Spivey Senses podcast examines the Florida Gators win

Spivey Senses is back with another podcast and in this episode Andrew Spivey examines the Florida Gators win over the East Carolina Pirates on Saturday night.

Andrew discusses at length what worked on offense for the Florida Gators and what didn’t work on the offensive side of the ball. Andrew also looks at some things that could change moving forward.

To close out the podcast Andrew discusses how recruiting went for the Florida Gators on Saturday night and what prospects thought of the win and the production for the team.

Transcript:

What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey. I’m back for my weekly Monday, which you guys are hearing it on Tuesday. Spivey Senses, little details talking about the ECU game, a game that was closer than I, then the rest of the world, probably anybody outside of the ECU locker room, thought it would be. Not a very clean, not a very good executed game for the Gators on Saturday. Twelve penalties, a lot of those were costly. Alex McCallister had a running into the punter that allowed ECU to continue a drive. Joey Ivie had a celebration penalty, and then, of course, the big one, Kelvin Taylor has a celebration penalty that leads to Coach McElwain getting on him on the sidelines.

I guess kind of got the attention because of the way it went down, because it was on the sidelines, because it was out in public. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, I have absolutely no problem with the way Coach McElwain handled things on Saturday night. I respect him for doing that. I think he had to make a decision to do that. I think he had to make a statement. I think he had to do this to let people know he was serious about it. Somebody said, he should do that in the locker room after the game. No, he shouldn’t, because that’s not where it happened. The moment to do it was when it happened at the game.

I was a football coach for eight years. I’ve been around a lot of guys that were worse than that. I had guys throw helmets at guys, do a lot of different things that were way worse than that. In my opinion, this world has just gotten way too soft. Parents and media members and fans, they’re just way too soft on these kids. They think that any little thing is wrong. They play a man’s game. They should be treated like a man. It’s a business, and that’s all I’ve got to say about the situation. I am tired of talking about it, sick of talking about it. Again, I support Coach McElwain, glad he did that. Great job, but let’s move on.

The biggest question for me is the quarterback play. Inconsistent, no guy really took over the job. McElwain tried to give Will Grier every opportunity to take the job on Saturday by starting him in the game, and then by also letting him start the second half. He had a couple bad passes that should have been intercepted that weren’t. One of them I think was on Antonio Callaway. I think Grier was expecting Callaway to come back to the ball on kind of a hitch route, curl route, comeback, whatever you want to call it, and he didn’t. He continued running down the seam, which was in a zone defense. So, again, I can’t say that that was on Will Grier, because I don’t know the play of that. The next one was to CJ Worton, and that was just a bad pass that was wide right. As Jim McElwain likes to say, in his baseball reference, it was a little bit outside, and it was a little bit outside.

Again, quarterback play is just inconsistent still. Florida, in my opinion though, has got to pick a quarterback, whether it’s Will Grier, whether it’s Treon Harris, and let that guy go out and lose the job in a full game. The rotating quarterbacks, in my opinion, is not good for either one of those. It’s not good for the rest of the team, because there’s just no rhythm for this team right now on offense. The guys are just not able to get in rhythm. They’re not able to get the guys around them comfortable with them, and until that happens I just don’t see that either one’s going to really pull away. I think it’s a time for McElwain to come out, name a quarterback, and go with it. If that quarterback performs badly or falls on his face, then it’s time to go for another one against Tennessee.

There is no wrong way of going about it right now. For McElwain, I think he could get away with naming either one of them starting quarterback, because neither one of them has really taken over the job and won the job. Again, Grier had that opportunity on Saturday to do it. He didn’t. Treon had a chance to take over that, didn’t. So both guys are just playing, as McElwain says, okay football. You ask who I would go with, and, again, I’m going with Will Grier, because of the way Grier possesses the ball, the way Grier looks through his reads, progresses through his reads, throws the ball with more touch than Treon does, and has also got a better pocket presence than Treon. Treon is a one hit wonder, and I say that in that he is a guy that is one read, and then it’s take off. If he sees a little bit of pressure he’s gone from the pocket. He’s not standing in the pocket to try to make a play on that, and that’s something that’s a little concerning to me, and should be concerning to the coaching staff, because that’s a big part of this Jim McElwain offense is to stay in the pocket, look for your reads, and throw the ball to the open read. That’s something he’s not doing right now.

Again, I said this on Nick and my podcast on Sunday, that came out on Monday, I think Will Grier just trusts his arm too much, and that’s not a bad thing at all. I shouldn’t say too much. He trusts his arm, and that is he tries to fit the ball in places maybe he shouldn’t. That’s no fault of his own, that’s just the kind of quarterback he is, and I think that it’s a learning tool for him. I think he’ll continue to learn from that, and he’ll end up being a better football player because of that.

The thing that was kind of concerning to me was the lack of getting the playmakers the ball on the outside and getting them the ball on the corners to get out in open field and go with it. Brandon Powell, Antonio Callaway, Demarcus Robinson, all those guys had some carries in the New Mexico State game, and just didn’t have them against East Carolina on Saturday. For me, that’s not good, because the offensive line is not going to get a ton of push up the middle for these guys, so I think you need more outside running, whether that is from the receivers or if that’s more of a toss play to the running backs, whatever it is. I think you’ve got to continue to hit the outside game more. I do want to see Callaway get some more passes thrown to him on those screen routes as well and continue feeding the ball to Powell.

Overall, I thought there was some good things on offense. DeAndre Goolsby played really well, had a few good catches. Play calling was pretty good for the most part. Really liked the play action toss on the play action toss play that they threw to Goolsby that was wide open. It was a good play, very good play. Liked that a lot. Then there was the wheel routes to Gooslby. Treon and Will both threw great balls there, and it was good plays. Demarcus Robinson had a good catch and had a good game overall. There’s some positives in this, and then there’s some negatives in this. You look at Kelvin Taylor’s rushing yards, 16 attempts, 55 yards, 3.4 rushing yards per carry is not good, not good at all. That needs to get better if Florida’s going to be able to run the ball. That average needs to be 4 yards or in that area at least, and then you need those guys to break a few, not to be hitting the back field as much as they are.

Another thing I’m looking to see from this Kentucky game is Jake McGee get more involved. McGee’s not a guy that’s been involved very much. On Saturday night he had 0 catches and was called for a pass interference that was a BS pass interference, but I still want to see Jake McGee get the ball more. I want to see C’yontai Lewis. He only had 1 catch for 6 yards. I want to see the tight ends get more involved, even though Goolsby did have a big game. I want to see McGee and C’yontai Lewis get more balls thrown to them up the seams as they did against New Mexico State.

Overall, offense did okay. Needs to get better. Offensive line will most likely get Martez Ivey back on Saturday against Kentucky. Be interesting to see where he fits in. I think Mason Halter ends up going inside, even if Florida doesn’t have Ivey on Saturday. I think he ends up going inside, because I think they’ll have Sharpe and Fred Johnson at the tackle positions as McElwain continues to rave about how well Fred Johnson and David Sharpe are doing at the tackle positions. Again, that’ll be interesting to see on the offensive line. Again, offense played okay, not great. Need to get better against Kentucky.

To go to the defensive side of the ball, defense played well in my opinion. They gave up 333 yards, but it was expected against an ECU team that put up over 500 yards a year ago, or not even a year ago, in December in the Birmingham Bowl, whenever it was. Put up over 500 yards of offense. The one thing though, the first drive was a 75 yard drive, and Quincy Wilson was playing great coverage. The ball was just stone perfect. Great catch. I’m okay with that, but after that Alex Anzalone goes down at middle linebacker. He’s your most athletic linebacker, your best cover linebacker. He goes down, and when he goes down ECU just starts picking the middle of the defense apart against Morrison and Jarrad Davis. That’s no fault of those guys. They’re just not athletic enough to be cover corners, good enough cover corners to cover some of the guys ECU was running the in the middle of the field.

McElwain says Daniel McMillian, Anthony Harrell will get some more time there. No offense to those two guys, I still don’t think that those two guys are athletic enough to play there, not in pass coverage. I don’t think those guys are going to be guys that are going to be able to stop the passing game. I think that, as McElwain said on Monday, I think you’ll see that Florida will do more dime defense, and when you see that I think you’ll see Marcus May. I think you’ll see Keanu Neal or Marcell Harris, one of those guys, move down to the middle and play coverage there. I think that that’ll be the best bet for Florida is to move a guy down, whether that’s Marcell Harris, Keanu Neal, Marcus May, whoever it may be. I think that is the best option for Florida if they’re going to have good defense in the middle of the field, because right now I just don’t see that it’s going to be much better without Alex Anzalone in the middle of the field, if he’s out for a longer period of time.

One thing I will say is I have heard that it was just a labrum issue in his shoulder. He’s not a pitcher. He doesn’t need that shoulder to be able to go as a pitcher, in that motion, so I think that you maybe can brace him up and him play some. I don’t know. All I’ve heard is that he’s been evaluated and all options are being looked at. Right now I think that Florida has to go to more of a dime defense with the guy moving down to that middle spot, another defensive back moving down in that middle spot to take the spot of a linebacker in third down coverage.

Quincy Wilson, again, as I said, he had a good game for Florida in place of Vernon Hargreaves. Marcus May came in after returning from an injury. He had a good game. That was big for May. It was big for Florida. They’re missing Keanu Neal. He’ll be back on Saturday against Kentucky. They held him out for precautionary reasons again. Florida needs him big time. No offense to Nick Washington, he just missed a lot of tackles in the open field, him and Marcell Harris both. Florida needs Keanu Neal badly at the safety position, and they’ll get him back.

From a defensive line standpoint, defensive line in my opinion played very well for the most part. Florida knew going into the game, Nick and I tried to tell you guys that Florida was not going to rush much, rush the pass there very much, because it’s a three step drop quick passing game offense from ECU, and that Florida’s pass rush was going to have a hard time getting there. Florida still ended up having three sacks in the game. So overall that was a good thing for Florida, but it was something that was expected of Florida. They weren’t going to get a ton of pass rush or blitzing against that. Bullard had a good game. He got some pass rush there. McCallister had a good game, got some pass rush there. Joey Ivie had some good pass rush there as well. Overall, successful day for the defensive line in general. Taven Bryan had a really good play on the 3^rd down where he simply busted through the line and made the tackle. Good tackle by the Wyoming Man.

Going forward though, against Kentucky, I do expect Geoff Collins to run a lot more blitzes in the game. I do expect for the defensive line to get more pressure, because Kentucky’s more of a traditional style drop back offense of passing game and running team. So overall this defense needs to get a better blitzing game together and needs to get a better pass rush overall for Florida in this game against Kentucky moving forward, against Kentucky and Tennessee and through the remaining part of the schedule.

Austin Hardin, not a very good game for Austin Hardin. Two missed field goals. I continue to say that Austin Hardin’s a guy that lacks confidence, because once he misses one it usually snowballs for him. That’s not a good thing to see, but that’s what it is. Florida’s got to continue kind of coddling his confidence some to get his confidence better, and McElwain says he has full confidence in him. He has the leg to do it. He can do it. Just he has to do that going forward in this next game and going forward the rest of the season. Florida needs Austin Hardin to be consistent there.

I think overall that recaps the game for me of what I liked as well as what I didn’t like. Need to pick a quarterback. Need to shore up the rotation on the offensive side of the ball. It cannot be as big as it is going forward. There’s just a lot of guys that are playing that probably shouldn’t be playing. Again, McElwain, I praise McElwain for the job he did on Saturday night against those guys. He was criticized for what he did. I have no problem with that at all. I think he did a good job, and I think this will be a program changing game for Florida, because these guys know he’s for real now.

Back to prospects on campus this weekend. Freddie Swain, Jordan Woods, those guys were all in town this weekend. Tylin Oden, a Louisville quarterback commit, was in town this weekend, and Chauncey Gardner, Bruce Judson, those guys were in town. Overall they had a lot of good things to say. Bruce Judson told me the visit with his family to Florida was a very successful one. It blew him away. I don’t want to say that he’s on flip watch now, but I do expect Florida’s going to be a major player going forward for him, and I think Florida has a great shot to flip him in the coming months before he signs in 2017. Freddie Swain, probably going to back up his decision date, because he wants to take official visits first. Still see Florida as the leader there. Chauncey Gardner, he says he’s going to take all five officials. Florida, in my opinion, though, is still the team to beat there. He continues to show up on campus. I expect him to be there for the Tennessee and Ole Miss games, so that’s two more chances for Florida to impress him.

Jordan Woods, same way, he’s Florida’s to lose right now, and I don’t see that ending differently. Tylin Oden, the quarterback commit to Louisville, Florida hasn’t offered him, because he didn’t come throw for them this summer. I do think that if Florida is able to go up there and see him throw a little bit then they possibly could look at offering him, but from things I’ve heard doesn’t show me that he’s really the quarterback Florida wants in this class, from a couple people that have seen him play. So I’m not sure if he even gets that offer. I do think Florida’s focusing more on Philippe Franks, Zerrick Cooper, Dwayne Haskins, Jake Allison, and some other guys that are committed to other schools before they are Oden.

Overall, Florida did another incredible job at getting prospects on campus for this game, and then moving forward Tennessee and Ole Miss are back to back huge games for the Gators on the field and in recruiting, because they will be loaded with recruits coming on campus. Tennessee and Florida State games will probably be the most attended games for Florida, and the Tennessee game is that first opportunity for Florida to show they’re for real and successful against Tennessee, and they’ll get a lot of guys. Right now, Terrell Hall, defensive end from Maryland and Aaron Hansford, linebacker from Maryland, plan on coming in for official visits from that game. Shavar Manuel is coming in for that game. Overall it should be a very big game for the Gators from a recruiting standpoint.

To recap high school football from this past weekend, Lamical Perine, 252 yards rushing, 2 touchdowns against a very good Davidson football team. Theodore moved into first place in the region now in Alabama and their 7A. Mark Thompson had another big game. He tied his school record with 4 rushing touchdowns, so he had a good game. Jaquan Bailey continues to rack up the sacks, had two more sacks, a tackle for loss in the game. Overall good play by Jaquan Bailey. Rick Wells continues to underperform, in my opinion. All in the year, through three games, only 4 catches for 81 yards. That’s not something you want to see from a big time receiver going to a big time school like Florida, so I’m looking for Rick Wells to step up in that. Lavarus Tigner from Deerfield Beach, 2017 kid, still has not played a game this season, still suspended for either academic or athletic reasons, depends on who you talk to on that, but I’ve heard that he’s missed some practice and that he has some academic trouble. He’s still out right now.

Jake Allen continued to impress, 4 more touchdowns this past weekend in the first half, one of those to Sam Bruce. Isaiah Johnson had a big 77 yard reception for a touchdown in the game. He also visited Florida this Saturday, which was big for Florida, because he officially visited North Carolina State the first week of the season. Again, I think Florida’s in okay shape with Isaiah Johnson as an H back moving forward. I think he likes what Goolsby, McGee, C’yontai Lewis are doing in that position, so I think Florida will be okay with Isaiah Johnson. Josh Hammond set up two official visits to Georgia and Ohio State. Right now nothing to be concerned about. I still Florida is by far the favorite to keep Josh Hammond from Hallandale. His family loves Florida. Frankie Hammond, his older brother, was a Gator. Him and his dad love Florida. They love the coaching staff. So like that from Josh Hammond.

I think that’s about it from a recruiting standpoint. That’s recruiting and also football. Quick note on basketball, the staff has been out recruiting. The first that they were able to be out. They saw big targets, Tyler Cook in school. They saw Jalen Thompson, a wing guy in North Carolina. They saw him in school, trying to set up an official visit for the Tennessee weekend. That looks like it will happen. Florida’s the leader there if they decide to push. With Tyler Cook Florida and Iowa are battling it out.

I think that’s about all for this episode with me. I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have any questions, shoot it to me, as always, on GatorCountry.com. Not to brag on ourselves, but Nick and I we’re three for three with stories this weekend, broke three stories that nobody else had. That was Vernon Hargreaves being out for the game, Keanu Neal being out for the game, and Marcus May starting. If you want the juice on Florida Gators sports, Gator Country is the place for you guys. Not just because I work here, and not just because I need you guys to subscribe for me to get a paycheck, but just because it is. The community’s great at Gator Country. It’s one of the reasons that I came to Gator Country. You guys at Gator Country are the best. Good community that I can talk ball with. You guys put up with my stupid accent, my misspellings, my grammar problems, everything else. Just great time to be on Gator Country overall.

I really appreciate all you guys, and I hope you guys can join Gator Country and continue to be great members of Gator Country. As always, we appreciate you guys. Stay tuned this week for great coverage from the Florida vs. Kentucky game this week. As always, as my boy Nick says, stay classy, and I would be bad not to say Boomer Sooner. As always, stay tuned.