GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we try and project the Florida Gators football team’s depth chart that will be released on Tuesday.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the depth chart position by position and also take a guess at how many “or’s” will be on the depth chart.
Andrew and Nick also give you some of the latest news around the program heading into the Michigan game on Saturday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, it’s game week, my friend. It’s here. Couple days, and we’re Dallas bound, brother.
Nick: Yeah. How about that? This off season seemed, for me at least, to go by a little quicker. Probably because I had baseball all the way up until about a month and a half ago.
Andrew: Yeah. It did seem a lot quicker. It was busy time for us. Recruiting got hot, and things went by quickly. Was a much shorter off season, but I don’t think you and I will complain about that, because football season’s pretty fun, or pretty cool, as Coach Mac would say.
Nick: Pretty cool. We’ll get into it. Michigan will release their roster in four days, three days, on the 30th.
Andrew: Do we believe that?
Nick: Yeah. I think they’ll release it. If not, then they’ll have to answer that Freedom of Information Act. They’ll release it on their own.
Andrew: Are they going to redact any names?
Nick: Maybe. Maybe put pseudonyms for people.
Andrew: That’s one thing I really don’t get. Anybody can figure out the roster if they really want to, probably 30 minutes, maybe not even 30 minutes, worth of work, and you can figure out the roster. It doesn’t really make sense to me. I understand the depth chart kind of. Once again, most people can figure out the depth chart by just watching last year’s games, and then watching your spring game and plugging it in, and going off of reports and stuff like that.
Nick: We’re not even talking about a depth chart.
Andrew: No. That’s what I’m saying.
Nick: College coaches are so paranoid. I’ve grown accustomed, at least, to not even expecting a depth chart. They’re not going to give me a depth chart, because the world would fall. The sky would fall down if they had to release a depth chart. Just to say who’s on your team?
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying that I get the depth chart. Do I completely understand it? No. I don’t get the roster, because the roster is pretty dumb.
Nick: Yeah. We don’t have a roster yet. What do you mean? You can’t have somebody stand outside of your practice and say, “56, what’s your name? Where are you from?” You don’t know who’s out at practice with you?
Andrew: Hey, Coach Skip, send me your linebackers. Hey, Coach Shannon, send me your safeties. That takes maybe five minutes for them to ask around. I don’t know. Florida did make a little news that they’re going to announce their depth chart on Tuesday. That’ll be interesting. We’ll see what that is. You and I are going to break that down here in a few minutes. We’re going to break down our depth chart, and we’re going to play a little game of how many ors will be on the depth chart.
Nick: There’s going to be a lot. There’s going to be a lot. I’m setting the over/under at 9.5.
Andrew: We’re going to talk about that here in a minute. Let’s kind of recap everything from last week. Kind of a slow week from getting to see stuff, that kind of stuff. Monday they were off because of first day of classes. It was kind of a preliminary game week, I guess is what you would say, to where they had Saturday off to kind of simulate that you’re not going to be practicing on Saturday. Then they’ll start Sunday, we’re taping this on Sunday, with their family dinner, and then get full into game week Sunday night and into Monday.
Nick: Man, Sunday dinner, I would be angry. If I had to go to Sunday dinner tonight I’d say, “Wrap this up, Coach. Game of Thrones is starting. It’s season finale.” I’d eat fast tonight.
Andrew: I don’t even know. I don’t watch it. I couldn’t tell you. Somebody’s going to bash me on Twitter. Nick, you would probably go to Sunday dinner and eat multiple times, because last year it was a run on crabs and steak.
Nick: I might just like run in, grab a couple boxes, and take them back to my house.
Andrew: You would still eat a lot.
Nick: Yeah. I’d eat. I’m always going to eat.
Andrew: That’s kind of that. That’s kind of to wrap up that. Nothing big going on except for the Robinson and Ventrell getting cited. I don’t want to say that it’s no big deal, because it is a big deal that they got cited. 99% of the players around the country it doesn’t even get reported, because the policed don’t say anything. Again, I’m not saying it’s good, because it’s not. It’s definitely not. It’s against the law. You get cited. I’m saying that is it as bad as what happened a couple weeks ago? No.
Nick: Where I stand on it is weed should be legal. It’s kind of legal in the state of Florida. Not legal in the NCAA. To me the big issue is what are you doing if you’re James Robinson? You couldn’t even enroll with the rest of your class, because of marijuana. You send out a tweet saying Jim McElwain stuck his neck out for me, time to repay the favor, something to that effect. What are you doing?
Andrew: I’m with you.
Nick: Less than two months ago you were sitting in a meeting with UF officials to see if you’re even going to be able to get into school, and it comes up again. To me, it’s just dumb. It just shows that there’s an immaturity, selfishness, and it’s just dumb behavior.
Andrew: That’s what I was going to say. It’s dumb. Then turn the table on Ventrell. Ventrell’s suspended from the team. It’s kind of what we said about Callaway. Show that you’ve learned from past mistakes. If you’re Florida …
Nick: Shoot, man. Ventrell’s not playing. He’s going to have a lot of free time on his hands.
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. Don’t show that you’re a knucklehead. Don’t put that per say out there that you’re a knucklehead. Have one mistake. Someone’s going to disagree here when I say this, but Tyrie Cleveland. He had a checkered past, right? He had the one incident, and so far, so good. Knock on wood, he’s done what he’s supposed to do. That’s what you need to do if you’re Ventrell Miller, if you’re any of the seven suspended. If you get that second chance to play ball, learn from it, and go forward.
Again, do I think anything’s going to happen to Robinson? Do I think anything further with Ventrell? No. They probably had some early morning, late night swamp runs up and down the stairs and different things like that. Don’t do it in your dorm room. If you got to do it, don’t do it in your dorm room. You’re going to have some prick RA or prick student walk around who doesn’t like football. I know there’s people like that, that don’t like football, and they’re going to get you. That’s exactly what happened.
Nick: Also, who’s that guy? Who’s walking through a dorm room, “I smell marijuana”? Keep walking, bro. It’s not yours.
Andrew: Then to tell them who it was. I mean, could have walked in and been like, “James, I know you’re smoking marijuana here. Give me some football tickets. I want to be on that player’s list tomorrow for Tennessee. You make that happen tomorrow. You go ahead and tell them I’m going on your pass list, and we’ll call this even.” All joking aside, can’t do that. Good thing is season starts, and most of these guys won’t have as much time on their hands.
Nick, let’s just go for it. Let’s go right at the quarterback position to start the depth chart breakdown. You know you’re going to get the depth chart. I am 99% sure it’s going to have an or on it.
Nick: I’m 100% sure it will have an or. 100% sure. There will be an or at quarterback. He’s not naming a quarterback Tuesday.
Andrew: That’s what I was going to say. Over/under 50% he names a quarterback?
Nick: Under.
Andrew: Me too. I’m saying close to zero.
Nick: He’s not naming a quarterback on Tuesday.
Andrew: I’m thinking he names a quarterback Thursday.
Nick: Good. That’s perfect. I’ll be in Dallas.
Andrew: There you go. Anyway, I’m going to stick with my prediction that Franks is your guy. I think it’s very close with Del Rio. I think it’s an or on there. It probably goes Franks or Del Rio or Zaire. That’s probably how it comes Tuesday.
Nick: That’s how I wrote it down before we started. That’s how I wrote it down. There were two ors. I think Del Rio takes the first snap against Michigan.
Andrew: Okay. Nick and I have not talked about it. I have no idea what’s written on Nick’s thing. I don’t even have it written down. I’m 90% likely going to screw this up some way or another. Running back, I’m pretty positive in saying it’s going to read Scarlett, Perine, Davis. Might have an or for that third guy, but when it comes to Michigan I expect it to be like that.
Nick: I have it written down. First off, over/under. I’m setting the over/under at 9.5 ors on the depth chart.
Andrew: Okay. I have no clue, so I’m keeping count as I go now.
Nick: No. I need you to predict over or under.
Andrew: I don’t know the depth chart yet. I’m going through the depth chart, you moron.
Nick: We just talked about this before the show.
Andrew: You wrote it down.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: I didn’t.
Nick: You were supposed to.
Andrew: I didn’t even know what you were talking about.
Nick: Unbelievable. Running back, Scarlett, Perine, Thompson or Davis.
Andrew: What now? Say that one more time.
Nick: Scarlett. Perine. Thompson or Davis.
Andrew: Okay. There’s two ors. I was keeping count, so that I can make my prediction at the end. I’m going to say that it’s Scarlett, Perine, Davis or Thompson as well. It’s or, because Thompson is a senior, and he’s returning. In reality, there is no or, so cross that out.
At receiver, we’re going to go with X first. That’s the Antonio Callaway position, who is not available. I’m going to go Josh Hammond as your one there. Followed by, I forgot who we said at two. Daquon Green.
Nick: The same. Hammond and Green there. No. Cleveland and Swain at the X.
Andrew: Yeah. Sorry.
Nick: Hammond and Green at Z.
Andrew: Yes. I said Z. At Z, we’ll start with Z, I’m going to go Hammond or Green, with an exception here. If Hammond comes out, and Cleveland’s in the game, Swain will go to Z.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: I basically should say it’s going to be Hammond, Swain, Green, and then if I go into the X, I’m going to say it’s Cleveland, Swain, Green.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: Are we in agreement there?
Nick: Yes.
Andrew: No ors.
Nick: No.
Andrew: No ors. At Z, here’s where it gets tricky. I think you have an or here. I’m going to say it’s going to go Brandon Powell or Dre Massey, and then Kadarius Toney.
Nick: You’re talking about the Y. You said Z again.
Andrew: Sorry, at the slot.
Nick: You keep saying Z.
Andrew: Sorry, at the slot, the F.
Nick: Yeah. There’s absolutely going to be an or. It’s going to be Powell or Massey, and then Toney.
Andrew: Okay. I think Toney still gets a ton of playing time and all that good stuff. At the F, which is the slot, they’re going to have an or. We got three ors. When we go to the tight end position, the Y, I’m going to say another or, number four, that it’s going to go Goolsby or C’yontai, and then it’s going to go Kemore.
Nick: Yup. Goolsby or Lewis, and Gamble.
Andrew: Okay. Don’t expect it to go past three deep there. At offensive line, I think it’s pretty clear. At offensive tackle, it’s Martez Ivey, and then I’m going to give an or to Tyler Jordan here, but I think if something was to happen to Ivey you would probably see Jawaan slide to left, and have Tyler Jordan slide to right tackle. Going to go ahead and put out a disclaimer here. It’s going to be Tyler Jordan across the board as a backup. He’s your sixth offensive lineman.
Nick: Yeah. Tyler Jordan is your Swiss Army knife. He’s your backup everywhere. Like you said, if Ivey goes down, Johnson slides over to left tackle, and Tyler Jordan slides over to right tackle. Honestly, I’m selling this offensive line. The starting five are good. The starting five, that unit is good. Once you have to start moving your right tackle to left tackle and got a guard to tackle, then behind them you’re talking about guys like Stone Forsythe, that we’ve never seen before. I think I’m selling this offensive line, Spivey.
Andrew: I am if anybody gets hurt.
Nick: They’re already hurt. Martez is already hurt.
Andrew: Yeah. If he misses any action, I’m selling it. No faith in the backups. At left guard, Heggie starter.
Nick: Yes. No. Let me handle this. You keep messing up. Left guard.
Andrew: I said left guard.
Nick: I thought you said right guard, Heggie. Go ahead. Heggie, Jordan.
Andrew: Heggie, Jordan. Center, McCoy, Jordan.
Nick: Yeah. Heggie has also worked at center, and Riles has worked at center as well.
Andrew: Okay. Once again, we’re not going past two there.
Nick: I’m just throwing names out there, because Tyler Jordan’s your sixth offensive lineman. Just letting people know that there are more than six offensive linemen on the team.
Andrew: Not that are trust to play, but yeah. Fred at right guard. Jordan. Then Waany at right tackle. Jordan.
Nick: Yup.
Andrew: I guess Riles is thrown in that mix some way or another, and probably Harkless, would be your seventh and eighth offensive linemen, would be ready to go. Harkless would be your second tackle behind Jordan as a backup. That’s where that will go there.
We had what? Four. We have four over/unders on offense. Not as many as in the past.
Nick: Four. Okay. Moving to the defense?
Andrew: Yeah. You run through the defense.
Nick: Defense. I’ll start with ends. Cece Jefferson, and then I have Jachai Polite or Antonneous Clayton.
Andrew: Okay. I think Jachai also gets come inside action as well.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: I’m just going to say. I think you see him on some 3rd down, where it’s an obvious passing situation, where you see him bulk up inside, because you want your four best pass rushers there.
Nick: Okay. My other defensive end, the other side of the ball, I’m going to go Sherit or Zuniga, and then Keivonnis Davis is third, obviously suspended for the first game though.
Andrew: Right. Clayton and Jachai can both slide over there and participate at that D end. I agree with that. I think you see a lot of split reps there, because I don’t think you see Sherit going 80 plays against Dallas, or 70 plays against Dallas. I don’t think you see Sherit doing that the first game back, and can you honestly keep Jabari off the field? I don’t know how you work that.
Here’s another situation, Nick, and I’m going to throw this at you real quick. 3rd down, I think you could see a line of Sherit, Jabari, Cece, Jachai.
Nick: That’s like that jackrabbit package.
Andrew: Yeah. That rush package. You get your four best pass rushers. Honestly, Cece and Jachai are big enough that if they do run some draw they’re big enough to handle the block, the run block, to make the play. Agree or disagree?
Nick: Agree.
Andrew: Okay. Go ahead. Inside.
Nick: Moving into nose tackle. No ors. For me, on the inside here, no ors. Nose tackle, Clark, Campbell, Slaton. Defensive tackle, Bryan, Conliffe, Ancrum.
Andrew: I have an or. I have Clark or Campbell. I think Campbell’s a better player.
Nick: I don’t think we’ll have an or for Week 1. Do I think that Campbell could turn into a better player and could play more than Clark down the line? Sure, but I don’t think for Game 1 there’s an or.
Andrew: Maybe not. For this purpose, and for me not liking to agree with you, I’m going to say we have an or.
Nick: All good reasons.
Andrew: All good reasons, for sure.
Nick: Defensive tackle, Bryan, Conliffe, Ancrum?
Andrew: Yeah. I was going to say too, you’re going to see Conliffe and Slaton get more playing time. Mac kind of said that. I think you’re going to see those guys get more and more and more playing time, because you’re going to see those guys get three to five reps Week 1, three to five reps Week 2, and then it will slowly incline as the season goes on. But I agree with that, for the most part. I do think Kyree plays more than Khairi Clark.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: Linebacker?
Nick: Linebacker. We’ll start with the Sam, which is Vosean Joseph. I don’t have a backup for him.
Andrew: I think it’s Jeremiah Moon. I mean, I know it’s Jeremiah.
Nick: Yeah. I mean, I don’t where Ventrell Miller, who I thought could play, I don’t know where he fits into the equation. You’re missing out on a couple linebackers with your student aide debacle. So put Moon behind him. No ors.
Andrew: No. No ors. Then I think when you go to Kylan, I think it’s Kylan, and then Vosean is the backup, because you would slide Vosean over and have Moon at your Sam, and have it that way. Same thing with Reese. If something happens to Reese, I think Kylan slides there, and then Vosean slides over, and Moon slides in. I think you have your starting three of Reese, Kylan, Vosean. Moon’s your backup to get in the game. Then I think Christian Garcia is your next guy to get in the game.
Nick: Yeah. I have Mike as Reese and Garcia.
Andrew: Yeah. I wanted to say this, Nick. It’s something we talked about the other day. We talked to a couple people who’s been able to see fall practice, and they were all raving about Vosean Joseph, talking about he’s a guy that is going to make a lot of money in the NFL, because he’s not only football smart, but he’s also very aggressive, and just understands the game. I think, had you said that at this time last year, most people would have been like, who? No way. That’s a guy that is lanky and not filling his body out, and that kind of stuff. But a couple people has told me that, Vosean is a guy that is going to make a lot of money on Sundays.
Nick: I think it was kind of just a last year I think he was just running around and playing on instincts and adrenaline. Once you start to learn your plays and start to recognize things that the offense is trying to do to you, that’s when everyone says the game slows down. Once that happens, that’s when you see players make that big jump.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s a pretty good way of saying it. Once you figure out, it’s 4th and 2, what are they trying to do? Why is that tight end doing this? Because he’s trying to set me up for a block. Different things. I think also that LSU game. It’s a confidence builder. When you get that confidence, you stop maybe questioning yourself, and you just start playing.
I just wanted to throw that out there. I know that was off topic, but I wanted to throw that out there that that was something that has been said a lot is that he’s going to play a lot on Sundays, and is probably the Gators best backer, even though he doesn’t get a ton of recognition from a lot of people.
Nick: Agreed.
Andrew: Go to DB.
Nick: DB. Starting cornerback, Duke Dawson, Marco Wilson, and Bryan Edwards. No or there.
Andrew: Okay. I agree with that. I think Marco’s your starting nickel.
Nick: Yeah. On the other side, I have Joseph Putu and CJ Henderson.
Andrew: Yeah. I think it’s one of those things that if Putu goes down Marco probably goes over.
Nick: I would think Marco would go there, and then I think it might be Edwards that slides into the slot. It could be Chauncey that comes down into the slot.
Andrew: Stiner.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: Donovan Stiner. That’s another name that we’ve heard a lot.
Nick: Yeah. Stiner’s a guy that can play safety. Can you play him down there in nickel too? It would be interesting. I think it would depend on what offense you’re facing in a given week, if that makes sense. Like if we’re going up against LSU, let’s just get some big bodies out there, because they’re going to run the football with Darius Guise.
Andrew: Right. Put Moon out there.
Nick: Yeah. That’s when you get Jeremiah Moon as your nickel. That’s fine. He’s not really a nickel. You’re playing a running team.
Andrew: He’s a rover. I mean, that’s what we call it. He’s a rover, rover linebacker. Yeah.
Nick: Be interesting to see with Stiner. I think it would depend if you’re playing a team like, I don’t even know who on Florida’s schedule is going to throw the ball around like that. Maybe Georgia.
Andrew: Yeah. Missouri.
Nick: Yeah. Missouri’s not very good.
Andrew: Well, I have no idea.
Nick: Then I have Putu and Henderson in that nickel. Honestly, I think at nickel your answer is Marco Wilson, but then after that I think it’s probably Chauncey Gardner, and then you find another safety.
Andrew: Then that’s a question mark of do you then bump Chauncey out to corner and slide Duke inside at his natural nickel position.
Nick: Maybe. I don’t think so though.
Andrew: No. I’m saying that’s a question you have to think.
Nick: Yeah. I think that would lead to an angry Duke Dawson, and I don’t know if Chauncey’s good out there.
Andrew: Yeah. I think kind of have the same question about Duke right now, but we’ll see. Then I think at safety it’s Chauncey, Jawaan Taylor, and then it’s Nick Washington, Shawn Davis. I think Quincy Litton ends up figuring his way into this whole package.
Nick: He’s just got to get on the field, man.
Andrew: Yeah. He’s got to stay healthy. That’s something everyone tells us. When Quincy Litton’s playing ball, is healthy, he’s one of our best. That’s what everybody tells you when you talk to people around. He’s one of our best, that’s what they all say. It’s a question mark of getting him healthy and getting him out there. It’s the same thing kind of with Jawaan Taylor of getting him out there. He was doing okay. Then he had the shoulder injury last year that kind of prevented him from the spring. Then had the hip pointer and that kind of stuff. It’s a question mark there.
The one thing you continue to hear from people is that the defense is going to be really, really good. The young guys are going to have to step up and get in there and make some plays. If the defensive backend can hold up, this defense is going to be legit. I think you and I said this sometime last year or maybe this off season. We said everyone continues to want Florida’s defense to take a step back, and it just hasn’t. Are we looking at that situation again, where if those young guys, like a Marco Wilson does that, that the defense doesn’t? I mean, it’s going to take a step back, but is it going to be bad? I think you could argue that it’ll be pretty decent, especially your front seven.
Nick: I think I have done a complete 180. I thought coming into it that, coming into the year, that Florida would be better on offense than they have been in the past, but worse on defense, because of what they were losing. Now I don’t think the offense is going to be as good as we thought it was going to be, and I think the defense is going to be better than I thought.
Andrew: I mean, I think the offense is going to be pretty decent. I really do. I think the offense is going to be pretty decent.
Nick: What’s pretty decent? Points per game average or ranked where?
Andrew: I would say …
Nick: They’ve been ranked in the hundreds the past two years.
Andrew: I definitely think they’re out of that, but I think it’s an offense that is able to score points. I say that kind of openly without, maybe vague a little bit, but I just think it’s an offense that’s better than last year. I think it’s an offense that can score points, simply because I think the starting five offensive line is better than it is. Simply because I think that the two quarterbacks, and I know I’m taking a complete 180 than I’ve said on Franks, but I’ve really just heard a lot of things about the confidence. At the end of the day, these two running backs are good, man. These two running backs are really good.
Nick: I agree with that. Perine and Scarlett are two of the best. One of the best one-two combos probably in the conference.
Andrew: Yeah. I think they’re really good. Quite frankly, I think you have playmakers. We joked about this in the past, and I don’t mean this in a bad way towards Brandon Powell, because the guy gives it his everything, but Mac wants to do things with his slot receivers that he hasn’t been able to do. Massey and Toney brings that to the table. I don’t know how else to say it except for you’re going to see it against Michigan. Kadarius Toney and Dre Massey are difference makers.
When you see guys at Alabama, like a Darius Stewart, who’s now with the Jets, when you see guys like that that just find a knack for a jet sweep that they can take the distance for 50 yards, or you see a screen pass that they just catch, and you’re like, “Man, this might get one yard.” The next thing you know, they’re in the end zone. We see all that. I think that he definitely has that, and I don’t think that that’s something he’s had. I think that when you look at Tyrie Cleveland, I think he’s going to have a good year. Freddie Swain, Josh Hammond, I think they’re going to have good years. I just think that there’s players there.
Last year I thought it was Antonio Callaway and Jordan Scarlett. Lamical Perine came on at the end of the year, but I thought that was it. I thought that was the extent of your offense. I think now, when you go into a game plan, if you’re Michigan, you’re working on Dre Massey. You’re working on Brandon Powell. You’re working on Kadarius Toney. You’re working on different things.
I mean, you and I sat in a restaurant in Baton Rouge and had people tell us, “Jim McElwain has a great game plan for this game,” two years ago when Treon Harris was there, “if they can execute it.” We went in and watched the game, and we’re like, “Damn, if Treon hits whoever, it’s a touchdown. If this or that.” McElwain knows what he’s doing. He now has players to do that.
Nick: Because you have a quarterback to do it.
Andrew: I think so. I think that’s where the difference is. I feel comfortable with whoever trots out, of Del Rio or Franks. I really do.
Nick: You were nasty to Franks, Del Rio last year.
Andrew: I said I was. I told you I was. Bad Del Rio is bad Del Rio. It is what it is. When the guy’s not healthy, I mean you and I said it last year. I’m not going to call him a noodle arm, but does he have a great arm? No. He’s a guy that is coming into the game to protect the ball, not to kill you. When he starts to kill you, he took away everything you have. That’s what it is.
Same thing with Franks. You know Franks is going to have some turnovers, but he better be able to counter with some great plays. If he don’t have those great plays, guess what? He’s out, because he has to be good enough to overcome his mistakes. That’s what Del Rio does. He has to be good enough to overcome his deficiencies as a passer.
Nick: I don’t think Del Rio was bad when healthy last year.
Andrew: No. That’s what I’m saying. We didn’t get on him until the Arkansas game. We were riding his ass in the Arkansas game.
Nick: Yeah. He was hurting after that. I remember seeing him. He came down for his post-game press conference, and he was banged up.
Andrew: Right. I do think this. I’m going to be completely honest with you here, Nick. I think Jim McElwain lost sleep over that.
Nick: Yeah. I agree.
Andrew: He still talks about it to this day. I think he really feels bad to Luke for that, for putting him in that game. I think he realized afterwards how bad it is. No player’s going to tell you, “I want out of the game.” If they do, they’re a sissy. That’s one, when they do that, you question who they are, that kind of stuff. You watch Hard Knocks, and the other day and that rookie playing on a torn, what? MCL the other day in Hard Knocks. Makes a goal line play. Comes to find out he’s out for six weeks and goes to the injured reserve. Probably the reason he makes the injured reserve is because of his ability. They loved him. They’re going to put him on the practice squad.
Nick: Yeah. Del Rio, if you look at before he got in the U Mass game, and then it was the North Texas game he got that cheap shot that McElwain came out and lost his mind on the field.
Andrew: Right. Artfully so.
Nick: At that point in the season he had six touchdowns and two picks. Completed 56% of his passes, 59 against Kentucky. Then he misses two games. Once he comes back for the next three, he’s not very good against Missouri with three picks. If you take away the 21 points Florida scored non-offensively, that’s a close game. Then he was bad against Arkansas. First play of the game is a pick six.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Ends up completely 51% of his passes, but it’s just a stark difference between hurt Del Rio and healthy Del Rio. I understand the competition was different, but Missouri was not a good football team either. Arkansas was not a good football team either. He played poorly against an Arkansas team that I don’t think was very good. They were very one dimensional.
Andrew: Yeah. I’m with you. I don’t know. Maybe I am drinking the Kool-Aid. I don’t know. I do think, from talking to people, and, Nick, I think you and I can both agree we talked to pretty educated people. We’re not talking to some slot dick photographer or somebody out there that doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We’re talking to educated people. I just think that there’s a confidence there. We’ll see how the confidence plays out. Everyone’s confident, as you say. I just think there’s a different thing.
I do go back to this. I think Jim McElwain’s a hell of an X’s and O’s guy. Nuss gets slack, and rightfully so, for his play calling, but a game plan is Jim McElwain helping out them. I believe in Jim McElwain’s game plan.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: We’ll see. A couple more things. Nick, I’m going to go over/under of 6.
Nick: What?
Andrew: My over/under.
Nick: You don’t understand. The over/under is set at 9.5. You can either choose under or over.
Andrew: Hold on. We didn’t go through special teams. Go through special teams real quick.
Nick: Special teams. Kick return, CJ Henderson or Brandon Powell or Dre Massey.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Punt return, CJ Henderson or Dre Massey. You can throw another or in there for Powell.
Andrew: Or you can throw an or in there for Toney.
Nick: Or, or, or.
Andrew: All right. What about kicker and punter?
Nick: There’s no ors. Pineiro, Townsend.
Andrew: Okay. Shit, now that I think about all the returns, I’m going over.
Nick: Yeah. What’s wrong with you? You said six. Six? We had five on offense.
Andrew: We only had one on defense.
Nick: No.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: No. I had two on defense, both defensive end spots, and I had two at quarterback, where you only had one at quarterback. I think you’ll see two at quarterback.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Over. I’ve lost my mind here. Over. It’s Jim McElwain. The guy loves to play games. Nick, what we got this week? We’re going to get a Michigan reporter for Wednesday. Zach and I are starting our podcast on Tuesday, the recruiting podcast. We’re ready for that. We’ll have that on the agenda, and then we’ll tape it Thursday, run it Friday of our prediction podcast, where Nick and I go head to head about our players of the week and all that good stuff.
Nick: Yes, sir. I’m ready for that.
Andrew: Couple things real quick, Nick. Other sports started their seasons and started in big fashion. Friday night was take down the #1 team in the country night. Volleyball beat #1, Texas. Then soccer beat #1, heck, I’m drawing a … Stanford. Then Florida turned around on Saturday, and volleyball beats #5 Texas. Back to back top five upsets for the volleyball team, and kind of put these teams on notice in soccer and in volleyball. Big start, and as Coach Strickland says, is that good?
Nick: Is that good? That’s a great way to start your season kicking things off. I think it was the first time in six games that the soccer team has beaten Stanford.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s been a long time coming. I know a couple years ago they beat them in the, I think it was the Elite 8, or was it the Final Four, in penalty kicks. So that’s that. Good start to the season for those guys. They’ll continue on playing throughout this week. I think Sunday Florida plays Oregon in soccer. I’m not sure. We’re taping this Sunday afternoon, so it’s old news when you guys listen to this on Monday.
Anyway, Nick, we’ve had a lot of new subscribers as well, as you know. If anybody wants to come join us before we head out to Dallas, to get the up to the minute recruiting in basketball and football, and get the insider notes on football, come join us. We got a discount code, so hit us up, and we’ll get you that code.
Nick: Hit Spivey up. Everyone hits me up. You got the codes for them.
Andrew: Hit me up then. I’ll have to give it to Nick. By the way, Nick, I’m looking real quick. This is out of nowhere, but come on Twitter just a second ago, and Alabama sophomore defensive lineman Raquan Davis had a gunshot wound at a bar early on Sunday morning.
Nick: I’m sure that will be swept under the rug.
Andrew: He’s been hospitalized. It’s not good at all. Terrible news for anybody to get shot.
Anyway, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here. See everybody on Wednesday for our podcast, and myself and Zach will debut ours on Tuesday.
Nick: There you go. www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. Social media, @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter, @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. iTunes has the podcast there. Don’t know what’s been going on with the podcast posting later. We’re still trying to work on that. As always, if it’s not there, you can get it on the website in audio and written form. Follow me, @NickdelaTorreGC, and him, @AndrewSpiveyGC.
Andrew: Yeah. We have no idea. It’s something about the server with iTunes. We’re working on it, but it’s been coming up like in the middle of the morning instead of 5:00am Eastern time like we’ve been posting it. It’s there. Just come to the site and check it out. We apologize for that mess-up.
As always, guys, we appreciate it. Looking forward to a great season with you guys. If you want to hear anything different from us, let us know. Want to see anything different from us, let us know. We’ll see everyone in Dallas. If you’re coming to Dallas, hit Nick and I up. We’ll have to say hello to you guys.
As always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Mark, Butch, your season’s about to get off to a bad start.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.