Gator Country brings you a new podcast we recap the Florida Gators huge and dominating victory over Kentucky on Saturday by a score of 45-7.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the offense was so successful on Saturday, plus review how good the defense really was on Saturday.
Andrew and Nick review their picks from Saturday night, plus break down their thoughts on this team heading into week three against North Texas.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with my man, Nicholas de la Torre. Nicolas, if we sound excited, my man, it’s because there’s offense again. Offense in the Swamp. It’s been a long time. To me, that shows one thing, Nick. That means Will Muschamp’s away.
Nick: Muschamp’s away. Shot on Muschamp. That didn’t take long.
Andrew: Yeah, it didn’t take long. 90 yards through the first three quarters of offense against Mississippi State.
Nick: Is that good?
Andrew: Well, it is better than some of those games at Florida.
Nick: Florida did, it was old school Florida/Kentucky. It was just a beat down. Just a physical beat down. Kentucky had no answers. Drew Barker, who had looked good a week before, finishes the game with a -31.6 quarterback rating. 2 of 10 for 10 yards and three interceptions.
Andrew: Boss, he threw the ball more to Florida than he did to his own team.
Nick: Kentucky as a team completed three passes, actually six passes if you include the three that Florida’s defensive backs caught. Florida’s secondary had as many receptions as Kentucky.
Andrew: Florida’s offense was really good, as I predicted. You, on the other hand, you were down on this offense, and it looked good. I mean, I tried to tell you, Nick, it was going to be okay.
Nick: I didn’t believe it. I wasn’t drinking any of that Kool-Aid.
Andrew: You wasn’t.
Nick: No.
Andrew: I’ll admit. I was down on the offense too. We don’t sugarcoat things on this thing. Nick, you and I were wrong. We were wrong that the offense wouldn’t look good on Saturday. We get trashed, it’s cool. I will say this. To me, to hear some of the stats that were thrown around Saturday night after the game, Luke Del Rio being the first 300 yard passer since 2013. Being the first 300 yard passer in an SEC game since what? Grossman or something?
Nick: Well, no. It was the first quarterback to throw for at least 320 yards, which is exactly what Del Rio threw for, and four touchdowns against an SEC opponent, 2001. It had been 15 years.
Andrew: That’s unreal.
Nick: That means a Mr.
Andrew: Tebow.
Nick: Timothy Tebow never did it.
Andrew: Right. Which, the four touchdowns passing doesn’t really surprise me, but that’s a long time. Like that’s a long time. For me it does this, and I’m going to steal one of your sayings from last week. Florida did this against a bad team. We understand this, but Florida should do this against them. This is what they should do against them. Here’s the thing I want to take away from it. Get ready for SEC play against Tennessee against this defense. You can say what you want to about that defense of Kentucky, that offense of Kentucky was pretty good, and Florida beat their tail. Zero yards, I said 0, that’s an egg, in the 3rd quarter, Nick, 0. You and I could get a team together and probably get 1 yard.
Nick: Well, Florida kind of controlled the ball that quarter.
Andrew: They had four series and 0 yards. Zero yards.
Nick: Yeah. So they ran the ball eight times for 0 yards, and they went 0-3 with an interception passing.
Andrew: That’s just unheard of. I mean, even Will Muschamp is mad about that.
Nick: It’s like you said, Kentucky is atrocious. Kentucky might be worse than UMass, but you take nothing away from Florida, because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: You dominated in all three phases of the game.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s my takeaway too, and Nick, tell me this real quick. Do you have the breakdown of what it was run to pass?
Nick: Florida’s play breakdown?
Andrew: Yes.
Nick: Yeah, but I mean we’re not talking about run pass option, stuff like that. Florida threw the ball 33 times and ran 50.
Andrew: Okay. So here’s the thing. It was 50, but there was a few that was…
Nick: I can break it down run pass per. It’s like when you get into the 4th quarter and you have a gigantic lead.
Andrew: You’re going to run the ball.
Nick: Florida runs the ball 10 times in the quarter to just three attempts, three passing attempts.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: In the 3rd quarter it was more balanced, 12-9.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: I think it was really coming out in the 1st quarter though in establishing the run. That first drive, not the first drive, the second drive.
Andrew: Was that 15 for like 76 or 87 yards, something like that?
Nick: Yeah. Florida went 15 plays, 84 yards, 729 used, and I think of those 15 plays I think 9 of them were runs, and that set you up for your next drive where you hit the play action 78 yard touchdown.
Andrew: Right. See, I think that’s the thing you and I talked about though. This team was going to be much more balanced this week, and I think it was. Now, here’s the thing, the offensive line. Nick, I think you’ll agree with me. I’m the most critical of this offensive line there is. Jawaan Taylor played hella football. Jawaan Taylor is a hell of a right tackle. I’m going to say this, and you can agree or you can disagree, Nick. Jawaan Taylor might be the Gators second best offensive lineman behind David Sharpe.
Nick: I would say Tyler Jordan’s better than David Sharpe.
Andrew: Maybe. I’m higher on Sharpe than you are, but here’s my thing. The offensive line did play better. There is a weak spot. Martez Ivey is starting to still not get the guard position.
Nick: Seen a lot of Martez Ivey looking the wrong way.
Andrew: He’s having those oh shit, lookout blocks.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: Those aren’t good.
Nick: Quarterback never wants to see their offensive lineman’s face, and Luke Del Rio and Martez Ivey are locking eyes way too much during the game.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s the thing. The offensive line did look better.
Nick: Absolutely. In his post game Del Rio told us, after the first drive a defensive player didn’t touch me.
Andrew: That’s crazy. Nick, what is the key there? What changed after the first drive?
Nick: I don’t know. You tell me.
Andrew: Jawaan went in at right tackle.
Nick: That’s right.
Andrew: I’m not blaming it all.
Nick: McElwain said that Fred Johnson was playing on a bum ankle.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, and you guys know, Nick, you know, I respect the hell out of McElwain, Coach Mac. I respect the hell out of Mac. Maybe Fred Johnson was playing on a bum ankle. Jawaan Taylor is a better football player. Right now. Fred may end up being better, but right now Jawaan’s the better option at right tackle. Now, it shows. Jawaan Taylor is just mauling people off that right tackle position, and it shows. It showed. Nick, four running backs, three of them score.
Nick: That’s effective. The running game, every offensive lineman’s dream, we talked to Jon Halapio on the podcast last year, and he tells us, I would love to have a game where you didn’t throw a single pass, and we just run the ball. That’s an offensive lineman’s dream. For Florida to be able to get 244 rushing yards, almost averaged 5 yards a carry, that is a testament to the offensive line kind of getting called out for how they played the week before and trying to have to come back. That’s them answering the bell.
Andrew: Right. That’s what I’m saying. Here’s the thing. To everyone that got onto to Skip, got onto Mac, got onto Nuss, about the rotating backs, Nick, I didn’t see a drop off there. That rotation, it may not be traditional, but it works.
Nick: It seems like Lamical Perine, he was the hot hand, ends up getting you your first 100 yard rusher of the season, 17 attempts. For a while I thought Mark Thompson was getting the bulk of the carries, and then the only separation I can see is I feel like Jordan Cronkrite, I think it’s the second week in a row where he’s been on the bottom end of that carry.
Andrew: Maybe playing more on 3rd down, just really on 3rd down.
Nick: Yeah. Jordan Scarlett only 9 touches this week. Does score a touchdown, but that rotation is not going to stop. I say that with a modicum of caution, because I think these first three games a lot of players are going to play. That ain’t happening in Knoxville. We saw that last year. There were a lot of people playing, like Mark Herndon’s not getting these two carries in Knoxville. That starts to wear down. Once you get into the thick of SEC play, but I can still see if Lamical Perine’s still running the ball like he did and adds that 28 yard touchdown catch, I still see Perine, Thompson, and Scarlett carrying the ball during a game.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, and this is where I think you and I will agree. Perine and Scarlett are probably your best two runners, outside the goal line. Mark Thompson’s probably your best goal line option.
Nick: Every time Florida goes into a jumbo or has short yardage they’ll bring in…
Andrew: Mark.
Nick: Bryan Cox and Mark, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, but in the open field when it’s there, it’s those two guys. Now, what do those two guys have in common? They’re power backs. They got some speed. They can catch the ball out of the backfield, and they can block. They’re all around backs. I know, and we’ve seen it. We see it on Twitter. We see it on the message board. People saying, the carries will be stopped for Perine. I mean, I don’t see that. Now, call me a homer, call me whatever, when it comes to that. Everyone knows that’s my guy from Alabama, 251 boy, but he shows it. He goes out, 105 yards rushing. First back since 2008, Jeff Dips, freshman to do that, and he catches the ball. I don’t know that you take his reps away, and I don’t think you take Scarlett’s reps away.
Nick: I think the biggest thing, and I’m surprised I didn’t get a better answer from McElwain when I asked him, the biggest thing is we talked about last week, I wanted to kind of see Lamical get back in there against UMass so he didn’t have to sit for a week with his only rep being a fumble. To see that he got 17 carries tells me that he had a good week at practice, because that’s why he got so many carries, he had a good week at practice, and then it tells me that he didn’t let that affect him.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: If it affected him in any way it was motivation, and to me that’s a sign of maturity.
Andrew: Right. Here’s my thing too. I see this today, and they say, he got a bulk of his carries in garbage time. I don’t think so, Nick. To my memory there was only five carries in the last drive, that was garbage time. Am I missing a couple snaps? Nick?
Nick: Yeah. Perine in the 4th quarter had…
Andrew: I’m talking about that last drive when it was really, really they were just pounding the ball up and down.
Nick: I don’t know on the last drive.
Andrew: You’re good. My thing is it wasn’t just garage time. He was playing a ton throughout, catches the screen pass. By the way, him and Cronkrite, when’s the last time the Gators did a screen pass that was good? Been a long time, Nick.
Nick: That’s true. Probably the last time, maybe the last time was the Birmingham Bowl.
Andrew: Him and Cronkrite both. My thing is this, and, yes, I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t say congrats to Lamical Perine. He’s a guy that is coming in. He did come in with a lot of, I guess you could say doubters, and he definitely came in having to earn. He had to beat out four guys. Not that he beat them out, but he had to earn carries against four guys, so I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t say congrats to him, but I think this a talented backfield, whether it’s Scarlett back there, whether it’s Mark back there, whether it’s Perine. I think it’s a talented running game, and I do think Cronk’s your guy that you come in on 3rd down.
Nick: I think all of those guys can play on 3rd down. I think Perine can block.
Andrew: Oh, I do too.
Nick: I think Scarlett can block too on 3rd down.
Andrew: That looks like where that’s going to be Cronk is kind of in that. Maybe even playing a little bit of the Massey role. Maybe.
Nick: Not as effectively.
Andrew: Exactly. Let’s go real quick to a couple other things on offense, and then we’ll move on to defense.
Nick: Yeah. I want to talk about the defense. Let’s go.
Andrew: Del Rio, there was a few throws that you and I talked about it, and we said was he being just overly aggressive because it was Kentucky, or was it just a bad read? Maybe a little bit of both. I heard a couple people say, he missed two receivers wide open. Nick, there was one receiver one time, and it was the Brandon Powell throw where C’yontai was coming open, and you and I talked about this during the game. It was C’yontai broke open late after the ball was thrown. That’s what people have to remember there, and then the interception on Worton. I don’t know who’s fault that is. Was it Worton running a bad route or was it throwing a bad ball? Overall Luke did well in the game. I thought he did really well in the game.
Nick: I think against a good team he probably ends that game with three or four interceptions.
Andrew: If he makes those same aggressive.
Nick: Right. That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying if you put a good team on the field those passes where you can’t leave the ball high over the middle of the field. He did that a couple times. You can’t do it. You say what happened on Marcus Maye’s interception. You leave the ball high over the middle of the field, it gets picks. He did that. There were just some plays where I thought it was uncharacteristic, because if we say anything about Del Rio it’s he knows the offense, and he’s not going to do those things. He might not win you the game, that’s kind of what we talked about, but he’s not going to make those errors. I thought there were some plays, to me that in my head I didn’t that’s the play he would make. I didn’t think he’d try to squeeze that in there or try to take that risk.
Andrew: Let me ask you this.
Nick: But 19 for 32, 322 yards, 4 touchdowns. You can’t take that away from him. That’s a great game.
Andrew: Let me ask you this, and maybe you can’t answer this either. It’s just strictly an opinion, and that is do you think maybe it was Kentucky, and he was just being over aggressive thinking they were bad?
Nick: No, I don’t think so.
Andrew: Okay. I mean, I thought there was two passes where I think he threw it thinking, we’re up big, I’m going to risk it and see, but last thing on Del Rio that I have to say is that ball to Antonio Callaway was picture perfect.
Nick: It almost looked like he overthrew him again, for a second. He told us after the game it was the exact same play call.
Andrew: It was beautiful, beautiful ball. It was awesome. It was a really good play. To receiver, couple things on receiver that I wanted to hit on real quick. CJ Worton, Nick, you and I had a couple people tell us they were trying to be cautious with him, being his first game back with the high ankle sprain. I think CJ Worton showed people why he had a good fall camp.
Nick: Finally, right?
Andrew: You were calling it. I don’t have anything…
Nick: I think it might be like the kind of player he is.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: The 1st down catch he has where he catches it 5 yards in front of the 1st down, turns and like tries to make something happen, runs past the 1st down marker, looks like it won’t be a 1st down, but fights his way back. Has a guy, a defender wrapped around his bad ankle, and he’s still trying to hobble to make sure he gets back to that 1st down marker.
Andrew: Exactly. Antonio Callaway, what else can you say about the guy? He’s a dude. He’s a stud. Brandon Powell, through Brandon Powell had some good plays as well. That ball that he knocked the breath out of him, that was reversed to not a catch. That was a really difficult play. He was trying to dive and everything else, but good effort on there. I thought he played well there. Freddie Swain getting his first touchdown, and that was all because of the respect they gave Callaway.
Nick: That was wide open. He and Goolsby were wide open there. That was like Antonio Callaway’s reaction to that was priceless. It was like the Lane Kiffin reaction last year in their first playoff game, where the ball’s thrown, and even before the ball’s thrown Kiffin’s already celebrating with his hands up. They showed on the replay Callaway as he sees the safety in the corner crash on him. He knows what’s happening. Arms fly up. He’s ready.
Andrew: It was one of those things where if you could write in a caption with his face it was almost like, gotcha. It really showed how much respect people really have for Callaway. By the way, Nick, the stand pass and the little screen to Callaway was efficient this week. I think it’s starting to get that way to be better. Swain did play well. Josh Hammond didn’t play as much. Then Tyrie pulls himself with a bum hamstring. As Mac says, we’ll see how that is. Disappointing for Tyrie. Really didn’t expect that.
Nick: You and I in the 1st half kind of saw him jawing, not jawing, but in Kerry Dixon’s ear.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: Trying to just, Coach, put me in.
Andrew: Yeah, and then he pulls himself out. It’s kind of like, I don’t know. Maybe he really is hurt. I don’t know. That’s not for you and I to judge, but we’ll see. Nick, my final comments on the offense is this. That is, is the offense as good as it was against Kentucky? Probably not. It is as bad as it was against UMass? Absolutely not. It’s somewhere in between, but here’s the thing, the first game was the first game with these guys trying to mesh together. They improved a little bit, and they improved a lot to Game 2. For me, that’s the step of a team that’s going to get better. They got North Texas next week. They should do the same thing they did to Kentucky against North Texas on offense as they get ready for Tennessee, and then, of course, the Tennessee game’s going to be a lot closer, but it’s all about improvement, and improvement doesn’t always show points against good teams, but improvement down the road leads to success at the end of the tunnel.
Nick: Yeah. I think I said to you, because I was down on Florida’s offense, and I said, there will be a game where everything clicks, and I’ll catch hell for it, but I’m kind of like you. I don’t know if I think Florida’s offense is that good. Like is it 564 yards of offense? I don’t think that’s going to be what Florida’s doing when they start playing Tennessee, Georgia, and LSU.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, and I want to make this clear, because, Nick, you and I both had this. We had people hollering at us, you were wrong. First of all, you guys ask us to be honest. We give you our opinion. Second of all, when we say Florida’s offense isn’t going to be as good as it was against Kentucky, we’re not saying it’s not going to be good, but it’s tough against Tennessee, LSU, Georgia to put up 550 yards. It just is. You’re expecting a defense absolutely to shut them down for 3 and outs a lot of the time, and as good as Florida’s defense is, they are going to allow a little bit. I’m just saying, don’t expect them to put up 550 yards every week, but you see what they’re capable of doing.
Nick: Yeah. It’s like I said, Kentucky’s terrible. Kentucky’s an awful football team. They were hard to watch.
Andrew: Well, it was pretty fun to watch. I was loving it.
Nick: Kentucky was hard to look at, but Florida did what they were supposed to do. So this week, against North Texas, it’s another bad football team. Do that again.
Andrew: Right. Get better. Clean up the offense.
Nick: If Florida goes to Knoxville and continues that offensive play and puts up 450 yards of offense in Knoxville, I will say, listen, I’m wrong. The offense figured it out, and I was wrong.
Andrew: First of all, if they put up 450 yards I may go streaking across Neyland Stadium.
Nick: Let’s hope they don’t. Let’s hope for 449 yards then.
Andrew: Let’s talk defense, Nick, before we move on to our buy and sell predictions and all that stuff. Nick, I’m going to say this, and I probably will catch hell for this, but that was probably the most singlehandedly best performance I’ve seen from a Gator football team in a long, long time. There has been some good, but you honestly could look at that defense and didn’t think Kentucky was going to move the ball. Whether it was Alex Anzalone, whether it was, they were bad. They couldn’t pick on Jalen. They couldn’t pick on Quincy. They had nowhere to go. It was bad.
Nick: That’s what I meant when I said the band’s back together this week.
Andrew: Yes, and it was a pissed off band. Not only Quincy, but Jalen was pissed.
Nick: Yeah. After two weeks, the Gators ranked 1st in the SEC in scoring.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Scoring defense.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Passing defense, total defense, sacks, and opponent 3rd down conversion percentage.
Andrew: Here’s the thing. I want to say this before you go on. I had someone tell me today, and, Nick, maybe you had someone had someone tell you as well, Florida’s rush defense is suspect. I’m like, what? Give 60 yards to Kentucky, and it was like they knew they couldn’t pass the ball, so I guess they ran the ball a little bit. 60 yards? If you tell Jim McElwain and Geoff Collins they’ll get 60 yards rushing a game, I bet you a dollar they’ll take that every game.
Nick: Florida in 69 attempts the Gators have given up 140 rushing yards. 140. So they’re giving up 70 rushing yards a game, on 34.5 carries. So it’s 2.03 yard average. Sure, run the ball three times against me on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. You get your 6 yards, and then you punt.
Andrew: Yeah. I’ll give you 4th and 4. Yeah. Nick, I feel like I got to call out one player for positive, and you and I have praised this guy, and you know who I’m talking about before I even say the name. I have praised this guy from day one, but I’m going to tell you what, Alex Anzalone is a bad son of a gun. That is a bad man. Alex Anazlone is a freak, making money now in the NFL, right now, is that guy. The play, and this is going to be a play that a lot of people won’t remember, but he had some sacks, absolutely. He had the sack. He had a bunch of tackles, but the play that got my attention big time was the running quarterback. What was his name? Johnson? I forgot. What was the second quarterback, Nick?
Nick: Stephen Johnson.
Andrew: Stephen Johnson is there. Anzalone has him. It’s one on one. Anzalone’s in space on the hash mark, breaks down, makes the tackle against a quarterback who is much faster than him. To me, that’s why Alex Anzalone is a very good linebacker. He can do everything, coverage, rush the passer, run against the run. That’s why Alex Anzalone is making money.
Nick: He had six tackles, five solomente, 1.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss. First drive of the game, all three tackles. I think really that first play. In these first two weeks he has timed blitzes brilliantly. Timed another perfectly, and before Drew Barker knew what was going on Alex Anzalone had him in a bear hug for a sack. He literally shut Kentucky down on his own on that first drive. It’s kind of what I said last year. He was your best linebacker last year.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s the thing, and that is Quincy, Jalen, Marcus they do what they do, and they are very good football players. Never do I question that. Alex Anzalone even helps those guys though, because he times those snaps, and he’s in the quarterback’s face. Quarterback’s throwing the ball before the receivers better. That’s even helping Jalen. That’s even helping Quincy, because those guys the quarterback doesn’t have time. It’s hardly no time. The defensive ends, my pick Jordan Sherit, good game. Bryan Cox, pretty good game. Caleb Brantley I thought had a good game. There was one play on the Marcus Maye interception, he needs to give a kudos to Caleb Brantley. Nick, you made the comment, he was so open he was probably thinking, what do I do here?
Nick: Here’s another thing. I’ll take some accountability here too. I think it’s two years in a row now I’ve said I think Florida’s defense will take a step back.
Andrew: Good luck.
Nick: I’m still waiting.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: Still waiting on that.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, Nick, and you and I even talked about this a little bit, the young guys, Kylan Johnson, David Reese, Jachai Polite, Jabari, JZ, those guys are doing well up front. Kylan Johnson had one hit on Boom Williams that Boom may still be feeling the effects.
Nick: Brought the boom to Boom.
Andrew: Brought the boom to Boom. Nick, I have a stat for you real quick. The Gators had an interception since the FAU game last year.
Nick: Four straight games.
Andrew: Four straight games. Long time. Good picks. Good things happen, and props to both corners.
Nick: I think Jalen Tabor, his interception to me was more impressive than Quincy Wilson’s.
Andrew: Yes, from the standpoint of…
Nick: Jalen’s interception, Quincy’s is athletic, unbelievable play.
Andrew: And beautiful.
Nick: And to keep your feet in too, but Jalen’s comes from not just athletic ability. That comes from film study, and not with the time that you have for coaches. I’m talking about Jalen Tabor leaving, going back home, and doing stuff on his own. He recognized a play so well from watching what Kentucky did the week before and in previous years that before the ball was snapped Jalen Tabor in his head goes, they’re running this play, and I can put myself in a position to intercept a screen pass.
Andrew: All because of tape.
Nick: To me, that’s more impressive, because it’s not about what he’s doing on the field. It’s about what he did off the field, and to me that makes it more impressive.
Andrew: For all the mess he takes about his mouth, suspension, all of that, first of all that defense is just energetic when he’s out there, but I’m going to be honest, Nick, that pick, oh my God, that pick was so beautiful. I’m sitting here thinking, the way he gets his foot in bounds. Not only does he get his foot in bounds, but he takes off and runs it back. I mean, it was only like 10 yards or something like that, but it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. It was one of the most beautiful picks I have seen in a long, long time, and at the safety spot Marcell Harris, and then the first guy off the bench was Jawaan Taylor, and, Nick, I tweeted this. Your time finally came, Marcell started, and we didn’t call his name. So that’s a good thing.
Nick: Yeah. Got a start. Two tackles, one solo.
Andrew: He laid the boom to some poor kid. Alright, Nick, we’re going to predictions and all that good stuff. I dominated again.
Nick: We both picked Arkansas. Arkansas ends a 14 game TCU home game winning streak. So we both get a win there. We both picked Tennessee, however you wanted to word it for yourself. We both picked Tennessee, and we both picked clanga, and that’s 3-0. We both picked Florida, so 4-0 picking games this week, or last week. That is the end pretty much of me knowing what I was talking about going into the Kentucky game, because it gets pretty brutal after that.
Andrew: I want you to admit defeat.
Nick: Oh yeah, I took it on the chin this week.
Andrew: I got you.
Nick: Yeah, took it on the chin this week. I am about to take my medicine right now.
Andrew: Okay. Go ahead and read off the results.
Nick: Okay. We’ll start with our players. I gave you, you were kind of surprised, but I gave you a win for Jordan Scarlett. 9 carries, 43 yards. I think the touchdown is what gives it the win. Antonio Callaway, obviously, 5 catches, 129 yards, a touchdown. That’s going to work, and Jordan Sherit, two sacks, five tackles, three solo, two sacks.
Andrew: I almost picked Quincy Wilson instead of Sherit, but I’d have gotten a win for Quincy, so it would have all been good.
Nick: You’d have gotten the win either way.
Andrew: Yeah. Now go ahead and talk about your losing streak.
Nick: I picked Teez.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: So I’m going to take a win with Teez. Just two tackles, but the interception we talked about. Teez, and we’ll get to that a little bit later, but Teez and Quincy are never going to have high tackles.
Andrew: No.
Nick: Well, they’re not throwing their way, and you’ve got two linebackers that aren’t letting stuff get to the level behind them.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Then I picked Jarrad Davis, and you and I will say that’s normally…
Andrew: A win.
Nick: A pretty safe route. Last year you and I were flip flopping. I’m taking Jarrad Davis. I’m taking Antonio Morrison, and they’re both going to have 12 tackles. So we’ll take a win. Davis didn’t do anything wrong, just nothing that stood out. Three tackles, two solo. Can’t take a win for that. C’yontai Lewis, who had one more catch for seven more yards than I had in the game. So also not a win.
Andrew: And had a piss poor day blocking.
Nick: I thought he…
Andrew: No, it was piss poor. There’s no way to sugarcoat that.
Nick: He has become a much better blocker than when he showed up.
Andrew: It was still piss poor.
Nick: When he showed up, I said they will never ever ask him to block. Now they’re actually asking him to block.
Andrew: It was piss poor on Saturday. It was bad, and I’m a C’yontai fan. It was bad. Nick, so the continuation of the buy or sell was another butt kicking. I told you, 200 rushing, and I bought it. You sold it, and the Gators behind 100 yards from the…
Nick: I had to talk you into buying that.
Andrew: No, you had to talk me into making that the rule.
Nick: I had to talk you into making it 200.
Andrew: Yeah, because I said I was going to go 200.
Nick: But you didn’t feel comfortable with it.
Andrew: No, I said I didn’t think you would go with that.
Nick: Oh, I was going to sell no matter what.
Andrew: Yeah. So 100 of it comes from the 251, but 200 rushing. Another win for me, and we both did sell that Jalen Tabor would have nine tackles and a pick. He got the pick, but didn’t have the nine tackles. That would have been our buy and sell on that. The other one was you and I both sold that it was going to be under 450.
Nick: I wrote all these down. I don’t know why you’re randomly going through them.
Andrew: Just because I felt like I needed to get into the conversation. I didn’t feel like I was getting to talk enough.
Nick: You always feel like you needed to be talking more.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: I doubled down on C’yontai Lewis. You sold it. I bought it that he would get six catches for 85 and a touchdown. I bought that.
Andrew: And I sold it.
Nick: I bought that.
Andrew: Yeah. You’re wrong, so it’s okay.
Nick: Never again.
Andrew: Story of your podcast.
Nick: So you had it at eight tackles. Quincy and Jalen will never have eight tackles in a game. They’re not going to get that many opportunities.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: 200 rushing yards. I sold. We got the four running back play question. I think we should stop getting that question until Tennessee. I think that will be the first time we’ll really have to…
Andrew: I’d still buy it.
Nick: Put our thinking hats on. Yeah, I think right now I’m leaning towards I’d probably still buy it. Tyrie Cleveland, three catches.
Andrew: I ate that one on the chin.
Nick: You bought that one.
Andrew: A horse gets led to water every now and then. I led you to water.
Nick: Let me see. You said buying it, because you thought he would be the stand passes.
Andrew: I did, and he decided to pull himself out, so didn’t get that. The last one was the 450 yards of total offense, and we both sold it. Like I said…
Nick: You know, I gave the stats of how long it had been since they’d had that kind of offensive output.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, I thought Mac, after the second quarter, when it was what? 30, 31 points, when they were in the 3rd quarter. I was like, alright, Mac’s going to pull Del Rio, and he’s going to sit on him a little bit. I don’t know. He was like, I’m going to get this stuff. You guys want an offense? Here you go. Bite it. He was almost like talking to us, like you guys want an offense?
Nick: Talk about something different next week.
Andrew: Like flipping us the bird. You guys didn’t think I could do it? Bite me. Okay, Coach. We won’t question you no more. All good. It was good though. You know, Nick, I’ll be honest, and that is it was a lot of fun seeing the offense go, because I do, I think that this offense can be better. Very happy for Perine and very, very happy for CJ Worton. I can’t say that enough that I’m really glad to see him healthy. Jawaan Taylor, I’m so excited to see a guy work as hard as he did to get where he wanted to be, and then to go out and dominate and play is really good. Do I have you speechless over there, Nick?
Nick: No. Question.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Are you worried about Eddy Pineiro?
Andrew: No. I’m never worried.
Nick: I’m just talking about as far as being able to rebound and come back from it.
Andrew: No. My thing for Eddy was I’m kind of like Coach Mac in that it’s almost good that he missed, to feel the adversity, and it not cost them the game. He bounced back and drilled a kick. That third kick, you and I, we agree and disagree a little bit. It’s close. I thought it might have been partially blocked. You said you didn’t think so. Then I looked at it again, and I’m like, maybe not, but then it kind of looks like the ball changed. I’m telling you, the kickoffs were really good, and I think he’s still doing fine. It’s crazy to see the rock star status he’s gotten.
Nick: People chanting his name before he kicks a football. He came out for his third attempt against Kentucky, and they’re chanting Eddy before he even kicks.
Andrew: And then they’re chanting it for extra points.
Nick: He’s like the Beatles.
Andrew: It’s unreal. It’s a lot of fun. By the way, how much fun was it to see Joe, Ken, Noah and those guys back? Nick, me and you talked about it, those are the guys. Those are the guys to watch play. Awesome to see those guys back. I was pumped to see them back for that. It was a good recruiting weekend for Florida to be able to show off that. Tyrone Truesdale, the big defensive tackle, made it in. 2018 running back, Lorenzo Lingard. Gators commit Adarius Lemons also made it back. Good week for that. Coming up with North Texas probably won’t have a good weekend, and then the Gators go on the road for two straight weekends, so no recruiting for that. All good when you win games, and going up to Knoxville in two weeks and winning that game is big. Nick, it’s North Texas week. I’m going to be honest with you, man, Wednesday might be time to turn this podcast into hate Tennessee.
Nick: You are overlooking an opponent, sir.
Andrew: That’s okay. I’m waiting for permission. People on Twitter, Nick, how many people have to @ you and I for Wednesday to start the hate Tennessee?
Nick: I don’t know if I want all those notifications.
Andrew: So if you get 10 notifications tomorrow, that say let him start hate Tennessee, we can do that?
Nick: Make it 20.
Andrew: 20, okay.
Nick: 25.
Andrew: 20.
Nick: 50.
Andrew: We’re going 20. Gator fans, I need you to @ both Nick and I in the same tweet saying let’s start the hate Tennessee, and then we’ll get that rolling on Wednesday. Bro, I’m not going to lie, watching that Bristol game and seeing how bad those boys suck, I am so happy.
Nick: They scored the same number of points Florida did.
Andrew: Bro, I don’t care. I don’t care. They looked like garbage. Josh Dobbs had 90 yards passing. 90.
Nick: How many rushing?
Andrew: I don’t know. He’s a quarterback.
Nick: I don’t know.
Andrew: He’s a quarterback. I don’t care. I don’t. I really cannot wait till that game. Nick, we’re running short on time. Tell everybody where they can add us tomorrow. Tell everybody what’s coming up. North Texas week. Coach Mac on Monday. You guys are listening to this, full week of coverage.
Nick: Real quick programming note, no transcripts this week. The person that transcribes the podcast is on vacation, so just the audio. At www.GatorCountry.com. On Itunes search Gator Country. The podcast is there. Subscribe, you’ll never miss one. Facebook @GatorCountry. Instagram @TheGatorCountry. I am @NickdelaTorreGC on Twitter. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. Send that tweet tomorrow if you guys need and want the Tennessee hate week to start.
Andrew: I cannot wait. I cannot wait, my man. Cannot wait. It is going to be wild. Yes. It was a good Saturday night, Nick. I’m still excited about the game. Anyway, we’ll get out of here and see you guys on Wednesday. As always, go Gators. I said it, Nick. I gave it to you right there. For you. For you, Nick. I want you to give it back to me. No?
Nick: Give what back to you?
Andrew: I was going to say go Vols, but then I said go Gators instead to mess with you, because I thought you would give me go Vols. I didn’t give my signature line, so I was waiting on you like when I said go Gators you were going to say go Vols, but you didn’t play along. Since we were starting the hate week. You didn’t go along.
Nick: I’m not a Vol fan. Why would I say go Vols?
Andrew: I don’t know. Anyway guys, chomp, chomp, and go Braves.
Nick: I don’t know. I just lost control. You stay classy, Gator Country.