Podcast: Previewing the Florida Gators rivalry game against Georgia

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Andrew: We’ll see. It’s an interesting stat, for sure. You look at those stats, and you say they don’t mean anything to each other. They don’t, but it’s interesting to see, for sure. I say this every year. Don’t predict this game. Don’t bet on this game. Don’t predict this game. Weird things happen. Treon Harris beat Georgia twice.

David: Yeah.

Andrew: Will Muschamp ran the ball like 90% of the time and beat this game twice. This is rivalry game football. Again, Dan Mullen’s play calling in the Vandy game, Dan Mullen’s play calling in the LSU game, the Kentucky game, was borderline bad is the best way to say it, but in these games, he gets himself up for it. I said this before the Alabama game, and I’ll say it again. Dan Mullen, to watch the chess game between Dan Mullen and great football coaches is incredible. I love to see it. I love to see how he matches up with Saban. Florida had no business last year scoring on that Alabama defense like they did in the SEC Championship game. They did. So, we’ll see.

There will be something in this game. There’ll be a wrinkle or something that Mullen sees against this defense that he can do. It’ll be something. It always is. We talk about it, and we can go back to it. It’s either the tight ends or the running back wheel route. He’s done that against Kirby a lot. There’ll be something in this game that he does that will get this offense moving. Will it get it moving enough? We’ll see. Can the defense stop a really good Georgia rushing attack? We’ll see. As far as getting the offense going, the offense will be fine, I think, in this game.

David: I’m not really too worried about offense this game. It’s more the defense that I’m really worried about, especially after last week giving up 321 rushing yards to LSU. I know that some players came out and said they were just following the gameplan. Some of them were upset. Who knows? Obviously, Todd Grantham is going to have a different gameplan after the LSU drubbing that happened last week. But I’m not worried about offense as much this game.

I am worried about who trots out there at quarterback starting the game. I think Dan Mullen is pretty smart, and even though we’re pissed off at Dan Mullen right now, and he says things in his press conferences that we don’t like, he’s not going to give anything away. I think he’s smart enough to know that Anthony Richardson gives him the best chance to win this football game. I can’t say that without a shadow of a doubt. I think he’s going to start. If he doesn’t start Anthony Richardson right off the bat, I think he’s going to at least put Emory in there for a little bit, and Anthony Richardson will probably play the rest of this game.

Andrew: I don’t know. Personally, if I was a betting man, I’d say Emory comes out for the first snap of the game. I think Anthony ends up taking more snaps than Emory does. It’ll be interesting to see. I know Anthony Richardson’s taken a little bit more of the first team reps this week than he has in the past, so that’ll be interesting to see, obviously. It really depends on the game, the flow of the game, in my opinion. I say that in if Emory comes out hot, you ride it. You ride the hot hand. If he comes out, and he goes really slow, then you have to get him out and get Anthony in. We’ll see just kind of how the quarterback play goes early on. When Emory gets hot, he can do it. He can win you a football game. But when Emory gets rattled, that’s when it’s bad.

If Anthony comes out early on and struggles, then you’ve got to go with Emory a little bit. You’ve got to go into this game thinking whatever quarterback at that particular time gives you the best chance to win that series you got to go with. It may be where we look at the end of the game, and it’s 50/50, but if Florida gets the win, not a soul is going to care about it.

David: If he rolls out Emory, and Emory can drive the football down the field and score, and if he rolls him out there again, I’m not going to be opposed to that. But when you see Anthony Richardson, just the film comes off the tape, and it’s just like this guy is elite. He’s amazing. At the same time, I’m kind of the same way. If there’s a hot hand out there, and Dan Mullen said it. He’s going to roll with the hot hand. He said that last week when he brought Richardson in.

Dan’s not going to give anything away, but I’ll tell you this. Dan Mullen does not like Kirby Smart, and Kirby Smart does not like Dan Mullen. They both want to win this game. The players, they get up for this game. No matter what rank they are, whether you’re #1, unranked, 15, 20, it doesn’t matter. These players get up for this game, and this is an important game to both of these players. It’s all for pride. This game is for pride, no matter where anybody’s ranked. Whether national championship implications are on it or not, these teams both want to win this game, and these coaches want to win this game.

Dan Mullen really, like you said, gets his team up for this game. Both offenses right now, I can’t say that Georgia’s offense is exactly humming, because they get a lot of their points off turnovers, but their offense is pretty average, and that’s all you really need for a good defense like they have that’s only giving up 6.6 points per game. On the board, if you look at offensive points per game, they’re pretty even. Georgia’s at 38.4 average per game. That’s good for 10th. Florida is at 34.4 average points per game. Both offenses evenly across the board.

I know that we’ll get into defenses later, but I want to stay on offense here. Anthony Richardson is putting up elite numbers. LSU drove the ball down the field four times, four touchdowns, 13 minutes. I don’t see a part of this game where you don’t stick Anthony Richardson in for some drives, two, three, four drives. I just don’t think it’s going to be a 50/50 game. I think you’re going to see more Anthony Richardson than you do Emory Jones.

Andrew: Again, I think it just depends on how the game flow goes. I say that, and I know people do not want to hear it, and I get it. I get it. Anthony Richardson has looked better at a lot of times, and I get that. I understand that. I also will say that it depends on how the game goes. I say that just for the simple fact that I get that you’re not exactly playing for anything in this game. I get all that, but at the same time, you want to win this football game for a couple reasons. Knock off the #1 team in Georgia. Put a knock into their ability to go to the playoffs, even though that’ll still be there. On the recruiting trail, when you’re going to face Georgia, you can also go out and say, we beat Georgia.

Like you said, Dan Mullen and Kirby Smart, there’s no love lost between the two. Zero. Again, I think that Florida’s gameplan has got to be to go in there, and I don’t think you can go in there and try to run the ball down Georgia’s throat. I just don’t see that happening. For one, Georgia’s too stout up front. You’re going to have to get creative. Now, the good thing for Florida is this. You’re not facing a Georgia offense that’s overly explosive. They’re a good offense. They’re more of a running offense, for sure, this season. You have the question marks with JT Daniels. You have the question mark with Stetson Bennett. Who’s going to play? There’s some talk that they may split a little bit. We’ll see where that goes as well. You’re not exactly scared of Georgia’s offense. Maybe you are. It depends. If the LSU defense shows up, then you are scared.

Again, you go into this game, and you’re going to find a weakness. Obviously, Mullen’s a lot smarter than me when it comes to the offense and calling it. He sees a lot of it, more than I do. Again, the wheel routes have been very good for Florida against Georgia, against Kirby Smart. They’ve been very good against Alabama, and Nick and Kirby run a pretty similar style of defense. Your stand pass is going to be there. I think if you’re going into this game you’re going to definitely look at some speed option with either Emory or Anthony, whoever it may be. I think you’re definitely going to look at some swing passes to the tailback there. It wouldn’t shock me at all if you see more of the jet sweeps come in with a Cope or a Whittemore, that kind of stuff.

The key in this game is to get the ball fastest outside of the tackle box. You’ve got to get it outside the tackle box. You’ve got to make the secondary for this Georgia team, who is improved, make the plays and win the ballgame. You cannot allow Georgia’s front seven to win this football game, because if you do, they will win the football game. That’s how good they are. That’s why Kentucky struggled there. Kentucky tried to line up, which it’s what Kentucky does, line up there.

Another key for me is this. You’ve got to make Georgia respect that you can throw it over their heads. You’ve got to make them respect. If not, you allow nine guys in the box every time in this game, it’s going to be a long day for this offense.

David: That’s where Anthony Richardson brings a big dynamic to the table. He can throw it deep. We’ve seen it. He can throw intermediate routes really quick. We’ve seen it. And the guy can run. He can run a 4.4, and if you put in some designed run plays, you can probably be able to rush the ball as well. Like you said, you’re not running up the middle on this defensive line of Georgia. I don’t see it. Jordan Davis is a monster, and they got all monsters lined up on that defensive line. I don’t see it.

You were talking about rushing yards right now. Georgia is rushing 193.1 yards on average each game, which is 36th in the nation. Florida is still third in the nation in rushing the football at 254.6 yards per game. That’s pretty ridiculous, considering that we haven’t really been able to run the ball the past couple of games against Kentucky and LSU. Well, LSU we kind of had success with the run, and I don’t know why we kind of got away from that. I guess because we got too far behind.

You’re looking at that, and you’re like, Florida was really running the ball really well at the beginning of the season. Even against Alabama they were doing pretty well. Then it kind of tapered off a little bit. I think the main reason why is, and I hate to say-- Nay’Quan Wright, I love Nay’Quan Wright. Good all-around running back. Malik Davis, he’s been hurt. I want to see more Dameon Pierce. I think Dameon Pierce is the best running back on this team right now starting, all-around, power. He has some decent wheels too. I didn’t realize how much wheels he had until I watched that LSU game.

But you’re also going to have to get these running backs catching passes out of the backfield. I think that’s what you can burn Georgia on as well. If you look at the Auburn game, so many guys open in the backfield for Auburn and Bo Nix, and they dropped the football. Lots of drops from Auburn receivers. Georgia hasn’t been tested in their secondary that much. They played teams like Arkansas, who can’t throw the ball really well.

You know what, here. I compiled a stat here. Season quarterback stats from UGA opponents. Each QBR: 38.6, 46.0, 34.8, 17.7, 71.6, and 72.3. Those are all the QBRs from the quarterbacks that Georgia has played this season. I averaged up all the QBRs from Florida and Georgia. Florida’s average QBR rating that they’ve faced all year is a 58.7, and that’s from all the quarterbacks in seven games. Georgia’s, 40.1. Georgia really honestly, on paper, if you average it out, really hasn’t played really good quarterbacks. Bo Nix, we’ve seen him. He’s okay. He’s not great. He’s not elite. Kentucky’s quarterback, I didn’t think he was that good, to be honest. I never thought Kentucky’s offense was that good, to be honest. Really, what offenses or quarterbacks has Georgia played all year? None.

Andrew: Yeah. You can break that down. Listen, I get it. The stats are the stats. They tell a lot.

David: I’m giving some hope here. Some hope.

Andrew: With Kentucky, you did not expect them to pass the ball. Arkansas got down huge. Auburn got down, so you had to go there. Obviously, it’s like any big game that you play in. You have to win the three phases of the game. You cannot have dropped passes, especially on big plays. You cannot turn the ball over. Again, that’s the easiest way for Georgia to take over this football game. That’s the easiest way for Florida to get turnovers and get some short field and have three or four-play drives. I don’t know that you can have multiple 12, 14-play drives against this defense. I don’t think that that’s going to happen. Maybe I’m completely wrong. I just don’t. I think, again, if you can get some short fields and have three, four, five-play drives, it’s a lot easier, obviously.

You’ve got to win the three phases of the game there. Again, you’ve got to find a way to get outside the box for this team. You’ve got to get outside that front seven there. You cannot allow their interior guys mainly to take over the game, and then you’ve got to make those DBs respect it. You cannot allow those DBs to creep in and become extra tacklers, extra defenders in the running game. If you do that, you’re going to have a long day.

I think that’s a big key early on, and it would not even surprise me if Dan didn’t come out and try to let the air out of the ball a little bit early and try to throw it deep a little bit and show Georgia’s secondary, Emory or Anthony can throw it over your head, and if you don’t respect it, it’ll be a long day for you. We know Cope can go get it. We know Whittemore can go get it. Ja’Quavion Fraziars has shown he can get it, and Xzavier Henderson has the speed to do it, so you can do that. It comes off play action, because if Anthony Richardson is in, Georgia’s obviously going to challenge him to throw the ball. If Emory is in, they’re definitely going to challenge him to throw the ball, because he hasn’t shown the ability, and he hasn’t been allowed the ability to throw the ball over 20 yards.

Whoever it is has got to make sure that they use the entire field and make sure that they keep it outside the box as much as possible. Make Georgia’s defensive ends, who have struggled in the past keeping contain, make those guys play assignment football. If it does, they do start playing assignment football, that’s when you can start hitting the plays like LSU did, where you start allowing that defensive end to come up, and you hit your counter through there, and you have a long day there.

Again, it’ll be interesting to see where Dan goes. Again, the chess match he does is always fun. I want to flip it though. Defensively.

David: Let’s go defense.

Andrew: You’ve got to, got to, got to make Georgia put it in the air. You’ve got to. If you allow Georgia to sit on the ball, take the air out, and hand if off to their running backs of Cooke and Zamir White and Kendall Milton, if you allow those guys to take over the game and just sit there and run and run and run all day, like you did against LSU, it’s going to be a long game. If you make Bennett, and you make JT Daniels put it in the air, I think good things can happen there. They haven’t shown the ability to throw consistently all year. Bennett has a noodle of an arm, about like Max Johnson. We’ll see how healthy JT Daniels is. He’s had an upper shoulder injury, so can he do it? I don’t know.

That is not going to happen unless you can go in and shut this running game down. We’ve seen in the past where when teams started running against them it hasn’t been able to be stopped. Seen it in the LSU game. You’ve got to figure that out. You’ve got to figure out your middle linebacker play. Is it going to be Moon and Diabate? Is Hopper going to get some play there? Is Wingo maybe going to get some play there? You’ve got to get some bodies in the middle of that defense to stop this running game and not allow them just to run the ball, because that’s what they want to do. They want to run the ball and play good defense.

David: You don’t think that they’re watching tape from last week and how you couldn’t counter the counter play?

Andrew: Right.

David: They’re going to be trying to run the ball, and that’s their bread and butter anyway. Let’s be honest. Stetson Bennett went through a game where I think he only threw 73 yards. It was the Arkansas game. They beat the crap out of Arkansas, because they could run the ball down their throat and play good defense and special teams.

Andrew: Wow.

David: Four averaged missed tackles per game. Yeah. Those players are fast. They’re gripping onto you, and they’re taking you down. That’s why Georgia’s defense is so good, because they don’t miss tackles. They cause turnovers. They don’t allow anybody to throw the football. They don’t even give time to people to throw the football, and that’s where this offensive line is going to have to come in too.

This offensive line is going to have to give the quarterback some kind of time to throw the football, if we’re ever going to throw the football deep. Here lately, the offensive line has been a little shaky. Some of the offensive line stats I did run yesterday, they haven’t given up that many quarterback sacks, primarily because our quarterbacks are dual-threats, or quarterback hits.

Andrew: I think the biggest thing for him is having a guy like Stewart Reese, who’s a little bit of a veteran, to the right of him. I know Stewart’s struggled some this year, but having that veteran presence beside him has helped him a lot. I think the biggest thing for me is what is the health of Gouraige and Ethan White? Both of them are scheduled to play in this game, but what are the health? You look at Gouraige in the LSU game, and BJ Ojulari just dominated him. That wasn’t happening early on. Gouraige has struggled some this year, but that hasn’t happened, so what is his health? He’s had almost 14 days now to rehab and get ready, to rest a little bit.

The same thing with Ethan White. You need that side of your line to be good, especially Ethan, Kingsley, and Stewart, when you talk about Jordan Davis and the other guys that Georgia have up the middle that’s going to cause some problems if you allow them to cause problems. The health and the depth. You’re going to need Braun. You’re going to need Michael Tarquan. You’re going to need some depth in this game to go.

Again, we look at this, and I said it myself. I’m a victim of this, or I’m not a victim of it, but I’m saying this as well. They have to get outside the box, but if White and those guys can just come out with that fire that they had in the Alabama game, that they had early on in the season and get some little bit of a run, then you could open more things up. You’ve got to come out with that fire in your eyes and that I want to whip you kind of mindset ahead of you. If they can do that, then you open up a new ballgame. Like you said, you’ve got to give whoever it is, whether it’s Emory, whether it’s Anthony, whoever it may be, you’ve got to give those guys some time to allow those routes. You can’t play deep ball if you only have one second to throw a ball. That happened a little bit in the LSU game.

Whatever it may be that they’ve got to do to keep this Georgia defensive line off of the quarterback, they’re going to have to do it. Whether that’s going to more almost this three receivers running a route, three guys in a route, and that’s keeping a tight end or keeping your tailback in pass pro, whatever it may be. You’re going to have to do that to give your quarterback more time to throw the ball and to throw it deep. Again, I think whoever can take the top off of this defense is going to be successful.

David: Another key to this game that worries me about Georgia, they’ve blocked a lot of kicks. Special teams. Special teams for Georgia is pretty good. They’ve got some pretty good special teams guys.

Andrew: I heard a stat the other day that they missed their first PAT against Auburn in something like six years or something.

David: Six years?

Andrew: Yeah. It was like 500 and some PATs in a row they had made before they missed a PAT in the Auburn game.

David: That’s some pretty good kicking. It is pretty easy to kick a PAT though, you would think.

Andrew: You think about it. That’s having zero blocks, zero shanks. That’s a lot of things going your way, and think about all the kickers they’ve went through. I think it was four kickers they had been through in that time. That’s pretty good. I’m with you that you have to protect field goal, field goal block. You’ve got to punt the ball well and then go cover it. It’d be nice to get some run on punt return, to get a little bit on kick return. It’d be nice to get a little bit of that. You’ve had a bye week to look at that stuff. When you have a bye week, you can definitely look at special teams and look at what’s working and what’s not working. Like any big game, if you can’t win special teams, you’re probably not going to win. You look at the Alabama game. Special teams was the difference in that ballgame.

David: I look at special teams. I’ve harped on it all year. I’ll harp on it a little bit more this podcast. If you look at special teams, and I’m wondering if Dan Mullen is going to do something this week on special teams, if he’s going to switch some staff up, just to see if maybe. You got two five-star running backs sitting there on the bench. I’m hoping he uses them, or even Fenley Graham. I’m hoping we’ll see something different on kickoff returns, even punt returns. I don’t know.

To me, I put it into an analogy for somebody. I said, it’s like when you got that 40 or 50 or 60-year-old guy that’s in his midlife crisis, and he goes out, and he buys a sportscar, like a Corvette, a Z06 Corvette. That’s like 700, 800 horsepower. Then he goes out on the street and just drives it 40 miles an hour everywhere. You’ve got all that horsepower, and it’s just sitting there going to waste. You’ve got all that horsepower on the bench. It’s sitting there going to waste. Put it out there on special teams. We need somebody quick. No offense to Henderson. He doesn’t look that fast out there. We already saw what the Ja’Markis Weston experiment was. We don’t want to see that again. Let’s see if we can get some different people out there returning kicks and maybe throw this Georgia team off balance, not thinking that we’re going to make something happen on special teams. Now, I know Georgia likes to kick it out of the endzone a lot, but it would be nice to see some different staff on special teams.

Andrew: Yeah. I think that’s the key too though is that the ability to return on kick return is pretty much gone nowadays, with all the new rules of the blindside block, and also being able to fair catch it anywhere and still get the ball on the 25. All that stuff that goes into protecting and making the game safer and everything else you want to make of the game. Listen, I love kick return, but that’s neither here nor there. It kind of dilutes that a little bit. Obviously, you can find some areas to make those plays there, but I think the biggest thing is punt return. That’s not losing yards by allowing the ball to bounce and just roll. Also gaining a little bit. There’s many times where Florida will have it, and they’ll run back and forth to try to make things happen. You got to have that there.

The biggest thing to me is just on punt too. You saw it a couple times where the ball should be down at the one or the two, and it hasn’t happened. It’s went in the endzone, because guys either weren’t looking or didn’t make it down there in time or shanked punts. You’ve had a couple of those. You can’t have that happen. You’ve got to make Georgia drive the length of the field as much as you can. Field position wins a lot of ballgames. Field position can be big in this game as well when you talk about how good Georgia’s defense is and how Florida’s offense has been inconsistent at being able to drive the ball.

Kickoff as well. You can’t have any balls on kickoff that go out of bounds. That’s just free yards that you’re just giving away.

David: Something else Florida’s been inconsistent on, and I hate this stat with a passion, just because we suck so bad in it. Turnover margin per game. Georgia +.4 per game at 35th in the nation. Florida -1 at 119th in the nation. I know it’s because of Emory Jones’ nine interceptions, but there’s no reason why Florida should be ranked 119th in the nation in total turnover margin. These are things that swing games. Special teams play is something people don’t really think about. Turnovers really swing the game. Obviously, you can stop the offense and get your offense back on the field quick. I want to see some kind of turnovers from this Florida defense.

Andrew: Yeah. You’ve got to. You’ve got to figure out ways. Obviously, having the offense turn the ball over some has not helped the turnover margin. Having the seven or nine interceptions on the year, you can’t have that happen. You can’t. You only have six takeaways, and so, like you said, you’re minus 7. You cannot have that happen and expect your turnover margin to be good. If your offense isn’t turning the ball over much, you’re probably going to have a good turnover ratio. You haven’t seen a lot of guys being able to get to the quarterback and force either an errant throw or being able to hit the quarterback to where the ball goes just straight up in the air or whatever. Then you haven’t seen a lot of guys really wrapping up and trying to strip the ball. Obviously, you haven’t been wrapping up period, because it’s been kind of tough to wrap up with all the missed tackles, like you said. You’ve got to figure out ways.

Obviously, in a rivalry game with a lot of emotion in this game, you get a turnover or two, and that can swing the momentum in a heartbeat. Like I said, if you can get some short fields for Florida, you’re really good. You’re in really good shape. Then vice versa, if you give Georgia short fields, just like in the Alabama game, they’re going to cash it in, and you’re going to be back to square one of having to go 75 yards against a good Georgia defense.

David: Absolutely. I agree, man. For all those guys out there that don’t like Todd Grantham, Todd Grantham can redeem himself this game.

Andrew: Listen, I’m on the Todd Grantham bandwagon of this has got to stop as well. I think there’s a lot of things, and we’ll get into this later on of why he struggles, in my opinion. I think there’s too many tweeners. But at times, Todd calls a good game. At times, he calls a game where you just want to scratch your head and say, are you watching the football game that I’m watching? Are you playing Madden and thinking something else?

I don’t know what that fix is, because you don’t have a middle linebacker. Diabate and Moon are not middle linebackers. They’re both rush outside linebackers. They just are what they are. You’ve got to figure out a way to get some bodies there. It was concerning a little bit in the LSU game where the defensive tackles just did not get any pressure or push, whatever it may be. You didn’t see Gervon Dexter play a lot in that game. You didn’t see big Des play a lot in that game. Maybe that’s the fix. Valentine, Truesdale, and who am I missing? Newkirk. None of those three guys really had much of an impact in the LSU game.

David: No, they didn’t.

Andrew: You need your defensive tackle to have an impact in this game. Obviously, Trey Dean and Rashad Torrence are going to have a lot of tackles at that safety position, but you want your middle linebacker. This is a game where Ventrell Miller would put up 15 tackles with ease. You’ve got to figure out a way to replace that.

David: Diwun Black, didn’t he play linebacker a little bit too?

Andrew: Yeah. Again, he’s undersized. He’s undersized for a middle linebacker. Really the only guy that I think is big enough to play middle linebacker is Wingo, and there’s been a lot of trust issues of him playing out there a ton in meaningful minutes. Did you get that fixed during the bye week? I think not. We’ll see there. The thing for Georgia is their running backs can run too out of the backfield and catch the ball from the backfield, so you’ve got to be able to stop that as well. You can’t just focus on that. We saw that a couple years ago where the tight ends and running backs were the leading receivers for a Georgia team, especially when Stetson Bennett’s in the game, and he’s not wanting to throw the ball deep. And screen passes. Can’t forget screen passes with a Kirby Smart team.

David: Screen passes in the flats, where Florida has struggled pretty much all year, which is not a good thing. There is hope.

Andrew: Like I said before, this is a game that you can throw records. You can throw rankings. You can throw everything out the door. These are two teams that absolutely hate each other. I would say they probably hate each other a little more than Florida-Florida State, especially with the way Florida State is struggling. I definitely think that these coaching staffs hate each other more. They love to rile each other up on the trail, the recruiting trail that is.

Here’s the thing. Everyone, including myself, we question, and we’re wondering where the focus is for Mullen. I don’t think Mullen’s checked out. Let me say that. People are saying he’s checked out. I don’t think he’s checked out. It’s tough to check out as a head football coach at a big-time program, unless you’re just a loser, and I don’t think Dan Mullen’s that. So, it’s going to be interesting to kind of see where everyone is as a team. Again, you’re playing Georgia, who’s your biggest rival right now. You can throw Florida State out the window. They’re not winning very much. Tennessee’s not winning very much. LSU is a rival, but still Georgia’s your biggest rival right now.

You’ve got to figure out a way to play your best game on Saturday. You’ve got to come out the gate sharp. Can’t have one of those slow starts like you’ve had against Bama, where you’re looking at 21-0. If you’re looking at 21-0, it’s going to be bad news, most likely. The Alabama game only happens every so often. You’ve got to figure out a way to come out, and you’ve got to figure out a way to play for pride. While you’re not playing for an SEC Championship, you’re not playing for a National Championship this year, you’ve got to find a way to come out with pride. Play for that Gator on your front, and play for that name on your back.

For the coaching staff, there’s a lot of guys to be played for. If Todd Grantham is not back next year, he’s playing for a job next year. If Christian Robinson is not back as linebacker coach, if David Turner is not back as defensive line coach, they’re playing for jobs. You’re playing for something. You’re always playing for something, unless you’re retiring and going home, which then you want to play to go out on a high note. You’re playing for something. How you respond in that first quarter is going to be big after a bye week.

David: You definitely can’t go 14 points down, like you did last year, because you don’t have Kyle Trask passing the ball. You don’t have Kadarius Toney and Kyle Pitts and that tandem out there that could score 40 points per game. Now, you do have Anthony Richardson. We don’t know how good he is. We’ve seen him against LSU. We’ve seen him against mediocre to bad defenses. This will be the toughest defense that he faces all year. Granted, he’s looked pretty elite.

Andrew: We have to see how he’s going to bounce back. If he has an early turnover, how does he bounce back?

David: Yeah. He’s a young kid, so how is it going to rattle him if he comes out on the first drive and throws a pick? How is it going to rattle him? How is it going to rattle me as a fan? I’m the one that has to keep calm, or he’s the one that has to keep calm. I don’t have to. How’s it going to rattle me as a fan? We’ll see.

Andrew: Here’s the thing too. I’m not one of those, I don’t believe the team has picked a side or picking sides at quarterback. If you told Jacob Copeland, and I’m using him for an example, because he’s a receiver, that you’re going to go out there and win the game with Emory Jones, you’re going to go out there and win the game with Anthony Richardson. He probably says, I don’t give a crap. Whoever is going to win me the football game, and whoever can get the ball to me. That’s probably what he’s going to say. So, I don’t think that there’s that.

I want to see the energy level to be up like it was late in the second half of that LSU game, where guys are bouncing around, where guys are ready to go. Whether that’s Emory in the game, whether that’s Anthony Richardson in the game, whoever that may be in the game, I want to see it. I want to see the different sets too. You can bet your money there’s going to be some different formations, some different sets in this game that we haven’t seen, and it’s going to happen. There’s going to be a two running back situation out there. Heck, there may be a situation where Richardson and Emory are out there together. It wouldn’t shock me a bit if they were, if both of those guys didn’t start the first play of the game, so Mullen could say, both of them started, so what do you want?

David: Like I said, Dan doesn’t give anything away. I don’t understand why people are always still concerned about what he says in a press conference, because it’s all lies anyway. He’s going to start who he thinks the best is going to be.

Andrew: It’s coach talk.

David: It’s coach talk.

Andrew: You don’t want to give away your quarterback, who you’re going to play. Kirby Smart didn’t want to give it away, and I don’t blame him. Make them both play and prepare. Georgia and Kirby Smart know the same thing we do, and that is Anthony Richardson in the LSU game looked better than Emory. Then you can look back at that Alabama game and say, Emory looked pretty good. You’ve got to prepare for both. Again, this football team on Saturday is going to need Emory Jones just as much as they need Anthony Richardson. I know most people don’t want to say that, and I know most people don’t want to admit that, but I think both of those guys are keys to Florida winning the football game on Saturday.

David: There was a stat floating around. I think Dave Waters posted it. Jacob Copeland’s production when Emory Jones is at quarterback and Jacob Copeland’s production when Anthony Richardson is at quarterback, and the numbers were very vastly different. I know that you’ve said that some of the receivers, they’ve been quiet all year. They can’t separation. I think they’re getting separation. They’re just not getting the football. That’s just me. I don’t know. I just know Anthony Richardson is your best vertical passing quarterback, especially on the left and the right sides of the field.

Andrew: See, this is where I’m at a little bit too. Again, I’m not team Anthony, and I’m not team Emory. I’m team whoever wins the football game. I still don’t think Dan’s cut Emory loose to throw the ball down the field. I don’t. I don’t think that he has that. We’ll definitely see that. Anthony is going to get tested on Saturday. Anthony is going to show whether or not he can handle it. He is. He’s going to have that opportunity in this game. There is zero doubt in my mind that both quarterbacks play and play a good bit in this game. I don’t know that it’s 50/50 or 60/40. I don’t know. I think both quarterbacks are going to play in this game, and both quarterbacks are going to have something designed for them when they’re in the game that is different, to take advantage of whatever it may be for Georgia.

You can bet that Georgia’s going to have something defensively. They’re going to twist stunt, move guys around, and blitz differently when Anthony Richardson is in the game, because he’s a young quarterback who hasn’t seen it as much. You’re going to see different things with Emory in the game.

David: Good news about that. Quarterback sack per game. Florida and Georgia are actually neck and neck. Georgia’s 4th. UF is 5th. Averaging .7 and .6 sacks per game between both of them. We’re not allowing a lot of quarterback sacks, and neither is Georgia. Something’s got to give here. Maybe nothing gives. Maybe both defensive and offensive lines just play really well, and there’s just a stalemate at the line of scrimmage every play, and then we just get a fair quarterback play game. Who knows?

Andrew: Maybe. Let’s go pick some players. It’s been two weeks. I’ll let you go first this week. Let’s pick some guys.

David: You’re going to put me on the spot. You know what, I am going to go ahead and pick old Kingsley. He’s been playing really well on the offensive line. He was #1 in pass blocking efficiency and total pressures allowed. I’m going to pick Kingsley Eguakum, and I hope I said that name right. If I didn’t, you can tag me on Twitter and virtually slap me in the face.

Andrew: There you go. I think I’m going to go with a running back. I’m going to go Dameon Pierce this week.

David: Yes.

Andrew: I think it’s a Georgia game for him. It’s a big Georgia game for him. He’s a Georgia native himself. Last game for him against his rival. I’m going to go with Dameon Pierce. I think Dameon, if the running backs are going to get going, it’s going to be Dameon Pierce.

David: I am going to go with Kemore Gamble. I saw a lot of plays where Kemore Gamble was open in that LSU game, and sometimes he didn’t get the ball, but when Anthony Richardson was in that game, he got it. He got open. I’m going to go with Kemore Gamble. Even last year against that Georgia defense, boy got open out there after Kyle Pitts was injured. I’m going to go ahead and give a guy that maybe not a lot of people are looking at. I’m giving Kemore Gamble my second pick here.

Andrew: I’m going to go with a guy on defense in Trey Dean, another Georgia native. You’re going to have opportunities at safety to make plays in the running game. You’re going to have opportunities in this game in the passing game. They’re going to test you across the middle some on RPOs and that kind of stuff across the middle. You’re going to have your opportunities. If Florida’s going to do well in defense, Trey Dean’s going to be a big part of it.

David: I’m going with the man that everybody wants to pick, including me, and that’s Anthony Richardson. That’s my guy. I think Anthony Richardson puts up some points on Georgia, some unexpected points, to be honest, because Georgia never has a quarterback score on them. It’ll be their toughest quarterback that they’ve played with a QBR of 94.7. I’m going to pick Anthony Richardson.

Andrew: I’m going to go with Whittemore. Gainesville kid too. Again, this game is going to be about the little things. Whittemore seems to be in the right spot at the right time a lot of times. You’re going to do different things with Whittemore, whether it’s the jet sweep, whether it’s the stand pass, screen pass, all that different things that you’re going to do. I like Whittemore here. I don’t have a ton of confidence in the deep ball yet to pick a guy like Cope or Henderson or Fraziars, but I think the underneath stuff will be a big focus, and I think Whittemore will be the beneficiary there.

David: I like that pick. Whittemore. Make some plays there. I would love to see some plays from some of these receivers and these tight ends that you just don’t normally see. I think Dan Mullen is going to do it. There’s not a lot of film on those guys. If he can stick those guys out there against that Georgia defense, who knows what will happen?

Andrew: Maybe a little shovel pass to Keon.

David: Yeah. You saw last year. In the game last year, he stuck guys in there that you haven’t even seen. I’m wondering if Whittemore gets another trick pass play.

Andrew: Maybe.

David: He might. There you go. You’re smart on that pick.

Andrew: We’ll see. Let’s pick some games around the country. Decent slate of games. Not overly great, but decent slate. Probably the biggest one, #6 Michigan goes up to Michigan State with Mel Tucker, who is getting a lot of pub for some big jabs. Michigan goes in as a 4-point favorite in the game. It’s at State. What you got?

David: I’ll tell you this. Just going by stats on paper, and I know that stats are one half of the game. The actual eye test is the other half. I’m going to go Michigan. They’re pretty even across the board. I’m not even sure if Michigan is as good as they think they are or what the media thinks they are, but I’ll go Michigan anyway. I think they’re a little bit better team than Michigan State. I could be wrong.

Andrew: I’m going to go with Mel Tucker and Michigan State at home. Harbaugh always finds to lose games that he shouldn’t lose. I feel good on State. I think Mel Tucker is a great coach. I think he’s one of the up and rising guys that we’re going to see. I’m going to go State in this game in a, I guess, mild upset.

David: Oh wow. Michigan State’s got a running back that’s almost rushed 1,000 yards. I didn’t notice that.

Andrew: Pretty good. Again, this is a game that it’s expected to be cold up there. You’re Big Ten football, where you’re going to run it down somebody’s throat. Maybe that’s the case. Good old Lane Kiffin heads up to the plains to take on Auburn in a #10 Ole Miss team versus #18 Auburn Tigers.

David: That’s close. I don’t know.

Andrew: Auburn is a 2.5-point favorite.

David: That’s crazy. That’s crazy to think that. Auburn, I’m going to pick Auburn, because I think they could have gave Georgia a way closer game than what they did. If Auburn’s receivers can catch a football, I will pick Auburn in this game over Ole Miss.

Andrew: Ole Miss is putting up 555 yards total offense a game.

David: That’s crazy.

Andrew: Ole Miss in a landslide. Auburn don’t have the firepower. They don’t have the firepower to keep up. You’ve got to have a great defense to stop Lane. Bama was able to do it, but not anybody else. Ole Miss wins this football game.

David: I don’t know. Ole Miss is giving up almost 30 points per game. Auburn’s giving like 19.7.

Andrew: Penn State, after falling, heads West to take on the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Ohio State’s #5 in the country right now. They’re kind of quietly staying in the mix at #5. A lot of people not talking about them after their loss. What do you got?

David: Ohio State’s going to kill them. Penn State, I watched that game last week, and I’m just not impressed. Ohio State is going to win by 30 points.

Andrew: 30 points. Okay. Let’s see if there’s any other big ones around.

David: Doesn’t look like it.

Andrew: Kentucky heads to Mississippi State. That should be an easy win. Maybe Mike Leech has ate a lot of candy and is fired up.

David: Some gummy bears.

Andrew: The man named off like every Halloween candy out there. Didn’t know if it was a grown man, or if it was my four-year-old over here talking about give me this, give me this gummy. Just I like candy corn. I like this chocolate. You like any candy, Mike. Just go ahead and admit it. It’s okay.

David: There is a good ACC game. Florida State and Clemson. Who wins that battle?

Andrew: That’s right. I forgot about that. That’s at Clemson, right? Or is that down in Tally?

David: It looks like it is.

Andrew: At Clemson.

David: At Clemson.

Andrew: What you got?

David: That’s tough. Clemson’s fell off a little bit. It’s just tough. I will say Clemson will win it with their defense. I just don’t see their offense doing much, but I think they’ll win it with their defense. It is Florida State, so I’m picking Clemson.

Andrew: Clemson is 202nd in the country on offense. 332 yards per game. That’s insane. I think Clemson still wins, but I think it’s a lot closer. Another game that’s got some attention a little bit, Miami and Pitt. Pitt’s #17 in the country.

David: I’m picking Pitt, baby. Pitt. Miami stinks. Miami sucks.

Andrew: At Pitt. Pitt’s got this game.

David: That turnover chain is fool’s gold, man.

Andrew: We’ll see where that goes. It’s Florida-Georgia week. It’s always a good week. We’ll be back Sunday, and we’ll recap, break it all down, and get ready for Carolina up in Carolina. It’s going to be a big one. It’ll be interesting to see where things go with quarterback play this week. You’re at a crossroads of a program right now. We’ll see where things go this week.

David: We will. Spivey, you’ve had a big smile on your face this whole podcast, and I know why, because your Braves are in the World Series. Right now, since we’re recording it here tonight, they’re 1-0.

Andrew: That’s right. 1-0. Good. I was there for Game 6 of the NLCS, by far the best atmosphere I’ve ever seen in my life. Listen, we’re going to break the curse for the state of Georgia of not doing it. We’re going to break it. It’s not going to start back up for the Braves, but it’s going to continue for the Bulldogs. Let’s have a good one. Let’s have Florida, because Florida will play first, have Florida take down Georgia, and then the Braves can take care of business later on Saturday night in Game 3, and the state of Georgia can be okay.

David: That’s it. I love it. Before we end this podcast, got to get it from you. What’s your prediction for the Florida-Georgia game?

Andrew: What’s the thing here? Let me look back here. What’s the spread?

David: 14-point spread.

Andrew: It’s still 14? 14 for Georgia. I’m going to say, everything tells me not to pick the spread. I’m going to say Florida covers the 14. I don’t think that Mullen gets himself blown out of this game. I think Georgia pulls it out late, but I don’t think it’s a 14-point game.

David: Florida wins. 27-24. You heard it here first.

Andrew: Okay. I will go 24-17, Georgia. That’s what I’m going to go with. I think it’s a closer game. Again, Grantham’s had two weeks to hear all of it. I don’t know that even a shutout against Georgia would change people’s mind on what it is.

David: He can redeem himself a little bit.

Andrew: I think things can get a little bit better. Again, I think Georgia has a little bit more firepower, but anything can happen in this game. They don’t cover. I don’t think they cover.

David: Okay. If Grantham has a good showing, he can get a moral victory, because he’s probably still out the door at the end of the year. For Andrew Spivey, you got anything else?

Andrew: No. I think that’s it. Exciting week. Basketball starts next week as well, so we’re excited about that with our man Eric. Things are getting going. It’s always good. The season’s getting down to it, so enjoy the last few games.

David: That’s right. Basketball coming up here in November, and baseball also on the horizon for us Florida Gator fans out here that are probably getting sick and tired of watching a football team, unless they can upset the Georgia Bulldogs here in Jacksonville. That’ll wrap it up, folks, for this episode of the GatorCountry.com podcast. You can follow me @SoderquistGC on Twitter, and you can follow Andrew Spivey @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter as well. That’ll wrap it up, folks, for this episode of the GatorCountry.com podcast. Go Gators.