The Florida Gators moved to 2-0 on the season by defeating the East Carolina Pirates on Saturday but it wasn’t a pretty win and head coach Jim McElwain was not very happy about the way his team played.
GatorCountry’s own Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre are here today to give their thoughts on the win plus give their thoughts on McElwain’s press conference after the game.
Also in this podcast you will here Nick and Andrew discuss what worked and didn’t work for the offense and also how the defense played without star cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III.
Transcript:
Andrew: Hello, Gator Country. The Florida Gators are 2-0, wasn’t pretty, but they’re 2-0. Nick, it was a late night again. I kind of feel like these late games are starting to take a toll on you and I, because we do have a ritual of watching the game again as well as stories. 2-0, wasn’t pretty. I guess overall, general thoughts on it before we dig into some hot points of the game.
Nick: I guess, brass tacks, bottom line 2-0. It doesn’t matter how you get there. That’s the goal. That was the goal, is the goal, to start the season 2-0. It doesn’t matter how it happened, that is the ultimate goal. When you break down, if Florida brings that kind of game to any SEC opponent not named Vanderbilt or South Carolina they’re probably coming away with a loss. So definitely things to work on, but ultimate goal, bottom line, is win football games. It was ugly. Florida collected enough material from flags last night that they could probably do a yellow alternate jersey next week if they wanted to. Get a seamstress in there, and see if they can come up with something. McElwain was not happy. Florida fans, not very happy with the way that the game was played. Definitely happy with the outcome, but, like I’ve said, 2-0, I guess that’s all you can ask for. You’d like it to look better, but it’s a win.
Andrew: The key topic is definitely the McElwain, Kelvin Taylor situation, but before we get into that, real quick I want to hit on a think that you kind of just talked about. Someone on the message board brought this up, and they said, “Does Florida win this game last year?” It’s tough to say, because it’s two years to combine, no telling what exactly happens, but I’m going to lean that they don’t. I’m going to lean that the offense doesn’t have enough firepower to score 31 points, and I don’t know if they win this game last year, just simply because of the way the team was overall. I’m not sure that Florida wins this game last year. What’s your thought about that, just general thought?
Nick: I don’t know, and even last night there’s two balls that Will Grier would like to have back. There’s two passes that Grier made that should have been intercepted, and if they are intercepted are fans still clamoring for him to be the starting quarterback? Is the team 2-0?
Andrew: If Tevin Westbrook catches a ball, Will Muschamp’s still the coach. If Clay Burton, if Jordan Reed doesn’t fumble the ball against Georgia, all that what ifs, Nicholas.
Nick: If ifs were fifths we’d all be drunk.
Andrew: There you go. My golf game would be wonderful.
Nick: I don’t like to do that kind of revisionist history. Would Florida have won that game last night? Maybe. There’s so many things. Maybe they would have. Maybe they wouldn’t have. I don’t think it’s really important. I don’t think it’s really relevant, and to use that as a point to say Florida’s headed in the right direction, because they wouldn’t have won that game last year, you don’t know that.
Andrew: I’m with you. I will say, overall, if there is a silver lining in the entire day, the SEC looked like dog crap.
Nick: Toledo. Holy, Toledo.
Andrew: Jacksonville State. I’m an Alabama boy, and I do not like—
Nick: Will Muschamp shut out Jacksonville State a couple years ago, his second year at Florida.
Andrew: Man, that looked like Georgia Southern out there. They looked bad. Alabama, they won 35 or 36 to 10 against Middle Tennessee State, didn’t look that impressive. Georgia struggled with Vandy for a good portion of the game. Kentucky comes out waxing South Carolina in the first quarter, and then it turns into a good game. Overall not an impressive day for the SEC.
Nick: You know what that means? When it’s not an impressive day for the SEC?
Andrew: Danny Kanell gets to laugh?
Nick: No, it means Paul!
Andrew: Paul.
Nick: It means the Paul Finebaum show is going to be extra Jerry Springer-esque all week, especially with the way Auburn played, those crazy Auburn fans that call into the show. Definitely a down day for the SEC, specially poor Bert, Bret Bielema losing to Toledo.
Andrew: Let’s direct it back to Florida a little bit, then we can talk about the other teams at the end. My thing is, McElwain talks about that these guys seemed entitled against ECU. I don’t want to say that the game plan was bad for the ECU game, it just wasn’t executed very well, and maybe it was an entitlement issue, but is it not better that Florida had this against ECU, or I know it’s better that Florida had this against ECU then it does Tennessee. How much do you think comes out positively from this game? I for one do not want to be a fly on the wall tomorrow when the team meets for the first time, and then in practice tomorrow, because it’s going to be hell on Earth. What do you think the positives to come out of this, and how much do you think will this team look differently against Kentucky?
Nick: To me, I have mixed emotions on this. Players will always say the right thing, so you would hope that this is a wakeup call. Jarrad Davis said it. Jalen Tabor said it. They both said winning that first game had them feeling some type of way. They were feeling good about themselves. They thought that they were on top of the world, because they beat somebody, hey guys, that you were supposed to beat. To take a win over a team that you’re supposed to beat, and then take the next week off, when you have an opponent who you needed an interception in the end zone in the 4th quarter to beat eight months ago, and to not take that team seriously, then to me to say, this opened our eyes, and we won’t ever do that again. Hey, I’ve read this story. I’ve read this chapter. I’ve read this paragraph before coming right from your mouth before.
To me, I want to see you do it. I want to see you go through a full week, and as Jim McElwain said, I don’t want to see 30 guys not have their ankles taped before meetings on Monday. I don’t care what you tell me you’re going to do this week before Kentucky. I want to see you do it, because I’ve heard you tell me about it and then seen you not follow through with it. So don’t tell me, show me.
Andrew: Here’s my thing, and this is where I think improvement can come. This team was set, this program was set in bad ways. The more and the more we hear about things, the more and the more you and I dig into things, this was a very undisciplined program under Will Muschamp, something that you and I probably did not think. Am I wrong in saying that neither one of us thought that it was as undisciplined as it is?
Nick: I don’t think it was undisciplined. I think if you look back, I think Urban Meyer left a very undisciplined program, and Will Muschamp cleaned it up. I think Will Muschamp handled penalties in games differently than McElwain is. I wouldn’t call Florida an undisciplined team as far as off the field stuff, stuff like that. Muschamp did a good job cleaning that up. Penalty wise obviously Florida, that’s been an issue for 20 years.
Andrew: But it’s not penalties. Here’s the thing that I am with you on. This is I think where you and I are, I think, missing the point here a little bit. It’s not so much off the field. Off the field stuff should not happen. Period. End of discussion. It should not happen, and a coach cannot control if it does. I’m sorry. The cleanest program in the world is still going to have guys that are going to make stupid decisions. I say this. Jarrad Davis said, and it’s a quote that I took, and maybe I’m reading too much into this, but he said, “Thirty guys didn’t tape, but last year it was way more than that.” Way more than that? What is this? Why is this?
Nick: Let’s do this, because some people might not know. What Jim McElwain is saying, that guys need to have their ankles taped before meetings, is because you have meeting, and then there’s a very short window before you have to be at practice. So you need to make time in your schedule, if you need your ankles taped, you need to make time in your schedule to get that done before meetings, because there isn’t time in between meetings and practice. It’s about being responsible and accountable to yourself and to the team to have yourself ready for practice.
Andrew: Right. We used to have a thing. We had real big problems with this when I was coaching ball. We used to tell kids, you don’t get your ankles taped before practice, too bad, too sad.
Nick: It turns into, for a former athlete, it turns into an easy excuse. Coach, sorry I missed that first couple laps around the field to start practice, but I had to get my ankles taped.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Coach isn’t going to say, you shouldn’t have gotten your ankles taped, because then you get hurt. No one wants that to happen. Jim McElwain is trying to take that out of the equation and getting it done before.
Andrew: Again, this is different in Florida’s case than it was in my case. We had one trainer who was trying to tape 25, 30 guys. That would take an hour long, because an ankle taping of two ankles takes about 5-10 minutes. It’s just what it is. It’s a longer process, but going back to where we’re at, I don’t want to get off the subject too much, but McElwain’s trying to set this message here. I said this in my story yesterday, I do think this can be a learning game for Florida, and I think we can look back for it in a couple years, or at the end of the season, and say, this program finally got it. Maybe this was the first step, McElwain chewing them a new one through the media, and then, again, I think Monday’s going to be a different practice for him. I think you’re going to see him turn that nice guy persona off, and he’s going to be mean McElwain. I don’t say that in a bad way. I just think it’ll be a different preparation this week.
Nick: You say, you hope it does, but, I mean, the first player we speak with after the game, Jim McElwain comes in first. He was red hot, molten lava would have been a nice refreshing temperature after dealing with Jim McElwain, how hot he was after the game.
Andrew: Understandably hot, too.
Nick: Brian Poole’s the first player that comes in. First question, what was Jim McElwain’s message to you in the locker room? He told us it was a good win. You look at players on social media. Good team win tonight. Congratulating each other, retweeting people who are tweeting nice things about them. That’s only social media. That’s Brian Poole dealing with the media, so maybe that’s not how he really feels. Maybe that’s just the message he wanted to get out.
Andrew: Other players did have a different mindset.
Nick: Other players did. Jalen Tabor came in. Jalen Tabor had a pick six last night, and it looked like his dog died when he was talking to us. Jon Bullard said, no excuses for it. Jarrad Davis, no excuses for it. They owned up to it. It’s like I said, Brian Poole just might not want to talk to the media about that, so he could have just said good game, because he doesn’t want to talk about it. Understand that. I want to see it, because it’s an easy excuse for Florida to come out and say, we didn’t play well tonight. It’s because we fell into old ways throughout the week, and that becomes the excuse. I don’t want it to be an ongoing excuse. Now, you come out, lay an egg against Kentucky, and it’s we won that game on Saturday, and we were feeling good about ourselves, so we kind of took the week off. Are you going to have to lose a football game to take a week of practice seriously? Is that what it’s going to take?
Andrew: For these guys, I truly hope they do not have another football game like they did, because McElwain may blow a gasket. He may blow a gasket. Let’s go to the hot topic. You and I never agree on dog crap.
Nick: Speaking of angry McElwain.
Andrew: We never agree on anything, but I think you and I are about to agree on this next subject. Jim McElwain just chewed Kelvin Taylor a new one. Kelvin Taylor scores a touchdown, great touchdown, applaud you, Kelvin. You did your job, buddy, but then you go to a throat slash. In the end zone, calls a penalty, #12 of the game, meaning anything. Then McElwain comes to the sideline. I think he tells Mike Kent, go talk to Kelvin. I don’t think he was very happy with the way Mike Kent talked to Kelvin. He comes over there. Kelvin, first of all, he has his head down looking at the ground while his head coach is speaking to him, which you and I both can agree on that was disrespectful.
Nick: Coaches do not like that.
Andrew: No, and McElwain tells him to f-ing look at him, and f-ing this and f-ing that, and this, that, and the other. Now ESPN and other people are blasting McElwain because of that, and I say, bullshit. Sorry. Don’t come to McElwain for it. McElwain had every right in the world to do that. I support him 100%. Everybody I’ve spoken to, recruits, everybody else, supports it. Nick, dig into this a little deeper, and then I’ll dig into it a little deeper.
Nick: First things first, I haven’t even said this yet. It kind of just came. I thought about it when I was in the press box and I saw the replay. That wasn’t even a good throat slash. A good throat slash is a fist, thumb extended, thumb going across the neck. Kelvin Taylor gave kind of like a flat hand, real quick, like that’s a wrap, game over. A good thumb slash, I like that. That’s like earn your stupid penalty. At least do it right. If you’re going to be stupid and get the penalty, at least do it right.
What I liked about it was McElwain, obviously he was angry, obviously, but didn’t let that affect him coaching. Like you said, told Coach Kent, the strength coach, who’s not calling plays, go talk to him.
Andrew: While I cool off, probably.
Nick: Go talk to him, let me make sure my kicker, who’s missed everything tonight, makes this point after, and then I’ll address it during the time out, the TV time out. Then what McElwain did, to me, which is a coaching move, is he grabbed Kelvin’s teammates and brought them around, and it’s not a public shaming. It’s to say, Kelvin, what you did was selfish. You put yourself above these guys who are now watching me yell at you. You put yourself above them. Your action, even if it’s not your intent, your action says I’m more important than anyone else on this field, and your actions not only were selfish, but ended up hurting the team. Now you have to kick off from 15 yards farther back, instead of starting at the 25. You get a 31 yard return, and ECU ends up scoring on that drive, to make it a one possession game.
I think what made Mac mad is that it was selfish, the timing of it, and then also I think what really set him off, and when you’re watching it, is Kelvin looking at the ground and not looking up at him when he was being addressed. I like that he brought the team around to prove a point, to say, look up, look at me, look at your teammates. See what you did and how it’s affecting everyone around you.
Andrew: I guess the thing for me too, A, first of all, if people think that’s bad language, you’ve never been on a football field. That’s nothing, nothing at all.
Nick: I played baseball, and I’ve had baseball coaches tell me worse.
Andrew: Exactly. That’s not bad language. Second of all, people say he shouldn’t have done it in public. Sorry, but the time to do that was then. If he goes to the locker room and does it, nothing whatsoever would have come of that. Nothing whatsoever would have been accomplished from that, because the moment would have been gone. That moment to do it was then, and it had to be done then. Second thing is it was not personal to Kelvin Taylor. He never personally insulted Kelvin.
Nick: Never. Not once. People are saying McElwain was immature about it. There was no personal attack whatsoever.
Andrew: He said, your actions were selfish, and then he said something about, I think he said a shitty attitude, I believe was his last comment, but he never personally attacked Kelvin, never said anything bad to Kelvin. He simply said that his actions were selfish, and so I’m okay with that completely. You and I talked about this. If McElwain has to give a public apology I am going to be upset, very upset. To the ESPN people that are reading it off their desk, those guys are probably guys that have never touched a field before. Reading off script, and who knows what it is? I can’t wait to hear Danny Kanell’s bull crap thing, because he’s a moron too, and he’ll be saying something stupid about it.
Nick: Please don’t tweet me any Danny Kanell video and/or quotes. I don’t want to see that in my timeline.
Andrew: Somebody said this, they said, why did he not do that to McCallister? McCallister’s penalty was stupid, don’t get me wrong. That was a stupid penalty, stupid for running into the kicker, but, A, he was doing his job, which was going to block a kick. He was looking to the sideline, did not even notice what he had done. It was stupid, very stupid, on his part, but was not selfish.
Nick: Not selfish, and that’s the distinction there. To me, the last thing before we jump off of this, Andrew, is he put Kelvin back into the game.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: So to me that’s saying, we’ve dealt with it. There will probably be some more dealing with it behind closed doors.
Andrew: I don’t even know if there will be. I think he made his point.
Nick: He might have, but putting him back into the game is saying it’s done. Our goal remains the same. We have a football game to win. Get back out there. You hurt your team, get back out there. Now is your chance to help your team.
Andrew: He didn’t hurt his team further by, A, running off and not looking at the field goal, and, B, by keeping Kelvin Taylor off.
Nick: There were so many instances where the previous coaching staff, one instance, one mess up like that, and you’d have to ask if the guy was still on the team, because you never see him again.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Talk to Marcus Maye about blowing an assignment against Miami. Guy was on a milk carton the rest of the season. Then another thing, while all these national media guys are chiming in because it’s a hot topic, and grown men are saying that Jim McElwain’s telling a college kid to be a man, and he’s not being a man, because of the way he’s handling it. The kid who was supposedly embarrassed on national television tweets today, “I love Coach Mac. He’s going to make me a better person. Got nothing but respect for him.” I retweeted that. Somebody’s response to me was, “What is he supposed to say?” I said, “He doesn’t have to say anything.” If he was pissed off he could have just said nothing.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: It wouldn’t have mattered, but he came out and publically said something.
Andrew: Here is my last thing that I’m going to say on this, and we’re getting off this, I promise. Somebody said to me, “He acted just like Will Muschamp.” No. No. No. No and no. He did not. Will Muschamp would belittle people for fundamental mistakes like dropping a pass or missing a block, stuff like that that should be addressed after the game. You address dropping the ball by benching them. That’s it, not belittling them. He chewed out Clay Burton, in my opinion, which was probably the moment—
Nick: The Georgia game.
Andrew: Yeah, in the Georgia game. He chewed out Tevin Westbrook. That stuff was uncalled for, and I said this to someone on the message board. Muschamp’s arguments were without intent and were off base, because he never did the same thing every time. Demarcus Robinson dropped a pass, he wouldn’t do that. Clay Burton dropped a pass, he would do that. It was different people. I think whoever would have done that Jim McElwain would have gotten, and he got Kelvin Taylor, probably his second biggest personality on the team, behind Vernon Hargreaves, just because of who Kelvin Taylor is. No, don’t tell me Jim McElwain acted like Will Muschamp. That’s off base. That’s bull crap, and I certainly don’t want to hear it. So don’t tweet me that crap. Now let’s move on to football. I hate talking this crap.
Nick: Here we go.
Andrew: I hate talking this. Quarterback battle, it was not pretty in the game for the most part. Will Grier was 10 and 17, 151, and two touchdowns and a sack. Treon Harris 5 of 8, 54 yards and a sack. Will Grier probably could have had a couple interceptions in the game, but did not. You wrote in your story last night Will Grier had a chance to take the job, but did not succeed. Explain, buddy.
Nick: Well, both of us were told that he had kind of made some progress throughout the week and maybe taken a step forward. Will Grier was given every opportunity on Saturday night to grab the reins of this starting quarterback job. Starting with being put back into the game to start the second half. Last week Will Grier got the second and third quarter, so he was able to go in, get coached up at half time, come back in, and see how does he respond to that coaching? We thought the same opportunity would be afforded to Treon after Will Grier got the start. Grier comes back in, started the game and comes back in in the third quarter.
That to me is showing we’re trying to give Will an opportunity right now, and the offense stalls. Other than Will Grier’s 19 yard run, nothing going on the first drive. The next drive you get a touchdown drive, but Will Grier got about 45, 44 yards to his credit, when he’s not even throwing the ball past the line of scrimmage. It was just Demarcus Robinson’s screen, screen, screen, all the way down the field. Listen, I don’t knock you for it. If they’re not covering it, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but that’s not showing me anything about Will Grier. That’s showing me something about Demarcus Robinson, and hat tip, hat’s off to Brandon Powell, because he whiffed on the first one, but he blocked his ass off on the next three.
To me, Will Grier was afforded every opportunity. If Will Grier comes out in the third quarter, leads a scoring drive and then another scoring drive, I don’t think you see Treon Harris the rest of the game. I think Will Grier plays the entire second half, and then today, when you’re listening to this, on Monday at 11:30 when Mac meets with the media, I think we’re hearing Will Grier is going to be the starting quarterback. I think the coaching staff gave Will every chance to take the job, and what we saw was his inability to seize that. I think both quarterbacks throughout the spring and fall camp have been given those opportunities, and they haven’t been able to show the coaching staff, I realize you gave me an opportunity, and I made the most out of it.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s my thing on this. Will got benched for Treon in the fourth quarter of the drive. Treon showed me nothing to lead me to believe he was the starting quarterback either.
Nick: To me, sorry to cut you off, but to me, real quick, that’s the problem. Your thought process now is shifting from these guys are both just so good that you can’t pick one, to any time these guys are given a chance no one’s stepping up.
Andrew: Here’s my thing on that though. I think a lot of that is, there’s a couple things. This team as a unit, as an offense, just hasn’t come together, because there’s no continuity of this. There’s no rhythm whatsoever. The offensive line is continuing to shift out. The running backs are continuing to shift out. The receivers are continuing to shift out. I understand McElwain. He’s trying to get as many people in there as it is, but there’s no continuity on this offense at all.
Here’s the only way I can tell you that I can see a difference in the two quarterbacks. Treon is a one look, I’m going to look at one defender. If he’s not there, I’m taking off to run. It doesn’t matter if the next guy’s wide open or not, Treon’s not looking for that second guy. It’s one, I’m going to run as fast as I can to get there. He’s also not a guy that can step up in the pocket, and that’s a concern for me, big time, because this offense needs a guy that can step up in the pocket to see where it is. Somebody said there is no pocket. There is sometimes. The tackles are letting their guys go up, just like they should, run past there, and you have to step up in the pocket. Will does show that.
Someone made a point to me on Twitter, a former coach of mine, he said, “Will looks like a quarterback that trusts his arm too much.” That really went home to me a little bit, because Will does look like that. He looks like he’s a guy that feels like he can fit it in any pocket, and that’s what gets him in trouble. I don’t think it’s his decision making.
Nick: No. I think a play in the first quarter, tried to squeeze a ball into Valdez Showers. C’yontai Lewis was sitting crisscross applesauce, could have taken a nap in the end zone. He was probably lonely he was so wide open. Miss there. Getting to the decision making part, on DeAndre Goolsby’s touchdown Will Grier had an opportunity to try to make a difficult pass that would have been a touchdown if it’s a completion to CJ Worton, who had about a half a step on his guy, but it would have been a difficult pass, because he’s rolling out. Would have had to throw on the run and try to lob it over a defender with the end zone coming into play.
When I’m watching the play develop, and I get to see a broader spectrum from the press box than Will Grier does trying to past and over a 6’5” offensive lineman, I see Worton, and my first thought it throw it to Worton. Grier checks down to Goolsby, who was by himself. Goolsby ends up making a play, making something happen, touchdown. The decision making is there, but I do see what you’re saying as far as a guy that trusts his arm, that there’s no window too tight that I can’t squeeze a pass into it.
Andrew: Right. Here’s my thing. We talked about the two passes that could have been interceptions. The second ball I do think was on him to CJ Worton. I think he threw it out. The first ball I think was on Callaway. I think Callaway was supposed to check that down. It was zone coverage, and I think he was supposed to check his route down to a comeback route or to a curl route, instead he took it up the seam where two safeties were. I want to say the first one may have been on Callaway, and the second was on Grier. We don’t exactly know that, because we don’t know the play call exactly.
For me, I see more long term ability for Will. I do think that the playbook is slimmed down a little bit when Treon’s in the game. I do. I don’t think you run the same playbook when Treon’s in the game as they do with Will. I can’t see this team being very successful with Treon as the starter going in the future. I think Will’s got the brighter future with this team. In my opinion McElwain needs to decide. A quarterback, let them go, if they lose the job then you go to the second quarterback. I think he has to trust one of them enough to give them a full game and then go forward with it.
Nick: Yeah. To me, I don’t care who you pick, but…
Andrew: Pick one.
Nick: It’s time. It’s done. This rotating quarterbacks, both quarterbacks have shown it takes them at least one drive to get into a rhythm and to get going, so when you’re rotating these guys you’re throwing away possessions. Jim McElwain last night said, “Listen, we’re not a good enough football team to overcome penalties.” You’re not a good enough football team to throw away an entire offensive drive because it’s Johnny’s turn to come in a play quarterback. You get paid a lot of money. You talk about the brand. This is a brand. This is a business. You’re the CEO. Time to make a CEO decision and name who’s running your company. You can’t have two. It’s not going to work the entire year having two. You’re going to hurt someone’s feelings, rip the Band-Aid off. Pick a quarterback.
Andrew: Yeah. Pretty much. I think that goes for the whole offense really. Pick your guys. Find out who it is. McElwain, his past has shown that as the games go further into the year it does get less and less guys playing.
Nick: Frankly, for me, it’s not just at quarterback. You’ve got to make that across the board. Why is Mark Herndon getting a carry in a one possession game in the fourth quarter? Mark Herndon, great young man, I loved talking to him when he got his scholarship. Getting a scholarship was life changing for him. Mark Herndon went from not knowing if he had Ramen noodles in the dorm room to being able to eat a team meal, a meal that he doesn’t have to worry about where dinner’s going to be coming from that night. Great story that he’s a scholarship player now. That’s his story. He’s not a guy that you’re supposed to be depending on in the fourth quarter of a game. When you ask Jim McElwain why he’s in there, “I expected him to do his job.” What?
Andrew: This is kind of where you and I will disagree a little bit.
Nick: You need to start shrinking down this rotation. You’ve had your fun to get everyone the ball, to get Alvin Bailey his touches in the first two games. SEC play starts this week. Time to shrink that.
Andrew: Yes. It is. It’s shown that he will probably do that. It is time to do that. I will say this, you play with Mark Herndon in a game, whether he’s a walk-on, a JV player, a pee wee player, whether he’s at the University of Florida, whatever he is, you expect him to hold onto the football. Period.
Nick: My point is, and it’s a point I made last year, I don’t blame Tevin Westbrook for dropping that pass that leads to Florida losing to LSU. I don’t blame Tevin Westbrook. I blame the coaching staff for putting a player who’s not ready for that stage or for that play, for that moment, in a position where that moment is going to be too big for him. Mark Herndon playing in a game that is still close, that is still in the balance, that is not a moment he should be in the game. I’m not even putting blame on Mark for the fumble, which was his fault. Treon put the ball right in his gut. The blame is on the coaching staff for putting a player who shouldn’t be in that position in that position to make that mistake.
Andrew: Get off the field. That’s all I can tell you. Don’t play football then. Don’t be on the team. Go home if you can’t do your job.
Nick: This is college football. Mark Herndon is going to school. He’s a student athlete.
Andrew: And he should be able to hold onto a football.
Nick: Don’t put him in position.
Andrew: Should be able to hold onto a football.
Nick: You should know your football team, and you should know who should be carrying the ball. Jordan Scarlett touched the ball four times last night and averaged 6 yards per carry. Why is he not in the game getting more touches? Jordan Cronkrite was like a bat out of hell running the ball last night, averaged 5.2 per carry. Why isn’t he getting the touch there in the fourth quarter?
Andrew: It is what it is. McElwain likes to play a lot of guys, and it nearly cost him and bit him in the butt. I do think it comes down to being a lesser group of guys that get on the field. To end our thing on offense here, a couple things real quick that I want to say, and then I’ll turn it to you real quick. The lack of touches for the playmakers. McElwain continues to say he wants to get his playmakers the football. The offensive line is not good at one on one getting a push up the field. I liked last week against New Mexico State where McElwain ran a lot of outside runs to his receivers, did a lot of tosses to Kelvin Taylor and those guys. Didn’t see that very much. One reverse to Brandon Powell was all I saw, and nothing else. There was a lot of plays last week designed to go to Powell in the passing game. A lot of screens thrown to Callaway. Didn’t see that a lot. You say the one drive to Robinson was there. That was kind of it as far as that goes. Then Scarlett didn’t get a lot of runs. I do think Cronkrite’s maybe taking over as the best back on the team.
Nick: He definitely had the hot hand yesterday, but then, to me, if Cronkrite’s got the hot hand, which he definitely did early on…
Andrew: Feed it.
Nick: Why does he have seven less carries than Kelvin Taylor?
Andrew: Feed it. Feed the boy.
Nick: Kelvin Taylor had 16 carries for 55 yards. That’s a 3.4 yard average against East Carolina.
Andrew: Who gave up 180 yards to Towsan.
Nick: East Carolina held Kelvin Taylor to under 4 yards per carry.
Andrew: Not very good. Let’s move to the defensive side of the ball here real quick. Let’s make this short, because we are off on time here. No Vernon Hargreaves, as we reported. No Keanu Neal, as we reported. Time for Quincy and those guys to step up. For me, Marcus May played lights out football, played really good. Losing Alex Anzalone was tough, because that was your best cover linebacker against an ECU team that was going to throw the ball over the middle. No blitzing. We expected that. We told everyone that wasn’t going to happen. Pass rush looked good. Still wasn’t going to give very much, too quick of a passing team to do that against.
Nick: Florida did come away with three sacks, but you can tell, kind of like what we had said in our podcast leading up to the game, hopefully fans saw that the passing game that ECU brought predicated that Florida would not be able to rush, to blitz as much as we would expect them to against Kentucky and against Tennessee and against Ole Miss coming down the road.
Andrew: Exactly. Overall, I can’t put too much fault on the defense. I can’t. I don’t have the yards in front of me of what East Carolina did, but it was something like 330 in that range. A lot of that was, 75 of that’s on the first drive. Sudden change to not do well. You did have an interception that returned for a touchdown for Florida. Overall I don’t blame a lot of this on the defense. I think the defense played well, not great, but they played well.
Nick: Yeah. There’s a couple issues that I had.
Andrew: Safeties.
Nick: With the defense. Marcus May played his ass off. I have no problem with Marcus May. The other safety spot I have an issue with. Once Anzalone left, I wrote about it, Jalen Tabor and Quincy Wilson shut down anything on the boundary. Outside the hash marks, not happening. They tried to make it happen, and Jalen Tabor took one back, reservations for six. What happened was Antonio Morrison’s a very good linebacker, great against the run, not very good at all against the pass, not very athletic. You saw that. Jarrad Davis led the team in tackles. He’s a little bit better than Morrison, not as good as Anzalone against the pass. ECU started taking advantage in between the hash marks, taking advantage of linebacker matchups with tight ends and those quick slants that linebackers should be able to help out on, help the corners out on. Weren’t able to do it.
Third down, this year you’ll see, and I like it, you’ve got some grad assistants with money down signs, and they’re jumping up and down. That’s supposed to be a reminder to the defense that this play is different than the other ones. This one is more important. Time to get off the field. ECU converted on 50% of their third downs. I think you like that to be a little bit lower. Florida was not as good, only completed 30% of their third down conversions. That’s more of a number you’d like to see Florida hold ECU to, instead of 50. ECU also ran 80 plays. So maybe there’s some fatigue that comes into that. We talked about last week, Florida’s offense isn’t like ECU’s. They’ll go tempo, but the tempo at which ECU ran, specifically that first drive of the game, was lightening pace. Maybe there’s some fatigue factor playing in.
Love the turnovers. To me, I really enjoyed watching Joey Ivie play. He empties the tank every play. This kid just leaves it all out on the field. I liked Florida’s defensive line, liked the cornerback stepping up. Thought Marcus May was a huge addition, re-addition, back to the team, and getting Keanu Neal back for SEC play will also help.
Andrew: Getting Keanu Neal back is going to be huge, big time.
Nick: Eleven tackles for loss last night, that’s pretty good.
Andrew: You and I said it on the podcast on Friday, fundamental tackles, open field tackling, was going to be key, and it was poor. A lot of times it was poor. Nick Washington had a few missed tackles. Marcell Harris had a few missed tackles. Jarrad Davis had a few missed tackles. There’s a couple things that go on in that. You said you weren’t sold on McCallister’s effort. I was. I thought McCallister had a really good game. Jonathan Bullard played balls out on that game. He did better when he moved inside defensive tackle. You and I talked about this in SEC media days a little bit, before the season. We liked him at defensive tackle, because he’s explosive, and he is a fast speedy guy who gets off the ball really well for a defensive tackle. He out matches guards, and that’s what helps him out a ton. Overall, you can’t say too much bad about the defense. Like you said before, we want to see more blitzes against Kentucky. I think you will. If you don’t, then you know something’s wrong.
Nick: Yeah. People are talking about we need to look at the defensive coordinator and his play calling. All ECU was trying to do was pick up small chunks of yards at a time by getting the ball out quickly, so by blitzing all you’re doing is committing a bunch of people who aren’t going to get to the quarterback in the 2 seconds it’s taking him to get rid of the ball, and now you have less players to defend that 2 yard pass, and that 2 yard pass turns into a 50 yard touchdown, because you decided to bring seven or eight.
Andrew: Agreed. Before we get out of here.
Nick: We have to review.
Andrew: We have to review, that’s right. I went Marcus May. I went Brian Poole, and I went Kelvin Taylor, as having breakout games. Kelvin did not, sorry, but he didn’t. Marcus May, probably player of the game in my opinion on the defensive side of the ball. Let’s see here, Brian Poole had a fumble recovery. Did make a few plays, I wouldn’t say he did anything stand out, but both of us crapped a brick on the score.
Nick: Oh my goodness did we ever on the score. By the way, also for your Marcus May, he had five tackles, all solo, and your Brian Poole fumble recovery was because of Marcus May’s forced fumble.
Andrew: I was loving that. I was like, double duty.
Nick: Me, thank goodness. First off, thank God that you told me my third player didn’t have to be on special teams, because I was about to ride or die with Austin Hardin on my three stars of the game, and you wouldn’t have been able to see my face with all the…
Andrew: Special teams have been lost.
Nick: But I went with Alex Anzalone, I’m not going to give myself a grade there, because he left. I will say that is a not applicable grade. I won’t say that’s a wrong pick. He left the game early with an injury. Quincy Wilson, I think we agree and disagree. I think Wilson had a very good game. He got beat for a touchdown, but that was good coverage. That’s going to happen. Every cornerback is going to get beat. It’s not like Quincy blew a coverage or wasn’t where he was supposed to be, just got beat on a play. That’s going to happen. The rest of the game, locked down. My third player was D Rob, who on offense was probably the lone star, other than Jordan Cronkrite and how good he looked.
Andrew: Goolsby. Goolsby had a good game.
Nick: Goolsby had a good game. I don’t what it is. College defense can’t stop, they don’t know how to defend. They don’t want to defend. I don’t know what their excuse is. Can’t defend the wheel route. DeAndre Goolsby is going to eat all season long running wheel routes.
Andrew: Eat. Yeah. Overall it was a good game for Quincy, but the one play was there. Like you said, it was good coverage. He just got beat. You were sweating a little bit on the BS call on Jake McGee, who I think that was the worst pass interference call I ever saw. McElwain chewed the refs a new one.
Nick: First off, McGee wasn’t near the touchdown. The defender had two fists full of McGee’s jersey, and what he did was shove the defender off of him who was holding him.
Andrew: He didn’t even push him out of the way.
Nick: I know it’s an NFL rule, not a college rule, but within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, I know it’s not a college rule, but to me that is just jostling for position off of the line of scrimmage. It’s not like McGee was 15 yards down the field and shoved the guy to the side as the ball was coming to him. Terrible call, in my opinion.
Andrew: They were both fighting. The quarterback, or the linebacker, I’m not sure who it was, had his arms engaged on McGee. McGee just tried to get loose. Again, overall I think we’ve hit on everything. It was a good win. You win the football game.
Nick: It was not a good win. It was a win, which was the objective. Not a good win.
Andrew: A win is a good win, in my book. A win is a win. You’re 2-0. You’re heading to Kentucky. All things are lost in the rearview mirror, as McElwain said. I think it’s going to be a great week of practice for the team. I think it’ll be a different thing. I bet nobody misses team meals tonight, and I bet all 100 or however many players dressed out for practice are taped and ready to go. Nick, any final thoughts on this before we head out? I do have one final thought, and that is boomer Sooner. I called that on Friday. Boomer Sooner took care of business. The Vols are now unranked like they should be, because they are overrated football team. Boomer Sooner.
Nick: Yeah. That was a total collapse by Tennessee. I really thought they had Oklahoma, jumping out to a quick lead, a big lead. Total meltdown.
Andrew: You thought I was going to have to eat my words.
Nick: Total meltdown. My thoughts are a couple things. One, as you mentioned before, we had a pretty good day as far as breaking some news, putting it out there for our members. As always, you can check it out GatorCountry.com. You can follow me on Twitter @NickdelaTorreGC. Follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewSpiveyGC. Also, it will be my first trip. I will be going to Lexington for the game. My first trip to Kentucky, that state. My first trip to Lexington, the city. If you are listening, let me know where I should eat. Andrew knows that I love me some barbeque, and I can put down some food. Tweet at me. Hit me up on the message board. Let me know what I should eat while I am in Kentucky.
Andrew: Yeah. He likes to eat a lot. That is the truth. Nick, say your magic words. I’m going to sign us off of here and get ready for a big week against the Wildcats.
Nick: Long podcast. Let us know if you like these long ones. I like them. Andrew wants to get out of here, but I’m a man of the people. I like talking to you, even though it’s a one sided conversation. Anyway, Gator Nation, you stay classy.
Andrew: That’s right. As Nick said, stay classy, and as always, boomer Sooner.
Nick: Stay classy, I’m going to call out Tennessee.
Andrew: Stay classy. Boomer Sooner, and I support you, McElwain. As always, stay tuned. We’ll have a big week. Thanks, guys.