Welcome to the Gator Country podcast! This week we recap some of the Vanderbilt game, look ahead to South Carolina, what to expect, and more. Click the play button to listen in or you can read the transcript below. Enjoy!
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Kassidy: Hello Gator fans. I’m Kassidy Hill. Welcome to GatorCountry.com’s podcast for the week. I’m joined tonight by our very own Andrew [Spivey] and Nick [Delatore]. Guys, say hello.
Andrew: What’s up Gator Nation?
Nick: Hello, hello.
Kassidy: That was really enthusiastic. Thank you.
Andrew: Nick acts like he’s still in Nashville partying.
Kassidy: Too cool for school.
Andrew: Nick, on our last little podcast we talked about your partying in Nashville. You made it to the game, so I’m guessing no heart attack this weekend.
Nick: Major game, no heart attacks, just some Advil before.
Andrew: There you go. Did you get to check out the Bluebird
Kassidy: I did.
Nick: I did not get to check out the Bluebird and the Pancake Factory, which was recommended to me had a line about a mile and a half long, so I ended up just going rogue and playing it by ear.
Kassidy: I checked out the Bluebird Café, and it shocked me, because it was in the middle of a suburb, not anywhere near Broadway like I thought it would be. It was in the middle of a suburb in a strip mall between a nail salon and a barber shop.
Andrew: Interesting.
Nick: Was it everything you hoped and dreamed it would be?
Kassidy: Well, they closed at like midnight, so by the time I got there it was closed.
Andrew: Dang, we’ve got another party animal on our hands.
Kassidy: Well, the weekend was fun. It was cold. It took maybe 12 hours to get home, so I’m happy to be back in Florida, and we have a game this weekend that will be at noon, but hopefully a lot warmer.
Andrew: 12:01, let’s get it right.
Kassidy: Sorry, 12:01, excuse me. I’m going to take some liberties here and say that this is probably Florida’s, one of their favorite games of the year for Florida fans, because it means they get to see Steve Spurrier again, back in Gainesville in the swamp. He may be in a South Carolina hat, but they don’t really care I don’t think. He’s been around forever. He’s made a lot of enemies with a lot of people. What about the two of ya’ll? Ya’ll been in the business for a while, what’s some of your favorite Spurrier memory?
Andrew: First of all, he wears a tree, so it’s not really a South Carolina hat. It’s a tree hat. I don’t know, I think he still believes it’s like a Florida palm tree, so let’s just go with that.
Kassidy: That’s South Carolina’s state symbol.
Andrew: Well, when you’re not smart like myself you call it a palm tree. I guess my favorite kind of memory of Steve is growing up in Alabama it was Steve. That was the guy that Alabama fans hated. For myself that means that I was on the good side of it. This is funny now. That was kind of the favorite thing, but I guess my favorite memory was when he took the Redskins job. My brother and myself, I was nine I believe at this time, no 12 at the time. My brother was 9, and we were able to meet him when he was in the [Senior] Bowl. If you were a Gator fan, I had Gator clothes on, he just came up to you as your best friend. I still remember him giving me a big go Gators. He’s in Redskins clothes. I guess that would be kind of my favorite memory.
Kassidy: Nick, what about you?
Nick: My favorite memory is every single [inaudible 00:03:48] They’re like my children. I have no favorite. I love them all equally, so every single [inaudible 00:03:57] would be my favorite. The palm tree Andrew’s talking about is the cabbage palmetto, which is the official state tree of South Carolina.
Kassidy: Yup.
Nick: Cabbage palmetto.
Kassidy: There’s your little Jeopardy fact Gator fans. I’m going to interject my favorite Spurrier memory here too. Just because I have one. Mine’s more of a personal memory. Spurrier was the first interview I ever did as a reporter. Let me take that back. The first interview I ever did was John [Brantley], but we don’t have to count that one. It was at SEC media days. I was a brand new ESPN news campus connection intern. I was thrown to the wolves pretty much, because that’s what SEC media days is if you’ve never been to it before.
Walked in, and Spurrier was walking down the hall, and I said, “Coach, can I talk to you for a few minutes?” “Yeah, sure. Come on. Let’s go.” He’s just happy to do it. I asked him why he was banning Twitter from his players, because he had said that in an earlier press conference, and no one followed up on it. I just thought it was interesting. In his little Spurrier voice, he said, “We have some dumb immature players that put crap on their Twitter, and we just ain’t going to [see it the best] so decided to ban it.” I always remember that. He was just really kind to come talk to me. It was a great first interview to have.
Nick: We actually have a couple of memories from members that have posted on our board. From Kenny Stile, he says he remembers going to a game. Florida was playing a [inaudible 00:05:40] team, and Coach Spurrier sent the punt team out on third and long.
Kassidy: Yes.
Nick: Afterwards the media asked him did he know it was third down when he punted? He said something like of course I knew it was third down. I was just tired of watching our offense. This one is from Kurt [Bordum]. I don’t know if it’s real, but it made me laugh. He says when Steve Spurrier said the real shame in the Auburn campus library burning down was that some of the books had not even been colored in yet.
Kassidy: I’ve heard that before. I’ve heard about that before.
Andrew: [inaudible 00:06:27]
Nick: He’s always good for a quote.
Andrew: Always good for a quote.
Kassidy: Let’s move on, though. That game’s still a few days away, and we have one game that’s two days away. Going into Vandy, that’s the game that people expected Florida to win, not surprising, and they did, 34 to 10. But more importantly, instead of focusing on them versus Vandy, let’s focus on the Florida team and what they did there. I think Nick said earlier today they did what they had to do to move on in the season. What did you mean with that? What did they do?
Nick: We had some technical difficulties with the last podcast, but there we talked about how this game would do more to expose Florida and to show you anything about Florida positively. By that I mean if Florida would have gone out and let Vandy hang around and play a tight game it would have taken the goodwill that Florida brought beating Georgia the way they did, and you would have said that was just one beat against Georgia. This is a letdown. Florida’s not that good.
Florida came out, let Vandy score on early on in the first quarter, but settled down, and they handled business the rest of the game. That’s what you wanted to see. This is a really bad Vanderbilt team, especially on offense, and if Florida would have gone out and put up a lackluster performance I think it would have ruined some of the goodwill they bought with the Georgia game. Now we’re sitting here saying this Florida team is for real.
This quarterback, Treon Harris, the team has rallied around him. You’ve got a quarterback now that’s taking shots down the field, connecting on those shots. [inaudible 00:08:09] shots with Jeff Driscoll. He just didn’t have any touch throwing the ball 30, 40 yards down the field, and you miss a lot of big plays. So I think there was one play when Quentin Dunbar caught a 40 yard pass, that play was designed to be a swing pass to Matt Jones. Treon saw the [inaudible 00:08:09] creep up to cover Jones, and he took a shot down the field. I think that shows some moxy from him, and I think moxy is fantastic for the team. They’re playing with new confidence, new swagger, and I think that the way Florida handled Vandy gives a lot of confidence in the coaching staff, the direction that the team is going, and the rest of the season.
Kassidy: We called after the Georgia for more balance, a lot of fans did, because Florida had 400 [inaudible 00:08:54] rushing yards versus Georgia that only threw 3 for 6 passing. Then they go into Vandy, and I don’t know how much more balanced you can get, I believe it was 215 yards passing, 214 rushing. Treon Harris didn’t really have…
Nick: You could have gotten one more rushing.
Kassidy: One more yard rushing. Then it would be completely equal, but let’s keep it a little interesting. The defense did what they had to do. Does this feel like finally a completely, not completely, but a well rounded team?
Andrew: I’m going to take it a little different than Nick did. I think they played well, but I don’t think that you gained anything too much out of that game. I think we gained that Treon Harris is a good quarterback, but I think the offensive line took a step back in that game actually. I think that…
Kassidy: How much of that is because of the injuries though?
Andrew: I don’t buy injuries on the first few [series]. It’s crazy. You’ve [inaudible 00:10:01] and when you had [DJ] in there, and you had Rod Johnson in there, you had Max [Garcia] in there, and Trip [Thurman] in there. Those four guys pretty much played the majority of the game with Rod going out a little bit, and there was just no push. That’s a very weak defensive line for Vanderbilt, a very weak front seven for Vanderbilt, and it just didn’t get a push. I think that was the message today.
Will said that they had a talk last night, on Sunday night, about the [inaudible 00:10:33] I thought that was kind of the signature moment of the game that you’re two yards away, and you’re five offensive line aren’t going to push enough for your running back to get in. It’s funny to get a quarterback that, in my opinion, probably still wasn’t even a touchdown, didn’t realize that [inaudible 00:10:50] was out of the goal line. So I think that it was a positive in that Treon Harris had a tremendous game. Probably the first quarterback since Chris [Leek] that was actually a drop back quarterback to stay in the pocket claim the ball, and that’s no disrespect to Tebow.
Tebow was a different kind of quarterback. For really the first time since Chris [Leek] it was a quarterback that’s a natural quarterback that was able to throw and hit a receiver. In my opinion kind of the highlight of the game for Treon was the third down, third and seven, and it was two man in his face. Two guys in his face, and he stood in the pocket, hit to Marcus Robinson for a [throw out] that was a perfect throw catch. It really showed Treon’s accuracy and arm. I think that’s the thing that we all know about. I think that may have been one of the bigger reasons why he’s named SEC freshman of the week this week.
Kassidy: Right. If Treon Harris is being related to Chris [Leek] here does that make Driscoll and his role 2006 Tebow?
Andrew: Yes and no. The thing that I think with Driscoll, Driscoll is a good runner, but I’m not sure Driscoll, well no, that’s false. Driscoll’s not the same kind of runner Tim Tebow is. Driscoll’s a lot softer than Tebow, and I say that in that Driscoll kind of tiptoes a little bit as he goes. He’s not that power runner that Tebow would die on the field before he [inaudible 00:12:30] get a fourth and watch. I think that Driscoll holds back a little bit, but Treon still runs the ball. Treon’s a lot better runner than Chris [Leek] was, and we seen that on two big runs, a 35 yard touchdown, I believe, and then a couple other quarterback sneaks that he ran that were just really showed good presence by a freshman.
Kassidy: I believe it was 33, but I’ll let you slide on those other two yards. Just want to bring this up really quick to see if anyone else is thinking the same thing I am. Driscoll was not asked to do a whole lot in this game versus Vandy, and everything that he was asked to do he was capable of doing. He was asked to throw two passes, and they were both incomplete. He threw one pretty well short of Matt Jones, and when that happened he got booed. It was an audible boo on the road. I think that’s the moment when my Memaw would have just said, oh bless his heart. Is that necessary? He’s not your starting quarterback anymore. You know that Treon is your quarterback. Driscoll’s only coming in when needed. He’s only thrown two passes. Is it necessary to boo an incomplete?
Andrew: Let me say what I want to say real quick, and I them I’m going to just sit, because Drew’s the nice guy in this. I feel like I’m the mean person in this. It’s not necessary. Do I think he should get booed? But he is a fourth year guy in the program, and he throws a ball into the dirt on a pass. An SEC quarterback getting a $70,000, $100,000 scholarship, and he throws the ball in the dirt? In my opinion that showed the difference in the two quarterbacks when the next play boom, Treon’s [inaudible 00:14:26]. So the difference in the season, but the two, did I think he deserved the boo? Absolutely. Little bit of running here or there, but don’t let Jeff throw the ball anymore.
Kassidy: Nick, what’s your nice guy stance?
Nick: Jeff has taken so much negativity. He’s lost his starting job. He’s got this very minimal role now, and I don’t know. I don’t think it’s warranted to boo him. Throwing the ball in the dirt is better than throwing it into double coverage down the field, which his initially where he looked. So probably what the play was designed to do was to take a shot down field. I don’t think it’s necessary to boo him. What is booing Jeff Driscoll in the handful of snaps that he did the rest of the way? What does that really accomplish?
Kassidy: Right. At that point you’re just shaking his confidence even more.
Nick: I don’t think there is any confidence to shake.
Kassidy: That’s right, because it’s already been…
Nick: Maybe booing isn’t the right. I say booing’s never good, I can’t say I’ve never booed. I boo all the time.
Kassidy: You can boo officials though. My grandma says you can boo officials.
Nick: As a Braves fan you have to boo [inaudible 00:16:01] That’s baseball, but do I think booing’s necessary, no, but do I think that it’s almost like you’ve moved past him. It shows how bad he is compared to Treon Harris. It really does no good for the team to have him come in, because I feel like that the linemen don’t block as well for him. Is that fair? Not really. It’s not fair, but at the same time it’s like, I mean he’s going to throw the ball in the dirt, so why…
Kassidy: Air Driscoll was pretty impressive. We’ll give him that. You got to give the kid credit for doing whatever is asked of him without complaining about the fact that he just lost his starting job.
Nick: You look at two completely different scenarios here. Jeff Driscoll, long time starter, loses his job, and gets, like you said Air Driscoll is diving, jumping over a pile trying to score a touchdown, and then you got a kid like Leon Orr who is a fifth year senior.
Kassidy: Great, because we about to bring up Leon.
Nick: That’s why they pay me the big bucks. Started 10 games in his career, so less than Driscoll has started in a single season, hasn’t started since before the Alabama game. Started the first two games of the year, and then didn’t start the next five, and doesn’t practice with the first team. Gets all the way up to Vanderbilt when he goes to Coach Muschamp, finds out he’s not starting the game, which shouldn’t have been a surprise to him, because he didn’t start all week in practice. Says I’m out of here. Jumps on a bus home, and quits. We asked Coach Muschamp today, is there anything Leon can do to get back on the team? No.
Andrew: I think agree, Coach. Right now this team is heading in the right direction. A fifth year senior in Leon Orr, and I don’t like to do this, but he acted like a child. You don’t give a dilemma to your head football coach at the SEC at any level, whether it be UCF, USF, whatever. You don’t give your coach a dilemma that you play me or I’m going to go home. That’s like a child, and that’s exactly what he acted like. I’m not sure even where Leon [Ore’s] coming from. You’re not even better than the guys that are starting. You were starting because you were a senior. Then Will tells him you’re going to play the second series, but that’s not good enough. In my opinion that’s like basically telling John [Boer], Jerry [inaudible 00:18:49], the rest of those guys that…
Kassidy: I think I’m better than you.
Nick: I should be played over you. So I see him crying on Twitter. I don’t feel sorry for him.
Kassidy: That’s what I was about to ask as well. Did you see his Twitter, all of his tweets today he was tweeting out what I guess was an apology, and then retweeting a lot of supporters, a few haters here and there? In one of his tweets he said something like I was trying to put my family ahead of my team, and I greatly regret it, which almost sounds like a backhanded I’m going to apologize here, but I don’t really mean it.
Nick: Leon Orr comes back to the team, and his teammates accept him, and the coaching staff accepts him back, who am I, and who is any fan, to say no, you can’t come back. I think if he does go through enough steps to where the team accepts him back and the coach accepts him back, then that’s fine. Based on Muschamp and how strongly worded he has been about the whole situation, his demeanor when answering questions about it, I think it would take a lot for Leon Orr to come back to this team. A young kid…
Andrew: But he’s not young. He’s not young. He’s a senior. He’s a fifth year senior.
Kassidy: But he’s still, what? 22, 23?
Nick: He’s still 22, 23 years old. You still make mistakes in your early twenties, and he made a mistake. He’s got a daughter, and he’s probably thinking I’m not starting this is affecting my draft stats, which is taking food off my daughter’s plate and off my family’s plate. He made a rash decision, quickly. Obviously I don’t agree with the decision. I think it’s selfish. I think it’s childish, but it’s a decision he made, and he made his bed and he has to lay in it now. What the future holds for him I don’t think right now that you’ll see him back in a Florida uniform, which is disappointing. [inaudible 00:21:02] is two weeks away, and it would have been a nice moment for him and his family, and he threw it all away.
Kassidy: That brings me to two questions that I actually wanted to ask. One, I did see him mention the thing about his daughter, and you can’t fault the guy for wanting to provide for his kid. You commend him for that, but how much does starting really affect your draft? I read an article in the Alligator on Monday that said it would have been three minutes and 41 seconds off of the game clock before Leon Orr came in.
Nick: It doesn’t matter at all. If you’re good people are going to find you. You look at guys like [Pierre Garcon]. Guys from Division III schools all the time are drafted and make an impact in the NFL and have nice careers. This is just a case of him thinking one way, and thinking strongly enough about it to leave the team on game day.
Andrew: This isn’t a receiver. This is defensive line who week in week out, 8, 10 guys play NFL. The NFL brings more DBs and defensive linemen than any other position week in and week out on a 53 man roster. So Florida plays 8-10 guys, and he’s mad because he’s not starting. That’s fine, and I understand that, and I understand the part about his daughter and wanting to put food on his table and all of that. That’s fine. What example did he set for his daughter? If you don’t get your way you run away. No, I don’t think so.
You go through the grind of every day being on the field with your teammates, your men beside you, and you walk away, and you cry about it. You go to Nashville, you cry about it. That’s crazy to me. You look at guys like Michael [Mandile], doesn’t get to play. Doesn’t cry about it. Matt Jones has a daughter. Matt Jones is not playing as much as he wants to. He’s not crying about it. There’s a lot of guys that are doing things for their family and not crying about it.
In my opinion Leon Orr showed what Leon [Ore’s] all about, and that’s he’s all about himself, and in crunch time you can’t count on the guy. I feel the same way Will does. There’s no way I would let him back on my football team. He would be a cancer on my football, and I don’t see it. I feel sorry for the guy. I hope he gets a chance in the NFL. Maybe this is a hard lesson he has to learn, but I think it’s a lesson he needs to learn, and I think it’s a lesson he shows his daughter in 12, 15 years you quit, and you make your bed.
Kassidy: I would be interesting to hear what he has to say.
Nick: Based on his comments he made it seem like I thought of my family first, which is why I assumed that on the draft, you’re worried about the draft now you’re labeled a quitter. You’re a fifth senior, somebody that’s been in that program for five years, and hours before a game you got on a bus and left the team. So you’re worried about I’m not playing enough I’m not going to get drafted. Labeling yourself a quitter and quitting on your team that’s not helping. That’s not going to up your draft status.
Kassidy: I thought it was very telling that Muschamp’s most passionate response on Saturday night was he left our team on game day.
Nick: Follow up on Leon Orr and I got the Muschamp glare. I don’t think he was mad about me asking the question, just having the question asked a couple times is bringing up the anger that he felt when Leon decided to leave.
Andrew: I agree, and I think that Leon went a little bit on Saturday evening, and even this morning, a little bit on the bashing of coach aside, saying he was throwing dirt on his name. In my opinion, Leon, you did that. You made this mess. You distracted this team, and I’m sorry. This is the crap Urban Meyer let go on, and that’s why Florida football is where it’s at today, because of that crap that went on four years ago. Will had to spend his first two years cleaning it up. It’s a mess. It’s something that is just not there.
You look at several guys that are playing everywhere that would love that opportunity that Leon Orr had, and he didn’t take it. I think he has to make his own bed, and hopefully he learns from it and he make a day in the NFL. Somebody’ll give him a shot. They give everybody else a shot for drunk driving and everything else, so I think this is something he can overcome, but he’s going to have to mature. I thought it was very telling of Max Garcia today. He didn’t want to throw him under the bus, but Max definitely was open about he was upset that he did this.
Kassidy: Right. Let’s actually hear from Max Garcia right here and what he had to say about that.
S4 Leon, he’s a guy that I respect a lot. He’s been in the program for a very long time, and I thought we were getting to a point where I saw him maturing a lot, and he wasn’t doing the same things that he was doing last year. He was really developing as a person, so when that happened it kind of struck me off guard, but Muschamp is Muschamp, and he’s not going to tolerate putting himself above the team. It’s unfortunate that that happened. We’re going to miss him, because he was a big part of this team, but we’re just going to move forward. Young guys are going to have to step up.
Kassidy: One more thing on Leon Orr, and then we’ll quickly move on. Quickly, Andrew. One more thing on Leon Orr. You talked about him possibly coming back. Nick, you talked about if he does come back and tries and apologizes to his teammates, who are we to say what goes on behind those closed doors. Could he have done this at the worst possible time? There’s what? Three more games left on the regular season schedule? It’s obviously going to take a lot of work to get back on Muschamp’s, not even his good side, but just his not bad side. I guess that’s the best way to put it. Is there really any time left for him to do that?
Andrew: I’m going to make this really short, as quick as I can be, and try to be the coach talking in this thing. Treon Harris, he missed the whole week for his incident, and he had to sit out that whole week. Leon Orr’s not coming back this week, so that means he’s out South Carolina. Then he’s going to come back and play in Eastern Kentucky? I just don’t see that. I can’t see that there’s enough time to get him back on the practice bill. He’s going to have to earn Will’s trust back, and there’s going to have to be a lot on there. I’m just not sure that Will even cares. I don’t think that Will’s even trying to buy this. I think that there’s been several issues that led up to this. If this were a first time issue then maybe you’re looking at something different, but this seems to be a problem that’s went on. I just don’t see Will playing that card and letting him come back.
Nick: Will is the ultimate player’s coach, and I think he took it as personally, if not more personally, than Leon’s teammates. I think Muschamp feels betrayed for himself and the program and for his players. I can see maybe, Muschamp is a really good guy and really cares about his players. I could see if Leon Orr did come back very contrite allowing him back on the team, maybe have that moment going out of the tunnel to his family on the [inaudible 00:29:12] day, but as far as playing I think Florida has players that are being more productive than Leon Orr, and I don’t see even if somehow he works his way back onto the team, I don’t see him getting much playing time.
Kassidy: Right.
Andrew: I think he used the right word, betrayed. I think that that is more so than anything is he betrayed 84 of his teammates that he goes to war with. I think you hit the nail on the head. Will’s a great guy. He gives everybody the benefit of the doubt. He was there for Treon. He was there for all those guys. I think Will even tried to talk him out of that decision by the way his quotes are, and Leon didn’t want to have any of it, and I think that that’s what makes it kind of worse is that Will tried to warn him what was going to happen, and he basically said, I don’t care.
Kassidy: We’ve talked enough about that. Let’s move on. There is another game this Saturday. It is the Gators last SEC game, and this is against an East team, so any hopes of making it to Atlanta are going to come down to not only this game but the Missouri Tennessee game as well. Is that correct?
Nick: Missouri has to beat Tennessee, and you have to have Georgia lose to Auburn.
Kassidy: I thought Tennessee had to beat Missouri.
Andrew: Correct.
Nick: Tennessee has to beat Missouri, sorry about that. I think the good thing for Florida is that they play at noon. Those other games are later in the day. So you go in, and you say to yourself what’s going to happen is going to happen seven hours from now. We need to take care of our business. We played our way into this situation where we don’t control our own destiny, don’t control our own fate, but then the Gators snap the ball at noon, at 12:01 on Saturday. Florida’s not going to know that final score, and they won’t know it even a couple hours after their game is done. I think that’s good for them. It would awkward if Florida’s going out at 7:00, and Missouri had already beat Tennessee, eliminating Florida, and now it’s kind of we built up these last three weeks this is our chance, and now you have a letdown before kickoff. When the ball’s kicked off [inaudible 00:31:41]
Andrew: Well technical Florida still has two weeks, because Missouri plays A&M this week.
Nick: And then Georgia plays Auburn.
Andrew: I agree. I think it’s not even so much about getting to Atlanta. I think it’s as Will says today, it’s saving the swamp. It’s time to get it back. Forget this other teams coming in and winning in the slot. It’s called the swamp for a reason. It’s dangerous, and as they say, only Gators get out alive. Well lately it’s been Gators dying in there. It needs to change, and I think that this is huge for Muschamp. I think this is huge for these seniors.
Again, a couple weeks ago I said the same thing. These seniors need to play for the name on the back and the name on the front and go out winners in SEC. This is the last chance for these seniors to play in a pretty sellout crowd. I don’t think it’ll be a sellout. It’s a good game, but pretty much a sellout. This is probably their last chance to do that. They need to go out and take advantage of it. As well as getting that one step closer to getting to Atlanta, but be it or not against Atlanta or not, they end the season on a high note and go into 2015 with a winning streak in the swamp I think is huge.
Nick: Some quick stat notes.
Kassidy: Yeah, because I have those pulled up too.
Nick: I think it’s pretty ironic that the rallying cry this week is to take back the swamp, when the coach you’re playing against is the one that gave it the nickname, and Spurrier has every right to give it that nickname. He won his first 23 games at home as Florida’s coach and finished with a 68 and 5 mark at home overall.
Kassidy: Holy cow.
Nick: Will Muschamp is 17-7 at home, 12 of those wins came in his first two years. Florida is just 5 and 5 at home in their last 10. So yes they need to take back the swamp. They’ve lost the last two at home. I just find a little irony that you’re trying to end that skid against the guy who gave your stadium the nickname.
Kassidy: Its reputation as well.
Nick: And the reputation. I would love to see Spurrier walk past the statue on the way into the stadium before the game also.
Kassidy: They don’t go in that gate.
Andrew: Real quick, Nick, you and I had a conversation off the air about Will using these new motivation tacks. I think I like that. Actually, I do like that. I think you take back the swamp, I think that’s a saying that’s not very fond to this team right now. The team is not used to winning there. I think it is something that he needs to instill back in them. He grew up in that area. He grew up watching the Gators. He knows what’s that all about. I think that that’s something he definitely needs to continue passing along. Getting those guys motivated is going to be huge, and I really like the way Will’s done it the last three weeks. It was go to Georgia and beat the stars, and it was a [binge] in Vanderbilt. Now it’s take back the swamp. Who knows what it’ll be, maybe take down [inaudible 00:35:02] for Florida State.
Kassidy: It makes for some good headlines if nothing else. Speaking of some other stats, let’s look at the South Carolina team here for a second. Obviously fallen into a record that they are not used to. Spurrier even said that after the Tennessee loss, I’m not used to this, and I don’t want to get used to it. They do still have one of the best play callers that’s ever walked the sidelines in college football. They are 19th overall in the country in passing yards. They’re averaging 294, and I believe Vanderbilt…
Nick: 2nd in the SEC.
Kassidy: Yeah, and Vanderbilt was able to throw 225 against Florida. Is that something that should be of a concern for this defense?
Nick: It could be. Florida’s secondary [inaudible 00:35:54] at times, but I think you’re really seeing [Jayon Taber] and Quincy [Wilkins] turn the corner.
Kassidy: And your boy Duke Dawson, right?
Nick: My boy Duke Dawson is playing really well at safety, and Vern Hargreaves is playing like an All American. Nothing really spectacular from him, but I think it’s just he plays at such a high level you kind of grow accustomed to seeing him do some things that if another player did them you’d go that was amazing. When Vern does them you’re just like that’s just…
Kassidy: That’s just Vern.
Andrew: I think that the secondary has gotten a lot better, but I think that it may be more of the front seven helping out the secondary. There’s just not too much time to throw the ball. [Dante Fowler’s] playing like a freak, and that’s about the only thing you could say. He probably could have been arrested for assault on Saturday for as many times as he hit [McKern] for Vanderbilt, and then Jonathon [Boar] plays out of his mind at defensive tackle, and the Brian Cox. Florida’s really put together a front seven, Morrison as well, that is really doing a great job of rushing the passer and taking away the intermediate routes to push the default. When you’ve got two seconds to throw the ball, three seconds to throw the ball, you’re at your third step and you’ve got somebody in your face, and you’ve got to push to Vernon Hargreaves. I like your chances there.
Kassidy: So what are the chances of Florida winning this Saturday? Let’s just put it out there plain and simple. What are their chances?
Andrew: Nicholas you want to fire away first, or you want me to go with the shout out first?
Nick: The lines started at 3 1/2…
Kassidy: For?
Nick: For Florida. Florida’s the [inaudible 00:37:51] half point favorite. They’re almost touchdown favorite now. Before the year South Carolina was switch point favorite, so my how things have changed since then. I think South Carolina they’re offense has been so potent this year, but their defense has just been pretty miserable. I think…
Kassidy: Will it become a shootout?
Nick: I don’t think so, because I think Florida’s defense will be able to do enough. First off, I think Florida’s offense will be able to move the ball and say on the field, and Vernon Hargreaves told us after the game on Vanderbilt when our defense and our guys are rested, there’s not much that most offenses can do against us. So I think you will see a game. The over under I think will probably be around 48. I would say that’s over. I think you might get a game where South Carolina’s in the low twenties and Florida’s in the high twenties, low thirties, but I expect Florida to win. If I were a betting man I would probably take Florida minus 6 ½ also.
Andrew: Yeah. You’re probably matching up, I don’t want to say South Carolina’s defense is as bad as Vanderbilt’s defense. They’re bad. It’s not one side. They allow rushing yards. They allow passing yards. They allow everything. So it finally matches up that Treon’s going to be able to throw the ball a little bit, and then you have the running [inaudible 00:39:21] so it’s kind of what do you stop? Do you stop Treon and the deep pass, or do you stop the running game?
South Carolina’s going to come in, they’re going to stop the running game and dare Treon to go at. You look at Mike Davis running the ball. I love Mike Davis, think Mike Davis is a great running back, but Florida State’s running back’s just as good as him. I think that you’ll see them, their [inaudible 00:39:45] Again, pass [inaudible 00:39:48] is going to be there. I see kind of 30-24 Florida, 28-21 Florida, somewhere around in that area. 7-10, kind of in that area, unless South Carolina turns the ball over.
Nick: Haven’t looked at this yet, but South Carolina’s rushing defense I hesitate to even call it rushing defense. They are last in the SEC, giving up 223 yards a game on the ground. That’s all the games included.
Kassidy: That’s where Florida’s been getting [inaudible 00:40:24] the last two weeks.
Nick: If you look at just South Carolina against SEC it gets even a little bit worse, and they’re allowing 238 yards per game on the ground. Florida’s going to be able to run the ball. You’re going to see Treon run. You’re going to see Matt Jones, [inaudible 00:40:24] Taylor. I don’t know what we decided, if it’s Jeff…
Kassidy: I like the Driscat. Whoever tweeted that to you that was a good one, Driscat.
Nick: I got some very interesting tweets when I asked what we should name it. Most of them not suitable for the air. I think quarter will be able to run the ball, and then that will open things up for the passing game.
Andrew: The one thing I’ll end this in saying is that it’s a huge [inaudible 00:41:11] Steve Spurrier’s going to have those boys ready to go, and Steve Spurrier’s not going to go down laughing, and he’s not going to go down crying. He lost Florida, but there’s nothing he’d rather do than to walk out with a win, because he’s called his team and he’s called his [trophy] staff terrible. They’re playing for pride, and Steve’s playing for pride as well coming to the swamp and winning. Nothing better than he would like. I think Florida win 7-10, but then again it wouldn’t surprise me to be a field goal block just because of the motivation factor. Something like Florida Georgia for Spurrier. He’s going to have those guys ramped up.
Kassidy: Well, guys, that seems to pretty much wrap up all of my talking points anyways. Do ya’ll have anything else to add? Do we want to talk about basketball right now, or do we just want to wait on that for a couple of days?
Nick: Football.
Andrew: It’s football, and finally Florida has invented that pass forward. I’m guessing now they’re calling it a forward pass, something like that. It was really nice to finally see a quarterback kind of throw the ball forward in kind of an underhanded. I thought we were watching softball with Jeff Driscoll throwing the ball.
Kassidy: What was it Roper said? When the game was over media was standing around waiting for the players, and Kurt Roper walked out and never even stopped or let up. He just said this as he was going. Nick, you’ll have to correct me if I don’t remember exactly what he said. It’s something like, “We threw the ball forward. We didn’t take football back any.” Something like that.
Nick: He walked by and said, “We completed a forward pass. We didn’t take the game of football any further back.” He’s been great with the media. He is going to be a head coach somewhere down along the line. Good sense of humor, and he’s built a nice rapport with…
Kassidy: Here’s what ya’ll was saying, fans, obviously.
Andrew: Yeah, I think that that, and I think the understatement of everything that we’re looking at here is that there’s a new confidence with Treon Harris playing quarterback. Not just for Florida on the field, but off the field as well. You see recruits. They love Treon Harris. I don’t want to compare him to Tebow, that’s not a fair comparison, but he’s one of those guys that’s like a Tebow or a Jack Prescott or one of those guys that guys just love. They love his passion for the game, and that’s going to be very helpful for Florida going in the future, and he’ll be a great tool when kids come on campus.
Kassidy: We look forward to it. Fans, thank you for joining us. Gentlemen, any closing remarks.
Andrew: Hoping for a great week, and hopefully the old [inaudible 00:44:04] let’s Nick and myself talk about another [inaudible 00:44:07].
Kassidy: Nick, anything else to add?
Nick: That’s all I have.
Kassidy: Nick is passed out. Okay. Well fans, again, thank you for joining us. If you have any questions for our next podcast leave it on the message board. We’ll send somebody through there to filter through them. Until next time, go Gators.
Nick: Stay classy Gator nation.
Andrew: Always.