way to say it except for an average coach in Mark Richt. Did Mark Richt just not look over matched yesterday by McElwain?

Nick:                         Yeah. I really felt like offensively Georgia had no answers. Whether that was because of Bauda’s physical limitations as a quarterback, then don’t put him in. I don’t know if Georgia had any clue how to get something going offensively. When it’s 6-0 and then 20-0, you get into a hole, and now because of the score you’re one dimensional. Now you have to throw, but your starting quarterback can’t throw. How do you get back into that game? I think Georgia really needed to try to emphasize their rushing attack, and they, because they got themselves into a hole, weren’t able to do that and then had no answers for Florida’s defense the rest of the game. Jeremy Pruitt did a very good job. Florida had a great scheme, and Georgia stayed home. Georgia stayed sound. I made a comment. I forget who it was now. In the 1st quarter, it’s bothering me, a receiver came in motion three or four plays in a row. I made a comment, so-and-so’s I think run 200 yards.

Andrew:                 Brandon Powell.

Nick:                         Brandon Powell. Brandon Powell came in motion on like four straight plays, and I was like, what are they setting up here, because Brandon Powell has to be exhausted. He has to be exhausted right now, and the ball hasn’t even come close to his way yet.

Andrew:                 Right. Jeremy Pruitt did do a good job. To compliment that, this is something else, and I said this in my little Spivey Senses today on the message board on Gator Country. Geoff Collins didn’t get enough credit in my opinion. He put together a great game plan yesterday. His whole staff put together a good game plan. This is a good defense, but to be great they have to have good. The scheme Collins has put in to go with what Muschamp and Durkin had there, and then the half time adjustments he’s making. I don’t think Geoff Collins and his staff are getting enough credit for the job they’re doing, especially Chris Rumph with his defensive line.

Nick:                         I think it’s because Florida has so much talent that you kind of overlook the coaches. When we’re talking about the offense, the offense has been so bad, so you’re heaping all of this praise on the coaching staff because it was it’s got to be the coaches. The offense was terrible. You only got a couple new players in that are playing, so it’s the coaches. Then when you look at the defensive side of the ball you kind of forget that, yes, there is talent there, a ton of talent, but they need direction. You still have to get that direction, and it’s coming from the position coaches, from the coordinator. We definitely kind of gloss over the defensive coaches more than we should.

Andrew:                 Again, I think you would agree with me that the defensive plan has been good. I told you this in the first quarter. I believe it was you that I told this to, I said, “Watch this. They are stunning with their defensive line a ton, and Georgia is just clueless of what to do when Bryan Cox and Bullard were stunning inside.” I believe that was you that I said that to. That was a great game plan by Rumph, because they hadn’t shown that with Cox and Bullard yet. It was something that just confused the heck out of a freshman in Isaiah Wynn playing left guard and a senior John Theus. A lot of that wasn’t on Theus. More of that was on the freshman, Isaiah Wynn, but Rumph, Collins, and Randy Shannon and Callahan, those guys had to see that. That’s what I’m saying. These guys deserve credit for what they’re doing, as much as we want to say how great of a job Mac and Nussmeyer are doing and his staff are doing on the offensive side of the ball. Defense deserves a lot of prop as well.

Nick:                         It’s the same thing that we say on offense. Put your guys in position to be successful, and that’s what Florida’s defensive coaches are doing. Good for you for bringing that up, because we definitely gloss over it. I think everyone kind of just glosses over it. Good for Geoff Collins. They definitely are not getting the kind of credit that they deserve right now.

Andrew:                 Absolutely. It’s crazy, because they deserve that credit and just are not getting it, but, Nick, you saw your boy, Duke Dawson, get out there as well.

Nick:                         Yeah. Duke got out there. Duke played well. Got some extended time. We had also talked about that on the message board about him having a meeting with the coaching staff, kind of hammering things out and coming to an understanding as far as what you need to do to get out there on the field. There’s a lot of stuff that football coaches deal with that people don’t see, some behind the scenes stuff. What I really want to talk about, Florida is one win away from going to Atlanta to win the SEC East, and all they have to do is beat a Vanderbilt team that just got shut out by Houston. Houston’s a good football team, but Houston should never shut out an SEC football team, ever, never ever once ever.

Andrew:                 You know what that says?

Nick:                         What does that say?

Andrew:                 That says Butch Jones and Mark Richt have got their programs at Tennessee and Georgia below mediocre, below good. Vanderbilt, guys? Vanderbilt. We don’t need to spoil anything, because we’ve got to have a prediction podcast, but I’m just going to tell you guys. I’ll go ahead and spoil it for you guys. Gators are going to Atlanta.

Nick:                         What a time to be alive.

Andrew:                 What a time to be alive.

Nick:                         You and yours versus me and mine. If I would have told you, Andrew Spivey, if I would have told you in July, Florida is going to lose to LSU, win the rest of them, and they’re going to be in Atlanta you would have asked me, we’ve got company drug tests coming up, are you sure you’re going to be able to pass that?

Andrew:                 Yeah. I know you’re an honest person, so you’re going to back me up when I say this. I was more optimistic of the season than more people were, am I lying about that?

Nick:                         You were absolutely more optimistic.

Andrew:                 I really thought that McElwain would so some things with offense. I did not expect an SEC championship birth in the first year. I did not. It just, to me, is this. It’s like we said at the beginning of the season. This defense is so great an offense with a pulse makes you a very good football team, a very good football team. This is what it is. I think the biggest thing for me is McElwain has built this program with his stamp on it so far, and is building this, that you’re starting to see his guys play with his approach. You no longer see guys celebrating in the end zone by themselves, and if you don’t want to believe me, check out Gator Country, David Bowie’s photos. All the touchdowns in the photos, 4, 5, 6 guys huddling each other, hugging each other.

Before the game yesterday, Nick, you and I talked, no we didn’t talk about this. I thought this myself. The team, as they ran on the field, the whole team ran to the opposite goal line and knelt down, by themselves. Didn’t say a word to anybody. Knelt down by themselves. To me, that is a stepping of a program of this isn’t an individual game. This is a team football game, and this is not what was happening at the beginning of the season. Week 8, Florida’s doing that.

Nick:                         Yeah. To me this is scary. This is the worst Florida Gators football team that Jim McElwain will have in the next 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years. This is the worst Florida team that he will have. He doesn’t have his guys in, and this is what they’re doing. This coaching staff, I think Florida’s paying Will Muschamp $6 million to not coach football games at Florida. I think they’re paying Mac $2.5, $3 million. Mac’s paying Colorado State part of his buyout. It is worth every single penny what they’ve done. It is frightening to me. The SEC needs to take notice that this is, without a doubt, the worst football team that Jim McElwain will have at Florida for a very long time, if not the worst ever, and they’re running through the SEC.

Andrew:                 Here’s my thing. Let me be the first one to say, and, Nick, again you can back me up. I am the biggest Jim McElwain supporter there probably is, and that’s taking nothing away from you, because you support him very big as well. It’s the pieces he brought around him as well. The guys, Kerry Dixon, he doesn’t get a lot of credit for receivers. He’s got them believing again. Guys like Rumph believing again. They all believe into Mac’s purpose. You and I have talked about this. We found out this little interesting tidbit from a couple people that Mac took the team to the 17th hole of the TPC Sawgrass yesterday before the game and set them down there and had his pregame speech. To me, that is attention to detail that Mac talks about, the little things. Those guys were fired up. I had several people text me and say, so-and-so sent me a photo of this. All of these people were telling their family about that moment.

That’s the things that I was saying, embracing the rivalry, talking about this is going to be awesome. Let the freshmen know that. Enjoy it. If they’re going in tight with the game, guess what? They’re not going to play well. Go in loose. Go in fired up. I don’t even know if I should mention this. I’ll say it, but one of our Gator Country members is a policeman for Jacksonville. Sierra, hit him up, he’s a great guy. He was telling me that Coach McElwain was talking to him during walk on, and he was like, “What does this rivalry mean here? How is this going to be?” Will Muschamp never does that. Mark Richt never does that stuff, I’m sure. McElwain pays attention to every little single detail, and that’s how you make a program go from okay to really good and feared.

Nick:                         I think if they’re not there already Florida will be a feared program very soon. Those attention to detail things is really cool. It’s something that maybe the guys, some of the younger guys, it will be lost on them how cool of an experience being able to go to TPC, the kind of history that that is, but that’s really cool. I hope that they were in the right mind frame to kind of see that and think, this is pretty cool.

Andrew:                 Cronkrite posted it on Twitter. I believe it was Cronkrite, one of the freshmen, either Cronkrite or Scarlett posted something like, the scariest hole in golf. They got it.

Nick:                         The scariest hole in golf, and Florida’s trying to be the scariest team on the gridiron.

Andrew:                 I think it goes to Mac’s mindset of never getting above yourself, never really getting out of today, and that’s where he is. I don’t know. I’m not going to lie. Maybe I’m speaking out of context for you, but I’m enjoying the hell out of this run. I am just enjoying this season. For me, it’s fun again to see a football team that has a plan. You lose games, like the LSU game, but Florida had a plan. It’s fun to see a plan executed. It’s fun to see players wanting to play. Nick, you can speak on this, but does Vernon Hargreaves to the media if Will Muschamp’s the coach now and they’re doing just okay? Vernon Hargreaves spoke to the media last night for the first time since when? Media Days.

Nick:                         Since Media Day that was the first time we’d talked to him.

Andrew:                 I think that’s all about that. You can speak to this more than I can, because quite frankly I hung you out to dry. I didn’t even go into the press conference yesterday. I was standing outside just chit chatting with everybody else and letting you do the hard work. Is that a difference that you see from the guys in there that you see a different mindset of that?

Nick:                         Yeah. I think part of it with Vernon is, in not talking to the media, I think part of that is he’s a team guy, and if we had our way we would talk to Vernon after every practice, after every game. He’s a smart kid. He gives you a good quote. He’s not going to give you anything, bulletin board material, anything like that, but he’s a smart kid, good quote, and he’s the All-American. Even if he’s not giving you a great quote, you’re putting Vernon Hargreaves III next to it. I think he knows that, and I think he knows because of his reputation that we would just ask for him, and we would end up talking to him more than his other teammates. I think part of it for Vernon was if I don’t do media, and I tell them that I’m not going to do media, that means my teammates will get talked about more. Their names will be in the paper. Their names will be online.

I think that’s part of it, and that’s something that Mac is really trying to preach. Everyone says family. Every coach in the country will try to preach family and say, “We have a family environment.” I think, at least for this year, Florida has bought into that, and the players feel that with each other. I think that’s what you see when you see Vernon Hargreaves not talking in the media, until finally we’re eight games in, and they say, “Vernon, please. Please go and talk to these guys.”

Andrew:                 I heard differently. Maybe you heard something differently, but I heard that Vernon actually stepped up and volunteered that he would go. Maybe I’m off on that, but that is something that I heard in passing yesterday that when they asked who wanted to go he volunteered to go.

Nick:                         It had been a while.

Andrew:                 Of course, winning helps everything. Winning cures every problem you got. It’s all good. Things are moving in the right direction. You go to Vanderbilt. Then you have a South Carolina team, FAU team, and then you get to take on the Seminoles in what should be a really good football game in the Swamp for Senior Day.

Nick:                         You don’t go to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt comes to you.

Andrew:                 I’m sorry. Going to South Carolina.

Nick:                         You go to South Carolina. To me, and we’ll wrap this up soon, but the interesting thing to me is it’s like we said, I wrote it last week, and we talked about it. Jim McElwain, after you talked to Greg McElroy, is harder on the guys after a win and much easier on them after a loss. He lit into the team a little bit saying, “I don’t know how they’re going to handle this. A lot of these guys have never been this successful. I’m really interested to know how they’ll handle it, because I’m not sure how they’re going to.”

Andrew:                 I’m interested in it as well.

Nick:                         I think he knows how they’re going to handle it, because it’s how they’ve handled success. Minus the first win against New Mexico State they’ve handled success very well as a team. I’m talking to Trip Thurman after the game, and a reporter asked him, “Is this the experience? This season is this the experience that you thought you were signing up for when you committed?” He says, “Yes.” Then he says, “Do you ever think about Georgia Southern?” Trip Thurman says, “All the time.” These are kids who have lived through probably the worst game in Florida football history, a lot of them, and they’re handling success so far very well. Now, as much as they will say, and everyone’s answer was the next game’s the most important one, because it’s the next one on the schedule. Everyone says everyone’s goal is to get to Atlanta. Okay. I’ve sat back for three months now, and I’ve let you say that, the next game is the most important one, because it’s the next one on the schedule. The next one on the schedule can send you to Atlanta. Don’t tell me that’s not creeping into your head. How they handle that is interesting to me.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was about to say. Then my question becomes, if you win that one, how do you stay focused for Carolina and FAU, two games that they’ll probably be 15-20 point favorites for and not look ahead to Florida State? This game, the Vanderbilt game, I don’t think they have, I say that, that’d be me lying. No. I won’t say it. I’ll say that going into the Vanderbilt game they shouldn’t overlook it, because there’s a goal of Atlanta, but at the same time, it is Vanderbilt. They just lost to Houston, got shut out. Maybe that does creep into their head. Maybe that does become something they say, we should kill these guys. I am interested in it. I am interested in how they go. Before we wrap this up, I think we have some business to take care of.

Nick:                         We do. I was trying to sneak past it.

Andrew:                 You were trying to sneak past. Guess what? You’re 0-3 this week, or 1-3, whatever. You were still more successful than Mark Richt this weekend.

Nick:                         That’s my participation trophy.

Andrew:                 That’s your participation trophy. It was definitely a good week to see my buddy, Mark Richt. I had to stay way distant from him. Did get that photo of him walking away with tears in his eyes. He didn’t want to look at the camera though. Not cool for him. Let’s go real quick here. Our three players were. Nick, you want to go ahead and start?

Nick:                         I didn’t even pull mine up. I was trying to forget about it.

Andrew:                 It was Johnny Townsend.

Nick:                         Johnny Townsend is a win.

Andrew:                 I’ll give you the win.

Nick:                         Johnny Townsend is your boy.

Andrew:                 Jalen Tabor. Yesterday I told you it was a complete loss. I’m giving you a participation ribbon here. That effort on that interception deserves a participation effort there. I’m going to give you a half a point there. Your last one was Treon Harris, and I’ll give you another half a point there.

Nick:                         I will not accept half a point.

Andrew:                 The man won the game. He’s the quarterback. At the end of the day he gets the win and the loss, and he got the win, and he had a big touchdown. I’m going to give you half a point there.

Nick:                         Wins and losses are team stats.

Andrew:                 Yes they are, unless you’re a pitcher in baseball, then they’re not. I got to go to mine now. Kelvin Taylor, 25 carries, 125 yards, and 2 touchdowns that I said would happen as well. Nick, I think I get a win there.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 Next, I go to Antonio Morrison who led the team in tackles with 6, tied with Jarrad Davis in the game. Nick, I think I have to go W again.

Nick:                         Yup.

Andrew:                 My last one was a big one, and he had a big game again. He never gets the credit he deserves. Jonathan Bullard, 4 tackles, a solo tackle, tackle for loss, and I had him for a half a sack in the game, but in the stats they don’t have that. I feel like he’s a guy that stats don’t show it, but it seemed like every play it was #90 with the disruption, #90 with a disruption. He’s a guy that is just not getting the credit he deserves. He should be the poster child of coming back to school.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s nice to see, because stories like this really don’t get a lot of publicity. When the guy comes back to school and blows his knee out, everyone talks about that. What a mistake he made. What an idiot. He should have just taken the money. Jon Bullard has increased his draft stock unimaginably. I thought him coming back to school, to me it was the right decision. Again, I’m not the one turning down millions of dollars. To me, from the outside, it was the right decision. He is making himself tens of millions of dollars. The way he’s playing at end, at tackle, the versatility he’s showing, what he’s putting on film this year is making himself an incredible amount of money, and I’m just happy for him. It was a very tough decision for him to decide to come back. A lot of the guys that he came in with, some of his best friends on the team, are gone now. For him to come back was a tough decision, and I’m glad it’s working out for him. He’s just a genuinely nice person, very good kid, good family. I’m glad it worked out for him the way it did.

Andrew:                 Yeah. You know my feelings for Bullard. You always tell me that I have a little homer side for Jonathan, and I’ll admit I definitely do. He’s one of the first guys I was covering. I definitely have a soft spot, especially with everything in his family, grandmother and all that. Great guy. Great player. He’s making a good win, a good decision and making himself some money. Nick, this week Vanderbilt. Back to the schedule, except for we have a little kink in the armor on Thursday. Preseason basketball, and Tuesday will be basketball as well. It’s one of those deals where I know our coverage has slacked off a little bit, but it will get better, and that is not a Will Muschamp promise. It’s an Andrew promise, and Andrew comes through. Then it’s Vanderbilt home game finally, so that means recruits in the south end zone. That will be great.

Nick:                         We have not been in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since October 3rd for the Ole Miss game.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Recruiting will be back and be good. This recruiting class is really filling up since the last time we talked a little bit. Antonius Clayton committed to the Gators the other day. That was a big pickup. His uncle surprised him with tickets to Jacksonville for the game. As they were going out of the stadium he met Dante Fowler, and was able to talk to Dante a little bit. That was kind of cool. The way they met was Antonius had a shirt on that has his face in the United States map that has Gator Nation. He had his face on that, and Dante asked him about it. That was pretty cool there.

It should be another great week at Gator Country. As always, like Nick says, check us out on the message boards on GatorCountry.com. Check our podcast out. Maybe give us a like and review. We’re doing really well, but I know you guys like this a lot. As long as Nick and I can continue getting positive stuff we get to continue doing it. Nick will be at press conferences all week and on Twitter @NickdelaTorreGC. Mine’s @AndrewSpiveyGC. I will still be bringing the Mark Richt hate this week.

Nick:                         The ratings and comments really help us out as far as being ranked on iTunes and getting it out to more people. If more people listen and download our bosses let us continue to do this. We thank you for that. Andrew stole part of my line there. So I’m just going to sneak out of here with you stay class, Gator Country.

Andrew:                 You’re going to run out with that. As always, Mark and Butch, you both still suck at your job, and you both have losses to Florida. One thing to say, crab legs did defeat my Falcons on Sunday. Not very happy about that. As always, go Braves. Chomp chomp.

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.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Awesome! I was at the game and got into a disagreement about the targeting call on Jordan C with some bulldog fans sitting near by. The call is already subjective but it looks like he just made a good block to me. What are you’re thughts, do you think it was a clear targeting hit.

    • I think it was a clean hit. It looked like the hit was on the shoulder pads but the refs said that he was defensive-less so that’s why they called targeting.