Podcast: Florida Gators recruiting preview for January 29th

This GatorCountry podcast previews the Florida Gators recruiting weekend for January 29th as the Gators will host several big name prospects on official visits.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the big prospects that will be on campus this weekend, plus what two prospects the Gators need the most from this weekend.

Andrew and Nick also talk about the Senior Bowl game where Jake McGee and Antonio Morrison are playing in the game, plus they preview basketball on Saturday.

TRANSCRIPT:

Nick:                         What’s up, Gator Country? Nick de la Torre here. As always, joined by Andrew Spivey, who has been burning the candle at both ends. We are officially less than one week until National Signing Day, and Spivey hasn’t been getting much sleep. So he’s a little cranky on the podcast today.

Andrew:                 Always cranky. I mean, it is what it is. That kind of year. Burning the candle, as you say, but we’ll be good. We’ll be fine. We’ll see you guys, one, two, five days. Five days till Signing Day. So it’s coming down to the end, and then 2017 will start. So a good week, good week for sure with the Senior Bowl, with prospects, and today starts the big finale of the weekend. A lot of big visitors, big parents coming into town this weekend. Also Junior Day, so should be a jam packed weekend. Should be good all the way up until Signing Day on Wednesday.

Nick:                         Yeah. Florida’s got a big weekend before that. We’ll get into that a little bit, but let’s just talk real quickly about the Senior Bowl, as we are out here with Jake McGee, Antonio Morrison. Jeff Driskel, and Jacoby Brissett were here as well. This is, for any senior playing Division, any division really, because you’ve got kids from Division I-III here, this is kind of their goal. If you’re still playing football as a senior, you really want to get looked at by the Senior Bowl. Every single NFL team is represented here, and it’s really a good way to showcase yourself as you get ready for the next level.

Andrew:                 It is. I mean, Jeff, Jacoby, they’re former Gators. I mean, it’s great to see those guys, but it’s also very clear they’re not SEC football players. You look at those guys. You look at Jacoby. You look at him in practice, and it’s kind of out of place, I guess you would say. Good luck to those two guys. Jake had the injury this week, hamstring injury that kept him out of the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl. That sucks for Jake. A guy that’s worked so hard, finally gets here, has that injury there. Hopefully he can recover in time for the Combine. Combine’s in what? Late February, early March, something like that.

Nick:                         Yeah. Poor Jake. Guy who probably would have been in the Senior Bowl last year if not for an injury, and then suffers an injury that keeps him out of the Senior Bowl. He did, I think what he was doing was more damage than good trying, especially when it came to blocking. As a receiver, no problem. He looked great, looked natural. Just what you would expect him to look like as a receiving tight end, but when it got down into the one on ones, and you’re going rep for rep with guys like Reggie Ragland and Striker, it’s you’re doing yourself a little more harm than good if you’re not playing at 100%. So I think Jake and his agent made a good decision to sit this out. Now you’ll have to explain to teams, why are you hurt? Are you an injury risk? Some of those questions pop up, but you’d probably rather answer those questions than put a full week of film out that is not really film that you’re proud of.

Andrew:                 Exactly. It’s tough. Sucks to hear that. It sucks for him to have that happen, but he’s been through so much that this one week’s not going to put him down or hurt him. I think he’ll be fine. Then Antonio Morrison, Morrison’s looked good at times, and looked suspect at times. It’s kind of what we probably expected it to happen, I would say. He’s a guy that struggles very much in coverage, but does well in the run game, and that’s something he’s done really well this week as well. I’m sure Morrison’s killing the interviews. He’s a smart guy, very polite guy when he’s talking about others. I’m sure he’ll be fine in that part of it.

It’ll be interesting to see how he does at the Combine, and then just kind of where he goes. I have a feeling he drops to the middle rounds. Know someone said second round. I find it very, very hard to believe he’ll be a second round guy, but we’ll see. I have a lot of respect for Antonio Morrison, the way he carries himself, the way he is. He’s just a true football player, in my opinion.

Nick:                         What he really, I asked him about this, and he said he’s really not even being asked about the off the field stuff before his sophomore season. So he’s not even really being asked about that. You have to remember, Antonio Morrison played his entire freshman year as a 17 year old kid. He was young. He was younger than Calvin Ridley when the two played against each other in the SEC Championship, and Calvin Ridley was the SEC Freshman of the Year. Go figure there. Morrison said he’s really not being asked about what happened to him off the field as much as teams are trying to figure out what’s going on with that knee. He had a couple surgeries to clean up a meniscus, and then the ACL/MCL tear.

When talking to me he compared it to Adrian Peterson’s knee injury last year, and he said, “Adrian Peterson didn’t tear as much in his knee as I did.” So teams are really asking him that, and what Antonio’s saying is, “Just turn on the film. I played in every single game my senior year. After it didn’t miss any games.” He missed some time a little bit towards the end of the year, but played in every game. That really is the best way for him to answer, how’s your knee? How’s it holding up? Is to say, look what I did.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It’s a deal where it’s kind of a big plus for him. I say it’s a big plus for him, and I say that, and I know that sounds wrong, but it’s a thing where people are going to see his adversity he went through, and they’re going to applaud him for that. You never want to see anyone get hurt, for sure, but you’re going to see teams say, this is a guy that I’m never going to have to worry about is he faking an injury. What’s he doing on the trainer? What’s he doing this way? They’re always going to know he’s going to want to be in, so that’s good for him. I still can’t believe he came back. I told him that in person. I was like, how in the hell did you come back from that injury so quick? He just looked at me, and he was like, “I hate being hurt.”

Nick:                         That’s it. That’s Antonio. That is him in a nutshell. Just I hate being hurt, and I did everything that I was allowed to do, and maybe a little bit more than the trainers wanted me to do, and that’s just him. We’re going to get into what everybody is clamoring about. Big official visitor weekend. As the Florida guys compete in the Senior Bowl, Jim McElwain will host seniors, high school seniors, on the Gainesville campus this weekend. Two big ones, in my mind, maybe three. I’ll say two, and then we’ll get into someone else. I’ll bring him up later. The two big ones in my mind are wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland, lives in the Houston area. He’s committed to Houston right now, and cornerback Kristian Fulton, from Louisiana. He is uncommitted. Those two guys in my mind are kind of the headliners of guys who are uncommitted coming into town this weekend.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I mean, it’s probably the two biggest names that are on the board. Arguably, I mean Tyrie Cleveland is one or two in the country, depending on what site you look at at receiver. Kristian Fulton is one or two. Both in my opinion should be number one prospects at their respective positions, after watching them in the Senior Bowl. It’s a deal where everyone thinks that Florida fans are jumping off a cliff with recruiting, but when you look at things, and you look at the opportunity they have with these two guys remaining, you got to be jumping for joy. Tyrie Cleveland is that big play receiver that everybody wants to have. He’s a guy that is. Kristian Fulton, I hate to throw this out there, but it’s a comparison you and I have made, Nick, is he’s a lot like Vernon Hargreaves in his mental side of the game, and that’s in he’s very smart football player. Florida needs that guy that’s that very smart cornerback to step in and be ready to go for this class. That could be Kristian Fulton.

The good thing for Fulton is his parents are coming on the visit with him. The only visit they’ve taken besides LSU is now to Florida. So it’s big for that. Tim Skipper’s working his ass off down there on this one. Then Tyrie Cleveland, I expect all of his family from Texas and Jacksonville to be in. They have a big party in the Swamp on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, and Kerry Dixon and Jim McElwain were there on Thursday, and everything I’ve been told is it went very good with them. It’s time to win over these guys. It’s time to finish strong with these guys. That’s going to be the biggest thing is what Florida can do on these last two visitors here to make this class go from really good to great. A guy like Cleveland, a guy like Fulton, that’s what pushes your class from being good to great.

Nick:                         These are two guys who I think can make an immediate impact. We got a chance to see both of them down in Orlando. I thought Kristian Fulton was right up there with the best, if not the best, cornerbacks. In my opinion, Tyrie Cleveland was the best wide receiver out there. This is a kid who is a big play waiting to happen. He can take the top off the defense, but he does a good job of running his outs and his slants, his crossing patterns, the intermediate stuff, but at any time every defensive back that lines up across from him knows this guy can get behind me. I need to make sure that that doesn’t happen.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. Probably the thing that this class is lacking is that receiver that is just huge that can go up and get the ball, and that’s Tyrie Cleveland. He can take the top off the field, and he can also go inside. He can take the post route, the slant route. I love the stand pass. He can do that as well. Then like you said with Fulton, that’s that. It’s big. Then you kind of dive into the rest of the guys coming on campus this weekend. You’ve got Tony Nelson, CJ McWilliams, both are cornerbacks. You got Jawaan Taylor, who Florida’s battling Georgia. I think Florida holds onto him, the safety from Alabama. Then you got linebacker Jeremiah Moon. You got running back, Lamical Perine. You got cornerback Quincy Litton, and receiver Rick Wells.

So you got a lot of commits coming on campus this weekend to help those guys recruit them. Then you’ve still got Florida working really hard with Jawaan Taylor to keep him in the fold and keep him away from Georgia this weekend. It should be a good weekend. It’s a weekend that Florida needs to kind of show off their muscles with Fulton and with Cleveland, and again they got Rick Wells on campus to help with Cleveland. They’re very close. Grew up in the Jacksonville area together.

You got Perine with Jawaan Taylor. That should help as well. Then you’ve got Fulton that’s going to be around these guys that are all pro Florida. That should help as well. Then he’s got Chauncey Gardner and Jalen Tabor, two guys that have been talking to him a ton on Twitter that are going to be around him. Jalen Tabor’s expected to host Kristian Fulton this weekend. That’ll be huge as well. So, again, there’s a plan in place, and it just needs to kind of be taken to the next level to finish off as they leave campus Sunday, and then have two days to make a decision before Wednesday is Signing Day.

Nick:                         Okay. So question I have for you is the state of Alabama. We’re looking at Jawaan Taylor, Jeremiah Moon, Lamical Perine, and who is the fourth?

Andrew:                 Tony Nelson.

Nick:                         And Tony Nelson. Sorry about that. When was the last time Florida kind of put this emphasis on the state of Alabama, and have they had this kind of success?

Andrew:                 I mean, it’s been a long time. Florida just usually goes and gets one guy every now and then from the state of Alabama, but McElwain, Drew Hughes, and Tim Skipper, and Geoff Collins, those guys, they’ve been working hard in the state of Alabama, and I continue to tell people all the time that want to listen, the state of Alabama has good athletes. There’s a lot of really good athletes in the state of Alabama. McElwain knows that. I think you need to hit a guy or two from the state of Alabama. Get them into town. Get them on campus. It helps with recruiting against the state of Alabama. It helps against recruiting against Alabama and Auburn. I mean, Alabama, Auburn come get a few kids out of Florida. It’s time for Florida to go get a few kids out of Alabama, and that’s exactly what I expect them to continue to do.

What’s surprising to me is you get three guys in Moon, Perine, and Jawaan Taylor that are considered top ten in the state, and Alabama is very hard after Lamical Perine right now. Georgia’s very hard after Jawaan Taylor, and then you got Mississippi State and Auburn both kind of pushing for Moon right now. So that’s showing Florida’s flexing their muscles a little bit. Then you got a guy in Tony Nelson who I’ll say it again today, and I don’t care what anyone says. You can call me an idiot all you want to, the guy is long as all get out. The guy is athletic as all get out, and playing cornerback’s all about being long and athletic. That’s exactly what he is. I was told over the weekend from a high school coach that Randy Shannon walked in and said, “Who the hell is that kid?” Talking about Tony Nelson, and he goes, “We need to get that kid on a football team.” They were like, that’s the guy that’s committed to them, and he goes, I didn’t know he was that long.

To me, when Randy Shannon and those guys are talking about it that’s huge. The state of Alabama is giving Florida some good guys this year, and then a guy like Quincy Litton out of Mississippi is a really good class for Florida this year. To get those guys on campus on that last weekend is huge, because that kind of puts the stamp on the class when those guys come in. There’s no chance they go on another campus the last weekend if they’re on your campus.

Nick:                         That’s big. We talked about that for a while now about how big that last official weekend is in kind of being able to get the last word in. When we look at, there’s going to be a lot of commits, and Florida did something a little different this year. They wanted the commits to wait to take their official until after the year, but when you look at the commits that are coming in is there anybody from a commitment that is committed to Florida that’s kind of wavering and maybe this is an important week for them?

Andrew:                 I say that’s Jawaan Taylor. I mean, he’s a guy that Georgia’s coming very hard after. He’s a guy that is a very good safety. I’ve never understood why other teams weren’t getting the mix with this guy. This guy’s a safety that can play free, can play strong, can play wherever you want him to in that defensive backfield. I’ve said it before, and I continue to say. I don’t know why more and more teams didn’t go after him, because he’s that good. Florida, in my opinion, is going to hold on to him. Drew Hughes and Geoff Collins did an incredible job of getting on him early, loving him up, making him feel good. His mom likes Florida a lot. So I think that he’s going to be in this class, but it is a very big day, or big weekend, for Florida to make sure that they love him up, make him feel good about himself. Just kind of make sure he knows Florida was the right place for him, and I think they will.

Probably the, I don’t know. I guess they’re trying to fight with Rick Wells, but he’s pretty good. The one thing that we didn’t mention is a guy that’s a very big possibility this weekend is defensive end Jachai Polite is scheduled to come on for an unofficial visit this weekend as well. USC’s made a very strong push for him. Got him on campus last weekend. All signs point to him sticking to Florida, but if he comes on campus this weekend for me that’s like the ultimate stamp of I’m coming to Florida this weekend, so here we go.

Besides those guys, guys like McWilliams, if Florida wants him in the class he sticks. Jeremiah Moon, he’s basically told Mississippi State thanks for recruiting me, but I’m going to Florida. Quincy Litton has told Ole Miss the same thing. Rick Wells, like I said, he’s pretty much told Virginia Tech he ain’t coming there, and Perine he’s told Alabama once, told them twice, told them five times he’s not going there. So the rest of those guys are pretty good. Jawaan Taylor will be getting the full court press this weekend.

Nick:                         That is nice. I think it’s smart the way Florida does it. If anyone’s wavering you’ve got a lot of kids who are not wavering on campus with them this weekend. Then we start looking into Saturday.

Andrew:                 Hold on. Let’s hit on the transfer coming in this weekend. Rhode Island offensive line transfer, Tyler Catalina, not cantina, Catalina.

Nick:                         Like a wine mixer.

Andrew:                 There you go. If he makes us some wine on the offensive line maybe he can get some for the defensive line and get them drunk.

Nick:                         I don’t know about that.

Andrew:                 It might work. Alabama’s defensive line might pour some for Jarran Reed and those guys. Maybe in the 4th quarter they’re sweating all the alcohol out, and Florida’s able to get a good push. Maybe Catalina doesn’t see Derwin James. That mightn’t be a good idea. Those transfer guys haven’t done well.

Nick:                         It would give you depth. It would give you a veteran voice in that room. I think Florida has more talented players that are younger, but you’re not going to turn down somebody who’s going to be able to come in and play right away and give you some depth.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I mean, it’s still unsure how serious this situation is. I feel good about Florida landing another offensive lineman in this class. I’ve said it, and I’ll say it again. I think Florida gets John Simpson in this class. I feel really good about that. So it’ll be interesting to see if they really push for this guy after he gets on campus. McElwain, this will be his first chance to meet him, so it’ll be interesting to see where this goes after that. I mean, he’s a three year starter. I say it, I’ve said it before. Not all transfers from smaller schools are bad, and not that Mason Halter was bad. He just wasn’t very good. It’ll be interesting to see where this one goes.

Nick:                         It will be. I’m sure he’ll have a great weekend with all these other guys coming in. You can’t sleep in recruiting. So Florida’s holding their first Junior Day this weekend. Everyone knows my man, Jake Allen, from—

Andrew:                 Can we just hold off? I mean, it’s just now getting through ’16. Come on.

Nick:                         Listen, maybe you’re not cut out for this, Spivey. You recruit daily or die. As soon as 2016 is over we’re on to 2017. In fact, I mean this coaching staff, I asked you the other day how do they do it, because they’re trying to lock up 2016, already holding a Junior Day for 2017, and they’re already thinking and watching stuff on 2018 kids.

Andrew:                 2018, you mean 2019? They’ve already offered some freshman. It’s up there. This Junior Day this weekend it should be a good one. The thing that I like about it is this. Florida did it last year. They’re going to do it again this year. If there’s a top prospect in the country, chances are Florida’s going to get him on campus, and that starts this weekend with the nation’s #1 prospect in the country, Mr. Dylan Moses, who just went to ING. Nick, you and I had the opportunity to watch him last year in Baton Rouge. He is a physically gifted linebacker. You and I lost count of how many tackles he had in the first half, because it was every other play it was Dylan Moses on the tackle. Dylan Moses on the tackle. Dylan Moses brings down the ball carrier. He’s just a physically gifted athlete.

Nick:                         Exactly. To me, I don’t think you or I really know where he’ll end up, whether it be running back or linebacker. I don’t know if the coaching staff will say, we see you as this and only this. Maybe kind of let that play out.

Andrew:                 I think Florida wants him at linebacker. Tim Skipper’s watched him a ton, and everything I’ve been told is that Florida likes him at linebacker, but if he asks to play a little bit of both I think it would be okay with that. His family’s kind of also made it known they would like for him to play linebacker at the next level.

Nick:                         There you go. We saw him play very instinctually at linebacker. For me that was impressive. He was all over the field, and then they try to start running the ball away from him. That didn’t work out too well. He’s just athletic. He’ll be someone that I’m sure Florida will be happy he’s on campus, and someone that I’m looking forward to hopefully running into and being able to get an interview for everybody.

Andrew:                 Absolutely. Then, not to be second to anyone, but one of my favorite receivers for next year’s class is Trevon Grimes out of St. Thomas Aquinas, your boy. He’ll be in with Jake Allen. He grew up in Ohio, is a big Buckeye fan. I say big Buckeye fan. I don’t know if he’s a fan so much as that’s just the school that is his leader right now. Florida’s going to try to make a push. He’s a big guy, 6’3”, about 190, 185, somewhere around in there. He said he was wanting to visit Florida for a while. He’ll finally be on campus with Jake Allen. It’s all about getting them on campus, loving them up. We’ll see how that goes. Then another guy who is pretty much a five star all over the place is William Poole III out of Atlanta, Georgia, a big 6’, 6’1”, 180 pound defensive back. He can play corner or safety. I think he’s a corner at the next level. Florida is the school he tweets about all the time, and he’ll be on campus.

Nick:                         You look at these guys, and Florida will hold another Junior Day. I believe that will be in two weeks.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It’s not the first Saturday in February, but the second week in February is another one. They’ll try to get more out of state guys, more guys in. This one is just more of a, I don’t want to say it’s an elite Junior Day, but it kind of is. Official visits on Saturday are more the academic tours, that kind of stuff. So they can hold a Junior Day, creating some buzz going into Signing Day is kind of where it’s at.

A couple more names to kind of remember coming out of this, coming to this Junior Day this weekend, a big receiver out of Tampa, Daquon Green, that’s committed to Florida already. I really like him a lot. Had a great year. Been committed to Florida since Friday Night Lights. Then athlete Bruce Judson’s a guy that I would pay very close attention to. Teammates with Chauncey Gardner, Jawaan Taylor down at Coco, and then recently decommitted from Miami, tight end Trey McKinney. He’s a guy that I’m very high on. He’ll be in town, and then Jamari Peacock, the running back out of Jacksonville. Adarius Lemons is a running back out of Clearwater. Those guys say they’ll be in. It’s going to be a big weekend for Junior Day of guys coming in this weekend.

So if you’re looking ahead for some positive momentum for next year, this is it. I said it before on this podcast. I said it on Gator Country. I think this 2017 class overall as a whole is a better class from a depth standpoint and from a top standpoint of being better than 2016. Florida should do exceptionally well in this 2017 class, as the key areas of the state Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, are just absolutely loaded with talent, and I just really think that this is going to be a really good class for Florida. Florida, I never wanted to throw this out there, but if Florida’s not top three next year, then it’s almost a failure, and I hate to say that, because that’s big expectations, but that’s how good this class should be.

Nick:                         Yeah. No pressure, Mac and Co. Andrew Spivey, the self-proclaimed Goat, has spoken.

Andrew:                 You called me the Goat.

Nick:                         I said self-proclaimed Goat.

Andrew:                 You know what’s up. Come on. Don’t act like you don’t know what’s up. You know what the Goat is. Everyone calls me the Goat for a reason. You’re just a little sheep.

Nick:                         No.

Andrew:                 Yes.

Nick:                         No. I do have some questions for you from the Twitter machine.

Andrew:                 Oh brother. If anything has to do with Ira Denson I don’t want to hear about it. Go ahead. Fire away, my friend.

Nick:                         Without Mack Wilson is Antonio Nelson an option in this class?

Andrew:                 Absolutely. I just said it, and I’ll say it again. Long athletic cornerback that is a very good player. Only been playing the game for two years. Is rated the #1 basketball player in the state of Alabama, and is just so long and athletic, and is a guy that Mac and Randy Shannon and Geoff Collins and the entire defensive staff evaluated in camp and liked him a ton. I think again, I think he’ll be in the class. I think in three years, when we look back at this class, people are going to say, that guy was really good. Him and Aaron Robinson are two cornerbacks that the people just do not respect a lot, and in my opinion are just very good football players that people should be very excited about to continue the DBU.

Nick:                         Got you. That was from Harrison, my little brother at STA there. This one’s from Austin. Do you think UF flips Cleveland coming into town this week?

Andrew:                 Yeah. I feel very good, Nick. You can back me up when I say this. That is that I’ve been on the Cleveland bandwagon of going to Florida since back in Under Armour, and I’ll continue to say that. I just think Florida’s got a good chance. His relationship with Rick Wells is something that a lot of people are not talking about, and what a lot of people are maybe forgetting about, but things are good there. I really feel good about that.

Nick:                         Good on Florida’s staff for recognizing that and bringing those two guys in the same weekend. Bing on Twitter, is there any chance Mac will bring a special guest to National Signing Day? Someone like the old ball coach, Jim Harbaugh, who is not shy about his recruiting tricks is bringing in Rick Flare this week.

Andrew:                 The nature boy, Rick Flare. That’s pretty cool. Coach Mac should bring the Goat in. That’d be cool. If he brought in the Goat that’d be cool.

Nick:                         You want to be Florida’s special guest for Signing Day.

Andrew:                 Sure. Can we make that happen? Twitter world, make that happen, please. I promise to give the inside scoop.

Nick:                         We’ll have you walking back and forth from the fax machine.

Andrew:                 That’s a dream job for me. That’d be awesome. That’d be so cool. That’d be really cool. I would dab on ESPN. So people get me on there, and I’ll dab for the people. No. I don’t know. I don’t know if Mac does all that. Jim Harbaugh’s a weird man. I mean, it’s working, but he’s kind of weird. He’s starting to freak me out a little bit with some of these little gimmicks he’s doing. I don’t think Mac has no special guest.

Nick:                         What is Treon Harris’s role going forward? I will go ahead and say it. That it is not quarterback. He will be working out somewhere else, probably working out at wide receiver. Has been working out there some, and I think that’s the move you’re going to see with him forward. Jim McElwain has seen enough of Treon Harris at quarterback, and that will not continue.

Andrew:                 I’ve seen enough at quarterback with Treon Harris for a lifetime. If I have to watch anymore of that dog poop, something’s wrong.

Nick:                         Tell us how you really feel there.

Andrew:                 I mean, quarterback play is supposed to be good, and Treon Harris is a very good dude, a very nice guy, a great family, but you’re either a quarterback or you’re not, and sorry #3, you’re not a quarterback.

Nick:                         Do the Gators have any silents right now, asked David Green.

Andrew:                 I don’t answer that stuff. If it’s silent, it’s silent for a reason. Class will finish good, and it’ll finish good. You’ll see what’s going on on Wednesday, or if you’re on Gator Country, but silents are silents for a reason. That’s kind of where it is. If you follow me long enough you know I don’t really get into silent. I don’t believe in silents. You’re either public, or you’re not.

Nick:                         Rich is worried. He’s worried about Jachai Polite flipping to USC. He wants to know, should he be worried about that?

Andrew:                 No, you shouldn’t be worried. As I just said a second ago, things are better for Polite than they were really a week, two weeks ago. Florida went in home with him, did a good job there with him. Family wants him close to home. Family didn’t go out to USC with him. He does have a former coach out there, but all signs point to on Wednesday Mr. Polite signing with the orange and blue, and playing football next year in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the Swamp, and family. The Gators go to Mainland and get a prospect.

Nick:                         Can Carter wants to know, what’s the podcast topic? If you listen to the podcast you know we talk about all kinds of stuff.

Andrew:                 Podcast topic is about how great the Goat is. What are you talking about? It’s always how that is. You people should know by now. This podcast we ain’t, no rules. It’s off limits. Whatever it is. You want to talk about your girlfriend or boyfriend, or whatever you want to talk about, hit us up. We’ll talk about it. You may not like what we say, but we’ll talk about it. Only thing we don’t talk about on this thing is politics, and that’s just because we’ll open up a can of worms that nobody wants to be a part of. So that’s probably the only topic that’s off the books. No politics.

Nick:                         Definitely no politics. Chris Black wants to know, what are the chances the Gators get both Malcolm Pridgeon, I always have to make sure that I say that, and Tyler Catalina, the Catalina wine mixer?

Andrew:                 The Catalina wine mixer. You’re a dork. You’re weird. First of all, Chris Black, where are you transferring to if you’re the Alabama receiver? Where are you going to? Twitter world wants to know. The thing for me is this. I think that they only get one. If you get a Juco guy like Malcolm why do you want a guy like Catalina? That’s not me saying anything bad about either one, but why do you want both of those guys? They’re both kind of the same people. Why do you need both? I would say they get one or the other. I do think Florida would love to get two more linemen in this class though.

Nick:                         Got to reinforce that line. Chris Black, and this will be our last one, is Tristan Hill just a backup plan in case the Gators lose Shavar Manuel?

Andrew:                 Can you repeat that question one more time?

Nick:                         Yes. It’s about Shavar. Is Tristan Hill just a backup plan in case the Gators lose Shavar?

Andrew:                 This guy asked me the same question yesterday on the comments section. If you’re listening to this, man, just get on the message board. Don’t blow up our comments section with all these questions. I’m not answer all these questions on the comments section.

Nick:                         Why you asking all these questions?

Andrew:                 Yeah. You know what I’m saying? It’s message board for a reason. Hit me up there. Don’t hit me up on the comments section.

Nick:                         Let’s leave it there. Where can they find you for that?

Andrew:                 www.GatorCountry.com on the message boards. I am telling you what, I don’t like to brag on myself. I hate that. I really do. I don’t like to do that stuff, but Gator Country is the place to be for football news, baseball news, softball news, recruiting news. There’s only one place you’re going to get the real scoop. That’s GatorCountry.com. Tell your friends about it, and if you tell your friends, your friends need a special hookup, let the Goat know. The Goat will get you a good deal on that as we head into Gator Country, as we head into Signing Day at Gator Country. The edits are flying as well. I’ll have a new mock class up at 12:00 on Monday. That’ll be my final one, and things are going to be really good on Signing Day at Gator Country. We got a pretty cool little video coming out.

Nick:                         Yeah. I’ve already seen that bad boy. That is good. I will be committing to either Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. So make sure you stay tuned for that. It’s been a very stressful recruiting process for me, but I will make a final decision on Signing Day. Stay tuned. Krispy Kreme is coming in strong this week. They made a strong presence out here in Mobile.

Andrew:                 They did make a strong presence for real. You ate a lot of those guys. It really had, Nick, it’s been a fun recruiting thing. This is my fifth year doing it. I’m different, and I know I’m different in the way I look at this stuff. I kind of look at it in that former coaching thing. These guys don’t make me mad. It is what it is. They either go to Florida, or they don’t. I know some of them are going to be drama filled, and it is what it is. They only have one opportunity to do this. I completely understand what it is, but it’s been a really fun cycle getting to kind of see how McElwain and those guys do things. It’s got me fired up. This 2017 class is going to be awesome. I’m very fired up for this 2017 class, because not only are there some really good guys in this as far as football players, there’s a ton of good guys character wise as well. It’s going to be awesome to see.

Then there’s another Alabama guy, Nick. You and I got to see him on Thursday, Ken Handy-Holly is a safety out of Jackson, Alabama. Check out the video we just put up on Gator Country last night of him hopping through and doing a dunk. It’s awesome. This guy’s going to be a good football player. I’m excited to see that as well and see just kind of how this Gator staff finishes on Wednesday. We’ll have another podcast on Monday, but if you haven’t checked us out yet join us on Gator Country and make sure to really get on board as we go through Signing Day over the next couple days.

Nick:                         As always, up to the minute updates @NickdelaTorreGC on Twitter, @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. We will covering the Florida/West Virginia game on Saturday. That game is sold out, and should be a pretty cool environment for all those kids that are on visits this week. Stay tuned. Lot of good stuff going on at Gator Country, and don’t sleep on the girls’ softball team or baseball. We got two good teams, and nobody covers them like we do here at Gator Country.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Both unanimous #1 preseason. I don’t know the last time that happened, and my girls’ softball got robbed in that All SEC preseason team. Whoever’s doing that needs to recognize, because three was all you put on that team? Three? Come on, man.

Nick:                         You should hit them with the Michael Irving. Come on, man.

Andrew:                 Come on, man. I’m not, I’ve got to find a good gif, so if you’ve got any good gifs for my homerun deal this year, let me know. I’m looking forward to it. I may just do a goat. Maybe have a goat of the weekend. If you like that idea, let me know. If you like to have a goat of the weekend, let me know. Let me know if you like that. Butch and Mark, you’re not to my goat level, never will be. Never will be. You’re not even the little sheep on the totem pole. As always, guys, go Braves and chomp, chomp.

Nick:                         You stay classy, Gator Country.

 

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.