GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators win over Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon in the Swamp.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the Gators won the game on Saturday behind a strong rushing game and with Felipe Franks.
Andrew and Nick break down the positives from the win and the negatives from the win and look ahead to next week’s game against LSU.
PODCAST:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, this is about to be one of my most favorite podcasts in the entire time of you and I doing a podcast.
Nick: Why is that?
Andrew: Na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, hey. Butch is gone, man. There is no other way to say it, my friend. Did he just look like a man who had got run over by a tractor on Saturday? He had no answer.
Nick: He did get run over by a tractor.
Andrew: Well, he got run over by Chubb.
Nick: 41-0 at home to Georgia. Is there another way just to have it shown that you don’t belong? Clearly Georgia right now is playing the best of any SEC team, or any SEC East team, excuse me. Don’t want to disrespect the Alabama machine, which is outscoring the rest of the SEC 150-something to 3. Clearly Georgia’s been playing the best of any team in the East, followed by Florida. That was just a you don’t belong.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s the thing, Nick. You want to talk about the state of the SEC first, or do you want to get into the game first? You want to just have a quick discussion on this first?
Nick: Let’s do this. We’re already here.
Andrew: This is where I’m at with the SEC and college football. Maybe I’m just wrong, but it’s a bad year for college football. Alabama’s kicking everyone’s ass. Do I think Alabama is very, very good? Absolutely. Do I think they’re 130-something to nothing good? No. On an average year they’re probably not. It’s the same thing with Georgia. Let’s remember, Georgia barely snuck by a bad Notre Dame team. I think Georgia’s a good football team. Are they the #8 team in the country? No. I’m not believing that. I’m not believing in Fromm. They’re running a team once again that has a quarterback that doesn’t just look like a punter in Bryce Ramsey usually.
I think in general college football is down. You look at USC, and you can make the argument USC could have lost three straight games. you look at Oklahoma, they look really good one week, and then the next week they kind of struggle. Oklahoma State looked like a powerhouse for a while. Ohio State was supposed to be a good team. They’re just absolutely struggling. We all make fun of FSU, and rightfully so, but, I mean, should they really be struggling with a backup quarterback against Wake? I just think college football in general is down this year.
Nick: It could be. I disagree with you. I am all in on Fromm. I think Georgia’s got a real deal defense too.
Andrew: I think they got a good defense, absolutely. I think they got a real deal defense. I agree with that.
Nick: You’ve got a real deal defense. You’ve got two great running backs, and a freshman quarterback who’s not playing like a freshman.
Andrew: Yeah. I don’t know. I’m not sold that Fromm is that guy yet. I think they’re a very good football team. Zero doubt in my mind. They are playing the best of the SEC East. That is no question about that whatsoever. Wouldn’t disagree with that. For some reason, I just think the SEC is down in general. My God, think about the guys, Nick. Hello, Ed Orgeron. Hello, Butch Jones. Hello, Will Muschamp. Hello, Kevin Sumlin. Am I missing anyone? Who else? There’s got to be more. It seems like half the football coaches in the SEC are on the hot seat.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: And it’s no surprise. Ed Orgeron should have never gotten that job whatsoever. I was reading something, and it was pretty funny when I was reading it. It said, “We’re very happy to have one of our own Cajuns running the program, but enough is enough.”
Nick: Yeah. Guess what, guys? LSU as a school is broke. The city of Baton Rouge not doing well. Ed O’s your coach, because you’re not paying him $12 million. That’s his buyout. Who’s Ed’s agent? That man deserves a prize, a trophy. $12 million buyout this year.
Andrew: How did he get it?
Nick: They can’t. They literally can’t afford that.
Andrew: I mean, this is my thing, Nick, and maybe I’m just wrong. Ed Orgeron would have took that for free. He’d have took that job for free. $12 million.
Nick: Hey, man. Tell Gator Country to fire me for $12 million.
Andrew: You ain’t lying. They can fire me too for $12 million. Then I was scrolling through, and I was looking at South Carolina’s page. Nick, they’re fed up with Will Muschamp and Kurt Roper already.
Nick: Oh no. They didn’t see that one coming? They didn’t see what Will Muschamp wasn’t going to get the job done in Columbia after he couldn’t get it done in Gainesville? Are you crazy?
Andrew: One of the headlines I noticed was “Will Muschamp and Kurt Roper, Who’s to Blame for the Offense Going Stale?” I’m sitting here thinking, where did I hear that before? Where did I hear that before? I don’t know, my friend. Let’s talk about this Florida-Vanderbilt game.
Nick: We left out Barry Odom out in Missouri.
Andrew: Oh, no, Nick. He’s going to get the job done. Don’t worry.
Nick: Certainly on the hot seat.
Andrew: He’s been through it, Nick. He was players when it was in the bad times. He is guaranteeing you, Nick. He is going to get the job done. That’s what his press conference said. He’s going to get the job done.
By the way, Nick, I wasn’t feeling very well last week. I did not get on Twitter and play some of the news conferences and that kind of stuff. Nick, what was Butch doing on Monday when he was telling people …
Nick: Fake news.
Andrew: What was he doing?
Nick: Here’s the thing. I think some people, because I get the question asked a bunch, the local news media is not fans. Every university employs their own writers and their own video people, and that’s them. They put out positive feel-good stories when the team loses 41-0 like Tennessee did. Tennessee has people. They have writers. It’s not the job of someone in my position to be rah-rah about the team. I’m a writer. I’m a journalist. So when Butch goes out and tells a bunch of people that aren’t getting paid by the University of Tennessee, “What do we want from our media? You guys are being too negative.” Well, yeah, man. Your team sucks.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, Nick.
Nick: What kind of sunshine and rainbows am I supposed to write about when Georgia’s curb stomping you 41-0 at home?
Andrew: Here’s the thing, Nick, and I think this is the thing. I know you think alike when I say this. You and I both hate reporting the negative news. There is nothing in the entire world that I would not want to do than report about the guys getting arrest last week, or getting the felony charges. Talking about Luke Del Rio with a broken collarbone. Nobody wants to talk about that stuff.
Here’s the thing, and this is news flash. Nobody wants to talk about anybody losing their job. I make fun of Butch, and I make fun of Mark Richt, and I made fun of Will Muschamp, but at the end of the day, they’re people, and they have families. Nobody wants those guys to lose their job. Don’t take it personal, Butch. It’s not personal. I’m speaking for you, so if I’m speaking for you, just correct me. I’m just saying, I think that nobody wants to report that news.
Nick: No. We don’t want to see people lose their jobs. You loved Will Muschamp though.
Andrew: For a while, I did.
Nick: You loved Will Muschamp.
Andrew: For a while, I did, until I told you, and then your text to me back, and this might not be exact quote, but was Will Muschamp’s in trouble if Andrew’s turning against him.
Nick: Yeah. I said if Will Muschamp has lost Andrew from his fan club, the tide has turned. Me, never a fan.
Andrew: I was a fan, because I loved his hardnosed football. Excuses after a while get old and get tired of it. No excuses on Saturday for the offense, Nick. Pretty good showing I would say, for the most part. 467 total yards of offense, and I think, if you don’t look at the score, and you look at the stats, the 460 yards for Florida, you say Florida did what they were supposed to do. They scored 38 points, did what they were supposed to do. Defense let them down big time, allowed 24 points and 310 yards of offense for Vandy.
Overall, Nick, offense did a very good job, despite the fact of Luke Del Rio breaking his collarbone in the first half and Feleipe Franks having to come in. Feleipe did well, 10 of 14 for 185 yards in the game. Did well for the most part.
Nick: Yeah. I don’t think the game was going to be won or lost by either quarterback. I think, and I’m writing a story about it, it’s the past two games. The first game, Florida’s offensive line just trashed. They were trash. I think that, and it was all off season they were talking about them, and they were going to be the best unit and yada, yada. I think what we have to look at is that might be the best defensive line the offense faced all year. Michigan, I think Michigan’s defensive line would make a bunch of people look bad.
To me, the progression we’ve seen from that Michigan game into Kentucky into Tennessee, and then last night against Vanderbilt, I think this is a team that is getting better. I remember after the Michigan game saying, “Listen, they want their identity to be a power running team. It’s not going to happen with this offensive line.” The last two games, the last two drives of Kentucky, and then yesterday, that’s what they were. They were a power running team, who then can use the play action and take some shots down field.
After the first game, I’ll say it. I didn’t think that was a possibility. I thought no way, but I think the offensive line is getting better every week. That’s the identity that they wanted to have before the year, and maybe it’s the identity you’re going to be able to have. Granted, you’re going to face some better defensive lines than what Vanderbilt threw out at you, and then what Tennessee threw out at you. You’ll face probably a better one this week with LSU. It’s certainly improvement, and something to feel good about and possibly build on going forward.
Andrew: I agree with you. You’ve seen it a little bit. You had the play action to Morel Stephens, and you had the play action to Goolsby. You also, as you predicted, the wheel route opened up again. Things happen when you can run the ball. I don’t have the exact quote in front of me, Nick. You’ll have to correct me if I’m just way off base, but after the game, Lamical Perine said, “When the running game is working, everything’s working.” That’s so true, because guess what? The defensive line isn’t able to come straight up the field and just blow up your quarterback.
Gets Franks a little bit of time. It also doesn’t put the full pressure on Feleipe to throw the ball for 500 yards a game. Also, you run the ball on 1st down, and just 2nd down every time, because in the first half, 2nd down meant run. You agree?
Nick: Yeah. I think it’s been like a mixed bag of play calling.
Andrew: It depends on who’s running the show. Sometimes Doug Nussmeier’s up there running the show, and then sometimes Doug Nussmeier’s alter ego’s running the show.
Nick: He’s got like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on?
Andrew: Sure.
Nick: Okay. I don’t know. Obviously, the news is that Luke Del Rio broke a collarbone. Jim McElwain said he’s done for the year. Going to Feleipe Franks. I think what we talked about all week, in that Del Rio helps the entire offense, because he’s helping TJ McCoy make calls. He checks at the line. He’s able to do all these things. I said last week, “Yeah, Del Rio can throw the ball 80 yards in the air, but how many times in a game are you dialing up an 80-yard pass?”
I think, to me, Franks did a little bit of that as far as moving the offense. I think the offense moved a little bit better. It had really be just stagnant. Steal a word from Jim McElwain. They were just slow. I saw it pick up and move a little bit, but to me that’s going to be the biggest question mark again. Do you get into those lulls where there’s 5, 10, 15 minutes of just nothing from the offense? You’re just sitting there waiting for something to happen.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s the thing. You and I talked about this a little bit, and you tweeted about it Saturday night. You said, “I think that Luke and Feleipe have a really good relationship.” You and I have heard some stories about how Luke was talking to Feleipe and telling him, “Listen, it’s your game now. You don’t look over your shoulder.” I wonder how much of that will play into Feleipe’s game and into Florida’s game a little bit. There is no backup plan no more. You’re not going to Malik Zaire. Definitely not going to Jake Allen. There is no more backup plan.
It’s kind of one of those things where you do have to take the kiddy gloves off of Feleipe and say, “Alright, here’s the whole playbook. We’ve got to figure out a way to run it. Over the next two weeks, and then that bye week, we’ve got to get you to the point where we go into the Georgia game with a full playbook, because you’re going to need it.” Georgia’s weak in the secondary. They’re good up front seven. You’re going to go into that game needing that full playbook.
You’ve got to take the kiddy gloves off of Feleipe and say, “Okay. Your game to shine now. Your spot. Don’t look over your shoulder no more. There’s not that veteran leadership anymore.” I guess he’s in a sling. I don’t know what you do for a broken collarbone. Whatever. He’s on the sidelines with headphones on now.
Nick: That’s the other thing. Luke Del Rio is such a good person. Listen, he’s outspoken, and this is the United States of America. He’s allowed to have freedom of speech. He’s allowed to have his own opinions, and he’s allowed to voice them. If you don’t like them, don’t follow him on Twitter. He’s a good person, and I think he’s a genuine person. He’s really helped Feleipe as much as he could. Even while competing, and even after losing the job, has continued to help Feleipe.
To me, having him there, I said it last week. I said, having Luke Del Rio on the field at quarterback is like having another coach on the field. I think you need him to be there. I don’t know, depending on surgery, I’m guessing he’ll be able to be on the sidelines Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see if they travel with him. They still have road dates at both Columbias, Missouri and South Carolina.
It’ll be interesting to see how Feleipe’s progressed, and how the offense has progressed. Do we want to use a roster spot to travel with a quarterback who can’t play, because we think he’s helping as far as procedural things and calming Feleipe down, or talking to Feleipe on the sidelines? I think that’s kind of the role you need Del Rio to take right now.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, and I want to clear up something, because you’re not calling anyone bad. Most of the guys on the team are good people. It takes a different guy. Feleipe and Luke were battling for one spot. It’s not like Tyrie and Antonio were last year, or Freddie Swain and Josh Hammond are, where there’s two guys battling for two spots. It’s one guy for one spot. There’s only one quarterback. For Del Rio to still be teaching Feleipe shows that.
Del Rio is very outspoken with his Twitter, and I actually have no problem with it, because here’s the thing. He’s never been rude, in my opinion, about things. There’s a difference in what he does and then what a guy like Chauncey Gardner does. Del Rio’s not attacking people. I’ve seen Del Rio mention how great the fans are, that kind of stuff, so many times that I’m okay with what he does. I think that he gets a bad rep, including from me, for that Arkansas game last year, when he was clearly hurt. I do think people should take into perspective how much Luke has done, not only on the field, but off the field.
Nick: Yeah. I tweeted this yesterday. I really think that, I get a sense of it at least, that Luke Del Rio and Feleipe Franks, that there’s a genuine respect between the two of them, and that maybe they’re not hanging out every day, not living together, but that they genuinely like each other. It’s like you said. It’s human nature to be upset or be jealous, to hold it against the person you’re competing against if you lose out.
I don’t see that at all from either of them. I didn’t see that at all from Feleipe when he was named the backup, when Del Rio was named the starter. To me, I think it says a lot about both of them and the maturity of both of them. I can’t stress how important I think keeping Del Rio around Franks while he goes through this, how important that is.
Andrew: I would expect him to travel. Let’s get into this game though. Like you said, the running game just absolutely took over. Davis and Perine combined for five touchdowns in the game. Just absolutely took over the game. Morel Stephens, if you’d have told me at the beginning of the year he’d have been your best tight end, I’d have laughed at your face. I’m starting to believe he is. I’m tired of watching 30 and 80 give oh-shit-look-out blocks. It gets old, Nick. It does. It gets old. You can say what you want, but it gets old. It gets old very, very quickly. The running backs have improved their blocking. This isn’t new for those guys. I mean Deondre and C’yontai are in Year what? 3? 4?
Nick: Yeah. Both of them are in their fourth years. C’yontai is a redshirt junior, and Goolsby is a senior.
Andrew: Yeah. It gets old, Nick. It gets old seeing that. Offensive play calling was better, but I have one big argument.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: I loved the play calling at times, but personnel is going to kill you. Personnel is going to whip your ass. Doug, calls the plays and let me call the personnel, please. Let anybody call the personnel but you.
Nick: Give us an example.
Andrew: 3rd and 10, you’re going to run a screen. You don’t run it to Mark Thompson. He runs slow. You have a guy in Kadarius Toney. You have a guy in Malik Davis. You even have Perine. You have plenty of guys.
Nick: Perine finally caught a ball yesterday.
Andrew: Yeah. You have Brandon Powell. You have Dre Massey. Put one of those guys in the backfield to do it. Don’t run with a 6’2”, 250-pound running back who runs like a 5’10” 125-pound back running midget football.
Nick: Midget football. What’s midget football? Like youth football?
Andrew: Yeah. I think that’s 11-years-old, 10-years-old. I’m not sure. Anyway, whatever. It’s youth football, but it’s midget ball. It’s what they call 10 and 11-years-old, where everybody’s running straight up and down. There’s no low running through people. That’s what Mark Thompson does. The personnel play calling is atrocious. What are you doing, Nuss? You call a play, and you don’t think about who’s out there?
Nick: Yeah. I don’t know what it is, why or what they’ve seen, and why Mark Thompson has been anointed or made that guy.
Andrew: Let me ask you this, Nick, and I have to take a step back, because I know I’m hard on Mark. Can I have your perspective on this situation? So that there’s two of us saying something. You have a very strong opinion, as well as I do, on this. Let me hear your opinion.
Nick: On?
Andrew: On Mark and this situation.
Nick: I don’t know. I don’t think Mark is your best blocker. Is he your best pass catcher? I don’t know. I saw Lamical Perine catch a wheel route yesterday.
Andrew: Malik Davis make an incredible grab.
Nick: Malik Davis. Yeah. So, I don’t know. I don’t get it. Mark, to me, at times this season has run behind his pads, has run with good leverage, and has run like he’s 6’1”, 230-pounds, but most of the time he runs as if he’s smaller than Malik Davis. He’s spinning and trying to make people miss. Hoss, you are twice the size of that cornerback. Don’t try to make him miss. Run through him. Run over him. That’s what I want to see more of. You kind of get it at times through games, and then sometimes it just disappears.
Andrew: Homeboy put a spin move on air 5-yards in the backfield. Did you like that?
Nick: No.
Andrew: Lordy. You know what I’m saying, though, Nick? Is it not just, does red flags just not get raised with personnel calls?
Nick: Yeah. That’s only on, well I guess not only on …
Andrew: Yes, it is. It is.
Nick: It’s not only on, because last year, we asked McElwain last year about the running backs, because it was the same thing. It was like why is this the running back rotation? He said that was on Tim Skipper. He was in charge of that last year. To me, the position coaches have certainly, at least some say, in what’s the play call? Okay, you’re in.
Andrew: Here’s the thing, Nick. I feel like I have a firsthand perspective of this. When I was coaching ball, and that was again, five years ago, coach would make a play call, and he would say, “Get the right personnel in for this play call.” Period. End of discussion. You had to get the right personnel in for the play call. Nuss, tell those guys what you’re calling, and get the play call in the with the right guys. Make it happen. You have to it. It just is what it is.
Here’s another thing. I can’t handle no more of this maybe he doesn’t know all the plays. If he doesn’t know all the plays, that’s your fault. As a coaching staff, that’s your fault. I’m tired of hearing that.
Nick: Who’s that?
Andrew: Everyone. The whole we don’t want to put too much on Toney’s plate at punt return, or we didn’t want to put Toney in in this play. We didn’t want to put Malik Davis in this play or this, that, and the other. If those guys don’t know what they’re supposed to do on everything, something’s wrong. That’s you. You know what I’m saying? When you hear guys say, “We’re slowly putting him into this.” Nick, freshmen around the country are doing this. Stop. Stop with the excuses.
Nick: They’re playing plenty of freshmen. That was rough for me.
Andrew: You know what I’m saying. The excuse is when the personnel isn’t called for that. They’re going to say, “Oh, well he doesn’t know this.” Well, if he doesn’t know this, that’s your fault.
Nick: It’s almost like you’re saying it’s a poorly coached football team.
Andrew: Defensively, they’re atrocious. This is Randy Shannon. We’ll go ahead. Let’s start on defense. 310 yards? Randy Shannon’s your safety coach and your defensive coordinator. What are you doing? Your safeties are the worst two guys on the team right now.
Nick: You really have to go back and look at how spoiled, when you see the way the safeties are playing, how spoiled Florida has been with the safeties they’ve had. I mean, going back all the way to Reggie Nelson, Major Wright, Ahmad Black.
Andrew: Just go back to last year.
Nick: Keanu Neal, Matt Elam.
Andrew: Jalen Watkins.
Nick: Jalen Watkins. Yeah. I forgot Jay Wat. Well, Jay Wat played damn near every position. I think he played some nose tackle that year too.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: You really take for granted. Keanu Neal doesn’t miss those tackles, and he’s probably a beat or two quicker. What might be an eight-yard gain is maybe only six, because he got down there in the box and put his nose in there. I think you’re really seeing the lack of leadership that you would have gotten from Marcell Harris back there. Nick Washington’s a great guy, great player. He’s not that vocal kind of guy. Marcell is. The other guy you got back there, Chauncey, who is a vocal kind of guy, your actions aren’t backing up your words, but the words keep coming. I would question about who else, not just fans, who else is getting tired of him talking?
Andrew: Can I ask you this, Nick, and I’ve also been hard on Chauncey, does it not infuriate you to see a man throw up his hands at his teammates and just start barking at them?
Nick: Yeah. You see that a lot. Here’s the thing. We don’t what the relationship is, and we don’t know what is being said. You would see that even last year with guys, and the year before. It looks bad on TV, and it looks bad where I’m sitting, from the press box. I just don’t know what they’re saying. I don’t know what the play call was.
Andrew: That’s why we don’t do the game breakdowns like somebody, because we don’t get the play calls. Yeah. I just, Ralph Webb might be still attached to Chauncey, by the way.
Nick: That was, whoo. That’s bad form. Chauncey kind of like sat, broke down, which is good, but then sat there like ready to catch Ralph Webb, instead of going and being the aggressor and making contact. When you sit down and your ass is back, and you’re sitting on your heels, that’s the only thing that’s going to happen. You’re going to get run through every time.
Andrew: Yup. Here’s the thing, Nick. I love Nick Washington. I think Nick Washington is a fantastic player, a fantastic human being, but you and I both know he’s playing with one shoulder. Right now the combo of him and Chauncey aren’t getting things done. The first touchdown of the game, if Chauncey makes a play instead of trying to tackle somebody for a change, it’s a PBU, or it’s an interception. You can make the argument late in the game he should have had a PBU, I mean should have had an interception instead of a PBU, but just broke it up. You wonder about that.
I mean, we saw Shawn Davis play against Michigan. He gave up one touchdown, but those guys behind those guys are going to put effort in there. I would rather see guys fail with effort than succeed with absolutely no effort half the time.
Nick: Yeah. I hope that Shawn Davis hasn’t gotten into a position where it’s kind of like, remember Marcus Maye after Miami, he gets beat, and Will Mushcamp, Will was the safeties coach, so Will kind of just buried him. I think Shawn Davis has gotten beat twice. He’s a freshman. He’s got to learn from that. We said it all along. You’re going to have to go through some growing pains on defense with how young you are. At some point, maybe try something else. I think Jawaan Taylor’s played well when he played at safety.
Andrew: Brad Stewart.
Nick: Brad Stewart got some more run last week against Vanderbilt as well. There is at least some kind of we’re sick of it, and we’re going to get some other guys looks. Yeah. I’m with you on where is Shawn, and where is Jawaan?
Andrew: Yeah. I’m with you as well. I don’t know. I just think there is, and then the lack of any kind of creativity on defense is mind-boggling. 3rd and long, put the pressure on these fools. Let’s go.
Nick: They brought pressure on. I didn’t really start really looking for it until late. It was a 3rd and 10 play. You bring pressure. You bring Kylan off the edge, and you get a quick pass. I think you’re not bringing pressure, because you’re not confident in your secondary. You’re not confident in your linebacker’s ability to cover. You don’t have Jarrad Davis and Alex Anzalone. Those guys were athletic freaks to cover. I think a lot of not getting the pressure from Randy Shannon goes with not having the confidence in your linebacker’s coverage abilities, or in your safeties.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s a little bit, but you can’t play out of fear. That’s a thing that you can’t do. Is a quarterback going to beat a blitz sometimes? Yes. They are. They are, because they have a hot route, and they are. More times than not, they’re not. You can’t play out of fear, Nick, and that’s where it is.
Florida goes into next week, and they’re perfect in the SEC, and tied at the top with Georgia in the SEC. They have LSU, who’s coming off of a loss to the mighty Troy Trojans out of Alabama.
Nick: Shoot. I think, well let me change this a little bit. Alabama, goodness. At least you get Texas A&M after they have to play Alabama.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: But, listen, this is a bad football team that Florida’s playing against next week in LSU. They have dropped off, I think, significantly from where they were a year ago, with what they’ve lost on defense, and still don’t really have a quarterback. You played two of them last week in a loss to Troy. To me, I think really you look at Florida. Florida could be 5-0 in the SEC heading into Jacksonville. I think that week is really the SEC East Championship game between Georgia and Florida. Just don’t slip up. Don’t start looking ahead to that. You should be able to beat both of these West teams that you’re playing in the next two weeks.
Andrew: Exactly. Should be a good one. Once again, Florida should be able to run the ball against LSU this week, and should be able to take advantage of some play action this week. You go into this game, and you stick to your game plan. If this offensive line is doing well, keep doing it. Keep running with it. Keep it up. You’ve got a really good one-two punch in Davis and Perine. Keep with those guys, and keep your mixing it up with Toney back there and everything like that. Just keep going with it.
You’ll be fine. You’ll be all right. You can get Feleipe more in tune, more in the playbook. You got three weeks before Georgia. You got two games, and then you got a bye week. Then you got that. You should be good to go. I mean, you technically got four weeks of practice for that. I agree with you. You could very well be going into Jacksonville with a winner wins the East kind of game.
Nick: Yeah. I think there’s two tiers of teams in the East. There’s Florida, Georgia, and then there’s everyone else. Vanderbilt might be better than Kentucky, too. Might be better. Vanderbilt might be the best team in the state of Tennessee.
Andrew: Vanderbilt’s the third best team in the SEC East, and that just is what it is. I think you’re battling Tennessee and South Carolina for who’s the worst.
Nick: Butch. Oh, Butch.
Andrew: Oh, Butch. I just want to know, I really do, I hope the guy stays somewhere in the public figure, so I can continue messing with the poor, old fool.
Nick: I bet you hope he stays in Tennessee.
Andrew: I do. I do. I really do, because he’s just a walking joke. That’s just what he is. He’s a walking joke.
Nick: There’s no self-awareness.
Andrew: What’s even funnier is when they bring the statue of Peyton Manning, and that moron gets out there. What are those talking about? How to be losers together? It’s like, how do we win big games? Peyton goes, “I don’t know, coach. I’ve never done it really either myself.”
Nick: He won Super Bowls. I don’t understand your hatred of Peyton Manning.
Andrew: I hate Peyton Manning.
Nick: I don’t understand your hatred of Peyton Manning.
Andrew: I don’t like Peyton Manning. I don’t.
Nick: One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play.
Andrew: That’s fine.
Nick: And makes hilarious commercials.
Andrew: He’s a very fake human being. He’s fake.
Nick: You’ve never met him. You have no idea.
Andrew: I’ve met him three times.
Nick: You have no idea if he’s fake.
Andrew: I know he’s very fake. I know he’s very, very fake. He’s a very fake person. He rivals Mark Richt. He rivals Mark Richt of being a fake person. I cannot stand. I turn the TV off.
Nick: Peyton Manning slander.
Andrew: It doesn’t matter. Tom Brady will always be his daddy, and you can remember that. And Danny Wuerffel and the rest of the Gators. They’ll always be Peyton Manning’s daddy.
Nick: 0-4.
Andrew: Steve looks down to Peyton and says, “Rub my feet,” and Peyton says, “Yes, sir.” I mean, just kind of the way life works. All right, Nick, you and I didn’t do too well in picks this week. I went good old one for three. Had Malik do well in the game.
Nick: He’s something else. I want to give a little time to him. Nobody cared when he committed to Florida. He was about to go to North Carolina. I think was set to commit and go to North Carolina.
Andrew: Had a commitment date.
Nick: Until the Florida offer came. His head coach kind of said, “Listen, you need to take some time to think about it, because this is your dream school.” Then with all the Adarius Lemons drama that went on with his recruitment, and what was going on with him and his school, and getting kicked out of school and kicked off the football team. Malik Davis was kind of the afterthought.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: You and I kind of maybe even he was an afterthought to us until he got on campus and started playing, and we started talking to people around the program. Then we thought, “It’s going to be between Malik and Lemons,” and we kind of switched from Malik will be the special teams guy while Lemons will get some carries, to Malik might be taking this job. Here’s my question to you. Serious question. I was asking people in the press box yesterday, and kind of just got some shrugs. If Jordan Scarlett doesn’t get suspended, do we even see Malik Davis this year?
Andrew: No. Because you don’t have enough carries to split around.
Nick: Because you insist on giving 24 carries.
Andrew: Yeah. Until you get rid of his scholarship, which I guess you need to run him a little bit and do something. I mean, I don’t know what you do with him. You can’t put him on special teams. My God, that guy gets out on special teams, and just gets poor old Dre Massey killed. Yeah. I don’t know. When he came in it was a question of could he be strong enough to play in the SEC this year. Everyone knew he would be good down the road.
The biggest question everyone had, and even his coach said, and that’s going to be him getting in the weight room and getting bigger. That’s something he did. He took pride in. He’s a very hard worker. One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet as well. Very humble guy. Has that Hillsborough rushing record and everything. Very, very humble guy. Very good person. Nothing but positive things to say for Malik.
Nick: I just wanted to put it out there and say you have to appreciate what he’s doing. Right now he’s averaging 7.4 yards per carry, which is fourth in the SEC. I think it’s just appreciate what Malik has done, even though he kind of flew under the radar, and was definitely underappreciated throughout the recruiting process and overlooked.
Andrew: Yeah. It is. Florida’s running back backfield has went from a weakness to a very good strength. When you look at a guy like Damien Pierce right now, I think he’s at 19 rushing touchdowns and over 1,000 yards, something like 1,100 yards already for five games. Then you got a guy like Iverson Clemente. You’ve got some very good talent in the backfield for Florida going forward.
So I got that one right. Missed on Toney, just because he only had four carries, or he had the ball in his hands five times. He had the incompletion, then he ran it three times, and then he had one catch in the game. I get a loss for that. Then Duke Dawson had no stats. No stats are good for corners. Nick says I can’t get a point.
Nick: He just didn’t even get tested.
Andrew: That’s a good thing. That means they respect him.
Nick: Yeah. Didn’t get tested. My guys were Luke Del Rio, get a not applicable there. Cece Jefferson had two tackles, one for loss, one pass breakup, no sacks. Tyrie Cleveland only had two catches.
Andrew: Exactly. Yeah. There’s that. All right, Nick, we’ll get out of here. We’ll see everyone.
Nick: Here. Injury news. Everyone keeps asking about Tyrie Cleveland. When he first went down, it was a big toe. Luckily the game was moving slow, so I’m looking throw binoculars watching, and they kind of added some padding and wrapped him up. Gave him a new spat on his right foot, and then he went in and rolled his ankle. Jim McElwain, after the game, said, “It’s an ankle,” and he doesn’t know. Doesn’t know the severity, whether it’s high, low, what it is. Said he was unsure about Tyrie Cleveland’s playing status. We’ll get an update on Monday.
Andrew: Listen, Tyrie Cleveland’s playing Saturday.
Nick: We’ll see if he’s on the field. Here’s another one. This game means a lot for Feleipe Franks. He was committed to LSU.
Andrew: It does.
Nick: I tried to give him the bait yesterday. He did not take it. He walked up to me after I asked him twice, and kind of laughed and said, “You’re not going to get it.” He knew what I wanted. He gave me a good question about it before, or a good quote about it before the season, but not this week. Not going to give Ed O and Troy’s scout team any bulletin board material.
Andrew: Yeah. You know where you can go for your quote. All you have to do is look across the room, and you can get that. Enough said on that. Anyway, tell everyone where they can find us. We’ll get out. We’ll see everyone on Wednesday, and I guess we’re going back to our good buddy, Ross.
Nick: Yeah. Ross is the best guy on that beat, I think. We’ll bring Ross back on, and we’ll ask him where the team is.
Andrew: Ask him how the corndogs are doing.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: We’ll ask him how the corndogs are doing down in Baton Rouge. Tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out. See everyone then.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can also find the podcast on iTunes. Subscribe there. Click the little notification button, and get a little notification every time the podcast comes up. Never miss an episode. You can follow us on social media, @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter, @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC, and he’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.
Andrew: There you go. If you haven’t joined us yet and want to join us, hit us up. We’ll give you that special coupon code, and we’ll get you in. Guys, as always, we appreciate it. See everybody on Wednesday. Go Braves. Chomp, chomp. Butch, such a disaster. Mark Richt, I hope you get that L this week.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.