Florida Gators podcast recapping first spring scrimmage

This GatorCountry podcast recaps the Florida Gators first spring football scrimmage as we update who did well and who didn’t perform well at practice on Saturday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre talk about who has done well so far this spring, plus we recap how the Florida Gators recruiting weekend went this past Saturday as the Gators hosted a lot of prospects.

Andrew and Nick also recap how the Florida Gators softball and baseball teams did this past weekend in key SEC series’ at home.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. What’s up, Nicholas?

Nick:​What’s going on? It is busy week again. Lot of stuff going on for the Florida Gators. Football, baseball, softball, LAX, lots going on.

Andrew:​You know what today is, Nick? Well, you know what Sunday was, Nicholas?

Nick:​What was that?

Andrew:​Sweep Sunday.

Nick:​It was.

Andrew:​It was Sweep Sunday. It was sweeps all around. Gator softball, Gator baseball both took care of business. Baseball pretty much handles Missouri all weekend, and then Gator softball just shut down Tennessee. A combined two runs scored all weekend for Tennessee. Gator bats were a little cold this weekend, but Tennessee does always usually pitch Florida really well, but at the end of the day, Gator softball is 30-1, and baseball is what? 27-1, 26-1?

Nick:​No. Baseball is 22-1.

Andrew:​22-1. Okay. Not too bad.

Nick:​I know both teams, Florida’s been a unanimous #1 all year in baseball. Softball hasn’t been unanimous. I don’t know how, but it hasn’t been unanimous, but they’ve been the #1 team consensus wise. I know with that comes expectations, and you should beat so-and-so. You should beat this team. What I think a lot of people maybe miss is that both softball and baseball have really long seasons, and it’s a sport, baseball specifically, that is, baseball’s just a game of failure and how you deal with failure. To me, the way that both teams have started is extraordinary, and I don’t understand how you can complain really about either team. Florida lost one game down at Miami. Auburn was the #3 team in the country?

Andrew:​Yeah. 3 team in the country, at Auburn.

Nick:​Auburn was the #3 team in the country and at home. So Florida, both softball and baseball are undefeated at home. They’ve each dropped on game to a top ten opponent.

Andrew:​On the road.

Nick:​Just, as a fan, I don’t understand getting angry when your
team is doing, when the team you follow is doing this well. You’re not the coach. You don’t have to make calls and plays. There’s no pressure on you. When your team is doing so well, why complain? We left four runners on base today. They suck. Why not just say, damn, they’ve taken me on a really cool ride this first month of the season, this is really enjoyable?

Andrew:​It’s not even so much that it’s the complaining about the teams. A bad call, whatever, it is what it is. For instance, I had someone on Saturday tell me Kelsey Stewart’s awful in the field this year. Really? She has four errors in 31 games. Really? At a new position, four errors in 31 games. Last time I checked that’s like, I believe it was a .960 fielding percentage is what she has. Last time I checked that wins a gold glove in baseball. Then Sunday have a guy in softball, he says, “This team just doesn’t hit well, not very good. The talent is what’s making this team good.” Sure the talent’s what’s making this team good, but when a #16 team in the country, Tennessee, comes into your place, scores two runs off of one hit on Saturday, two runs over a three game series, you’re the better team that series, whether you score 50 runs, 10 runs, five runs, whatever it may be. At the end of the day, you’re 30-1. Get over it.

Nick:​I think both teams have really defended and proved that ranking, the accolades and the expectations through this point of the season. Florida put seven runs, six runs, on Tanner Hauck of Missouri, who was two thirds of a no-hitter, along with A.J. Puk, last year when Team USA, Team USA Collegiate, no hit Cuba. He’s going to play with Team USA again this summer. He’s going to be a first round pick in two years. Only a sophomore now. I don’t see anything to complain about on either diamond, softball or baseball.
Andrew:​Here’s the thing. Now, and you’ll agree with this. I mean, there’s always improvement. You know what I mean? Softball, are they hitting as well as they did last year? Probably not. Are they hitting the homerun ball as much as they were last year? No, but they also lost one of the top five homerun hitters of all time in Lauren Haeger. It’s a different team, for sure. Let’s also remember you have, let’s see, one, two, three, you have five new girls in the lineup that did not start regularly last year for this team. They’re 30-1 while doing that. Come on now.
Nick:​Another thing that gets lost, or maybe taken for granted, is just how hard it is to sweep. It’s really hard to go and beat a team three times in a row. On Sunday Florida got out to a 5-1 lead, and it would have been easy for Missouri to pack up shop. Let’s go get some sandwiches after the game and go back home, but they didn’t. They put up a four spot in the sixth, really battled back, and when you’re a team like both softball and baseball where you’ve been #1 since the start of the season, since preseason, everybody’s gunning for you. To be able to go out with the weight of those expectations on your back and continue to perform and win games. Sweeping is not easy, and there’s no better conference in the country in softball or baseball than the SEC, so it’s tough to do, and both teams, minus one series, have done it all year long.

Andrew:​I believe both teams have nine, I mean both sports have nine SEC teams ranked. I know softball does. Does baseball still have nine, or is it eight now?

Nick:​I’d have to check.

Andrew:​It’s either eight or nine ranked. So when you look at that, I’m a baseball guy, Nick. You’re a baseball guy too. I love baseball. I hate to say it. I love baseball more than football. It’s just what I do. You look at a team, I mean, a Major League team that goes 90-60 is the best team in baseball in Major League baseball sometimes. You’re talking about a team that I don’t even know what a 30-1 or 22-1 winning percentage is. It’s very high, and you’re pissed? This could go back to football where you’re 4-8.
Nick:​Look at, I couldn’t even imagine what fans who have been upset with the baseball team would think. LSU right now, one of the best teams in the conference, is 14-5. 1-2 in the SEC, just lost a weekend series to Alabama. Alabama’s 13-6. I couldn’t even imagine what fans would be saying if Florida had five losses right now.

Andrew:​Yeah. Exactly. Good question. I really could not tell you what is going on. If you’re in my Twitter, you’re in the message board, and you’re complaining about it, I’m not holding back. Get over it. You know, Nick, it’s this way. It’s like you give your opinion, and if someone gives you an opinion back, don’t get upset. I’m really talking to the guy on Twitter who came up on my Facebook threatening me.

Nick:​Just got you up in your feelings.

Andrew:​He did get up in my feelings. On Saturday there was a couple other things going on. Football had a scrimmage/practice. I don’t know really what to call it, because it wasn’t a scrimmage, but it did have…

Nick:​It’s more of a practice, but you’re putting a little more emphasis on live situational drills. So when you’re going through a normal spring practice, we’re going to work three different periods today of 3rd and long, or goal line, red zone, hurry up. So you work these different situations. Then Saturday it’s kind of like, remember the four practices we worked on these three different things? We’re going to go full pads, full hitting 11 on 11 mixing those up. So it’s kind of like we’ve worked on Lesson Plan A, B, and C separately, and now we’re going to do them all together.

Andrew:​Yeah. I know in fall camp when I was coaching we would do that on Fridays where it would be like a scripted scrimmage of we’re going to run these plays on 3rd down. We’re going to get these situations on 3rd down, no matter what. That’s what we’re going to do. So I knew that’s kind of what it was. I guess it was kind of like that. We posted this on Gator Country. Mark Thompson was there with Jordan Cronkrite. They were the only two running backs. Jordan Scarlett sat out with a hamstring injury, but everything you and I have heard, Nick, is that Cronkrite really kind of stole the show a little bit on Saturday. Had a really good outing, including taking the first play of scrimmage to the house. So that’s big for Cronkrite, as he moves into his sophomore year. I think he might have been the forgotten guy really in a lot of people’s minds, as everyone was saying it’s going to either be Thompson or Scarlett is going to have that breakout year. They kind of forgot about the best freshman running back last year, and that was Cronkrite.

Nick:​I think Cronkrite, some people have talked about maybe moving him to safety, and that was something maybe talked about even before he got to Florida, before his freshman year, so maybe that plays into it some there. With Cronkrite I think it’s right now about just grabbing opportunity. All three guys, no disrespect to Mark Herndon, all three guys, both Jordans and Mark Thompson, have an opportunity to win the starting job, and only one guy can do it. We’ve talked about, and you and I might disagree, I really think that Florida and Jim McElwain will lean on one guy that will get more than 60% of the carries, and it’s really going to come down to one of those three guys. Good for Cronkrite to see the opportunity. One of the three, half of my competition, it’s me against two guys, and one of them is not even here today. Let’s go out and have the best day possible, take advantage of this opportunity.

Andrew:​I know what you’re saying, and the numbers do back it up that Mac goes primarily with one guy. I think you need to go into the year with two guys being the stable horse, and your other guy being your guy. Kind of how it was with Kelvin and Cronkrite for most of the year. Then Scarlett being that other guy. I think that’s what it needs to be. We heard some things about Mark Thompson. He didn’t have the best of days, was maybe not playing behind is pads as much. For me, that was the biggest thing going into spring was how Mark Thompson’s game was going to translate from Juco ball to SEC ball. It’s easier to run over a Juco linebacker that isn’t as good as you are. When you come to SEC ball, and now you’ve got Alex Anzalone, Jarrad Davis, the Reggie Ragland’s of Alabama, those guys, you’re having to run over those guys. It’s a different story. It’ll be interesting for me to see was this a onetime deal with Mark Thompson, or is this something that’s continuing on a lot?

Nick:​The thing that I really harped on, and I think it came from the couple times I’ve talked to Mark, specifically the time we had him on the podcast, not necessarily what he said on the podcast. We talk to guys like a little preshow thing just to get ready for the show. What really stuck out to me was how he talked about being focused and wanting to come in and be ready. To me, I kind of took that to heart, and maybe you start for a little while. You start seeing your notifications on Twitter start popping up, and everybody’s rubbing your belly, and you feel good. Maybe a practice where someone younger than you, another player at your position, got the better of you that day will light a fire under your ass.

Andrew:​It’s kind of like you said. Scarlett and Cronkrite are taking away carries from his, I mean, I’ll call it what it is, his pay year. This is when he’s going to get paid.

Nick:​There’s no, if you’re a Division I running back, there’s no, right now, really no incentive to stay in school for your senior year. Mark Thompson’s plan is one and done. Sure, he’ll love Gator fans, love Gator Nation, probably love the university, but he doesn’t want to spend two years here. In Mark Thompson’s mind, his mindset coming in was this is my year. Run for 8,000 yards, 400 touchdowns, and get out of here. So maybe Saturday and seeing Cronkrite get the first snap, seeing Cronk have a great day, maybe that’ll say I got to do more than just show up. It’s not going to be handed to me because I’m older. I got to make sure I’m earning it every day.

Andrew:​Now, let’s say this as well. This was one practice, one practice.

Nick:​It was.

Andrew:​Let’s not make, you and I are talking about this, but I know someone’s going to come back, and they’re going to say, Mark Thomson is garbage. Mark Thomson’s having a terrible spring. That’s not what we’re saying. One scrimmage, situational practice. We’re just saying let’s hope it doesn’t go to multiple practices. That’s all I’m saying.
​Let’s more real quick to receiver a little bit. This isn’t as surprising to me. It may surprise you. I would doubt if it surprises you, but the two freshmen stole the show on Saturday at receiver, Hammond and Swain. I don’t think that surprises you at all, right? That doesn’t surprise me.

Nick:​Not at all.

Andrew:​My biggest thing for those, those guys, is this. I think it shows what Mac and Company knew heading into this recruiting class of 2016 is that they needed players. They went to get some instant impact guys. They got two. They have Massey as another one. I don’t really consider him, he’s not a freshman. He’s a junior. Maybe even the best player of that group, Tyrie Cleveland, is not there yet. This ended up being a pretty good recruiting class, if those two guys are able to maybe play next year with Callaway. That’s a very big step for Florida at the receiver position.

Nick:​It’s the same story over and over again, and every off season it’s you can’t get less production from them, or somebody has to step up. The guys that have been here haven’t done it in three years, two years, there’s some younger guys that are doing it. So, sorry, not sorry. You’ve had your change. You’ve had multiple years to step up. You haven’t. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing is given to you because you’re a junior, because you’re a redshirt sophomore, because you’re a redshirt junior, in this program. If these guys who are freshmen or a junior college guy like Dre Massey, comes in, and they’re getting the job done, sorry. They’re going to play, and that’s how it should be. That’s how it should be at every position. I think it’s kind of more magnified at receiver, because outside of Antonio Callaway coming back you don’t have any production. You’ve got nothing coming back at wide receiver production wise. Looking at Sosa, Worton, Bailey, Fulwood. You’ve got nothing coming back production wise from those guys, so why not let the freshmen try?

Andrew:​Those guys have had opportunity after opportunity.

Nick:​Years. Years of opportunity.

Andrew:​Right. Here’s the thing. You and I talked about this when Mac got the job. Mac had to retool the offense, overhaul. He had to start from scratch, overhaul the positions, and, quite frankly, maybe next year you’re looking at the top three, four receivers on the team all being guys Mac brought in, with guys like Callaway, Hammond, Swain, Massey being the top four receivers out of Mac’s class, Kerry Dixon’s class. My thing is I don’t see it as a bad thing. I see it as, hell, those two freshmen have stepped up, grabbed the bull by the horns, and playing ball. You and I both have had the chance to see Hammond and Swain multiple times, and neither one of those guys are shy from competition at all, so it doesn’t surprise me.

Nick:​No. No, and I think that is Jim McElwain talked about it last week, and it was he was asked specifically about in recruiting how much do you put into guys doing well at camps, whether it’s a 7 on 7, or the Opening, or the Under Armour, or an All-Star game? Mac said, more so than what they’re doing on the field production or anything like that, I’m looking to see how they’re handling that pressure, because each of those opportunities, when you’re being recruited every time you step on the field you’re adding something to your resume, good or bad.
So to be able to handle that pressure is what Jim McElwain said he looks at the most, because when you come in, and you’re a freshman, and when you’re a young player, even a senior, you’re going to deal with pressure, and a lot of your success at a school like Florida, obviously talent, but a lot of the success is going to be how you handle, how you internalize and deal and process with that kind of pressure. Does it slow you down? Does it make you think more, or can you internalize it, deal with it? Does it make you better?

Andrew:​I’ll say it now. The big quarterback last spring was Dylan Sterling-Cole from Texas. He goes out to the Opening, is quite frankly a jerk to his coaches, was forgetful of his clothes. He lost his football. He fell asleep in a meeting room. That stuff got back to Mac, Nussmeier, and the crew, they quit recruiting him. In my opinion, I want to know that before he gets on my campus and becomes a turd on my campus.
Here’s the thing. Do I believe in these 7 on 7 tournaments? Not really, because I think a guy like Sam Bruce, there’s some guys that are just dominating in 7 on 7, and then when the field, goes to put the pads on, that kind of stuff, they’re not as good, but I do like to see those guys do well. If a guy just goes out there and doesn’t do well, or shows up as a turd, that kind of stuff, for me that’s character concerns. I really like that, and I like that Mac is vocal about that as well. I mean, in my opinion a competitor goes out to win everything. I mean, Nick, I think you would agree. If I’m playing chess, I want to win. I think that’s what you want to see out of some of these guys that Mac’s recruiting.

Nick:​I think that is using those big events. I think using those big events is a good way to gauge that. Everything in recruiting is projection, but I think when you’re talking about some of those things…

Andrew:​You can minimize the concerns if you do all your homework.

Nick:​Right. Because if a guy shows up as a jackass somewhere, we know that. We don’t want that kind of behavior back with us. We don’t want that kind of behavior in our locker room.

Andrew:​Right. Your true colors always show. I kind of go back to Draft Day, the movie. They asked the quarterback, they were like, “Why did none of your teammates attend your birthday party?” I heard some people laugh about that, and I’m sitting here thinking, the star quarterback, and his buddies don’t go to his thing, that probably tells me he’s a jackass.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​Let’s go back to the scrimmage/practice/whatever we want to call it. Let’s hit on quarterbacks real quick. You and I continue to hear Del Rio has got the leg up, is the better of the four quarterbacks right now, and the two freshmen also did really well. I hate to do this, because I feel like I’m leaving Appleby out, but Appleby is what he is. He came in to be a veteran backup, and that’s what he is.

Nick:​A guy to help the freshmen as well.

Andrew:​Right. So I hate to say he did bad, because he didn’t do bad. He did what he was brought into to do. Anyway, the two freshmen and Del Rio were the guys that kind of stood out on Saturday.

Nick:​Something catastrophic, something unbelievable will have to happen in my mind for Luke Del Rio not to be the starting quarterback next year. To me, everyone I’ve spoken to around the program feels better about the quarterback position right now with Del Rio running the show than they felt last year with Treon Harris and Will Grier, and Will Grier had very good success before his suspension. So I think to say that the team and the guys that Del Rio’s going to be asked to lead, the guys that he’s being asked to lead already have confidence in him, even before spring started, just seeing how he approached practice during a year where he knew he wasn’t going to be able to play, how he approached meetings. Still was able to be a good teammate.
It’s hard to be a good person and to be a good teammate when you’re doing everything that the team is doing, all of the stuff that kind of sucks, the early wake up and running and lifting early, cramming in a sandwich while you run from a football meeting to make it to class on time, knowing that as soon as class is over you’ll have to get back to a meeting. Then go do homework and sleep. You can start to think, what am I doing it for? I don’t even get to play on Sunday. I think he earned the respect by being a good teammate while having to deal with those things.
To me, that’s your starter. Then my question is, it’s happened before with Florida, if Del Rio gets hurt, then who comes in? I still think Austin Appleby is your second guy, but then you start to get into situations where where does Del Rio get hurt? At what point of the season? How serious it? What’s your record? Where are you in the standings? Is it a thing where he’s done for the year, or he’s going to miss one week, we need to figure out who’s going to give us a chance to win? I think he’s going to miss one week, he’ll be back, you go with Austin Appleby, because you’re gauging long term program, we’d still like to have both freshmen redshirt. I’m of the opinion right now that if Del Rio were to get hurt early in the year, season ending after Game 3, that Florida would probably turn it over to a freshman, and say, Austin, thank you, but we’re thinking long term with our team. I right now think one of the freshmen would give you as good of a chance to win as Appleby, and then you’re also getting a younger guy that experience.

Andrew:​Right. I agree with that. That’s a good point as well. I’m like you. I’ve been told a lot of positive things about Del Rio, that Del Rio is further along than Grier was at this point last year, and I flat out asked someone that knows what they’re talking about, and I said, “Is Del Rio long term better than Grier?” They said, “In my opinion, yes.” They responded, “Now, Grier looked like dog shit last year this spring, last year in the spring.” So we’ll see where it goes. The title game manager goes perfect with Del Rio. He’s a football coach on the field. You can guarantee he’s going to know where everyone is supposed to be and help out with that. That’s what you want out of your quarterback for there.
​Let’s hit on offensive line real quick. Tyler Jordan, you and I both, we thought he was going to be a center, but the reviews are that he’s doing really good, dominating at times at guard. It looks like his home could stick at guard forever now. I don’t know how much of a shock that is after what we saw last year, but I’m glad for Tyler. I think that’s good. Tyler’s going to work hard and going to be prepared.

Nick:​I really think he could be someone like, maybe someone like a Max Garcia.

Andrew:​He reminds me of Ryan Kelly, for some reason, at Alabama, who was a four year starter. He redshirted his freshman year and played, and he bumped from guard to center all throughout his career.

Nick:​That’s kind of what I was going to get at where Max kind of played all over the place. I don’t see Tyler playing tackle, but kind of bouncing all over the place, and then it came a time where you had so much trust in him as a player that you said, I know you’ve done this, but now we need you to do that. Can you do that for us? I can see Tyler Jordan playing guard his sophomore year, junior year, and then maybe senior year comes along, and Florida needs him at center. You say, we need you to bump over to center, or maybe even this year in spots. If Florida still goes with a rotation, we’re going to leave Tyler in there. We’re going to slide in Buchanan, or we’re going to slide in Riles. We want to put them at right guard. Let’s take Dillard out, take TJ McCoy out, and let’s bump Tyler over, because we trust him there.
I just think what Tyler’s doing right now, more so than how well he’s playing, is I think he’s building a trust with the coaching staff where they’re not worried about him. There’s guys on your football team where you get out to the field on Saturday, and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You’re thinking, I hope he has a good day today. Tyler Jordan is turning into a guy where the coaching staff kind of just writes you off as he’s going to play well today. We got to worry about these other guys though.

Andrew:​The next person I want to talk about is Fred Johnson. What I keep hearing, you keep hearing, is that he has every bit of tools to be a very good football player, he just progresses slower. He’s a guy that hasn’t played the position a long time, so he’s progressing slower. Nick, you were around when Rod was a freshman as well, and Rod was the same way, Rod Johnson. Had all the tools in the world. I had a former coach tell me that he was a first round draft pick potential. I remember telling him, I was like, who the hell are you talking about? This kid, Rod Johnson? This kid that didn’t look good in high school? He was like, his tools are there, he just needs to be coached up.

Nick:​Like Rod, I don’t want to interrupt you, but like Rod, both Rod and Fred were relatively new to football when they got to Florida.

Andrew:​They’re both the same kind of body build, long. Rod’s not 6’6”, 6’7”, whatever Fred is, but he’s long, didn’t fill out until later, and that’s kind of what Fred is.

Nick:​I think Fred Johnson is 9’12”.

Andrew:​He’s bigger than the Stone Wall, you say.

Nick:​Fred Johnson is 9’12” and weighs roughly a small Central American village. That’s, I think, what his stats say online. That’s what it is. I think we might have touched on it earlier, but it’s kind of you start to see, when you see him play last year, and you see the potential, he has the potential, but you kind of forget that he’s coming in late. He’s only made one start last year, so he wasn’t asked to do as much. Now it’s kind of, here’s that plate that was a quarter full last year. We just filled it, and it’s got a little mountain on top. There’s a little heaping serving of stuff that we’re going to be asking you to do. So it’s now instead of just only playing 20 snaps a game, 30 snaps a game, it’s we might need you to play the entire game. This is what people are going to start doing to you based on your size, and based on what you put on film last year. They’re going to attack your weaknesses, so we need to really hammer in your weaknesses right now.
That’s a lot for a guy that’s still learning football, still learning techniques, still learning the position, to kind of manage all of those things. I do think he’ll get it. It’s just going a little bit slower right now than the coaches might like, but this is the time, if you’re going to slow develop, this is the time, spring, to be able to go a little bit slower. You’re not, first game is months away. Right now you’re working on you. You’re not game planning for an opponent. This is the time to really hammer those things out.

Andrew:​Right. That’s a good point. You’re working on the fundamentals of getting better as a player, and then you can start to learn, not the playbook, but learn the game plan, that kind of stuff.
​
This week is kind of a busy week for Florida. Monday and Wednesday are practice, and then Thursday they are having an actual scrimmage. Jake Allen, quarterback commit, says he’s coming into town for that, and then I don’t think they go on Friday. Do you know right off the top of your head if they go on Friday? I believe it was just Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Nick:​I think it’s Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and I think the Wednesday practice to us will be really slim, because you’re getting ready for the next day.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​Then the day after a scrimmage Florida always uses that day off. One, rest the body. Two, we’re going to go, and we’re going to sit in a dark room with that game film on, and we’re going to go over and over everything you did right, wrong, what we need to get better, what you were doing well. You go over everything. So I don’t think Friday will be a practice. It’ll be a classroom day.

Andrew:​Then it’s Easter weekend, so they’re off the weekend. They may have a three day weekend. I’d have to check on that, but I’m almost 100% sure I was told they’re off Friday as well.

Nick:​Yeah. I’m looking at our schedule right now. They are going Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week.

Andrew:​That’s right. So that’ll be there.

Nick:​I’m sorry. Tuesday is not practice. Tuesday is Pro Day.

Andrew:​Tuesday is Pro Day. That’s right. Some prospects came into town this weekend, Nick. One of the top DBs in the country, Deangelo Gibbs from Georgia, came in. Got his first chance to meet Torrian Gray. Had a great visit with Torrian Gray. To say how good Torrian Gray is doing in recruiting would be an understatement. Every DB you talk to that he wants they’re saying we talk to Gray every day from either social media, over the phone, whatever it may be. They’re talking to Gray. I hate to rip on Callahan, because he’s such a good guy, but that’s what happened last year is they lost that. You have some great recruiters on staff, and then you add Gray, and that’s paying dividends.
It especially paid dividends with Gibbs this weekend. Like I said, he had a great visit. He said Florida is one of his top choices heading into more spring visits. He hopes to come back for the spring game, and that’d be huge. Florida needs those DBs this class. One thing else I learned this weekend is Gray wants DBs that can play both safety and corner, so he can rotate those guys in a lot. I thought that was very interesting.

Nick:​That’s interesting, because when you think of kind of the guys that Florida has had maybe one or two guys on the roster at a time, but you’ve always had guys, Janoris Jenkins, Joe Haden, Vernon, Quincy, Jalen, you’re not thinking about moving them. They’re so good at that one spot. So, to me, that’s interesting.

Andrew:​I think they’ll go after those big time cornerbacks, but I think when you’re starting to look at your two and three guy you would like those guys to be able to rotate a little bit, like a Chauncey Gardner, like a Duke Dawson.

Nick:​I was going to say, Chauncey’s a guy that can do both. Duke’s a guy that’s done both. Marcus Maye has kind of done both, in a different role, not really outside corner, but in a different role playing dime and stuff like that. Interesting to me, and I didn’t mean to say like, sorry, if you’re a five star corner who’s not interested in playing safety, Torrian Gray’s not interested in you. I didn’t mean it like that.

Andrew:​No. I know what you meant. I was just I saying think…

Nick:​Gray would have called Vernon Hargreaves. “Vernon, you want to play some safety?” “No, I don’t, Coach.” “Alright, well you don’t have an offer from Florida.” It’s not going to be that situation.

Andrew:​No, you’re right. I did, I thought that was very interesting. Another big target that was on campus on Friday was Zach Carter, the defensive end from Tampa. He doesn’t name a leader. In my opinion Florida is the leader by a good margin over Clemson. Did say he’s going to bump his decision up a little bit and may announce now in the summer or the fall. That’s great for Florida, because Tampa area is loaded with recruits. Then also, Latavious Brini, the cornerback from down in south Florida, is it Mater Academy, Nick?

Nick:​Mater. You would say it like it doesn’t matter. Mater Academy.

Andrew:​He’s there. Once again, it’s Florida, Miami there. Miami is the local school, but I think it’s going to be Florida. He plans to announce April 11th, and I really think Florida has a good shot. Once again, he’s a long, 6’1”, 6’2” cornerback, and I like these long cornerbacks. I like your shore cornerbacks like a McArthur Burnett, those guys. I like one or two of those guys, but outside of that I want my big corner to go up against these big receivers, because you’re starting to see more and more of these 6’2”, 6’1”, 6’3” receivers. I want to man them up with somebody that can run man to man with them.

Nick:​For me, it’s tough. I had somebody asking a question earlier. All these recruits are saying great things about the staff. I agree with you that Gray is doing a great job. When do you need to start getting commitments? When do guys start needing to pop? We talked about it a little bit after Signing Day where it’s Florida had a huge class last year. I don’t know if they’ll have that same class, so it might not be, last year was kind of just like boom, boom, boom, one after another. Before summer was even halfway done you had double digits in the class, and I think it’s maybe a little slower approach this year.

Andrew:​It is. You look at it, and you do want to see some kids pop, and I think they will. Spring game, as they get into summer, but it’s a situation where, and I tell people this all the time, when you’re battling for the big dogs, the top five stars, the top four stars, in the country, you got to expect that it’s going to go long. The #1 receiver on the board is James Robinson. Trevon Grimes is another big receiver. These guys, they’re not going to pop early. My thing is you’ve got to start getting some guys later in the spring, into the summertime, but you can be picky. Don’t take anybody like they did last year, and then have to process them out of the class. I think that’s where they’re being different with it.
The biggest thing is this. They’re getting these kids on campus at a rapid pace, and getting them on campus multiple times. That’s something we didn’t see last year. I really do, I think this class is going to be perfectly fine. I think you’re starting to see some in the later in the spring and into the summer you start to see some guys pop. Nick, there’s going to be a big week for recruits. A lot of guys coming on campus on Monday, when you’re listening to this. Wednesday and Thursday as well. Tell the people where they can find us, and we’ll get out of here.

Nick:​As always, www.GatorCountry.com. Find me @NickdelaTorreGC on Twitter. @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. GatorCountry on Twitter. TheGatorCountry on Instagram, and always on Facebook. Everything we post, all of our stories post to Facebook. Easy way to keep track with everything going on. Go find us. Hit that follow button. Hit the like. Double tap on Instagram. Do your thing.

Andrew:​Give us some love. Florida doesn’t have a midweek game in softball. Baseball plays who?

Nick:​Baseball plays Florida Atlantic, who is a very good team. Swept Mississippi State to begin the year. They swept, I think it was Rutgers, this week. Anyway, FAU off to a very fast start. It’s a good team. Florida with a win on Tuesday against FAU would actually tie the record for home wins in a season at 24. The Gators have won 15 games in a row.

Andrew:​Okay. Do we know the game starter? I know Dane Dunning pitched a little bit on Sunday.

Nick:​I think Dane was going to be slated to start, because it looked like Florida might be able to get away without using him, but then he comes out of the bullpen, and he’s throwing 93, 94, 95 miles an hour. Shuts down a Missouri team that had the momentum, and I think Sully sees that we have a weapon in Dane Dunning, and Dane wants to pitch against SEC teams. So I think he’ll do that. It’s going to be Johnny Holstaff on Tuesday, which is unfortunate for me.

Andrew:​Think it may be Jackson Cowart?

Nick:​I think there’s a lot of guys that need to get some innings. I would not be surprised if Cowart started, but was probably on…

Andrew:​Maybe three innings.

Nick:​Yeah. I think everyone’s going to be on a limit. I think Florida is really going to try to get five or six pitchers into this game, Scott Moss, Cowart, a bunch of guys, because you really want to set everything up for the weekend.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​Florida’s lost three consecutive series to Kentucky, where they’ll travel this week, so a bunch of guys will pitch in shorter stints midweek Tuesday, and then they’ll head to Kentucky.

Andrew:​Homeboy for Kentucky had two bombs and seven RBIs against Georgia. Nick, I texted you on Sunday in the middle of the Georgia Kentucky game, and I said these boys can hit. They can. They really do hit the ball.

Nick:​Actually, his leading, name’s blanking right now, but leading the SEC with seven homeruns this year.

Andrew:​He’s the third baseman. Jalen’s his first name, but last name is slipping my mind as well. So football coverage, you got football coverage. You got softball coverage, baseball coverage. Basketball will play in the third round of the NIT on Wednesday night at 7:30 on ESPN 2, so if you want to check out some NIT ball, check them out. Kasey Hill is actually playing really good ball. So check it out there. Nick, we got some good edits going this week. I haven’t sent them to you yet, but I will get them to you. Our man, Kevin Camps, has got some good ones. As Nick said, Twitter and Instagram is the place to be.

Nick:​Follow us. Thank you for all your support and love, and stop yelling at Andrew Spivey and his softball team.

Andrew:​Yes. But guess what? Butch Jones is still crying, because his softball team took three Ls in that orange, three Ls. Butch and Mark, you know the drill. Fortunate for you, Mark, the Gators don’t play Miami. As always, go Braves and chomp, chomp.

Nick:​You stay classy, Gator Country.