Gator Country brings you a new Florida Gators podcast as we get you ready for Florida/Georgia week after the Gators bye week.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre start to break down this rivalry game in Jacksonville as we talk about the keys for Florida on both offense and defense.
Andrew and Nick break down what they think the Gators defense will try to do, plus we talk some Florida Gators recruiting.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, back with Nicholas de la Torre. It’s not an off week no more. It’s Florida/Georgia week, Nick. If you can’t tell by my voice, I love this week.
Nick:It’s fun. It’s an interesting week. Kind of feels a little different without it being Mark Richt at the helm, just because he was there for so long, but it’s a rivalry week. It’s one where I throw my hands up in the air. I don’t know who’s going to win this game. I’ve said that before. I learned in 2014 when Will Muschamp beat Georgia, I’ll never know what’s going to happen in this game.
Andrew:Do you miss the Mark Richt not being there because of my hatred towards Mark Richt?
Nick:No. It’s just I associate Mark Richt with Georgia.
Andrew:I associate Mark Richt with losing.
Nick:The Canes, well they did lose again.
Andrew:They did. They lost three in a row. The Canes fans went from we’re back to, shit, maybe we should call Al Golden back, because Mark Richt’s the loser we thought he was.
Nick:No one is calling him back. No one’s calling Al Golden.
Andrew:You shouldn’t be calling that. Now, I have to go here, Nick, real quick. We’re going to talk Georgia/Florida in a second, but I got to go up the road some to Rocky Top. Rocky Top was supposed to win a national championship, and a quick peak at the SEC standings show Kentucky is ahead of the Vols. Kentucky is ahead of the Vols. This is great.
Nick:When do they play?
Andrew:Three weeks I believe.
Nick:So we’ll see what happens there.
Andrew:I am going to be pulling for, Nick?
Nick:Kentucky.
Andrew:There you go.
Nick:That wasn’t really a question.
Andrew:Yeah, that wasn’t really a question. Let’s talk real quick about the games this past weekend. Alabama/Texas A&M, I wasn’t surprised. Were you surprised?
Nick:No. They didn’t cover. The line got all the way up to 21.
Andrew:It was 21? When we taped it was 17, and they won by 19. I’ll say this. I was more shocked that A&M scored 14 points, because it looked like for a while they weren’t even going to get a 1st down.
Nick:Alabama’s just a dominant scary team. They’re so deep that they just wear teams down.
Andrew:I think the thing for me with A&M is this, and that is A&M, I was just actually having this conversation with someone, A&M is kind of like the, I guess you could say, the Miami of the SEC, and that is they always get ranked high, because they play kind of nobody at the beginning of the year, and then when they play people it’s just like, here it goes. It’s kind of like Tennessee. They’re the Tennessee of the West, that’s what we’ll say. Their defense is atrocious. I mean Alabama is probably still running up and down the field on those guys.
Nick:That was the big game of the day, but not even probably the biggest news of Saturday. That would be Ohio State losing.
Andrew:Wow. Homeboy was running for his life on the blocked kick. He was just running for his life. That was hilarious. That was awesome. We say that, that was the biggest upset, but the biggest shock of the day for me was that trashing Auburn gave Arkansas.
Nick:Opened up the game with a 78 yard touchdown.
Andrew:56-3.
Nick:Was that borderline erotic for Bielma?
Andrew:For real. That is whoa. I mean, Auburn’s improving, but 56 points? 500 something yards rushing. Whoa. Arkansas, watch out.
Nick:What is the status of Alan, the quarterback? He got hurt in the game.
Andrew:He came back though. I don’t know that there’s been anything, but he came back in the game. Their just, Arkansas is just bad. Florida should not even take Luke Del Rio on that trip. They should make a running back get under center, hand the ball off, or they should make an offensive lineman play quarterback. That way they’re forced to run the ball against Arkansas.
Nick:Arkansas is the 13th rushing defense in the SEC, averaging giving up 6.38 yards per carry. Auburn averaged 9.5.
Andrew:That is awful.
Nick:And 24 rushing touchdowns.
Andrew:That is so bad. So bad. You look at Auburn, they’re averaging 501 yards a game, second in the SEC behind Missouri.
Nick:Which Shawn White.
Andrew:You and I have been to Shawn White. You were on it before anybody, but I’ve been a Shawn White guy as well. He’s there. Let’s move on to my favorite week of the year. Mark Richt may not be there, but, trust me guys, the dislike for the Georgia Bulldogs is still there. They’re not my favorite at all.
A quick look, real quick, Nick, at their stats. Averaging 402 yards per game. They’re averaging 195 on the ground. That is for 9th best. Compare that to Florida. Florida’s 426 yards a game, and 181 on the ground. I think it is what it is. When you go to play Georgia you better stop the running game. It’s the case every year. Much like that Florida/Tennessee game, it’s kind of who’s going to be the team that runs the ball the best?
Nick:Yeah. It’ll be interesting to see. When we talked to Jim McElwain on Monday, and when we talked to him on Wednesday, to kind of get the status updates on Jordan Sherit, on Joey Ivie, and some of those defensive line guys that you’re looking at.
Andrew:Bryan Cox.
Nick:Bryan Cox. We were looking at what Florida/Georgia has been, and we were trying to figure out what it will be this year. You look at freshmen quarterback, going to try to help him out. You’re going to have to stop the run. Florida’s really struggled with stopping the run without those guys.
Andrew:Right. I think that when you look back at last week when Mac talked about that, and from me talking to people, and, Nick, I know you talked to people as well, I really expect for everyone to play, with the exception of maybe Bryan Cox. I’m just not sure of what Bryan Cox’s status is and really what he’s going to do. I’m just not sure. I’m really not sure exactly what is keeping him out, because he looked fine heading into the Missouri game.
Nick:Cox?
Andrew:Yeah. Not looked fine, he was fine until then, and then he got injured in warmups, and now he suddenly may be out for the year. I’m beginning to wonder if that’s just Mac being Mac.
Nick:He has a hard cast on his wrist.
Andrew:Right, but you know what I’m saying? Why he couldn’t play in a club.
Nick:That’s absolutely Mac being Mac saying he might be out for the year.
Andrew:Right. Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. To me, I wonder. I really can’t personally get too much on that, so I’m not sure if he’s going to try a club or what. So I think that will be the biggest news on Monday. One person told me, they said, “I’m not even concerned about Jarrad Davis. If people are questioning whether he’s going to play or not, they’re crazy.” There’s no way Jarrad Davis doesn’t play.
Nick:I think it would take, yeah. It would take something extraordinary to keep both those guys out. Those are two guys, both seniors. I don’t see it. No way.
Andrew:No way is that going to happen. Especially with Ivie and Sherit. Everything you and I have heard with Sherit was Georgia. Georgia was going to be the week that he was going to be back. So I would say that I would expect him to be good. He practiced last week as well. Then Ivie, I think Ivie probably just plays with a club or some kind of soft cast on his arm, and I would be shocked if Ivie doesn’t play either.
Nick:He’s a tough kid. I don’t think you can downplay it of what it would mean to a senior to get back. This is his last year playing college football, and now he’s already missed a month.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:He is itching to get back on the field. If a doctor says, “Hey, you can put this club on, and it’s going to hurt like hell, but you’re not going to make it any worse. Then you can play.” “Sign me up.”
Andrew:Here’s the thing too I think that we should talk about is that the team knows what’s ahead of them. They know what’s on the line for next six games, five games left? I’m trying to count in my head. Five games. So they know what’s ahead of them for the next fives games. You go out, you handle business the next five games, you get a trip to Atlanta, and then bigger things are on the line in Atlanta. I think you and I both are in agreement that it’s going to be difficult.
When you look at things now, that Arkansas game doesn’t look as tough. Still on the road. That LSU game probably looks tougher. You see these coming about, and you have to wonder if this team, I mean, you don’t have to wonder. You know the team knows what it is, but you have to wonder if it doesn’t push Ivie and Sherit to come back even sooner. Like it’s my favorite week, a lot of these guys love that week as well. That’s another reason I think Jarrad Davis there’s no way he doesn’t play, because he’s a guy that is pissed off Georgia never offered him in high school.
Nick:Him coming back too, I talked about the defensive linemen. Jarrad Davis being able to play is huge for stopping the run.
Andrew:The one thing that I will say with this game that I think a lot of people won’t point out this week, but Alex Anazalone is one of the keys this week. A team like Georgia is a lot like Florida where they want to use that tight end on play action, that kind of stuff. Anzalone’s going to have to do that some. It’s not going to be on 3rd down he’s not going to have to. You’re going to have a safety or Duke Dawson covering Isaac Nauta, but when it’s 1st and 2nd, and you’re in your base defense, Anazalone’s going to be there. I think that’s one of the big things that Florida gains over most teams. They have a guy that really and truly can play with them. Anzalone’s not going to be afraid to run with Nauta or any of their other guys that are going to run.
Nick:Yeah. Where do you think Kirby will go with Jacob Eason? We already said he’s going to have to run the football. Against a defense like Florida’s, do you try to protect your young quarterback, or do you say, “They might be able to stop the run, we need to get you ready to throw the ball and potentially win the game for us.” Eason is sixth in the League in passing, averaging 217, just over 217 a game, 14 touchdowns, 9 interceptions.
Andrew:I think you have to go into this game and protect him. I think you look at do you really want the game to be on Eason’s shoulders? That’s going to be difficult. I think it would be difficult against, I mean he struggled with Carolina. He struggled against Vandy at times. I mean, in the Vandy game he just had one touchdown. He was 27 of 40, and he had 346, so that’s not a bad day. Not a bad day at all actually, but just one touchdown. He did have a pick in that game. You’re thinking of those two secondaries, and then you look at Florida’s secondary.
I mean, I think you want to get the running game established first, and then try to go with the play action pass. Maybe try to get him out a little bit, get him out of the pocket a little bit, and make things happen, but I think you want to not have to take shots deep, unless the running game has established itself to where you’re, I guess, able to. I mean, I don’t like no freshman quarterback going against this defense. I don’t like a senior quarterback going against this defense, much less a freshman. I think a guy like Jalen Hurts at Alabama is a guy that could cause a little bit of problems, because he’s able to move the pocket, but Eason’s more of your pocket guy. He can run a little bit, but he’s not going to kill you with his feet.
Nick:Hurts is 7th in passing, just after Eason.
Andrew:Looking at Eason real quick. Hold on, real quick. Eason’s only ran the ball 20 times for 47 yards this year, and that includes scrambling as well. You’re not afraid of Eason running the ball.
Nick:No. He and Joshua Dobbs are tied with 9 interceptions. I think that’s where, so I talked about before, I don’t remember if I talked about it on the podcast, but I told you. I was like, I think because of the way that recruitment went with Eason I almost feel like he’s just going to stick it to Florida, and it’s kind of like turning the knife. I have no other reason. The stats don’t show it. I have no other reason. It’s just like, that makes sense.
Andrew:Maybe.
Nick:The prince of midtown strikes again.
Andrew:Alex Anzalone, his beautiful host, will be meeting him a few times, and probably letting him know that Gainesville was a better place for him than Georgia.
Nick:I think we will have something to write about if he sees his host.
Andrew:I don’t know. My thing with this game is I’m like you in you can throw the predictions out, because it is a rivalry football game. It’s a different game. I know that the team is excited. I know that the team is ready, and I know that they know what’s at stake, because they’ve seen it. I will say that I think that the offense does continue to improve each week, with Del Rio getting more and more healthy. I think that you’re going to see him, I don’t think you see him 100% the rest of the year. You agree with that?
Nick:Yes.
Andrew:I think you see him get better every week, because the more the ligament heals the better he’s going to be, so I think he’ll be better this week than he was the Missouri week.
Nick:Yeah. We’ll see this week. I think last week was just an oddball game. It was the exception, not the rule. I was very surprised to see that kind of performance, because it’s like we said all along, that’s not what Del Rio’s going to do. He’s not going to be great, but he’s not going to turn the ball over. He should have had maybe six turnovers last game, so I think it will get better.
Andrew:Right. You could tell he wasn’t planting on that foot as much as you would like him to. You could see he wasn’t driving through the ball, and that’s not to say he didn’t throw some good balls. He did throw some good balls, but you could tell he was still favoring the knee a little bit. Again, you can’t take anything away from him, because you and I would probably have been sitting at the house with the knee propped up had we had that injury. So you can’t say anything bad about him, but I think that it just wasn’t ready. I think in a perfect world Florida would have been able to hold him out last week and gave him the bye week, then had him come back for the Georgia week. Then again, it’s probably better that he knocked some of that rust off.
Nick:Yeah. You almost would have liked to have him not have to stay out another week, a bye week. You almost want to get him rolling right back out there.
Andrew:Yeah. I don’t know. I think it’ll be interesting to see really how he goes, and then just kind of how this team does at the offensive line position. Again, I’m not a big, I’m just not believing in this offensive line yet, and it sucks to say, but I can’t really say that I’m believing in them, but you do get this. Georgia’s only had 14 sacks this year. That’s all they’ve had, so you think that they should be okay protecting there, and they may be without Roquan Smith as well. When you look at this Georgia defense though, they’re only giving up 111 yards rushing a game. They are a little bit more deceptive against the pass, but Florida needs to establish the running game in this game, much like they did in that Missouri game. I think it’s the same old broken record.
Nick:Can you challenge them?
Andrew:Yeah. I mean, Tennessee showed that with a Hail Mary. You know what I’m saying? I’m not big on Georgia’s secondary at all. I’m not. I’m just not. I don’t think that Georgia has the depth in the defensive backfield that you do. I think you can challenge them. I mean, let’s face it. Antonio Callaway should do well against just about anybody outside of the University of Alabama as far as going up against DBs. I mean, you’re looking at their DBs. They got a senior in Aaron Davis, playing safety, and Deandre Baker as a sophomore playing corner, and then on the other side it’s Malkom Parrish and Dominick Sanders, four guys that are just okay.
Nick:I meant can you challenge the offensive line? Here’s the game plan, if we need to run the ball 80 times to win the game, we’re going to do it. Whatever it takes, we’re going to run the ball. So you need to show up. Can you challenge them like that? That’s what Florida did in 2014. It was we’re not even going to pretend to throw the ball. We’re going to line up. We’re going to run zone. We’re going to run power, and we’ll tell you what the play is. Stop it.
Andrew:Right. I mean, you would hope so, but I can’t tell you that, Nick. I can’t, because, to be honest with you, and this sucks to say, but I still haven’t seen this offensive line come out pissed off and ready to hit somebody.
Nick:They’re too nice?
Andrew:I think it’s this, and I had someone tell me this. They said, “Where does this team, this offensive line, Mike Summers isn’t a rah-rah, I’m going to beat the shit out of you kind of guy, and that’s kind of where the team is.” They’re kind of laid back, go through the motions at the offensive line, and that worries me. Outside of Jawaan Taylor I haven’t seen anyone just go down the field and knock the crap out of somebody. Can you?
Nick:Jawaan Taylor has done that. I think you see streaks of it, but I don’t know if we’ve seen it consistently.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:You need to. Maybe it’s, listen, frankly it’s not what they should be doing, but Florida has played up and down to opponents in two games. Big games, they show up. Games against North Texas, they don’t show up. Game against Vanderbilt, they said they didn’t show up to that. You’re showing up to Georgia week.
Andrew:Here’s the thing. If you don’t show up for these next five games, and I even include South Carolina, because that’s Senior Day. You show up for Senior Day, and also you should show up to beat the crap out of the other guy, crybaby over there, Willy.
Nick:That’s going to be an interesting day, because that senior class, those were all Will Muschamp recruited players.
Andrew:Yeah, but I’m sure they’re very happy Jim McElwain actually got them to Georgia, unlike Willy.
Nick:That’s true.
Andrew:Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. You would expect the next five to go. Let me ask you this. You look at Florida, if you make Georgia one dimensional, you feel good. I don’t feel like Jacob Eason can beat Florida. You know what I’m saying? I don’t feel like they’re better. I feel like Tennessee’s passing defense, passing offense, is better than Georgia’s, and so that’s where I’m at. I feel like I don’t think Jacob Eason and his receivers can beat the Gators if they stop the running game.
Nick:That’s going to be the biggest thing. I don’t know if they can if they don’t have those guys back.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:We’ll figure that out. I think, you and I both think that they can play.
Andrew:Yeah. I just I don’t see Jordan Sherit and them. Here’s the thing to me though. I want to know if Tyler Jordan’s healthy and ready to go.
Nick:I think he is.
Andrew:People say, and, Nick, I don’t know if you know this at all, because I didn’t. I’ll be honest. I didn’t. People were saying they noticed Tyler Jordan last week on campus with a boot on his foot. I personally didn’t see him go injured. You and I were talking about this during the game. He looked fine, looked like he was walking around. So maybe it was Jordan being hurt, and that’s why he had to come out of the game. You would like for him to play, and you would think he would. This is Homecoming for him. Right down the road was his high school.
Nick:This game means more to those guys, for sure, because it’s not just the Saturday game. They do stuff Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It’s a huge event, huge week for the city of Jacksonville. Guys like Tyler and Ahmad and all those Duvall County boys, this game means more to them.
Andrew:Yeah. Tyrie Cleveland making his first trip back home to Jacksonville.
Nick:Duvall cannot claim Tyrie Cleveland.
Andrew:No, I don’t say that. I’m saying this is the first trip back playing in Jacksonville for Tyrie.
Nick:It is, but I don’t consider him from Duvall.
Andrew:I don’t either. I consider him from Houston, Texas, Westlake.
Nick:H Town.
Andrew:Yeah. H Town. Way up in the H Town.
Nick:That’s not a song. You just made that up.
Andrew:I did. I don’t know. We’ll see where this is. I am very confident that Florida should win this game. I think Florida is the better football team in this game. This game is very weird in the fact that it is unpredictable. Last year the storyline was homeboy, what was his name? Bato, playing quarterback.
Nick:Bauta.
Andrew:Yeah. He hadn’t played quarterback, and then, boom, he’s playing quarterback.
Nick:He was pretty terrible.
Andrew:You know what I’m saying? Nobody expected him. It was Grayson Lambert all year, and then, boom he’s there. It always seem to throw something. We all know the year before when Willy Muschamp somehow or another put out a performance of his lifetime. That was just a straight beat down. One person that’s missing this game, Nick, is one person. Who do you remember this? Who loved Jacksonville more than anyone? Kelvin Taylor.
Nick:Good lord. Georgia is very happy that he’s not on campus anymore.
Andrew:Kelvin Taylor was definitely wanting to take after dad and be that man up in Jacksonville.
Nick:He ran all over Georgia.
Andrew:It was nasty.
Nick:All over Georgia.
Andrew:It was nasty. Anything else?
Nick:I have a bunch of buy/sells that we didn’t get to on our Friday podcast. I got them lined up for you.
Andrew:Go ahead. Then before that I want to talk a little bit about some recruiting stuff that happened over the weekend.
Nick:Buy or sell, two more pick sixes by the Gators defensive backs this season.
Andrew:This season in general?
Nick:Yes.
Andrew:Yeah. I think so.
Nick:I will buy that.
Andrew:You got to think South Carolina is probably going to throw four.
Nick:Not interception, pick sixes.
Andrew:Yeah, but, I mean.
Nick:I’m going to sell it.
Andrew:You’re going to sell it?
Nick:I’m going to sell pick sixes. Yeah.
Andrew:Okay. I’ll buy that. Someone, maybe Quincy or Teez, gets one this weekend, pulls a, was it Ahmad Black that had one in this game? I know it was Joe Haydin that had the memorable one. Maybe one of them gets it this week.
Nick:Joe Haydin had one in Georgia. No. Joe Haydin didn’t get in.
Andrew:That’s right. He was out at like the one or the two. Yeah. That was the one I remember. Didn’t Ahmad Black have one as well?
Nick:Ahmad Black had one.
Andrew:I know he had one in the Outback Bowl, but I thought he had one in that game as well. What’s the next one?
Nick:Buy or sell, Gators win out the regular season.
Andrew:Sell.
Nick:Also sell.
Andrew:That’s not to say it won’t happen.
Nick:They’re capable of it, but I still think Arkansas, despite what happened last week, I still think Arkansas is a trap game. At LSU is tough.
Andrew:That’s the game I’m worried about.
Nick:That game is tough. South Carolina’s a disaster. They’re a joke. They’ll win three games this year, and one of those won’t be against Florida. Really those two, your two West games.
Andrew:The one that I worry about the most is LSU and Florida State, and I know Florida State’s not good this year, but it’s the same thing with Florida that is with Tennessee with Florida. That is these guys have never beaten Florida State. These guys have never beaten Florida State. You need to see them win that game.
Nick:They’ve never beaten LSU either.
Andrew:That’s true. That is true. So that’s back to back weeks. Here’s the thing for me, and that is those guys want the FSU game so bad, and not that they don’t want the other game. They want that LSU game really bad too, but guys like Quincy Wilson, Jordan Scarlett, those guys that are south Florida guys that a lot of their buddies are there. Anybody in state really that their buddies are there, you don’t want to go your whole career without beating Florida State. You never have bragging rights. At least if you beat them your senior year, or in Quincy and Tabor’s instance their junior year, you can at least say, “I went out on the right foot.”
Nick:I know Quincy Wilson’s got that game circled.
Andrew:But he doesn’t get to face his buddy this year.
Nick:He gets to go up against him. Oh, no, he’s playing defense.
Andrew:Jordan Scarlett gets to run over him. Maybe Quincy can get him on special teams or something.
Nick:Yeah. That could work.
Andrew:Something like that. What’s the next one, boss?
Nick:Buy or sell, UF DBU will maintain or improve their performance from the 1st half of the season. Buy or sell, Florida’s defense, the secondary, will stay at the same level or get better.
Andrew:I think they, I don’t know. I mean, I guess you can always get better, but DBU is pretty good right now. I’ll say that I think that they do stay that way. There’s not a lot of passing teams left really on the schedule, and also I think they really are embarrassed after that Tennessee loss. You got to think about it, Quincy Wilson and Jalen Tabor now are playing to go for bigger money. I mean, really and truly they’re playing to move up in the first round. They’re both first rounders right now. I think I’ll buy that they either stay the same or get better.
Nick:I’ll buy that.
Andrew:You got to think about it. Who’s going to pass on them? Arkansas? No. Georgia?
Nick:That was my thing. They’re really not facing anyone. They’ve faced the throwing offenses that they’re going to. Now you’ve got all these teams that just want to run the ball.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:To me, that goes back into the style of football Florida’s going to play the rest of the season is a punishing style of football. How does your health maintain? You already have guys that are banged up. Where’s the status of your health going into these last five games?
Andrew:Right. This is when the offensive line becomes men or goes back to become boys. What do we got?
Nick:Buy or sell that there will be two or more special team scores this year.
Andrew:Sell.
Nick:Punt return, kick return, blocked punt returned.
Andrew:No. Sell. You don’t even have to finish the question. Florida doesn’t play special teams. Outside of Eddy Pineiro Florida’s not scoring.
Nick:How dare you?
Andrew:Outside of Eddy Pineiro they’re not scoring. I mean, they’re not blocking kicks. The onside kick was one of those things that was just a weird play. I mean, I just don’t see it. They got guys that are on special teams right now that aren’t doing their jobs, and I don’t see it.
Nick:Buy or sell, two 100 yard rushers against Georgia.
Andrew:Buy.
Nick:Yeah. I’ll buy that.
Andrew:I’ll buy that. Of course, it’s going to be 22 and 26.
Nick:Who?
Andrew:25. Sorry. I still call Lamical 26 from his Theodore days. I was calling 22, 26, but I meant to say 22, 25.
Nick:Buy or sell that Tennessee drops another game this year?
Andrew:Buy that. Buy, buy, buy that. I think that they do. I really do. I think that…
Nick:To who?
Andrew:Listen.
Nick:Have you looked at their schedule?
Andrew:Yes. Listen to me. I think they drop a game they’re not supposed to to either Vandy, Kentucky, or to Missouri. That sounds absurd. I will take it, but I really do, Nick. I think that it’s one of those deals where their season, they’re pissed off now, their season has kind of went down. So it’s like, are they able to stay up? I don’t know. I just think they do. I may be stupid.
Nick:I think they stay up, because they’re one Florida trip up from being back into the driver’s seat. They’re going to thrash South Carolina.
Andrew:Absolutely.
Nick:Then thrash Tennessee Tech.
Andrew:Hold on. Willy Muschamp’s never lost to Tennessee.
Nick:He’s also coaching at South Carolina now, and they are miserable.
Andrew:They’re pretty bad.
Nick:Alabama has more non-offensive touchdowns than South Carolina has offensive touchdowns. Just let that marinate. Alabama’s special teams and defense has a better, is a better offense, a more efficient offense, than Will Muschamp’s offense.
Andrew:Let this marinate for a second. Jonathan Allen has one less touchdown than Christian McCaffrey.
Nick:Christian’s been hurt, but that’s ridiculous.
Andrew:Insane. We’ll see. I just think they may, but who knows?
Nick:I’m going to make one up. Buy or sell, South Carolina gets to five wins, or we’ll say six. They need to win three of these: Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, Western Carolina, Clemson.
Andrew:I only see one win.
Nick:Western Carolina?
Andrew:Yes.
Nick:That would be a 4-8 season for Will Muschamp. He’s used to that.
Andrew:I mean, Chris Lammons is not doing nothing against Missouri. He’s going to get punked. I mean, he is. He’s going to get punked. No. No, boss. No. One more win, maybe. Maybe. Is that all the buy or sell we have?
Nick:Buy or sell, Tyrie Cleveland has three catches and a touchdown.
Andrew:Buy.
Nick:I’ll buy that as well. Buy or sell, Pineiro kicks a game winning field goal before the end of the season.
Andrew:God, I hope not. I hope not. My blood pressure can’t be taking all that. The game winning field goals are awesome, but if the game comes down to a college kicker, Eddy I love you, man, I really do. You’re funny as hell, but college kickers and game winning field goals, they don’t really go together, unless you’re Kentucky.
Nick:Buy or sell, the Gators can lose another SEC game and still win the SEC East.
Andrew:Don’t do that, because then you’re putting yourself on to Tennessee losing one of those cupcakes.
Nick:No. I figured you were going to buy, because you said Tennessee’s going to lose another one.
Andrew:Yes, I did, but no. I can’t sit here and say for sure Tennessee is going to lose.
Nick:You just did.
Andrew:If they show up, then they shouldn’t. I think they do. I think they do have a slipup, but they shouldn’t. I mean, I don’t know. I’ll say no. I don’t know. Who’s giving these questions?
Nick:This is all from Twitter.
Andrew:Okay. Are you done now?
Nick:No.
Andrew:Come on.
Nick:Why are you so angry?
Andrew:Because I want to talk some recruiting.
Nick:Buy or sell, Miami will be an FCS school by 2020.
Andrew:I hope so. That’d be so funny. Mark Richt’s loser self can really win a championship there.
Nick:Now I’m done.
Andrew:Now you’re done. Okay. Let’s talk a little recruiting. Mac was all over the place this week, just all over the place. On Friday alone he was at seven schools. He hit your neck of the woods in south Florida. Then he hit Tampa. Then he was in Jacksonville to watch Shaun Wade versus IMG, Trinity Christian versus IMG. Nick, I think the thing to remember is this, and that is Florida may have lost those two weeks, but they really did a good job of getting out during this bye week and just hammering their big targets, their big commits. I think that that is something that will help. The thing is this. They need to make sure that they double, triple, quadruple deck the recruiting section for that South Carolina game. It is a must game to get players on campus.
Nick:What are the officials looking like?
Andrew:I don’t think you’ll have a ton of officials that weekend. Mac’s not a guy that likes officials during the season. He’s anti officials during the season, much like Saban is. They like to be able to spend more time with the kids, and it just isn’t there. I mean, especially the South Carolina game. You’re talking the kid’s going to probably get in either Friday night or Saturday morning. Florida’s going to be focused on the game. It’s probably a noon game, probably, I would say. I haven’t looked at the schedule that week. It may be a night game, but whatever it is, so Florida’s going to have the game. They’re going to prepping on Friday night, have the game on Saturday, and then they’re going to probably turn their attention right quick to LSU the next week. So you don’t get a ton of time to spend with these guys. I would say that there’s probably not that many, because of that, but I would expect a lot of unofficial guys on campus.
The one thing that did come out of this weekend is this, and that is Shaun Wade. Florida’s looking like they’re going to get that last visit in December for Shaun Wade, and he doesn’t say publicly how much he’s interested in Florida, but Shaun Wade’s interested in Florida. This one may end up a Gator by the end of the time. Not ready to say that for sure, but if they get that last visit, things are going to be going really well.
Nick:That’ll be big.
Andrew:They need that. They need that bigger than anything. They need that DB to come in, and Shaun Wade’s one of those guys that, I wouldn’t say he’s Jalen Tabor level, but he’s one of those guys in a few years you’re thinking he probably is a first round draft pick.
Nick:I can see that.
Andrew:He’s long, athletic. He’s that new breed of defensive backs that people are starting to fall in love with, those guys that can play corner, safety, nickel, whatever it may be, that the NFL and, quite frankly, colleges are now really into.
Nick:I don’t think he would even be the best defensive back in the class though.
Andrew:Who are you thinking is that?
Nick:I think that’s Marco Wilson.
Andrew:So here’s the thing with me and Marco, Nick, you know me. I’m like you. I have the utmost respect for the Wilson family. I think that it’s tough. I think Shaun may be more ready to play today than Marco. I think Marco still needs to gain a little bit of weight that he maybe lost during his knee injury. So I really think that Shaun may be better today. Marco may end up being better at the end, after he gets weight gain and all that kind of stuff. Make sense? You see what I’m saying?
Nick:Yeah. I just don’t see it. I don’t think that will be an issue.
Andrew:Maybe not. I said I thought Marco would play from Day 1.
Nick:Yeah. They’re going to have to, because there’s going to be nobody left back there.
Andrew:Exactly. Alright, Nick, let’s talk about the week ahead real quick. We’re back into game week. We’ll find someone to talk Georgia this week. May call our good buddy, Barrett Sallee, from Bleacher Report up. He usually does our Georgia week. We’ll probably call him, do that. Back on regular schedule, Monday, Wednesday, Friday is press conferences. Monday, Wednesday, Friday is podcasts. Look for them. 5:00AM.
Nick:You can find that on www.GatorCountry.com. It’s always there. 5:00, transcript is up, and the audio is there if you are not an Apple user. If you are, you can find us in the podcast store. Just search @GatorCountry. On Twitter it’s @GatorCountry. Facebook, @GatorCountry. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC. Enjoy Georgia week.
Andrew:I know I’m going to be enjoying some Georgia week. Send me some good Georgia jokes or something. I feel like I need to get my rivalry Twitter up a little bit this week.
Nick:You’ve been slacking.
Andrew:Yeah. I’ll find something. I’m going to get to work on that. We’re taping this Sunday at 5:30, by the end of the night on Sunday I plan to have Twitter popping a little bit with some Georgia stuff.
Nick:We’ll see.
Andrew:We’ll see? Are you challenging me?
Nick:Yeah.
Andrew:Okay. Guys, he did it. He did it to ya’ll. Also, a couple things real quick, Nick. Basketball is back, and Bailiegh’s doing a really good job with that. I know Gator Country we haven’t done a lot of basketball. We’ve been slacking the last couple years, but Bailiegh’s doing a really good with that, so check out the full court press board on basketball and really just kind of see what’s going on with her. She’s got a lot of good stuff. She was able to watch the Gators scrimmage the other day. So that’s some good stuff there as well. Check it out, and let us know what we can do better on that.
Nick:Thank you.
Andrew:That’s right. There you go. Alright, guys, we’ll see everyone on Wednesday. If you have any requests for a guest that you would like to see, let us know. As always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Mark, Butch, get another L this week, buddy.
Nick:You stay classy, Gator Country.
Recap of Bye WeekPage 16
Transcript by Five Stars Transcription