Which freshmen will play in 2016? Florida Gators podcast

Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we preview which freshmen we think will play in 2016 for the Florida Gators football team, plus which ones might redshirt.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre preview the Gators season opener and Florida’s long streak of winning the first game of the season.

Andrew and Nick also give you a recruiting update as the Gators picked up two commitments last week from two highly touted prospects.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 Hello, Gator Country. Your man, Andrew Spivey, here, and it’s officially game week for the Florida Gators and for college football. Just five short days when you guys are listening to us until the Gators and U Mass get under way. Nick, it’s good. High school football dominated the headway this week, so it’ll be college football next week.

Nick:                         Still salty that my boys at St. Thomas didn’t get it done, but very happy to have college football back, and Cal and Hawaii actually kicked it off.

Andrew:                 That was in Australia. 61,000 people there. That was pretty interesting to see. Not a good game, but tipped it off to get things under way.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’ll be interesting. It’s a jam packed first week. You’ve got LSU, Wisconsin, Florida. Florida’s kicking it off. Alabama, USC, some good games Week 1. Week 2 is a little drop off, but Week 1 is really a great way to kick off the college football season.

Andrew:                 ESPN is calling it the best college football weekend, opening weekend, of all time, and I can’t say that I disagree. It’s a lot of really good games. Be interesting to see just how some teams stack up. You start with Tennessee. You get South Carolina/Vanderbilt game. That won’t be a good game, but that should be a fun game for Florida fans. Then Alabama/USC. That should be a good one as well. Texas/Notre Dame is a game that I’m intrigued by, just because of Texas and Charlie Strong. Just quick look ahead, everyone, for the week. We’ll be back to our normal game week prep, and we’ll have the usual Sunday podcast where we’re recap the games and talk a little bit about the upcoming team. Then on Wednesdays we’ll have a guest from the opposing team on with us to talk about what their team is like, and then kind of their matchup. Then we’ll also give updates on injuries, that kind of stuff, on Wednesday. Then on Friday Nick and I will make our prediction on the game, talk about some key matchups, and also pick our three guys to have a good game. Should be a fun time, back to three podcasts a week. So be ready. Strap it in and get ready to go. Season is here.

Nick:                         Let me do this real quick. I met Justin Alvarez at Fan Day, told him I would give him a shout out on the podcast, and then went 0-2 last week.

Andrew:                 There you go.

Nick:                         He reminded me. You guys can follow him @FLGator87 on Twitter. What’s up, Justin? Nice meeting you. I always come through on my promise, even if it’s a little late.

Andrew:                 There you go. One of our fans on Twitter kind of talked about wanting to do a Gator in the NFL. We’ll do that on Wednesdays as well, after the Monday night games are over. Wednesday’s our first podcast after that. We’ll do that on Wednesdays. We’ll try to set aside about a five or 10 minute segment just to kind of talk about the Gators in the League. There’s a lot of them. Dominic Easley is on Hard Knocks with the Rams, and getting a little bit of playing time. Plenty of Gators in the NFL. As Coach Mac says, Gator made.

Nick:                         That’s a nice little marketing pitch there.

Andrew:                 It’s a cool little marketing pitch. Nick, no game to review this week, but two commits, one on Friday, one on Saturday. The Gators get Shawn Davis on Saturday and then get the defensive tackle in Fred Hansard on Friday. It’s kind of interesting, Nick. Mac’s had a focus for every year. You look at Year 1, it was offensive line. You look at Year 2, it was receivers and running back, kind of the skill position. Then you look at Year 3, this year, and he really needed defensive tackles and really needed to get some interior defensive tackles. When you look at the list of the defensive tackles he’s got all are 300 plus, and just really filling the need. That’s the thing that I think you can look at the rankings all you want to, but at the end of the day if you don’t fill your needs things won’t succeed, and I think that’s the biggest thing Will Muschamp failed at was filling needs, and that’s something Mac has done, whether you like the class rankings or not. He’s done that.

Nick:                         I think it’s filling needs, but he’s also getting guys that are able to come in and contribute right away, and that’s probably been the biggest thing is you need offensive linemen, well, you got three that came in as freshmen last year and were able to play and play at a high level. You expect there to be a couple of those freshmen receivers this year that can come in and play right away. We both think Chauncey Gardner is going to be able to play right away, so it’s not just filling needs with bodies. Mac’s been able to fill needs with guys who are ready to come in and contribute right away.

Andrew:                 Right. You look at the receiver position, you could potentially have three or four guys really, Cleveland, Swain, Hammond, and Dre Massey, all from last year’s class all come in and contribute. Now, Massey, of course, a Juco guy, but at the end of the day, Mac had to recruit him. He’s a new guy on campus. So you look at those guys that he had to get, and there it is. There’s guys that are going to play. You look at Clayton. Last year you could have said linebacker was also a key, and you look at the three guys he got. Moon and Vosean may not play a ton, but they’re going to definitely give them depth, and then David Reese is going to play a lot. You look at the positions and needs they got guys, and they just didn’t get guys to fill the holes. They got guys that can play. You look at Fred Hansard, and he’s a guy that definitely needs to get into a college weight room, at 324 pounds, and, yes, he does have a little bit of academics, but, Nick, you don’t teach 6”3’, 300 pounds that can move like he does.

Nick:                         No. That is a big boy, and pretty cool Bleacher Report video. I kind of liked the New York theme to it.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I really liked that New York theme. Bleacher Report does a good job. I didn’t like the Kai-Leon Herbert one. I thought that was really weird, but, at the end of the day, that’s kind of what he wanted, and they did it. Shout out to those guys at Bleacher Report. Nick, you and I have a bunch of friends over there, and they do a good job really with that. Let’s move on to Shawn Davis. Shawn’s a guy that is a physical guy, is a physical corner, can play up in the run and defend the pass. He’s a guy that is a really solid #3 guy in this class right now, is a guy that definitely needs to work on his tackling a little bit, doesn’t tackle great, but that’s something that will come. He’s a hard hitting guy from south Florida. I think he’ll be just fine in the class, and was a big pickup at South Ridge to keep that kind of pipeline going that’s there.

Nick:                         Not really a surprise.

Andrew:                 No.

Nick:                         I do have a question for you.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         Why are you making a commitment video, committing to the University of Florida, while wearing a Miami shirt?

Andrew:                 He had Florida shorts on. Supposedly that was his top two. I am totally with you. Why, and second of all, home boy, you were an hour and a half late on your commitment video. I’m the person that usually is the person that’s all about the kids, but, man, don’t say you’re going to do something at 12:00 or noon, and then 1:30. Come on, bro. Killing us. The thing for me with him is he is a good player, and I do think that he’ll come in, maybe not contribute from Year 1, but I think he does, can contribute at Florida down the road. His decision was definitely not a surprise. The last one that I can remember that was as bad as that one was Kent Taylor when he committed to Florida over Alabama, and it was so widely known for months after months after months that he was going to Florida. Then he finally decided he was going to Florida.

Nick:                         Yeah. This is kind of like a not well kept secret. When I see the video, I kind of have a pretty good idea of where he’s going, and I’m like, why is he wearing that shirt? Then he goes ahead and commits anyway, and I’m just like, still, why is he wearing that? That’s what stuck out to me is the wardrobe choice for a video you’re releasing to commit to a school. Florida’s going to need to revamp the secondary. You’re going to lose Jalen Tabor. Marcus Maye is gone. Quincy Wilson could be gone. You’re quickly running out of guys, so you need to have a big class, and you’ve got now Wilson, Davis, and who’s the third corner?

Andrew:                 Elijah Blades, maybe the best.

Nick:                         Elijah Blades, yeah. So you need to get guys, and kind of what I said before, not just get guys that are bodies, get guys that can come in and play right away, because if you lose all three of them, Wilson, Tabor, and Maye, those are three starters that you need to fill in for. I don’t know if Florida has the guys that can keep playing at that level on campus right now.

Andrew:                 I mean, you look at Marco Wilson, and everyone knows what you’re going to get out of Marco Wilson. If you didn’t have the chance, I mean if you had the chance, you got to see him play on Saturday night against Colquitt County, and he’s a big physical corner. He’s 6’, 180, a lot like Quincy in that he doesn’t mind putting a helmet to the chest. On one play during the game, a guy was running him off, and Marco decided he was going to block him, and kind of pulled a blind side where he didn’t stop till he was in the water cooler. Marco’s that physical corner. We talked about Shawn, and then Elijah Blades is a guy that I think gets overshadowed, because he’s out in California, but at 6’2”, 6’3”, depending on where you’re looking at it, but he’s so long his arms touch his knees almost. Running that legit 4.4 speed, had a 99 yard kickoff return and a 90 yard interception return on Friday against really good California competition.

I think they got three. They’re going to still look at Shawn Wade, who’s committed to Ohio State. They’re going to still look at Ambry Thomas, and they still got Devon Hunter and Brad Stewart out there at safety, as well as CJ Henderson. They have a lot of options there. Yes, maybe none of these guys have the Jalen Tabor, Vernon Hargreaves five star rating beside their name yet. Some of these guys are still really good players, as was Quincy Wilson. I mean, Wilson was a four star who our competitor still calls him a safety today, and he’s a guy that could possibly find himself in the first or second round of the NFL draft at corner.

Nick:                         Yeah. I’m not a big star guy. I know I’m probably in the minority there though. Yeah?

Andrew:                 Yeah. I mean, I think that you and I agree on this that stars don’t mean as much anymore, because of the fact that a lot of this is now did you come to my camp? If you wanted to be rated high by Rivals you got to come to the Rivals Five Star, to their camp. Come on, now. I mean, I personally saw the things that went on with several guys last class. You look at Jawaan Taylor. I’m trying to think. There was 10 guys in total. Perine was one. Quincy Litton was one. There was like 9 or 10 guys that you personally saw them start really low and end up really high, and it was just kind of these guys now get the respect they want.

Nick:                         I guess you can say they earned it. Quincy being projected as a safety, three star, four star. They’re just projections, and I think people just get too hung up.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Too hung up on them, especially when you look at the class, but I think you just got to trust the coaching staff, and that they’re getting guys that they want, guys that they think can come in and play. Guys that they think are filling needs. I’m not a big star guy, never have been. Don’t think I will be. Why don’t we get into, two commitments, why don’t we get into a little bit of U Mass? There’s not a ton to talk about, but we’ll get into it a little bit.

Andrew:                 Let’s get into U Mass a little bit.

Nick:                         Do you know what Florida’s record is against U Mass?

Andrew:                 0-0.

Nick:                         Yes. First time ever playing them.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Spurrier, on Thursday night, did the Gator Talk. Pretty cool with him and Jeremy Foley. Whether you’re a huge fan of Jeremy Foley or not, him and Steve Spurrier together was really good on Gator Talk. Me personally, it brought back some cool memories. Nick, I mean, Spurrier was the guy when we were growing up, and that shows our age, whatever, but for me Spurrier is one of the reasons I love football. One of the things he said was after the show, before it went off, they asked him about the game. He said, “Well, U Mass just isn’t very good.”

Nick:                         That’s the Old Ball Coach.

Andrew:                 Never mincing words.

Nick:                         That is the Old Ball Coach for you. They’re not. So this should be a walk in the park. Like a dress rehearsal for Florida. The Gators have won 26 straight opening days. It should be 27. If you lose to U Mass, maybe cancel the rest of the season.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I think that’s the longest streak in the SEC.

Nick:                         The longest streak in the nation.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Okay. I knew it was the longest in the SEC that it was there. I think it’s one of those deals where I like the record. Of course, Florida does usually play some not great teams Week 1.

Nick:                         You finally test it next year.

Andrew:                 Yeah, against the mighty Harbaughs, but I think that it’s going to be a good crowd. It’s a good game, and, for me personally, I think this U Mass game is good for a lot of reasons. You’re going to get to see Del Rio get a lot of time. You’re going to get to see Austin Appleby get a lot of time, or you should get to see Austin Appleby get a lot of time, and then some of these freshmen and younger guys that you’re hoping can play, the Perines, the Jawaan Taylors, both the Jawaan Taylors, the Vosean Josephs, Jeremiah Moons, all of those young guys that you want to play and see how they react on game day. You’re going to get that opportunity against U Mass to get those guys some quality, valuable game time against U Mass to see. Does the bright lights bother them, or not? Can they go against Kentucky next week and we count on them? We’ll see.

Nick:                         Yeah. I’m interested to see the guys I haven’t seen yet, like you named, Del Rio, some of the freshmen, Jawaan, both Jawaan Taylors, Lamical, but how much can you really gather from beating U Mass by 25, 30?

Andrew:                 Oh, nothing. You can’t gather nothing, but here’s the thing, and I think this is a thing that you and I have talked about in the past, and that is if you U Mass comes out, and their defensive line is blowing up the offensive line, you got problems. For me, it’s more about seeing those guys dominate the game. You want to see that happen, and then get some of the younger guys involved. The offensive game plan is going to be as vanilla as possible. You can just go ahead and count it. They’re going to run a few plays. They’re not going to show you no wrinkles. That’s going to be safe for Kentucky, and it is what it is. It’s just what they’re going to do. They’re going to be very vanilla with the plan. You’re not going to see probably Massey and Powell on the field at the same time with some trickery or anything like that. It’s just not going to happen. They’re going to save that for Kentucky.

Nick:                         I think you’ll see Massey and Powell on the field at the same time, because you might have to. We don’t know who’s going to be out for this game yet.

Andrew:                 That’s true.

Nick:                         You might only have a handful. Ahmad Fulwood’s probably going to get a lot of playing time.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was going to say too. It’s always the off season punishment game, so we’ll see who’s didn’t do very well in the off season.

Nick:                         Your coach doesn’t punish anyone. The guys just make choices.

Andrew:                 That’s true. We’re going to see who failed the off season test. Is that a nice way of saying it?

Nick:                         So many ways to say. We could just say suspended.

Andrew:                 But they’re not suspended. They chose not to play.

Nick:                         Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that’s another thing that I think of the first week, and that is maybe a little fool’s gold, something will happen. Somebody will have a good game. Who was it? It was Mack Brown three years ago.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Everyone was saying, this is going to be the guy, and it’s like, know who Florida’s playing.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Who’s out, who’s available, before you start freaking out over somebody who had a good game, and they’re probably not going to be a huge contributor for the rest of the season.

Andrew:                 Absolutely not, but the thing for me is the Fulwoods of the world, you know, the Marcell Harrises of the world, they’re going to have good games. That’s cool, but for me I’m more interested, I’m going to be honest, I’m very excited to see Jawaan Taylor on the offensive line. I am fired up to see Jawaan Taylor on the offensive line to see what he can do at tackle. I am fired up to see that, and that might be the one thing that I am the most interested in in the game, and that’s sad to say, because it’s the offensive line, but I’m pumped. I’ve heard so much about him from several people that I’m excited to see it.

Nick:                         I’m excited to see it. The thing I keep hearing about him is just like nasty, physical.

Andrew:                 Mauler.

Nick:                         That mean streak we talk about that offensive linemen need to have, has it in spades.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         That’s what, at least, I keep hearing the most when I ask about him.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. That’s the thing that I’m excited about to see that and see those young guys go. That kind of leads us into our next thing that we wanted to talk about, Nick, and that is the young guys that we think could play this year, or do we think they need to redshirt this year. We can go, let’s hit three categories. Let’s hit starter or play a lot, could play, and destined for a redshirt.

Nick:                         You got it. Quick note, because people ask all the time, is so-and-so redshirting? Is so-and-so redshirting? You don’t make that decision until the end of the season.

Andrew:                 Yeah. If they need to play, they’re going to play.

Nick:                         Yeah. If you ask, is so-and-so redshirting, and I say, I think he will, a couple people get hurt, and he plays in the eighth game, that’s why. You don’t have to make a decision on redshirting someone until the end of the season.

Andrew:                 I mean, there was a couple guys last year. Had you told me at the beginning of the year Keivonnis Davis and Camrin Knight were going to play, I’d have probably laughed and told you you were full of crap. There was a few guys. For a while it looked like Tyler Jordan could possibly redshirt, and he ends up playing and starting. Lot of guys there, and it’s kind of one of those things where it’s like, where the program’s at with Mac you almost expect there to be not very many redshirts until he gets several classes in, because of the fact of he’s still building his guys.

Nick:                         They’re all his guys.

Andrew:                 You know what I mean when I say that. Yes, he did pop Mr. Alaverde with that the other day when asked, but what I’m saying is you’re starting to kind of clean up the program a little bit, get your guys, your recruits, in there. So that’s kind of what I meant.

Nick:                         Alright. Hit us with the guys.

Andrew:                 Let’s start off with the easy one. Chauncey Gardner.

Nick:                         Starter.

Andrew:                 Starter. Why?

Nick:                         Well, Florida is out Jalen Tabor for the opener, so now you’re probably going to have to slide Duke Dawson out to the outside corner, and I think Chauncey starts at nickel in the very first game. After that, being able to come in the spring, the experience he was able to get and to get into the offense and the weight program early, I think that’s done wonders for him.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         He’s just a baller. The kid can play football.

Andrew:                 There you go. I agree with you. I think he plays. Starts Game 1 and plays a ton from there on out. Josh Hammond. I don’t think he’s a starter, but he plays a lot.

Nick:                         Yeah. I think he will play.

Andrew:                 Okay. Vosean Joseph. I think he’s somewhere in between the redshirt to play. I think linebacker is still a spot that’s up in the air, and who knows really what’s going on? So I think he is a redshirt to could possibly play if some guys get hurt.

Nick:                         Probably on that borderline, but I could see him on maybe special teams. I’m not sure. Unless there’s injuries I don’t see him getting a bunch of time at linebacker.

Andrew:                 Right. That’s what I was kind of saying. Kyle Trask. Redshirt, barring a long injury to Del Rio. I see redshirt, and I might still say redshirt with Appleby still doing well.

Nick:                         Yeah. You could. This is probably one of the best examples of what I just said where you don’t have to make that decision for a while.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Just like you said. If Del Rio gets dinged up and misses a quarter, probably go with Appleby. If he gets dinged up and misses one week, probably go with Appleby. If he gets dinged up and is going to miss a month, now you have a decision to make.

Andrew:                 Exactly. Agree completely. It’s kind of like the Treon, Will Grier situation a couple years ago behind Driskel. Had Will Grier not hurt his back, who knows if he would have played over Treon, but that situation kind of fixed itself. As they say in baseball, a situation with pitching always takes care of itself. Same thing with quarterbacks, usually figures itself out. CJ McWilliams is redshirting with a torn ACL. Feliepe Franks. I think he redshirts. I think Trask was ahead of him. I don’t see a scenario where Feliepe Franks doesn’t redshirt.

Nick:                         Franks will redshirt.

Andrew:                 Freddie Swain. I think plays a lot, like Josh Hammond. I think he’s a guy that will play a ton, and won’t start, but play a lot.

Nick:                         Agreed.

Andrew:                 Okay. Perine. I think he plays a ton. I’ve said from Day 1, he doesn’t redshirt. You don’t redshirt running backs unless you have to. I think he plays a lot.

Nick:                         Like you said, you don’t redshirt running backs. He’ll probably play on special teams. He’ll be on the travel roster. He’s a guy that you’ll probably see carry the ball on the first game too.

Andrew:                 He’s going to carry the ball in Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, and so on down the road. Go ahead and mark it down. McArthur Burnett. He plays, because he has to.

Nick:                         Has to. It might be, there are a bunch of guys, especially in the secondary, that you wouldn’t want playing this year, or wouldn’t need playing this year, but you’re going to have to, because of your numbers.

Andrew:                 Right. I think Burnett’s going to be fine, and I think he’s a guy that’s going to play some special teams as well. I think the biggest thing for him is just continuing to get better and not letting any failures on the field this year affect him, because he is going to struggle some.

Nick:                         How do you handle that? Because you’re not coming from a position in high school where you had to deal with that a lot.

Andrew:                 Right. Quincy Litton is redshirting with a foot injury. Safety Jawaan Taylor. Plays, because he has to, and I think he’s done enough that I think he’s ready to play.

Nick:                         Yeah. Coaches have all been pretty positive about him. I’m sure you’ve gotten good feedback about him. Does he start at safety? No. If something happens to Marcus Maye do I think that Florida will just ride out with Nick Washington and Marcell Harris? No. I think you try to figure out Chauncey Gardner. Can Jawaan play? Another guy that will play on special teams too.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Exactly. David Reese is going to play a lot at linebacker. We’re agreeing on that?

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 Okay. Jordan Smith, defensive line. Redshirt.

Nick:                         Yeah. Remember that picture we saw of Eddie kicking the field goal?

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Do you put Smith on special teams? He’s a guy that can probably play all special teams and be your kick block guy.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but I don’t know. For a defensive end like him that can gain weight I think it’s better to redshirt, so I’m going to stick with he’s going to redshirt.

Nick:                         Okay. I think the only way you would see him would be on special teams. Then you’re making a decision. Is it important enough in our minds to have him play special teams and that be one of his years of eligibility?

Andrew:                 Right, and it’s much different for defensive ends. You can redshirt those guys. Jeremiah Moon. He’s gotten bigger, and I do, I think he plays, and I’m going to be honest, I think he plays a ton, because of Daniel McMillian not being great at outside linebacker.

Nick:                         I don’t know. Maybe you’re more tuned into this than I am, but I just I don’t know if I see it yet.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing for me. He’s 6’4”, 225, okay? He’s long, athletic, can rush the passer on 3rd down, which we know is the easiest thing to do, rush the passer. My thing for him is this, and it might be more that I’m not believing Daniel McMillian can succeed there. So it might be more of that, but my thing is this, and that is he’s going to be a better pass rusher than McMillian. I’ve seen him be a better coverage guy than McMillian. How is his pickup of the game? Has he learned the game, the playbook, enough? Has the game slowed down enough for him? That’s the biggest question in my mind.

Nick:                         That’s tough, especially at linebacker.

Andrew:                 Especially as a guy who’s at outside linebacker, where you’re now reading motions. You’re now reading backs, that kind of stuff. I’m going to say Moon plays, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he took a redshirt. Moon’s another guy that can play all your special teams.

Nick:                         Right. I think there’s where I would not be surprised. To me, him playing this year, I can absolutely see it on special teams.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         I just don’t know if I seem him getting at ton of time on defense.

Andrew:                 Okay. Brett Heggie, I think redshirts.

Nick:                         I think so, unless you get into a situation where you absolutely need him.

Andrew:                 Right. Jawaan Taylor, the offensive linemen, plays a lot. Might be a starter by the end of the year.

Nick:                         Yeah. He will play a lot. I see him as the sixth offensive lineman right now.

Andrew:                 Yes. Stone Forsythe is redshirting.

Nick:                         Redshirt.

Andrew:                 Rick Wells. Redshirting. Well, I say redshirting. I don’t know if he redshirts. I say that, I don’t know. He could redshirt, but then again he could play a lot on special teams. I don’t think you see him very much at receiver.

Nick:                         Man. You just ran through the gamut there.

Andrew:                 Why?

Nick:                         You were like, redshirt. I don’t know if he redshirts. He might. I don’t know if he does.

Andrew:                 Here’s my thing. The reason I backed off of redshirting is he’s a guy that you can get on a lot of special teams, because he’s a fast receiver, but then again it’s like one of those deals where he could really use a redshirt, especially now that his hamstring’s bothering him, that kind of stuff. I’m going to stick with redshirt.

Nick:                         I’m going to say not redshirt. Also not really a huge factor, but not redshirt.

Andrew:                 Tyrie Cleveland’s going to play.

Nick:                         Yes. Maybe.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Antonneous Clayton is going to play.

Nick:                         Yes.

Andrew:                 Jachai Polite. I think ends up getting some playing time. I think you play him because of this. You play him to get him some experience at defensive tackle for next season.

Nick:                         That’s true. Kind of like what happened with Davis last year where he just kind of shows up late. You tell him, we’re not going to redshirt you, but you’re also not playing until you’re ready.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. Here’s the thing. At defensive tackle for him, he’s a bigger guy, he’s not going to get pushed around, so if he knows what he’s doing he could get some good minutes inside.

Nick:                         He’s a big boy.

Andrew:                 He is a monster. He is a guy that I would not want to be, and the thing is he’s one of those guys that his personality on the field does not meet his personality off the field. Nice guy off the field. On the field, he’s a big old mean boy. So that’s all the freshmen, Nick. It’s one of those deals where we say all that, easily could be flipped in a heartbeat by either an injury or simply when the lights come on they’re a better player than they are on the practice field. I mean, there’s several guys, you have a guy come in and do well against U Mass, earns him playing time for the Kentucky game, and who knows what goes on after that? Lot of guys that I think are in that mold that redshirts that who knows? They may end up playing a ton.

Nick:                         Yeah. Anything can happen as far as injuries or underperforming. You can get to a point where so-and-so’s not getting the job done, get in there. See what we can do. Player might look at the coach like, that wasn’t the plan. That’s kind of why you don’t have to decide on a redshirt until after the year is so that everyone can be ready. It’s not like sorry, before the first game we have to designate this redshirt, so have fun practicing, but you’re done. That’s not the case, and everyone continues to practice like they’re going to play.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Couple of other notes, Nick. I’m kind of looking through the media notes for this game, and Florida was the third youngest team last year. Florida’s going to be young again this year. Here’s a stat that is crazy to me, and it just dawned on me. I’m stupid. I understand that, but Florida has the first time having the same coordinator on offense since 2012.

Nick:                         That’s rough.

Andrew:                 That is very rough, and then Florida, like you said, they lead the nation in opening winning streaks with 26. 17 is the next closest, and that is USC.

Nick:                         They’re putting it on the line against Alabama.

Andrew:                 Yeah, and they are 14th, second in the SEC. It’s going to be a special day for Florida too. Steve Spurrier gets the field named after him. Steve Spurrier Field, or Steve Spurrier/Florida Field, I guess is what you’re going to call it. So that should be a special time for that. Get the season rolling. Get the ball rolling. Get things going, and get U Mass out of the way, and get the Kentucky Wildcats in and get some real game action going on.

Nick:                         That will be interesting to see what Kentucky’s looking like coming in Week 2, but it should be, this first game it might not be the most entertaining. It’s not going to be great football, or maybe a great game, but it is the first opportunity for all of those guys we just talked about, the freshmen, for Joseph Putu.

Andrew:                 Not to mention, Eddie Pinero,

Nick:                         Eddie Pinero, Joseph Putu, all of those guys that it’s just a chance to get it out of the way, that feeling of running out of the tunnel, the nerves that come along with that, being able to play with those nerves, and kind of just feeling it out, and playing a team like U Mass gives you a chance to do that. Kind of like I said earlier, a walkthrough.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. I mean, like we said with Pinero, it’s big for him, because first real game action. I think you will see Mac try to get him a field goal opportunity there. Maybe not a 70 yarder, but definitely a field goal opportunity.

Nick:                         I don’t think a 70 yarder, but like you said, he will.

Andrew:                 Run us through the upcoming schedule media wise, and just kind of what’s coming on tap this week.

Nick:                         Back into game week, so we will have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for media availabilities. Mac on Monday, and players on Monday. Then we’ll get a coach Tuesday and players, and players on Wednesday. Then we’ll get Mac on the SEC teleconference as well Wednesday.

Andrew:                 No Mac on Wednesday this year?

Nick:                         I think it’s just the teleconference.

Andrew:                 Last year it was both.

Nick:                         Maybe it’s both.

Andrew:                 There you go. That’ll be that. We’ll have some good stuff, as always. We’ll have some stuff I’m working on, some recruiting predictions from prospects. They give some stuff. That’s always interesting to see. We’ll have visitors list up, and we’ll have a bunch of stuff. Stay tuned this week. We’ll be back on Wednesday, and next Sunday, or this Friday, we’ll have our buy and sell again. So just stay tuned to us. If you haven’t joined Gator Country, check us out. We had a lot of new members last week, about six people joined after hearing the podcast. If you haven’t got on board yet, come on over. We’ll have plenty of stuff. Game day is really cool for us. Nick and I are both in the game thread. We got a couple of new interns helping us as well, and, of course, the David Bowie photo galleries are always the best. Come check us out. Shoot Nick and I an email, and we can get you a discount if you need it.

Nick:                         We’ll welcome in Matt Vautour. He covers U Mass for the Daily Hamster Gazette. He’ll be in town for the game, so we’ll bring him on Wednesday to talk a little bit of Minute Men football.

Andrew:                 Minute Man football.

Nick:                         Not bad.

Andrew:                 Not bad at all. It’ll be good stuff.

Nick:                         As always, www.GatorCountry.com, all of what Andrew just said. Come and check us out. Also on Facebook, Gator Country. Instagram, TheGatorCountry. Twitter is @GatorCountry, and both of us, @AndrewSpiveyGC, @NickdelaTorreGC.

Andrew:                 Nick, the schedule real quick, they moved it this year. Wednesday is an assistant, and then Coach Mac after practice. So check us out, all those times. We’ll have plenty of stuff. As always, guys, chomp, chomp, and go Braves.

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.