Breaking down the Florida Gators vs. LSU: Podcast

Gator Country’s Monday podcast is back as the gang breaks down the Florida Gators close loss to the LSU Tigers on Saturday night in Death Valley, in a game that was very close and physical.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how quarterback Treon Harris and the offense did for the Florida Gators, plus they tell you what worked and didn’t work for the Gators defense.

Andrew and Nick end the podcast by telling you what is ahead for the Florida Gators and why Gators fans shouldn’t be upset over the loss to LSU on Saturday night.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? This is your man, Andrew Spivey, with Nicholas de la Torre. Nick, it was a great atmosphere on Saturday night in Death Valley, a great football game. Probably one of the better football games of the year, 35-28 LSU comes out and defeats Florida, but Florida had the opportunity the last two drives of the game. Granted the last drive of the game was from the 10 with only 90 seconds to go in the game, but Florida was in position to tie the football game or possibly win the football game. I think that’s all you could have asked for.

Nick:                         Yeah. That was an incredible atmosphere last night. What Florida did, to me was prove that they belong. I think both of us have said we think this team is a year early in the whole rebuilding process that McElwain is going through, and what they showed last night in a matchup of Top 10 teams is that they deserve that ranking. That’s what a matchup of Top 10 teams looks like. There’s a couple plays from the referees, a couple plays that didn’t go their way that kind of changed the complexion of the game, but I think what Florida showed last night is that they’ve got their confidence back. They’ve got their swagger back and that they belong. Florida belongs on the field in games like that, in Top 10 games.

Andrew:                 That’s the biggest thing. I hate to use the referees as an excuse, and it wasn’t the entirety of the game. I completely agree with that. The no fumble call was a turning point in the football game where all momentum was at Florida, Florida gets the fumble, clearly picks it up in bounds. I’m not sure what the ref was under the review looking for, but that’s a game changer right there. Defensively in the first half Florida just played very bad football. DBU was exposed for the majority of the first half and didn’t play well. That goes for All-American Vernon Hargreaves, who probably had his worst game as a Gator last night.

Nick:                         I need to watch it again, because I think on the flea flicker, from the press box you can get a different angle. You can see the entire field more so than you can see it when you’re watching on TV. That means if the ball goes to the right side of the field, the camera’s going to stay over there. You’re not really going to see what’s happening on the bottom of your screen. That’s where being at the game you can see a little bit more. To me it looked like Vernon Hargreaves got his eyes stuck in the back field on the flea flicker and then a member posted on the board that he didn’t really get beat, that he was in position. I need to see it again. The fumble, Vernon Hargreaves rips the ball out of Leonard Fournette’s hands. If that calls goes well are we saying Vernon had a bad game? At that point then Vernon has a forced fumble that kind of could have changed the way things were going.

Andrew:                 It was bad defense in the first half. Excellent defense in the second half. Without the fake field goal there Florida plays a near perfect second half on defense. You look at Fournette, 76 yards rushing. You say, that’s not good. That’s good. That was good. It was a tale of two halves. Florida offensively in the first half played okay, kind of played conservative in my opinion, trying to ease Treon Harris into the game. Then the second half he came out. I think we would be crazy not to mention it from the get go. Antonio Callaway, he has emerged as, I’ll go ahead and say it, Gators best offensive weapon on the team. Unbelievable football player.

Couple quick stats to throw out on Callaway. Callaway and Reidel Anthony are the only two Gators to have 100 yard receiving games as a freshman, true freshman. Both have done it twice now. Also, Callaway is the first true freshman to have a punt return for a touchdown as a Gator in SEC play. Two stats that are incredible when you think back of all the athletes of the 90s and early 2000s from Florida.

Nick:                         This kids is just something special. You can tell from a skillset he’s got it. The moment for him, not too big, the punt return yesterday was a ball that he goes from shouting poison to the cover team, the punk cover team, because the ball’s going to bounce to make sure they get away and don’t let the ball hit them, to scooping it and making something out of nothing. On offense he has sure hands. You look at the ball in the end zone that he had. He went up. He high pointed that ball in the end zone. The safety just came over and was able to get his hand on it and make a play. Both quarterbacks, Will Grier and then now Treon Harris, Harris obviously has history with Callaway having both played together at Booker T Washington High School, both quarterbacks trust him and look for him. Antonio Callaway is going to finish off a great season and it seems like the sky is really the limit for him the rest of his career. This kid is just a football player.

Andrew:                 Very good football player. The punt return was something special. That was a very good play. I’m going to go ahead and say it. I think he needs to be on kickoff return. I said this to you last night. It’s not that Brandon Powell’s a bad returner. It’s Brandon Powell beats his guys. I say that in a kickoff return guy sometimes has to delay his return to allow his lead blocker to get ahead of him. Also, he hesitates when deciding whether to come out or not. You don’t have time to hesitate there. It’s you got to go, you have to listen to your guy and go, and then once you do go you have to follow your lead blocker, which last night was Duke Dawson, has been Valdez Showers in the past. You have to follow those guys. That’s just something that I’m not sure why Brandon Powell hasn’t learned yet, but it’s something that has to get fixed.

Nick:                         I don’t know. Punt return and kick return are so different, so I don’t doubt that Antonio Callaway could do it, but the fact that they haven’t changed to that yet, considering how good Callaway’s been returning punts, maybe that to me says that it’s not something the coaching staff thinks he does well, that he does well in practice. When you look at it warming up, he’s back there warming up with and Brandon Powell and Vernon Hargreaves when they do kick returns, so maybe it’s because they are so different, punt return and kick return, maybe the staff just feels that it’s not something he would do well.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you. Why do you say it’s so different? I have a strong disbelief of that. I don’t believe that they’re different. When you talk to coaches you say, you want your guy that’s the most sure handed catching the punt, but as far as a return game you want a guy that both sees the play. I would like to see your view. Why do you feel it’s different?

Nick:                         I think on punt is different than kick. Kick is, like you said, I guess both need patience, but just the way that the blocks are being set up on punt and kick are different and require…

Andrew:                 Both are setting walls, Nicholas.

Nick:                         I think they’re different. I think what you’re seeing is different. The punt is more of you’re making a quick decision, because the players are much closer to you when you’re catching the ball. On kick coverage it’s more about patience and waiting for things to open up. You’ve got a scheme …

Andrew:                 I think you’ve lost your mind, man. Sorry, buddy, but I think you’ve lost your mind there. I do think that it’s a …

Nick:                         Just take the 25 yards …

Andrew:                 Nick, I don’t even know, man. You’ve lost your mind, man. I really think you had way too much alcohol, way too much Cajun food. That went to your brain. Sorry, but you’re crazy right now.

Nick:                         I definitely didn’t have way too much Cajun food. Listen, if Florida hasn’t gotten anything on kick return, and if the coaching staff hasn’t put Callaway there yet, there’s something to that. they feel like he’s not a better option than what they have. When it comes down to it, don’t take the ball out of the end zone. Most of the kickoffs are going 4, 5, 6, anywhere from 3-6 yards into the end zone, and Florida’s not getting the ball back out to the 25. Just take the free yards. Stop bringing the ball out.

Andrew:                 It’s a situation where if Brandon would catch the ball and anticipate, I’m going to look. Duke Dawson, Valdez Showers, whoever his lead blocker is has one job, two jobs. A, decide whether to come out or not. B, decide where they’re going with the wall. That’s their job. Brandon has to follow that job. Real quick, we talk about kickoff. Ba-boom, Austin Hardin returns and, guess what, ball in the end zone. He had a weird delay of game on a kickoff that I’ve never seen before in my life, so they backed the ball up 5 yards and guess what? Hardin still puts it almost out of the end zone.

Nick:                         I think Austin Hardin was a little salty there. You get marched back 5. He kicks it into the end zone, and I don’t think they showed it on TV, but he turned and said something to the referee. We’re in the stadium, and the music was still playing. Normally the music will cut off when the ref says it’s good, go ahead and kick. The music never cut off, and I think Austin Hardin kind of felt like, nobody let me know that the clock was running down. He had a little something to say about it, and maybe even a little extra juice in that one.

Andrew:                 That was another poor officiating part. They had just announced that the clock was returning, and that they were going to readjust the clock, and then 2 seconds later it’s delay of game. Very odd in Death Valley. Good shot, ref. That was retarded. That was good there. Let’s go to the offense. Let’s talk a little offensive ball for a second. Treon for the first half he kind of looked like a guy that was still trying to get out of the pocket too quick. He wasn’t anticipating his throws, was more so first read’s not there, I’m gone. Second half, Mac got him out of the pocket a little bit, got him calmed down, starting looking well in the game.

The thing for me is Treon never got out of control, never had any turnovers. He did throw the ball away there, did anticipate it, did slide, did get out of bounds, and for me that was a very successful day for Treon, and he had some good throws. The throw across the middle in the crossing route to D Rob was there. The throw to Antonio Callaway in the end zone where he drops the ball after getting a great play by LSU was a great ball. The majority of his game was good football, 17 of 32 for Treon. I would venture to say about 8 of those incompletions were on the final two drives of the game. 271 yards with 2 touchdowns. Also, 20 yards rushing. Overall I give Treon an A+ for the game, even though he didn’t get the win.

Nick:                         I think the biggest thing with me, and it’s what we talked about with the short and intermediate routes. Treon doesn’t throw his receivers open. He waits until they’re already in their cut, they’re already in their break to throw it. Whereas Will Grier would throw the ball to daylight. He would throw the ball to a spot. I know what the routes are. I can see what the defense is doing. Jake McGee on this little post is going to be open. I need to throw the ball before he makes that cut and before the safety sees what his route is going to be and breaks down on the ball. I think that’s where Treon and Will are really separated right now in their development is that Treon’s just not anticipating those throws. There was a play last night, it’s escaping me who he threw to, but Jamal Adams was able to break up the pass.

Andrew:                 Goolsby.

Nick:                         Goolsby. If you throw the ball before the break, and throw it to a spot instead of throwing it to the man. Now we’re talking about Treon throws passes to the receivers instead of throwing the ball to a spot where the receiver will be. If he anticipates better, there’s a completion there. That’s what I wanted to see more from him, but what Will Grier isn’t great at, throwing the ball away, Treon Harris did a good job. There were a couple times last night where Harris threw the ball away, and in my head I probably thought, Grier probably would have taken the sack there. Tried to make someone miss and taken the sack. Also, he slid. Treon Harris slid last night, which when Josh Grady and Jacob Guy are your backup quarterbacks, you don’t need your running quarterback to take any more punishment than he’s already going to, so good to see Treon Harris has spent some time over in the baseball fields working with Kevin O’Sullivan on sliding.

Andrew:                 It was there. For the majority of the night Martez Ivey played pretty well at left guard. The offensive line did struggle, but they struggled in the sense that they were allowing their ends to rush up field, to create a pocket for a guy like Grier. For a guy like Treon, he needs more of a pocket that stays in front of him, especially last night. Offensive line is what offensive line is. That is what it is. The running game didn’t get going, don’t think you expected it to get going. It did enough for the majority of the game there, and it did score on the red zone when Cece Jefferson and Bryan Cox got in there to make a big block. One other thing that I wanted to kind of point out a little bit was Antonio Callaway, we talked about him on his receiving yards and stuff, but he might have had the hit stick of the year for an offensive player. He absolutely put a death block into home boy for LSU.

Nick:                         I was about to lose my mind. I love physical football, so when I see that I love it. Then a flag comes out? How are you going to flag Antonio Callaway, who’s 6’ tall, blocking a linebacker or a safety? He hit him in the chest.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         I was about to lose my mind. Ref’s about to call some kind of nonsense right now. That is just another thing that Antonio Callaway does, the little things that maybe you don’t even expect a freshman to be able to do. He does. Something I did want to touch on on the offense, you mentioned it. Martez Ivey, Florida shuffled things up. Antonio Riles was out of the starting lineup. Trip Thurman shot over to right guard. A lot of people always ask, why can’t you just put this tackle to guard? It’s different in Ivey’s case. Moving from tackle to guard is completely footwork, completely different technique, but Martez Ivey came from basically a winged T offense where all he did was run block, run block, run block. The transition for him to move inside to guard is a little bit easier than someone like David Sharpe or a Fred Johnson to move from tackle inside to guard. Even though Martez Ivey has played offensive tackle his whole life, because he has been on a run offense, a run heavy team, he has a little bit more familiarity with the footwork and the technique of a guard.

Andrew:                 The good thing is Florida does do a lot of zone blocking as well, so that does kind of benefit him in a lot of areas. Like you said, he’s a smart football player. He’s not your average freshman at all. It was good game plan all around. I thought Mac had a good game plan. I thought Mac executed the game plan really well. Jake McGee had a big game overall. It was a very good offensive game plan, and for maybe the first time in a long time you can blame the defense in this game. The defense kind of put them in a very big hole giving up 28 points in the first half. Florida only scored 14, but you got to realize you’re going up against a good LSU team in Death Valley. You think 14 points at half time, you should be either tied or maybe down a touchdown. Overall I think you give the offense a good game overall.

Nick:                         Yeah. I don’t know about the running game though. The offensive line really did not get enough of a push against LSU.

Andrew:                 The running game hasn’t been there all year, though.

Nick:                         It has been in spurts. Kelvin Taylor’s gone for over 100 yards twice. You look at Taylor got 15 carries for 25 yards last night, does pick up a touchdown. That’s a 1.7 average. Jordan Scarlett got in the game last night. Any kind of phantom injury that would have led to a possible redshirt, that’s done. Scarlett got 1 carry, picked up a 1^st down on 4^th and 1, showed some speed to get around to the edge. Great block by Jake McGee on that play. I need to see more from the running game and more from the offensive line in getting that push. LSU’s offensive line, ESPN stats and info had a stat last night that, I think it was Leonard Fournette had 5 runs where he wasn’t touched within the first 5 yards. That is LSU’s line completely resetting the line of scrimmage, and when you play offensive line and defensive line that’s what you’re trying to do. You’ve got a line of scrimmage. Say you’re on the 20, if you’re the offensive line you want to make the new line of scrimmage the 25. You want to push the defensive line back, and the opposite for the defensive line. LSU was able to do that, and Florida wasn’t last night.

Andrew:                 I think a lot of that, and I said this to you last night as well. I think that a lot of that has to do with LSU creating a new line, I also felt like the question you and I had going into the game was how would Florida defensive line play? Would they play disciplined football or not? Florida was in the back field a lot, but they were playing undisciplined ball where they were running wild instead of I’m going to get through there. I’m going to get in position to make a tackle. That was the biggest thing that concerned me in the first half was that Florida’s defensive line was kind of playing undisciplined ball. They were making their plays, getting through the line, but once they did they weren’t finishing the play. There were running freely like they were tackling a quarterback, not Leonard Fournette or any running back in America.

Nick:                         Yeah. We had mentioned that, if you recall. I mentioned we asked Alex McAllister, is there more freedom on this defense in the scheme, and he said yes. We mentioned that they’ve kind of been playing wild, and their wild play has led to some sacks and big plays. We mentioned that you’ve got to still play sound solid football, fit the run. You’ve got to do these things, and they didn’t. Last night was the first game all season where Florida did not have a sack, and I believe it was the first game they did not have an interception either.

Andrew:                 Let’s move on a little bit here. You’re going into the bye week 6-1. I think anybody in America right now early in the season…

Nick:                         Not me. I didn’t think so.

Andrew:                 They would be very happy about this. You go into the bye week probably still a Top 15 or so football team, depending on where it is. Have all your goals in mind. That is to get to Atlanta, represent the East. All the goals are still there. You’re ahead of schedule. You put Florida back on the map as far as being in big football games. You have the excitement around the team. Everything for Florida right now is going in the right direction, despite a loss. This was not a 35-0 loss. This was 35-28 against arguably one of the best football teams in America, and you were in the game. You’re still leading the East with an opportunity to go to Jacksonville in two weeks and potentially clinch the East, basically clinch the East. It wouldn’t be officially done. You go there in the rivalry game and clinch the East. Everything’s still there. Everyone just relax. Enjoy this bye week. Get ready to kick Georgia’s tail.

Nick:                         When we were playing baseball the saying was, whatever happens it doesn’t matter because we’ve got a game tomorrow. I asked the players what about this? You lose going into a bye week. Does that loss kind of stew? By that I mean, in baseball we would talk about you always have tomorrow. You always have another day. Baseball normally it’s just the next day. In football you’ve got seven days normally. Now Florida kind of has to have this bad taste of a loss in their mouth for two full weeks before they get a chance to go back out on the football field and get an opportunity to take that taste out of their mouth. Jake McGee said, it’ll probably build up some animosity with us. It’ll probably build up some anger inside of us that we’ll need to take on Georgia.

Andrew:                 It’ll be interesting to see. I’m interested to see how Jim McElwain does some things, because his former boss, Nick Saban, would be eating some tail right now. He would be having a video running nonstop of the LSU loss all day. I kind of what to see how Mac handles this, because it’s there. I do think this. I do think that the loss going into the bye week is not a big deal, because I think that you can look back at this game and see a lot of positives, where if you do this differently or do that differently, a few plays here and there, maybe it’s a different outcome. Florida doesn’t allow the Hail Mary. We could go on for days.

You look at that game. You think, this was a good football game. Also, the bye week does come at a good time. It helps get Treon there, get some guys that have been banged up a little bit better. Trip Thurman with the shoulder still banged up a little bit. You got some guys that are banged up, get those guys healthy again for the stretch run of the Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, FIU, and then Florida State. You’re good there. Perfect time for the bye week.

I want to say this on McElwain. You and I had this conversation on the way home yesterday. We were talking about McElwain and the approach he’s had to this team. Jim McElwain has done a hell of a job with this football team. He’s done a hell of a job with this program. These guys are fired up. He’s a guy that doesn’t take himself too serious, but he is confident. Confidence oozes out of him. I’ll say it. I have the utmost respect for him. I think that he is a very good football coach, and I think he is the right guy for the Florida Gators, no matter what anyone says about Jim McElwain.

Nick:                         It was funny to me. Jim McElwain was asked about the fake field goal, and he said, I kind of wear it as a badge of honor. They felt like they needed to pull out a trick play to beat us. Even in a loss, Jim McElwain still taking shots or jabs. His confidence has not taken a hit because Florida isn’t undefeated anymore. It’s nice to see, and I think you see that attitude permeate the entire locker room. Florida’s entire team is playing with that kind of confidence and that kind of swagger.

The important thing is that Florida will likely be favored in the rest of their games this season, and they’re still in control of going to Atlanta, which would be the first time, if I’m not mistaken, since 2009. Florida will be favored over Georgia, who won what sounds like an awful football game 9-6 over Missouri. They’ll be favored over Vanderbilt. These aren’t James Franklin’s Vanderbilt teams. These are your granddaddy’s Vanderbilt teams. They’re pretty bad. South Carolina got their first win yesterday. Florida will be favored in that one. Those are the last three SEC games, and if Florida can beat Georgia that will all but seal it and clinch the East.

Andrew:                 Again, like I said, every bit of goals for Florida is ahead of it right now. Had you told Jim McElwain going into the Georgia game you’d have a chance to clinch, he says let’s go play ball. Let’s go. The thing about this is McElwain puts together incredible game plans. Some of the best game plans I’ve seen, and I consider myself a football junky. He puts together good game plans. He’s got two weeks to do this against Georgia, who in my opinion has a good front seven and awful back four in the defensive back field. I think that it’s a matchup Florida’s good with right now. I think that Florida should be all right there. Again, it’s a thing where if you look at things from a perspective of big picture, Florida’s still very fine. Coaches poll comes out, they’re #14 in the country. Who cares? Florida probably wasn’t going to the playoff either way. Things are still well here.

I just can’t say enough about Mac and his coaching staff. These guys got their guys playing ball. They got their guys believing it. Geoff Collins doesn’t get near enough credit for what he does. I know they had a bad first half, but that second half was very good football. Doug Nussmeyer, just the entire coaching staff, very knowledgeable guys. They just got these guys playing with confidence.

Nick:                         The second half adjustments, specifically on defense, have been great. You hold Leonard Fournette to 75 rushing yards. Really Florida started the game off well from a defensive standpoint. You get a 4 and out and force a punt on the second drive. The first drive was just the fumble on Florida’s own punt. You get one really good drive, and then 11 plays, 88 yards, touchdown. 9 plays, 67 yards, touchdown. 2 plays, 58 yards, touchdown. 5 plays, 75 and a touchdown. You allow 28 points.

It was that second quarter was really just Florida’s offense had no answers for that. In the 2^nd quarter for LSU 233 total yards. They averaged 6.1 yards per rushing attempt. That 2^nd quarter was really what did Florida in. As well as they were able to make adjustments and come back in the 2^nd half, they dug themselves too big of a hole against too good of a team on the road to be able to win that game. You look at it. They still were in a position to tie that game up.

Andrew:                 Exactly. Again, can’t say enough about it. It’s there going into the bye week. Florida will get healthy, get ready to go to Georgia. Be interesting to see, like I said, how the bye week goes with Mac. Everybody runs a different bye week. I do think he will kind of, I don’t want to say coddle the guys, but definitely get the guys to say, you’re 6-1, you’re okay. You’re a very good football team.

I had the opportunity to talk to Garrett Grayson, Mac’s former quarterback at Colorado State, last night for a good while after the game. He was telling me, he was like Mac is a guy that loves up his players. He lets them know, you’re a good football player. You’re confident. He lets that confidence go. He says, it is almost him coddling his guys and saying, you’re okay. It’s fine. It’s okay. You got the 6-1 record. It’ll be interesting to see really how, you don’t have media this week. It’ll be interesting to see how the team is on Monday of next week. Do they come out with the same sense of energy and win the day, as Mac says? Do they come out a little flat? That’s my biggest thing for this bye week.

Nick:                         Jim McElwain joked, I asked him what the bye week plans were. He said, we’re going to win everything. We need to win team meal on Sunday. We need to win Monday of the by week. It’s all about keeping the players up. Most of the coaches will be doing the recruiting thing, because it’s the bye week. A lot of the players will get a chance to go home, visit family. Maybe even reset, get their minds off of football. They’ve been doing this since fall camp started. I think maybe even the bye week’s a time where it is good to be able to hit that reset button and get ready for Georgia. You need to come back, once you hit that reset button. You can’t stay in vacation mode. You need to come back that following Monday, a week from today, and really be ready to finish the year out strong.

Andrew:                 The good thing is it is Georgia. I don’t think there’s a player on that football team that likes Georgia. I don’t think that there’s a lot of things that goes Florida’s way there. That is a big game. It might be tougher had Vandy been after the bye week, but to have Georgia there, you know you got to come in kicking ass and taking names.

Nick:                         We need to go through our players from last week. The first two we’ll both get wins. I picked Keanu Neal. You picked Antonio Morrison. Keanu Neal had 14 tackles last night. Antonio Morrison had 8 tackles. Neal led the team. Morrison was tied with Maye and Davis for 2^nd. It was kind of what we expected as far as LSU running the ball and those guys in the secondary, the safeties, as well as the linebackers, needing to come down and fit the gaps and make plays against a gigantic running back in Leonard Fournette.

Andrew:                 That’s exactly right. You look at a guy like Morrison. He made big plays. It was a good game for him and Neal. Then you had Antonio Callaway, props to you.

Nick:                         I picked Antonio Callaway, and you gave me props last night, but I’m going to give myself props. I called Antonio Callaway with a play on special teams. We talked about how special teams have been kind of iffy for LSU. I called a return touchdown for Callaway. I also picked Kelvin Taylor. I’m going to give myself a win, because of the touchdown. I already talked about the yards not being there. That’s also not all on him. I am going to give myself the win because of the touchdown. I have it written down who you were supposed to pick, but who did you actually pick?

Andrew:                 I had Treon Harris and Brandon Powell. I think Treon played well. I don’t think you can fault Treon Harris at all. I thought Treon had a really good game. Then Brandon Powell. Brandon Powell didn’t do very much at all. That’s a loss for me with Powell. I give myself a win, but I think you took the week overall in that.

Nick:                         Dropped the losing.

Andrew:                 There you go. Couple of things real quick. Got to give props to a lot of guys. Joe, Gator Joe, brought us by for the Gator tailgate yesterday, or LSU tailgate. Very gracious guy. Helped us out, even though he did not like you at first, Nicholas. You were on his bad list early in the season.

Nick:                         I was. We had a disagreement the first week, but Joe, from Mississippi, now lives in Louisiana showed us some southern hospitality.

Andrew:                 He still lives in Mississippi.

Nick:                         Showed us some southern hospitality. We had some great jambalaya. Got to talk to some very nice LSU fans. I even got a chance to talk some baseball with them. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it. It was very nice meeting you as well. Good luck to your lovely wife, who was pregnant. Hope the rest of the pregnancy goes well and you have a beautiful healthy baby.

Andrew:                 Definitely. It was a lot of good things over the weekend. Good trip overall. I will say this though. Death Valley is a very nice stadium, very nice atmosphere. I appreciate the atmosphere. LSU, if you’re listening, please get a PA announcer. That guy’s a bozo. A penal—I mean a personal—I mean, a false start is 6 yards. Then you say it’s an unsportslike conduct. No. How about unsportsmanlike conduct. How about you pronounce words right? It was an embarrassment for LSU on that guy. That was crazy. That kind of started to get on my nerves.

Nick:                         When Andrew Spivey is calling you out for pronouncing words right, something terrible has happened.

Andrew:                 Yeah. When I notice stuff…

Nick:                         When Andrew Spivey, who once told me that C’yontai Lewis’s first name was pronounced Si-tai, when Andrew Spivey is telling you that you need to work on pronouncing words correctly, you’ve done a bad job at something.

Andrew:                 You have done a very bad job of that. The guy was awful. I won’t even mince words. That guy was awful. That was embarrassing. Very embarrassing on his part. Overall, good trip. Get ready for Jacksonville in a couple weeks. Recruiting will be hot this week. Stay tuned to GatorCountry.com for that. We should be good this week. Have a little basketball coverage as well, have Cassidy, Jenna, and Austin covering some basketball, catch up on last Thursday’s press conference as well as this Thursday’s press conference. Recruiting will be hot, as always. Kind of get our juices reflowed. It’s been a long last few weeks.

Nick:                         I’m looking forward. Get down to south Florida. Get to play some golf. We will still have a ton of coverage, probably lean a little bit more on the basketball coverage, introducing Mike White and those guys this week. We also have, I know we failed to get Booger on the podcast last week, but we have a new surprise guest that we’re hoping to get on either Monday or Friday for you guys. As always, stay tuned to my Twitter, @NickdelaTorreGC. My Instagram for all of my delicious food in Baton Rouge and Louisiana, my delicious food that I had. I probably put on about 15 pounds this weekend. That’s @NickdelaTorre, no GC on Instagram. Follow Andrew. Follow Gator Country. We’ll see you on the boards. Andrew’s got a new sign off.

Andrew:                 I do have a new sign off. I was going to ask you about my new sign off. Nick is Mr. GQ sometimes he teaches this old Alabama boy some new lines now and then. Just depends on what it is. I did get to talk a little trash about Mark Richt this weekend, so that was always a good thing. Good times as always, Butch and Mark, they’re still just not very good football coaches.

Nick:                         That hasn’t changed.

Andrew:                 No. That hasn’t changed, even after Week 7. Nick, say your magic words, my good friend.

Nick:                         I am interested to see if you get this. He gets the line correctly I would say 70% of the time. I’m wondering if this will be the 70% or the 30% time. As always, we appreciate you listening this long. We appreciate you making the podcast what it is. As always, you stay classy, Gator Country.

Andrew:                 That’s right. Nick, you can be mean when you look this clean, because Andrew is a classic man. Peace out, Gator Country.