Recapping the Florida Gators vs. Tennessee game: Podcast

Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators loss to Tennessee on Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down what went wrong on both sides of the ball, plus give their opinion on how things can be fixed.

Andrew and Nick also found a few positives in the loss, plus point out some guys who stepped up on Saturday.

TRANSCRIPT:

 

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man here, Andrew Spivey, with my man, Nicholas de la Torre. After a loss. It’s time to podcast, Nick. Even though we may not want to podcast today, after that loss, got to do the job.

Nick:                         It’s part of the job, and part of the job is traveling, so we are taping the podcast late night, like a couple hours before it publishes we are taping the podcast. It has to be done. 12, a dozen wins, was not to be had. Really just a perplexing game the way it plays out with two completely different halves of football.

Andrew:                 Completely different halves is exactly right. I don’t know. I don’t even know how to describe it, Nick. It was just a weird football game.

Nick:                         I did my half time Q&A, and I’m sitting there, and people are saying, “You’re going to have to eat crow. You said Austin Appleby wasn’t good. You were down on Appleby, and you’re going to have to do it.” I was like, “No problem. Part of our job is we make predictions based on what we see, what we hear, what we believe to be true, and when you’re wrong there’s no problem with being wrong. I can admit that. Did Austin Appleby win? No, but I don’t think that loss falls on him. He was better than I expected. I do think that there’s some things that, play call, how many delay of games were there? I don’t think that stuff happens with Luke Del Rio, but Austin Appleby, the deep ball he threw was impressive, and he was poised in the first half, looked the part. Just that second half you go 3 and out for the 3rd quarter, Florida’s drive chart in the second half is punt, punt, punt, interception, punt. It’s just demoralizing both offensively and defensively, especially when Tennessee starts, defensively Florida gets an interception on Tennessee’s first drive. Tennessee gets the ball back in the second half, down 21-3. Florida gets a pick, and you’re thinking, here we go.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s how it is. I mean, I’ll be the first to admit that I am stunned, shocked, disbelief of the game. Nick, I’m still here, and you and I are taping this at 12:30 Eastern time in the morning, and I’m still confused at what happened. I’m still lost of words of how to describe what took place in Knoxville from a standpoint of the first half and the second half. I made this comment to you. It looked like the second half defense was the defense that showed up in Orlando for the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. It looked like a defense that was so confident in their ability that they lacked execution, I guess is the best way to say it. You and I talked about it on Friday, and we said in order for Florida to win this game they must play disciplined football.

Nick:                         Definitely got out of those rush lanes in the second half.

Andrew:                 I agree with you on the Appleby situation. As far as, I’m trying to think of the way I want to say this. As far as his production with the ball in his hands, I thought he did fine. Fine.

Nick:                         There was only the lone interception, that was the only time where you saw Purdue Austin Appleby, where it was running around trying to do too much. Listen, this play’s dead. Scramble and pick up a couple yards. Find a way to get rid of the ball. This play’s dead. Get rid of it so you live for another day. He’s running around, scrambling, looking like Johnny Manziel for a minute, and then throws the ball right to someone on Tennessee. That was the only time I saw him where it looked like the moment was too big for him. Just that one time in the game.

Andrew:                 I’ve seen people say he threw a great deep ball. He threw a good deep ball, but it was a lot of underthrown balls as well. The Callaway ball in the 1st quarter, if it’s a better thrown ball it’s a touchdown. Florida does score. Tyrie Cleveland’s ball, if it’s a better ball it’s a touchdown. Still ended up scoring. Deep ball was good. I think, and I go back to the 3rd and 1 play in the 3rd quarter, he checks out of the quarterback sneak. Does Del Rio do that? No. I don’t think so. The understanding of the game plan I think is what hurt him. Peyton Manning is probably not the most gifted player athletically, but he’s mentally was great. I’m not saying Del Rio is that, but I’m saying Del Rio has that mental capability of changing things, and I think that’s what it was. I don’t want to say Nuss got conservative so much in the second half. I mean, he did get conservative with that, but it was just bad field position, very bad field position, and that sets me up to my next point.

Florida’s special teams are downright awful. They’re downright awful. Three false start penalties on special teams. Awful. Antonio Callaway, two atrocious decisions in punt. Really changed the complexion of the 1st quarter of the game. You look at Florida having 7 1st quarter points, very well could have had 14 if Callaway doesn’t put the defense in position to have to make a goal line stand, and then expect Florida to go 99 yards. You look at that. You look at the second half, several times did that. Then you had Pineiro do a short kickoff, a kickoff that Tennessee returned back to the 50 to set them up for their first score.

Nick:                         I want to know if that’s on Eddy, or if that’s called. You see it a lot right now in the NFL where kickers are being instructed to boot it high, don’t boot it out of the end zone, because we think if you give us enough hang time we’re going to stop them before the 25, and we’re getting free yards. If you kick it out, they’re bringing the ball out to the 25. I want to know if that’s a call that’s being made by the coaching staff, or if it’s Eddy mishitting.

Andrew:                 I don’t want to be like some of our competitors here and do a film review and think we know the answers. The reason that I tend to believe it was on Eddy was the way the ball was kicked. If you wanted it to be short you think he would sky it. This was more like he just kind of mishit the kick. It kind of looked like the kick in the, was it the North Texas game or the Kentucky game where he just hit a duck hook, and it was just a really bad kick? Was it Kentucky game where we thought it was blocked? I think it was the Kentucky game.

Nick:                         It was Kentucky.

Andrew:                 It kind of looked like that. It was just a bad kick. I don’t know. It’s on Nord. It’s on the quality control guy that’s doing special teams. It’s on that. It’s on those guys. Special teams has been bad all year. Nick, you even made it a point a couple weeks ago to say Mac was restarting practice with special teams, because it was so bad. You can’t have three false start penalties on that, and just special teams is called special for a reason. Most of the time it’s difference in the game. Now, was it the difference in this 38-28 game? Probably not, but it definitely didn’t help things.

Nick:                         No, it doesn’t help things, and you look, I talked about Tennessee’s return game, and looking into the 3rd quarter, so Johnny Townsend gets a 57 yard punt. Booming. 12 yard return. Now a 45 yard punt’s not bad, but you’re bringing it out. UT gets to start on their 36, instead of their 24.

Andrew:                 That was a lot of missed tackles in that as well. That kind of brings us to the next point we want to talk about. We said missed tackles couldn’t happen. It didn’t happen in the first half, but it did in the second half. It happened there. I think we would be bad not to say this. Florida’s defense, in my opinion, I’ve thought about this a lot all day today, and Florida’s defense didn’t play good ball even in the first half. We’re sitting here.

Nick:                         Five drops.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I was about to say.

Nick:                         Five drops, including two or three 1st downs and a touchdown.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That was on All-American Jalen Tabor. Two of them were. It was not good football from the Florida defense. I don’t know. I don’t know what the difference was. I did think they played more man than I thought they would on 3rd down. We did talk about they were going to play man a lot. I didn’t think they would play it as much on 3rd down, 3rd and long especially, but they did. Man, Duke Dawson got beat a ton. We’ve talked about it a lot. He’s a really good nickel back, but he’s a nickel back for a reason. That’s because you don’t want him on an island guarding that receiver, and Tennessee picked on it. You can definitely tell Tennessee went into that game saying, we can’t beat the two outside corners, so we’re going after 7.

Nick:                         Yeah. The two outside corners both get interceptions. I think Dawson even kind of tweeted something about that. Not a good day for him. It’s never easy to get picked on. Especially he goes into this season knowing that I’m that guy. Jalen Tabor’s obviously the star that everyone talks and knows about. Quincy Wilson is Florida’s best cornerback right now. So where are teams going to go? Dawson comes into the year knowing teams are going to pick on me, because I’m not Jalen Tabor, and I’m not Quincy Wilson. That’s kind of chip on his shoulder. It’s like when you’re playing baseball and they walk the guy in front of you. You’re thinking, okay, you want some of this?

That’s kind of the attitude that Dawson’s taken is you want some of this? I’m going to make you wish that you were throwing at the other two guys, and he just wasn’t able to make Tennessee wish that they were throwing at the other two guys. Getting beat on slants. We’ve talked about this since he was a senior in high school, very physical guy if he can get his hands on you. I think when he got beat he just wasn’t able to alter the route at the line of scrimmage, which is part of his game, a big part of his game.

Andrew:                 Physical, he’s an athletic guy, but he’s physical more so than he’s speed guy. While we talk about the negative, people say, the pass rushing wasn’t there. You and I were very vocal on this last year, and I think we weren’t as vocal this year about it. Maybe because we expected people to remember, but Florida was never going to have a huge sack total in this game. Josh Dobbs isn’t that type of quarterback that you all out blitz. They’re not the guy you do that. You’re going to try to contain him more so and let the pocket collapse then you are going to be sending extra guys.

Nick:                         Did we buy the sack total?

Andrew:                 I did. I thought five, just because I thought they would get him outside the pocket. I don’t think you did, but it was getting him outside the pocket was something I thought they would do.

Nick:                         I checked. We both bought it. Idiots.

Andrew:                 I mean, it is there. Let’s talk some positives. We’ll talk more negatives here in a little bit, but let’s talk positives here.

Nick:                         Switch it up.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Let’s talk a few positives here. As you can tell, I am by far down in the dumps about it. I am a guy that wears my emotions on the sleeve. I predicted that it was going to be blowout, and it wasn’t. I take my crow for it. I admit it, and I’m down about it. No doubt about it. You’re getting this down podcast, but here we go. Again, we talked about Appleby there. Antonio Callaway, still four catches, 134 yards. Callaway’s that man. Nick, he’s that man.

Nick:                         Where are you? That’s my thing. Where are you in the second half? When Florida looks to Antonio Callaway to be that dude, to be the guy that, shit, stuff’s going wrong, stuff’s not happening. When stuff wasn’t going right for Florida, we’re going to get Percy Harbin a little screen, and he’s going to make something happen, and that momentum that’s been sucked out of our sideline that makes Rocky Top get louder and louder every drive in the stands, that’s that guy that’s going to end it. He’s going to do something that doesn’t make sense, because he’s better than everyone else. Callaway, I know had the reaggravated the injury, but just once he’s not there, and once he’s not right, once he’s not 100%, Florida doesn’t have that guy, that game changer, that momentum swinging guy. So, to me, when you look at Antonio Callaway, set a career high for yards, for receiving yards, but it was like those chunk plays. 130 yards, one of them is 51 yard pass. There’s 94 yards of that 130 in two catches.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you this, Nick. This goes back to the play calling, and this is where I am upset about this.

Nick:                         I just hijacked. You said we’re going to do positives. I hijacked it.

Andrew:                 There’s just not very many positives. It is what it is. Nick, let me ask you this. I have what I want to say, but I want to just see if it was as obvious to you as it was to me. What was missing to Callaway in the second half?

Nick:                         What do you mean?

Andrew:                 What was missing to Callaway in the second half that has been a staple of Jim McElwain’s offense?

Nick:                         The stand pass.

Andrew:                 Nonexistent in the second half. That is usually 3-5 yards guaranteed, every play.

Nick:                         We’ve talked about that being an extension of the running game, and we’ve talked about that further back being…

Andrew:                 A check at the line.

Nick:                         Yeah, a check at the line, and also being we’re going to spread you out. There wasn’t a lot of spreading out though, because everything was two tight end sets. It’s spread you out. We’re going to try to put our best player on an island, get the ball in his hands, and let him try to do something. You’re right. Didn’t see that in the second half.

Andrew:                 Didn’t see it in the second half at all. Very flabbergasted I guess you could say. I’m a guy that is very pro McElwain, but the one thing that bothered me with Mac in this game, and I don’t know if it’s Mac or Nuss, but the Jim McElwain that I knew at Alabama, and, again, I’m going back to Alabama, he was damn sure going to get beat by getting beat with his best players. I don’t think Jim McElwain got beat with his best players on Saturday.

Nick:                         That’s interesting.

Andrew:                 Just run though this, Nick. I’m going to run through this with you, Nick. You look at the distribution of receivers. Goolsby, five catches. Cronkrite, five catches. Callaway, four. Swain, two. Lewis, two. Who’s missing in that? Brandon Powell, possibly your second best playmaker, right? Tyrie Cleveland, a guy who one catch, 36 yards. That’s fine. I understand he might not know the playbook. That’s there. Hammond has been a guy that they’ve been getting the ball to a ton, missing there. For me that’s missing your guy. Four catches for Antonio Callaway in a football game against the University of Tennessee, #14 ranked team in America, isn’t enough. One catch for Brandon Powell isn’t enough. Granted, he got ejected. We’ll talk about that in a second. One catch for Josh Hammond isn’t enough. Two catches to C’yontai Lewis, granted he dropped a shit ton of catches, isn’t enough.

Another thing that is lacking in this offense is where is the down the middle strikes that were so evident last year? Is it C’yontai and Goolsby can’t do it, or are the shots not being taken? I haven’t watched the game again, and I probably won’t rewatch the game again, Nick, but they weren’t there.

Nick:                         I don’t know what’s going on with C’yontai. You and I have been very high on him.

Andrew:                 I’m done with him. Completely done. Until he proves it, I’m no longer buying the C’yontai Lewis train. Two catches for 7 yards, dropped, I know, three. Missed block after missed block after missed block. I never call out a player and say he needs to be benched. Well, I do, with the offensive line I do, but with C’yontai I’m just not sure what’s going on there. That’s not the same C’yontai Lewis that played football last year for Florida. I don’t know what’s going on there. I’ll be honest, it’s not the same Deandre Goolsby that played football for Florida last year. These little two yard catches are not there. What’s concerning to me for both of those guys is where’s the YAC yards?

Nick:                         The inability to break a tackle or make somebody miss. It’s like wherever they catch the ball, that’s what the reception is.

Andrew:                 They’re down.

Nick:                         There’s nothing after the catch.

Andrew:                 This is going to come off biased, and I’m ready to hear it, and it’s probably going to come off, but not having Perine in the game, not sure if this is going back to the McElwain, Nussmeier way of we’re going to start focusing, limiting the carries for the backs, but two carries for 5 yards, and his one carry was a 5 yard gain, he’s probably been your best receiver out of the backfield. I’m not sure what’s going on here. I was very confused as to what it is. It looked like they were trying to get him the ball in his hands by putting him back at kick return, and then taking the ball away from him on offense. Yes, I am a Perine supporter from where he was and where he’s from, and I understand that, but, Nick, I think there’s a lot of people that would agree with me. He was missing from the game plan.

Nick:                         Two carries.

Andrew:                 I don’t understand that.

Nick:                         Two carries. Okay. So Jordan Scarlett was toting that rock in the 1st quarter, so if you’re going by the hot hand, okay. Maybe you don’t take him out. He averaged 4.4 per carry, had a touchdown. Maybe have a hard time taking him out, but Perine was definitely on the short end of the stick there. Cronkrite had four carries. Mark Thompson had eight carries for 20 yards.

Andrew:                 Those two guys aren’t getting it done. Nick, I don’t know what else to say about Mark Thompson. He’s not the bulldozer runner he was thought to be, and that may come off as harsh, but it is what it is. The facts are there, Nick. We’re four games in, and I think you would agree with me. Mark Thompson has shown nothing to make me believe the hype that we gave him and people gave him coming out of Juco ball.

Nick:                         No. That’s true. Maybe that wasn’t fair to him then. We talk about it’s hard to judge junior college players if they don’t know the…

Andrew:                 Competition level?

Nick:                         Yeah. Don’t know the competition level, don’t know a lot of the circumstances. Maybe that’s tough to do, and maybe we put too high of a bar on him, and that’s not his fault.

Andrew:                 No. Not his fault at all. I will say that there’s a bright spot on this offense, and that is your right tackle.

Nick:                         Yeah. Hey, and I’ll eat crow on this. I said no way he’s a tackle, and he’s going to redshirt. So I said that before the year, said that probably on our Signing Day podcast, but Jawaan Taylor, and I think Tyler Jordan, it’ll be interesting to see how Tyler Jordan comes back.

Andrew:                 If I was making, and I only called for one player to be benched at Florida, and that was Antonio Riles.

Nick:                         You called for Treon Harris to be benched, and I told you…

Andrew:                 Yeah, I did call.

Nick:                         I told you, that’s not the move. Your backup is Josh Grady.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         You even sat here, and you said, it can’t be worse. I was like, dog, it can be worse.

Andrew:                 I did, and I will admit that the Treon Harris benching came out of frustration maybe more than anything. The Riles I think was needed. I’m going to call for a guy to be benched that is going to shock a lot of people, Nick.

Nick:                         I know who you’re talking about.

Andrew:                 Are you?

Nick:                         Think so.

Andrew:                 Start with a 7?

Nick:                         Yeah. David Sharpe.

Andrew:                 David Sharpe. I’ve seen enough. I don’t know what, he’s going through that DJ Humphries spell.

Nick:                         A Florida left tackle curse.

Andrew:                 It is. Nick, for a guy who said going into the year he expected to be a leader and have a great year, was even telling people behind the scenes he was going to the League, I don’t know if you’re going to the lingerie football league, but you ain’t going to the NFL.

Nick:                         My goodness.

Andrew:                 You ain’t going to the NFL, boss. You’ve looked awful. I think myself, I’m out of shape, could put in more effort than I’ve seen out of 78.

Nick:                         That’s strong.

Andrew:                 Do you disagree?

Nick:                         That’s high heat.

Andrew:                 Do you disagree?

Nick:                         I don’t think he’s going to play in the lingerie football league.

Andrew:                 Do you agree or disagree?

Nick:                         He’s not playing well. There was a block where I think I saw it right away, and maybe you didn’t see it. It depends on where you’re looking, but I grabbed you and pointed to the TV in the press box and said, “Watch this. Look at DJ Humphries.” I was like, “He doesn’t get a single hand on Barnett here.”

Andrew:                 He didn’t even move. Barnett was gone.

Nick:                         Barnett was so far gone that Humphries couldn’t even…

Andrew:                 Sharpe.

Nick:                         Sharpe, sorry. I’m just, maybe the same thing. Sharpe couldn’t even grab like the back of his jersey and blatantly hold him, because he reaches his arms out, and Barnett’s gone.

Andrew:                 I’m wondering this, Nick. This may be a good week to try it. I’m not in the football offices. I don’t know. Do you try Martez at left tackle and move big boy inside?

Nick:                         Do you? No. I say they don’t.

Andrew:                 I don’t think they do.

Nick:                         Could you? Is that a thing that could happen? Maybe. I just don’t see it happening though.

Andrew:                 Big boy is 358 now or 350, Sharpe, and he don’t move like Jawaan Taylor.

Nick:                         No.

Andrew:                 He don’t move like Jawaan Taylor, and Martez is getting spanked inside. It worked out well for Fred. I have been very vocal on the Fred has been bad at right tackle, but I think Fred’s playing well at right guard. I do. I think Fred’s playing well at right guard. I don’t know where you get better with Sharpe at left tackle. Demarcus Walker may set the NCAA career sack record against David Sharpe when they go to Tallahassee, if David Sharpe’s still playing left tackle. It is bad. I mean, it is really bad that your third year veteran offensive lineman is getting whooped. Just as bad as he is, it’s very concerning at left tackle.

Nick:                         Right now the right side of the line is Florida’s bread and butter.

Andrew:                 That was a terrible weakness coming into the season.

Nick:                         Yeah. Coming into the season you see Sharpe and Ivey, and you’re thinking, run left. Run left. Stay away from the right. Run left, and now it’s total opposite.

Andrew:                 Let me ask this. Once again, you and I are just talking on this podcast. Fans, do not think this is going to happen. I do not think this is happening. I’m just throwing this scenario out there of what the line could possibly do better. I don’t know if it would. We’ll see. We would see if it every happened. I would like to see a line lineup of Martez Ivey, David Sharpe at guard, Tyler Jordan at center, Fred Johnson at right guard, and Jawaan Taylor at right tackle. I mean, right now the line can’t get worse. Florida had 3.4 yards per carry against a Tennessee defensive line and front seven that was atrocious. That’s really bad. There is nobody on the bench that’s better than the guys, obviously, or they’d be playing. So maybe you see if big boy 78 can play inside. Me personally I don’t know if you can bench Fred at right guard right now. So where do you move Tyler? You’re not benching Martez or Sharpe, realistically. So do you move Tyler in?

Nick:                         That’d be really interesting. That’s something I might ask Mac tomorrow. The production you’re getting on that right side is good. So what do you do now? Where does Tyler Jordan go? That’s a very interesting question, and something Florida’s going to have to answer coming up soon.

Andrew:                 Is it that, what I said, was that just way out of left field, or is that something?

Nick:                         I just don’t know if…

Andrew:                 I don’t think it happens, but I’m saying is that something.

Nick:                         I don’t think it happens, but I don’t know. You can get emotional after a loss, especially to, not you, I’m saying in general.

Andrew:                 Absolutely.

Nick:                         Can get emotional after a loss, and then you start to think, wholesale changes. We need to do this and do that, and do this, and it’s maybe like…

Andrew:                 Overreaction.

Nick:                         Yeah. My question is is it an overreaction to one game, but then I think, we keep talking about these issues on the offensive line. So I’m kind of torn between are we overreacting and we need to take five cards and shuffle them up and throw them down and say, we’re doing something completely different now on the offensive line. Is that an overreaction? This is probably why we’re not getting paid the big bucks to make these decisions. Where do you cross the line of that’s an overreaction, or that’s a necessary decision we need to make? Austin Appleby said something that stuck out to me, and something that Kevin O’Sullivan mentioned about his baseball team last year, and that is when you’re winning some of these things can get glossed over. Some of these errors, maybe some carelessness, maybe some laziness.

Kevin O’Sullivan mentioned, we won however many games Florida won last year in a row, I think it might have been close to 20. It was a school record wins in a row. Kevin O’Sullivan mentions, “We’re not taking batting practice the same. I’m letting stuff slide. These guys are joking around during batting practice, not really focused, but it’s hard to call them out when they’re winning.” Hard to call people out when Coach calls you out, and you say, “Well, we won the game. We ran for 250 yards, or we’ve only given up one sack in three games. What I’m doing is getting the job done.” To me I’m just not sure if maybe they just needed a wakeup call to say, we’re feeling ourselves maybe a little too much, or if it is this was a problem, and we just didn’t see it, because we were winning. So we need to make a change.

Andrew:                 The thing that is concerning to me is Mac says it in his postgame press conference, “We can’t block the edge. We can’t throw the ball down field, because we can’t block the edge.” If you can’t block the edge to throw it down field in the SEC, you’ve got problems.

Nick:                         Now, explain to some why that is. If you can’t block the edge, why can’t you throw the ball down field? Even last year people were saying, just throw it down field.

Andrew:                 The edge is always going to be the first to collapse. If you can’t block the edge, for instance, with the Derek Barnett play we were just talking about with David Sharpe. Austin Appleby had literally a half a millisecond to throw the ball, and Barnett was on top of him. A play down field, for instance, Antonio Callaway runs a 30 yard route. You’re thinking it’s going to take three seconds, three and a half seconds.

Nick:                         Four seconds. It’s not does Antonio Callaway run, Antonio Callaway probably runs a 4-5, high 4-5 40, and that’s not in pads, and that’s not trying to get a defender’s hands off of you. A 30 yard route might take him closer to five seconds than it does three seconds. It might be in the high fours, and you’re not getting that time.

Andrew:                 Right. It’s one of those where if you get it up the middle you can move the pocket a tad. If you get it off the edge, you have to step up in the pocket. Then guess what? You’re getting hit. It just isn’t there. Okay. You get the pressure off the left, the right’s holding up. You scramble to the right. Guess what? Where Jawaan’s blocking that guy on the right you’re pushing right into that. Then guess what? You’re cutting off half the field. Granted, there’s where the interception comes, because you cut off half the field. It’s a thing, and part of me is wondering how did Florida block the edge in the first half? Then I start to think about it, and I’m like they did have a lot of seven man protections where they had either the two tight ends staying in to block or the running back and the tight end blocking, chipping that guy, and that was it. Tennessee was in a lot of two high safeties, and what that is is where you have a safety on both hash marks guarding that deep route. In the first half they were one high safety, because they were respecting the underneath routes and respecting the run.

To go back to what you were saying, Nick, about the careless penalties, the careless things, the laziness, that kind of stuff. Let’s look at this. Florida has nine penalties for 75 yards. Three of them were false start penalties on special teams that were stupid. One of those was delay of game. The other three times they were about to have delay of game they had to call time out, which that’s another issue in the bag.

Nick:                         Calling a time out on your first possession of the 3rd quarter is just like, what are you doing?

Andrew:                 Two time outs on your first two possessions.

Nick:                         What are you doing? Oh, my God, yeah. On the first possession, then you just talked for 20 minutes in the locker room about what you’re going to do on offense. Then you come out, you get a time out. It’s just that stuff’s sickening to me. It’s just it’s dumb. It’s dumb football.

Andrew:                 It’s inexcusable.

Nick:                         Dumb football.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing. I’ll give this credit, Nick, and that is that the Jarrad Davis late hit in the last of the game, I’ll mark that up as we were mad. I’ll mark that up as Jarrad Davis saying, we’re mad, whatever. The Brandon Powell thing. Nick, we talked about this. Was it a bad call? Yes. It was an atrocious call, but my thing is this. Brandon, what are you doing? What are you doing in that particular instance? If you don’t put yourself in the situation to be there, if you just walk away from the situation, you got 4th and inches. Mac probably goes for it, whether they get it or not, who the freak knows with the way it was going? Who knows? Don’t put yourself in that situation to get that call. You had already seen them throw flags, try to get the intensity down a little bit on the field. Don’t do that to yourself.

Nick:                         Put yourself in the bad situation.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         But I can’t agree with the call. That’s Jamal Adams is watching and rewatching that flop, so he can critique his own form on a flop. That was bad.

Andrew:                 It was bad, but what I’m saying is you had seen the situation. You knew the situation. You are supposedly a veteran leader of this team. What are you doing? What are you doing there? Walk away from it, and be done with it. They were both locked up in the first place. What are you doing? Just go away. Walk away from it. Go back in the huddle. Do whatever, you are getting beat. Go away from it. I don’t know. It bothers me when you have nine penalties for 75 yards. To me, that is showing laziness, undisciplinedness, and I know Mac doesn’t preach it, I’m just wondering what it is. The thing that’s even more sickening, Nick, about it is it’s all veterans. It’s not young players doing this.

Nick:                         You don’t learn. Gators are ranked 108th in the country in penalties. 106th in penalties per play, and 116th in penalty yards.

Andrew:                 That’s Will Muschamp bad.

Nick:                         To your statement earlier, Gators rank 99th in the country in kick return yardage, and 97th in punt return yardage.

Andrew:                 Not understanding that. I do agree with Antonio Callaway being back on punts, Nick. I do. I think he’s a dynamic football player with the ball in his hands.

Nick:                         There is a reason Vernon Hargreaves was the one, and people hated it. I kept telling them, he’s never going to return one. He’s never returning these. He’s back there, because the coaches trust him to not call for a fair catch at the two. You put your heals on the eight, and if you take a step back you’re not catching the ball. You’re letting it go, and you’re making sure you yell kill, poison, whatever your cue is to let everyone else know, get away.

Andrew:                 Peter. Always peter. Who does that this year, Nick?

Nick:                         I don’t know if you have a guy.

Andrew:                 I don’t know if it’s Quincy. He’s never returned punts. Is it Tabor? Lord, I just see Tabor getting back there and deciding he’s ready to house one.

Nick:                         That’s why Vernon had it. Vernon didn’t have an ego as a returner. To him, he doesn’t have an ego. He knows I’m back here to do a job. My job is to catch the ball. If the ball is in front of me, to catch it, if the ball is over my head, I’m letting it go. Hopefully it goes into the end zone.

Andrew:                 Yup. I don’t know.

Nick:                         I don’t know who would be that guy.

Andrew:                 I don’t know either.

Nick:                         You put like a Chris Thompson back there, and that’s a guy.

Andrew:                 Extra hands.

Nick:                         That’s what I’m saying. That’s a guy that isn’t getting a ton of playing time, and might get the feeling of, this is my chance. I’m on the field. Let me see if I can do something.

Andrew:                 He doesn’t have sure hands. I don’t know.

Nick:                         My dude, CJ Worton’s got sure hands.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I was going to say Freddie Swain, that was going to be my guy is Freddie Swain. I wouldn’t mind seeing Chauncey back there. I know Chauncey has I’m going to house this deal kind of to him, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Chauncey back there on that. I think you just tell that guy, I promise you, if you return this punt I promise you you’re going to the locker room the rest of the game. Go back there at the 8 yard line, and if you step one foot back I am going to send you to the locker room for the game.

Nick:                         You will watch the rest of the game on TV.

Andrew:                 You will go back with George Winn. He will escort you back. You got ejected by me. And see. You have to do something, because that’s common sense. That’s common sense. Let’s just throw out, dropping a pass can be difficult. Catching the ball on the 1 yard line is complete idiotic.

Nick:                         Yeah. There’s no excuse for that.

Andrew:                 None.

Nick:                         You can’t catch the ball on the 2. You can’t say, I lost track of where I was, because in that situation your heels are on the 8, and you see the 10. Now you kind of move it back a little bit, but your heels are on the 8. If you take a single step back, you’re not catching the ball, and that’s the only instruction you get. That’s it. Not the only instruction you get, that’s the only instruction you need. Leads to not fair catching the ball, I took six steps back, where am I now? I’m on the 2.

Andrew:                 If you do catch the ball, you still don’t return it. If you are back there on the 8 yard line, and the ball comes to you on the 8 yard line, you are taught to fair catch the punt, because it is a pooch punt. They are coming to get you. You fair catch the punt. You take the ball wherever it is, and you just hope and pray your offense gets three 1st downs and can flip the field position.

Nick:                         Yup. Florida was not able to do that.

Andrew:                 I want to blame it on the offense for not moving the ball, but, Nick, three or four times inside the 5? It’s tough. That’s tough for NFL football teams.

Nick:                         That’s true.

Andrew:                 That’s tough for NFL football teams. This has been a negative podcast, and, Nick, you and I both hate these podcasts. I despise negative podcasts. I think you agree with me when I say we try to be positive. It just is not a ton of positives that comes out of this game. I will say this, Nick. I said this to you last night, on Saturday night, and you kind of looked at me crazy. I don’t even know if you noticed this. I said to you, “I’m worried about where this team goes.” You said, “It’s one loss.” I said, “Yeah, but is it one loss?” Remember that conversation?

Nick:                         I do.

Andrew:                 I’m worried about this team going forward. I’m worried where this team goes. I think it has two directions it can go, and I know I’m stating the obvious. I am worried where this team goes. I really am. I’m not sure where the leadership maybe is on this team, veteran leadership. I don’t know where this team goes. I’m very interested to see this Vanderbilt game. As bad as it is with Vanderbilt, I’m very interested to see this Vanderbilt game. I personally will be able to tell where the team goes after the Vanderbilt game.

Nick:                         It’s interesting, because you get a bad Vanderbilt team.

Andrew:                 They play you tough.

Nick:                         I’ve said that. I’ve said that, and I don’t know. You’d like to say, Florida comes out like FSU does after a loss, and just pounds the team, takes that frustration. Then you’re going to play an LSU team that’s probably going to be a night game, just looking at both teams losing.

Andrew:                 You got Missouri in between.

Nick:                         No. It’s Vanderbilt, LSU, Missouri.

Andrew:                 Oh. LSU is October 8, that is correct.

Nick:                         So it’s probably going to be a night game. We’ll find out on Monday, when you’re listening to this, Monday afternoon that will be announced. LSU is 2-2. Florida’s 3-1. That’ll probably be a 7:30 kickoff, 7:00 kickoff, and that’s a team that’s going to be, who knows?

Andrew:                 They’re going to be a team that’s coming for their life.

Nick:                         Playing for Ed Orgeron. Les Miles, the quotes and some of the stuff out of Baton Rouge on Sunday, the players seem heartbroken.

Andrew:                 I worry about an interim team, because they’re going to come in two ways, Nick. They’re going to come in looking for fire, or they’re going to come in there completely dead. I don’t know. I don’t know where that goes maybe with the team. I’ll say this. I really am very nervous of just where this team goes. I say that, and I guess I reveal a little bit that I definitely care more about this team than maybe I should. I say that in all regards. I do. I’m not sure what happens with this team. For a lot of people it should be scary.

Nick:                         My question is, emotionally charged game, and you lose. Down in the dumps. How do you get up for Vanderbilt? Does losing get you up for Vanderbilt? If you had won a close emotionally charged game, do you then kind of take a day off, or take a week off against Vanderbilt, resting up for LSU? To me it’ll be interesting to see how Florida responds to this. That’s what we’re really looking at is how do you respond. I guess that’s where I can agree with you and say we’ll learn a lot about this team and the direction they’re heading after this week.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I don’t know. Nick, we’ve ran completely almost of out here on time. Give us a quick rundown of what happened on this prediction thing this week. I don’t even remember.

Nick:                         Let’s skip the prediction. I wanted to mention today, Arnold Palmer passed away, one of the greatest golfers in history, and then also Jose Fernandez, 24 years old. Girlfriend is pregnant, baby on the way. Passes away in a boating accident. Just tragic. Tough day for sports, especially when you lose maybe one of the best pitchers in the game, a guy who plays with just passion, raw emotion, and joy, even you as Braves fan definitely don’t like the Marlins, loved to watch just the way he played the game. Played it kind of like Don Mattingly said, like a little kid. Just full of joy. If you get a chance to read about Jose Fernandez’ story, tried to defect from Cuba three times. The fourth time that he finally was able to his mother fell off the boat that they were in. He jumped in and saved her. It’s just a harrowing story of how he got here. He was really living the American dream, only 24 years old. It’s just a heartbreaking day to lose somebody like that.

Andrew:                 Nick, I won’t even lie. I tear up hearing about it right now, because I appreciate baseball. Nick, you know. People know. I’m the biggest Braves fan you’ll ever meet. I cannot stand the Miami Marlins for nothing, but I woke up this morning, and I was like, Jose. I seriously enjoyed, if the Braves were going to get beat by one pitcher, I wanted it to be Jose Fernandez, because for me, Bryce Harper, he has them retarded ass things that he does. Jose Fernandez played the game because he loved the damn game. He’d laugh. He’d smirk, and did it piss me off? Hell, yes it pissed me off, but he’d hit a home run, and he’d laugh. I’d be like, that asshole. Then I’d come back a few minutes later, and I’d be like that guy just loves the game. It sucks, because you see what’s going on in America right now, and I’m going to get political about this, and I shouldn’t, but you see what’s going on, and then you see a guy like that that just really truly loves what everything was about, and for him to be gone, it sucks. Like you say, Arnold Palmer, Nick, you and I both play golf, and to see the legend, the king, go, it sucks. Sucks a lot.

Nick:                         Just tragic. Taken way too soon. Rest in peace to both of them. Both of them will be missed. It’s just tough. Touch and very shocking, surprising, when something tragic like that happens.

Andrew:                 It is. It definitely is. I was really hoping, I woke up this morning, and I was really hoping it was one of those little TMZ things that somebody hacked and was just playing around, but it wasn’t. Will not lie, it was a long seven hour trip back from Knoxville, and it sucked for several reasons. Those two reasons as well. It’s a good thing. It’s sports. It’s another day. Jose and Arnold, the king, they get to go on, and they’ll be happy. No worries about that. Nick, we’ll be back on Wednesday.

Nick:                         We’ll move on. Preview Vanderbilt. We will have Vanderbilt previews. We’re just going to move on from Tennessee. So we will start talking about Vanderbilt, turn our attention towards this weekend, and I will turn my attention to Nashville.

Andrew:                 I’m taking the week off. I’ll see you in Gainesville next week for the LSU weekend. It will be a big recruiting weekend for that. I won’t be in Nashville, but it’s time to move on. Me, I will suck it up, put it away, and move on. I’ll say this, Nick. After Saturday, believe in Mac. He’s fine. Just trust the man. Lay off the man on hiring, firing him and all that stuff. Nick, we literally got 45 seconds here. I want to say this real quick. Nick and I both we know the site went down. Nick and I both were extremely upset about it. We’re in the press box. We see it go down. Our hands were tied. We both were giving Ray hell, everything else. It’s going to get fixed. Trust us on that. We apologize. Nick, tell everyone where they can find us. We’ll get out of here and see everybody Wednesday.

Nick:                         Hit us up on Twitter, @NickdelaTorreGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC, @GatorCountry. You know the website. Thank you. Thanks for sticking with us. Talk to you soon.

Andrew:                 Next week we got it. Wednesday we’re coming. As always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Miss you, Jose.

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.

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