GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday prediction podcast for the Florida Gators vs. Ole Miss game on Saturday.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the game and who we think will have the first touchdown and first interception of the game.
Andrew and Nick will also pick three players to watch for on Saturday, plus we pick several games around the country.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re back and we’re one more day closer to game day. You guys are listening to this on Friday, so the plane should be taking off soon to get to Oxford. I was reading a story. ESPN went behind the scenes at Alabama, and the Alabama trainer said, as soon as the plane gets off the ground headed to Missouri he’ll feel like mission accomplished. Will you feel like mission accomplished once the plane’s off the ground in Gainesville?
Nick:Yeah. My flight leaves at 7:00 AM, so 7:00AM I’ll feel like we’re there. I think mission accomplished. I’ll feel mission accomplished when the ball is kicked off.
Andrew:I was going to say. Bad luck and you may get to Oxford and Ole Miss call and say, we got some Covid tests, so you’ll be flying to Oxford for no reason.
Nick:Then I’m stuck in Mississippi.
Andrew:That would suck. I’m with you. I think once it’s kicked off I’ll feel better. There’s still that Saturday morning. They have a rapid test Saturday morning, so it’ll be interesting to see. You got me hooked on the Trevor Bauer Inside the Covid thing and to kind of see that and see the procedures they’re going through makes it all real, like for real for real. The daily checks and the saliva test and everything else. It’s legit.
Nick:Yeah. That’s interesting. I think it was just announced this week that the SEC reached a deal for some rapid tests. It’ll be interesting how they go. Dan Mullen’s obviously been pretty vocal about Florida having some false positive tests. Obviously, if you get tested three or four times during a week, and you’re negative on Monday, negative on Wednesday, and then Friday they give you a test, or you get a test back on Friday that’s positive before you get on the plane, you can’t come. You get tested Saturday morning, and this is negative, so that means you got a false positive. Cool. What good does that do me? I’m sitting here in Gainesville, and the rest of the team is in Mississippi ready for the game.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:It’s a valid concern, because it’s happening.
Andrew:It is. In that situation, what do you do? Do you get a booster to fly him out there or a private plane to fly him out there?
Nick:If you do that, you’re also traveling, so you can only have 75. Then you’ve got a kid who you brought to Mississippi, you got to stay in the hotel room. You can’t come on the field.
Andrew:It’s a lot of concern there. One thing I haven’t seen in that ESPN story, and that is Alabama’s testing daily, every day from 6:00-9:00 all the players are mandatory to come in and get a test. They said it’s going to cost them roughly $5 million to do that. Interesting. I guess it kind of rules out a little of having the false positives. If you get five tests a week, you should rule out a false positive or not. Still, like you said, very well could happen. I think for me, Nick, not that I haven’t thought it’s real all along, but seeing the Notre Dame game canceled this week, and then USF having to quarantine, because they just played Notre Dame. Like I said, I don’t want to say that it wasn’t real before, but it just makes it that much real, I guess.
Nick:Yeah. Florida had only three more positive tests. They’ve got eight right now. It’ll be interesting to see. That’s one thing I’ll be looking at for sure. When I get to Ole Miss and the team gets there, I’m stuck in the press box. I can’t go down to the field, but I’ll have my binoculars out, because I’m really interested to see who are those 75 guys. Is that the 75 that they wanted to have, or did some guys not be able to make the trip because of suspension or because of Corona, whatever the case may be?
Andrew:Let’s get into that for a second here. Dan Mullen said that Kyree Campbell and Brad Stewart are available to play. I want to say this. Could they play Saturday? Absolutely. Do we expect them to play? No, we don’t. The choice of wording, available to play, for Dan Mullen to me says they’re not hurt, so if they don’t play it’s for another reason. Again, great choice of words by Dan Mullen. He came out and said, you guys read into this depth chart. It’s your depth chart. If you wanted to disguise it, I think he could have done a better job with that. Again, I want to point that out that just because he said they’re available to play does not mean they’re going to play on Saturday.
Nick:I’ll be in the stadium. I’m available.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:Doesn’t mean I’m playing.
Andrew:We’re all available to play. Whether we get to play or not is kind of up to Dan Mullan up to the NCAA. Tim Tebow’s available to play, I think. He’s not playing for the Mets right now, so unless he’s got a prior engagement he’s available to play.
Nick:Don’t tease me.
Andrew:For real. That was that. To stay on the point of the Covid thing, before we get off there, interesting story today, I think it was today, in the Gainesville Sun. Mick Hubert and his crew are calling the game from Gainesville. They’re going to be calling it from the journalism school where the radio is broadcast every day. Some people brought it up. I’ll say this. I don’t miss a Braves game. Haven’t missed a Braves game in eight years, nine years, something like that. They’re doing their broadcast remote as well. I will say for the most part I haven’t noticed them being remote. There’s been a couple times, Nationals Park for one has a weird angle for fair and foul, and they’ve missed a couple where they called it foul and it’s ended up being fair, and they’ve had to correct it in a split second, but for the most part I haven’t noticed it. I wanted to talk to you about that real quick. It snaps Mick’s streak of consecutive games being in a stadium, but he’ll continue to be calling the games. It’ll just be from the radio station. Then he’ll call it from the Swamp the following week.
Nick:It’s kind of a skeleton crew. I’ve talked to a couple of the guys that do video or shoot pictures, and it’s like the bare minimum of people. A little surprising to me that they wouldn’t bring Mick. That’s probably an SEC thing more so than a Florida thing. Mick’s also a little bit older. Maybe he didn’t feel safe traveling.
Andrew:No. I believe from the wording, of course I haven’t been able to talk to Mick myself to ask him about it, but the wording to me sounding like it was not his choice. He said that the A&M game was up in the air, and then they would see how things had changed in November.
Nick:Got you. That’s tough. That’s an Ironman streak that he’s got.
Andrew:Apparently ESPN has hooked him up with some different angles, and he’s going to have some different anglesand there’s going to be some kind of way that the people listening to the game are going to still hear the crowd noise, like he’s at the stadium. Again, I don’t know the pros of not taking him, to be honest. He can socially distance in the stadium. I guess it’s wanting the least amount of people in the stadium as possible, but he’s got his own booth anyway. I don’t know that. I’ll say this. I don’t think the majority of people for the most part will notice a difference, outside of Mick saying, I’m not at Hemingway Stadium.
Nick:It’s like you said watching baseball games for the past month or so. A lot of those guys aren’t traveling, and you can’t really tell.
Andrew:Right. Interesting though.
Nick:I would hate not being able to be there and watch the game live, but for the most part the fan at home listening to Mick, the fan that puts the game on ESPN at noon, and then hits mute and pulls the computer up or pulls a radio up to listen to Mick, they’re not going to notice that Mick isn’t there.
Andrew:I do wonder if it’ll be more of a delay, because he’s going to watch it and then have to call it. I don’t know. We’ll just have to see on that. I know it’s always been a little bit of a delay in the game for the most part, but it’ll be interesting to see that. It is interesting, and correct me if I’m wrong here, but I did hear that ESPN is going to call the game in person, so they’re doing in person for college football. They’re not doing that for baseball.
Nick:Yeah. I think it’s a good crew. You get Joe Tessitore, Greg McElroy, and the Marty Smith down on the field.
Andrew:People hate Greg, but I like Greg’s commentary for the most part.
Nick:When I posted that people seemed to not like it, and I was like, you get Joe Tessitore.
Andrew:I’m okay with Greg.
Nick:I love that.
Andrew:I’m okay with Greg. I think Greg calls the game well. Anything is better than listening to, what’s homeboy from Florida State’s name?
Nick:Gene Deckerhoff?
Andrew:No. The moron that always causes problems on Twitter. Drawing a blank. I’ll think of it later. Anything’s better than listening to him or Jesse Palmer. I can’t stand to listen to Jesse Palmer. He puts you to sleep.
Anyway, let’s get into the game, Nick. Obviously, we talked to Nick on the last podcast about the game. Let’s run through some keys for this game. Dan Mullen talked about it a little bit on the teleconference, and that is every game he’s watched so far fundamentals and kind of just the ordinary stuff that you usually iron out in practice have been some concerns, tackling, some false start penalties. There’s been a little bit more delay of game penalties early on. That kind of stuff has been a concern. I guess, is that your main concern heading into the game as an overall concern, or what’s your main concern?
Nick:I think my biggest concern is just, from watching games the past couple weeks, coming out sloppy. I think if you look at Florida’s roster, and you look at Ole Miss’s roster, Ole Miss just doesn’t have the guys to hang in there. What I mean by that is if Florida just plays their game, even if Ole Miss plays well, I think it’s a game that might be close early, and then Florida pulls away in the fourth, just because they’ve got more guys, and they’ve got better players.
Obviously, that can change if Florida comes out and looks like a team that looks like they’ve only had two scrimmages, they look like they haven’t been tackling in practice, because they’re worried about getting people hurt. I go back to that first game, that Navy game. I’m like, oh my God, Navy looks terrible. That to me is probably the biggest concern. In my mind, when I look at it, and I’m trying to look at it every which way, I don’t see how Ole Miss wins this game.
Then that’s what creeps into my head is what if Florida comes out and looks like a team that hasn’t prepared the right way because of Covid? You’ve seen other teams be sloppy, whether that’s procedural penalties, just drops, running the wrong plays, missed tackles, stuff like that. I think that’s probably my biggest concern. It’s something that we will never have the answer for until some time on Saturday when you’re watching the game.
Andrew:Right. I know Florida has had them out there, but a lot of teams haven’t had refs in practice and stuff, and that’s been a little bit of difference, because usually you have refs for multiple scrimmages. Again, Florida only had two scrimmages, compared to their usual three. You didn’t have the spring game and all that stuff. That’s my concern as well. You look at it, and you’ve hope that you’ve done the best you can, but you won’t know the answer until game day. Is there going to be an opportunity? In one game I was watching, drawing a black now, only four offensive linemen came out, because it was time for the backup offensive lineman to go in, because the starting offensive lineman was hurt. Do you run into one of those situations? You just won’t know.
Good thing for Florida, like we talked about all year, is Florida’s a veteran-based team. Most of their guys that they have out there are veterans that have played in at least one game, for the most part, so you shouldn’t have that. Again, you can’t create the opportunities for tackles and stuff like that in practice, simply because you don’t want to get your own guys hurt, as you’re going to have in a game. Is Florida going to have probably as many missed tackles this week as they will have all year? Probably so.
Nick:Here’s the thing. Jerrion Ealy, that dude doesn’t like to be tackled.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:He led all SEC running backs with a missed tackle rate of .38 last year per carry. He was eighth in the SEC with 35 missed tackles forced. We’re talking about is it going to be sloppy in the first game. You’re not getting an easy test to begin with. You’re getting a guy who last year, when everyone was prepared, was hard to tackle.
Andrew:Here’s the thing. Does James Houston or VentrellMiller pop him one time and that ball come out? He hasn’t been popped like he’s going to be popped either. You have that same concern there of having some turnovers in the game. Like you said though, Florida don’t get an easy task in that. Good news is you don’t have to really worry about the crowd.
Nick:No. Shouldn’t have to worry about the crowd. To me, it’ll be interesting to see which quarterback starts. It’s not like Matt Corral can’t run, but Plumlee ran for 1,000 yards last year as a freshman.
Andrew:Who’s your bet to get the start?
Nick:I think Corral starts, based just talking to Nick Suss. Obviously, he says that’s what he thinks. I think we will see both of them, maybe even both of them on the field at the same time. Then my other one is Elijah Moore. STA pride. Elijah Moore is their slot receiver, and that’s the one where I’m thinking if CJ McWilliams is really your star, let’s go. You’re not getting an easy task first one, because their best receiver is lining up in the slot, so we’ll see how that handles. Those are my three spots. I already said that I think Florida is better than Ole Miss. Those are three spots that I’m really thinking if Ole Miss wins the game, those three positions did something.
Andrew:Right. Yeah.
Nick:The quarterback did something. Florida’s missing tackles on Jerrion, and Elijah Moore is making CJ McWilliams look like it’s 2017 Georgia again.
Andrew:Ealy on special teams is the one key for me. Just because special teams is always something that, I don’t want to say is forgotten about, and it’s definitely not forgotten about under Dan Mullen, but it’s always something that is harder in Game 1 than it is Game 10. Ealy there. Definitely that with CJ McWilliams. I think you’ll be okay at tackle, just because I don’t really think that Ole Miss has the kind of guys up front to really test those guys. I definitely want to see Delance and if it was simply an injury last year that was kind of keeping him down. I want to see that. I think those are kind of my three keys as well.
I wanted to play a game, and we’ll play it. Let’s do some firsts. Who do you think gets the first touchdown for Florida?
Nick:My first touchdown is going to be Malik Davis.
Andrew:That was mine. Okay. I’ll go different.
Nick:You should have said yours first, buddy.
Andrew:I’ll go different, and I’ll say it’s Trevon. I’ll say Trask hits Trevon, and they get that. Malik was definitely my pick there. First INT on defense.
Nick:That’s a tough one. I’m going to go outside the box and go with Donovan Stiner.
Andrew:I’m going to go that they go away from Marco and go at Kaiir. I’m going to go with Kaiir first. Wouldn’t be smart. I wouldn’t pick on either corner, but I think they’ll stay away from the veteran a little bit and go after Kaiir.
Nick:Last play that Kaiir had was an interception in Miami at the Orange Bowl. So, pick your poison there.
Andrew:I was going to say, pick your poison there. Let’s see. Any other firsts you want to throw out?
Nick:We got first touchdown, first pick. First sack?
Andrew:Got to go with #1.
Nick:Going with Brenton. Yeah. I’ll just double up on you there. I’m really excited to see him. It’s been really hard to be prepared. I probably feel the least prepared for a football season that I’ve covered in my eight years.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:Just because I haven’t been able to see anything. Granted, sometimes we only see a little bit in practice, but you can see the way guys move. You see some stuff like that. We haven’t seen anything. I have never seen Brenton Cox practice. There’s so many guys that I’m just looking forward to seeing, Brenton Cox being the one I want to talk about right now. I’ve had multiple people tell me this is the best player Todd Grantham has had on defense since he’s been at Florida. Real deal. There’s a reason why he has #1. There’s a reason he was a five-star. Just wait, just wait.
I’m sitting her chomping at the bit to see what Brenton Cox looks like. I don’t think anyone on a team, when we’re talking to players or coaches or just people around the program, I don’t think anyone has talked about a player to me like they way they talk about Brenton Cox since like Dominique Easley. Talking about that kind of dominance when they talk about him.
Andrew:Again, we usually get to see some of the freshmen and see their weight gains and that kind of stuff, or just see any guys and see their weight gain. We haven’t been able to see that. Like we talked about a little bit, there hasn’t been as much going on, so there hasn’t been as much as this guy’s really impressing in practice, per se, because just haven’t had as much practice time, as far as competitive practice times. Haven’t had that as much.
One guy I wanted to talk about. We talked about Brenton Cox. I posted this on our message board on Thursday about Justin Shorter, and that is since he got cleared they say he’s really turned it up another notch. I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing, because it’s not a bad thing at all. I don’t want people to take it that he was loafing or anything before. When you get news that you’re going to play, that obviously gives you a little bit of a boost.
Nick:Pep in your step.
Andrew:Yeah. They say he has. A lot of people are saying that Mullen feels really good about the depth at this receiver and seven to eight guys he feels really good about running out there. When you talk about the six that are the depth chart of Copeland, Grimes, Toney, Trent Whittemore, and then you have Henderson and Shorter. They feel very good about Fraziers, and Ja’Markis Weston was a guy that early on was having a really good camp. They feel good about him. Florida could really go eight deep at receiver. As good as it was last year, I don’t think that there was eight guys last year that Mullen was ready to roll out there.
Nick:You’re probably looking at a situation again where you’re not going to have a thousand-yard receiver, but you might have five guys, six guys with 250 or more.
Andrew:Right. Or have another year, was it four last year with 30+ catches? You could have that.
Nick:Don’t forget about Kyle Pitts too.
Andrew:Yeah. Obviously, you got Kyle Pitts that’s going to take away a lot, and that’s not saying that as a bad thing. That’s a great thing. I’m saying from the receiver position. I mistakenly do this a lot, and that is just forget Kyle Pitts’ touches, just simply because he’s not a receiver. Then you remember Kyle Pitts isn’t your normal tight end. He’s taking away a ton of touches.
Nick:I think he’ll lead the team in receptions, for sure.
Andrew:100%. I think he leads the team in receptions. I think he leads the team probably in touchdowns as well. That wouldn’t shock me at all. It’s money year, and as good as he was last year, he is another year older. Having guys around you that are going to take away the double team opportunities is going to do nothing but help Kyle Pitts.
Nick:Absolutely. Just thinking about it I’m getting pumped up for football. That’ll be the big thing for me to watch is how does that rotation go? The knock on Justin Shorter at Penn State was drops and obviously, playing as a receiver you can’t have drops. He’s another one, like I said, I want to see him. I want to see what Lorenzo Lingard looks like. I want to see what Stewart Reese looks like. There’s so many guys that we would have had the opportunity to see if there was a spring practice, if there was a fall camp, that I just have questions about. Call me a doubting Thomas or whatever from the Bible, if we’re getting Biblical, but I want to see it. I want to see it more so than just that. We’ve developed great sources since we’ve been here, and you trust your sources, but I want to see it.
Andrew:Listen, there’s no doubt that I don’t trust everything that I’ve been told, and not that all those guys are really good, but I’m like any other fan and anyone else. I want to see it. You can tell me about it, but I want to see it. I want to see how good they are. Again, let’s see how good Brenton Cox is against other teams. Not that I don’t think Brenton Cox is going to be really good, but I want to see just how good he is against other teams and see how good of a pickup it is. Listen, we talk about it all the time, about how good he is, but he’s got some big shoes to fill. Those guys last year were not slouches. Greenard, Jabari, those guys were no slouches that he’s replacing.
Nick:No. Big shoes to fill. Excited to see him. I like big guys in small numbers.
Andrew:Nothing wrong with that. I want to see Gervon. I want to see Gervon. We’ve all been high on Gervon, it seems like for three years now. Not that long, for sure, but we’ve been so high on him. I want to see him. Obviously, want to see little Henderson out there and see how good he’s going to be. Just see this team in general. We’ve heard about it. Like you said, we just haven’t been able to see football. It’s been January 1st, what Dan Mullen said, it’s been since then since we’ve seen this team play. Let’s see what it’s about. Let’s see how good Kyle Trask is going to be and everything else. We think very highly of this team. Let’s see it. I want to see some ball. And I want to see Ole Miss. I want to see Lane Kiffin on the sidelines.
Nick:Lane. The Lane train.
Andrew:The Lane train.
Nick:Before we get into our picks, I wanted to ask you something. Your boy up there in Knoxville just got an extension and a raise. Jeremy Pruitt got an extension. Pulling it up so I don’t get it wrong here. Jeremy Pruitt got a two-year extension starting next year and a raise from $3.8 million to $4.2 million annually. He is now signed through 2025. I would like you to tell me what did he do to earn two extra years and a couple extra million dollars?
Andrew:He did nothing, but it’s the world we live in.
Nick:He did nothing.
Andrew:It’s the world we live in where you have to be signed through the time a recruiting class is coming in and going to graduate. If you’re not, then it’s used against you in recruiting. Here’s my thoughts on just contracts in general in college football. They mean nothing. They honest to God mean nothing. I feel like sometimes ADs just give them out to give them out. How many contracts are voided every year, and then they fire them? Tons.
Nick:Then don’t come crying to me when we’ve got to pay this coach this and this coach that, you know what I mean? They always come in and these universities that do the extension and fire a coach come in crying poor later, and it’s we have to pay this and we’re losing money this year. Tennessee’s going to lose money this year just because of the way it’s going, and if you fire Jeremy Pruitt in two years, you’re still paying him. I get what you said, but they do it to themselves with these contracts.
Andrew:100%. I just think that it’s a situation where you get backed into a corner with the whole recruiting game. Like it or not, it’s a battle in recruiting. That’s what it’s all about. Also, nobody’s ever mistaken these ADs to be good businessmen.
Nick:It’s like you said, they feel like they have to, but then it can turn quick. If it turns quick, that’s a lot of money.
Andrew:Look at Florida State. Look at Auburn a few years ago with Gene Chizik, or not a few years ago, it’s been a while. You look at some of those, and they lose big time. You have to in a way, because you have to be signed, or it’s going to be used against you in recruiting, but is it the smart move? Again, Jeremy Pruitt could end up and that contract could make him look really good, but guess what? The moment he starts winning, he’s going to ask for another contract.
Nick:Get another one.
Andrew:A raise. This is just a raise for now. When he starts winning, he’s going to say, I’m working for too cheap, give me some more money.
Nick:And he’ll get it.
Andrew:And he’ll get it.
Nick:Speaking of raises, Florida gave out one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight raises, including Brian Johnson, who was moved from just quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. He got $100,000 raise. Billy Gonzales and John Hevesy both got raises of $30,000. David Turner got bumped up $100,000. Christian Robinson got bumped up $175,000, but when he first signed he was like 27 years old, and he was working for $80,000. I’ll work $80,000. He’s getting $290,000 now. Torrian Gray got a $10,000 raise. The one that fans will love to hear, Nick Savage now makes $450,000 a year. He got bumped up $150,000, and he got a nice little $75,000 signing bonus. Listen, you just pull a Brinks truck, and you leave it right outside Nick Savage’s house, and you say, there’s more on the way as long as you stay here.
Andrew:If you’re giving Billy and Hevesy raises, yeah they should get raises. I guess I could ask you the same question. What do those guys do to deserve a raise?
Nick:Greg Knox got a $45,000 raise. Running backs coach, special teams, and recruiting coordinator Greg Knox will make $485,000 this year.
Andrew:What did he do to deserve a raise?
Nick:He helped Lamical Perine get drafted.
Andrew:Okay. If that’s the argument, cool. Whatever. Okay. That’s all I got for you. Fans ain’t going to like that, that’s for sure.
Nick:That’s why I saved him for last. Sorry for the troll.
Andrew:Congrats to Brian Johnson though on that, getting the OC job. I’m a big fan of Brian Johnson. I think he is a guy who’s going to make big waves in college football, and I think he’s going to be a hell of a head coach one day. Personality’s great. Great mind. Good recruiter and knows how to build relationships.
Nick:I wrote in my story. I think he’s a superstar in the making.
Andrew:Zero doubt in my mind about that. Props to Brian Johnson on that. I think outside of Todd Grantham I think he’s a guy that’s probably the guy who’s next to be a head coach on this staff. Head coach.
It’s time. Let’s go do some picks. You want to do players first, or you want to do some team picks?
Nick:Let’s do teams.
Andrew:We’ll save Florida for last. Go ahead. Give me your first one.
Nick:First off, thank goodness we get some SEC football back this week. That’s where we’re going to start. I think Kentucky and Auburn play on Friday.
Andrew:Do they?
Nick:Is that right? Let me see.
Andrew:No, Saturday.
Nick:Nope, that’s a lie. It’s Saturday. They play Saturday, same time as Florida, at noon. #23 Kentucky at #8 Auburn.
Andrew:You know I’m not a Gus fan. You know I’m not a Gus fan, but I do think they’re better than Kentucky. Still not on the Gus bus.
Nick:I’m off the Gus bus. I’m going with Kentucky. I think Kentucky’s a good team this year. I think they’re a good football team.
Andrew:It wouldn’t shock me. I’m still not sold Bo Nix is the answer at quarterback for them. I just don’t believe in Gus and his ability to really develop guys on offense. I think he has so much speed on offense that he should have zero problems scoring, and he can’t score a lick. Yeah. I’m going the Gus bus, but not much faith in the Gus bus.
Nick:Back to ACC, #24 Louisville at #21 Pitt. 24 vs 21.
Andrew:First of all, how are any of these teams ranked? Louisville’s awful.
Nick:Next week after this game, and be prepared, because Florida’s going to drop in the rankings, they’re putting back in all the teams from the Big Ten that were ranked and then unranked. Ohio State’s going to go back up, and they’re going to jump Florida. There’s some teams that should not be ranked, and some teams are going to drop. I think they’ll probably put Ohio State back up probably at 2, 2 or 3. Right around Bama.
Andrew:Right. Louisville’s not very good. First of all, Miami’s not good, and Louisville’s way worse than Miami.
Nick:They just don’t play defense. Louisville just can’t play defense.
Andrew:No. All the hype was around Malik Cunningham being such a better player, this, than, and the other. He was okay, but he was nothing to scream he’s going to the NFL. What we got next?
Nick:You picking Pitt?
Andrew:Yeah. I’m picking Pitt.
Nick:You got to pick the game.
Andrew:I’m picking Pitt. Who you got?
Nick:I’m going Pitt. I saw enough of Louisville and their defense last week. I’m going to go with Pitt.
Andrew:I have no clue about Pitt. I haven’t watched a game of Pitt. Have they even played?
Nick:Yeah. Watched them last week. I think they were wearing those real slick, they have like a navy blue and gold color scheme, but their throwbacks are that yellow and royal blue. They were wearing those last week.
Andrew:I did see that.
Nick:Back to the SEC. Tennessee at South Carolina, the newly paid Jeremy Pruitt going to see, seems like he’s always on a hot seat, going to see Will Muschamp, who could be coaching his last year at South Carolina if he doesn’t win some football games.
Andrew:Jeremy Pruitt earns the raise this week.
Nick:Will Muschamp doesn’t lose to Tennessee.
Andrew:He doesn’t, but he does lose though. He does this time.
Nick:I got South Cackalacky with the win at home over Tennessee.
Andrew:Yeah. Not super confident about any pick there. South Carolina quarterback situation’s rough again. I say that, but Guarantano sucks, and he’s back for like his 70th year it seems like.
Nick:What’s the kid’s name? Hill? The one that’s starting.
Andrew:For Carolina?
Nick:Yeah.
Andrew:Yeah. Hill or something like that. Yes.
Nick:He looks like a cross between Gardner Minshew and Blake Bortles or someone. He looks like Gardner Minshew to me.
Andrew:Blake Bortles got a job.
Nick:No. Look at a picture of him. He looks like a mixture of Jake Fromm and Blake Bortles.
Andrew:Blake Bortles got a job. How did Blake Bortles get a job in the NFL?
Nick:I don’t know, but we’re rooting for Jeff. We’re rooting for Jeff Driskel.
Andrew:Yeah. Rooting for Jeff.
Nick:Beat him out, Jeff. Beat him out.
Andrew:Threw a touchdown pass last week. I’ll stick with Tennessee, feeling not very good about it.
Nick:We’ll get into our players now.
Andrew:No. We got one more game.
Nick:We’ll pick the players, and then we’ll pick Florida-Ole Miss. I think everyone knows.
Andrew:No. We got one more game.
Nick:We’re picking South, who plays Thursday before we do this?
Andrew:Florida State and Miami.
Nick:Oh, shoot. I skipped right over them on my list. FSU, a Mike Norvell-less FSU, at Miami.
Andrew:I don’t even think this is a good game at all. Again, I don’t think Miami is good, but Florida State’s awful and they don’t have their coach. Miami in a rout.
Nick:It’s always a good time to watch FSU being bad and to watch them getting blown out, so I will be tuning into this one. Don’t let Miami fans troll you on Twitter saying Florida’s playing at 11:00 AM, and we’re prime time. This is going to be a bad game. FSU is really, really bad. I don’t think Miami’s that good, but they’re a hell of a lot better than FSU. Miami’s going to win, and I’ll be watching that, along with I’ll be watching the UFC fights.
Andrew:I’ll be watching that and then be watching some Braves baseball.
Nick:So, I’m going to ask you, who wins the belt? We got 19-0 Israel Adesanya vs 16-0 Paulo Costa.
Andrew:I’m going with Costa.
Nick:Spivey. Okay. I’m going with my boy, Issy Adesanya.
Andrew:We’ll see.
Nick:That will be a great fight. That’s a really great card. I’m going to have to find some sports bar in Philly, or find some sports bar in Mississippi.
Andrew:Oxford.
Nick:In Oxford or somewhere. Got to figure out a way to watch that one, that’s for sure.
Andrew:Be watching that after a good day of football. Let’s go players. You want it, or you want me to take it?
Nick:I’ll let you go first. We got 10 games, which means I’ll be the even weeks. You’ll be the odd weeks.
Andrew:Okay. I’m am going to go with my first pick, the guy you stole from me earlier. It’s time to showcase. Malik Davis.
Nick:Okay. I think that’s a solid pick. Like I’ve been saying earlier, wish I was able to see guys in the spring and then in the fall. He’s another one I want to see. Dan Mullen says he looks like 2017 Malik Davis. Cool. I’m in for that. I want to see it.
Andrew:Payday. Payday year.
Nick:I’m going Kyle Trask. You gushed about how many receivers he has. This is your year, my man. You’ve got all kinds of weapons around you. Start off strong. Let’s get the Kyle Trask for Heisman campaign going Week 1.
Andrew:I’m all for it. The Texas gunslinger.
Nick:Texas forever.
Andrew:Texas forever. I’m all for it. Let’s do it. I’m going to go to another one that we talked about a lot, and that’s #1, Brenton Cox. Big game. It’s been two years, or a year and some change since he’s been able to play, so let’s see how much anger and aggression the man has built up.
Nick:Okay. I’m going to go with Ventrell Miller. Still same vein of I want to see it. David Reese, you’re replacing 95 tackles. We talked about Ealy. Going to have to stop him. Also, if you get Plumlee in the game, you’re going to need to be able to contain. When I talk about the ways that I think Ole Miss can beat Florida, you need someone strong in the middle. I think Ventrell Miller needs to have a good game.
Andrew:I’m going to turn it around and go back to the offensive side of ball and my man from the 850, Jacob Copeland. The forgotten man.
Nick:Good. That means you left Kyle Pitts for me. I’ll take Kyle Pitts.
Andrew:I’m okay with you having Kyle Pitts. I think he’ll be the guy that we fight over every week, but I’m cool with that. I think Copeland’s going to have a big game. It’s showcase time for him.
Nick:Then I’m Kyle Pitts. You’ve got Malik, Brenton, Jacob. I got Kyle, Ventrell, Kyle.
Andrew:Okay. There you go. Let’s go. Keys to the game. I think we’re both obviously going to pick Florida. What’s the spread?
Nick:It started and 12 and got to 14.5. Let me pull up the most current line. I think once it gets to two touchdowns, it’s still an SEC game, you know what I mean?
Andrew:Right.
Nick:That’s hard. To me, just the line coming out at 12 and immediately jumping up to 14 means people are hammering Florida at 12, and they had to make it a little bit bigger. Right now the over-under is 57 points and Florida is a 14 point favorite.
Andrew:Give me Florida in the points.
Nick:You think Florida covers 14?
Andrew:I do.
Nick:Over-under 57.
Andrew:Under.
Nick:Okay. I don’t think Ole Miss scores more than like 20, more than 17. Then you’d have to have Florida score 40. I’ll do the same. Same for me. I think Florida covers. I think Florida will cover, and it’ll be under.
Andrew:I just think Florida’s going to be fine in the situation of I don’t think that they give up more than 14 points. That’s there. Give me one key for Florida.
Nick:Key for me is just be sound and control what you can. Don’t miss tackles. There’s not going to be the environment that you have to deal with in terms of the crowd being rowdy. You might have to figure out how to play in an empty stadium and play in the quiet. To me, it’s just control what you can control. You’re a better football team. I think you should go into this game knowing it. I think Ole Miss probably won’t say it, but I think they come into this game knowing that Florida’s a better football team than we are. When you’re in games like that, all you have to do is play your ball and don’t make mistakes.
Andrew:I agree. Don’t let this team stick around. Don’t let it be a fourth quarter game. Get out early. Put your foot on their throat mentality and let them know we were no joke coming out. Show that you’re not just an offensive or defensive team, that you’re a complete team. This is your first change. As weird as this year is, in only 10 games you can’t have many bad weeks and expect to rise or be high on the polls. Come out strong and show you’re a well-balanced team like we all think you are.
Nick:Yup.
Andrew:Any final thoughts?
Nick:No. I think we’re all ready. We’re all good. I’m ready. By the time most people are listening to this, I’ll be in Mississippi. Let me know if know anywhere I can go and get some dinner.
Andrew:There you go. Tell the people where they can find us for game day. We’ll have everything starting bright and early on Saturday.
Nick:www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can find the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search Gator Country. Hit subscribe. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.
Andrew:There you go. All right, guys. We appreciate it. By the way, Nick, your Marlins did not win the East, threepeat for the Braves. As always, go Braves and chomp, chomp.
Nick:I’m surprised the Marlins finished second. You stay classy, Gator Country.