This GatorCountry podcast previews the Florida Gators spring game on Friday night when the teams are split into an Orange team and a Blue team as the Gators finish off spring practice.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the players they’re looking forward to seeing on Friday night, plus they look at the quarterback position heading into the game.
Andrew and Nick also preview the prospects that are scheduled to visit Florida on Friday night, plus they look at the diamond sports this weekend.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man here, Andrew Spivey, with my man, Nicholas de la Torre. What’s up, Nicholas?
Nick: We are one day away from the spring football game, which Jim McElwain has personally promised will actually be football, which is a nice change in Gainesville.
Andrew: That’s pretty cool.
Nick: Everyone remembers the Muschamp debacle, I think it was three years ago now, where it was a glorified practice, not even a glorified, just a practice, and the TV situation was a mess. Really the entire event kind of just blew up.
Andrew: The TV’s trying to show one on one drills, and it was just a cluster. That’s all it was. It was a debacle, like you say. It was a laughing matter, and just was kind of a glorified picture of the Will Muschamp era, I guess is the best way to say it.
Nick: Microcosm of the Muschamp error. I said that wrong, but maybe I said it right. I said the Muschamp error instead of the Muschamp era, but I might have been right.
Andrew: Might have been right. Yeah. It’s not there. What about him telling Kirby Smart he was going to whip his ass on the football field?
Nick: That’s good, because he didn’t have much success against his friends when he was at Florida. Maybe he’ll have more success against his friends in South Carolina. I know Jimbo enjoyed playing Will Muschamp.
Andrew: Is that game going to set football back 40 years on offense?
Nick: Most games Will Muschamp’s involved in sets football back a couple decades.
Andrew: But Kirby Smart being another Nick Saban defensive guy, we might see, no, there is no chance of seeing a one to one game, maybe a two-two game.
Nick: I don’t know. He’s still tricking quarterbacks into going to his school.
Andrew: It’s always good when you hire the daddy of a big name quarterback. That’s there. No quarterback problem in Gainesville. There’s a good competition going on. As you said, Gators kick off at 7:00 in the Swamp on Friday night.
Nick: SEC Network on the broadcast.
Andrew: SEC Network. I believe Greg McElroy is one of the guys calling the game, if I remember correctly. I have to go back and look, but I’m pretty sure they had announced Greg McElroy was going to be one of the guys on the call.
Nick: That’s good. I think when you do something like that, and you’ve got a former player doing it, I love Chris Doering, and he is linked in with what’s going on at Florida, but Mac’s only been at Florida for a year. So when you can get somebody who has personal experience with a coach I think there is a balance for them to try to remain professional, but you also have an opportunity where Greg McElroy, I know when you and I spoke with him he really shared things about McElwain that we didn’t know, and probably stuff that we would have had, it would have taken us much longer to figure out on our own if not having the opportunity to speak to him. Maybe he’ll drop some nuggets that if you can’t make the drive down, flight down, trip down to Gainesville, maybe he’ll drop some nuggets that you’ll enjoy during the Orange and Blue Debut.
Andrew: Absolutely. Let’s first things first. What do you expect the atmosphere to be like? I’ve noticed that either Mac or someone with Mac, or someone with the program is kind of getting the players to start tweeting out to fill the Swamp. I’m going to say that I think it’s going to be a surprising night in Gainesville. I think that they’re going to have a decent crowd. The spring game has lost a lot of attendance because of the glorified practice, or glorified scrimmage, whatever you want to call it, over the last, what? Four years now. I think with it being a game, with it being Friday night, and being a team that’s coming off of an SEC Championship, I’m going to say that I think it’s a decent crowd. It’s not going to be Alabama great or anything like that, where you sell out the swamp, but I think it’s going to be a decent crowd in the Swamp. It will definitely be better than a Miami Hurricane fall game.
Nick: We can bring just our closest friends and mimic the environment that the ‘Canes get. To me, somebody asked me this yesterday, and I came up with a number, maybe like 20,000, 30,000. Then I thought, I just don’t know. The spring attendance in 2013 was poor, in 2014 was worse. Last year there was some excitement. I remember it being, at the time thinking, okay, this is a better crowd. Certainly not anywhere close to being sold out, nowhere near that, but I don’t know what Friday night will do to it. You’re creating kind of an event, right?
Andrew: Right. You’re creating a weekend atmosphere.
Nick: You’re creating an event, a weekend atmosphere. Being from south Florida, we get knocked for being an event town, and people only show up to big events, but doing it on Friday night under the lights you’re making it that big event. The only problem with that, and doing it on Friday night, is maybe there’s people who can’t get off work, people who in the past would work their Friday and then come drive down Friday night, or come down Friday night to be at the game on Saturday. How does that affect the attendance? Are people maybe calling in sick on Friday, taking half days on Friday, to come down? I do think that doing it on Friday, having your own stage, is really cool. Sort of an innovative idea that you’re going to see other teams start to jump on. My only question with the attendance is the work thing, and how does that play out with people trying to get off work? I do think moving it to Friday, with all that even being said, moving it to Friday is a good idea.
Andrew: It’s a great idea. We’ll get into recruiting here in a few, but so far some big names coming in in recruiting. I think that’s the biggest thing of it all is not only is it Friday night in the Swamp, and it’s a night game in the Swamp and electricity should be there, but it’s standalone night, standalone game on a Friday night, and prospects are coming up. They seem to be coming up in a good span, but let’s move on to the game. Mac hasn’t really said how it’s going to be broken down as far as the team goes, due to some injuries, that kind of stuff. We do know it’s going to be a game, that kind of stuff.
Nick: I did joke around with him. I said, if you remember to last year Demarcus Robinson had that, I don’t even want to call it, he ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. So I joked to Mac, I said, “Have you already designed the opening kickoff touchdown for this year?”
Andrew: There you go. Maybe get one of those new guys there to create some energy. It’ll be interesting to see how it is. Quarterback play, that’s going to be the thing. Before we hit on the quarterback play of the spring game, I wanted to hit on something. Mac said the quarterbacks are pressing a little bit in the scrimmage on Friday. While I believe Mac, I also believe that Mac’s never going to be satisfied with the quarterback play. In that he’s going to always find a way to critique the quarterbacks, because that’s his thing. That’s his pride and joy is the quarterback play. It’s like Coach Spurrier. In all of my years of following Coach Spurrier and watching Coach Spurrier I don’t know if I’ve ever heard Coach Spurrier say, “My quarterback’s played excellent, perfect,” or anything like that, and that’s through the greats of Danny Werfel, Rex Grossman, whenever he was there playing good ball for him, and when he was doing good at South Carolina. I think that’s how Mac’s going to be. While I have heard that there was some pressing in the game, or in the scrimmage on Friday of last week, I do know that it’s a better group. It’s a group that can succeed at Florida next fall and for the coming seasons.
Nick: Yeah. I know you said that it’s a quarterback competition. I know Florida put a story up on their site saying it’s a competition. It’s not really a competition in my mind. I think you’ve got your starter, and you’ve got a guy behind him that the coaches will try to say, “He’s pushing you; you have to win your job every day,” but to me that’s a safety net. You’ve got two freshmen who’d you’d probably like to redshirt this year if you can, and you’ve really got your guy.
Andrew: I’m going to say this. You and I, I don’t even know if you and I have talked about this off the air, but I had someone that is pretty connected, follows the team pretty good, tell me that they actually wouldn’t be shocked if Kyle Trask received second team snaps next season. They believed he was ahead of Austin Appleby.
Nick: I believe that. I would say that. I think I have said that before too.
Andrew: They were saying if there’s a quarterback competition it might be between the freshman and the redshirt sophomore in Del Rio, in that that might be the quarterback competition if there is a quarterback competition. I’ll go on and say it. I’ll say it now. I don’t think Kyle Trask red shirts next season. I think he goes in as your guy, and if something was to happen with Del Rio he’s the one that plays, or we’ll see. If Del Rio has bad, maybe you throw Trask in there.
Nick: I think we talked about that on a podcast before, and we both agree and thing that Del Rio’s your starting quarterback, and if something were to happen to him, if he were to get hurt, something were to happen, it really would depend on where are we in the season? What’s going on? Do we need somebody that is going to come in for just one game? Do we think Austin Appleby is the best option if it’s just one game? Do we want to put Trask in because Del Rio’s going to be out for a month, and this will be great experience for him? We think we can win with him now, and this experience will help him next year and down the line. To me, and I think I came out and said it, I don’t think Appleby is better than Kyle Trask. I think it’s just you’ve got to see where you are at the point in the season where you’re leaving your number one option and going for somebody else.
To your point, maybe if you decide, let’s redshirt one of them, and we’re going to redshirt Feleipe Franks. Now let’s get Kyle Trask. We play U Mass the first week. That should be no problem. Let’s get him reps against U Mass. Kentucky next week, maybe not, but then you get North Texas. Another opportunity to get him some reps, so that if something were to happen, and you do decide that Trask is ready, we need to put him in to give our team the best chance of winning. It’s not going to be his first snap.
Andrew: Right. I think that’s the thing. I will say this, and you and I have both been very critical of Appleby, and rightfully so. I came out and asked someone over the weekend. I said, “Is Austin Appleby the next Josh Grady?” The response I got was, “No. Appleby can win us a football game in a pinch.” To me that says, if Florida’s playing LSU in the Swamp next season, and it’s 21-21 in the 4th quarter, and Del Rio twists his ankle, can’t play. Appleby’s a guy that could go win you that game there. You wouldn’t want to throw Kyle Trask, a freshman, in a #1 versus #3, #5 versus #7 game, whatever it may be. The Florida-LSU game in the Swamp you don’t want to throw a freshman who’s never been in that in the 4th quarter in that game. You throw Appleby in there, and, boom, you’re okay. That’s the thing. As someone even joked, said, “Grady couldn’t hit a glass if he was five feet away. Appleby can.” That’s the difference.
That was positive for me for Appleby, but I will say this. I was very taken aback and very shocked that Trask has come as far as he has. The one thing that was told to me, again, was let’s see how well Trask improves from spring ball to fall camp. Is he taking that next step forward, or is he staying the same. Trask has to take maybe three steps forward to catch up from spring to fall.
Nick: That’s an important time. It’s easy to make a new first impression, or a good first impression. You know what I mean? Then to keep it up. Now when the coaches aren’t around, when it’s just Mike Kent, and it’s just you needing to get the receivers together, get the other quarterbacks together and go and throw passes on your own, what are you doing when the coaches aren’t around to get better? It’s a long year. We’ll see what Trask can do in the summer, but it does make sense, if you have your 2017 guy in Jake Allen already set up, why not create some separation? You’d like to have four quarterbacks on campus, one in every class. If you can do that, start to do that, because you’ll probably get Del Rio back next season, and then you would have a freshman, a redshirt freshman, a sophomore, and a redshirt junior. You’d start to have that separation and get to the place you really want to be ideally.
Andrew: That’s pretty much it. Going outside of the quarterback play, the next position I’m interested to see is running back, and it seems that heading outside of spring it is a three horse battle for who is going to start. I will say Cronkrite probably had the quickest start. Mark and Jordan have finished the spring really well. Jordan coming off of that hamstring injury, and Mark Thompson getting in better football shape, or SEC shape I’ll call it. He’s done well. I would say heading into the spring game and heading into the fall it’s a three man battle of who’s going to be that workload, that #1 running back who’s going to get that first start. I think it’s a battle. The one thing I will say is that it does seem that Mark is becoming more of just your two down back, and the two Jordans are going to be your catching back, your 3rd down back, but still, who’s going to be that when it’s 1st and 10, first play of the game, who’s going to be the bell cow?
Nick: I think we both agree that Cronk’s kind of started the spring off hot. Mark Thompson might have been a little adjustment period, and Jordan Scarlett’s kind of had to deal with a hamstring injury that kept him out for some time. Really though, at running back I think it’s still the tightest battle of any of the position battles, and you do have three guys who are very capable, so that makes it interesting. I’ve said multiple times I think you’ve got one guy, that Jim McElwain leans on one guy. To me, it’s really interesting because of how close they are, how similar they are, but also they each bring something different to the table. Maybe you can use them differently, but this is also a battle that’s not anywhere close to ending. This is going to go into the fall and could end up being a game by game kind of thing where Mark had a great week at practice, he’s going to play. He fumbled in the game, next guy up. Jordan Scarlett, you’re up, or Jordan Cronkrite, you’re up. To me that’s a battle that I’m looking for not only Friday but continuing through the summer into the fall next year.
Andrew: Agreed. That’s for sure. At receiver, you’re starting to see some guys finally step up.
Nick: Let me address something real quick. The number of times Alvin Bailey’s name has been said this spring, that number will be more than the total number of receptions he has in the fall. Please, please stop. Just because a coach says a guy’s having a good spring, Quinten Dunbar had awesome springs every year. Everyone loves everybody in the spring. That’s not a real option. We need to focus on players who are going to make an impact.
Andrew: Our clickbait buddies believe he’s the starter, but we don’t clickbait over here at Gator Country. I will say that a couple guys that I’ve heard consistently, and that is the two freshmen in Swain and Hammond have done really well, and Chris Thompson is doing well. Ahmad Fulwood, and I’ll be the first to admit I’m very skeptical of Ahmad Fulwood. If I didn’t have people telling me who’s seen it with their own eyes that were outside the coaching staff, I would call bullshit, but people I respect a ton, who’ve been able to watch practice, have seen it. Let’s go. Let me see it in the fall. I’m still calling bullshit that it happens a ton in the fall, but I hope it does. I really do. I think that Fulwood has all of the ability in the world to play. He’s got the size. He looks like Tarzan, but has been playing like Jane. Maybe the light has come on for him. Dre Massey though is a guy that when you ask someone, “What do you think of Dre Massey?” They say, “Fast.” Florida needs fast. Florida needs speed. We’ll see. That’s the group that I’m looking forward to seeing this Friday night in the Swamp is who does well in these games.
Nick: Who looks like Tarzan and plays like Jane?
Andrew: Fulwood.
Nick: That’s good. I think that. I like that saying. Made me laugh over here. I muted myself.
Andrew: It really is. I don’t know. With Fulwood I have been the biggest supporter of Ahmad Fulwood. I like Ahmad Fulwood. I think Ahmad Fulwood is a good player in high school, and he shows flashes, but it just seems like, I’ll say it right here. Man up. Man up. That’s what I want to see. I want to see Ahmad Fulwood play like a 6’4” receiver that Ahmad Fulwood is, instead of playing like 5’5” Brandon Powell.
Nick: That’s true. To me, Jim McElwain comes out and says, “Hey, Ahmad’s going up for some of those 50/50 balls. That’s good to see.” Maybe it’s good to see, but that’s not something when you’re a senior, when you’re a 6’4”, 6’5” receiver who is a senior, that’s not something your head coach should even be worrying about. That’s not something that it should be, that’s good; he hasn’t done that before. That’s something that you should be doing regularly. That should be expected, not praised when you actually see it once in a blue moon.
Andrew: Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. Ahmad, if you’re listening to this, I hope you do well. The reason I say bullshit is because I’ve seen it before. I’ve seen you have stretches before where you’ve done really well, and then it’s not carried over to the fall. I want to see it carry over to the fall. That’s why I say that. I’ve heard he’s beat Jalen Tabor a few times. Good. I’m ready to see it. This is the last hurrah for Ahmad Fulwood. If Ahmad Fulwood has dreams of playing at the next level it’s time. Quite frankly, there’s that position at Florida right now that’s open for him to do that if he goes out and plays good ball.
Nick: Yeah. We’re both kind of in a show me position. It was kind of like Andre Dubose going into his final, his senior year before he got hurt. He’s doing great. He’s doing great. Best spring ever. Then he gets hurt, comes back for his sixth year of eligibility. He’s doing great. Best year ever. Going to be a weapon. Going to be great for the offense. Same thing. It’s kind of like, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, not going to happen. Now we’re getting into a point where we’ve heard about him, because he was a Jacksonville kid as a freshman. Heard about him before his sophomore year, before his junior year, and you get the same results. It’s kind of just at a position where it’s I’ll believe it when I see it. I believed it just off of hearing previously. I’ve been proven wrong. So let me see it.
Andrew: Exactly. Not going to make me fall for that trap again. Sorry. Alvin Bailey, you ain’t getting me to fall for that trap until I see it in multiple games. I’ve seen enough to not be a believer.
Nick: If I see it from Alvin Bailey I’ll just rub my eyes and think I saw something wrong.
Andrew: Or go get some medicine real quick, because you passed out.
Nick: Sticking on wide receivers, we’ll quickly go through it. I think the most impressive, you mentioned Massey, mentioned Fulwood, Bailey. The most impressive to me might be Josh Hammond. I mentioned it yesterday in our thread for the practice. Alvin Bailey catches the ball like in his palms, where it sounds weird, because palm is your hand, but receivers really catch the ball with their fingers, fingertips. It’s just an easier way. It’s a softer landing spot for the ball, and receivers, the best receivers, a Jerry Rice, a Julio Jones, these guys are catching the ball in their fingertips, and then bringing it in after that. I see that from Josh Hammond, catching the ball away from his body with soft hands. Just a natural receiver of the football. I think that coupled with his size, and being able to early enroll, I really think he’s a player that could come in and make an impact as a freshman, and maybe I’m even more excited to see what he can do than some of the other guys we’ve talked about already.
Andrew: I’ll say it. Josh Hammond will have a phenomenal night. He’s a football player, and he’s a hell of a football player. Guarding those guys in the secondary is something I’m going to be interested in as well. We won’t spend a ton of time here, but I want to see what Chauncey Gardner does. I’ve heard a lot of things about Chauncey Gardner, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about Chauncey Gardner in the safety position. I want to see it. I want to see him do well. I want to see Chauncey Gardner that I know is a good football player. I want to see him with Marcus Maye and with Quincy and Jalen, and see those guys, and see what kind of improvement.
Nick: You want to see him get some reps with the ones.
Andrew: I do. I want to see it. Same thing with Marcell and Nick that I just said about Ahmad Fulwood. I’ve seen enough that doesn’t make me feel giddy inside. Let me see what my other options are, and go from there. I’ll say this. Chauncey Gardner, from everything I’ve been told, fits right in there at safety, is doing well, and I’m pumped. I want to see it. I want to see what they do, what he does, what the secondary does, and then see Chris Williamson. See McArthur Burnett. See some of these young guys in the secondary. Just see what they got. I want to see what these guys are all about with what? A month now, month and a half under Torrian Gray?
Nick: Yeah. Chauncey has been doing well. It’s obviously a new position for him, which is challenging in itself. Learning a new position while trying to get used to the speed of the game and how different that is. You’ve seen Nick Washington. You’ve seen Marcell Harris, and it’s kind of, we mentioned it previously, if you can just mash those two together you’d really have what Florida’s looking for in a safety. To me, I don’t know if Chauncey’s ready. Even when Florida has gone into some dime packages, you’d see Marcus Maye drop into the dime, and then you’d have Washington and Marcell Harris out there.
It’s the spring, and what’s a better time than to throw somebody in there with the ones, especially if they’re not expecting it, to see what they’re made of, to see how they handle it. Do they cave? Do they fold under the pressure? Does playing with the ones put pressure on them that they can’t internalize and handle? Then the game speeds up. Over the course of the entire spring the game has started to slow down for you, started to slow down, and you’re playing better, and then the coaches throw something unexpected at you, which will happen every single Saturday multiple times, something unexpected will happen. Does the game speed back up? Do you not know how to handle that?
Andrew: I’ll give you a hot take. Here we go. Ready for a hot take?
Nick: I’m always ready for a Spivey hot take.
Andrew: The starter at safety opposite of Marcus Maye will be someone not named Nick Washington or Marcell Harris this fall.
Nick: Starting which game?
Andrew: Game one.
Nick: Game one.
Andrew: It will either be Chauncey Gardner, or one of the guys that roll in June will be the starter.
Nick: You thinking Putu or Jawaan Taylor?
Andrew: I think it’s Putu or Chauncey Gardner. I have no, there is no hidden opinion from me that Jawaan Taylor is a guy that I’m very familiar with and I like a lot, being from Alabama. I do think he needs to gain a little weight, but I’m going to say Chauncey Gardner or Putu. There’s not going to be a guy that outworks Chauncey Gardner this summer. You can guarantee that. Nick, you’ve been around him long enough to know that while he may talk trash and act big time, he puts in the work.
Nick: He knows that he’s going to talk trash, and he doesn’t want to be made a fool of.
Andrew: Exactly.
Nick: He knows he has to put in that work to make sure that he can talk trash and not get made a fool of.
Andrew: Exactly. I’m interested to see. I’m really interested to see where that goes. My thing is this, and this is the average person can look at this situation and should agree with me. We’re talking about a freshman playing over two guys that’s been on campus for three years now. The coaches must not feel very giddy with those two guys, Harris and Washington, playing safety, or we’re not having this conversation.
Nick: Absolutely. Marcell Harris and Nick Washington both have been here a very long time. Just the fact that we’re having this conversation.
Andrew: Says all you need to know.
Nick: Yeah. I say that about other positions all the time. People ask me about this kid or that kid, and it’s like, listen, I’m not mentioning them; you don’t need to know about them.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: You’re right.
Andrew: If you’re having a conversation about a guy that’s a senior or a redshirt junior, then it’s just not there. That’s where I am. Again, I will say, Chauncey Gardner is a guy that I do like a lot, been around him a lot, and have a lot of respect for, but I also know his work ethic, and know that if there’s a chance he can play, and you tell him you need to do this to do it, chances are he’s going to do what he needs to do to be that guy. When you say a guy doesn’t want to sit the bench, Chauncey Gardner’s one of those guys that just doesn’t want to sit the bench. His shit talking on the sideline isn’t as fun as it is when he’s on the field.
Nick: No. It’s hard to talk when you’re not playing. He hasn’t really been in many opportunities where he’s on a football field and not playing.
Andrew: Exactly. Let’s move from football to a little recruiting here. This game is very much about seeing the correlation of the spring and letting the fans, and letting everyone see what guys have had a really good spring, but at the end of the day this is a recruiting event. This is a marquee recruiting event to get the big names, the who’s-who of prospects from around the country, on campus, and get them to see the team, get them to see the team in action. Let them see the coaches in action. Get them on the campus. That’s pretty much what’s going to happen on Friday night. That’s why I think it was a great move moving the game to a Friday night.
Nick: McElwain mentioned, when he was asked about it, he mentioned being able to spend Saturday with guys who came in for the game. That’s interesting to me, because I mentioned before that I thought maybe some guys would come to see Florida on Friday and then go to maybe some of those other games. Do you think Florida will be able to keep guys in Gainesville and around campus and be able to spend that Saturday actively recruiting?
Andrew: Yeah, because the good thing is it doesn’t, the other in state schools aren’t having their games on Saturday, so it’s a situation there’s a couple guys coming in from out of state, a safety coming in from Texas. It’d be tough for him to come into Florida for one day and then hop on the road and go somewhere else. You get him in on Friday chances are he’s not going to leave until Sunday. That’s a lot better than he came in Saturday, we had the spring game Saturday. He gets out of there on Sunday. I do think that that’s a big thing for Florida is that they’re able to get some of these guys in, have pretty much a full game weekend before they go out to the next visit, next game, whatever it may be.
Nick: That’s pretty interesting. Obviously this being the first year, you’re kind of testing everything out, but if that is the case then watch out. You might have to start playing spring games on like a Thursday, because everybody’s going to be doing it on Friday.
Andrew: Exactly. I don’t know. For me it’s great. There is nothing better in my opinion, whether it be Tiger Stadium, Brian Dennehy, whether it be Jordan Hare, whether it may be the Swamp, wherever it may be there is nothing better than night football, wherever it may be. To have the Swamp lit up at night, whether it’s 20,000 fans, 10,000 fans, whatever it may be, the Swamp will be fun at night, and the visitors list so far, granted you and I are taping this Wednesday afternoon, still a day, really two days and some hours until game time Friday night. So this list will change, but, I mean, just to run through a couple of the big names, you got Jake Allen. He’s bringing up his buddies, Trevon Grimes, who’s one of the top receivers in the country, and bringing up offensive lineman Keylon Herbert. Herbert’s on commit watch, in my opinion. Big guy at 6’4”, 280 some, 90 some pounds. Tackle in the future, big name guy. When you look at the 2018 class, the #1 player in the country for 2018 is a quarterback out of Georgia, Trevor Lawrence. The Gators are trying to get squarely in the mix there, and while Florida has Jake Allen, and while they have some good players on campus now, if you can get the #1 quarterback in 2018, it’s good.
Nick: Why not? Keep loading. We talked about it. You need quarterbacks. You never want to be in a situation that Florida has been in in the past where, and they had to do it last year, where you get two in the same class, and they start competing. That happened with Jacobi and Jeff, and now you have one leave, and you get into if we got two last class we don’t need to get two in the following class. Then one of them transfers, and now you’re behind. Florida needs to really get out from behind the 8 ball at the quarterback position. Jake Allen is as solid as they come. So why not start recruiting that next guy, that 2018 guy? Then you get him early, and like Jake has been able to do, it helps you with your current recruiting class, so the year ahead of him, and it also helps with that 2018, and then 2019 recruiting class as well. The quarterback is always the centerpiece of a recruiting class, and kind of the person that spearheads the recruiting efforts for the coaching staff during dead periods, and in school, at tournaments, all kinds of stuff.
Andrew: Exactly. Then you go to more receivers. #1 receiver in the country, in my opinion, James Robinson out of Lakeland. He’s coming up. Gator commit, Daquon Green is coming up. Tight end Kemore Gamble’s coming up. Then you go to the big uglies. At offensive line, an Alabama commit, Alex Leatherwood, out of Pensacola, who’s one of the top tackles in the country. He’s coming up for a visit. Then defensive line, [Marcavious] Bryan out of Georgia is coming up, and then MJ Webb, one of the top defensive tackles in the country, is coming up. Florida needs D tackles. That’s a big thing. They need that. Then at DB, Shawn Wade is committed to Ohio State, a very big name, is also coming up. Then, as I said, from Texas, safety Grant Delpit is coming in. He’s a big name guy. He has a lot of interest out of Texas, out of Lamar, Texas. It’s a football factory out there. He’s coming in and going to spend the whole weekend in.
Big name guys are coming in, and it should be a fun weekend for Florida. I expect that list to grow a good bit over the next couple days, and through Friday night. It should be a good event that really propels Florida through spring evaluations to getting these guys back in the summer. When you look at this list, and I’ll have the list on next week of the guys that visited campus. You look back, and you say, recruiting was successful for spring football, because Florida got these guys on campus. Did they get commits? No. They got them on campus. That’s the first step to getting a commit.
Nick: You always say, don’t watch, don’t listen to what you see on social media. Follow visits. Where are they going? Where are they spending time?
Andrew: I write the stuff. I’ll admit. I write the stuff, and I don’t believe half of it. That’s bad. I write half this stuff, and I don’t believe it. Top 15, hell. We all got top 15 girlfriends.
Nick: Ain’t nobody got time for a top 15.
Andrew: Exactly. Top 10, it’s whatever. Here’s the thing. Do I think wholeheartedly some of these top kids have 10 schools they’re really looking at? Yes. I really do. When you’re Shawn Wade, and you got Alabama, Florida State, Florida, Ohio State, Georgia, and they’re all looking at you. Do I believe you’re interested in all of those schools? I really do. No way in hell, bro, you got 15 schools that you’ve cut it down to these 15 schools. Ten maybe. 15, get out of here, bro.
Nick: Then why do you need to announce your 10? You’re nowhere close to a decision. That’s basically what you’re saying.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: That’d be like me saying, I’m going to have lunch. It’s either going to be McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Dominoes, Papa Johns, Wendy’s, Moe’s. It’s just like, you’re nowhere close to a decision. Let me know when you’re ready, or you’re close to a decision. Ten schools is not close.
Andrew: But it is social media, and it is just how can I get my name written about? I get these fan bases all fired up. Here’s the thing.
Nick: They’re just collecting followers while they’re sitting in math class. Bored in math class trying to get some more followers on the tweeter machine.
Andrew: Here’s what I would do, and this is if you’re a big name kid, and you’re listening to this, and you want to do a Top 10, have it these 10 schools are the ones I want to hear from. Everyone else, thank you very much for recruiting me, but no thanks. If that’s what your Top 10 was about, and I’ve seen some 10 schools say these are the 10 schools that I’m going to look hard at, and that’s it. If that’s the case, then, yes, I respect you for doing that. If it’s I have top 10 schools, I saw a list the other day, it was top 10 schools, and then eight schools that I’m not hearing from, but I want to hear from. Bro, you got 18 schools you want to listen to now, and it’s at this time. Why? Come on, here. Get out of here. If it’s 10 schools, and then this is it. I’m cutting my list down to 10, and that’s it. I respect you a little more. It’ll be fun though. Should be a good weekend, and we’ll have plenty of coverage on the site after the game. We’ll have some stuff going up there. Like I said, maybe a commit or two happening there.
Real quick we’ll run it down, since this is our end of the week podcast. Gator baseball, Gator softball. Softball goes to Oxford this weekend, and looks to rebound. They’re in the same boat as the baseball team, lost the #1 ranking after a tough weekend to Alabama this past weekend. They go to Oxford. Ole Miss isn’t that good of a team, and should have no problem. They’ll look to regain that #1 ranking. Bats are a little cold for Florida, and Tim Walton had an interesting comment on Tuesday. He goes, “Sports are about entertainment, and this team isn’t entertaining anyone.”
Nick: Are you entertained? You watch a lot of them.
Andrew: I’m always entertained. I will say this. I didn’t watch Sunday’s game, but I did hear Tim Walton tried to do his best Bobby Clarks impersonation, so maybe it’s one of those this team is awful today. I’m going to the showers early. That’s what Bobby used to say. He’d be like, “We’re not winning this game. You don’t want to win this game. I’m out of here.” Maybe that’s what Tim Walton said.
Nick: Maybe. I love, sometimes, sure, a coach can just lose it, can just lose their mind, but a lot of times there’s some strategy involved in getting thrown out of a game, especially at the Major League level. It’d be interesting to see maybe an off the record conversation with Coach Walton to see what was going on in his mind before getting tossed.
Andrew: That’s what I was about to say to you. Everybody’s listening to this podcast before. They know I’m the hot head of the two of us. That’s no surprise. I’ve always been a guy that’s been pro coach getting thrown out. If your team’s getting shafted as bad as Florida was on Saturday, in my opinion, from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, go get run out of town and make a statement. Stand up for your girls, your guys, whatever sport it may be, and see what happens. You may differ from that, Nick, but I’ve always been a guy that I want my coach to stand up for me. Not so much Will Muschamp, like he does, but you’ve heard Mac go off a little bit in football and that kind of stuff. I like my coach standing up for me.
Nick: Yeah. To me, baseball is different. Not different than softball, different than football. Absolutely. There’s times where a manager should get thrown out of a game, and it’s about motivating your team.
Andrew: Making a point.
Nick: Making a point, propping the guys up, like you just said. I’m going to stand up for you. I’m going to have your back always, and also it’s kind of like a, hey, I saw that you guys are frustrated. You don’t have to worry about it. I’m going to do it.
Andrew: Right. That’s me. That’s my point as well. It’s a situation where it’s like, I know you guys are pissed off. You can’t thrown out, because then you get fined, but don’t worry. I’ll go pay that fine. I’ll go get tossed. I’ll let the umpire know what it is. Baseball. Tell us about baseball. Where are the Gators at this weekend?
Nick: Boy, so Florida just finished off a perfect week after two losses to Kentucky, and I told you guys to chill out, to relax. Don’t worry about it. They went ahead and swept #9, Florida State, and #1, Texas A&M, last week. 4-0 on the week to regain #1 across the board. They then Tuesday night took care of Jacksonville University. Doesn’t get any easier when you play in the SEC though. #5, Mississippi State, comes into town. Unfortunately I will miss the game on Friday, and you’ve got an incredible pitching matchup on Friday. Florida, also putting it on the line again. I honestly thought their home winning streak would end last week, and maybe they’d go 2-1 against Texas A&M, but sweep Texas A&M. Beat Jacksonville University. 28 straight games at home Florida has won. That’s an incredible streak to me, when the consider the teams that they’re playing, hosting SEC teams.
Andrew: It wasn’t even close.
Nick: No. Florida just steamrolled A&M, and they didn’t get good starting pitching. Just steamrolled A&M. Bats are starting to wake up. Florida has 12 hits in four straight games. All three games against Texas A&M they had a dozen hits, and again on Tuesday night had a dozen hits. Really impressive the way the bats are starting to come around. Pete Alonso, who started the year off hot, cooled down to freezing temperatures for about two and a half weeks, back on it. Hitting home runs. Mashing the ball. Driving in runs. JJ Schwarz starting to hit the ball a bit better, and the freshmen. I don’t really think you can even consider them freshmen anymore. Deacon Liput and Jonathan India are #1 and #3 in batting average on the team as freshmen, and Nelson Maldonado hit is tying, leads the team tied for the lead with Mike Rivera, sixth homerun on Tuesday night as a freshman. He’s only hitting .250, but he’s started the year 2 of 27. That’s a .074 average that he’s brought up to .250 after a terrible start.
Andrew: Big series for sure, and be interesting to see kind of how things carry over from that big weekend against A&M. Is it a letdown? I don’t think so now that you see them do well against Jacksonville, but it’s kind of that. It’s kind of the same thing that happened with softball a little bit in that they go from sweeping a good LSU team to falling at home to Alabama.
Nick: A big problem Florida’s had that I think they did a good job of last night is scoring early. They’ve done a great job scoring early, but then they’ve had we scored three runs in the first, great start, and then we go six innings with two hits and don’t score another run. You kind of take your foot off the pedal. Kevin O’Sullivan’s really hammering into his team, step on their throats. When you get that four run lead it’s not time to, where’s that bag of seeds? Let me see how many I can fit into my mouth. It’s time to stay focused and end it, end the game. Last night Florida scored two in the second, two in the fourth, and then tacked on more runs in the seventh and eighth innings. To be able to do that and not just say, we got two runs in the first, we’ll hang out until they tie it up, and then we’ll start worrying about scoring more runs.
Andrew: Just kind of go on a lull for a little bit.
Nick: It’ll be interesting to see. Here’s the thing, both baseball and softball, they’re going to be in the World Series. The season starts there. Pretty much anything else till that is just getting this team ready. Someone asked me, what’s up with the softball team? This softball team goes through this every year where it’s the middle of the season, and they’ll have a weekend or two where they just look terrible. Do I know what that is? No. It’s baseball and softball where you hit that midseason where it’s like we’re just midway, and it’s there. You get it, and it happens. It happens with every team. Even the best teams in Major League baseball go through stretches where they’ll lose six in a row, five in a row, 8 out of 10, something like that. That’s what it is. It happens to the best, but they’ll be fine. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here and see everyone Friday night from Ben Hill.
Andrew: www.GatorCountry.com for all of your stories and news and the message board. Also, on Twitter, @GatorCountry, @NickdelaTorreGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC. On Instagram it is TheGatorCountry, and, of course, the Facebook page. Everything we post on the website is and can be found over on the Facebook page. That’s just Gator Country.
Nick: We’ll have plenty of stuff. Got some new guys around. You guys have seen Austin; he’s our newest intern. He’s around. We have a couple other ones ready to go. Couple of them will be helping me with recruiting this weekend, and then we’ll have the Kevin Camps up in the press box with us this weekend helping with the football covers. So it should be a lot of fun. Anyways, check us out. As always, Butch and Mark, you know the drill. Still not very good. Opening Day has already gone, so go Braves, and chomp, chomp.
Andrew: You stay classy, Gator Country.
@Nickdelatorre please keep @AndrewSpivey in line on this these podcast, I understand his point on the safety position and that Harris and Washington don’t have quite the upside but there is NO WAY one of the two (pending injuries of course) don’t start opposite Maye game one. I’m willing to put a paid subscription on the line as friendly wager.
But maybe Andrew was speaking more out of frustration which I can completely understand.
Good job guys!