Gator Country brings you a new podcast breaking down the latest around Florida Gators fall camp, plus the latest on Antonio Callaway.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre give you the latest on which guys are doing well in practice, plus what’s really going on with Callaway.
Andrew and Nick also break down the recent commitment of tight end Zech Byrd who committed to Florida on Saturday night.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man right here, Andrew Spivey, with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, what’s up, my man? Podcast back. We got to get this more regular.
Nick: Yeah. We’ll get more regular. Florida is going on to two a days on Tuesday. Wednesday will be an off day. Two a days on Thursday. So as more football goes on, as we get close to the season, we’ll get back to it. Our think our schedule was four or five days a week last year, so we’ll be back to that as soon as the season gets a little bit closer.
Andrew: Two a days are always my favorite part. It’s kind of a long start in football with the ability to kind of go to summer workouts a little bit, and fall camp being longer. It’s kind of a long start, especially in high school ball. I remember in high school ball having two a days, and then one year, my second year of coaching, we had three a days. We went up to Troy for football camp and had three a days. You talk about separating the men from the boys, that was there. I don’t know. I thought it was good, because I thought it made the team come closer together during those two a days. Glad to see Florida still has some of it, even though it’s not a ton.
Nick: Yeah. You kind of see, took a video of it in the spring, Florida’s got those tackling circles as the head trauma cases are making big news in football. NFL teams are moving to tackling dummies and stuff like that. I don’t know about three a days though. I’d probably tap out.
Andrew: Tap out? Come on, man. Can’t be tapping out. It’s a situation where you become a different player. It’s time to separate the weak, and it was the schedule, I’ll give you a quick little rundown on the schedule, and it sucked even for me, because, Nick, you know about me and my sleep. You know about that, and it was 6:00 AM wake up call. Breakfast was at 6:30. You had meetings from 7:00-7:30, practice at 8:00 that lasts till 10:30. You came in, you ate lunch. You had meetings from 12:00-1:00. You had practice from 1:00-3:00. Down time from 3:00-4:00, and then dinner from 4:00-5:00, and then you were back out practicing at 7:00, 7:00-9:00. Then had a quick snack, bedtime, and then up again at it. That was four days straight.
Nick: That sounds terrible. That sounds awful. When am I sleeping?
Andrew: It was fun.
Nick: Sleeping on the football field after that last practice. The whistle blows. Coach says, “Hey, you guys can go home,” and I just lay down at midfield, and I’m out.
Andrew: You’re out?
Nick: Done. Game over.
Andrew: Tapping out. I’m quitting. You’re going to be…
Nick: Not going to shower. Not going to take my pads off. Just wake me up when practice is starting the next morning, and I’ll be dressed and ready to go again.
Andrew: No, you wouldn’t, because you need dinner four times a day.
Nick: Yeah. I would also need someone, maybe you would bring me food out.
Andrew: No joke though, I do, I really like two a days, and I think it’s good. We’ll see. Let’s talk real quick about the, I guess the news that’s overshadowing fall camp. Is that fair to say, Nick?
Nick: Yeah. Definitely overshadowing.
Andrew: Antonio Callaway situation is here. I’ll be honest, Nick. I thought it was getting to the point where it was about to be over with. Then Mark Schlabach comes out with a report about Florida being biased with the judge they got and so on and so on. I want to say this. You know a lot more about it than I do, and I want you to tell everybody what you know about it that you can say. I want to say this. There is no right or wrong way to say this, I mean there’s no right way to say this, Nick, and you and I talked about this. There’s an unfortunate circumstances with the lady involved that we don’t know what happened. There’s unfortunate circumstances with Antonio Callaway. We don’t know what’s involved there. There’s three sides to this story. We’re only getting one side, really two sides, I guess you could say. We’re not taking sides in this, but I’m going to say this, and that is that from what I know and have been told, the Florida football program has handled this about as well as they possibly could. They suspended Callaway, got him away from the team. Mac and his staff didn’t talk to him, didn’t communicate with him. They stayed out of it. They let the process be handled. To throw anything back at Mac and his staff, in my opinion, is just strictly not fair, and isn’t warranted. Do you agree with that? Then tell everybody what you know about the situation.
Nick: Yeah. So when you’re talking about a Title IX investigation it’s not up to the coach. It’s not up to the Athletic Director, anybody in the university athletic association. It’s a school investigation, a school procedure, a school hearing. Jim McElwain has no control over it. The reason that he hadn’t really mentioned Antonio Callaway is because he can’t, under confidentiality laws for Title IX. Title IX is a federal deal. It’s not a statewide. Federal law regulates that a student has rights to a Title IX investigation if something happens on a university. The alleged incident happened back in December, before the SEC title game. The complainant didn’t go to the university student conduct board until late January, January 27. So that’s your time frame.
Around February, middle of February, we started hearing rumblings about it, and that’s when I first reached out to sources that I have in law enforcement and the state attorney’s office. I was told in February, there’s no further investigation being done by any law enforcement agencies. Any allegations of sexual battery are and were determined to be untrue, and an exaggerated mischaracterization. To me, I get that from a source who’s been good, someone who would know. It’s done. In my mind it’s over. I still continue hearing stuff. This is going to happen, this or that. I reached out again in March, and was told again, the story keeps getting more far from reality, that there is no legal action was going to be taken against Callaway or Treon. I was told it was never close to a rape prosecution, and the accuser might even be in danger of filing a false report if it were to make it to a courtroom. So this is not saying that the state attorney is trying to hush somebody up. It’s, you brought us an accusation. You brought us proof, or in your mind proof, that this happened, whether it’s text messages, emails, something like that. When you’re talking about a sexual assault, if you wait a month there’s no physical evidence at that point. So it kind of becomes a he said/she said, and the state attorney’s office decided that there was not enough proof for them to begin an investigation.
Now, if you’re talking about a criminal case, a criminal court case versus a Title IX investigation, in court the burden of proof is solely on the prosecution’s shoulders. The prosecution must prove its case without a shadow of a doubt to earn a favorable conviction, or a favorable decision. In Title IX it’s not like that at all. In Title IX it’s a federal civil right. The appropriate standard of evidence to win a case, or to win an argument, is the preponderance of evidence. This means that standard of evidence that a hearing must determine whether a complainant of sex discrimination is more likely than not to have occurred. So, 51%. It turns from proving something to without a shadow of a doubt to just proving that this could have happened. A, B, C and D probably happened, maybe E, so there’s our conclusion, more likely than not, this happened. So two completely different things.
To me, growing up with a father who’s an attorney, growing up around attorneys, judges, and people who know the law and practice law, to them, and to other lawyers I talked to, they said that the fact that this is playing out in a Title IX case and not playing out in criminal court, if we’re talking about sexual assault, should tell you all you need to know as far as the strength of the case.
Andrew: Right. I think that’s the biggest thing right now is that this looks bad on Florida. There is no way around it to get to it. It looks bad on Florida. You can’t say it any way. It looks bad. The thing I’ll say is this, and that is, once again, that I thought Florida handled it about as best as they possibly could, and unfortunate circumstances happen. Any time someone’s accused of something it’s going to look bad. I’ll be honest, Nick, and that’s in saying that I hope that this situation is resolved soon, because it’s not good on either party to have this continue to talk about.
Nick: I think, another thing is the attorney that’s representing the complainant is John Clune, and last Friday he goes to ESPN and says that we perceived that there was a bias, because Florida appointed an attorney, Jake Schickel – I hope I’m saying that right – to serve as a hearing officer. Schickel is a founding partner of a law firm in Jacksonville. He had a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a law degree from Florida. He’s a past trustee of Florida’s Levin College of Law. He also was a former track athlete at Florida, and a booster. He is a Scholarship Club donor, football booster, which requires annual contribution between $4,800 and just under $8,600, and also a three point club donor to Florida basketball. That contribution goes from $2,000 up to $5,000. Clune is saying that because he is a booster, a former Florida athlete, we’re not going to get a fair hearing. There’s no way he can be impartial.
Frankly, if you’re a lawyer, and you’re trying to best represent your, client not showing up to a hearing is not the way to go about things. So Friday the hearing goes off, and only one person, only one side of the story is being told. You can come to a pretty easy conclusion of how that ruling is going to go if you get to the day in court, and only Antonio Callaway is telling his story, that the complainant is not telling her side of the story. So at this point there’s just a lot of lawyers posturing back and forth. Bill Cervoni gives a statement, and then Clune has to respond to that. It seems to me that this could maybe end up in civil court, but I’m not sure that this is something that will go away.
From a football standpoint, the hearing was had Friday, and a decision could probably come this week. So from a football standpoint, it would appear that Antonio Callaway would be cleared, given that there was no counter argument to whatever he presented in the hearing on Friday. From a legal standpoint, I think the only move left, when you have the Florida state attorney saying this was never going to be a rape or sexual battery prosecution, because of the evidence that we have and don’t have, you’re not going to have a criminal case out of this. If the student conduct code hearing goes in Antonio Callaway’s favor, that exhausts the Title IX procedures, so then what is left would be civil court, and that could play out for the entirety of the season, which is probably not what Florida wants.
Andrew: Yeah. Here’s the thing. I think Antonio Callaway’s playing Game 1 or Game 2. I personally think he’s suspended Game 1 and playing Game 2. Let’s get away from it, because I’m not going to lie to you, not only does that bore the shit out of me having to listen to legal stuff, but I just don’t want to talk about it. It’s football season. Let’s talk football. Let’s talk football here.
Nick: I can talk law though.
Andrew: Who cares what you can talk law?
Nick: Growing up around it, I’ve got a good understanding of it.
Andrew: Let’s talk a little ball first. Antonio Riles, Chris Thompson so far the only two injuries, so I would first four days of practice, five days of practice, been a success so far. Mac comes out with his same old speech. Quarterbacks aren’t playing well. They need the people around them affecting them the way it is. Mac, I love you, man. You’re a great football coach, but I don’t believe that bullshit. It’s one of those things where it’s like, okay. I tweeted this yesterday, on Monday. You guys are listening to this on Wednesday, my bad. On Monday I tweeted that Mac’s theme for the day was not to be happy with the offense, and that’s exactly what it was. Del Rio is a guy that’s going to start. Period. End of discussion. The good news for the Gators, as you and I reported on Gator Country on Monday, is they have a quality backup for a change in Austin Appleby. Yeah. He’s not going to name Del Rio the starter right now. We all know that, but we all know he’s the starter.
Nick: He’s not going to name a starter, because, I think, for national security reasons it’s probably why you can’t name a starting quarterback at a college football level. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. Just name a quarterback. I did this last podcast. Just name a quarterback. It’s stupid. You do have a quality backup, and I think that’s important. Put it on Gator Country that we’ve been hearing that everyone’s talking about Luke Del Rio, but don’t sleep on Austin Appleby; he’s good. He’s getting better. The game slows down when you know the playbook, so in the spring he’d been here for a month, and you’re trying to cram everything in in a month. When you’ve got an extra two months, three months, on top of that, you know it better. Everything on the field starts slowing down. So, yeah, he’s going to look better. My response to those people was, but he’s not going to start over Luke Del Rio. The response I got every single time was, no, but if something were to happen to Luke, we feel better about our backup.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. At the end of the day, that’s all you can hope for. I think that Del Rio’s the guy, and it’s, I hate to say this. I do, Nick. I hate to say this, what I’m about to say. I do. It’s one of those deals where…
Nick: I get so happy when you start sentences with, I hate to say this, or this is going to come off bad, but. Those are normally the best Andrew Spivey sentences.
Andrew: You know how, when I say this you’re going to agree with me here, but Del Rio is one of those guys that is probably not going to light practice on fire.
Nick: Nope.
Andrew: But when he gets into a damn game, and it’s 14-14, and you’re driving down the field, and you say, please do not let him throw an interception, you’re thinking it’s Del Rio out there; chances are he’s probably not going to throw an interception. He’s going to know where to throw the ball, or he’s going to take a five yard rush up the middle. That’s Del Rio. I hate to say that, because everybody says, he’s a gamer, but in Del Rio’s situation, yes, he’s probably not going to hit that 80 yard bomb to Tyrie Cleveland in practice that’s going to have everybody tweeting, Del Rio hit an 80-yarder in practice. You’re going to go the stats sheet after practice, and you’re going to say, 24 of 30, 285 yards, and you’re going to think, that was a really good day for Del Rio, but where did that come from? Then you’re sitting here thinking, he just motored his team down the field. That’s what Luke Del Rio’s giving you, and it’s not eye-popping. It’s not…
Nick: Are we giving too much credit to a quarterback who’s thrown 18 college passes? Is he getting more benefit of the doubt than maybe his experience merits?
Andrew: Yes. I’m okay with saying that. Yeah. I am. Who knows? Who knows? He may come out and be that superstar that lights up the field. I don’t think he is, but I guess there’s a couple things that go into this. He knows the system. He’s a coach’s son. All of that, to me, merits that. He may come out and be the biggest bust out there. May come out and be a Heisman Trophy winner. Hell, Josh Dobbs is a candidate, so why can’t Luke Del Rio be a candidate? Hell. You’re right. I think maybe we are.
Nick: I think this is the thing. You look at Florida’s quarterback situation last year, what they were able to do with Will Grier.
Andrew: That helps.
Nick: I think what you got from Treon Harris kind of overshadowed, during those first six weeks everyone was yelling, “Will, stop running out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage. Throw the ball away. Why did you do that?” Everyone just kind of forgot that Will Grier wasn’t lighting the world on fire for six weeks. I don’t know if Luke Del Rio is better than Will Grier was those first six weeks, but he’s damn sure closer to Will Grier than he is to Treon Harris. I think that’s kind of where it comes from is that look what Florida did in the first six weeks. They have a quarterback that is going to be closer to that end of the spectrum than what they got when they finished the season. So that’s where I think the excitement comes, but it’s like you said, I don’t think Luke Del Rio is going to come out and throw for 4,500 yards this year and 30 touchdowns.
Andrew: You don’t need him to.
Nick: I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Andrew: You don’t need him to.
Nick: Right, but I’m just saying it kind of seems that fans think like we have our next Heisman winner, when that’s not what…You know what I’m saying? I’m not saying that this, I’m saying that he’s not a Heisman winner.
Andrew: Right. I’m with you.
Nick: Probably not an All-American. Probably not your All-SEC quarterback.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: He’s someone who you think, and the coaches think, can execute and perform within a system.
Andrew: Hold on. Josh Dobbs is All-SEC and Heisman. I’m going out on a limb and saying, Del Rio is better than Josh Dobbs, as far as passer goes. I mean, then again, I’m 29, fat and out of shape, and I’m better than Josh Dobbs throwing the ball.
Nick: Absolutely not true.
Andrew: Anyway. Let’s go to running back real quick. We’re going to run through these positions pretty quick. We posted this on Monday as well. Mark Thompson, Cronkrite, surprise, surprise, Lamical Perine, and then Scarlett. That’s kind of the way the rotation’s been going from what we’ve been told. Nick, I’m not surprised. I’ll say, even through your STA pride is there, you’re not surprised.
Nick: I’m always surprised when a St. Thomas Aquinas Raider doesn’t live up to expectations.
Andrew: But you would agree that you needed to see something from Cronkrite to make you go, okay, I believe in him.
Nick: I don’t know. I thought Jordan Scarlett coming in was a better running back than Jordan Cronkrite.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Sometimes, and it was the end of my baseball career when I realized that I liked the things that I got from being a baseball player, I liked the perks of being a baseball player more than I liked actually being a baseball player.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Not saying that that’s what Jordan Scarlett’s going through, but sometimes people realize, I like the title. People ask me all the time, or used to ask me all the time, do you miss baseball? I was like, I miss playing games. I don’t miss 5:00AM workouts. I don’t miss those three a days that you were talking about. That’s the stuff that makes you a football player, and when you love that stuff, when you love waking up half asleep walking to go workout, and then getting into, and when you love that stuff, when you love the process, that’s when you become a great football player. That’s what separates people. When you just like what being a football player, or what being an athlete, gives you from a social status or whatever, those are the people that kind of flame out.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. I’ll say this. It is what it is. Until Jordan Scarlett does that, I think it is. Now, Nick, you and I have been around Lamical. I’ll admit, I followed his high school career very closely, and that is that I do, I think that Lamical is a guy that is very driven, wants to prove his doubters wrong, and is going to be tough to keep off the field, simply because he’s going to go that extra mile to play.
Nick: First things first is you’re not going to redshirt a running back. Lamical is going to play, even if he was fourth on the depth chart at running back. Lamical was going to play on special teams. He wasn’t going to get redshirted, I don’t think.
Andrew: Right. I agree with that.
Nick: But you’re in a situation now where it’s running back, it’s the SEC. What happens if Mark Thompson gets turf toe, is out for two weeks? Now you’ve only got two running backs. You’re not going to give one guy all the carries, so now you’ve got two and three become one and two, and you’re in a real situation where you’re fighting for reps. Even if you’re fighting for the third string, at this point you’re one small injury away from being the #2 guy. That’s a big thing. I think that’s what’s motivating Lamical is that he doesn’t want to be a special team’s gunner for a year. He wants to be carrying the football. He’s being doing that since his sophomore year in high school. It seems to me that he showed up with the right attitude and is attacking it, and is maybe passing some people up.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. At receiver, same old, same old. Callaway is Callaway. We did hear some good things on CJ Worton. CJ Worton doing really well. Tyrie Cleveland doing well, and Freddie Swain doing well. Nick, I said it on Gator Country on Monday, and that is that I would not be surprised at all if the top three receivers are not named Callaway, Worton, and Cleveland, with Dre Massey and Brandon Powell right behind those.
Nick: I have been waiting for Worton for years. It’s probably some south Florida bias, but I called him out Freshman year as someone that I liked. Saw him at fall camp, he caught everything. Then he broke his hand. Had a great catch last year in the SEC Championship game, but I think he only had four catches last year.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: That’s probably going to be your three. I think Worton right now ahead of Cleveland, just from a standpoint of Cleveland has all the physical tools, 6’2”, 190 pounds. He looks like a receiver. He looks like an NFL receiver, looks like a big time SEC receiver, but talent gets you so far. When you get into you need to read defenses as a receiver, because you have an option route, it’s not as simple. There’s not many players, not no player, but there’s not many players that you can just say, you’re going to just run by whoever’s in front of you. Run by that safety too, and then our quarterback’s going to throw the ball, hit you perfectly in stride. We’re just going to do that every single time. It doesn’t work like that. You have to be a part of the offense. So when it comes to reading a coverage and knowing which option route you’re going to, you go out wide with two routes, and now you have to pick one that’s right, and if I don’t, the quarterback’s going to pick what’s right, because that’s what he’s supposed to do. Now he’s throwing the ball to who? Maybe the cornerback who’s taking it back for a touchdown. I think that’s where Cleveland is still struggling, and where a lot of freshmen, quite frankly, will struggle.
Andrew: Right. Tight end, Goolsby, Lewis is going to be the two guys.
Nick: Cam Knight’s going to do some blocking.
Andrew: That’s it. At offensive line, the surprise. First, starters are, barring something crazy, are going to be Sharpe, Ivey, Dillard, Jordan, Fred Johnson. You and I both did hear that Fred Johnson is doing much better. That’s a great thing for Florida. He’s got the talent. It’s just when the lightbulb goes off. The surprise so far has been Jawaan Taylor. You said to me you were very surprised that he could play tackle, and I said, think about it, he was 380; he’s 340 right now, 330, something like that. He probably feels like a new man. He can move. You and I have both been told he’s second string right now at left tackle, behind Sharpe, and doing well. Desire-Jones as well. That’s much needed depth for the Gators, and I know even Coach Mac was bragging on Jawaan on Monday at his press conference.
Nick: That, to me, was shocking. I walked out there, and I saw some guy wearing #65 Stone, Antonneous Clayton, and I looked over to our buddy, Zach Albolverdi, and I was like, is that Jawaan Taylor? 65? He looks up, he’s doing his little Facebook Live thing. He looks up, and he goes, I think so. I was like, damn, what is he doing at tackle? I think I called you right after practice, and that’s when you said to me, he probably feels like a new man. Certainly looks like one.
Andrew: Exactly. Desire-Jones doing well. That’s good. With Riles going out with an injury for however long that is, that’s kind of worrisome. I’m going to be the first one to say that you shouldn’t count on Riles very much, but for whatever he was a depth, experienced depth, so that’s a little worrisome there. To go to the defensive line, Sherit, Cox, Brantley, Ivie, Cece have been playing really well, from everything we’ve been told. This shouldn’t surprise people. Coach Mac called out Khairi Clark of doing pretty well last week. That’s good for there. Jabari’s doing better, so that’s good there as well. Solid up front. That defensive line may not have as much depth as you have in the past, but get out of here if you think that’s going to be down. Brantley’s going to be a man-child.
Nick: I think the defensive line is really deep with pass rushers. Maybe not as deep in interior with tackles. To me though, it’s not a situation, when you look at all the players who have left, in 2007 you got into a situation on defense where Justin Trattou and guys like that were playing, and you’re like, they’re seniors; it’s going to be great. Then you quickly found out that they were seniors because all of the players that had won Florida two national championships in three years had left early for the NFL, and that’s why those guys weren’t playing. That’s why those guys were now on the field, because all those other ones were left. That’s not the case. I think Caleb Brantley’s an All-SEC type of player. I think Bryan Cox, Jr. is going to have a breakout year. Jordan Sherit should have his best season, and then guys we haven’t even mentioned yet. Keivonnis Davis played sparingly towards the end of last year. He’s looked great. Jabari Zuniga’s looked great. Florida’s got a ton of depth on the defensive line, especially at end, and I don’t think we’re in a situation where you’re looking at guys, and you’re kind of like, why hasn’t he been playing for three years? I don’t think it’s that 2007 all over again kind of thing, in my opinion.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. At linebacker, Anzalone and Davis. That’s your two guys that are going to…
Nick: Mac’s talking about Daniel McMillian, and I’ve seen enough. Frankly, I’ve seen enough of First Coast players. You don’t need to back me up on that. I’ve seen enough of First Coast players at Florida. Sorry, First Coast.
Andrew: I’m not commenting there.
Nick: Twitter’s going to be happy with me.
Andrew: Uncle Silk will be loving you, because he’s not about those 904 boys. At DB, it’s Quincy, Jalen Tabor. Chris Williamson, Coach Mac has said, is doing well. That’s great there. I was the biggest fan of his last year, said he was going to be a big time player. He was very athletic, and he’s doing well.
Nick: You know what we should start? We should start a buy or sell segment.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: On the podcast, based on things that Jim McElwain says in press conferences.
Andrew: Okay. We’re going to start that. I’ll buy the Chris Williamson thing.
Nick: Sell. I’m out. Nope. All shares sold. Gone.
Andrew: Okay. That’s cool. Chauncey Gardner at safety. Coach Mac, you can sell me on Nick Washington, and I’m selling it, not buying it. Chauncey Gardner’s your guy there. Another guy that I’ve heard some good things about is Jawaan Taylor, safety out of Montgomery, the two Jawaan Taylors are playing good ball. Marcus Maye there as well. I’m going to believe the Chris Williamson thing there, because they need depth, and I do think he is athletic as hell.
Nick: I will sell on the Ahmad Fulwood comments.
Andrew: Marcell Harris, selling that.
Nick: Yeah. Marcell’s going to play, continue to play special teams. I stand by this statement, and I’ve said it a bunch to people that I’ve talked to in person. If you took Nick Washington and Marcell Harris, and you just could combine them, like if there was a machine where you could just take the best parts of their football games and just combine them, you’d have an awesome, fantastic safety. You don’t have that. I think Nick Washington, as far as his knowledge, I think that will earn him probably the start in the first game, maybe the start in the first couple games, just because he knows what he’s doing, but I think honestly the next person in line there would be Chauncey Gardner, even over Marcell Harris.
Andrew: Yeah. We’ll see. We’ll see there. That’s pretty much what we have on the team right now. Things are going well. Chemistry is good. This team’s going to be a good football team. Nick, something I wanted to hit on.
Nick: Here we go.
Andrew: It’s Tennessee talk, my friend. Can’t get through a podcast without it. CBS Sports had this pretty cool report, and it was kind of surprising to me when I looked at it, but SEC coaches in one score games. Now, Mac has only had 17 games of one score games, but he has the best winning percentage at 13-4. Your boy, Butch Jones, is 21-21, a cool 6-9 at Tennessee. You think, Nick, and people think, this man is going to win a national championship, and SEC championship at 21-21, 6-9 in the SEC. Get the hell out of here. I will say this, 13-4 for Mac, attention to detail. Winning.
Nick: Yeah. We talked about that yesterday at the press conference, attention to detail. He was talking about players letting the rain and practicing outside in the rain affect them a little bit. It’s going to rain literally all week in Gainesville. So I would not be surprised if Florida’s back out in the elements during one of these practices. That’s something that McElwain harps on is attention to detail. 21-21, that’s a very good batting average. Not very good winning percentage in close games.
Andrew: No, and we all know last year what happened in close games. Not very good. The man is not a winner. Another excuse for Tennessee fans, because you suck. Anyway, Nick, let’s talk a little recruiting before we get out of here.
Nick: Did you mention that Will Muschamp was 8-10 in close games?
Andrew: I thought people just kind of knew.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: Not very good. I mean, come on now. Let me ask this. Did you expect better?
Nick: No. My first season with Gator Country was 4-8, so no, sure didn’t. Then again, a lot of those games weren’t that close.
Andrew: Yeah. There you go. No, it’s crazy, but anyway, back to what we were talking about, recruiting. Zech Byrd commits, and is 6’6” right now, 240 pounds. He’s a guy that could easily be 250, 260, and the Gators got their two tight ends in this class in him and Kemore Gamble. I think it’s a great pickup. He can be a guy that can very well be your inline tight end, so I’m pumped about it.
Nick: Where is Florida standing? Right now you’ve got, like you just said, Florida’s got a kind of online, inline blocker, and a more of a receiver type. Where does Florida stand as far as still looking for tight ends, and what kind of tight end would they be looking for then?
Andrew: Repeat that one more time.
Nick: With the tight ends that they’ve gotten, you have kind of an inline blocker, and you’ve got your more of a receiver type.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Is Florida still looking for another tight end?
Andrew: Oh, no. I think they’re done.
Nick: Okay. Then in the next class, what is Florida looking for? Is it going to be two again? You have to think that Goolsby and Lewis are going to be coming up soon, and Camrin Knight’s not going to be your pass catcher. So are you trying to focus more on getting a receiving threat as far as 2018, or do they think Kemore Gamble will be that guy?
Andrew: I think they think Gamble’s that guy. I think that they’re going to go with Gamble being that guy, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think you and I have both seen him, and he’s more that receiving type guy. I think next year you go for maybe best available. Maybe that’s Judge Culpepper, who’s a little bigger guy, probably more of an inline guy there, so I think you look at for sure. Yeah, I think you look at these two guys for this class, and you call it a day after that. When you get, I mean everybody says they got their top two targets, and that’s unbelievable, but I’m pretty sure I can speak pretty confident that Gamble, Byrd and Trey McKinney were the three top guys, and they got two of their top guys. So I think they’re very happy inside that football office with those two tight ends they landed in this 2017 class.
Nick: That’s good. Florida’s recruiting class now is about three quarters of the way full?
Andrew: No, you and I were talking about that. They’re right now at 13, but now with two guys going medical redshirts Florida may be able to go on up to 25. Right now they could take 20. You got to think, Tabor, Brantley, Mark Thompson maybe, those guys are probably going to the NFL. Probably David Sharpe. You’re getting close to that 25 mark again, and you’re at 13 now. You might could take 10 more guys. I think though you can get close to that. When you say, Brantley may go. Anzalone may go. Tabor, Quincy probably gone, 99% gone. Sharpe maybe. Mark Thompson maybe. You’re getting close to that 23, 25 mark easy. So they could very well take 10 more guys.
Nick: That’d be a monster class for Florida. Recruiting is going well, and if Florida has another season that ends up in Atlanta, you’d expect that you would even get even more of a bump during the year, or down towards Signing Day, with whatever guys were left over towards Signing Day.
Andrew: They’re after some big name guys. You look at a five star, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Devon Hunter, Hamsah Nasirildeen, Alex Leatherwood, Navaughn Donaldson, those guys that are just big name guys. You have a good season, you catch their attention, get them on campus. Bada bing, bada boom, things happen. You get guys in your class. It’s going to be a good class. It’s going to be a good season. Things are going well, and quite frankly, Nick, Gator Country’s dominating things. It’s been a monster week for Gator Country. People leaving the other site for Gator Country. It’s one of those deals where you leave the rival. You leave the Noles, and you come to the Gators. Good things are happening for us, Nick, at Gator Country. You’ve been dominating the football beat, and things are going well. If you’re listening to this, and you like this, come check us out. What you get on the podcast is what you get daily on Gator Country. Things are going really well for us there, and, Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here and see everyone by the end of the week, and we’ll stick to it this week.
Nick: Sorry we ran out of time. The questions I asked for on Twitter, I’ll answer them on Twitter. www.GatorCountry.com. The Gator Country on Instagram. @GatorCountry on Twitter and Facebook. Follow us all there. You can follow me @NickdelaTorreGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC, and that’s it. Looking forward to the season and getting these ramped up. Maybe we’ll save some of these questions, and we’ll just do a Q&A podcast weekly, and we can maybe pump out five of these a week.
Andrew: There you go. Right now, Nick, we’ll plan on sticking to Friday’s podcast being half Q&A, half us talking. Listen to this, and shoot us a question that you listened, and join Gator Country, because Nick and I will be bringing the heat. We got a great group of interns this year, Nick, as well. You guys check them out, Bailey, Jackson, Austin, Matt. Check them out. Give them a follow. Tell them you appreciate them. As always, guys, go Braves, and chomp, chomp.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.