Podcast: Recapping the Florida Gators 34-7 loss to Georgia in Jacksonville

    GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators 34-7 loss to Georgia in Jacksonville on Saturday.

    Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what happened to the Gators on Saturday and how Anthony Richardson looked at quarterback.

    Andrew and David also breakdown how the defense looked on Saturday and what’s ahead for the Gators going forward.

    Transcript

    GCpodcast20

    David: What’s up folks of Gator Country? This is none other than your boy David Soderquist, along with Andrew Spivey. Unfortunately, the Florida Gators fall in a dominant fashion to the Georgia Bulldogs here in Jacksonville, 34-7. Spivey, a day defensively where I didn’t think the Gators played too bad, honestly, on defense, but the offense just cost them so much. 21 points in two minutes. Can’t go down there towards the goal line like that and turnover a ball. Props to Anthony Richardson for trying to fight for extra yardage, but you got to hold onto a football. 3-0 from the first quarter. Second quarter is where everything started spiraling, especially in the last two minutes there, for the Florida Gators. Ultimately, winds up costing them this close game that I think would have been a lot closer without giving away 21 points there in the second quarter.

    Andrew: You look at it. They scored 21 points from 2 minutes and 16 seconds left in the first half to the end of the half. They scored 21 points. Scored 34 points overall. You did well defensively. Here’s the thing. David, we talked about it on Friday of last week. I said you got to win three things. You got to win offense. You got to win defense, and you got to win special teams. Got to. You’ve got to win your turnover margin on both sides of the ball here. You didn’t do that. You gave up three turnovers. Now, Rashad Torrence created three turnovers as well.

    You look at it. You missed field goals, two of them, that were awful. Georgia, luckily, missed a field goal as well.

    David: One of those was a chip shot. A chip shot field goal.

    Andrew: Chip shot. What are you doing? Goes to show you where the kicking is. You have that happen. You create no offense. Anthony Richardson plays. He’s 12 of 20 for 82 yards passing before he goes out with an injury. We think it’s a shoulder injury. Dan Mullen didn’t have any update on it after the game, as they were still testing him out and everything else. The offense, once again, was not creative. There was nothing there.

    I think I said on Friday, I can’t wait to see this chess match, to see what Dan has up his sleeve to counter what Georgia is going to do. He tried to go back to the wheel route, and Georgia knew that was coming, because it’s happened the last two years. Then he tried to go to speed option, something they’ve done for two years now. You knew going into this game you had to do something different, and it’s like you brought Kaiir Elam’s handcuffs out, back to Anthony Richardson now. You had them on Emory the beginning of the year, now you put them on Anthony Richardson.

    You’re at a crossroads, David, and I don’t know where you’re going with all this. Did I think Georgia was going to win this game? Yes, I did. I said that. But this offense did absolutely nothing. Granted, we knew the offense was going to struggle in this game, because of how good Georgia’s offense was, but not struggle to the point where it took you till the end of the game in the fourth quarter to keep your streak alive of not being shutout, because you can’t kick a field goal. So, on 4th and 13 you’re forced to go for it, when you knew you wasn’t going to get that against a good Georgia team. You couldn’t kick a field goal. You should very well be looking at a 3-3 ballgame heading into halftime, if Florida makes their field goal. That’s what it should have been. 6-3, Georgia, if they make their field goal. But you didn’t.

    It continues to happen, David, where it’s always something for this team that continues to hurt them. Here’s the thing, and I’ll go back to it. I said it, I think, for the last 15 million podcasts, recruiting.

    David: It’s kind of like when you have a leaky faucet. You plug up one hole with flex seal, and then another hole forms, and it starts leaking. You plug that hole. Then that hole starts leaking, and it’s a whole spiral downward. When you just need to replace the whole pipe itself. You didn’t do that in this game.

    Like you said, it was the penalties at first. Then it was the counter play, which they did run, and they were successful on towards the end of the game.

    Andrew: They could have ran it all day long, but it was like they were bored.

    David: Exactly. I didn’t understand this too. We wound up having around 160 rushing yards this game, and Dameon Pierce was averaging 7.7 yards per carry, and he was looking good. I don’t know why they went away from Dameon Pierce running up the middle.

    Andrew: It’s the story of the season. It’s the same thing in the Bama game. Same thing in the Kentucky game. The man goes, and you pull him. Listen, I love Malik Davis. Nay’Quan Wright is one of my favorite players on this team. I think he might be your MVP. But those two guys don’t run against this Georgia defense. Dameon Pierce is big, tough, physical. It takes multiple guys to bring him down, and it did multiple times. Pound the rock with your dude. Dameon Pierce is your dude.

    Stop worrying about hurting people’s feelings. This is Florida-Georgia, big-time football, CBS, 3:30. If you’re an SEC team, that’s what you love. If you’re a Florida Gator, this is what you love, the Florida-Georgia game, knocking off #1 Georgia. Put your dudes in and go. If somebody gets their feelings hurt, look at them and say, we won the football game, hush.

    David: Right. That gives the Georgia offense less time for the football, when you’re running the ball down their throat. It was very successful with Dameon Pierce. My hat’s off to him, because he played very well when he was in the game. I don’t know why. Dan Mullen said it first. He said, I’m going to roll with the hot hand. Your hot hand was Dameon Pierce yesterday, and you didn’t roll with him. That’s a problem right there.

    Defensively, we’ll go back. You mentioned Rashad Torrence, two interceptions, one fumble recovery too as well. The guy played with his hair on fire. Eight total tackles, five solos. Just played great. So did Trey Dean. Eight total tackles, five solos, one sack, one tackle for loss. Those two guys right there on defense, and like I said, I hate taking away credit from the defense, because the defense played so well this game. Turned over the ball when they needed to. Didn’t understand why Rashad Torrence didn’t kneel the ball in the endzone, but I’m confused to where I guess if you catch it before you go into the endzone you can’t really kneel it. You got to run it back, correct, or it’s a touchback?

    Andrew: That was a question. Dan Mullen said this after the game a little bit. If you’re pushed into the endzone, either by the defender or if your momentum carries you in, you’re still considered a touchback there. He didn’t have really possession of the ball until he was in the endzone, but it was one of those split-second things where if you’re Rashad, and I thought the same thing watching it live in person, I said, he caught the ball in the two and ran in the endzone. Dan Mullen said this after the game. He said, Rashad’s worst fear was making an interception, a great play there, and then falling in the endzone and having a safety called against you, giving Georgia two points plus the ball right back.

    Listen, I understand it. I get it. It puts your offense in a bad spot, but you’re at the University of Florida, for God’s sake. You can get out of the endzone. Listen, for Anthony, I get you were trying to get extra yards, but hold onto the football, man. Hold onto the football. Here’s the thing. Those are the rookie mistakes you’re going to get. I get that. Hold onto the ball. Then you had the two interceptions. Can’t have that happen there. The pick six, that was a Feleipe Franks throw of it was read. It was everybody in the world coming, including Nakobe Dean, and Nakobe Dean just set him up and took it back.

    Again, I get it. 354 yards is what Georgia put up. The defense played much better. You look at it. You take the 42-yard run away from Zamir White in garbage time. You had Kearis Jackson on 36-yard touchdown pass on that play that was right after the interception. You take away some of those, and it doesn’t look too bad.

    Listen, there’s no moral victories. I’m not going to sit here and tell you Todd Grantham did enough to get a contract extension, because it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. I ain’t telling you this defensive staff in general did enough to keep a contract extension and big pay raises. I ain’t going to tell you that either. I’m saying the defense played well enough on Saturday for the Florida Gators to be in this football game, and for the Florida Gators to win this football game potentially, and Dan Mullen and the offensive staff just let them down.

    That’s just where this program is, David. I hate to get off this game so quick, but it just is what it is. That’s where this program is. I’ll say this. Dan Mullen, for the first time all year, really took some responsibility, I guess is the best way to say it, for what happened in this game, for what’s going on with this program. He really took some responsibility for that and really, for the first time, didn’t come out with the poor me, guess what, we kind of won kind of mindset. No, you didn’t. That was good to see.

    Again, I don’t know that there’s ever anything you can say in the postgame, but it was good. Here was part of this quote. He said, “Right now, we’re not where we want to be. The mindset of this team falls on me. I’m certainly not pleased with where we are, and I know our players certainly aren’t pleased with where we are as well.” I get it. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and say that that quote makes me more of a believer in Dan Mullen or whatever else, but it’s about time you took some responsibility for that. It’s about time you took responsibility, as the head football coach at the University of Florida, for that.

    Now, there’s a quote later on, and you got a quote from Kirby that just kind of shows where things are different in the programs. Dan Mullen was asked, is there a talent gap between Florida and Georgia? I don’t know that any coach would ever come out and just say there was a talent gap, but Mullen’s answer is the problem with this university right now. His answer was, “We won last year, and they won this year.”

    David: Yeah. That’s not answering the full question.

    Andrew: Not only that, but, David, you did not do anything last year. You lost to Alabama, and you got blew out by Oklahoma, and you had four losses. No. Then Kirby has a different answer. Mullen went on to say, when asked about recruiting, he said his coaches recruit hard, and they want guys that live up to the Gator standard, and they want guys that want to be Gators. He knows his coaches recruit hard. You may recruit hard, but ain’t landing nobody.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: Then Kirby has this quote. I know you got it synced up. Play that quote real quick.

    David: Here you go.

    Kirby: I mean, guys, if you don’t recruit, there’s no coach out there that can out coach recruiting, okay? I don’t care who you are. The best coach to ever play the game better be a good recruiter, because no coaching is going to out coach players. I mean, anybody will tell you our defense is good, because we got good players. So, spending time on the phone, spending time with people at your house, spending time with people when they come to your campus. I’m not with my family when I’m doing that. My family sacrifices, so that I can go and spend time with other people’s families, so that we have good players.

    So, that’s 25% of valuation. That’s 50% recruiting, and another 25% is going to be coaching. But if you don’t recruit guys, you got no chance. Just go look. Look at the best teams out there. They got good football players. That’s the reason I believe in recruiting, and I believe you better always be recruiting. Always be recruiting, because if you’re not, somebody else is.

    David: I couldn’t say enough more about that.

    Andrew: There it is. That is it. Nick Saban doesn’t win without good recruits either.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: Listen, Nick Saban is the greatest college football coach of all time. The greatest. But if he’s out talented every week, it’s just not there. You can’t. You can’t. The thing is Dan wanted to line up and run the football, but he didn’t have the dudes up front to do it, and he don’t have the dudes coming in. He wanted to win some one-on-one matchups outside. He didn’t have the dudes to do it.

    David: Right. The thing is you’re talking about that cover zero. I call it a cover zero, but that play that all the Georgia defensive guys are up on the line of scrimmage. They’re ready to sack the quarterback. Why are you calling a play to pass to Malik Davis on the sideline, when you know there’s a guy right down there that’s going to just snatch the ball and return it for a pick six? It’s all about the Jimmys and Joes more than it is the Xs and Os, and I understand that, but you got to be able to have smart play calling as well on offense, or even defense as well.

    uys anymore. This isn’t the:

    This is what you got. This is what you recruited for the last four years, and you’re saying that your evaluations are better than the scout’s. To me, it looks like the scout’s evaluations are better than your own evaluations, because you’re not getting the job done against teams that you should beat. On top of that, you’re getting blown out by teams that we play as rivals every year and teams that don’t have the personnel, like LSU, are still putting in their third and second-string guys and their walk-ons, and they’re still beating the crap out of you.

    Andrew: Two years in a row, because their second and third string are better. Listen, I am the first one to sit here and tell you, I don’t care about stars. Half these dudes who are ranking these guys don’t know a lick of thing about football. They don’t know a thing about football, but there’s a couple things you can look at. When Alabama, when Georgia, when Ohio State, when Oklahoma, when Clemson, when Oregon, when the top schools are offering these kids, they’re pretty freaking good. All of them aren’t missing on it, and all of them aren’t stupid.

    Then when you’re winning battles against FIU, Liberty, UCF, guess what? Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, they weren’t all wrong. They weren’t all wrong about it. They just simply weren’t.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: The thing is this, David. As good of a play caller as you are, you would think you would just want the absolute freaking dudes to just be that great, but you don’t, because you’re so scared. This is not just a Dan thing. This is everyone on this coaching staff. They’re so scared of an ego being bigger than theirs that they don’t want it. John Hevesy is so scared that there’s a player that’s going to come in that may simply know a thing or two, and he may not have to teach them, so that he can go toot his own horn and say, I taught him everything he knows.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: That he doesn’t want to. The man’s losing kids to Ole Miss. He just lost a kid to Maryland. Matthew McCoy is probably going to Ole Miss too. You’re not winning football games with that. It does not take a stupid man to realize when you’re beating Liberty, and you’re beating FIU, and you’re beating East West Tennessee State, you’re not doing good.

    Here’s another thing for you. I’m not calling out nobody in particular here, player wise. Listen, all these players that they got are good players. They’re just not Power Five SEC players.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: Florida has zero, David, zero tight end commits, after just having the best tight end in college football history in Kyle Pitts, who was drafted #4, the highest overall drafted tight end ever, with the biggest signing bonus ever.

    David: Mackey Award too.

    Andrew: Mackey Award. You have zero tight ends here. You’re hoping a kid from LSU flips, and you’re hoping a kid that’s committed to Tulane flips.

    David: Yup. You took the words out of my mouth, man. I don’t get how you can have so much success with Kadarius Toney, Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts. I know the defense looked terrible last year, but had success on offense, really good success on offense, but you can’t get Jaleel Skinner as a tight end. It looks like you’re not going to get Evan Stewart either, to Texas, because it looks like Texas is going to win that recruiting battle as well. You’re not getting the elite kids, especially on offense. These kids watching this offense should want to come to the University of Florida. You’re scoring an average of 30-40 points per game. Offenses and wide receivers and tight ends, they should all be lined up wanting to be part of the University of Florida, and they’re not, because you’re not going out there and recruiting them.

    I remember somebody saying, Sarkisian calls Evan Stewart every day. Evan Stewart said, Dan Mullen only calls me once a week. There you go. That is your own fault that you may not land Evan Stewart. I’m not sure if you will or not, but it may be your own fault that you don’t land Evan Stewart. You’re lucky to have Nick Evers and Monica Evers to be in that relationship to help that out, but you still may not even land Evan Stewart, because you’re not on a consistent basis doing what Kirby Smart said, recruiting daily.

    Andrew: Here’s what Shemar James said. My guy Shemar. Love Shemar. “I backed off my commitment to Florida because a relationship isn’t going to get me to the next level. I felt as if I needed to be developed at the highest level.”

    David: Yeah. I saw that on Twitter.

    Andrew: Wait. Florida and Georgia are at the highest level in the SEC. That says it all right there, David. The thing is this. Vacations in the NCAA, in college football in the SEC, they don’t work. They don’t work. If you become a college football coach, you come in it knowing that you’re going to work 350 days a year. You’re going to take calls on Christmas. I’ve stopped many Christmas things because a kid committed, kid decommitted, whatever, for myself. I’m not getting paid $7.5 million like Dan Mullen. Dan, if you want to go hang out with your family and your kids, and I have nothing wrong with it. I absolutely love hanging out with mine. Don’t be an SEC football coach.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: Go coach high school ball. But you want that $7.5 million, so suck it up, big dog. Put your big boy pants on and go recruit. Guess what? This ain’t the boys and girls club, where we just have our friends together, or the biker’s club or whatever where we all get our friends together and drink beer together. Cut bait. Get rid of your boys, because your boys are about to cost you $7.5 million. Your boys are about to cost you the University of Florida job. Your boys are about to cost this university continued success, because your boys are bringing them down. Your boys on offensive line, your boys at running back and such, they’re hurting you in recruiting. Your boys are hurting you all around, and this is not cutting it. This is getting worse than it is getting better.

    I said this before. You can get lucky. You can have every four years you may get a 10-win team, because you have a ton of guys that are just senior guys who gel really well together, but the other three you’re going to suck. You’re going to be an eight-win team. You’re going to be a nine-win team. You’re going to be a seven-win team. That’s not good enough at Florida. If I ask you right now, are you okay with 8-4 this year, David? Your answer is going to be what?

    David: Hell no.

    Andrew: Exactly. Guess what? What does next year look like? Another three-loss? After Saturday, do you see anything that gets you excited?

    David: No. Especially when you got Texas A&M added onto the schedule next year too, along with starting out with Utah. I’m not even sure we’re going to beat Utah, the way that we’re playing right not. It’s that bad.

    Andrew: Again, think about it. LSU, they’re going to be better. They already beat you twice, and they’re going to be better. Mel Tucker, who probably is going to be their football coach, is a really good football coach. Whoever they get is going to be better. A&M is going to be better, and Georgia’s still going to be good.

    David: Yeah.

    Andrew: That’s three.

    David: Georgia ain’t falling off any time soon. They’re #1 and #2 every year, even if they lose people.

    Andrew: Kirby sucks. Kirby sucks as a developmental coach at times. His offensive staff at times have been terrible, but Kirby didn’t fall off the turnip truck at Alabama. He learned from Nick Saban. Go get the best players, and just coach them up a little bit, and go tell them to play. Great players go make good plays.

    David: That’s all about the SEC. You got to out physical the team. That’s what playing in the South is like. Obviously, when you see SEC teams, and they play teams from the North, they usually dominate them, because they got the bigger, stronger, faster players. If you don’t have the bigger, stronger, faster players, it doesn’t matter how much of a good coach you are. You’re still not going to be able to out scheme your way out of talent. It’s just not going to happen. You’re not going to be able to throw away a wheel route with somebody running a 4.8 and expect to knock off a touchdown. You may get a 20-yard gain, but if you have a 4.3 guy catching one out of the backfield that’s a five-star, he’s probably going to take it to the house. That’s the difference in winning football games and closing out close games, which we haven’t done all year.

    Andrew: Here’s the thing, David. Are you telling me there’s no good football coaches outside of the Power Five?

    David: Of course.

    Andrew: You think there’s good coaches at USF? Do you think there’s good coaches at FAU? I think there is.

    David: There’s good ones.

    Andrew: Just good football coaches on Saturday. Xs and Os.

    David: Oh, yeah. I would think that around the nation, yes. Of course. I thought you were talking in terms of recruiting.

    Andrew: No. I’m asking. Is there good Xs and Os coaches outside of the Power Five?

    David: I know Willie Taggart is not one of them.

    Andrew: Do you think you could go find a good Xs and Os coach at my boys at South Alabama, for instance, or Georgia Southern? Do you think there’s good Xs and Os football coaches there?

    David: I think South Alabama has some.

    Andrew: I’m saying even Georgia Southern. You’re not going to get to the big boy level of college football. You’re not going to get to college football in general if you’re not a good Xs and Os football coach.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: If recruiting didn’t matter, then those schools would be great. Guess what, that’s why you only have a few games where Appalachian State knocks off Michigan, where Georgia Southern almost beats Auburn, because they have to have every little thing go their way. If not, the opposing team has the better athletes and can do the job. That’s the issue is that Florida thinks they can just recruit at whatever level, and they can out coach everybody.

    David: They’re not even out coaching everybody right now.

    Andrew: Well, no. They’re not doing that.

    David: If you look at the talent profile that Florida has, they’re sixth or seventh in the nation, and you’re sitting here unranked, lost four games. You’re not even out coaching everybody.

    Andrew: Right.

    David: From a talent perspective, you should have beat Kentucky. You should have beat LSU. You had a close game with Alabama. Hats off to you. No moral victories. You should have at least beat Kentucky and LSU, and you didn’t even do that. Are you even really coaching that well?

    Andrew: My question is this. What did you do during the bye week?

    David: You had two weeks to prepare for Georgia.

    Andrew: That’s the offensive gameplan that you brought with a bye week? That’s how you decided to stop counter during the bye week? Georgia ran 52 plays. They could have ran counter 52 times and put up 500 yards of offense. If I’m Georgia, I’m pissed off at my offensive staff for what they were doing. They just got away from counter. Every time they ran counter, they got 10 yards.

    David: I know. Looking at that, and I’m sure they watched that LSU film, and that’s what I figured they were going to run all game. You would think after two weeks that they would be ready for that counter play, and they weren’t. They were ready for your wheel route. You weren’t ready for that counter play?

    it. He hasn’t done it from:

    This is another thing that I noticed too. When Anthony Richardson was in the game, he only had 82 yards here. Emory Jones comes in for an injured Anthony Richardson, puts up 112 yards easy. So now, what are you saying? Are you saying maybe went too fast on Emory Jones here? Maybe he might be the better quarterback, and maybe Dan Mullen was right, or did we just give him a play call?

    Andrew: If he’s right, why’d he listen?

    David: Yeah.

    Andrew: Why did my opinion matter? Why did your opinion matter? He don’t care about our opinions on anything else. Why did he let us influence his decision? Why did he look better in the LSU game when Anthony Richardson did? Listen, I’m the biggest Emory fan there is. I think Emory’s been handcuffed just like Anthony Richardson has. I don’t think either quarterback has been able to give the full offense. When you’re hearing people around the country, players and coaches and whatever it may be around the country, say loyalty and you only get to play when you’re a veteran for Dan Mullen, that’s not good things. Those are not things you want to hear.

    I’m not trying to go down this path here, but you won with Jim McElwain guys last year. It just is what it is. Kyle Trask, Kadarius Toney, and Kyle Pitts.

    David: All McElwain.

    Andrew: McElwain guys. Here’s the thing. You ain’t got a dude on this recruiting staff, or coaching staff. Recruiting staff you have a couple, but you ain’t got a dude on this coaching staff who can go land a five-star monster from Miami, Tampa, Texas. You ain’t got a dude on this coaching staff. They ain’t even in the hunt for Evan Stewart if it ain’t for Nick Evers and his family. Not even in the hunt for him. What are you doing? That’s how you win. I’m sorry. Listen, I love the stories of the underdog. They’re underdogs for a reason. You can’t have a team full of underdogs and expect to win year in and year out.

    David: That’s the thing. All of his friends are lazy. They don’t want to go out there and recruit.

    Andrew: They like vacation like him.

    David: Eventually that’s going to come and bite you. To me, honestly, I give Dan Mullen one more year. One more year, and if you don’t show me anything, you don’t show me your ability to try to recruit elite in the next recruiting class, and you go 7-5 next year, or maybe even barely make a bowl game, I’m just done. It’s physically and mentally exhausting talking about Dan Mullen, how he recruits, how he prepares for game day. Sure, you came in, and you lit the world on fire. We only expected a 9-3 season when he came in here. He got 10 wins, New Year’s Six bowl game. Next year 11, New Year’s Six bowl game. I guess you’re kind of spoiled from that. To be honest, there’s no reason to be going 8-4, 7-5. That’s what Will Muschamp did. That’s what Jim McElwain did.

    Andrew: I don’t care about bowl games, David.

    David: I don’t either.

    Andrew: That’s the thing. Who cares? Honest to God, who cares? If you go to the Orange Bowl, the Mayo Bowl, the Weed Eater Bowl, guess what? You’re still a loser. You still didn’t make the College Football Playoff. You still didn’t. Sure, the money’s good. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. The SEC schools are still going. Is it fun to go to the Orange Bowl and get some swag and play Miami? Sure, it is. In 10 years, ain’t nobody going to remember. I’ll ask you this. 10 years ago, what bowl did Florida play in?

    David: I don’t know. I honestly can’t remember.

    Andrew: Couldn’t tell you.

    king Sugar Bowl, but that’s:

    Andrew: See? Who cares? Guess what? 10 years ago University of Alabama won a national championship. I can remember that.

    David: Exactly. You know what, you want crystal balls in your trophy case before the playoff. Now you want golden trophies. You don’t have any of those. You have crystal balls.

    Andrew: 13 years ago, Florida won a national championship. 15 years ago, Florida won a national championship. I can remember that.

    David: Yeah. Exactly.

    Andrew: That’s all that matters.

    David: That’s all that matters.

    Andrew: It’s all that matters. That’s it.

    David: How do we remember Coach Spurrier and Coach Urban? Because they both won national championships, and they both recruited at an elite level. That’s why we remember those guys.

    Andrew: Both of them were pissed off. Dan Mullen said he hates losing. He’s never going to let go of the rope. Listen, me, this is only me, this is only former football coach Andrew here, I don’t care if it’s my wife. I don’t care if it’s my mom. I don’t care if it’s my dad. I don’t care if it’s my best friend. I don’t care if it’s you, David. If you’re stopping me from winning a national championship, we’ll be friends, but you ain’t going to be on my payroll to coach.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: You can be a secretary. You can be whatever you want to do, but you ain’t going to be one of my coaches to help me win a national championship. First of all, ain’t no friendship, if it’s a true friendship, that friend ain’t going to do it to you. Secondly, they ain’t going to get mad at you if you put your goals and your family’s goals, because that’s what Dan is doing. He’s putting his goals and his family’s future in the hands of John Hevesy, and John Hevesy is throwing him up two middle fingers and a case of beer and saying, I like my vacation. I like fishing.

    David: A case of beer and a boat. That’s what he’s putting up in front of him. Yeah. This is another concerning thing too. In every game, Florida’s had more offensive yards than the other team, still lost.

    Andrew: I could care less.

    David: You know how Dan Mullen said, I had more offensive yards? That doesn’t matter. You don’t win games with more offensive yards. Looking at the stats. You’re even in turnovers. You can knock the turnovers there. Points off turnovers, obviously, was the main difference in this game. You’re even in turnovers. You have just about as many offensive yards as the other team. You have more 1st downs. You ran 74 plays to their 52, controlled the clock. Still lost the game. Can’t do that.

    Andrew: Guess what? Six false starts.

    David: Yup.

    Andrew: What’s it been? A month since Kentucky?

    David: Yeah.

    Andrew: What are you doing? It just has to be fixed.

    David: Right.

    Andrew: Dan says after the game he’s not going to let go of the rope. He’s going to get it fixed. Unless you see some coaching fires come across the board, it ain’t getting fixed.

    David: Ain’t nothing getting fixed at all.

    Andrew: Torrian Gray, Ron English, they wasn’t your problems last year. Your buddy Todd Grantham was your problem last year. Your buddy John Hevesy was your problem last year. That was your problem. The guy you lost in Brian Johnson, that’s a future head coach. Your problems didn’t leave. You replaced Torrian Gray with a guy who was two years ago a defensive analyst at Georgia and was at USF and can’t recruit anyone. Can’t coach his position. You replaced a guy like Torrian Gray?

    You got a guy like Corey Bell sitting in the basement down there doing recruiting analyst, and the guy can out recruit every single person on this team, on this coaching staff, and you’ve got him sitting on the sidelines? What are you doing? The guy landed Tyrique Stevenson. The guy had dudes lined up to play. You got him sitting in the basement, while you got a guy from USF that can’t recruit nobody? He went and visited Julian Humphrey on a Friday, and on Sunday the kid decommitted.

    coaches. The only coach since:

    Andrew: People don’t want to hear it from me, because I’m a Jim McElwain guy. I love Jim McElwain. I still love Jim McElwain. I don’t care what anybody says. It’s part of the business. I love Jim McElwain. I think he’s a great person. I think he’s a great football coach. He had a bad hire on his staff that kept his offense down, and it cost him his job. So far it ain’t cost Dan his job. Jim McElwain wouldn’t bow down to Scott Stricklin, so he got fired, because he had some disturbing death threats, whatever it may be. Jim McElwain out recruited the heck out of Dan Mullen. Jim McElwain also inherited nothing on the offensive side of the ball from Will Muschamp. He inherited great defense that helped him win some football games. Helped him win a lot of football games. Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen, no difference there. What’s the difference?

    David: There really isn’t. There is no difference, to be honest.

    Andrew: You hated Jim McElwain, who could recruit, because you like Dan Mullen, who could put together an okay offensive gameplan. Guess what? Neither of them won your championship.

    David: At the end of the day, no. Jim McElwain rode the coattails of Will Muschamp’s recruits. That’s the thing. When you recruit at an elite level, even though Muschamp couldn’t figure out offense at all, and he went through offensive coordinators every single year, the thing that kept him in games was his elite defensive recruiting. Even when he had those bad years where he had lost, he had a 4-8 season. He lost to Georgia Southern, had a ton of injuries. You still shouldn’t lose to Georgia Southern. He beat the teams he was supposed to beat that he out recruited. Point blank. You beat Tennessee every year with Will Muschamp. You didn’t have a loss to Tennessee. Jim McElwain lost to Tennessee. You were able to recruit at an elite level enough defensively to get you through the games that you’re supposed to get through. All you needed was an offense. All you needed was a good offensive coordinator. Could have won championships.

    Andrew: And it was coming. It was coming for McElwain. The recruits were lining up. Don’t forget. Heisman candidate Matt Corral. Jamar Chase, who was the fourth overall pick in the Draft. Frank Ladson, who’s a really good player. Tyrique Stevenson, who’s a really good player. Copeland. I know I’m forgetting somebody. I know I’m forgetting some other guys.

    David: That class was #1 or #3 before he got fired.

    Andrew: #1 in the country in the class the following year, and they were #3 in the class the year he got fired. Remember, Matt Corral wasn’t good enough to play for Dan Mullen.

    David: That’s right.

    Andrew: Billy Gonzales said Jamar Chase wasn’t SEC material. Jamar Chase might be Rookie of the Year in the NFL. Matt Corral is probably getting invited to New York, if they have the ceremony up there again. What’s the issue?

    David: I don’t get it. I really don’t get it. You were able to hold onto Copeland and Dameon Pierce, who actually have been great playmakers for your team. Maybe not this year with Copeland. He hasn’t gotten the ball as much.

    Andrew: You hung onto Dameon Pierce because Ja’Juan Seider was still here. You held onto Copeland because the foundation was already built for him there, because Billy Gonzales didn’t do a think but try to wreck Jacob Copeland’s recruitment. Greg Knox didn’t land Dameon Pierce, so don’t let nobody fool you there.

    David: Greg Knox hasn’t landed anybody, except for from the transfer portal, where they’ve already been. Demarkcus Bowman was coming to Florida, I believe, until the thing. Obviously, he went to Clemson for his family member. Family member passes away, he comes to Florida. I guess you could say that maybe Knox could have pulled Bowman. I don’t know. It was a whole family thing there. Still, what has any of this coaching staff done elite in recruiting? If it was me, I would be getting rid of Knox. I’d be getting rid of Hevesy. I’d be getting rid of Grantham. Sorry. That’s just me. You can’t get rid of all of them at one time.

    Andrew: Here comes your problem, David. Let’s say this. Let’s speak in hypothetical for a second here. The entire defensive staff gets fired this year. Let’s just speak in this. I don’t know if it is happens or not. Probably not, honestly. You bring a whole new defensive staff in. What happens next year when you’re at four losses?

    David: Exactly.

    Andrew: Or three losses. You know what I'm saying? It always is. This is a pattern you get in, and it rarely works. If you have to force a coach to fire certain people, it rarely works that it ends up fixing the program and the program going to elite levels. Now, Kirby’s fired some guys on his own. Dabo’s fired some guys on his own. But before Year 4. That’s the issue. You’re in Year 4, David. Year 4. You’re no better off in Year 4 than you were in Year 1.

    David: You’re actually worse. My thing is this. You could have fired Grantham now. You could have fired him last week. You could have fired him during the bye week. You don’t have any defensive recruits right now. You have none, so it wouldn’t even matter. A lot of those defensive recruits did not like what they saw. Shemar James, like you read, he didn’t like what he saw. The other top 100 guy, the corner. I can’t think of his name.

    Andrew: Humphrey. Julian Humphrey.

    David: Julian Humphrey. He decommits, and now you’re sitting here with no top 100 commits on defense. Nobody. What’s the point? Why are you still keeping him around anyway? If you would have shown those kids, I’ll get rid of Grantham and bring somebody else in here that’s an elite recruiter, you could already be starting on your recruiting class.

    It’s November. What are you doing? November and December. That’s all you got right now. How are you going to get that many defensive recruits, top 100 guys, in that amount of time? It’s not going to happen. You’re going to have to dip into the portal. The problem is you’re going to be portal diving this whole recruiting class. There’s kids going into the portal, but these are kids that couldn’t make it on their other team, so how good of a defensive or whatever recruit that you’re going to get from the portal, how good are they going to be here?

    Justin Shorter, he’s okay. He hasn’t done great. He’s made plays here recently. What has Justin Shorter done since he’s been here? I’m not trying to trash Justin Shorter, but what has he done? He hasn’t really done much. Let’s see. Who else did you get from the portal? Lorenzo Lingard and Demarkcus Bowman. They’re sitting on the bench collecting dust, while your special teams can’t even return a kick. What’s the point in even dipping into the portal to get five-star guys and not even play the guys? You win with talent.

    I don’t get it. I’m to a point now to where it’s just like, what do we do now? A lot of people are wanting to get rid of Mullen. Some of them aren’t. Some of them want to keep him another year. I don’t know.

    Andrew: I don’t know either. I don’t know where you’re at. He was asked if he was at a crossroads in his program, and he said no.

    David: Yeah.

    Andrew: I don’t know. I’ll say this. Rest of the year is important.

    David: Yeah.

    Andrew: Got to figure it out. You can’t lay an egg in Carolina. You can’t lay an egg to Missouri.

    David: Definitely can’t lay an egg to Florida State.

    Andrew: You better not lay an egg to FSU.

    David: You lay an egg to FSU, you’re asking for pitchforks. Especially at home. You definitely should be able to win that game. You should be able to win the rest of the games on your schedule. Let’s be honest. You should go 8-4, like you did last year. Should. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Should.

    Andrew: Should.

    David: If we’re talking, and we’re in the Tony the Tiger Bowl by the end of the year, I’m going to be pretty pissed off.

    Andrew: David, I know this was a difficult podcast, for a lot of reasons. We’ll be back later in the week. We’ll preview South Carolina and see where things are going here. You’re at a crossroads. I ask this. I want everybody to chime in here. Some interaction here from fans, either on the Gator Country message board or on Twitter. What needs to be fixed, in your opinion? What needs to happen to fix this?

    David: We’ll read it. We’ll read some of them here on the next podcast too. We’ll actually make sure we take a little bit more time, because I noticed last time we asked for fans’ comments on the VIP boards we couldn’t get through all of them. We’ll take some time. We’ll do a little segment. Maybe take 10, 20 minutes.

    Andrew: 10 minutes. We’ll do 10 minutes of it, and we’ll read some. Let us know. What needs to happen to fix this problem? Are David and I out of line?

    David: I’m a little out of line today. I said this last year.

    Andrew: I might be.

    David: I said, what was it? I was like, last year the coffee tasted different, and the air outside seemed more fresher, because we beat Georgia. This year, the coffee tastes like pencil lead, and the air outside feels like I’m near a septic tank, but it won’t steal my joy away from the fall weather. Guess what? Good news here. Braves in the World Series tonight. We’re going to end it on that. I know a lot of Florida Gator fans out there are Braves fans. Some of them aren’t. I know this isn’t a Braves podcast, but got to end it on some good news here for you folks.

    Andrew: Yes. We’re taping this on Sunday. You guys are listening to this. We may already be World Series champions. If not, we’re going back to Houston to win this thing.

    David: We do apologize for the sorry somber podcast today, because we’re all just in a bad mood. Every Florida Gator fan right now should have never expected to win this game. Don’t get me wrong. But I don’t think it should have been as bad as it was. I think you had a chance in this game, from the first quarter, second quarter.

    Andrew: Here’s the thing for me. I won’t spend very much time. I’ll spend 30 seconds on this before we get out of here.

    David: Go ahead.

    Andrew: You didn’t expect to win the game. You expected it to look a little bit different. You expected there to be a different gameplan on the offense. You expected something. I didn’t see any energy come out on the offensive side of the ball. The issue is there’s just not a ton of hope for the future on what you’re seeing so far. If things don’t change in some way, shape, or form, what’s the future look like? Again, you lost this past week. You lost Julian Humphrey, another top 100 guy. Recruiting is not getting better. There’s not a ton of electric playmakers waiting in the wings to come in. That’s what I’ll say. That’s how I’ll end mine.

    David: I’m kind of the same way, man. When I look at it, the future doesn’t look good. Every time Georgia seems to land another five-star, top 100 recruit, it looks like we’re just sitting there dipping down in the rankings, 35, 36, and still nobody on this staff feels like they need to do anything about it. I don’t know. It’s one of those days. I’m having one of those days where I’m in a bad mood. You know what, we do have the Braves tonight.

    Andrew: That’s right.

    David: 3-1. They’re about to win a World Series. Can they do it at home tonight, Sunday night? Let’s see. Let’s see if Spivey is smiling from ear to ear on the next Gator Country podcast. Let’s see.

    Andrew: There you go. Get us out of here, David. We’ll be back next week.

    David: Folks, we do apologize for the somber mood on this podcast, but I feel it is well warranted between you and the fans. Like we said, on VIP boards, answer that question for us. What do you feel? Where do you think the program needs to go from here? 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. Tomahawk chop.

    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.