Podcast recapping Florida Gators recruiting and camps

This Gator Country podcast recaps the Florida Gators recruiting commits and Friday Night Lights this past weekend where the Gators picked up two commits.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down who looked good over the weekend, who showed up, plus give you the scoop on the latest news.

Andrew and Nick also break the Treon Harris transfer and what it means going forward, plus which players were out at the camp this past weekend.

TRANSCRIPT:

 

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man right here, Andrew Spivey, with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, long weekend, but it’s over, and that means one thing, the season is near.

Nick:                         Yeah. The season is near. Florida will get underway first week in August. So as you listen to this on the 26th of July, Florida will get back in, I think, August 3rd is the report date, and August 4th get everything going with practice.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It’s there. We’ll talk about this more, but Florida just, the main purpose of this conversation, or this podcast, is to talk about the football camp, and we’ll talk about that in a second. Nick, it definitely was a different buzz around. Three day event, including the new elite quarterback camp that Florida had where they basically had all the Elite 11 coaches on campus. You had a lot of the players chatting it up with recruits, that kind of stuff, and that’s something that’s always there, but you saw that the guys were maybe more involved. Maybe more a little laid back and chill, confident as well. The buzz around this camp and the prestige of the camp is finally back, and I think that’s props to Mac, to Coach Hughes, to Coach Barbay, Ryan Smith, to all the recruiting staff as well as the coaching staff, for getting these guys on campus.

Nick:                         The biggest thing to me probably was guys competing, and that generates buzz by itself. It had kind of gotten into, if you go back to the initial Friday Night Lights you’ve got Ronald Powell working out, and that’s the #1 recruit in the country at the time. To me, it had gotten to a point where I’m too good to be working out at Friday Night Lights. I’ll go, because it’s a big event, but I’m too good to be working out. I’ll just go, and I’ll hang out and watch from the sideline. It had become a camp where there was maybe one person working out that Florida was interested in while 20 kids were standing and watching on the sideline. That, to me, when you get Jerry Jeudy and Copeland and guys like that out there competing, those are guys with some real talent, and I think kind of competition just breeds that kind of excitement, and that goes on to the coaches for convincing guys to show up and compete, not just show up and hang out.

Andrew:                 Hell, you had your quarterback commit, who’s been committed forever, come out there.

Nick:                         Will Grier threw two, three years ago.

Andrew:                 I’m just saying like that starts it, when that starts it. Here’s another thing, and this is something else that we talked about as well. A guy like Adarius Lemons and Jeudy, everybody in the country knows how good they are. They didn’t just work out. They busted their ass in workout. It wasn’t no halfway doing it. They were going full speed, getting after it, and that was major props to that. That definitely helped the buzz come back, but when you look at the names that came in, it’s a lot of big names that came back in over a three day period, and that’s what brought the buzz back. Again, that only happens because of the guys we just mentioned, the coaching staff, the recruiting staff, getting these guys and working these guys to get them to come to campus, because it is no camp without the big stuff like it is, and if you don’t have the big names, it’s tough to generate, because people like you and I just don’t care to watch people that are going to be not playing college football work out. We have better things to do, like watch the Atlanta Braves.

Nick:                         It’s just, I think when Friday Night Lights first started when Urban Meyer was here, started Friday Night Lights, it was kind of the first of its kind, and now you’re in a situation where everyone has some kind of camp like this. That’s just the nature of college football, the NFL. It’s monkey see, monkey do. That’s working, let’s do that too. You kind of have to evolve, and you saw the evolution of Friday Night Lights this year with the next level quarterback camp starting on Thursday.

Andrew:                 How awesome was that?

Nick:                         Yeah. That coaching staff was fantastic, and that’s the kind of things you have to do. Someone like Sitkowski maybe can’t fly from New Jersey to California and pay to work out with George Whitfield, but he can fly from New Jersey to Florida to attend a camp where George Whitfield is at and get that kind of coaching. Lavelle Durant, all of these guys that Jim McElwain was able to bring in for this quarterback camp, that’s enticing to get those guys on, and then once, we’ve talked about it as far as recruiting. In recruiting classes, you get the quarterbacks on board, and all these other position players start to follow, and that’s another way to build buzz. I think the evolution of—

Andrew:                 Those guys bring guys with them too.

Nick:                         Right.

Andrew:                 If a receiver sees those guys coming, they’re like, maybe I’ll come down and catch balls from these guys.

Nick:                         Yeah, and then, well, Jerry Jeudy’s going to go. Maybe I should be going. That’s the other thing. Even if a quarterback only brings in one guy, that one guy can have a trickle down effect, and I think that’s what it is. Now, I have nothing positive to say about the seven hours I spent watching big man camp on Saturday, but Thursday and Friday were really good.

Andrew:                 To be fair, Saturday’s event was supposed to be a lot different. Had some teams back out, and that is…

Nick:                         Welcome to seven on seven.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was about to say. I was about to say, that’s the nature of the world, but that is what it is. They did still have some big names come on campus that time. To go back to that quarterback camp real quick, when you think of the names, Nick, George Whitfield, one of the most renowned quarterback coaches in America. I mean, he’s on College Game Day to talk about quarterbacks. Lavelle Durant was Eason’s quarterback coach, has also coached the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Carson Palmer, big names like that. Guy like Quincy Avery that’s in Georgia, he’s coached some of the top names guys as well. I know I’m forgetting people. Eric Kresser was Jake Allen’s personal quarterback coach, former Gator. Who am I missing, Nick? David Morris is Quarterback Country. He’s coached the likes of AJ McCarron, Jake Coker, several guys that have been at Alabama, several guys that have been at Auburn, that kind of stuff.

When you think of that, you’re not surprised at the quarterbacks that came on, but it’s not even so much that. It’s just that Artur Sitkowski, and I think I’m saying that right, from Jersey, who will be one of the best quarterbacks next year, is he coming down to Friday Night Lights to work out if not those guys? I don’t know that answer, but you damn sure didn’t give him much of a choice not to work out and not to come down when you have that big of a camp. That was a big draw, and here’s the thing. Now Florida has the leg up in quarterback recruiting for next year. They got him on campus for three days working out with Nuss. Not only that, but now they see Florida’s good friends with these guys. It’s like, man, I need to rethink this whole deal about what the Gators have to offer.

Nick:                         Yeah. Maybe Artur comes down just because, as we wrote in our story on Friday, no, on Thursday night, maybe he comes down because his aunt is in Tampa and is a Gator fan. Maybe he comes down, but certainly, without a shadow of a doubt, having that kind of staff and the opportunity to be coached by that kind of staff, turns that maybe into an absolutely, not going to miss it.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. Here’s the thing. Now you got to see him work out, go through the thing, the camps, and you know it is, it’s kind of like Kyle Trask last year. Everyone made fun of that pick up, but Nuss and them put him through the wringer twice last year to see that he was there, and I think that’s where it is. You look at the guy, Dorian Thompson Robinson, DTR, as we said, from Bishop Gorman. Does Florida get him? Probably not, but still it was pretty cool to see a Bishop Gorman kid come down. Guess what? He’s going to go back to Bishop Gorman. He’s going to talk about the visit. Who knows? You may end up getting another visit from one of those guys down the road. You look at some of the other guys from Oklahoma that came out, other guys that just came out. That word spreads. That’s how you go from being just recruiting your area to recruiting the nation again, like Urban Meyer did when he had Ronald Powell, when he had those guys coming in. That’s how you recruit the nation again.

Nick:                         Let me ask you a quick question here. Thursday comes, Friday comes and goes, the event is great. As you, and we had on our site, the atmosphere and the feeling is different. Florida gets one commitment on Friday, and fan base is not happy. This staff can’t close. One commit from Friday Night Lights, and it’s a kid who has a torn ACL. What’s going on? What do you say to the fans who were maybe a little trigger happy with their disappointment and their judgments on the event, kind of in the 16 hours, 12 hours after the event finished on Friday night?

Andrew:                 First of all, let’s look at some of the names that were there. Defensive tackle, Fred Hansard, is a big name, big star guy. Jerry Jeudy, big name, big star guy. Trying to think, trying to go down the list in my head. I don’t have it in front of me. Jeudy, you had the quarterbacks there. You had Brad Stewart out of Louisiana there. You had Marco who came in on Saturday. When you look at these names, these were names that you didn’t think were just going to pop immediately. So let’s look at that first of all. Second of all, you built yourself momentum going into there, and then third, I hate using this word, Nick, silent commits. I hate using that, but they got some. They went home, done that stuff. Things are there.

My last thing is this. You’re at 12 commits; 22 is your number. You got 10 spots. Do you want Florida just to go out and sign donks who are wanting to just find a place, or do you want them to hold out for these big names they gained momentum for? You can’t have both. You want to be an elite program, you’ve got to be waiting on these big names guys that are going to decide on their own. Big name guys aren’t going to just pop up and announce it at Friday Night Lights. They want that TV coverage. They want that media coverage. So decide. Do you want a bunch of donks that are Plan Bs that will commit on the spot, and you can say, we got a big event like Tennessee did where they got eight three stars in one day, or you can say, I want the big name guys, and let’s just wait. AKA, Adarius Lemons on Sunday, when he broke the internet.

Nick:                         Yeah. That’s true. I guess it’s just kind of the fickle nature, or fickle way of fans, where it’s never as good as it could be, and it could always be better. To me, the event was fine, and that’s the other thing. The thing that people don’t realize, or people that are complaining don’t realize, is space is limited. You’ve got half the class, right around there, half the class signed already. So you get into a position where you can keep taking and taking and taking commitments, but you only have 85 scholarships, and you only have a certain amount open for this year, and then you get to the point where now we’re going to have to get dirty, and now kids are going to have to be told, your scholarship’s not getting renewed, because scholarships aren’t four year commitments.

I don’t care. Will Muschamp comes out and says, “We’re giving you a four year commitment.” That sounds great for recruiting. Every one of those kids that signed up for one of those four year commitments had to go and resign their scholarship for the next year. After every school year you have to go and resign your scholarship, because it’s a one year contract. So that’s what it is. You want to sign 50 kids in this class, and then get super dirty and have that be your reputation, then it becomes hard to go into schools. Hey, what happened to that kid that was supposed to go, and then all of a sudden Signing Day comes, and we don’t get a letter of intent in the fax machine? A lot of it’s relationships, and right now Florida has half a class signed before the season.

Andrew:                 And that’s as planned. We talked about that last year. Mac would like to have most of his guys committed heading into the season, because, at the end of the day, Mac’s all about winning football games. Of course, he’s got to recruit, and he’s got to do all that good stuff, but, at the end of the day, he’s all about that kind of stuff. So let’s not confuse that he’s doing this and wanting those guys to commit now. He wants those guys to do that, for sure. It’s there, but let’s talk about Adarius Lemons real quick, Nick. First of all, how cool was the #GetLemonstotheSwamp?

Nick:                         Cool, I guess.

Andrew:                 It was pretty cool to see all the Gator commits start it, get it going. It got up to #3 in the world and trending behind HappyTequilaDay and MLBHallofFameDay. Adarius, you’re a very good football player, but the kid with the swing, Ken Griffey, Jr. and, actually, Tequila Day, probably weren’t getting topped.

Nick:                         No high school kid should be, Ken Griffey, Jr. is a childhood hero of mine. He is the goat. No high school kid should be trending over the Kid on the day the Kid is getting put into the Hall of Fame.

Andrew:                 The day the Kid puts the hat on backwards.

Nick:                         Classic. Had to happen.

Andrew:                 Had to happen. We’ll talk that. We got to talk that for a couple minutes at the end. We’ll talk that. Remember that. Put that in a side note. Yeah, that was cool to see that. Got their first and only running back commit there. Nick, I know you got to see him a little bit in person on Friday as well, as I did. He’s got that ability. He’s got that long, athletic look for him. He’s also got a good speed. Ran a 4.5, and is very physical for a guy his size. Man, you can’t question that kid’s work ethic.

Nick:                         No. I’m not sure what he’s listed at, or what he weighed in at, but he is kind of long and lean. One of those, I’d liken it to someone like a JC Jackson, where there’s not an ounce of fat on him. The kid is walking around, and you’re looking at him like, almost looks like a body builder, someone’s who’s ready to get on stage for a competition. He ran 100% through all of the drills. Some kids who camped only wanted to do one on ones, but he went through everything, and went through all of the running back drills with Coach Skip, and led everything. To me, that was important. To see him, and it wasn’t something the coaches told him to do, something he did on his own. He got in the first person in every single line, went through everything. To me, that was impressive. I liked his speed, liked his footwork over the bags. Big kid, definitely all of that 6’, and based on how long he is, probably someone that can get up into a 215 if that’s where the coaching staff wants him. Obviously, with good speed you need to make sure you’re not trading size for too much speed, but a frame that definitely can support more weight, if that’s where the coaching staff thinks he should go.

Andrew:                 I thought he did. He was really good there. Let’s talk about James Houston. That’s the other commit this weekend. First, yes, he has a torn ACL. He just tore it two weeks ago, he said. Is it one of those things that sucks because you can’t see him this fall? Yes. When you look at him, 6’1”, 225. Had offers from a ton of places, was a guy Florida was heavily after and wanted before his ACL injury. Okay. Does the ACL injury suck? Yes. At the same time, Nick, you can attest to this, an ACL injury today is not the same ACL injury it was five years ago. Medical procedures have come such a long way. You come back from that stuff. So it’s not a deal breaker. He’s not a donk of a player. He’s a good player. You wanted him before. You got him. He has a torn ACL. You know he’s going to come back from it, or should come back from it, barring something crazy. Why not take him?

Nick:                         You look at Marco Wilson, eight months after an ACL surgery he runs one of the fastest times at the Opening in the 40.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. Would you agree though? The ACL procedure is not near as bad as it was even five years ago when you didn’t know if people were going to come back. I mean, you’re seeing people come back from it six months now, five months now. You’re seeing them come back a lot sooner. The good thing for James Houston is he has basically about nine months, 12 months now, before he even reports to Florida. Yeah, 12 months now before he even reports to Florida, so he’s got plenty of time to be healthy, be ready to go, get back in shape and be ready to go for fall camp and summer workouts next year.

Nick:                         Yeah. Not going to get hurt playing football this year, because his senior season is done. To me, why back off on a kid? I understand the history. Matt Rolin, you didn’t back off Matt Rolin after ACLs, and it hasn’t worked out, but to me there’s no, it’s good business to stay loyal to somebody. Especially like you said, an ACL surgery is not like it used to be, especially if they decide to go do cadaver. I’ve talked to a bunch of people who’ve had ACL surgeries, and when they get the cadaver ligament people have said that that’s really the least chance of having the ACL tear again, and they’ve felt more comfortable and stronger in the knee quicker. Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers, has some other guy’s ACL in his knee.

Andrew:                 It’s like you said. For every Matt Rolin there’s 10 success stories. I mean, Dominic Easley. Who else? Who else am I forgetting?

Nick:                         It’s kind of like Tommy John now with baseball players.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         In baseball it’s kind of like, we’ve got a prescribed method for doing this. You’re going to sit out for eight months. Then you’re going to go through a throwing program. Then you’re going to come back. You’ll be back for next season. We’ll limit your innings to this, and then two years you’re going to be back to normal. They’ve got that. It’s kind of down to a science, Tommy John Surgery in baseball. ACL, sure, everyone’s different. There could be extenuating circumstances, but for the most part we know how everyone, or most people, reacts to the surgery and how they react to being able to come back and that kind of time frame.

Andrew:                 Exactly. I’m cool with it. Perfectly fine with taking the backer. Florida needed to get good linebackers in this class. Two for two so far, Ventrell Miller, James Houston. Two for two right now. These guys were, I’ll go ahead and say it, are better than what they signed last year. So, yeah, I’m cool with it. Think they’ll sign another one, and I think it’ll be a good player. Could come any time. There’s a guy out in Cali who picked up an offer, and we’ll see what happens. He likes Florida. That’s Raheem Johnson, 6’4”, 215 pounds, and he’s got a body that can put on more weight. It’d be a guy that you could say could play at 6’4” 230, 240. Wow.

Nick:                         You need linebackers.

Andrew:                 Right. You needed three of them. Here you go. Let’s talk about Jerry Jeudy though. Broke the freaking internet with that ankle breaker. It was a little kid. He’s a 2019 commit to Miami. It is what it is. That was really cool to see that. Just because, A, it made the hype of it. Nick, I know he draws the passes, like you and I talked about, but he is the one that I was most surprised to see show up at camp, just because we had heard all the stories about him, being a lock to Alabama. It’s been tough to get him on campus anywhere but Alabama. He came on campus, and he still favored Alabama. There’s no doubt about it that he’s favoring Alabama, but if Florida can continue to get him on campus, we’ll see what happens. Anything can happen. I know he dropped some balls, Nick, and you have an opinion and that. I understand that. I don’t like him dropping balls, but he’s a guy, once he gets the ball in his hands, he’s a playmaker.

Nick:                         I just have no patience for receivers who drop passes. You can make people fall down without pads on, but if you’re dropping passes, and you play wide receiver, that’s what defensive backs are for.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s kind of what it is. I’m trying to think of who else we want to talk about here. We talked about Jeudy, talked about Lemons. Anybody else? Oh, Hamsah Nasirildeen, the big safety out of North Carolina. Nick, you and I got the chance to watch him go through drills and stuff at Friday Night Lights and see him in person. That’s a very good football player, and he’s another guy like Lemons. He was first in line to do it, and was talking shit, and I like it out of a DB, and he’s a guy that’s athletic at safety and is very good. Very impressed by him. Nick, what were your impressions of him?

Nick:                         I was really impressed with the way he high pointed the ball, and I think that was maybe, obviously crazy athletic, but I think the thing that maybe stuck out to me was how good he was at going back, finding the ball, getting out of his break, finding the ball, and then being able to turn and go up and get the ball at its highest point. I think, to me, that’s something that not every defensive back does well, as far as being able to be a ball hawk. I was impressed the way he got up and got after it, got the ball at its highest point.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s me, and how smooth he was in and out of his breaks and stuff like that. I was very impressed with him as well. I thought he looked really good to be that. I thought that the guys that showed up looked good, for the most part. You can’t really say too many people looked bad that I saw. It was very good.

Let’s talk real quick about 2018 quarterback Artur Sitkowski, because we got to talk about him. I mean, he’s just a big guy at 6’5”. Nick, you got to talk to him for a good while. I spoke to him a few times in passing and that kind of stuff. First of all, monster size hands. Monster size feet. Big kid. I said it, you said it. If you could make a prototype for a Jim McElwain offense, Doug Nussmeier offense, you look at this kid, and you say, this is the guy.

Nick:                         Yeah. To me there were some good guys there. I’m blanking on the first name, but Penix.

Andrew:                 Michael.

Nick:                         Michael Penix from Tampa. My buddy out from Nevada.

Andrew:                 Dorian Thompson Robinson.

Nick:                         Good prospects. Penix, left handed. Thompson Robinson, we call him DTR.

Andrew:                 We called Dirty.

Nick:                         Dirty, DTR. He earned a scholarship, but, to me, it wasn’t even close. Yeah, sure they’re good quarterbacks, but Sitkowski has the potential to be the top quarterback in his class, or one of the top two or three. Kind of difference maker. So it’s, you don’t go all in. Maybe it’s 2018 kid, even hard to have a bunch of contact with him right now, but that’s got to be your target. That’s got to be your guy, and he came down, wanted to earn a scholarship, and it didn’t take long. Nuss and Mac extended that to him after watching him just throw on Thursday.

Andrew:                 Yeah. No, you go all out. You put all the pressure on him. You make him your guy, and make him the guy for the class, and go after. Let’s talk about two DBs real quick, well, we’ll talk about three DBs actually. Shawn Davis, Brad Stewart, Marco Wilson, three guys that visited all over the weekend. Brad Stewart coming out of Louisiana. The Gators have got a really good shot with him, is a guy that can play both safety and corner, and really liked seeing him, seeing his look. Heard he did well in drills on Saturday. I didn’t see it, but I heard he did well. So you look good there. Florida’s done a good job. Skip’s done a really good job of working the parent and him, and I know the phrase is, LSU’s going to get—No. He hates LSU, despises LSU. He wants out of LSU. It’s going to be Alabama or Florida. Like the Gators chances there.

Our boy, Marco, and I call him our boy just because, Nick, I kind of feel like we’ve watched him grow up, from meeting him as an eighth grader at the Under Armour game with Quincy to now seeing him be a scholarship guy. Very good athlete. Gators or Miami, I like the Gators chances. They laid out the red carpet treatment for him. I heard that there was highlight videos going for him, everything that they had going for Marco. They wanted Marco to feel special, because he was Marco, not Little Quincy.

Last one that I’ll talk about is Shawn Davis, the corner out of Miami. Is going to announce in August. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t the Gators. Anybody but Florida would be a complete shock. Nick, opinions on the three?

Nick:                         Haven’t seen Marco work out since coming back from his surgery, in person that is. Obviously been watching stuff going on at the opening, but in person. He’s just a tremendous player, and I think it was Chad, Quincy and Marco’s father, who played at Miami, told you and I when we met Marco, who was an eighth grader going into ninth grade, hey, he’s going to be better than Quincy. We’re like, okay, cool. Kind of, yeah, have watched him grow up and grow into that.

Andrew:                 Great family, by the way.

Nick:                         Yeah. In the world of recruiting, where a verbal commitment means nothing, Chad Wilson won’t let Marco commit to a school until he’s ready, because, like Chad told us with Quincy, when Quincy commits to a school that’s it. There’s no decommitting. There’s no going back and forth. You give a school a commitment, that’s your word. That’s where you’re going. So whenever Marco decides to pull the trigger, that’ll be it for him. Whether it’s Florida, Miami, USC, wherever it is, that’ll be it. To me, he’s a great player. You can probably get him on the field as a freshman, Day 1, at corner.

Shawn Davis, I saw him, very streaky on Saturday. He was playing safety, so not really his main position there, but I told you, there’s a sequence where Shawn Davis intercepts a pass. Next play he winds up a wide receiver, catches a touchdown. Then catches the extra point. So in three plays he’s made three crazy plays. Next play, very next play, this was all a sequence, bats down a pass, and then the fifth play he gets beat for a touchdown. Kind of a situation where he gets caught looking in the backfield. That stuff happens more to safeties who are inexperienced than it does to cornerbacks who are experienced. So just saw him get beat a couple times, but it’s playing a position he’s not used to, and it’s seven on seven, so you take that for what it’s worth. A very physically gifted and talented player. I’d probably put Marco as the best prospect in that group, in my opinion, though.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It’s close between Marco and Brad Stewart. Brad Stewart’s a freaking athlete too. One of those two up there, and go from there. Let’s end this. Let’s end the recruiting talk. We’ll talk some football real quick as well. Let’s end the recruiting talk by this. My final impressions of the event, great event for not only 2017, but 2018. We didn’t get to near talk about all we wanted to, because we talked so freaking long, but good event and liked the way things went. Momentum was high. Liked the indoor being in there. Tons of cameras out, kids taking photos, that kind of stuff. I was impressed with that.

Nick:                         Yeah. The environment was great, and I think it was a better event than the last two, for sure.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         That I’ve covered.

Andrew:                 Anything’s better than Willy Muschamp’s event, but let’s move to football real quick. Do we call it breaking news? I don’t think it’s breaking. I mean, we’ve talked about it for so freaking long. If people were listening to the podcast they expected this, but Treon Harris finally announced that he’s transferring. That was on Monday. Once again, I don’t know if it’s a surprise, because we’ve been talking about it for so long, but he’s gone. I think it’s best for both sides.

Nick:                         Yeah. Jim McElwain, when we asked him at SEC Media Days about Treon Harris, kind of almost was like chuckling about it. Treon Harris wasn’t a priority. It’s a situation where you’ve probably caused more trouble than you’re worth. You go back to 2014, there’s a sexual assault allegation. That gets dropped. You’re in a car that is pulled over for speeding. There’s weed in the car. You get off, because it’s a friend’s car. She’s not here. The weed was just in the car, and not on anybody. Then you’re suspended for a game last year. Bret McMurphy of ESPN reported that that was for failing a drug test, and then there’s an incident where you’re missing spring practice this year for a university investigation. You’re a little more trouble than you’re worth right now, and you could tell the way that Florida kind of backed Antonio Callaway differently than they backed Treon Harris going through this latest thing. The other thing is Treon Harris, Jim McElwain’s been saying since spring started, really happy with the four quarterbacks that we have. That’s not Treon Harris. He’s not going to play receiver. He’s not going to play defensive back at Florida. I’m surprised that it took this long for this to be announced.

Andrew:                 I think the biggest thing for me is this, and that is you didn’t want him in that quarterback meeting room with all those guys.

Nick:                         No. You don’t want him in the quarterback meeting room for sure, but then do you want a disgruntled player in the defensive back room? Then, does he become more disgruntled when he’s not getting any playing time at defensive back or wide receiver? Then you worry about him becoming a cancer or bringing a bad vibe into a different room, even though it’s not the quarterback room.

Andrew:                 Right. Here’s the thing. The whole deal where the players at Media Days really said things got different, I don’t even want to say open my eyes to it, because I knew that was the thing, but it was one of those things where it was like, okay, they’re ready to admit it. So you knew something was going on. I mean, hell, Nick, you and I have known for a while that his locker’s been cleaned out. No surprise, like you said. Best for both parties that he’s gone, and things are moving on.

Let’s talk real quick. August 3rd is kickoff for the Media Day, all that good stuff. They’re going through last couple days of school for Summer B. Then they’ve got a couple days off before they report. Things are getting close.

Nick:                         Thank, God, things are getting close. Football is close. I think there’s five, six, in seven weekends there will be football.

Andrew:                 College Game Day.

Nick:                         Florida football in seven weekends. Less weekends than that for football as we get the NFL preseason kicks off, and then you get those Thursday night games. It’s a pretty great Week 1 schedule, but it’s coming. Can’t wait for it to come. It’s been a long off season, and before we get out of here I’ll fill in real quick. Florida released coaching contracts.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         So Geoff Collins gets the big extension. It was rumored, and we talked about him interviewing at UCF and getting attention as far as a head coaching job.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Florida bumped him up. He’ll be making, I think, $900,000 a year for the next two years.

Andrew:                 He’s not gone in August.

Nick:                         That’s a base salary. He also gets $150,000 retention bonus, and that’s built in for both years. He’ll get that $150,000 retention bonus if he’s still on staff next Valentine’s Day, February 14.

Andrew:                 Hold on. Let me say this real quick. That would make him only one of nine assistants to make over a million a year after that bonus.

Nick:                         Right. That bonus got paid out in February already.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but what I’m saying is next year.

Nick:                         Chris Rumph gets an extension. His contract is now $500,000, up $85,000 increase, and he’s through 2017. Mike Summers, this is the one where people are going to freak out.

Andrew:                 You had to bring it up. Why you couldn’t just leave it out?

Nick:                         Because people are going to freak out about it, and they don’t understand. I’m not going to answer questions about it, because we’re talking about it right now, and I put it on our message board. Mike Summers was making, let me see, he was making $200,000 per season the last two years. Now he’s making $488,500. Florida did not double his contract. Florida just made him whole. The last two years Summers was still on USC’s payroll.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         So he was making roughly $480,000 between the two schools. Florida is just making him whole, so that he’s not losing out $200,000 a year from what he was making the previous two years. Florida’s not doubling his contract. They’re just making him whole.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         Randy Shannon’s two years, $409,000 and change. Torrian Gray, two years, $335,000, and then Tim Skipper, Doug Nussmeier, Kerry Dixon, and Greg Nord are still on their initial two year contracts. Those run through 2016.

Andrew:                 You can bet your bottom dollar they’re all getting raises after the season.

Nick:                         Yeah. Absolutely. That’s most likely to be expected. Yeah.

Andrew:                 Exactly. Let’s talk real quick. We got about five minutes here we can talk about this, but I wanted to talk about some of the guys we’ve seen on campus this week, Nick. You had guys like CJ Worton, those guys that were out there throwing the ball around, like usual. I’ll say this, and, Nick, I may be completely out of context when I say this, and correct me if I am. It seemed like CJ Worton was more around the teammates a lot more this year and just kind of seemed more relaxed, like maybe he finally has figured out the off the field stuff.

Nick:                         I had one person tell me this weekend that he is, that in their opinion the light has switched, that he’s done a complete 180, that maybe that off the field stuff that had kept him off the playing field was behind him.

Andrew:                 Right. Okay.

Nick:                         Do I believe it? It’s starting to get to a point where with him I’ll believe it when I see it.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         But this is a person who’s around the team a bunch, a person that would know.

Andrew:                 Did it not seem though like he was a different kind of person this weekend when seeing him?

Nick:                         He’s always been, I really saw him hanging out a lot with Antonio Callaway when he was out there.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         Hanging out with Ahmad Fulwood. Ahmad’s not really a guy that I’d seen him with a lot, but I’d seen him with Treon more. Treon before, and he’s a very social guy. He’s always around. He’s always around players.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It just kind of seemed like he was more relaxed maybe, I guess would be the best word to say. Again, I don’t know. So I wanted to point out about a couple other guys. You look at a guy like Jachai Polite, looked like he’d gotten a lot bigger. Nick, I know you’re going to post all this on the message boards, so we’ll go through it real quick when we do it. He looked like he’d gotten a little bit bigger. CJ McWilliams is still a midget. Sorry, CJ, but he still looks like a kid. Antonneous Clayton has lost weight, because he was sick. The buzz in the air, created by another site, that buzz was started by Andrew, because Andrew did it. Tell him that the buzz, ask him where the buzz came from. It came from Andrew. Yes, Clayton did look a little smaller, because he had the flu, but he’s better now and will be gaining some weight back. Jeremiah Moon looked like he had gained some weight. We had heard 12 pounds. Is that right, Nick? 212 to 225 or something like that.

Nick:                         That’s be 13 pounds, but about that. I don’t think you see him on defense this year.

Andrew:                 I don’t either.

Nick:                         Some of that you’ll see on special teams.

Andrew:                 Right, but I’m just saying that that’s good that he’s able to gain weight. That’s it. Anything else you want to get on, Nick, before we get out of here?

Nick:                         Yeah, you touched on it with McWilliams, and I’ve touched on it in a couple stories. Florida is scary thin at cornerback. You’ve really got Tabor, Dawson, and Wilson. So pray for no injuries. Pray for no suspensions. There is a very steep drop off after those three at cornerback.

Andrew:                 Yes. Absolutely. Big problems there.

Nick:                         Well, football season right around the corner. So you know where you tune in. Thank you for listening to the podcast. As always, www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. On Twitter it’s @GatorCountry. Facebook, @GatorCountry. On Instagram @TheGatorCountry, and you can follow me on Twitter, @NickdelaTorreGC. Follow him on Twitter, @AndrewSpiveyGC, and thank you for tuning in. Feel free to drop a comment, rating, like, on any of those, and shoot us a rating on the podcast.

Andrew:                 Yeah. A couple of quick shout outs. Really appreciate everyone that stopped Nick and I this weekend to tell us they liked the podcast. Nick and I really appreciate that, and keep, if you see us, don’t be afraid to say hello. Another quick shout out to all of our new interns. Nick, I know you’ll express this as well, but Bailey, Jackson and Matt, and then Kevin, who does our really good edits, and then, of course, our man, David Bowie, with the photos. Thanks for all the help. You guys, follow them on Twitter. Nick and I, sorry, we don’t know their Twitter right off hand. We’ll know that next time, so we can give a shout out. We appreciate everyone. If you’re not a member of GC yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting on, because the news stops here with us. We got it, always. So come join us. As always, guys, go Braves, and chomp, chomp.

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.