NSD preview for the Florida Gators recruiting class of 2017: podcast

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we preview National Signing Day for the Florida Gators recruiting class.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the official visits went last weekend, plus recap the three commits the Gators got.

Andrew and Nick also preview how they think the class will end up on Wednesday, plus they address the recent stuff from Miami that they were telling Florida commits.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, what a weekend, my friend.

Nick:                         Talked about perception. Talked about momentum. Got a chance in momentum, and a change in perception this weekend.

Andrew:                 You did. The Miami crock of shit turns against them. The truth comes out. When the truth comes out, as everyone says, “The truth will set you free.” It did. It came out. What are we surprised for, Nick? I’ve been preaching on this podcast for what? Two years now. Mark Richt’s not a saint, and the world found out on Saturday.

Nick:                         Interesting. We’ll do some facts.

Andrew:                 We’re bringing facts now? This ain’t Mark Richt then.

Nick:                         Somebody’s got to bring them. The Miami coaches didn’t start the rumor, but that doesn’t clear you from judgment. It doesn’t mean that you’re not in the wrong. Trying to take advantage of a rumor, whether or not you started it, can be just as bad, especially when you know that there’s not validity to the rumor. It would even be different if there was a shred of evidence, or a shred of truth in it. Okay, that’s some dirty recruiting to try to stretch the truth a little bit, but when you know that there’s no truth whatsoever to something, and you try to take advantage of it, it doesn’t matter if you start it or don’t start it, you’re just at fault. You’re guilty by association.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Here’s the thing. I got some blowback for the story I wrote on Saturday from some Miami fans, saying, “Well, it’s negative recruiting. Everybody negative recruits.” Yes, they do, but when you start talking about an NCAA rumor, Nick, you’re talking about effecting a man’s livelihood. You’re talking about a man getting fired from his job, like Joker Phillips got fired for the whole thing he did back in the day. You’re talking about getting someone fired. There’s a whole different thing about negative recruiting and then this. I kind of compared this with someone. It would be like a man going and telling a woman that her husband was cheating on her, was having an affair, with no evidence, just so you could get with her. There’s no morals there.

There is no gentleman’s code in recruiting and any of that, but there’s a moral standpoint. For me, it is what Miami is, and it is what Mark Richt is. He’s a dirty sleazebag. I don’t understand why people don’t get what he’s about. He’s a sleazebag. He puts up this motto of he’s this great Christian man, and I’ll never question a man’s faith. Maybe he is a good Christian man, but that’s on Sundays. The rest of the time he’s a sleazebag. The guy’s a sleazebag. I don’t understand why people in our business, Nick, and people around take his persona as what he is. He’s a sleazebag.

He is a sleazebag when it comes to it. He’s surrounded by sleazebags around his staff, and it is sickening to hear what he does. He calls Malik Davis up, tells Malik Florida’s going on probation for something they didn’t even do. Homestead sucks. They ain’t had a recruit since Ermon Lane, and you can really question Ermon Lane wasn’t even a recruit. He moved to DB. There is no morals. It’s sickening that you would do this.

I told this to someone, if Florida was doing the same thing, I’d be just as pissed off about it as I was Miami was doing it. You don’t use that. That is crossing the line for me. That is sickening. For me, it shows the world how big of a sleazeball Mark Richt is.

Nick:                         We forgot, this podcast sponsored in part by, and brought to you by, the word sleazebag.

Andrew:                 That was said a lot.

Nick:                         If I had a quarter for every time, you would have just given me a week off of work.

Andrew:                 I’d have just bought you a Starbucks.

Nick:                         Yeah. Easily.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you this. You just heard what I said. Do you agree, or do you disagree?

Nick:                         No. We can’t prove if it was Mark Richt directly, if Mark Richt was the one doing it, if it was Mark Richt’s coaches doing it at the behest of Richt, if he had told them, “You have to go do this, take advantage of this right now,” or if it was just a coach acting on his own, but still, it falls back. We’ve talked about this as far as Mac and recruiting. If you say, “Florida doesn’t have good recruits on their coaching staff,” that’s Mac’s fault, because he hired them. If you have coaches that are doing something like this, it doesn’t matter if you say, “I didn’t have anything to do with it.” You hired them. It all comes back on you.

Andrew:                 Guilty by association.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 It is what it is. Here’s the thing. I know there is the back and forth, supposedly there’s an IP address saying Miami started it. I don’t know who started it. Quite frankly, I have my suspicions of where it started. I’m sure it started down in Coral Gables, but, whether it started there or not, it’s a little fishy, Nick, that within 10 minutes of that rumor being posted Miami was on the phone with kids.

Nick:                         That raises questions. Raises eyebrows.

Andrew:                 They had a lot of time to vet and make sure that rumor was true. 10 minutes.

Nick:                         Not a lot of vetting going on there.

Andrew:                 Exactly.

Nick:                         Not a lot of vetting, just a lot of jumping on a perceived opportunity, perceived situation.

Andrew:                 Am I just wrong, or is it not immoral, and is it not crossing the line? It, just to me, is sickening. I mean, like I said, why is Miami not selling their campus? Maybe it’s different for me. I’m a guy that grew up in Mobile, Alabama. To go to Miami and see the campus would be pretty cool. Maybe it would be. Why not sell the tradition of Miami? I know it’s weak as hell, but why not sell that? Why are you using an NCAA rumor that you made up? That’s bogus.

Nick:                         Bogus. They should talk about their on campus, no, but Coral Gables is beautiful.

Andrew:                 Right, but what I’m saying is why not sell your own? Negative recruit. Sure, negative recruit. Florida’s offense sucks. Florida’s offense sucks. Negative recruit that. Negative recruit anything about it, but when you cross the line of that, goes back to the work, Nick. What’s the word of the day?

Nick:                         Sleazebag.

Andrew:                 There you go.

Nick:                         Word of the day.

Andrew:                 That’s exactly what it is. I don’t know. It’s sickening to me. I honestly hope to God this is not where recruiting is going.

Nick:                         You know what? This is good to see, because it’s, recruiting is dirty. Is this the first time a coaching staff has probably tried to capitalize on a rumor that they knew not to be true? No, but I feel like the way that it was handled I feel like Miami’s feeling the blowback from it.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         From their dishonesty.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing. Miami fans were in my mentions on Saturday saying, “You guys use …”

Nick:                         Miami fans do have a strong presence on the internet. Our buddy, Bud Elliot, over at Tomahawk Nation likes to call them the e-fan base.

Andrew:                 Yeah. The Miami fans come back and said, “Well, you guys,” first of all, I don’t know who you guys are. Last time I checked I wasn’t getting paid by the University of Florida. Wish I was, but not. Said, “You guys use our NCAA violations against us.” Yeah, you did. You were in trouble. You were close to getting the death penalty. Facts are facts. Let’s not let facts get in the way of things. Come on. It’s a difference between a fact and a false rumor. My thing is this, Miami got what they deserved. They got their ass handed to them on Twitter, and, in my opinion, the world should now know how big of a sleazebag Mark Richt is.

Nick, let’s go to talk about the weekend. Gators get three commits over the weekend, and get back on track. They get Nick Smith, the linebacker out of Orlando, who I think is a good, solid player. They get Brad Stewart, Nick, I’ve said it all along, no disrespect to our guy, Marco Wilson, who I think is an outstanding player as well, I think Brad Stewart’s the best DB in this class. Right there with Marco Wilson. I’m a big Brad Stewart fan. Then they finished the weekend off by flipping Donovan Stiner from Houston to Florida. More of a depth pickup there, but three commits this weekend. At least you got some momentum.

Nick:                         I think momentum was huge. I agree with you. I don’t know if he’s better, but I think those are your two cornerbacks. We talked about what is Florida going to do. Two short years ago we were talking about how embarrassing it was how many good cornerbacks Florida had, and now two short years later, a couple transfers, a couple guys leaving early, and now you’re in an issue. You’re in a problem with depth.

I think these two guys can come in right away and play from Day 1, and if you’ve been listening to me, following me, or listening to the podcast, following the podcast, you know that’s not something I say lightly. It’s something that I get mad when people say, and I don’t agree with it, because then I’m answering questions about, “Why isn’t so-and-so playing?” It’s like, “I told you he wasn’t going to.” “So-and-so said he was going to.” “That’s not me.” I think these are two guys that can play right away.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Brad’s probably a safety at the next level, can play corner, can play both. I think Marco is strictly a corner, and is going to be a really good corner. The thing is this for me, and we talk about the big names and such so much, Marco is a guy that goes up and is one of the higher rated commits had he not tore his ACL his junior year. Brad Stewart is a higher rated guy if he’s a guy that goes to the Opening and goes to all this other stuff. I take it these guys are underrated because of that.

Nick:                         That’s how the world goes in recruiting. If you go to this event, and play well, then you’re graded. It doesn’t really take into account how good are you if you didn’t have the money to go to an event, or how good are you if you didn’t feel like going to these things?

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. Nick Smith’s a guy that he kind of is the same way in that he played D end a lot of his career, so he didn’t get the hype and he didn’t get all this stuff, because he played D end most of his high school career, before finally realizing he was a better linebacker. Once he finally realized he was a better linebacker, boom. Has a good senior year. Picks up the Florida and LSU offers, picks up the Miami offer, that kind of stuff, and Florida gets him. Randy Shannon likes him a lot. He can play all three of the linebacker spots. I said this on Gator Country the other day. I thought he’s a guy that may get on the field first of all the linebacker guys, because he can play so many different positions, as well as special teams. We all know that’s how you get on the field. I’m a big fan of him.

The Stiner guy, Donovan, good frame. I was told that he is still maybe a little bit away from getting on the field, as far as in the SEC. I think he’s more of a depth guy that you look at developing. Did play some linebacker a little bit. Being from Texas, kind of reminds you maybe a little bit of Kylan Johnson.

Nick:                         Interesting. Good to get a guy from Texas, and you pulled a big recruit out of Louisiana.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s the thing. Tim Skipper, once again, man, goes to Louisiana and beats out a kid. Basically, got him to sour on LSU. Last year he goes to Alabama, picks up Perine, who Alabama wanted. He is there, and he’s making the moves. Good for him. I think that’s the biggest thing is you’ve got a little bit of momentum. I talked about this on my Insider Report, but Brad actually had a really cool way of announcing his commitment on Saturday night. He did it front of all the parents, all the recruits, all the players. Just up and said he was ready to commit to the Gators, and it ended up turning into a big party and created some momentum for Florida.

I think it carries on to Signing Day. We’ll look at what’s coming up next. I think that Florida, once again, I think they’re going to finish good. I think it’s going to be a good class. It’s just lacking the headliners. It’s lacking the star power that you see, and that’s what would have made this class go from 15-20, in that range, probably be 18 or so, to top 10. If you landed a few of those star power guys, like a Leatherwood, like a Shawn Wade, one of those guys, then you see that. Nick, you know what I’m saying? Am I making sense when I say that?

Nick:                         I think so.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. It’s lacking maybe that one bit of star power.

Nick:                         Might be lacking star power. I don’t know. I think you need that star power, so I don’t like, you and I have both talked about this, don’t like grading classes on Signing Day. I don’t like grading classes a year after Signing Day. I think you need three years to see where guys are, how guys have developed, who’s contributing from that class. Maybe not even be able to do it until the classes are seniors, and you really get to flesh out what that class meant, because stars don’t win football games. I think, when you’re Florida, you kind of need those headliners, or you should be able to get those headliners. To me, Brad Stewart’s a headliner.

Andrew:                 Yes. Absolutely. When I say star power, I shouldn’t say it. I meant headliners.

Nick:                         Yeah. Remember that Urban Meyer class where the Army All-American game comes on, and all of a sudden Sherif Floyd, who else was that? Sherif Floyd, Dominic Easley, Ron Powell, all three on one day. That’s what you’re talking about, having a day like that, where it’s like, “Listen, Florida just put the nation on notice with what they did today in the recruiting world.”

Andrew:                 That’s what I’m saying. It’s more of the headliners, and I hate to say this, because it’s one of those deals where you feel bad for the guys that don’t get to go to those big events, but it’s one of those where I say, I’m trying to think of the best word to say this. It’s the kids that draw national attention, as far as when Brandon Spikes committed for Florida, for instance. The world took notice. The country took notice. When Brad Stewart committed, that was big. I just feel like they need some of these guys to draw that national attention. Flipping someone from a big school, like landing a LaBryan Ray. Landing LaBryan Ray would just set the world on notice.

Nick:                         That would.

Andrew:                 Florida’s here.

Nick:                         That’s what we’ve talked about before. You’re beating Alabama for a commit.

Andrew:                 Right. It’s kind of like what Georgia did last season with Jacob Eason. They caught the world. You know what I’m saying? It was like, boom, attention. Attention is set. You got him. Attention is set. It’s like when Tebow committed. Leatherwood, these guys that catch it. That’s kind of what this lacking a little bit. Like I say, overall I think it’s got some really good players.

I put up my mock class, Nick, on Monday, and I’m going to run through here. I’m going to run through some of the guys. When you at running back, Adarius Lemons and Malik Davis. Those are two guys that I think are going to be in the class.

Nick:                         That’s a good class.

Andrew:                 Good class. Both of those guys are going to contribute. Neither one of those guys are just going to be depth guys. I believe that.

When you look at receiver, James Robinson. If he’s able to qualify, he’s a dude. He’s a dude. Daquon Green, I think he’s a good possession receiver. You look at tight end with Kemore Gamble. I still have question marks about how good he really can be. When you look at Moore and Telfort, they’re going to be solid players.

When you start to look at this class, you see a bunch of solid players. Now, do you see that one Teez Tabor? Do you see that one, I’m trying to think here, Teez Tabor or Vernon Hargreaves that really catches that national attention? Maybe not, but it’s still good players. I think that’s where you can separate this and make this class go from an 18-20 class to a top 5-10 is by landing just a few of those headliners.

Nick:                         Yeah. Then I would say look at that class specifically. Teez is in that class. That was huge news. He was an early enrollee guy, went to Arizona, decided to end up flipping and coming to Florida. Quincy Wilson, not thought of as highly in the recruiting class. Probably not thought of as highly until this year.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         That’s just what I’m saying.

Andrew:                 Jarrad Davis.

Nick:                         Jarrad Davis, the perception. You could say that for every Jarrad Davis there’s 50 special teams guys, but, to me, that’s just more proof as to what we were saying before is you can’t judge a class on one day. On Signing Day, you can’t judge a class.

Andrew:                 Right. That’s kind of what I was getting at as well. Let’s kind of run through what happened over the weekend with a couple of the visits, like we said, LaBryan Ray. He had a good visit. The thing for him is pretty simple, Bama or Florida. Family’s cool with Florida. Family’s cool with Bama. The thing for LaBryan is this. Nick Saban’s not going to walk in and tell LaBryan Ray, “You’re going to go to Alabama. Here’s $100,000, or here’s $50,000.” The Rays are going to laugh at Saban and say, “Thanks, Coach, but we still have a decision to make.” That’s how that works with guys like LaBryan Ray with his family. It just is different with him. It’s different with him than it is Leatherwood.

Here’s the thing. I think it’s close. I really do. I think it’s close. Everyone says, “He’s going to Bama, because he’s a five star.” Well, yeah, but one of these days Florida’s going to win it. Maybe it starts now with Ray. Like I said, he’s a guy that’s not going to get strong armed there. He’s a guy that’s a headliner, like we talked about. We’ll kind of see where that goes. 11:30 is his announcement on Wednesday, on Signing Day. It’ll be Alabama or Florida for him.

Brian Edwards is a guy, he comes in. He’s a DB. Florida or Miami is going to be the pick on Wednesday, Signing Day. I lean towards Florida here. He likes Randy Shannon a lot. He’s been very close with Randy Shannon. He always wanted that offer. He got that offer, got the green light. Really feel good about where he is. If you miss on a guy like Blades, Edwards is a guy that you like to pick up, because he’s another tall, long, athletic corner like Blades was, and that’s what Torrian Gray likes a lot is those tall rangy cornerbacks that are kind of becoming the new thing at cornerback. So, he’s a guy that I feel pretty good on there.

We talked about Stiner and Stewart. They both committed. Adarius Lemons is a guy, come in. We all know that story, Nick. He’s had the off the field issues, had the academic issues. I think he ends up signing. Some things going on behind the scenes that make me believe that he’ll eventually qualify. Like we talked about, he’s a good player. It’s all about getting his mind right. We know his family situation isn’t the best, doesn’t have the best guidance around him, so maybe coming to Florida, getting around some people, is something that can help him out. Nick, you watched him play. Good player.

Nick:                         Yeah. I was very impressed with him. We saw him, when was that?

Andrew:                 Friday Night Lights.

Nick:                         Friday Night Lights, yeah. Very impressed that he came there and wanted to compete.

Andrew:                 The linebacker that came in this weekend from down in Miami, Jackson High, is Lacedrick Brunson. I think he’s a guy that if Florida decides, we want you in the class, they take him. I think it’s just a question mark of whether you need four linebackers, if you miss on Levi Jones. I personally think you don’t, but that’s kind of up to Randy to see on him.

The two Gaddy twins, we talked about they were on flip watch. Still think they are. If Florida feels like they can get them into school, I think they’re Gators. They really liked the visit.

Then you go to a guy like Charleston Rambo. Just don’t see that happening. Oklahoma commit, just one visit. Don’t see that happening. Don’t see it happening with Chaisson. Just too little, too late.

Devonte Wyatt’s a defensive tackle committed to Georgia. I think he ends up at South Carolina, but I personally think this was a Florida/Carolina battle, not necessarily a Georgia battle. I just feel like he’s going to go to South Carolina, with Florida picking up some other guys there.

Let’s see. Did I forget anyone? I think. Oh, the surprise visitor, Trey Brown from Oklahoma comes in. I think he sticks with Oklahoma, but I’ll say this. He likes Florida a lot more than people are thinking about. He and his father are very, very impressed by Florida’s DB history, by Torrian Gray. I think it’s a lot closer than we expected it to be, but I still think he sticks with Oklahoma, all in all. Like we always say, Nick, if you don’t bring them on campus, you have no shot.

Nick:                         Even if you think you’ve got a 0.01% shot, you bring them on campus.

Andrew:                 We’ve seen crazier things happen when kids come on campus.

Nick:                         What’s the number that you’ve got the class ending at? They’ve got room for 24, 25.

Andrew:                 I have 25 in my mock class. I could see it being 24. I could see it being 25 too. I think it just depends on kind of where some of these late moves happen. It just is tough to say, Nick. You know how it is. I say it’s going to be 25, but it’s like we talked about just a second ago with a guy like Bronson. Do they decide to take four linebackers? Coach Mac could come up on Signing Day, or tomorrow, on Tuesday, and say, “Coach, we got three. Think we feel good about some guys next year. Let’s just hold out on the three we got now.” That might be what happens. It could very well be 24. I think it gets to 25. We talk about this all the time. You want to get to that 85. You want to be fully scholarships every year.

Nick:                         Yeah. That’s when things can get tricky, but Florida’s kind of been operating under that since McElwain’s been here. Not because of McElwain, Muschamp was operating under that the last couple years.

Andrew:                 I think it’s a lot different to get 85 than to be kind of on probation. Like they say, they always say, “You can be on probation without being on probation,” and that’s kind of what Florida was on.

Nick:                         Self-induced probation.

Andrew:                 Exactly. You want me to run through the mock class real quick?

Nick:                         Yeah. I’ll help you run through that. At quarterback, it’s going to be Jake Allen, and this caused some stir on the board, Jake Allen, Kadarius Toney. Here’s the thing. Florida has two quarterbacks. Kadarius Toney played quarterback. He’s an athlete, and you and I have both said that we think that he’ll be a receiver at Florida, but you can’t have two quarterbacks for an entire spring camp. They’re going to throw their arms out. There’s just too many passes that you need to throw through 15 two hour practices. There’s going to be walk-ons that will need to fill in and throw some, but Kadarius Toney is going to get his wish, and he’s going to be able to play quarterback.

I think it will lead to a conversation, maybe not even a conversation, but it’s kind of like, “KT, we gave you that chance. You saw how it worked out. We’re going to need you to try this other position here.” Jake Allen won’t be there in the spring, so Toney will get an opportunity to play quarterback in the spring.

Andrew:                 Here’s my thing, and I don’t understand what the blowback was. People getting upset because I put him at quarterback. We all know where he probably ends up. If he doesn’t work out at quarterback, he probably goes to receiver. Here’s the thing. Maybe he does work out at quarterback. We don’t know. I personally think that Franks or Trask is going to play quarterback this year, and Kadarius is too good of an athlete not to play somewhere, so I think he does play some slot receiver.

My thing is this. You can’t knock the kid. Give the kid a shot. Let’s see what he’s got. Put him at quarterback. If he ends up at wide receiver, cool. If he ends up head coach, who cares? Who cares? It’s a mock class. Get off of it.

Nick:                         Moving on. You mentioned running back already.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Malik and Adarius.

Nick:                         People that I’ve talked to from the Tampa area are very high on Malik. I don’t understand, what I’m being told is I don’t understand why people aren’t thinking of this as a bigger deal.

Andrew:                 I think a little bit is the level of competition that he’s at. I think that’s one of the things. He’s got a lot of carries as well. I personally think that’s the reason. I’m going to tell you, I like him a lot, and I like Adarius Lemons a lot. I think it’s a really good one/two combo.

Nick:                         Different kind of backs, too.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         You’re saying they complement each other, the skillsets complement each other well.

Andrew:                 I think it’s different than what you have on campus in Scarlett and Perine, so good to get those guys. At receiver, we talked about James Robinson, Daquon Green. Daquon’s more of your possession receiver kind of guy. James Robinson’s more of the take your top of your defense, more your taller receiver. Like I said, good combo here, and another upgrade at the position of receiver.

At tight end, Kemore Gamble, Zeke Byrd.

Nick:                         I’ve got a question. Zeke did not show up for his visit, so let’s get into that.

Andrew:                 I was hoping you’d forget about that.

Nick:                         I did not. Got to give the people what they want.

Andrew:                 Let’s just say that he didn’t show up on his visit. He had a basketball game, and we’ll see what happens on Signing Day.

Nick:                         Okay. You’ve got him in the class, as of now, as of noon on Monday you’ve got him in the class.

Andrew:                 I do. Kemore Gamble’s more of an H back type of guy. I think he’s a good player. Not sure really how good he can be, because he needs to bulk up a little bit. We’ll see there. It’s a little tougher to judge with him being an H back.

The position I’m excited about, Nick, is the offensive line. I really like the pickup of Moore and Telfort.

Nick:                         Small class is what people will say though.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but I go back to this, Nick, and that is the last three have been really big at offensive line. You don’t have to take four every year. I think they would have liked to have gotten three in the class, but they took two. I always this, and I need to say this again. Right now, Mac has filled the numbers standpoint. It’s no longer about adding depth. It’s about adding quality.

Nick:                         He’s done a really good job of doing both. A lot was made of you had four offensive linemen, five offensive linemen, when he first got here, so a lot has been done in terms of finding quality players, and filling in depth.

Andrew:                 Exactly.

Nick:                         Now you’ve gotten to a point where the numbers are right, so you can be a little pickier.

Andrew:                 Exactly.

Nick:                         And Telfort’s on campus already.

Andrew:                 I think Moore’s a guy that can play guard or tackle, and I’ll say this, and that is that guy’s got a mindset that he’s going to play. I like that at offensive line. I like that two class.

Defensive tackle, this is where it’s a little trickier for me, Nick. I feel good on Campbell, Conliffe, TJ Slaton being in the class. The Gaddy twins are still a big question mark. Will Florida decide to take them? Can they qualify? Do they flip? That kind of stuff. Surely that question gets answered sometime today, Monday, or Tuesday with that. That’s the big question mark. If the Gaddy twins are out, maybe they take the JuCo Malik Young. That’s the question mark. The Gaddy twins are the ones I feel the least confident in.

At defensive end is Zach Carter, been committed for a while. The guy that we could plug into there is LaBryan Ray. Like I said, I’m still 50/50 on whether he’s in the class or not.

Nick:                         That’s a huge one. That would be your headliner of this class. He looks the part. What’d he have? 99 tackles last year?

Andrew:                 Yeah. Something like that.

Nick:                         As an end. That’s pretty serious.

Andrew:                 Played defensive tackle at the Under Armour game with a torn labrum. Just a machine. He’s a freak, and he’s from Alabama.

Nick:                         Which means you like him a little extra.

Andrew:                 A little extra for my guy. Great kid, too though, great kid and great family. Good people all around.

At linebacker, like I said, Houston, Miller, Nick Smith are all commits. Those are three I feel very good on. I have Brunson in the class. I think, like I said, if they take him, he’s in. If they don’t take him, he goes to FIU.

Nick:                         Should you be taking someone like that then?

Andrew:                 At linebacker with Randy Shannon, I say yes.

Nick:                         Okay.

Andrew:                 Yeah. At DB, I got a class of Marco Wilson, Shawn Davis, Brad Stewart, Brian Edwards, and Donovan Stiner. I’m cool with that. Marco, Brad, you’re headliners. Next is Shawn and Brian, with Donovan being your depth guy a little bit. Like I said, Brian Edwards is a long, athletic corner. I’m cool with that class. Are you cool with the class overall?

Nick:                         At cornerback, I really like Marco Wilson. I really like Brad Stewart, and I really like Brian Edwards. I’m not sold on CJ Henderson.

Andrew:                 He’s not in the class.

Nick:                         Sorry about that.

Andrew:                 You mean you’re not sold he’s going to be in the class?

Nick:                         No. No, as a player I’m not sold on him.

Andrew:                 Okay. I’m not sold on him either. Never been sold on him.

Nick:                         I don’t know much about Stiner, to be honest. I’m not making a judgment on him. I’m just saying I don’t know enough about him.

Andrew:                 We got some good friends out in Texas, Nick, that are close to us, and talked to those guys. They do a good job. The feeling they give to me is that he is very athletic, had a good frame, but still needs to polish off his skills a little bit. I personally think that’s okay, that you can take that risk, if he’s a good enough athlete and player. You get him on special teams for the first year, and then you get him on the field, so I’m okay with that. Like I said, I think he’s a depth add at this standpoint.

Nick:                         You need some of that depth, because I don’t know, there’s a couple defensive backs that are at Florida now that I don’t know if they’re ever going to be an impact.

Andrew:                 What’s that again? Say that one more time.

Nick:                         There’s a couple guys, I said you still need depth at the position, because there’s two cornerbacks in particular on Florida’s roster that I don’t think make any kind of impact.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I think it’s a little bit different at safety, though. You need that depth there just because, like we said, you have the two seniors, then you basically have Litton and Jawaan Taylor.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 That’s that. Like I said, it’s a good class, lacking headliners. Nick, let’s talk a little quick about our Signing Day coverage, real quick. Going to have everything going. Going to have the signee profiles going. Going to have the chat going, all that good stuff. One stop shop, Gator Country for Signing Day.

Nick:                         It’s a long day for us, but it makes for a good day for you.

Andrew:                 It does. It ends the year on a high note. Gets the class rolling. You start into 2018 shortly after, but, for me, it’s a vacation after this.

Nick:                         Yeah. For me, I’ll be off this weekend, following Signing Day, and then that’s the last weekend off. Baseball starts up, and we’ll get into baseball on the podcast after Signing Day. It’ll be next week that we get into it, because we’ll have the recap show for you on Thursday/Friday, probably Friday.

Andrew:                 And some softball. I’m fired up for softball. Fired up. Braves baseball coming around the corner, too. This is a special podcast for me though, Nick. Finally got to tell everyone the real truth on Mark Richt.

Nick:                         You’ve been waiting. You’ve been preaching it for a while.

Andrew:                 I really have. I think people took some shots at me for a little bit, and that’s cool. I think that it finally came out and showed everyone what his true colors were.

Nick:                         Yeah. You could say that.

Andrew:                 All right, Nick, let’s get out of here. Tell everyone where they can find us on Signing Day, and we’ll see everyone on the message boards and on the site on Wednesday. If you’re listening to this, we’ll have our special pre-Signing Day chat Tuesday night on the site. Nick and I will be there. If you’re not a member, come check us out. Never a bad time to join.

Nick:                         www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The website has our podcast every day that it’s published, in transcript form and in audio form. If you have iPhone, you can go to the podcast store, search Gator Country. Subscribe there, never miss a podcast. On social media, it’s @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. You can follow me @NickdelaTorreGC, and him @AndrewSpiveyGC.

Andrew:                 That’s right. Stay tuned. It’s going to be a big week, as always. Like I said, if you’re not a member yet, come check us out, even if you only stay for a month. I bet once you get over you won’t leave. Guys, as always, we appreciate it. As always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Mark, you’re a fraud, buddy.

Nick:                         You stay classy, Gator Country.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.