HOOVER, Ala.- Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we recap what happened at SEC Media Days for the Florida Gators and the other SEC teams.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down what head coach Jim McElwain said, plus how Marcus Maye, Jarrad Davis and David Sharpe did during the event.
Andrew and Nick also give you their preseason All-SEC picks, plus pick who they think will represent each division in the SEC championship.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Day 3 is over with, heading into last day of Media Days. Florida has come and gone, and Coach Mac is now probably enjoying Montana again. Nothing new. Nothing surprising out of Coach Mac so far, but I guess what’s your impression of the first three days before the last day comes on Thursday?
Nick: It’s kind of been a bland Media Day, would you say that? As far as everybody’s kind of toeing the company line. Jarrad Davis maybe the most outspoken guy of Florida’s group. I wouldn’t even say talking shit. It’s kind of just very confident when asked about Tennessee. Very confident in his team. My dude Jojo Kemps from Kentucky probably stole the show. He was just loving life, loved being in Birmingham. Threw the shout out to Laura Rutledge to follow him back on Twitter to make sure. So shooters shoot. Jojo Kemp came to Hoover and shot his shot.
Andrew: That’s pretty cool. I didn’t see that. That was pretty interesting. Like you just said, with Jarrad Davis was he talking smack or anything like that? No, but he said what everybody thought. Would you agree with that? I mean, he said what everyone thought, and that is that it’s been 11 in a row. Show me you can beat me, then I’ll believe it. Then, of course, Jarrad Davis doesn’t want to be that team. Nobody ever wants to be that guy that allows that streak to end. That’d be kind of devastating for Jarrad Davis and all these guys that leave to say, well the last game I played against Tennessee was the first time they beat us since 2004.
Nick: Yeah, and that’s something that we’ve talked about with Kentucky. I’m 27 years old. Florida’s never lost to Kentucky in my lifetime, and that’s something that Florida players mention when we get into Kentucky week and we’re talking to them. We don’t want to be the class that does it. We don’t want to be the class that ends that streak. Kentucky’s not really a rival, so that kind of feeling is amped up tenfold when you’re talking about Tennessee. Jarrad Davis, I told some of the national guys, so when Florida comes through the national guys that we’re friendly with kind of ask us, what’s Jarrad Davis like? What’s David Sharpe like? What are these guys like? What’s a way to phrase questions to get them to open up a little bit?
I said, Jarrad Davis is one of the most sincere, one of the most thoughtful and genuine people that you will ever talk to. When you ask him a question he’s really going to open up, and I think the best thing Jarrad Davis did was really open up when somebody asked him about domestic violence, which is becoming sort of a disturbing trend, not just in college athletics, but in athletics across the board. He opened it up, and Jarrad Davis gives this heartfelt message, and really ends it with, “Coach Mac tells us, you don’t have to worry about that if you’re doing the right things,” and I think that was a message that Mac wanted to get across, and something that you could see Jarrad Davis did get across, but it come across as that was on my cue card that I read on the plane of things to make sure to say. It came off very genuine.
Andrew: That was one, and also when he was asked kind of about off the field issues, domestic violence, that kind of stuff, he came across, and he said, “I’ve had a lot of people do a lot of things for me, work hard for me,” he said, “from teachers to grandparents.” He named every one of his grandparents, that kind of stuff. He kind of just went on about it for, I would say, a solid three minutes, and it was one of those things where if Coach Mac or any of the Florida department had written for them you would be giving them props for writing it, but it was something that was just as thoughtful as Jarrad Davis thinking about it on the fly for that.
To go on with the other two guys, I thought Marcus Maye handled himself really well, and I thought David Sharpe did better than expected for me. I thought Sharpe did a good job. Was less nervous than maybe I thought he would be, with the exception of a couple questions. We’ll talk about that in a second. Agree or disagree on Sharpe?
Nick: Getting back to what I was telling the national guys that were asking us. I was like, David Sharpe is very quiet when there’s 10 of us in Gainesville after a practice. I don’t know how he’s going to react when he’s in front of 40 cameras, or when there’s 80 people around him asking questions. Sharpe did very well. He’s still quieter than the other two, but definitely did much better than I expected, gave some good answers, and he’s going to be a guy that’s really important to this offense. Not just to the offensive line, but to the offense as a whole. So if he’s going to be one of your leaders on offense, then you need him to be a liaison to the media.
When you think of who’s talking to the media every week? You look at it in the past. It’s your quarterback. Last year we were talking to Antonio Morrison every week. That was your vocal leader. We were talking to Jarrad Davis, another vocal leader, Keanu Neal. It’s really the leaders that step up and say, I’m going to handle the media. I’m going to get our message across, and that’s going to need to be Sharpe. So it was nice to see him kind of maybe take a step maturity wise to be able to handle media, and whether you like it or not, it’s something you’re going to have to do, especially when you get into playing professionally.
Andrew: Yeah. I thought, you and I were very, I don’t want to say critical of not bringing Jalen Tabor, but we were…
Nick: I was critical.
Andrew: Yeah, but I think it wasn’t so much that you were critical in that you were like, you just wanted to see him. You just wanted the entertainment. I think when you look at who Florida brought, yes, hell yeah, it would have been better to see Jalen Tabor, and Jalen Tabor would have won the week, because, like you say, this week had kind of been blah all week, but when you look at Sharpe you can understand why bringing Sharpe was there. Bring Sharpe here, hope to push him as a leader. It didn’t work worth a shit last year with Brandon Powell. Maybe his foot got the leadership skill, because that’s still bothering him, but I think the message came. I did think Jarrad Davis, Marcus Maye and David Sharpe represented the University of Florida really well, and represented Jim McElwain, his approach, really well, for the most part. I will say, heading in I didn’t expect to hear much from those guys, just because you and I both know that’s how Jim McElwain is. You’ve got to kind of read between the lines. Did definitely read between the lines. He’s still pissed off about not getting money for facilities.
Nick: Yeah. He does say credit to the Otis Hawkins Center at Farrior Hall, credit to that. It’s not flashy, but it doesn’t need to be flashy. It’s an area where they’re going and getting tutoring, and when you’re a freshman you’ve got mandatory tutoring. If you’re not hitting a certain GPA you have mandatory tutoring, and it’s a comfortable place. So if you have to be somewhere studying with tutors or with professors, advisors, it’s a comfortable place for them to relax. That’s a great resource.
You have to, and he mentioned it, we have to continue looking into the locker room, and that’s something he’s brought up multiple times as what they’re looking into as far as expanding or upgrading. I think right now really you’re looking into can we make it bigger? Is there room to expand the actual structure, and if not, then how nice can we make what we have already? Because what they have right now is outdated, and it’s old. When you look at, you don’t need waterfalls, but you look at IMG Academy. IMG Academy, a high school, has a better locker room than the University of Florida, and it’s just gotten to a place where it’s old, and it needed to be dealt with earlier. McElwain’s not happy about it, but I think they are moving in the right direction to change that and to fix that.
Andrew: Here’s where you and I maybe disagree a little bit. That is, yes, you say they’re moving in a direction to do that, but let’s just be honest here. You can build a fricking mansion, a poor person could go get a loan and build a mansion quicker than getting this Master Plan, or whatever they call it, out. It’s becoming a situation where not only now is it hurting the current student athletes, but Florida’s getting their ass kicked on the recruiting trail because of this so-called Master Plan that’s in hold. You’re losing kids to Jim Harbaugh. You’re losing kids to Clemson. You’re losing kids everywhere because of this Master Plan that isn’t happening.
Nick: The fans certainly don’t like it. Just at this point there’s no crying over it hasn’t happened. It needs to happen. You can’t say it’s taking too long. That’s not going to get you anywhere.
Getting back to Media Days, I think Florida, I’m sitting here, and I’m asking Tennessee about Florida, and nothing. No one wants to give bulletin board material. I’m asking Kentucky, and Florida and Kentucky play Week 2. Kentucky only has Southern Miss, and Florida only has Massachusetts, between the opening of the SEC schedule, and I learned so much about Southern Miss today, and I’m looking at these guys from Kentucky like, my dude, just look past Southern Miss for like two minutes while you give me this answer. Do you guys think that you’re getting closer to beating Florida? You went triple overtime, 14-9 last year. Do you think you’re getting closer to beating Florida? Jojo Kemps was the only one that really even talked about it to me, but it’s just I wish there was like a honest pill that everyone would take before they came to Media Days. Like slip them a little honesty pill, and they came in and we asked them questions.
Andrew: That’s why I think you respect Jarrad Davis a little bit more, because of he was honest the other day. He said, and I phrased the question like this. I said, “I understand that coach speak says you can’t look past U Mass Week 1, but let’s all be honest. You’re circling a few games.” It’s like Will Muschamp used to say, “No game’s more important than another.” Get the hell out of here. Get out of here. If beating Florida State doesn’t rile you up more at night, doesn’t make you drink an extra beer at night for Will Muschamp, you got problems. I think that’s why a lot of people like the way Jim McElwain talks, because he’ll tell you straight up. It is more important to beat Tennessee. It is more important to beat Georgia. Do you want to beat U Mass? Sure. Do you want to look past U Mass? No, you cannot.
Let’s just be honest with it. Tennessee, they say we’re not really worried about it, beating Florida is just as important as beating App State. Here’s the problem. You can’t beat an enemy, and you can’t beat an opponent, if you don’t identify the opponent. I said this to you, Nick, and I posed this question to you. I said, it seems really weird. When Butch Jones is asked a question about Florida and beating Florida, and he answers the question without even saying Florida or Gators in the whole thing, or Jim McElwain or any Florida player. It almost seems like Florida’s in their head. Would you kind of agree with that at all?
Nick: Yeah. Florida is in their head. It’s kind of a situation where in the past they’ve addressed it, and they’ve at least acknowledged Florida’s cleaned our clock for a decade, now a decade plus one. This year it kind of seemed like that was like a taboo word for anyone from Tennessee. It was don’t say Florida, don’t say Gators, don’t say orange, don’t say blue. You say nothing. But, coach, one of our colors is orange. Don’t say it. They just avoided anything Florida.
Andrew: It’s throw up. It’s not orange.
Nick: It’s creamsicle.
Andrew: Throw up.
Nick: If you’re throwing up that shade of orange, you have some medical issues that you need to have attended. It’s like a creamsicle. It was interesting to me to see how Florida is head on in saying, yeah, we want to beat Tennessee. Jarrad Davis was asked about LSU. He says, “I love looking forward to that. I look forward to that game. I love that game. It’s physical. It’s different than the other games.” When Florida played Ole Miss, completely different game play and completely different style of play than when you’re playing against LSU, and Jarrad Davis says, “I love that physicality. Let me have that. Let me meet Leonard Fournette.” Am I going to win? Maybe. Maybe not, but that’s the part that I love about it, because we’re going to compete, and it’s going to be physical.
Florida went, not out of their way, but Florida when asked would say, yeah, I’m looking forward to LSU. Yeah, I’m looking forward to playing Tennessee. I’m looking forward to playing these teams. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t say that. I get the whole one game at a time, but it’s like you said, and that’s the first time I heard you say it, but I really like it, you can’t beat your opponent unless you identify them. Sure, Tennessee’s got three games before that, but there’s 50 days until the season. To say you can’t answer a question about a school, especially a school that if Tennessee doesn’t beat Florida where are you talking about SEC championship? You might as well go ahead and chalk up a loss at Alabama too.
Andrew: It’s one of those things. Here’s my thing. This is my question to Tennessee players. It’s one or two things. Either, A, you’re really not thinking about Florida at all. You’re in trouble, because you damn sure better be finding out a way to beat Florida, or, two, you just don’t think you can beat Florida, which, if you’re asking me my opinion, probably not. It is what it is. Jarrad Davis said something though, and it cracked me up. You know, Nick, it kind of fueled me a little bit, and it doesn’t take very much to fuel me, words Tennessee, Volunteers, you know, those booster words. They like to fire me up a little bit, but he said, “We know what it takes to beat Tennessee, and we just continue to do it all off season.”
For me, that should have shot Butch Jones in the throat to where he came out here and told his guys, “Shut them up a little bit.” Jalen Reeves-Maybin, he goes, “Jalen Tabor just likes to talk.” Hell yeah, he likes to talk, because he’s got in your head. He has punked you on national stage at SEC Media Days to where you couldn’t even respond to say Florida or Gators. Your biggest rival you can’t even talk about. If Florida or Florida State had that happen it’d be crazy. If Alabama and Auburn had that happen it’d be crazy. The Yankees and the Red Sox talk bad about each other, but Florida is in Tennessee’s head so much that it’s there, and it’s not just their players. It’s their head coach, and that is reason #1 why Butch Jones will fail as a football coach.
Nick: Then they say, we just need to finish, and we just need to do this, but it’s like you said. Florida is in Tennessee’s head, and it’s down to the fan base. It’s where you got guys standing a field with cows yelling at people. Florida is just in Tennessee’s head, and it’s like almost I’m waiting for Tennessee to have like a Pedro Martinez moment, where when Pedro said, “The Yankees are my daddy.” I’m just waiting for Tennessee fans to be like, Florida is our daddy. We just have to accept that. Take that L on the chin, and just deal with that process, and maybe figure some stuff out.
Andrew: Some smart Gator fan out there, somebody smarter than me, smarter than Nick, I need a Wikipedia page. I need somebody to break into Tennessee’s Wikipedia page, and, yes, I said that. FBI, please don’t come at me. And put on there, Tennessee, owned by the University of Florida and their fan base. Nick, here’s my last point, and we’ll move on off of Tennessee. Even though I wished it would have been, it wasn’t all about Tennessee. More people, and you can admit this, it’s okay, more people are starting to get onto my train, which is why is Tennessee over hyped so much? More people are doing that. Nick, I honestly believe we’ve seen more people this week say that than we’ve seen all along. I’m not surprised, but would you agree with that?
Nick: I don’t agree with that. I think people, and like Barrett tweeted, I think people are starting to wonder why Georgia is getting love ahead of Florida. I think people are still drinking that orange, that creamsicle Kool-Aid, but I think people are starting to think, why is Georgia second? Tennessee’s obviously our first, but why is Georgia second? Why are they getting the benefit of the doubt? Why isn’t Florida getting the benefit of the doubt? To me it is I’m looking at it and just like, why are we looking at Tennessee? Tennessee, their last six wins came over teams that combined for an 18-42 record.
Andrew: They had a late touchdown to beat Missouri and South Carolina and Vanderbilt. That’s three teams that should not have happened.
Nick: Florida barely beat Vanderbilt.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: And barely beat Kentucky.
Andrew: Treon Harris.
Nick: Florida barely beat Kentucky, not Treon Harris.
Andrew: Very true. My point is this, and, like I said, let’s move on after this, Butch Jones still hasn’t beaten but one top 20 team. You look at their composure in Media Days, and it’s composure of weakness. It’s composure of scared, and it’s a composure of already beaten. To me, that’s Will Muschamp right there. That’s Butch Jones with that Will Muschamp composure of we’re beaten. Clay Travis tweets out, 45-14 Tennessee’s going to beat Florida. Get out of here. Tennessee ain’t scoring no damn 45 points, and they sure as hell ain’t beating them by 31, because when Tennessee gets up by 18 they shit the bed, and it’s going to happen again. It’s going to happen again. Let’s move on, because it’s going to get wild in here, and we’re half way through our podcast. We can talk the rest of the podcast about Tennessee if you let me.
Nick: If you want to get into it, we can get into our picks. I filled mine out. Have you filled yours out?
Andrew: Yeah. I filled mine out and have gotten it ready. I said it on the air today, the radio on Wednesday. My picks are Alabama vs. Florida in the SEC Championship, part two of that. I say this, and I’ll say it again. It’s not the popular pick, but Alabama was my SEC Championship pick, because until you beat the champion they are the champion. Do I think Florida will match up a little bit better? Yeah, because they have a competent quarterback, and they have four quarterbacks that aren’t named Treon Harris ahead of Treon Harris, and anybody competent gets you a little bit of points, and that wasn’t it. I’ll say that. To go onto that, Florida players, and McElwain, they understand how important it was to get to Atlanta, and Marcus Maye even said that. He goes, “One of the reasons I came back was to get back to Atlanta,” and McElwain builds Atlanta up as it should be, as another national championship game.
Nick: That’s absolutely the goal of the team. I’m going to run through. I did my ballot. At the SEC we vote for first team, second team, all that stuff, and then we pick the order of the teams in the West, teams in the East, and then who we think the eventual champion’s going to be. This is my list, how I think they’re going to finish in the West: Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Texas A&M. I could have flipped Texas A&M and Ole Miss, and then I’ve got Mississippi State, Auburn finishing seventh.
Andrew: I heard someone say that Auburn could win double digits. Are they crazy? Like I said, I have Arkansas and Ole Miss flipped, and I have Auburn last, and I have Alabama, LSU as the top two teams there. In the East, I have: Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky. Then I have Vanderbilt, and last, but not least, no, then I have Missouri, then I have last, but not least, Willy Muschamp, because does Willy Muschamp win five games?
Nick: No. Willy Muschamp does not win five games. I go Florida 1, Tennessee 2, Georgia 3, Missouri 4, Kentucky 5, Vanderbilt 6, South Carolina 7, and I might switch Vanderbilt and Kentucky. I really like Vanderbilt’s defense, but Willy Muschamp winning five, I don’t think so.
Andrew: I mean, where? Where is it? I don’t know. I don’t see it happening. To say real quick on Willy Muschamp, Jarrad Davis had an awesome quote. He said, “I don’t think Will Muschamp is going to be well received when he comes back to the Swamp.” He said, “I think it’s a little bit different than Steve Spurrier.” I started to walk over to Jarrad and say, “You’re damn right. Steve Spurrier actually did something. He actually left the program a better place.”
Nick: I pulled it up. At Vanderbilt, I’m already picking Vanderbilt to open the season, that is a Thursday night. That’s the opening night of college football kickoff, 8:00PM on ESPN. I’m going to pick Vanderbilt to beat South Carolina. Then South Carolina has to go on the road to Mississippi State. I think Mississippi State sends them 0-2. East Carolina comes into Williams Bryce. Then at Kentucky. That’s probably a Kentucky win. Texas A&M, the Aggies will probably come in and beat them. Georgia’s going to come in and beat them. Right now you’re looking at 1-4, no, 1-5.
Andrew: If that. ECU may win.
Nick: You come off, and then you beat up on U Mass. There’s your second win. You probably lose to Tennessee. You could beat Missouri, maybe. You’re not beating Florida at Florida. That is going to be a very cold reception for Will Muschamp. You beat Western Carolina, the Catamounts probably can’t beat you. Then Dabo stops scoring when he feels like they’ve scored enough. South Carolina won’t score against Clemson, and they won’t be able to stop Clemson. Clemson will have to stop themselves. I mean, Western Carolina, U Mass, Easter Carolina, there’s three.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s where it is. I mean, we’ll see how that is. I just don’t see it with Will Muschamp there. East Carolina may beat those guys. It very well could be that East Carolina beats it. Here’s what I think, and I want to talk about this, because I think it’s kind of important to talk about this. You had the chance to vote for the preseason team, Nick, but our options were very limited, and I don’t remember it ever being this limited before. Antonio Callaway wasn’t on the list, because I guess maybe technically he’s suspended. Then you had guys like Byron Cowart, those guys that are suspended, on there as well. It’s kind of different for me a little bit, because it was just like this kind of isn’t really fair that I can’t vote for Antonio Callaway as cornerback. I couldn’t vote for him to be one of the punt returns as well.
I was forced to vote for Josh Dobbs as second best quarterback in the SEC, and, you know me, I’m very against that. I guess, did you kind of think that was fair the way that was set up? Even though, for instance, Mark Thompson wasn’t on there. Yes, maybe he’s not the starter, but we all know he’s going to play, and what does it hurt? If there’s enough people that are dumb enough to vote for Mark Thompson that wasn’t there, okay. Eddie Pineiro’s the same way. Hell yeah, I was about to vote for Eddie Pineiro, because I think he was there. I wasn’t going to vote for someone else. I was going to give Eddie Pineiro a little love, just because got to have one homer pick in the whole deal, so why not? I guess, did you think the whole deal was kind of fair?
Nick: Yeah, I thought it was fair. I’m not going to vote a kid All-SEC who hasn’t kicked the ball in SEC play.
Andrew: I’m not talking about just Pineiro. I’m talking about in general. All the quarterbacks that hadn’t started a game in the SEC weren’t on there. Anybody who hasn’t started a game now isn’t on that list. There was only four quarterbacks to vote out of the two, and one of them was Drew Lock, who sucks dong for Missouri.
Nick: There are really only two quarterbacks you can pick. You pick Kelly and Dobbs. There’s really no one else to pick.
Andrew: I only picked one, and it wouldn’t let me submit my ballot. I wasn’t picking Josh Dobbs. I’ll go ahead and say, that one vote for Drew Lock came from Andrew Spivey, because I was not picking Josh Dobbs. Josh Dobbs isn’t there.
Nick: Drew, Drew Lock, if you’re listening to this, Andrew Spivey was your vote for All-SEC. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. As I’m sure everyone else voted the way that I did with Kelly and Dobbs. I like it. Why vote for people if they haven’t done anything yet? I wouldn’t have voted for Calvin Ridley last year before the season. A year ago now I wouldn’t say, I’m voting for Calvin Ridley, because you haven’t done anything. To me, if you haven’t played in a game, how can I vote you all anything? All recruiting list maybe, but not All-SEC.
Andrew: But then it’s not a preseason list. You’re trying to predict who is going to be the best players in the SEC at the end of the time. Are you telling me Antonio Callaway’s not going to be there? No. Are you telling me Josh Dobbs and Chad Kelly are going to be the top two? No. They’re not. It’s not a preseason list. For me, I’m putting a huge asterisk beside it, and I’m not even going to care about it, because it’s bullshit. You can’t tell me that it’s a preseason list if you’re going to basically say, if you didn’t play last year, you can’t be a preseason All-American this year. That’s bullshit. That’s crazy to me. It’s stupid.
You talk about Eddie Pineiro, I was kidding. I would not have voted for Eddie Pineiro, because who knows what he’s going to do? My point being, he didn’t have a chance to do that. You didn’t give anyone else a chance. Del Rio being on there as quarterback. Yes, I was not going to vote for Del Rio. Who I would have voted for outside of the four, I’m really not sure, but it just it wasn’t fair to me, because it’s not a preseason list if you’re only picking from the starters last year. It’s basically saying, who’s going to be the starters from last year? That’s what the team’s called. That’s what I’m going to tweet, by the way, on Thursday.
Nick: Yeah. I mean, Antonio Callaway should be on the list, but he’s suspended, so I think that’s why he’s not on the list.
Andrew: So why was Byron Cowart on the list? He’s suspended.
Nick: They’re not. Auburn came out, Gus said that none of those four are going to miss any games. The four people that had the marijuana stuff go down aren’t going to miss any games. That was one of the things that Gus led in the big room with on Monday.
Andrew: That’s my bad. I thought he said he had a one game suspension. That’s my bad. That’s Jeffery Simmons that has the one game suspension. Okay. That’s fine. Whatever. Okay, Antonio Callaway’s suspended, fine, but like I just said, if there is 100 media members that are dumb enough to risk their vote on that, too bad. It’s not a preseason poll if you’re not putting the best players on that. Florida’s only receiver that they had on there was Brandon Powell. Get out of here. I ain’t voting for Brandon Powell. Okay. That’s cool. We want to talk about running back. Where was Scarlett and Cronkrite? Both of those guys played last year. I’m not voting for either one of those guys, but it was stupid. It was idiotic. It was stupid to say, these are the guys you can vote for, but there’s a hinge here, they have to have started last year.
Nick: I get what you’re saying. To me, the players, other than Callaway, and I get why he wasn’t on the list, everyone else that I would have voted for was there. David Sharpe was the only player that I voted for on Florida’s offense. I wouldn’t have voted for the running backs. I wouldn’t have voted for any of the receivers, other than Callaway, and I’m not voting for Luke Del Rio, because I have no idea what he’s going to do. I don’t think anyone really knows. You expect, but you don’t know what he’s going to do.
Andrew: No, I wasn’t going to vote for Del Rio at all. I will say that I did give DeAndre Goolsby, excuse me, C’yontai Lewis, a vote. I do have very high hopes for C’yontai Lewis.
Nick: You voted for C’yontai Lewis with all the talented tight ends in the SEC? You voted for C’yontai Lewis.
Andrew: I did. I voted C’yontai Lewis, and I voted OJ Howard. I did. I left off some incredible names. I have a very, very hopes for C’yontai Lewis, and, quite frankly, I did it as a middle finger to the SEC, because I think it was bullshit the way they treated it. I think it’s another one of those hypocritic bullshit Tennessee is shit of it. It’s just there. It is what it is. Making me pick Joshua Dobbs is bullshit. Let’s just call it what it is, Nicholas. It’s bullshit. It’s political. It’s bullshit. Like Jake Allen said about California and the Elite 11, that’s what this is. Let’s move on real quick.
Defensively I voted for Caleb Brantley on defensive tackle. I voted for Jarrad Davis. I voted for Jalen Tabor. I voted for Quincy Wilson, and I voted for Marcus Maye. Quincy Wilson won’t make the list, and it will be a shame.
Nick: I also voted for Quincy. So the way that it works when you’re doing the list is you rank players. When it comes to the secondary you’re ranking 1-8, and you’re not really ranking cornerbacks with just cornerbacks or safeties with just safeties. You’re just ranking eight. So what I did is I put Quincy Wilson up higher. I put him up third after Jalen Tabor and after Tony Connor from Ole Miss, who I think is the best safety in the league. No, I put him fourth, after Marcus Maye. I had Tabor, Connor, Maye, Wilson. Those were my top four, and then you fill out the next four. I think it was Jamal Adams that I had in there. I had Cam Sutton in my list. I put him up higher, because I know he’s not going to be on a lot of people’s list, but he definitely deserves it. I don’t understand why people don’t, or haven’t recognized him, especially when you consider that he played most of last year with a hernia. Played the last month and a half, almost two months, with a sports hernia.
You hit all the picks that I hit on there. I thought about Cece, and I thought about Bryan Cox, but there’s just so much talent along the lines of scrimmage, especially at defensive line of scrimmage, in the SEC. I thought about Alex Anzalone, putting him on there, but I think you could only pick four linebackers, and, again, there were just so many that I felt like I would have been snubbing somebody else, but he’s certainly someone who at the end of the year could be a postseason. Also, you notice Callaway missing when it got to punt return and return specialists. There I had to go with Kirk, Christian Kirk from Texas A&M, who was the postseason last year. He was the postseason return specialist last year, had an incredible year for Texas A&M, and then I also did not go Cam Sutton, went with Isaiah McKenzie, Joystick Izzie, from Georgia as the other return specialist, and also as, there was like an offensive utility position.
Andrew: I went Joystick and Christian Kirk as well. I did go Johnny Townsend for punter. Punters are people too. Whatever you say over there, Nicholas. I did go that there. I had it flipped a little bit. I had Jalen Tabor, Jamal Adams. Then I had Marcus Maye. Then I had Quincy. Then I had Tony Garner. I think Jamal Adams and Tony Garner are interchangeable. Both of them are very good. I know people, Florida fans, don’t like Jamal Adams, but that is one hell of a football player, and is going to make a lot of money after this year.
I do think you’re right on Alex Anzalone. This may not be the popular pick, and I’m okay with saying that, but Alex Anzalone may end up having a better year than Jarrad Davis. I know that’s tough for people to say, but Alex Anzalone is a damn good football player. When you look at Alex Anzalone, he doesn’t come off the field in 3rd down situations, because he can run with anybody. Remember, he’s a former running back in high school. He’s a very good player. As far as Cece goes, I think Cece could end up there for sure. I think Bryan Cox could easily end up there.
Another guy that I think maybe some people sleep on is Joey Ivie. I think Joey Ivie puts together a productive season. He’s overshadowed by Caleb Brantley, but is a guy that puts together some solid football for the most part there. Not being able to vote for Callaway in the return game, again, is stupid. It’s stupid. I think I need to find someone tomorrow about that, because I think they need to issue something, because I think that it needs to come out that he wasn’t there to be voted for, because I think that’s stupid. I’m not agreeing with that at all there.
One thing that is different though is I noticed that the selection doesn’t come out until Friday this year. The teams come out on Thursday, or the picks for what team is going to make it comes out on Thursday, and then the teams, the first team and second team, doesn’t come out until Friday, after we’re gone. So we can’t bitch about it.
Nick: We can always bitch about it. We will find time to bitch about it.
Andrew: So you’re saying I’m going to get my opportunity to let the people know how bad Josh Dobbs is.
Nick: Listen, it’s going to come out. Tennessee is going to be picked to win the East, and Josh Dobbs is going to be probably ahead of Swag Kelly. Josh Dobbs is probably going to be the first team All-SEC preseason quarterback. So you tell me, will we be talking about that on the podcast?
Andrew: Absolutely. First of all, people buy into that creamsicle throw up of Butch Jones, because they did have their national championship ring ceremony up here, but since it’s invisible the ring ceremony was invisible as well. We’re playing that game, by the way. Yeah, it’ll happen. It’s stupid. It’ll happen. It is what it is, but at the end of the day, as Coach Mac says, all they get is a participation ribbon at the end of the year, and they get to watch the Gators on TV in Atlanta playing Alabama. Butch Jones wouldn’t know anything about that. Nick, we got to get out of here. A big week next week. Friday Night Lights, that event now runs Thursday through Saturday. A lot of good stuff going on. Check us out on the site. We already got that visitors list up, and do us a favor. Check out these stories from Media Days. A lot of really good stuff. Nick has some good stuff on Tennessee. I had a Marcus Maye piece as well. Our boy, Austin, had a David Sharpe piece as well, and we’ll have a lot more. Make sure to check us out, and, Nick, tell the people where they can find us. We’ll get out of here and see everyone next week.
Nick: Www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. It is @GatorCountry on Twitter. Search Gator Country on Facebook. TheGatorCountry on Instagram, and you can find me @NickdelaTorrGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. That’s all I got.
Andrew: That’s all you got. Here it comes, Nick. I’m about to give you a new punchline. Are you ready?
Nick: Hit me.
Andrew: The new punchline is Butch Jones is scared. Chomp, chomp. Go Braves.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.