Podcast: Recapping the Florida Gators 49-42 loss to LSU in Death Valley

    GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators 49-42 loss to the LSU Tigers on Saturday in Death Valley.

    Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what happened on Saturday for the Gators and how things changed when Anthony Richardson took over at quarterback.

    Andrew and David also look ahead to the rest of the season as Dan Mullen and his coaching staff will use the bye week to evaluate personnel changes that they will make before Georgia.

    TRANSCRIPT:

    David:​What’s up folks of Gator Country? This is none other than your boy David Soderquist, along with Andrew Spivey. Unfortunately, we have to do this podcast today, because I know a lot of you fans out there are a little ticked off. I’m a little ticked off. I know Spivey over there doesn’t look happy either, except for the fact that his Braves won this weekend here.

    Andrew:​That’s right. 

    David:​Little bit of good news for him, I guess. Florida goes into LSU Tiger Stadium here and just lays an egg again. Loses 42-49, and I can’t say they completely laid an egg, but as far as defensively, just looked awful. 

    Andrew:​I don’t know why I had the sneaky suspicion in the back of my mind this game was going to be tough. I had said on the podcast on Friday, if this team came out very hot and just put it on LSU early and gave these guys a lot of doubt, I thought the game could be a blowout. But I had a feeling that Florida would come out slow like they always do, and they would come out slow like they always do at 11:00, Baton Rouge time, and they did. They get the blocked punt from Jordan Pouncey, and you think, this is some changes about to happen here. Florida goes down. They score a touchdown, but they miss the PAT. Then they allow LSU to just come back and continue to march. Tyrion Price Davis, LSU record 287 yards, the most rushing yards ever by a running back against Florida, breaking a record Hershel Walker had. They give 454 yards to an LSU team that has not been very good. 321 of those on the ground. 

    ​David, it wasn’t a complex scheme they were running. They were running a simple counter play, and then they were running a simple lead play with zone blocking, and they were allowing Florida’s defenders to take themselves out of the play. They used Florida against themselves. Florida’s problem this year and in past years have been the defensive ends shoot up the field with no contain. It’s been an issue for years, and it continued on Saturday where they allowed those guys to shoot up the field, and that was cool, because the tackle just pushed him aside. David Price would just cut it up underneath them, and boom, he had 8, 9, 10 yards. The man averaged 8 yards a rush. 

    ​That simply cannot happen. This is an LSU team that’s banged up. They don’t even have their best running back in John Emery playing. This is Max Johnson, who has a noodle of an arm. Threw for 133 yards. For the majority of them, I felt like it was dink and dunk down the field, play action passes. 

    ​Diabate said after the game, we made the adjustments we were told to make. Kind of calling out Grantham and Christian Robinson and those guys, because there was no adjustments to be made. They didn’t have any. They didn’t know what to do. It was a simple counter play. I got an idea for you. Tell your guys to play assignment football. Put guys in at defensive tackle who can clog the gap, and have your safeties understand not to run up field too much, but to be ready in the hole. 

    David:​It’s just terrible. Florida would have 488 total yards. Zero penalties. We got onto penalties the last two weeks. Zero penalties, 488 yards of offense, and still manages to lose the game by seven points.

    Andrew:​It’s one step forward, two steps backwards. It’s every time with this program, David. This program will fix one issue, and another issue arises. It was like last year. They would fix the run defense, pass defense sucked. Then they’d fix the pass defense in practice, and the run defense would suck. They’re fixing penalties now, guess what? Now they can’t run the ball, because the guys can’t get off the ball. Ethan White and Gouraige were whipped all day long.

    David:​They were. 

    Andrew:​By BJ Ojulari and Glen Logan. Ojulari had a career day against Gouraige. Multiple times just flying by him. Gouriage not even touching him. Maybe Gouriage isn’t 100%. I don’t know. But the physicality of this football team, David, from Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3, is gone. There’s no physicality to this football team anymore. I don’t know what went on after that Tennessee game, but whatever went wrong after that Tennessee game, whatever has happened to this team, it’s gone. The physicality of this football team is gone. There’s no more physicality up front from this offensive line to where they’re getting to the second. They’re getting to the third level, and they’re just pushing people around. It’s gone. This team threw for 350 yards on Saturday. That’s great. That’s absolutely great, but that’s not the identity of this football team. 

    David:​No. Florida historically has had great defenses in the past, and right now Florida has broken defensive records last year that were bad. Not this year they’re breaking even more defensive records that are bad, and this is all ever since Todd Grantham’s got here. If you go to Todd Grantham’s history, let me get started on Todd Grantham. Look at his history at Louisville, at Georgia, at all these other schools that he was defensive coordinator. The defenses have gradually gotten worse each and every single year. I don’t understand why firing a couple of assistants and keeping Todd Grantham helps you improve this defense, because obviously it hasn’t done it. 

    ​The first three games, I started changing my mind and started saying maybe this defense is starting to click, maybe it was Covid from 2020, maybe I just need to slow my roll. Now three more games into the season, I’m saying we’re seeing the same things from last year. This defense has gradually gotten worse, worse, and worse ever since the year has gone on. They’ve not gotten better. Other teams are studying Florida’s defensive schemes, their offensive schemes, and they’re pushing everybody up front. Florida’s not able to run the football now. They know Emory Jones can’t pass the ball. 

    I’ll get into Emory Jones. I love Emory Jones to death, but right now we’ll get into the quarterback thing. Right now, teams are stacking the box, and they know that Florida cannot play good defense on the ground. LSU just ran draw plays all game. The same play for I don’t know how many times. It seemed like 20 times. Right down the middle. It seemed like LSU, whenever they wanted to get a 5, 10, 8, 20 yard chunk, they could just hand the ball off and do it. 

    Andrew:​The thing is they were dragging guys as well. The issue is a couple things here. First of all, changing staff members only works to a certain amount. If the scheme sucks, it sucks. It just is what it is. The scheme hasn’t been very good. You’ve gotten away with it earlier in the year to some extent, because of some good players. Here’s the thing, David. This is what everybody forgets. It’s on Todd Grantham too, but it comes back to one thing, David. You know the answer to that? 

    David:​What’s that?

    Andrew:​Starts with an R. 

    David:​Yeah.

    Andrew:​Recruiting. It all starts with recruiting, David. You have no linebackers on this football team anymore. When Ventrell Miller got hurt, you had zero true middle linebackers. Diabate, not a middle linebacker. Jeremiah Moon, one of my favorite players, not a middle linebacker. Ty’Ron Hopper, not a middle linebacker. Derek Wingo, maybe, but not playing, because they don’t trust him or he hasn’t developed enough. You have zero, David. How are you in Year 4 of your program and you have zero true middle linebackers after your starting senior linebacker, who should be gone if it wasn’t for Covid? You have zero. I love Jeremiah Moon to death. I love Diabate to death. Both of them are good players. They shouldn’t be playing Mike linebacker. 

    David:​No.

    Andrew:​You don’t stop football teams when you have no linebackers. The thing is the linebackers has still not filled a gap correctly in four years. 

    David:​Yeah. What was it? Ventrell Miller is probably our best run stopping linebacker, and now he’s hurt, out for the season. So, who do you got? Who do you have?

    Andrew:​You’re playing three guys. You’re playing Hopper, Diabate, and Moon. You’re not playing Wingo, whatever that is. I’ve heard he hasn’t developed very well. Cool. Developing is on you, because you’re supposedly a developing football coaching staff, whatever. What is the issue? 

    I say this, and I’m not trying to get down on players. You have three defensive players who transferred in. They transferred in for a reason. They didn’t transfer in because they were great football players everywhere else. They transferred in because they were either beat out, wasn’t going to play, or something or another. They transferred in. They’re not making the plays. Gervon Dexter, he had some okay plays. Again, he lost a lot of playing time to three transfer guys. Des Watson didn’t play at all. Didn’t play at all on Saturday. Don’t understand that. Clog the gap a little bit. I don’t know. 

    It all goes back to recruiting though, David, and that is the end all end all. There’s no getting around it. At the end of the day, it’s all about recruiting. You have to have depth, or you don’t win in this league.

    David:​Talk about offensive line and recruiting. I was talking to, I believe it was Will Miles in private message, and it may not have been Will Miles. Probably somebody else. I forget who I was talking to. They said, minus Tony Livingston, John Hevesy at a star level has not recruited past a three-star offensive line or offensive tackle, unless it’s come from the portal. In high school.

    Andrew:​Tony Livingston’s not an offensive lineman. 

    David:​Yeah. Exactly.

    Andrew:​He’s a tight end. 

    David:​Right. He’s a basketball player. 

    Andrew:​And he’s not even playing with his team right now. 

    David:​Right. Anyway, like you said, it comes down to recruiting. I said it on Twitter. I said this is what happens when Miami’s down, Florida State’s down, and you don’t take advantage of both those programs being down and get the guys that are in state. The elite prospects that are in state are still going to Alabama. They’re still going to Clemson. They’re still going to Georgia. 

    Georgia, they’re just cherry-picking from your own state, a state that you should be able to go up to a recruit and say, your family can come down here, 100 miles, 50 miles, maybe even 150 at the most, travel to see you play just about every game. Instead, they’re all flying out to see their families play a game in Alabama, Tuscaloosa, South Carolina, and in Georgia. They’re traveling 400-500 miles to see their kids play, as opposed to just traveling 50 or 100, because they don’t want to come to the University of Florida. That’s a problem. Most of the talent comes from the state of Florida. We all know that. Why can’t you get any elite recruits from here? 

    Andrew:​It goes back to a couple things. Don’t recruit well. Your guys don’t build good relationships there. Here’s the thing. Stop with the excuses that it’s the facilities. 

    David:​Yeah.

    Andrew:​First of all, you’ve got way more facilities right now than any previous coach at Florida has ever had. 

    David:​More than Miami. 

    Andrew:​More than Miami’s got. You’ve got an indoor practice facility that you can show off that’s about to be there. Stop. Just stop with the excuses. We’ll get into more of that in a minute. That’s defensively. Offensively, what’s going on? Where is Dan Mullen, the football coach who schemed up a great game against Alabama last year, Georgia last year, Alabama this year? Where’s that guy?

    David:​Yeah. You don’t see it. Plus, we’ll get onto offense. Let’s do this. I want to get into quarterback play. It’s going to be the big talk right now, quarterback play. Anthony Richardson comes into this game. Struggling Emory Jones, he throws two picks. One of them was a pick six. He puts Anthony Richardson in around 14 minutes and 21 seconds in the third quarter. This is right after halftime, right after Emory throws a pick right after we get the ball. He puts Anthony Richardson in, and he starts Anthony Richardson the rest of the game. 

    Anthony Richardson for two quarters would lead the team in total passing yards, 167. Total rushing yards he would lead, 37. Total touchdowns he would lead, three. He wouldn’t come into the game, like I said, until 14 minutes and 12 seconds in the third quarter. He would also account for 29 of the 42 points, which is 70% almost of the points scored all game. He would also score 29 points in 13 minutes and 21 seconds, less than one quarter. Why isn’t this kid starting at quarterback?

    Andrew:​I have to think about it. I mean, I don’t have to think about this. I have to slow my roll about this for a second. I think there’s a couple things here. I think there’s a couple things in play. First of all, Dan Mullen has not put Emory Jones in a good position to win a football game yet, and that’s on Dan. Second thing, I don’t know that answer. I wish I knew that answer. I don’t know that answer. I will say this. Anthony had two picks too, and both of those were really bad throws.

    David:​Ill advised throws. Yeah.

    Andrew:​But I will say this, and your backup quarterback is always your favorite guy on the team. That is what it is. Now, whether or not it was because they were down in this game, and then Anthony came in, the team did look more energized when Anthony Richardson came in the game. 

    David:​The offense did.

    Andrew:​The thing about it is I don’t know why it is, but Dan turned the playbook loose when Anthony came in. There’s a couple of questions that have to be asked here, David. I don’t mean to filibuster your question. There’s a couple questions that have to be asked. Does Mullen trust Anthony more with the playbook than Emory? That’s Question 1. Question 2 is, if the answer is yes, why is he not starting? If the answer is no, then why doesn’t Emory have the entire playbook? You can’t tell me the playbook Anthony Richardson had and the playbook Emory Jones had was the same. I’m not trying to be an Emory apologist, because stats speak for itself, and he didn’t play well, but both quarterbacks are not given the same opportunities and the same playbook. It’s confusing to me. It’s frustrating to me. 

    David:​Let me ask you this. Are the plays being executed better by Anthony Richardson than they are by Emory Jones? A lot of times I saw yesterday where Emory Jones progressed through his reads, would get confused, take off running with the football or do something, do whatever else. When Anthony Richardson was in the game, he was able to look off safeties. He was able to go through his reads quick, toss the football where it needed to go, and it was for the most part pretty accurate. He threw two picks.

    ​My opinion here is this. You can answer that question in a second. My opinion is Emory Jones, and I love Emory Jones to death. I’m not going to say he’s a bad quarterback. I don’t think he’s a bad quarterback. I don’t think he’s the quarterback that you need for this team right now, the way that they’re playing on defense, to win football games. Emory Jones is not a guy that’s going to dig you out of a 14 to 21 to 28 point hole and lead his team back to a victory, or even tie the game. 

    Andrew:​Right.

    David:​Anthony Richardson is the type of guy that he’s going to have his warts. It’s going to be pretty much his first year starting as well. He’s going to make his mistakes, but what do you do now? 

    Andrew:​The thing is this. Here’s what you have to do. I’m sorry to cut you off. I get fired up.

    David:​We’re all fired up here today.

    Andrew:​What is next year? This year’s gone. 

    David:​Exactly.

    Andrew:​This year is gone. What is next year? Is next year Emory Jones your starting quarterback, or is Anthony Richardson your starting quarterback next year? Here’s the thing, and remember this, whichever guy you pick, the other guy is probably going to transfer.

    David:​He’s probably gone.

    Andrew:​That’s not me starting rumors or anything else. That’s facts. That’s the day and age we live in. Sorry. It just is. Don’t think for a second if Anthony Richardson is the starter Emory’s not looking for other places to play. It’d be dumb on Emory’s part. Don’t think for a second it’s the opposite way around. If Emory starts, and Anthony doesn’t start the rest of the year, don’t think for a second Anthony’s not going to look for other places to play. 

    ​It’s a question that has to be asked. I think the answer’s pretty simple here. I think though it’s this too, David. Again, I know I sound like an Emory apologist, and I’m not trying to be, but, yes, this is a quarterback problem, but, yes, this is an offense problem for Florida. This offense is not very good. There’s not a receiver on this team that can get open. When you look at the game in the first half, even in the second half at times, nobody was getting open. Nobody was getting open. Emory does throw some balls behind it. Anthony did throw some balls behind it. The receivers give them no help. There’s no help. There’s no separation.

    David:​I think I saw one.

    Andrew:​It goes back to one thing, David. Recruiting.

    David:​Recruiting. I think I saw one play where they got separation. That was that Jacob Copeland pass for a touchdown that tied the game 42-42. I believe that one was the only play I saw some kind of separation on.

    Andrew:​That was a double move.

    David:​It was a double move, and the ball was kind of late a little bit on that play too. But still made it from Anthony Richardson. My thing is this. Anthony Richardson gives you the best chance to win football games right now. That’s not me saying that Emory Jones is a bad quarterback or whatever. Anthony Richardson is the bigger guy. He’s faster on his feet. I think he might have just about as good an arm as Emory Jones, probably better. He’s a bigger guy. But he goes through his reads and progresses through his reads a lot better than Emory Jones. 

    I just saw him lead a team that was down by almost three touchdowns and looked checked out and came back and almost won them the football game. Usually when a quarterback can energize his offense and energize his players around him to lead a spark into the offense, to get these guys back in the football game, usually the defense comes out with fire and wants to get a stop. You didn’t see that. 

    Every time it seemed like Anthony Richardson scored, Florida would just give up another touchdown on defense, and Anthony Richardson would have to roll back out there. There’s no question in my mind right now, if you threw Anthony Richardson out there at the beginning of the game and let him play all the way to the end, Florida could have scored at least 60 or 70 points on LSU. 

    Andrew:​Yes. Probably. But you have to take it for what it is, and that is he played in the second half. We don’t know. We don’t know what changes LSU would have made. You got away from the running game, and it didn’t work when it was, because your offensive line was getting dominated. Emory didn’t do himself any favors in taking it and going and then throwing interceptions either. It wasn’t a good gameplan in the game. You look at what Kentucky did to LSU two weeks ago. They lined up and just said, I’m going to push you around. Florida didn’t even try it. Florida didn’t even try it a bit. 

    ​I think the problem has been masked a little bit with Kyle Trask, with Kadarius Toney, with Kyle Pitts. I think the problem’s been masked a little bit, and that is that there’s just not a ton of talent on around these guys. I mean, Anthony Richardson is better. Right now he’s playing better football. Again, I don’t know why the whole playbook isn’t coming out for one quarterback for the other. My thing is if you trusted Emory so much to be your starting quarterback the last few games, and you knew Emory was going to be your starting quarterback the last few years, why is he not getting the full playbook right now? 

    David:​Yeah.

    Andrew:​I just don’t understand that. That just doesn’t make sense to me. Emory’s in Year 4 of the system, and you’re telling me he doesn’t have the trust to run the full playbook? That doesn’t make sense to me.

    David:​Yeah. I guess you make a good point. You kind of saw that in the Kentucky game towards the last two drives. You saw the playbook was starting to be more opened up for Emory Jones, and Emory Jones was able to drive two 50-yard drives down the field. Couldn’t punch it into the endzone either time, but you saw a difference in offense. I guess you could kind of say that when Anthony Richardson had rolled out there. Do you honestly think Dan Mullen is just tired of hearing the fans saying where’s Richardson, so he just said I’m going to open up the playbook with Richardson, and I’ll let you see how he does? I think it kind of blew up in Dan Mullen’s face, because Anthony Richardson kind of led the team almost to a victory. Are you thinking kind of the same way that I’m thinking a little bit? 

    Andrew:​I don’t want to buy into conspiracy theories.

    David:​I’m not trying to throw anything out there that would throw people off. I’m just saying I’m kind of thinking that way, but I’m not saying that’s exactly what’s going on.

    Andrew:​I think here’s the thing. You were also thrown a scenario in that game where you didn’t have a choice. It was either opening that playbook up, or you were about to get really run out of the building. 49-42 would have looked better than what would have happened had you not pulled out the playbook.

    David:​That’s the thing though. It takes us almost losing a game for Dan Mullen to open up the playbook. Why?

    Andrew:​I think some postgame comments too, David, were concerning to me. 

    David:​I was going to mention some of those. I got some of those down here.

    Andrew:​This is where the frustration sets in for a lot of people. He said after the game, and I’m not quoting him word for word here. He said the best play of the game was Emory Jones coming in in the fourth quarter when Anthony Richardson had a bloody finger and completing a 3rd and 18. 

    David:​Right.

    Andrew:​That wasn’t the best play of the game. Did that show Emory had guts? Did that show Emory didn’t pout on the sideline? Yeah. It did. Here’s the thing. I never would have thought Emory Jones would have pouted on the sideline. That’s not Emory Jones. That’s just not the person he is. His mama would beat him if he did that. His mama taught him better than that. So, no, but that wasn’t the best play of the game. It wasn’t the best play of the game.

    David:​No.

    Andrew:​By no means. Then instead of saying Anthony did a good job, he made sure to say both quarterbacks did some good things and some bad things. Okay. There’s two ways to look at that. A, I never expect Dan Mullen to say anything bad about a player, because if that’s the case, you’ve lost your team. 

    David:​Right.

    Andrew:​Good coaches in general don’t do that. But that was an opportunity to give Anthony a little bit of confidence. 

    David:​Yeah.

    Andrew:​Confidence is huge. I shouldn’t even say this, because people are going to laugh and get mad, but Jim McElwain always used to be very careful about giving praise, but he always praised the young guy to an extent without going overboard. That was an opportunity there to give Anthony Richardson some praise, and it didn’t happen. Then he says he’s got to evaluate who the starting quarterback is, and I get that. You don’t want to name Anthony Richardson starting quarterback after that game.

    David:​Is there really anything to evaluate?

    Andrew:​Right. But you can’t after that game, because if you do, then you set a standard, especially for Emory, that you had a bad game, you’re benched. You can’t set that standard to say that. I get not naming a starting quarterback. Now, it’s different in naming a starting quarterback Saturday after you lose to LSU than it is running him out against Georgia in two weeks in Jacksonville. Anthony Richardson better be running out as your starting quarterback.

    David:​I hate to talk bad about Emory Jones. I’m not really trying to talk bad about Emory Jones. I’m just saying if Emory Jones waltzes out there as starting quarterback against Georgia in Jacksonville, we have no chance. We just don’t. I don’t think we do. You got Anthony Richardson out there, granted I still think Georgia wins the football game.

    Andrew:​You don’t have no chance period. 

    David:​But Anthony Richardson gives you the better chance to win the football game. 

    Andrew:​If that’s what you want to do, if you want to take some moral victories of getting better chances out there, David, cool.

    David:​He’s going to need some experience. Put him up against that defense. Whatever. I’m here to see it.

    Andrew:​If you think this offensive line is blocking that Georgia defensive line, I have some …

    David:​Do you want him injured?

    Andrew:​I have some oceanfront property in the middle of Iowa that I’ll sell you for a great deal.

    David:​Come on, man. This offensive line’s been playing okay. Not too bad. 

    Andrew:​Okay.

    David:​I couldn’t say that with a serious face. 

    Andrew:​I was going to say. Who they playing, middle school teams?

    David:​In the press conferences, you want to go a little over press conference notes, quotes that I actually took. 

    Andrew:​Yeah. I want to say this real quick. You have your postgame press conference, and I’m to say this and be politically correct here and give Dan credit here. He answered the questions. Do you expect to a get a ton? No. First of all, he was pissed, which is a good thing. You don’t expect to get a lot of answers, but some of his answers just go back to what we said in the past, and that is Dan Mullen fumbles at the mouth more than any football coach I’ve ever seen in press conferences. 

    David:​I was actually going towards a couple of things that some of the players had said. 

    Andrew:​Start with Dan. Start with Dan and his Grantham comments.

    David:​Man. I was so upset I didn’t even watch some of the postgame press conference.

    Andrew:​I got you then.

    David:​I watched some of the ones from the players, because I wanted to see what the players thought and how they felt and how their emotions were going. I was so pissed off at Dan Mullen I didn’t even want to hear him. I did not want to hear what Dan Mullen had to say at all, or even Todd Grantham. I was that angry. I was just like, I want to hear what the players have to say.

    Andrew:​Okay.

    David:​The players are the ones being coached by these guys, and these guys aren’t living up to a standard of coaching, so I want to see what the players feel. I was more interested in them.

    Andrew:​Here’s was the quote that Mullen had. You have to understand that he’s not going to throw anybody under the bus, but he did say his impression of Todd Grantham did not change after the game on Saturday.

    David:​Oh yeah. I remember that.

    Andrew:​I didn’t expect anything else than him to say that, because if he did, guess what? Social media would have been on storm, and him and Grantham would have never been able to work together again. Then he was asked if he would make a midseason change, and he said he doesn’t like to do that, and he would evaluate everything at the end of the year. People took that the wrong way. 

    ​First of all, I don’t know what you really gain from making a midseason change, because you’re not going to change your defensive philosophy in the middle of the season. You’re definitely not going to do it before the Georgia game. I’m one of those that I’m kind of whatever on midseason changes. 

    ​That quote was there, and then he had the quote where he talked about that he thought his team was ready to play. Your team wasn’t ready to play. 

    David:​No, they weren’t.

    Andrew:​I’m sorry. Go ahead with some player comments.

    David:​I was just going to go back to what Anthony Richardson alluded to, but then he did make a post on Twitter later kind of confirming. He said this. He was asked about fans worrying about him transferring, and he said, “I can’t really speak on that. Time is the only thing that tells. Right now, I’m a Gator.” That kind of set bad with fans, because they’re just like, time will tell, what are you talking about here? Then he did go back on Twitter, and he did say that he was a Florida Gator and for people not to take what he said out of context or anything like that. I guess that’s kind of good coming from Anthony Richardson. When you look at it though, it goes back to what we were talking about. If you start one of these guys, one of them is going to transfer. Is Emory or Anthony going to transfer? Which one is it?

    Andrew:​That question should not have been asked. 

    David:​I don’t even know who asked it.

    Andrew:​I don’t know either. I didn’t watch Anthony Richardson’s press conference after the game. I was busy writing. That question should not have been asked. That’s not the time nor the place to ask that question. That’s an emotional loss, and if I was Anthony Richardson I would have responded and said, no, I’m going to be the starting quarterback at the University of Florida. 

    David:​Yeah. He’s young. He’s a young kid. I think it’s his first time being in pressers this year, because they don’t usually let freshmen be in pressers their first year.

    Andrew:​You don’t really get to be until you play. He might have talked after the USF game. I can’t remember. It’s one of the first few times he’s talked. 

    David:​I also noted down some of what Mohamoud Diabatewas being asked and questioned. He was asked if he was confident in the defensive scheme. His quote, “I’m confident in my teammates’ ability to play hard. I’m confident in my teammates.” Said nothing about the coaching staff. Said nothing else. I thought it was kind of funny.

    ​Like I said, I don’t try to read too much into what the players say, especially like you said, after a game. You kind of got to wonder, man. Have some of these guys just kind of checked out because of the coaching staff?

    Andrew:​That comes from a guy in Diabate who is one of the most respectful people, very low-key calm guy, and for him to say that just tells you everything you need to know. The thing for me is this. That’s not just directed at Grantham. That’s directed at his position coach too. His position coach is a really good recruiter, but his linebackers haven’t developed in four years. 

    David:​Can you blame him though? 

    Andrew:​No. I wouldn’t blame him at all. You’re about to get heat for two weeks because you lost to LSU. Make sure everybody takes the blame.

    David:​You let them rush 321 yards. They broke a record.

    Andrew:​Here’s the thing for me to Diabate. Do you need the coaches to break it down to a T? When does instincts as a player and a linebacker take over, and you start reading that and you taking over that? Take it both ways.

    David:​After that horrible performance on rushing, I went ahead and dug up a stat here. Florida total, throughout the whole year, has given up almost a thousand yards rushing on the ground in six games, seven games?

    Andrew:​Seven games. Yeah. Which that wouldn’t be bad if you take away the 340?

    David:​Yeah. If you take away the 321 that LSU got it knocks it down one-third. Florida gave up one-third almost of its total rushing yards all season in one game. 321. That running back for LSU had 287 yards just by himself. That is ridiculous. That is an LSU record. That’s an UF and LSU record. I think that is a record for that whole rivalry. 

    Andrew:​It’s the most Florida’s ever given up since HershelWalker. It just kind of is what it is. This is a team who it was bad. That was really, really bad. Gave up 220 yards rushing in the second half. 43 yards passing in the second half. LSU did not throw a pass from the middle of the third quarter until the end of the fourth quarter.

    David:​I think Will Miles, credit to him, I think he said something earlier that said LSU had 499 rushing yards all season, went for 320 yards versus Florida. Ouch. You know what’s funny? I think LSU only threw one pass that second half. 

    Andrew:​They had 43 yards passing in the second half. They threw a couple passes in the second half, but it was the middle of the third to the end of the fourth before they threw a pass. I think it was that touchdown pass. I think it was the touchdown pass on 4th and goal was the first one they had threw since the middle of the third. 

    I don’t know, David. Florida is 2-6 in their last eight games against Power Five opponents. Dan’s now 1-3 against Orgeron. It’s just not good. I don’t know. Here’s the thing for me. We’re jumping a lot of different places, so follow along, guys. I’m sorry. 

    David:​Because we’re angry. We’re angry. 

    Andrew:​There’s just a lot to talk about here. We’re going to get more into this later in the week. We’re going to have Eric Fawcett on who can talk basketball, and then we’ll get more into this later in the week too. This is the dividing road for this program. Support for Dan is losing quick, really quick for Dan. The Kentucky loss and now two LSU losses that you should not have had. I can’t tell you the program is headed in the right direction, David.

    David:​No.

    Andrew:​Because it’s a lie. 

    David:​I posted this. My final thoughts, I did a final thoughts Twitter post last night, because I was up till 2:00 in the morning just gathering my thoughts and being all over the place and getting everybody else’s thoughts. I said, so far this year, Florida has lost games by two points and seven points twice. Florida’s competing but not getting the job done when it counts the most. I said, you can blame tackling, defense, turnovers, penalties, bad calls. At the end of the day, you have to close out close games, and that’s what separates the elite coaches from the good coaches from the bad coaches. You’ve got to close out close games. Am I not wrong?

    Andrew:​No. Not wrong at all. Florida, for the first time under Dan Mullen, will not be ranked in the AP Poll.

    David:​Right. The last time Florida was unranked was when a different head coach was here, peanut butter and jelly, Jim McElwain.

    Andrew:​The guy recruited. 

    David:​The guy that Dan Mullen used all his recruits to win games. Isn’t that a funny story as well?

    Andrew:​There’s just a lot that goes on. I don’t know the answers right now, because there’s so much issues within this program. You’re not going in the right direction. I know some people have said, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Screw that. You don’t have rebuilding years at the University of Florida. You’re in Year 4 of your program.

    David:​We’re not rebuilding. 

    Andrew:​These were your guys that you brought in, and they’re not working out. These are your two quarterbacks. They’re not working out. This is your coaching staff. They’re not working out. Your recruiting staff, they’re not working out. I’m not in the fire Dan Mullen thing. I’m not there yet. Drastic, and not just Todd Grantham, changes have to be made. Period. Some of your buddies have to be made. You’re not winning championships with John Hevesy as your offensive line coach. You’re not winning championships with Todd Grantham as your defensive coordinator. You’re not winning championships with other guys on that defensive staff and offensive staff. You’re not winning games with piss poor recruiting. That’s what it is. Piss poor. 

    David:​We brought Dan Mullen here to fix all assets of the game. A good head coach in four assets of the game, offense, defense, special teams, and recruiting. When Dan Mullen came here, he improved offense. The defense drastically took a dive. Special teams is nonexistent. Recruiting took a little bit of a dive as well. Right now, you’re only winning on one side of the football, offense. As far as offense goes, I’m okay with that. 

    I had this discussion with somebody else, because we were talking about past coaches. I said, look at Will Muschamp. I’m not saying Will Muschamp needs to come back and be the head coach at Florida, so don’t even throw that one out there. That’s what they were trying to dig at towards me, and I was like, no, I do not want Will Muschamp back here as head coach. Will Muschamp, he had a fire. He had an attitude. He wanted to win. He just couldn’t find a good offensive coordinator. He tried to take over the offense, and he just needed to quit being stubborn, and that was his issue. 

    Defense was great. It was elite. Recruiting was elite. Special teams, pretty good. Andre Dubois was pretty good punt returner. Offense, nonexistent. Offense is what killed Will Muschamp, but in three assets of the game he won. Granted, we’re going to say he lost to Georgia Southern. He had a bunch of injuries. There’s still no excuse. Will Muschamp had three out of four assets of the game right, and he didn’t get all four assets of the game right, and he wasn’t a championship coach. When Jim McElwain came to town, Jim McElwain couldn’t do anything. He rode off of Will Muschamp’s defense for three years, and then eventually got fired. 

    Now you insert Dan Mullen, who had Jim McElwain’s recruits. Improves the offense. The defense was still pretty elite when he had gotten here, but when Todd Grantham took over it gradually got worse. Now, like I said, you’re only winning one facet of the game, and that’s offense, and you’re not going to win championships just winning one facet of the game. 

    Andrew:​No. The thing is this. Support for Dan is going quick. I’ll read this quote from Joey Ivie. He tweeted this after the game. 

    David:​Go ahead. Former player from Florida now.

    Andrew:​“Dan Mullen’s ego is going to ruin his career. I honestly can’t stand him and how he carries himself.” Now, I’ve seen the comments. Joey Ivie didn’t play for Dan Mullen. I bet Joey Ivie would love Will Muschamp to come back. Joey Ivie don’t know what’s going on. Stop. Joey Ivie is a former Gator. Joey Ivie wants the Florida Gators to win football games more than anybody out there, as much as anybody out there. Joey Ivie has buddies who either still at Florida, as far as people that were there in support staff and different things like that. Joey Ivie has buddies who played for Mullen at Mississippi State. Joey Ivie has been around the program at Florida a little bit. 

    Joey Ivie’s opinion is not the only opinion that says that. That opinion is out there. That opinion is why Todd Grantham is still the defensive coordinator at Florida this year. Ego. It’s got to be checked. People will say, Steve Spurrier had an ego. Steve Spurrier would fire his wife if his wife couldn’t get the job done on Saturdays. You’re lying to yourself if you say that’s not the truth.

    David:​Steve Spurrier had the right type of ego.

    Andrew:​Right. 

    David:​You can have ego in any kind of sport, any kind of thing that you do, as long as your ego is in check and it’s the right ego to have. You can’t have an ego going into everything thinking that you’re going to improve this, you’re going to improve that, and no matter what happens, it’s still on the come up. That’s the wrong type of ego to have. That’s the kind of ego that Dan Mullen has. The kind of ego Steve Spurrier had was the fact that if you’re not getting the job done, I can find somebody else that can. I don’t care. I’ll bench you if you throw four picks. I don’t care if you’re the starting quarterback.

    Andrew:​Right.

    David:​That’s the kind of ego you’re supposed to have.

    Andrew:​Here’s the thing. Dan Mullen’s offense and his game planning, game calling, it’s great. It’s great. But his decisions off the field suck. They suck.

    David:​I got a little angry last night, and I do apologize, but I did say this. I said, Dan Mullen is an overrated offensive coordinator being a head coach for a football team. I was that pissed off, and I said that. 

    Andrew:​I don’t know that I agree with that. I’m not calling you out.

    David:​No. It was bad. I should have never said that, but I was pretty pissed. 

    Andrew:​Dan Mullen is one of the best game callers out there, and I’ve said that. I love watching Dan Mullen against great football teams like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. I absolutely love it. There’s nothing better as a former football coach to watch him dissect opposing defenses that are so great. But then it’s so frustrating to see bad defenses that he can’t pick apart, because in my opinion it’s because he doesn’t prepare enough for them. It’s not consistent enough for it. 

    ​I’m also tired of watching great football players just not come to Florida, because they don’t mesh with this coaching staff. Here’s the thing. Shemar James visited Georgia on Saturday. Julian Humphrey, he’s looking at Georgia hard. Evan Stewart was back at Texas again on Saturday. Your top recruits are looking elsewhere, and you’re not really giving them anything to look at Florida hard for. You’re in Year 4. What’s your message to these guys? How can you sit in Evan Stewart’s living room and say, I need you. You’ll be the person that gets me to the championship level. If I’m Evan Stewart, I look at him and say, what about the other four years of recruiting? If I’m Shemar James, I’m looking at Todd Grantham and saying, why am I playing linebacker for you?

    David:​Exactly. Looking at just the defense overall, it doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look good at all. It’s gradually gotten worse this whole year. You had hope in the Alabama game that this team was on the right track, even after losing a lot of key pieces. We didn’t expect this team to be 11-1, 12-0 at the beginning of the year, but we didn’t expect losses to Kentucky and a hobbled LSU. We didn’t even know LSU was going to be this hobbled coming into the season, and I predicted that it was a tossup between LSU and Florida. I didn’t know LSU was going to have this many injuries. I didn’t know LSU was going to be this far down. I expected Florida to win against LSU. I expected Florida, I think I predicted 10-2 before we even started the whole year and started this. 

    ​You look at it now, Florida’s already lost to Kentucky. They’ve already lost to LSU. You’re thinking going into Jacksonville there’s no way we’re going to win, so that’s three losses. Right now the way that this defense is playing, I’m worried about Florida State coming to Gainesville.

    Andrew:​That’s the problem that you have. 

    David:​I shouldn’t be worried about Florida State. 

    Andrew:​That. I don’t know that I’m worried about Florida State, but Florida State has four losses.

    David:​You say that now.

    Andrew:​Yeah. Florida State has four losses. You can’t make fun of them. Miami’s a disaster. You can’t make fun of them. Guess what? You still have not capitalized on their downfalls. 

    David:​Right.

    Andrew:​Your program, after going to the SEC Championship game and going to New Year’s Six in air quotes for the last three years, should be in better shape. 

    David:​Right.

    Andrew:​And it’s not. 

    David:​Let me ask you this question. Do you think Florida State or Miami could have came into LSU Tiger Stadium and won that game yesterday?

    Andrew:​Who’s that?

    David:​Florida State or Miami. Do you think they could have came into LSU Tiger Stadium and won that game yesterday?

    Andrew:​No. No. I say that. I don’t know. 

    David:​You think they would have gave up 300 yards rushing?

    Andrew:​No. No. I also say this. I don’t know if they would or wouldn’t have. LSU wasn’t a good football team. They’re still not a good football team. 

    David:​Neither was Kentucky. 

    Andrew:​No.

    David:​Kentucky was nonexistent against Georgia yesterday, but a lot of teams have been nonexistent against Georgia’s defense. 

    ​I know we were going to read some of the Twitter folk’s comments and some of the VIP board’s comments. Lot of fans pissed off yesterday, and rightfully so. One of the comments says, “Immediate, replace Grantham. Season change. Change attitude of accountability for staff and players. Off season, demand a shift in mindset for recruiting and again ensure more accountability from the top all the way down.” Yeah. I agree. 

    Andrew:​Let me ask you this. Are we overlooking Nick Savage?

    David:​I don’t know. I think Nick Savage is a good strength and conditioning coach. To me, I think it’s just coaching. I think you got to put your players in a better position to win football games, and that’s not what you’re doing.

    Andrew:​Is Florida as physical and in shape as other teams?

    David:​No. Well, I will say in Dan’s first year, 2018-2019, they looked the part. Right now, it doesn’t look like that. It looks like they’re starting, especially looking at that LSU game yesterday, I don’t know if it was a mindset thing, or if they were just done. From my standpoint, I think part of it is they’re mentally kind of checked out. I think maybe from a coaching standpoint. I don’t know. That’s just one of the opinions that I have. At the same time, you don’t see the same physicality that you saw from 2018 to 2019 that you saw from 2020 to 2021. You make a good point. That third and fourth quarter that defense was nonexistent. It felt like the defense was either just tired or just wasn’t mentally into the football game. I can’t say whether it’s mental or physical. I know this. From a physical aspect, the same team in 2020 and 2021 is night and day from the same team I saw in 2018 and 2019. That’s just my opinion. 

    Andrew:​Okay. Go ahead with your comments. 

    David:​This one is from @DonaldLipscomb, “Need at least four people replaced and Mullen needs a serious gut check on how he runs the program.” I think we kind of commented a little bit on that. These are just fan quotes. These aren’t quotes that we’re saying. I’m just trying to get a fan’s perspective here. This is actually from Ken [Zengini], one of my buddies out there on Twitter and on Facebook. He says, “Dan proves yet again he values loyalty over winning.” What about that? What do you think? You think he’s more of a loyal guy? 

    ​My opinion on that one is this. You’re Dan Mullen, and you have your friends there. You’re paying your friends good money to help coach this program, but they’re also costing you these close games. They’re also costing you losses. They’re also costing you going into a press conference trying to make excuses for them consistently, on a consistent basis from 2020 to 2021. At the end of the day, this is your contract. This is your money. Is having your friends more important than having your job?

    Andrew:​I think the answer will be yes.

    David:​I don’t know. I couldn’t fathom running my own business, hiring my best friend to be the CEO, hiring my other best buddy to be the GM, the other guy to be the big manager, whatever you want to call it, and got profits the first two years, and then you start seeing profits sink around Year 3, Year 4, Year 5. You look into your job, and you’re like, my best friend the CEO is not really doing a good job here. We’ve been losing money for the past three years. You’re evaluating it. Me as a CEO, I don’t care how good of a friend you are. I don’t care if you’re family. If you’re not getting the job done, I’m finding somebody else that can do it. It’s my money.

    Andrew:​Listen, I want to win too bad.

    David:​You see it on Bar Rescue a lot where these guys own these bars, and they hire their best buddies, and their best buddies are costing them money. They call John Taffer in there to rescue the bar, and they can’t let go of that relationship. I kind of feel the same way with Dan Mullen.

    Andrew:​I want to win too bad, man. I’d fire anybody if it meant me winning. That’s the honest to God truth. I want to win. I’m sorry. I want to win too bad. I’m too competitive. It would be different if the man had won with these guys, but what has he ever won as the head coach when he’s had John Hevesy, Greg Knox, and Billy Gonzales on his team? 

    David:​Nothing. New Year’s Six bowl games. He’s won those.

    Andrew:​He didn’t win anything. How many championship rings, SEC?

    David:​Zero.

    Andrew:​Or national championships does he have? The answer is zero, because he doesn’t have any. 

    David:​It’s funny. If you look at the losses from last year and this year, every game has been within three points, six points, seven points, except for the Oklahoma game. We already know what happened in that Oklahoma game. You’ve got to close out close games, just like I said before. That’s what makes a good coach elite is getting to these close games and figuring out a way to win these games, no matter whether your defense is playing putrid or not. You find a way to win these football games. Dan Mullen hasn’t found a way to win close games against elite teams.

    Andrew:​There’s no taking up for Todd Grantham, but at the same time, how do you only score 13 points in the first half?

    David:​Yeah. That’s true.

    Andrew:​I’m not taking up for Todd, because his defense sucks. You only scored 13 points in the first half. That’s not very good. First of all, how do you miss a PAT again? Whatever. I heard a stat yesterday. Georgia missed their first PAT yesterday in like 523 tries. Six kickers had came through Georgia without missing a PAT until they missed one last night. 

    David:​Here’s another good stat from Georgia. Georgia has given up 46 points this season. Florida gave up 49 points to LSU today. That was from CBS Sports. 

    Andrew:​That’s gross. 

    David:​That’s a hard pill to swallow right there.

    Andrew:​That’s gross. Again, you take one step forward, three steps backwards. It just always is with this program. He was asked that after the game, and he said, we fix one problem, and it seems like something else pops up.

    David:​That’s right. 

    Andrew:​That’s a problem with your program. 

    David:​I’m going to take a few comments here from the Gator Country VIP Boards. This is from Shade45 on the Gator Country boards. He said, “Here’s my opinion. I don’t think it makes sense to retain a head coach that you have to force to fire an awful DC and force to recruit better. If he has to be forced to do those things, he obviously doesn’t have what you want at a program that wants to be elite, assuming UF wants to be. However, the first step is moving on from Grantham and the offensive line coach.” He said, “IMO,” which I don’t know what that means, “irrelevant in the SEC right now.” I guess that means in my opinion. That’s it. I learned that real quick. I’m not good with internet lingo. I’m an old-school guy.

    Andrew:​He’s right. If you got to force somebody to do something. Getting paid seven million dollars, you shouldn’t have to force anybody to do anything. 

    David:​This one is from Gator30339, “And the irony of it all, we’ll be accused of ‘running off’ another coach, yet he is the one doing a mediocre job and frankly doesn’t deserve the job right now. However, I’m okay with another year if I don’t have to hear Grantham’s name again.” I agree with that. 

    Andrew:​A wise AD once said this, and I go back to this, don’t let the fear of a coaching search get in the way of a decision that needs to be made. 

    David:​Baby steps, Andrew. Baby steps. 

    Andrew:​The thing for me is clear, and that is drastic changes have to be made. Not one guy is responsible for it. This is a program in general, and I’m getting fired up again, that cannot recruit. Cannot. Cannot recruit. 

    David:​Yeah.

    Andrew:​Cannot recruit. Jaden Gibson is a great pickup. Cool. Clap your hands. You got one. You should have a class full of those guys.

    David:​Yeah. You should have Evan Stewart along with him. Make a good wide receiver class. I saw something about Agiye Hall earlier today. He has took off all of his Alabama stuff on Twitter.

    Andrew:​He’s pissed. He tweeted after the game something like, I’m done. I quit. 

    David:​That was a guy that you were in contention for, and Alabama stole him away from you. That as an elite wide receiver. I believe he was a five-star wide receiver, to be honest.

    Andrew:​There again lies the issue. You’re going to go to the transfer portal, and you’re going to grab him, and you’re going to think everything is going to be good. He quit on his football team.

    David:​Then you’re going to bring him to the University of Florida, and he’s going to quit on you if he doesn’t get his way either.

    Andrew:​Right. 

    David:​That’s the thing. You’ve got to get these guys out of high school. You have to get them out of high school. You’ve got to stop relying on the transfer portal to plug holes, to band-aid issues that you could not get done in recruiting. That’s exactly what Dan Mullen is using the transfer portal for. Look at Justin Shorter. 

    Andrew:​The transfer portal should be a couple things. Should be to fill holes that are due to guys leaving early that you didn’t expect, guys getting injured, and to fill a hole or two. Urban did a good job when he was at Florida of going and getting some grad transfers. That was when the whole grad transfer came. Ryan Smith was one of them, the cornerback who started. That was a big one. You see Nick Saban. He’s done that a couple times where he’s went and got a couple guys. You cannot expect your leading guys on your team to be those guys. Right now, Florida’s expecting Justin Shorter to be their guy, and it’s not happening. They’re expecting Stewart Reese to be their guy on the offensive line. It’s not happening. They’re expecting three transfer defensive tackles to fill a hole that they haven’t recruited worth a crap for at defensive tackle.

    David:​And it’s not happening. Yeah. See, this is what happens when you rely on the transfer portal to fill holes. You don’t fill those holes, and an LSU team runs over 300 yards rushing on your defensive line. 

    Andrew:​The thing is this. Once again, you played with about 55 healthy guys, if you’re LSU, and you still won.

    David:​Yeah. You know why? Because LSU recruits elite every year, so they have good quality depth. This team does not have good quality elite depth. That’s not me pissing on the players. You’ve got to develop the players. The problem is at a star level, at a high school recruiting level, this team does not have elite depth. They just don’t. They have to rely on everybody staying healthy every year to even have a minute chance to compete with all these other teams. Alabama can have 12-13 injuries and still be able to put up 40 points per game. LSU, you saw it. They had 12, 13 injuries. Still put up 49 points against Florida. 

    Andrew:​What did they come to Gainesville last year with? Like 49 healthy players or something. They won.

    David:​Still scored 37 points.

    Andrew:​The thing is this, David. At Mississippi State, once every four years Mullen was good. When he had a team full of senior guys. That’s cool at Mississippi State. It’s not cool at Florida. 

    David:​No. The University of Florida and this fanbase, and also the university as a whole, is just completely different when you come to the SEC. Florida and the fans and everybody around them expect championships. They don’t expect excuses. They don’t expect lackluster recruiting, and they expect elite defenses every year, because Florida’s historically had elite defenses. You’re not getting that right now, and that’s an issue. Fans and people on Twitter and social media are pissed off, and they have a right to be. At the end of the day, you’ve got to execute in all four facets of the game, like I said. 

    Andrew:​I’m going to end it with this, and then we’ll be back later in the week. We’ll bring Eric Fawcett on. We’ll talk some basketball, and then we’ll talk more about things that got to change. I’m going to end it with this, David. It’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s pretty direct. It’s the truth, in my opinion. The ball’s in your court, Dan. For the next two weeks, the ball’s in your court. For the next couple of months, until spring practice next year, the ball’s in your court to change. To change who you’re surrounded by, to change the culture, to change the program from top to bottom, and to get better. I’m not on the fire Dan Mullen train, but I am on the make changes, Dan Mullen, train. The ball’s in his court. 

    ​Against Georgia, need to see a better football team. Need to see a team that’s prepared. Need to see a team that’s looked in the mirror and found out who the best 22 guys are. 33 guys, including special teams. Figure out how to play. Ball’s in your court. 

    David:​If you look at the past games that Georgia’s had against teams, they’re killing everybody on special teams. I don’t know how many blocked punts and blocked kicks I have seen from this Georgia team. I swear it’s got to be three or four, and they got some 300 to 400-pound guys that line up on special teams that come right on after you. They block field goals and all of that. Georgia’s going to come into Jacksonville wanting to massacre Florida. Me living here in Georgia and the fans and the players, they don’t like Florida. Florida’s dominated them for the past 20-30 years. They hate Florida right now. 

    You think that they’re not going to want to avenge a loss from last year, where you seemingly put up 38 points in one half on their defense? They’re going to come after you. They’re the #1 team in the nation for a reason. They want to go to a national championship. They haven’t won a national championship in over 40 years. They’re tired of hearing the 1980 jokes. They’re tired of Florida always messing up their season. They’re going to come in there, and they’re going to want to beat the tar out of you. 

    From what they’ve see, 321 rushing yards, this team with the running backs that they have and that offensive line, they’re going to want to run the ball down your throat. I guarantee you, that’s exactly what they’re going to do when they come to Jacksonville. I guarantee you Stetson Bennett will not throw the football on the first couple of series. I guarantee you that. Florida can’t stop anything. Even when they get contact, they’re getting dragged around like a paper bag, a wet paper bag. They’re going to go into Jacksonville wanting to win that game. 

    I wish I could read all these fans’ comments and everything. There are so many comments on Twitter. I had like 35 comments. There was a ton of comments on the Gator Country boards. Obviously, if we wanted to run a four-hour podcast here, we could read them and give all of our opinions. This is just an emotional podcast here. 

    Didn’t really go down any of the stats, but I sat here last week, Spivey, and I’ll end it on this. I said, I’m not picking Justin Shorter. I can’t rely on Justin Shorter anymore. He hasn’t done anything. He’s been silent all year. Lo and behold, the first week I don’t pick Justin Shorter, he leads the team in all-purpose yards this game, 113 all-purpose yards. Right behind him, the guy that you picked, I believe, Dameon Pierce, 79 all-purpose yards. Spivey just keeps taking it to me picking players every week. 

    Andrew:​It was a good week for certain few of our players. We’ll do that. We’ll ask for some questions on the podcast for later in the week on the message boards and maybe take a couple from Twitter as well. We’ll plan to do that for Friday’s podcast, since we’re going through a bye week. Getting ready. Go Braves. 

    David:​Go Braves. 

    Andrew:​1-0. We’re taping this on Sunday, and they’re 1-0 in the NLCS.

    David:​Who was it that hit that double last night to win?

    Andrew:​Austin Riley.

    David:​Austin Riley with a double in the bottom of the ninth in a 2-2 tied game. Hits the double, wins the game for the Atlanta Braves. They’re up 1-0 now. Now the got to win three more games, and then they win the series. They go to the World Series after that.

    Andrew:​That’s right. Woke my wife up. She was not very happy, but it’s okay.

    David:​It’s okay to wake your wife up if there’s a win. Now, if there’s a loss then it just makes it two times worse, because now your wife is mad at you, and you’re crying because you lost. 

    Andrew:​That’s right.

    David:​Folks, sorry we’re going a little bit off the wind today. Just a really upsetting loss here against LSU, 42-49. Lot of questions going around the university, the fans, the coaches, from a coaching aspect to a fan’s aspect. Lot of upset fans out there. Lot of them calling for Dan Mullen’s head right now. We expect it. We expect way better results here at the University of Florida, so I can’t blame the fans for thinking the way that they think. We’re just going to have to see what happens in two weeks, when they go to Jacksonville and the Cocktail Party, against a team, like I said, that’s only given up 46 points the whole year. I’m just going to leave it at that. 

    ​Spivey, if you ain’t got anything else besides your smiling face over there for your Braves, we can go ahead and close this one out, man. 

    Andrew:​That’s it. We’ll close it out and be back on Friday.

    David:​Folks, that’ll wrap it up 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 Braves.

    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.