Podcast: Talking Florida Gators recruiting and Orange Bowl

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the Florida Gators bowl match-up against Virginia in the Orange Bowl later this month.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the Gators appearance in the Orange Bowl and what it means for the program.

Andrew and Nick also talk recruiting and how the Gators did this past weekend with official visitors.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Gators are Orange Bowl bound. Yeah. The season is wrapping up quickly.

Nick:                         Andrew, I couldn’t be happier. I’m going home. I’m sitting there and Saturday night I’m watching Ohio State, and I’m thinking, oh my gosh, Ohio State’s going to lose to Wisconsin. I’m going to end up spending Christmas in a hotel room in Dallas by myself. This is going to be terrible. Of course, Wisconsin comes back. Florida, at that point I’m looking at it, and everything the way Saturday shook out, and I’m thinking I’m going home. So, I’ll get to spend Christmas down in South Florida with my parents, and I get to cover a bowl game in a stadium that I watched the Marlins win a world championship in in ’97. I watched countless miserable Dolphin games growing up. So, I’m a very happy guy right. Going home for the bowl game and for Christmas.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I’ve never been to a game in Miami. Not like I miss much, but I will be down there and get to go down and watch that. Nick, you look at the way that things finished, and I know I have been very vocal, and some other people have been very vocal that didn’t make the playoff, and it’s not a great year. I mean, again, to finish in the New Year’s Six bowl is a very prestige thing, and I think it’s good for the Gators. You get a chance to go into that game, and if you win that game, there’s a chance you might finish top five in the country.

Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, the way you look at it, I think that’s certainly a possibility. Georgia will be playing in the Sugar Bowl. I was surprised that they didn’t really drop. They said there were even conversations about Georgia still making it. They weren’t competitive. They didn’t look good. They didn’t look like they had a chance to beat LSU really at any point in the SEC Championship game. So, for me, I’m watching the SEC Championship game and thinking, man, if Georgia gets blown out, is Florida going to jump them? Is Florida Sugar Bowl bound?

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         So, to me, they love Georgia, I guess, but Georgia could lose in the Sugar Bowl.

Andrew:                 I agree with that. Florida played LSU much closer on the road.

Nick:                         At night at Death Valley. Listen, I said neutral site, and some people were yelling at me about calling it a neutral site game.

Andrew:                 There were some LSU fans.

Nick:                         There were some. It was definitely more Georgia fans than LSU fans. The game wasn’t played in Athens. That’s all I was saying.

Andrew:                 Right. Yeah. I mean, like I say, I could have understood the argument, but at the same time, Georgia did beat you. Two loss teams. Georgia won. Sorry. It just is what it is. Again, I said this, and I’ll continue to say this, not to take anything away from the Orange Bowl, but the Sugar Bowl is the prestige of the SEC. It’s like the Rose Bowl for PAC 12 teams. It’s special. If you go to the Sugar Bowl, it’s special.

Nick:                         I didn’t get the whole, a lot of fans, whether it was on the message board or on social media, were like clamoring to go to the Sugar Bowl over the Orange. The Sugar is not more prestigious.

Andrew:                 I think so. I think so.

Nick:                         I don’t. The Orange Bowl has been played longer than the Sugar Bowl.

Andrew:                 Right. But the Orange Bowl is not an SEC game.

Nick:                         Yeah. But you got to get out of the thought process of the SEC Champion goes to the Sugar Bowl. Now, in the playoff realm, the Sugar and the Orange have the exact same payout.

Andrew:                 It’s not the payout though. It’s the prestige. If you’re an SEC team to be a Sugar Bowl champion means a lot more than to be an Orange Bowl champion. The Orange Bowl is an ACC game.

Nick:                         To me that has changed because of the playoff. Listen, you’ve got the playoff, and then you’ve got the New Year’s Six. To me, now I hold all of the New Year’s Six, like ESPN called …

Andrew:                 First of all, they’re not even New Year’s Six games. They’re played on the 30th.

Nick:                         It’s the grouping of the games, the New Year’s Six. The grouping of the games. To me, it’s just there’s two playoff games, and then there’s the New Year’s Six. If you’re in the New Year’s Six, that’s a great bowl game. Doesn’t matter if it’s the Rose Bowl, which ESPN calls the granddaddy of them all. To me, maybe it’s an East Coast bias thing, I don’t think the Rose Bowl is any better than the Sugar Bowl or the Orange Bowl.

Andrew:                 It is for those teams. At the beginning of the year, that’s the prestige thing to do. If you’re Ohio State, or if you’re Nebraska, or whoever you are, if you do not make it to the College Football Playoff, you’re goal is to make it to the Rose Bowl. That’s a special thing. That’s why I say for the SEC teams if you don’t make it to the playoff, you want to be in the Sugar Bowl.

Nick:                         Yeah. To me, I don’t see it.

Andrew:                 I think there’s a little bias because you’re a Miami guy.

Nick:                         Maybe. I just don’t see it really any different.

Andrew:                 That’s just me. Again, at the end of the day, it’s a bowl game. Like it or not, bowl games are pointless. Not pointless. They’re meaningless. Sorry. You get the paycheck.

Nick:                         It’s a big paycheck. I think it’s fun. It’s fun for the players, I think.

Andrew:                 Oh, it’s fun for the players, but at the end of the day.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s just a reward for the players.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Sometimes you get really cool and prestigious matchups. This is not the case for Florida.

Andrew:                 I wanted to see Clemson lose and Florida and Clemson battle it out in the Orange Bowl.

Nick:                         That would have been cool.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was hoping for.

Nick:                         That would have been really cool.

Andrew:                 That is exactly what I was hoping for. I was hoping to see Florida and Clemson battle it out down there. Maybe get some recruiting back in their way. We’ll talk recruiting here in a little bit. Big official visitors weekend for Florida this past weekend. Nick, the big news, I guess, outside of the Orange Bowl is CJ Henderson is not playing in the bowl game. He’s made his declaration for the Draft. Zero surprise whatsoever. You and I and everybody else in the country pretty much knew heading into the season. It didn’t matter what happened, barring an injury, and even that he was probably going to the League.

Nick:                         Yeah. Despite what, I mean, Florida fans who have been angry at him, think it’s a dumb decision to leave early, it’s not. He’s going to be drafted in the first two rounds, maybe fall to the third, but probably not even fall to the third. If you’re a first-round pick, first two round picks, you leave.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing for me. If you fall to the second or the third, it’s a bad decision.

Nick:                         I think if you fall to the second, you’re fine.

Andrew:                 I mean, yes. It just depends. Here’s the thing for me. I do not buy into the whole CJ had an awful year. Did he look bad at times? Yes. But so did Vernon Hargreaves. This is not nothing bad. It just it’s a 20-year-old kid a little bit, where you kind of check out a little bit. You start making some business decisions on the field. I’m not saying that CJ quit or anything like that, but for me, I don’t know. For me, I think it was the right decision, because a lot of people still have him as a first-round pick. For me, if you’re going to be a second-round pick or a third-round pick, in CJ’s case, he could have done better, but I still think he’ll be a first-round.

Nick:                         Then the only thing that happens if you come back for your next year, you’re under an even bigger microscope than you were this year.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         To me, I don’t really see the upside. I think people will argue with that and won’t agree with it, but to me there’s really no upside in him coming back. He wasn’t ever expected to come back. The only announcement, I think, that maybe would catch someone by surprise is that you’re choosing not to play in the bowl game. Dan Mullen said on the teleconference Sunday night, if you’re all in, be all in; if you’re all out, be all out. That wasn’t a shot at CJ. It was just saying if you think the best decision for you is to not play in the bowl game, just make sure it’s 100%, that you’re not going to regret it. If you think, I’m not going to regret it. I think this is best for me, best for my future, then we support you.

If you’re Jon Greenard, and you decide to play in the bowl game, which I don’t if I would if I were him, to be honest with you. I’d probably just focus on the Combine and focus on the Senior Bowl if I were Jonathan Greenard, because you’ve shown everything you’re going to show on tape. You’re still kind of a tweener when it comes to the NFL. You need a team that plays the right defense that has a spot for you. I’d probably think it would be more important if I were Greenard to work on my interviews and get a fast 40 time and do all that kind of stuff. If you decide that you’re going to be all in, then be all in.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Make that decision and don’t look back.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing for me. I’m not picking on CJ, my any means whatsoever. I think I said this with Leonard Fournette. I said this for everybody else. I don’t know. There’s just something about quitting on your team or giving up on your team. I’m not saying CJ quit on the team or anything like that, but I just feel like you need to finish what you started. Again, do I understand it? Sure. It’s a business decision. You don’t want to get hurt or anything like that. But at the same time, I don’t like it. I don’t. If you’re asking me from our standpoint of watching the game and covering the game, even the standpoint of being a fan, you want to see the best out there, but also there’s something to be said about staying loyal to your team and finishing with your team. Jalen Ramsey, or excuse me, not Jalen Ramsey, Jamal Adams kind of went after Leonard Fournette about the same situation of not finishing with the guys. I don’t know.

I mean, again, do I understand CJ’s point? Yes. But I also just think you should finish what you started with your guys. I mean, these have been 105, 104 of your best friends since this time last year when you started off season workouts. Do you really not want to play one more game with those guys and finish strong? That’s my take.

Nick:                         I can’t blame him either way. I can’t blame a guy.

Andrew:                 Do you see my thing?

Nick:                         Yeah. I totally get it, but I think if you ask the players they’d say go get that bag. You know what I mean?

Andrew:                 Oh, 100%. Players are not mad at him.

Nick:                         They might be a similar situation as well.

Andrew:                 Right. The players aren’t upset, and I don’t think it says anything about CJ quitting on him team. I don’t think it says anything about CJ not liking his teammates or anything like that. I’m not saying that at all. I just would like to see him finish.

Nick:                         Yeah. To me, it’s not for me to say if it’s selfish.

Andrew:                 Right. Yeah. It’s not my place either.

Nick:                         Like you said, 100 guys on a team, there might be 98 of them that say, no, do you, and then two of them that say, no, you’re being selfish.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         It’s not even going to be a consensus. No matter what happens, you’re not going to get a consensus on it, whether you’re talking to fans or teammates.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         I think you’ll have more teammates say, go ahead and do what you want to do then you will have fans, because fans are thinking as fans, I’d like to have him back.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing for me too, and this is the biggest thing, and this is the reason I say this is the argument that I would say, go ahead and go. If you’re going to play timid in the game, because you don’t want to get hurt, you’re going to get hurt.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 Playing timid, you’re going to get hurt probably. I mean, it’s not a guarantee or anything like that. I shouldn’t say it like that, but the chances of you getting hurt are a lot better when you’re playing timid.

Nick:                         Yeah. 100%. It’s a dangerous, and it becomes more dangerous when it’s timid, or when you’re worrying about injury.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Exactly. Anyway, we’ll see. We’ll see where it is and go from there. I just wish that they would play, but it’s not my decision at all. Let’s move on. Feleipe Franks, Nick. Gone. No surprise to me, Nick.

Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, shoot, I had talked about, so a little bit of a surprise to me. I’d even said the person I thought was most likely to transfer would have Emory Jones, because he has the most time left.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         I guess it makes sense with Feleipe, who doesn’t have time left, to go ahead and try to make the decision now. I think if you ask him, his intention would be and his hope would be that he would get information back, and he’d be able to go the Draft, rather than being a grad transfer.

Andrew:                 But you ain’t going to the Draft.

Nick:                         I’m just saying I think that’s what he would like to do. He would like to get information back that says you’re going to be a third-round Draft pick, or you’re going to be drafted in the first three rounds. I think he would go, if he got that back.

Andrew:                 I’d like to be a millionaire, Nick.

Nick:                         I bet. Don’t we all.

Andrew:                 Listen, I’ll say this. We’ve been the hardest critic on Feleipe and everything else. I do wish him the best in whatever he decides to do going forward, but for me, and I think for a lot of people, it’s probably the best decision, because I don’t see him taking over for Kyle next year, especially whenever he’s not even going to be able to go through spring ball. I think it becomes more of a distraction. I think it’s the best for all parties. It’s best for Feleipe. You got one more year of eligibility. Go to somewhere and shine and do your thing, and then get drafted. For me, it’s the best decision for everyone. I think ultimately it’s the best decision for Florida, because it now probably allows you to keep Emory Jones.

Nick:                         Right. You keep Emory Jones, and you’ll have three guys in the spring with Anthony Richardson. That might be the cheapest official visit ever. Who was just on his official visit. You’ll have three quarterbacks in the spring.

Andrew:                 One thing to note on Anthony Richardson, and we’ll get into this more in recruiting, but he actually is most likely going to be on campus on Friday to start going through bowl practices with Florida.

Nick:                         That’s great.

Andrew:                 You guys are listening to this on Tuesday. He’s taking final exams on Tuesday. As long as all grades were posted, he says he’ll be on campus on Friday and be able to go through the bowl preparation with the team. He can’t travel to Miami with the team, but he can do everything in Gainesville with the team and give them another scout team quarterback and all that good stuff. That preparation becomes more valuable. You’re seeing more and more of these guys do it at other schools. Just becomes more valuable.

A lot of people say, he don’t know what he’s doing in bowl practice. Listen, seven bowl practices is going to get him caught up on in the spring I better know I’m going to go fast. Those kind of things he can take away from it. Not only that, but it’s a little film for Brian Johnson and Dan Mullen to work with him. Anthony, you want to get this ball up a little tighter. You see this. You see this. It’s a little bit there. There’s nothing bad for it. I like it. Anthony says he’s ready to go, because his shoulder’s healthy, and he’s ready to throw the ball around.

Nick:                         There you go. The biggest thing too is then also you’re getting in Savage’s weightlifting program a month early.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Three weeks early.

Andrew:                 Nothing negative there on that. I guess, do feel like, I kind of said it matter of fact, and I shouldn’t have, but I do think that this now allows you to keep Emory. I don’t think Emory leaves now that he sees I’m now #2 by myself.

Nick:                         Yeah. Then I think you’ll be told and probably believe more that I’ve got a chance to win the job. I’m going to have a chance to win the job. Whether I’m #2 or #1 going into eh spring, I have a chance to be #1 in the fall. This freshman is not going to get it over me. If I’m Emory Jones, I’m thinking that for certain. I’m going to have a chance to beat out Kyle Trask next year.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. I think that ultimately is why that is. I think that’s ultimately what will end up keeping him around is that there’s really nobody now stopping his ability to get there. If you’re Feleipe, it’s a three-way battle. If it just you and Kyle, it’s a two-way battle. I do think that is probably a good thing for Florida now. Not that Feleipe’s gone, but just it allows you to keep Emory, and I think if you’re asking Dan Mullen who would you rather keep it’s Emory right now, because he has more eligibility left.

Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, not to be harsh about it, but yeah.

Andrew:                 Yeah. How did you think the conference championships played out? As expected?

Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, as expected. I think Utah was a pretender. We saw that. I expected Ohio State to win. I expected LSU to win. Yeah. Went as I expected.

Andrew:                 Justin Fields do enough to make the Heisman a race now?

Nick:                         No. Nope. That’s the Joe Burrow award. I think that’s clear. I mean, maybe not clear.

Andrew:                 He set just about every record in the SEC possible for a quarterback.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s incredible. Truly incredible the season he’s had. From literally wasn’t even being talked about as a Draft prospect, despite being a senior, to going to win the Heisman. Might be the first quarterback picked in the Draft.

Andrew:                 I was going to say. He might have overtaken, I think he did, but we’ll see, I think he overtook Justin Herbert to be the best quarterback available.

Nick:                         Wild.

Andrew:                 The thing for me, Nick, with Fields is I think any other year Fields is probably your guy.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s incredible when you look at it. Burrow left LSU, or sorry, Burrow left Ohio State for LSU, beat Georgia. Georgia, because he couldn’t win the starting– Here we go. Let me try to figure this out. Justin Fields left Georgia because he couldn’t win the starting job. Went to Ohio State, which forced Burrow to leave LSU, for LSU. LSU beats Georgia. Alabama loses their quarterback to grad transfer, and all three of those guys, Fields, Burrow, and Hurts, are in the playoff, while Alabama sits home and watches, and Georgia sits home and watches.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Insane.

Nick:                         College football is crazy. It’s every single year. It’s just a different kind of crazy, and there’s something new every year.

Andrew:                 How funny will it be if Justin Fields wins the championship this year, and he goes to Jake Fromm and says, thought you were better than me. I got a national championship.

Nick:                         You thought and Kirby thought, and here we go. I got a ring.

Andrew:                 Yeah. One interception for Fields this year, Nick.

Nick:                         That’s crazy. He’s had an incredible year.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing that may hurt Justin Fields. His teammate Chase Young is also a finalist.

Nick:                         He should be. I know they won’t say it.

Andrew:                 Chase Young is the best player in college football.

Nick:                         They won’t say it, but it’s a quarterback award.

Andrew:                 It’s an offensive award. He is, I mean, you’re just not going to make me believe Chase Young isn’t the best player. 16.5 sacks in 13 games. Six forced fumbles.

Nick:                         He’s the most dominant player, regardless of position, in college football.

Andrew:                 Holy cow. I’m looking at something. Jalen Hurts. Put a guess on how many total yards Jalen Hurts had this year.

Nick:                         It’s got to be over 5, over 4,000.

Andrew:                 4,889 total yards. 50 total touchdowns.

Nick:                         Yeah. He’s going to end up with over 5,000 yards and 60 touchdowns, if they get to the championship game.

Andrew:                 We just spent 10 minutes and probably listed him fourth. Geez. Justin Fields had 40 touchdowns to one interception this year.

Nick:                         That’s incredible. I don’t care if you’re playing Pop Warner.

Andrew:                 In 9 SEC games, Joe Burrow had 30 touchdowns to just three picks.

Nick:                         That’s even, it’s not even more impressive, but …

Andrew:                 78% pass percentage. That’s insane.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 Get all four of those up to New York and let them enjoy New York.

Nick:                         Yeah. Lot of stuff going on for them heading into this. Lot of media and being run around and all kinds of stuff like that.

Andrew:                 I mean, Joe Burrow’s the best player to win the Heisman on offense. If you’re asking me for the best player overall, it’s Chase Young. Geez, Louise. What a year for Jalen Hurts. I did not realize that. 50 touchdowns. It’s insane.

Nick:                         Yeah. He was also a unanimous, the All-SEC, AP’s All-SEC came out, he was the unanimous selection for quarterback, first team quarterback.

Andrew:                 Burrow, that is.

Nick:                         Yeah, for Burrow. There were three unanimous selections: Burrow, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the running back from LSU as well, and Ja’Marr Chase was also a unanimous selection as a receiver.

Andrew:                 The same Ja’Marr Chase that Billy Gonzales said wasn’t good enough for Florida?

Nick:                         Shoot. Kyle Pitts, first team. Jonathan Greenard, first team, and David Reese was second team for Florida. Those are the only three for Florida.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Greenard’s a monster.

Nick:                         Maybe only interesting to me, all three of those guys, none of them from the state of Florida. Greenard’s from Georgia. Pitts is from Philadelphia, and David Reese is from Michigan. I think interesting to me, maybe only, that Florida has three All-SEC guys and none of them are from the state. Got to get the state of Florida back in terms of recruiting, I think.

Andrew:                 You definitely got to do that. Who was second team quarterback? Did they give a second team?

Nick:                         Tua.

Andrew:                 Okay. I mean, you can’t argue with that.

Nick:                         Tua was second team quarterback. The other one I didn’t, I mean if there were three teams, the coaches did one that came out already, and Trask was an honorable mention with Fromm being third. Just look at what the quarterbacks looked like against the best team in the SEC in LSU. Look at what they did. What Kyle Trask did at Baton Rouge at night looked appreciably, noticeably better than what Burrow …

Andrew:                 Fromm.

Nick:                         Than what Fromm did in the SEC Championship game.

Andrew:                 I still said Florida would have put up a damn good fight in Atlanta.

Nick:                         I agree. No one to blame but yourself.

Andrew:                 You’re right.

Nick:                         Take care of business in Jacksonville, and then you’d have that opportunity. Jon Greenard said it. Injury bug hit him at the wrong time. He wasn’t really, you didn’t have Zuniga. Just injury bug hit them at the wrong time. Maybe LSU would have been different if Greenard and Zuniga can really play against LSU. Maybe that game turns out differently. Who knows?

Andrew:                 Yeah. Who knows? It was interesting. Like you say, it’s one of those things. Let’s move on a little bit, Nick, finish up with some recruiting here. Nothing huge, huge for Florida this weekend. They had Morven Joseph, the former commit, on campus. It was a situation where you had him on campus and Donell Harris on campus. Those are two targets. Florida and Tennessee are the favorites now in the final two for Morven, and then you have Donell Harris, who’s committed to A&M. Probably going to stick with A&M. We already talked about Anthony Richardson. That’s the big news on him.

Biggest news, I think, Nick, to watch is with Sam Pittman leaving Georgia, does Florida maybe try to get back in with some of those guys? Maybe Josh Braun, some of those other guys that are commits to Georgia. I think that’ll be the interesting thing to watch this week. Also, you got to watch and make sure that Tim Smith, the Alabama commit, and Jo’Quavious Marks, the Mississippi State running back commit, make it to the campus this weekend, as they just visited their other school.

Nick:                         I’m pulling up Georgia’s recruitment list right now. Trying to get just offensive linemen. Tate Ratledge, he’s from Rome, Georgia. Broderick Jones from Lithonia, Georgia. Who else?

Andrew:                 Braun’s from right up in Live Oak.

Nick:                         Sedrick Van Pran, he’s from Warren Easton. Florida’s got ties there with Chester Kimbrough and somebody else. No, just Chester, I think. Lindberg is from Texas. I mean, they’ve got five, five offensive linemen, signed. Like you said, Braun is from right there in Live Oak. Hey, send out a call, a text, a DM, to all five of them.

Andrew:                 See what you can do. It’s going to hurt Georgia. I don’t care what anybody says. Pittman was a monster on the freaking recruiting trail.

Nick:                         Listen, we’ll see how good he was on the recruiting trail. It’s a lot tougher sell to get kids out to Columbia, Missouri than it is to Athens, Georgia.

Andrew:                 You mean Fayetteville?

Nick:                         Fayetteville. Sorry. Fayetteville, Arkansas than it is to get them to Athens, Georgia. So, we’ll see how good he is.

Andrew:                 That is true, but I’ll say this. Props to Arkansas. Go hire the man. I don’t mean this is any bad way at all, but Arkansas, don’t act like you’re a national contender over here. You were going to go hire App State’s head coach. Yeah, he has head coaching experience, but Sam Pittman is an OC, O line coach at Georgia begging you, because he’s an Arkansas native, to go there. Props to them for hiring him.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 I’m all for it. The other big one, Nick, is Jeff Scott leaving Clemson to go to South Florida. That could potentially help Florida with little Henderson, Xzavier Henderson. That was his main recruiting, so that’ll be something to watch as well. Florida will be down there to visit him this week, and then he’s going up to Clemson this weekend for an official visit.

Nick:                         Get him there right before. Drive him to the airport.

Andrew:                 Drive him to the airport. Exactly. Big week. Next weekend’s the final week of official visitors, and then Wednesday of next week is Signing Day. Things are starting to kind of come down and get to the end. Florida State just now has a head coach, and their recruiting class is going to be straight trash.

Nick:                         Things are a bit … Mike Norvell might have won the, I think every coach wins the opening press conference. It’s really easy just to say the right things. They had a ton of boosters there, so just say all really nice things. It’s whether you can live up to them, all the nice things you said.

Andrew:                 Exactly. Any final thoughts?

Nick:                         One thought. For you.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         Just saw this come across on Twitter. Colorado State vacancy. Alabama staffer Butch Jones is emerging as a strong candidate for the head coaching vacancy at Colorado State.

Andrew:                 Was that an old takes exposed?

Nick:                         No. No. This is currently happening, because Georgia’s going up for Bobo. I think, Georgia or … someone’s going after Bobo.

Andrew:                 Yeah. South Carolina.

Nick:                         That’s it. Yup.

Andrew:                 South Carolina. Yeah. That’ll be funny. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here, and we’ll see everyone next week, or later this week, as we’ll preview official visitors. Big one coming in.

Nick:                         www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can find the podcast wherever you consume your podcasts. Just search Gator Country. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.

Andrew:                 There you go. Guys, we appreciate it. Stay tuned to Gator Country this week, as we’ll be talking about where the coaches all week, and we’ll also be breaking down official visitors coming up and be talking Orange Bowl and everything else. We appreciate it, guys. As always, chomp, chomp and go Braves.

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.