This week’s GatorCountry podcast focuses on where the Florida Gators were ranked in the new Athlon Sports top 25 preseason poll that was released on Monday morning.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down what is wrong with the preseason poll, plus we discuss who was ranked way too high in the poll and where we think they should be ranked.
Andrew and Nick also break down the Florida Gators baseball team taking over the SEC lead, plus we discuss the softball team’s NCAA tournament road to the WCWS.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man right here, Andrew Spivey, with my man, Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, first place in the SEC for baseball. What’s up?
Nick: It was a good and challenging weekend. Two pretty incredible pitching performances. One from Logan Shore, and then one from Kyle Wright. Then when you have two teams with great pitching staffs going against each other, and Sunday you’ve got all these rested bullpens, of course you expect a 10-6 game. Not really what we expected Sunday, but Florida gets two out of three. South Carolina took Sunday over Texas A&M, so that gave Florida a half game lead in the SEC.
Andrew: It was about the weekend I thought it would be, to be honest with you. I think going in I thought you would probably win two out of three. Did I expect Sunday’s game? No, but I expected a lot of the Saturday games, the 1-0, 2-0. Even the 4-2 game on Friday night wasn’t a bad game. I know some people on the message board were not very happy with the series, because Vandy’s not good, and I’m doing air quotations right now that you guys can’t see. Vandy’s a damn good baseball team, a very good baseball team. #7 in the country this year is really good.
Nick: Florida and Vanderbilt are kind of similar in that great pitching staffs, both have kind of struggled to hit. On Sunday I’m sitting in the press box, and Deacon Liput hits a three run home run in the first, and I turned to somebody, and I said, “That’s probably it. We’re probably going to finish this game 3-0, and we kind of just have to get through the next eight innings.” Shows how much I know. It’s baseball, and you run into somebody. Kyle Wright’s a great pitcher. Kevin O’Sullivan, we were all focused on Sheffield Shore on Friday night, and Kevin O’Sullivan remembered Kyle Wright from last year when he was a freshman, and they faced him up in Nashville. You can run into a pitcher who has good stuff, and Kyle Wright is 92, 94. Nasty knuckle curve, good little cutter that he had as well. He’s locating, moving that ball. All three pitchers moving them one side of the plate to the next. There’s just a lot of statements of, Florida doesn’t have enough hitting to win this, because based on one game, but in baseball great pitching beats great hitting damn near every time. Sometimes you’re going to run into a good pitcher who has his A game, and stuff happens.
Andrew: Kansas City agrees.
Nick: It happens, and that’s baseball. You kind of just tip your cap and say, he was on his stuff today. We come back out tomorrow.
Andrew: Everyone wants to say defense.
Nick: Let me add this too. I think there’s still a little bit, Friday night Pete Alonso, who’s leading the team in homeruns, RBIs, batting average, slugging percentage, gets hit, has to leave, and then you find out before the game on Saturday that he’s done for the regular season. Maybe he can come back by the time that regional starts. That takes an emotional toll. Pete’s a guy that’s well liked on the team, aside from being the best hitter this season. So I think there’s some of the kind of doubt that creeps into your head, like, man, how do we hit without Pete in the lineup? Then you start struggling, and then things kind of mount, and that happened Saturday. Then Sunday is gut check time.
Andrew: Every sport has defense wins championships, but in baseball, more so than anything out there, a good pitching staff beats a good lineup 99% of the time. Nine games out 10, the best pitching staff is going to win. Now, you’re going to have games like Sunday where you have a shootout, a home run derby out there, but in more games than so it’s going to come down to pitching staff. We can relate this to softball that we’re going to talk about here in a minute, but when you’re throwing Shore out there you’re expecting one to two runs he’s going to give up, three max. You’re expecting him to go seven or eight innings. Okay? You’re going to get him once in the regional. You’re going to get him once in the super regional. Probably two in the World Series. Okay? Puk. Puk’s up and down, whatever that may be. You’re still going to get a good performance out of him, good or bad. You’re still going to have a solid performance out of him.
Florida’s bats just need to do enough, and I think that’s what it is. Is it going to be pretty? Are they going to put up 10 runs a game? No. They’re going to play really good defense. They’re not going to hurt themselves, and they’re going to do key situations. Sunday’s game, in my opinion, was a big one. You had the first leadoff hitter was Liput, Deacon Liput. He got on first, and it was a questionable call whether he was safe or out. He stole second, and then JJ Schwarz goes opposite field with a single, scores. 1-0. Small ball. Did it look pretty? Maybe not, but it was a run on the board.
Nick: Talking about AJ Puk, Puk probably had his best start of the season last week. Ten strikeouts, but he gives up one homerun, and doesn’t get any run support. He’s only gotten four runs in his last four starts combined, so as a pitcher, as good as you are, even when you’re on your game, you can’t win a game when you don’t score runs. It’s kind of what we saw last year before Logan Shore went on his tear in the post-season. He just wasn’t getting run support on Friday night, and AJ Puk not getting the run support right now. A good start, you hope it doesn’t affect him mentally moving into his next start against LSU this weekend, but maybe even just say, listen, 10 strikeouts, you located the ball better; you were able to throw all three of your pitches, think about that. Less about what the outcome of the game was.
Andrew: How many times are you going to face Kyle Wright, who was absolutely filthy? Not going to do that. Again, that’s a 1 out of 10 times that you’re going to face that. 90% of the time, even against Logan Shore, you’re going to find a way to score one run. So if you go out there, if you’re Kevin O’Sullivan, and I tell you, the next five games you’re going to give up two runs a game, do you like your chances?
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: That’s the way I look at it as well. I look at it here again, and this is another thing that I think you have to be conscious of when you’re talking about Florida, when you’re talking about Vanderbilt, when you’re talking about anybody in the SEC, is this is by far the best league in the country, by far. No if, ands, buts about it. By far this is the best conference in the country. You’ve seen Florida go out of conference and straight dominate. Miami is considered to be one of the best teams in the country. Florida goes down there and wins two out of three, and had a chance to sweep Miami. They go to Florida State, who #10, #11 in the country, depending on where you look at, and they sweep them in pretty ugly fashion. Let’s remember, SEC can show some of your bad things, but everybody’s not the SEC when you get into NCAA play.
Nick: The SEC, really Florida’s entire schedule, but the SEC schedule in particular really prepares these teams when they get into regionals, super regionals, stuff like that. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this weekend. Then what happens in Hoover. I expect Florida to finish a top in the SEC East, and get a little bye in the SEC Tournament. So what can they do there? Then a week from this Sunday coming up we’ll see who Florida will be hosting in a regional, but we’ll get a little bit more into the LSU. We do know who the ladies are hosting in a regional, and also we’ve been talking about baseball, and how impressive SEC baseball is, tell the people how impressive SEC softball is when it comes to hosting regionals.
Andrew: There’s 16 regional sites, same thing as baseball. The top eight are considered national seeds. They get to host the first two rounds, the regionals, super regionals. Three out of the eight super regionals are SEC teams, which is incredible. Then eight of the 16 host sites for regionals are SEC teams, and then 11 of 14 SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament. Think about that. 11 of 14 SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament. That’s pretty crazy.
Nick: Domination.
Andrew: Domination at the best. Then you look at this, and, Nick, you and I were talking about this off the air, there’s a chance seven SEC teams can make it to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series. So you can basically have the SEC Tournament for the Women’s College World Series. Now, let’s back up a little bit. Florida loses in the SEC quarter finals to Auburn. Okay. A, let’s just be honest, that was the SEC finals right there. Best two teams in the country, in my opinion, are Florida and Auburn. Florida loses 2-1. They give up a two run homer in the first inning. Auburn doesn’t score the rest of the game. Then you look at Florida. They stranded several opportunities. Just whiffed on it, just straight whiffed on it. Hitting was gone. Again, it was one of those games where you ran into a buzz saw of a pitcher who was just on. Your bats were a little cool, and, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you win your conference tournament or not. Florida’s won two straight World Series, and hasn’t won a conference tournament yet.
Nick: That’s kind of the thing. Last year Florida won, in baseball, Florida won the outright SEC, regular season. Won the tournament. It was two years ago won the outright SEC then lost the tournament. It’s cool. It’s nice. You win the tournament, you feel good. You get a ring. That’s not what everyone…
Andrew: My opinion is I’d rather win the regular season, because that shows me I’ve been the best through the season.
Nick: Right. You can get hot, or you have a good matchup. Somebody gets upset, we have an easy first matchup. That lets us save somebody. Second matchup, here we go. Things can happen in a tournament setting. I agree with you. To me, winning the regular season SEC title is a little bit more impressive than winning the tournament.
Andrew: Right. Here’s the thing. Nick, you and I are dealing with the same thing. I’ll flat out say it. I don’t care. You’re dealing with people who do not understand the games of baseball and softball that watch one game, and it comes out. The crazies come out at the end of the year every year, where they don’t watch the team throughout, or don’t simply know the team. When you say, this team has no bats. Excuse me? This team is dominating. Okay. This team isn’t going to win the World Series. Really? They got the best two earned run averages in college softball. When you get to Oklahoma City it’s about pitching. It’s about pitching. It is what it is. Get off the train completely here. Let’s remember this is the two time defending champions. They’re going to cakewalk through their regional. Alabama State, UCF, and Florida Atlantic come to Gainesville. Florida doesn’t even need to, I mean, they need to show up, but it’ll be a cakewalk. Their super regional is Georgia.
Nick: You need to show up, but at some point the talent disparity, I think especially in softball, especially where Florida is, don’t just show up, but it would be shocking for them not to advance to a super regional.
Andrew: Here’s the thing. Much like what we were just talking about with the baseball team, Florida’s undefeated in nonconference play. Okay. #2, Michigan, is the #2 overall seed, and Florida beat them 8-0. Run rule. You look at Florida State, who’s a national seed. Florida swept them twice. Come on. Let’s just remember what we’re talking about here, and go. To move on a little bit, Florida would be matched up with Georgia in the super regionals. Could have a world’s largest cocktail party for softball in Gainesville for the supers if Georgia wins, but right now anything less than getting to Oklahoma City would be a huge upset. Again, I think everything should be good. It’s post-season play. It’s time when your seniors and your veterans, your skill set, really shows up. Things are fine. Don’t worry about Tim Walton and his girls. They’re marching on.
Nick: 96-14 is the combined record of the baseball and softball team. Softball is 53-5. Baseball is 43-9.
Andrew: 53-5 and 44-5, is that what you just said?
Nick: Baseball is 43-9. Softball is 53-5.
Andrew: Ask anybody in America at the beginning of the season if they would take those two records, and you would be absolutely 100% okay taking those two records.
Nick: It’s an .873 win percentage between the two teams. That’s incredible. Florida is still, I believe, no, Miami. Miami and Louisville joined Florida as teams with 40 wins, and that’s it in baseball. There’s four teams with 40 wins, and Florida holds two wins over one of those teams.
Andrew: Incredible. You still have people griping. It’s incredible. It really is incredible. To put it in comparison, nine losses and five losses in softball is about like a football team losing zero or one. That’s how unbelievable it is.
Nick: This isn’t like boxing where we’ve got this promising young guy, let’s feed him a bunch of cupcakes so that he’s got a 30-0 record, and then we can start really cashing in on some huge paydays. Tim Walton doesn’t play around. Kevin O’Sullivan, I joke with him all the time. I was like, whoever makes this baseball schedule, you should fire that guy, because this schedule is too hard. Of course, he’s the one that makes the schedule, so he gets a good laugh out of that. Both Walton and O’Sullivan truly believe in testing our team early, testing them often. Out of conference Florida’s playing three against Florida State. That’s a good ball club. You’re playing Miami, great ball club. Then really, even when you look at the other in state teams, FAU. FAU’s had a great season. UNF, JU, these other in state teams are good. Florida, the state of Florida, in high school is just filled with talent in all of the in state teams in baseball and softball. UCF is very good in softball as well.
Andrew: USF is very good. Florida State’s very good.
Nick: You’re playing a quality schedule in conference and out of conference.
Andrew: Yeah. Like you just said with Florida State playing in baseball, Florida plays them in softball. Florida plays UCF for two games in softball. USF for two games in softball. All three of those teams made the tournament. Florida Atlantic, they’re going to play those girls in the regional. They have 50 wins. Come on. Let’s remember what we’re talking about here, and also let’s remember what this sport is. This sport is made, you’re a Hall of Famer for succeeding a third of the time. A third of the time, you’re a Hall of Famer.
Nick: It’s a game of failure, and learning to deal with failure.
Andrew: A pitcher, if he wins 20 games in a season, out of 40 starts, he is considered to be great. Great. 20 wins now. You’re saying if he wins half the time he goes out there, he’s great. Half the time he goes out there, he’s great. You just said this team was .850, these programs are .850 winning percentage?
Nick: .873.
Andrew: .873. That’s incredible. I don’t know how you bitch. I just don’t know how you bitch.
Nick: You know what you remind me of? You remind me of Odor throwing that right hook at Joey Bats on Sunday. That’s what you’re doing right now.
Andrew: That was awesome. You and I, who love baseball, just love that stuff. Love it.
Nick: Some people will say, they called it a brawl. 50 players ran out into the field and stood there in center talking, and that’s what people will say, there’s a brawl, the bench just cleared. This was a brawl.
Andrew: This was a brawl.
Nick: They forgot that baseball was even happening. I think the throw to first gets away, and I don’t even know what happened after that, because the game stopped. The runner could have advanced to second, but you had a UFC match, you had a cage match going on between Joey Bats and Odor at second. To me, that was wild, but you were throwing some fire at some people.
Andrew: Here’s what I think is funny about it. This is why I love the game of baseball, and, Nick, I think you and I both can agree, I love football. I coached football. I’ll admit, baseball is my passion. I love baseball. I would definitely trade in, if someone told me give up Florida football, and you can watch the Braves 24/7, 365, sorry, but I would do the Braves. That’s why I love baseball so much. I think you agree with this. Joey Bats, in case you’re not a baseball fan, did a bat flip against Texas in the post-season, and, quite frankly, he was getting that bean ball. It was coming, sooner or later. They just waited till the last game of the season to do it, the last meeting between them in a season, to do it, and it turned into a brawl. Good for them. I love it. I think that’s, everyone wants to say the sport’s dead, the sport’s boring, get out of here. Get out of here.
Nick: Make baseball fun again.
Andrew: If I was not a Braves fan I could probably agree with that statement, but no thank you. I’m not going to agree with that statement.
Nick: I agree with it. I fully embrace Yasiel Puig’s and Bryce Harper’s make baseball fun again. That was a nasty right hook.
Andrew: Maybe calling today.
Nick: ESPN brought on, I think it’s Tony Atlas, their boxing guy, to review the punch, and Atlas says, “I think Odor’s taken some boxing classes. That was a solid punch.” Let’s get in, we’ll do another podcast this week, and you’ll preview the tournament. I’ll preview Florida at LSU to finish the season. On Monday Athlon Sports released their early Top 25, and I have a feeling you’re going to get worked up about this. So let me run you through. Top 25, Alabama comes in at #1. Florida State, 2. Ohio State, 3. Clemson, 4. Michigan, 5. The SEC teams came in the top 25, obviously, Alabama. Tennessee at 7. LSU at 9. Ole Miss at 10. Georgia at 17. Florida at 21. So basically Athlon is saying that Florida is right now the sixth best team in the SEC, and the third best team in the SEC East, a year after winning the SEC East.
I look at Alabama, how you say anything bad about Alabama coming into a year. Tennessee, I get it, because I get where the hype is right now, with Dobbs, and how they finished the season strong. LSU I’m not sure about. I really like what they have, as far as LSU wants to run the ball. Obviously you have Fournette. I’m blanking on the backup running back’s name right now, but he’s a stud too. Stud. Some LSU fans I think are a little crazy, but are already talking about him being better than Fournette. Whatever you have, you’ve got two great running backs in Baton Rouge. I’m really just not sold on anything they have at quarterback though. Ole Miss, Swag Kelly’s back; they’re at 10. Georgia, I don’t understand Geogia at 17. I don’t understand Georgia in the top 25. Then Florida at 21. I think there’s just a lot of question marks about Florida, but I would probably put Florida inside that top 20.
Andrew: I don’t even know. I don’t even know if I want to get started on this Monday. I don’t.
Nick: Let’s start with the one that will get you heated. Take a couple deep breaths. Tennessee at 7. They’ve made improvements under Butch Jones. I think the record each year under Butch has gotten better. When you start terrible, there’s not many places you can go, but the record has gotten better. You return 18 starters, but it’s kind of the situation where what? Yeah, you won some games towards the end of the year, but what are you doing in these big games? I don’t care if you’re keeping it close with Alabama and losing. You need to get over that hump. I don’t care if you’re keeping it close with Florida, you’ve lost 11 in a row. You have to get over that hump. At some point beating up a weak out of conference schedule and winning some games late over some middle of the road SEC teams doesn’t impress me. If you want to be the best team, and right now Athlon has them rated as the second best team in the SEC, best team in the SEC East, you have to start beating the other teams that are on that caliber, and Tennessee just isn’t doing that.
Andrew: Okay. I’m ready. I’m ready. Tell me this. This is what I don’t understand. My good friend, Nick, your good friend, I have problem calling him my good friend. I talk to him on a daily basis a lot of times, a weekly basis. Mr. Barrett Sallee is a good friend of mine, from Bleacher Report. I consider him to be the head of this whole Tennessee shit storm that you want to call it, whatever it may be. I don’t know what it is. You see the Josh Dobbs Heisman. Get the hell out of here. Josh Dobbs ain’t winning the Heisman trophy. Luke Del Rio has a better chance of winning the Heisman trophy than Josh Dobbs has of winning the Heisman trophy. He’s not winning it. Here, Nick, I always say this. Give me stats, and I’ll shut you up. Here’s a stat to shut every Tennessee fan down, and to prove this wrong. Over the last nine seasons, worst winning percentage against top 10 opponents, who we can both agree Tennessee will face this year, 0-24. Vanderbilt has a better record than that. Mississippi State has a better record than that. Missouri has a better record than that, and Kentucky has a better record than that. Tennessee is 0-24 in the last nine football season against top 10 opponents. They have one win under Butch Jones against a top 25 opponent. One.
Nick: So this is where I think some of it comes from, and, to be fair, Barrett, I think Barrett is picking Tennessee to win this year. He always gets the question of every year Tennessee is hyped, and then he goes back to, Tennessee’s been picked one time to win the East. He’s like, I picked Georgia to win the East last year. I think this is where some of the hype comes from.
Andrew: Hold.
Nick: Wait, real quick.
Andrew: Hold up. No, no. No. You’re not. Yes, Barrett did do that. That’s fine, but every single solitary person in that damn SEC Media Days, on ESPN, on SEC Network, were pumping the hype train of Tennessee the last three football seasons, three football seasons. I don’t care what the picks were. I don’t care what this, that, or the other was. The hype train for the last three football seasons, since Butch Jones has been the University of Tennessee football coach, has been Tennessee is going to be much better. Tennessee is going to contend. The hell with that. They’re not going to contend. Butch Jones does not win good football games. Nick, you and I both had a guy, I won’t name his name, because I don’t want him to get bad heat. He’s a very big Tennessee guy. Nick, you know who I’m talking about. Told you and I both in Birmingham, Alabama last year, he said, “There’s a huge question mark on Butch Jones’ in game coaching ability, and in game decision making.” You and I both heard that. We both can agree on that. Boom, it’s there.
Nick: It unfolded in the Florida game, ended up losing that game. This is what I was going to get at. Starting the year, you beat Bowling Green. That’s a bad team. You lose to Oklahoma in a game that you should have won. Now you’re 1-1. You beat Western Carolina, congratulations. That was a nail biter. Lose to Florida in pretty devastating fashion, and turn around and go home, lose to Arkansas. Now you’re under .500. You beat Georgia, without Nick Chubb. Get an open week. Lose to Alabama. So at this point already have four losses on the season. So then they win out, the rest of the year they win out, but listen to these teams. You beat Kentucky.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: You beat South Carolina, after Spurrier.
Andrew: South Carolina was bad last year.
Nick: You beat South Carolina. You beat North Texas.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: You win at Missouri. Missouri is going through their entire race thing that was going on with their school, all this stuff. Players saying unless the president steps down. Missouri had a lot of stuff going on around them by the time Tennessee comes in, and then you win that game 19-8.
Andrew: They didn’t even practice for two days or something like that.
Nick: You win that game 19-8, and then you beat Vanderbilt. Then you beat Northwestern in the Outback Bowl. An impressive win over Northwestern in the Outback Bowl. You win 45-6. Jalen Herd kind of runs wild a little bit. To me, you look at the teams that they lost to. Oklahoma, one of the better teams you faced, top 10; you lose. Florida, one of the better teams you face; you lose. That’s a game, both games are games you should have won. Arkansas was not a very good football team last year, middle of the road; lose that game at home. Lose to Alabama, sure you keep it close; close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. You can keep it close with Florida, and you can keep it close with Alabama every year, but if you’re coming out with a loss it’s not changing anything.
Andrew: Yes. I agree on every bit of what you just said. Not an impressive win last year, whatever. You’re not impressive. Again, your stats against top ranked teams are there. You can’t deny stats. So I’m going to move on to Josh Dobbs. Everyone wants to say, excuse me, not everyone. A couple people want to say Josh Dobbs is a Heisman candidate. Where? Listen to these stats last year. 2,200 yard passing, 15 touchdowns, five picks. 15 touchdowns? Come on. He’s averaging 163 yards passing per game. Treon Harris does that. What are you doing? Where is this hype train coming from? I don’t know it. Tennessee fans are delusional. They’re crazy. I get this question all the time. How does Tennessee fans hype up a good season when they’ve lost 11 straight to Florida, five straight to the University of Alabama? What are you arguing about? What are you talking about?
Nick: Yeah. So Josh Dobbs averaged last year 127 yards per game. That is nine more yards than Treon Harris averaged.
Andrew: It’s ridiculous. 163 yards per game, not passing, that was total. That was rushing, yada, yada.
Nick: I’m looking at passing, just passing.
Andrew: I was saying he averaged 163 yards, total yards.
Nick: Yeah. Josh Dobbs averaged 127 passing yards last year, with a very good and experienced receiving core. Treon Harris, with not an experienced receiving core, averaged 118 passing.
Andrew: Let’s go to receiving. Vonn Peterson had 400 yards receiving. Josh Long, 400 yards receiving. That’s Demarcus Robinson. That is Antonio Callaway. That’s those guys. Antonio Callaway, in my opinion, is one of the best, but that’s Florida football numbers under Will Muschamp. Three touchdowns, two touchdowns. No. I’m sorry. Get out of here. Tennessee rant over. Let’s go to Georgia for just a second, because we got plenty more to talk about, and my blood pressure’s rising quickly. Georgia, get out of here. Who’s your quarterback?
Nick: You don’t know. I mean, you have Grayson Lambert come back.
Andrew: We’ve all seen how that showed last year.
Nick: Yeah. So you look at that, and you say, we have a guy who will be a senior coming back. Bryce Ramsey will be a junior.
Andrew: That ain’t working out.
Nick: Fatone, I don’t even remember how to say it, he came in and played against Florida, that can’t happen.
Andrew: He went to Colorado State.
Nick: Okay. Then you’ve got the prize of last recruiting class. Do you start a freshman right away? I don’t know.
Andrew: If you start a freshman, can you really and truly believe he is going to week in and week out? Jacob Eason is a once in five, 10 year quarterback. He’s going to be a superstar for Georgia, but you can’t say, what’d you tell me? 15th? 16th?
Nick: Georgia is 17.
Andrew: 17th.
Nick: Before we get to that, I think LSU might be a little high.
Andrew: LSU is way too high.
Nick: I like the defense. LSU, but you can put LSU at 9, because their style, they have what they need. They have a good offensive line, two powerful running backs, and a very good defense. So LSU can beat you by playing their game, and forcing you to play their game. Ole Miss, you lost a lot, but you get your quarterback back. You still have some receivers there. Can you get a running game going?
Andrew: Can they get over the off season battles they’re going through right now?
Nick: Lot of drama going around, swirling around that program.
Andrew: No offensive line, let’s remember that. Offensive line is shattered losing three starters.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: I don’t know. This is my thing, LSU overrated as all get out. It’s Leonard Fournette or nobody. Georgia, get out of here. That ain’t happening. Tennessee, you guys know how I feel on Tennessee. Ole Miss, we’ll see.
Nick: We’ll get Barrett on here soon, and you and him can talk Tennessee.
Andrew: We’ll talk. We’ll talk Tennessee, and then we can talk Braves, so we can leave still on friendship terms. Here’s my thing. It’s preseason poll, whatever. Give the teams credit who’ve done something last year. That is Alabama. That is Florida, in the SEC. Those teams played in the SEC Championship game. Florida, in my opinion, is a top 15, probably 10-15, 10-17, team in the country. Lot of question marks at quarterback. Good defensive returns. Good running game returns. You still got Callaway, that kind of stuff, there. Get out of here with the Tennessee talk.
Let’s move on though, Nick. Let’s talk a little satellite camp real quick. Put this up on the site on Sunday, but so far 12 satellite camps have been confirmed by myself around the country. To give out a little bit of where they are, June 3-4 they’re going to Mercer. That’s in Savannah, Georgia. The 8th, June 8, they’re going to Trinity Christian. June 9-10 they’re going to Stockbridge, Georgia for a camp. June 12, they got three camps that day, and we’ll talk about how that’s possible in just a second. They’re going to Detroit, Michigan. They’re going to Tampa, Florida, and they’re going to Norfolk, Virginia. The 14th they’re going to Valdosta.
Nick: Norfolk.
Andrew: Norfolk. June 14they’re going to Valdosta, Georgia. The 15th they’re in Atlanta. June 17, Pensacola and Mobile, and then sometime in June they’re going to Dallas and to Houston for camps. So basically, how this is all possible is not every coach goes to every camp. You’re going to see, as you can look at this, Jacksonville, Trinity Christian, they’re going there for Shawn Wade. Mobile, they’re going for the Mobile kids, the couple guys. Every camp they’re going at they basically have a big name target at that position, or at that camp, that they want, either 2017 or 2018, or else it’s a very big recruiting area, Jacksonville, Tampa, etc. They will be sending the area recruiter for that area, position coach for that particular player they want, recruiting guys there. So, every camp will not have every coaching staff there. Jacksonville probably will have every coach there, but that’s how it’s possible. 12 camps, spread out all over. McElwain’s doing it right, in my opinion. If they’re going to do these satellite camps, have a camp at your top target’s school, and recruit that guy. Look at Pensacola. They’re doing that for one player, Alex Leatherwood. Of course, there will be other guys there. You look at Detroit, they’re doing that for Donovan Peoples Jones and Jordan Reed. Mac’s doing a good job.
Nick: Yeah. That gets into, I think that was the important part is that we talked on our last podcast that Florida’s not hosting these camps. Mercer reaches out. We would love to have you guys here; it’s going to raise exposure for us, and Florida says, let’s see what we have going on. Who do you have coming already? You don’t really have a defensive line coach. We can send Chris Rumph to that. That way you can say, Florida’s represented.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: You have Florida represented in the same day at five different camps. You send one coach to five different camps.
Andrew: Right. Let’s also be honest here. We’re not going to lie. We’re not going to misrepresent anything. Of course Florida reaches out to some of these schools and are like, we’d be interested in coming to your camp. We’d be interested in coming here. That’s not illegal, as long as they’re being hosted by someone else.
Nick: Right. As we said, these camps are used as recruiting tools.
Andrew: It got out of hand. We knew it would.
Nick: It’s going to get wild, and then it’s going to get to the point where it’s just we get back to banning it. The NCAA is going to be like, this is not what we thought it was.
Andrew: Outside looking in, give me your impression of that camp schedule I just gave you.
Nick: Outside looking in, I think there’s areas that Florida has to, has to, hit, and you are. Jacksonville, Trinity Christian, have to hit that. Tampa, have to hit the Tampa area. I would have liked to see maybe a south Florida camp. I know Florida had talked about, or there had been some discussion about going down to south Florida.
Andrew: Let’s be honest. I mean, let’s be fair in saying, they may still be doing a south Florida camp. It’s possible. For right now, you and I can’t confirm where it’s going to be, if it’s for sure taking place, that stuff. Probably still happens, as of May 16 we don’t know.
Nick: Yeah. Then you look at Stockbridge, Georgia. You look at Valdosta. You’re hitting southern Georgia; you need to. Mac’s talked about that six hour window around Gainesville you want to lock in and focus in on. Then the ones that are interesting to me are, three that are really interesting to me is Norfolk, Virginia. There are some talented players in that Virginia, DC area. You talk about Joe Haden. You’ve got Jalen Tabor. There’s some talented kids there to go in and see them. Then the two that really stick out to me, obviously, Dallas and Houston in Texas. Go find a quarterback.
Andrew: Tyrie Cleveland.
Nick: Yeah. For some reason Texas A&M, for a couple years after Sumlin got there, just had a tree that they were plucking 6’5” wide receivers who can go get it off of. Go find one of those boys.
Andrew: Right. That’s what I’m saying. The Virginia camp, it’s easy. Torrian Gray’s there. Coach DeBastini, the quality control guy, used to be at Norfolk, Virginia, or Norfolk State, so there’s plenty of talent there, always is in that DMV, the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Devon Hunter being one of the main guys in that area. Once again, recruiting camp in a particular place, who’s that top target? Why is Florida going there? Devon Hunter at Virginia. My thing is this. This is an opportunity for Florida during the quiet period of going on the road they’re getting face to face time with their number one targets. You look at it. Trinity Christian, Shawn Wade. Detroit, Donovan Peoples Jones. I can go on and on. You want to talk this smack, Michigan, Ohio State, schools up north, be prepared. The SEC always does it bigger, and they found a way.
Nick: The SEC’s motto should be…
Andrew: Are you sure you want it?
Nick: Don’t mess with the bull if you don’t want the horns. I think you kind of poked and prodded at the SEC a little too much, and they’re going to do it as big, if not bigger, than you will be able to do it. You’ve got Michigan talking about going to Australia. Nick Saban and Jim McElwain are probably laughing. Go find a rugby style kicker. Enjoy that. We’ll be in Detroit with Donovan Peoples Jones. Enjoy that trip.
Andrew: Do that while we’re sitting down here and finding the next Leonard Fournette, the next Derrick Henry, while you’re up there finding your next kicker. Whatever. Remember, we’ll find this out in a couple weeks, but the SEC has the most money, and they spend it. You piss them off, you got the horns. So here it is. Nick, we promised we would answer a few questions. We ran this podcast way longer. We thought we were going to be struggling for ideas, but Tennessee on the card, never struggling. Let me ask a couple questions real quick. First one that we got comes from our boy, DK, Dan Thompson, most important player next year, not necessarily the best. Go ahead. I’ll let you answer first.
Nick: If it’s me, and you have to nail it down to one player, I think a better question would be position group, but if it’s one player, then you have to look at quarterback, and you look at Luke Del Rio. You see what Florida was able to do with Will Grier last year for the first six games, and then what happened when you take away that piece and take away that stability, and how things just completely crumbled. To me, really you’re looking at Luke Del Rio. What does he do? How effective can he be? That’s where you’re looking.
Andrew: I’m going to throw a curve ball, Martez Ivey.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: Most important player for me is Martez Ivey. He makes your offensive line go from just okay to really good. Not because Martez Ivey is the greatest thing. He’s a very good player. You don’t have a fifth offensive lineman that is capable of winning SEC football games without Martez Ivey. That’s my guy. Agree?
Nick: That makes sense. I put the whole…
Andrew: Quarterback’s a good pick.
Nick: I would probably say the whole offensive line, rather than just picking one out, but you made your case. You said Martez Ivey, and I was like, eh. Then you made your case, and I say, I see it.
Andrew: I mean, you know Sharpe’s going to be there. You know Cam Dillard, Tyler Jordan, and Fred Johnson. Those four guys are playing. They’re playing. I don’t know what you have over there as far as questions go.
Nick: I wanted to answer one. This’ll be quick.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: It is from my boy, Phil Ray, who’s been following along with baseball with me pretty much on a regular basis. He asked a couple.
Andrew: Tell him to chill out real quick. First of all, tell him to chill out, because he got on me the other day because I didn’t answer a question in like five seconds.
Nick: You guys can handle that.
Andrew: I know, but I’m talking to him right now. Phil Ray, chill bro. Chill.
Nick: He says, how long do you think Pete Alonso will be out with his hand? I think best case scenario with Pete is going to be if you can get him back for a regional. There was really just too much swelling for them to even make a decision about anything over the weekend. So he was supposed to go in today, on Monday, and hoping to get an update as soon as possible on that, Tuesday, Wednesday, but it’ll be a regional or a super regional earliest for him.
Andrew: Real quick, I know what you got. On Sunday’s telecast, late on Sunday, they said he was going to a doctor Tuesday afternoon for a hand specialist, so I’m not sure if that changed, or what, but anyway. One question, I’ll hit on it real quick, and then we’ll get out of here. Gators JakeRNDA3 on Twitter said, is the Detroit satellite camp big for Don People Jones? Hell, yeah. Florida goes out to your place, sees you. Florida can say, we made this camp for you, so good for him. That’s cool. I think it’ll be big there. That’s what I say there. These camps are big, because you get face to face time. Nick, tell the people where they can find us. We’ll see you guys Thursday or Friday, depending on schedule. One of the days we’ll see you. Tell the people where they can find us, and we’ll get out of here.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. It is also GatorCountry on Twitter, GatorCountry on Facebook. TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He is @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. Follow along. It’ll be a big weekend for Florida, finishing up the weekend and the season at LSU. That’s a tough place to play, Alex Box. You and I took in about an hour of their practice when we were down there for the LSU game last fall. Beautiful stadium. Girls, obviously, hosting their regional. We’ll have a preview of that coming up, and that it is. That’s all I got for you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for lasting this long, and if you tuned out because we started talking baseball, you missed a Tennessee rant. Got to start following and listening through the baseball and softball.
Andrew: Got to, because always got to have a Tennessee rant. Nick, that’s all. Watching LSU baseball, if people don’t get the chance to go see Alex Box Stadium, they need to mark if off the bucket list. You and I enjoyed the hell out of it. It’s fun. Check it out there. As always guys, go Braves, and chomp, chomp.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.