GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday prediction podcast for the Florida Gators vs. Colorado State game on Saturday afternoon.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the key points for the game and what they’re looking to see from the Gators.
Andrew and Nick also predict several games around the country, plus pick three players to watch for the Gators on Saturday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Friday prediction time. Another game in the Swamp. The fighting Jim McElwains of Colorado State head to Gainesville.
Nick:The McElwain List Bowl.
Andrew:There you go. Pay McElwain.
Nick:This is an expensive weekend for Florida.
Andrew:A cool $2 million.
Nick:Well, if you want to add it all up. $2 million, McElwain gets $1 million in July, so that’s $3 Million, and you’re paying Muschamp $787,000 still. Really, you got almost a $4 million price tag this year for coaches that aren’t coaching your team.
Andrew:You better whip their ass.
Nick:Could you imagine the headlines and the feeling on Sunday morning or Saturday night if Colorado State comes in and wins?
Andrew:Stop it. Stop it.
Nick:You pay a team $2 million to win.
Andrew:Stop it. I will say this, Nick, we have some good news. We have some good news. Gator Country has an official sponsor for the 2018 podcast, and guess what, Nick? Welcome to Moe’s, your favorite place, my friend. Moe’s.
Nick:My entire life has been leading up to this moment, Andrew.
Andrew:I swear, I think you made this tailgate happen. They’re sponsoring a tailgate and have a deal where when you order their tailgate, Nick, they’re going to deliver it to you free on Saturday, as long as you order it before Friday afternoon, if you use the promo code Gator Country. Nick, they’re going to bring all the stuff you want, my friend. They’re going to deliver either a nacho bar, a taco bar, or fajita bar. They’re going to bring it to you. They’re going to set it up, and then they’re going to clean it up for you, and they’re going to give you free chips and salsa.
Nick:Guess what I’m eating in the press box Saturday.
Andrew:You’re going to ask them to deliver it to the press box, huh? That whole $200 or $400, however much you want to do, they’re going to bring it all to the press box, right?
Nick:Yeah. I’m going to use our code. I’m going to get free delivery, and they’re going to bring a taco bar right up to the press box and set it up right in front of my seat. If the updates are slow, it’s probably because I’ve eaten myself into a Moe’s taco coma.
Andrew:Then just page them when you get done, and they’ll come clean it up. If you want to do that, like Nick, either go to MoesCateringFL.com or call 844-797-6637. Again, we appreciate Moe’s coming on board and sponsoring the Gator Country podcast this year. If you haven’t checked us out on social media, they’re giving away a free tailgate this weekend, a $200 tailgate this week. All you have to do is show us your best tailgate setup to enter to win that.
Nick:It is the burrito of Nick de la Torre, the burrito now of Gator Country, and the burrito of the Florida Gators.
Andrew:There you go.
Nick:Hey, man, that doesn’t get much better, when you’re tailgating, just to have somebody come over, drop some food off for you, set it all up. All you got to do is show up, crack your beer, eat some delicious Moe’s. We would never have Chipotle delivered to you. Eat some delicious Moe’s, and then it’s kickoff time. We’ll see you guys later. They clean up. You get back to your tailgate, and the food’s gone, all the mess is gone. That’s a good deal.
Andrew:Hopefully you continue on to a good game. Nick, we’ll move on to that. John Hevesy, he says there’s no change on the offensive line this week. I want to know what Brett Heggie is doing. Brett, if you’re listening to this podcast, tell me what are you doing in practice, my friend? Because, Nick, it’s mind-boggling to me. I mean, last year, and maybe I’m just blinded or whatever it is, Brett Heggie was your best offensive lineman last year.
Nick:Yeah. We talked to Hegacy. Mixing up Hevesy and Heggie there. We talked to Hevesy, and while he said that there’s no changes, he continued to say Brett Heggie is coming along, and he’s getting better. I think the biggest thing that is sticking in his mind is that Heggie really missed 30-something days of practice. Missed all of fall camp, until that last week.
Andrew:Here’s the thing for me, Nick. Stop right there. I don’t care if he missed every day of practice and just played on game day. He’s still better than the other five you’re going to put out there on the field on Saturday. He’s still going to give more energy. He’s still going to block his ass off better than all five of those guys. So, it’s almost like Hevesy is trying to prove a point, but while he’s proving that point, is he not hurting the team in a way?
Nick:Yeah. To me it’s how do you look at the film from the past two games and say, those are my five guys? They all say you have to earn it in practice, and I get that, but you’re not paid to win practice, so how do you look at the game film and say, yeah, we’re going to keep riding with those five? To me, I don’t know how you do it. The more I watch the games, I watched the Kentucky game twice this week, I don’t understand how you look at that and don’t come to the conclusion we got to change, we got to switch something up.
Andrew:This is just my thing, and maybe I’m wrong again. Wouldn’t be the first time. Won’t be the last time. It’s almost like he’s trying to set a precedent, Hevesy, that you have topractice. Nick, I say this, and I hate to admit this, and every football coach will never admit this, but, yes, we always say you have to practice to play, but, at the end of the day, that’s a lie. Because if our best player doesn’t practice, and he’s ready to go on game day, you’re not benching him. You’re not benching him.
Your telling me that Heggie not practicing keeps him out of the game to me is BS, because that’s just a line that we all use as football coaches. It’s a line. I’m sorry to say it. It’s a line, especially at a position like offensive line, where you need your best out there. Because one chip in the armor out of the five makes the whole five look bad. On Saturday night against Kentucky, Jawaan Taylor, Fred Johnson, and Nick Buchanan all looked bad, because Fred Johnson failed to pick up two blocks, and all three of them were looking at the guy when he was running past them. Right?
Nick:Right. The only thing I can think of, we talk about it all the time, is that you need cohesion at that spot. You need all five guys working together, and maybe you need Heggie to be working with the ones.
Andrew:Put him in with the ones. He’s been back for three weeks.
Nick:Yeah. I don’t get it.
Andrew:All season we’ve heard about Heggie learning how to snap and Tyler Jordan learning how to snap. Move one of them inside. Put the other at guard. I mean, let’s not mess up here and say that Jordan, Buchanan, and Fred Johnson are playing great ball. Because if took any of the three out and put Heggie in, you’ve got an instant upgrade.
Nick:To me, and this would be the week to do it, rather than to make the switch on the road. Make it this week. Next week, when you’re playing offense for the first time, it’s not going to be quiet. When you’re talking about communicating along the line, when you’re talking about communicating along the line with the quarterback, if we’re going to have issues with communicating, because we’re switching up the line, let’s do it this week. Not wait till we’re on the road in front of 100,000 people at Neyland Stadium.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:But they’re not going to, apparently. Unless they’re lying.
Andrew:I don’t get it, Nick. I wish I could understand that. To me, that’s like saying, I’m playing my backup quarterback, because my starter missed some time. That’s just bogus to me. It’s just bogus. I don’t get it at all when that is the case. Brett, if you’re listening to this, please tell me what you’re doing in practice. Everybody I’ve talked to at practice says he’s doing fine. I mean, it’s mind-boggling to me.
Let’s move on a little bit. Big week for Trey Dean, Nick. He pretty much got all the snaps last week when Marco went down in the first series. This is the first week that he knows going into the game he’s going to be that guy at Cornerback 2, behind CJ Henderson. He’s going to be that guy that has that side of the field on lockdown. This is a Colorado State team that has some weapons out at receiver, but again, nothing compared to what you’re going to see in the coming weeks. It’s big for Trey to get out there and get his feet wet some more. I think it’s a little bit of a different case when you know you’re going to be the guy, when you know you’re going to be the starter. I’m looking forward to Trey having a big week again. There is nothing about Trey Dean’s game that scares me with him being a freshman. Do I think he’ll give up some plays? Sure, he’s a freshman. I think he’s going to make more plays than he gives up.
Nick:He’s going to be tested. If I’m the opposing coach, and I look at the roster, Marco Wilson is gone. Who’s behind him? A freshman? As defensive coordinator, Trey Dean obviously played a bunch last week, but not a lot of film on him, so that’s the guy we’re going at. We’ve got film on Chris Henderson, and there’s two big sixes from last year. There’s already an interception this year. Could have been a couple more than just the one. To me, you’re already looking at we’re going to go after the freshman.
Andrew:Yup. You got to.
Nick:So, the opportunity will be there.
Andrew:When you look at this defense, you’re going to pick on opposite man of CJ Henderson, and it’s not going to be Marco Wilson anymore. I used to be I’m not going to pick on Marco, so I’m going to pick on CJ. That ended up biting them in the butt last year, so now it’s going to be Trey and whoever is rotating in with Trey some as well. I mean, again, like I said, do I expect that Trey will be tested and give up some plays? Absolutely, he will. That’s a freshman, just like CJ Henderson gave up some plays last year, just like Marco gave up some plays last year. You learn as you go on, and you learn how to study film and that kind of thing. Again, CJ probably now won’t put up the numbers he would have put up had Marco stayed, but as a cornerback, no numbers is good numbers.
Nick:Yeah. At that position no numbers are good numbers.
Andrew:For me, that’s going to be something to look at and to watch as the season continues to go on, just how much Trey improves. Nick, this is something, I think, now we have to talk about and really dissect, safety play. Shawn Davis still out. Where are you going there? Do you start Jeawon and Donovan Stiner? Do you start Jeawon and Brad Stewart? Where are you going? I think they start Jeawon and Stiner, but both of those guys have to improve.
Nick:Yeah. You can’t keep having those, I guess you’d call them rookie mistakes. Eyes getting caught in the backfield, not knowing where the coverages are. You just need that position, you need that to be your smartest guy on the field. It’s not just that too, because Nick Washington would have situations. Nick Washington was one of the smartest guys on the team. I think Jeawon Taylor is one of the smartest guys on the team. You can be as smart as you want, but if you’re not using that, not putting yourself in a good position, then it doesn’t show, and it doesn’t matter.
Andrew:Listen, playing safety is not the easiest position in the world.
Nick:No. They ask a lot. We say that a lot, but it’s just the nature of the position. There’s going to be a lot asked of you at that position.
Andrew:Right. Listen, at the safety position you’re the guy who 9 times out of 10 is going to be the guy who is embarrassed, not even because it’s your fault. If a DB gets beat, guess what? Fans are going to look and say, the safety should have been over the top. If a run happens, a long run, they’re going to say, the safety should have been the guy who made the play, the last-ditch effort play. You get a lot of criticism, a lot like the quarterback gets all the criticism on offense. For me, I will say that that was a very uncharacteristic game for JeawonTaylor. Usually Jeawon’s a guy who’s in the correct place to make the play, but his eyes got caught in the backfield a little bit in the game last week.
Then Donovan Stiner didn’t play bad, for the most part, in the game. He had a few missed tackles, but so did the rest of the defense in the team. I think the fans, Nick, I think you even got credited for a missed tackle in the game.
Nick:How dare you?
Andrew:I mean, everybody else did.
Nick:I make my tackles.
Andrew:Yeah. Anyway, again, we’ll see how Donovan Stiner rebounds this week, and we’ll see. Brad Stewart is going to play a lot. The question becomes then, I think the battle becomes, who is the starter when Shawn Davis gets back? Then furthermore, does same thing apply to Shawn Davis that applies to Brett Heggie, and that is you don’t get your spot back?
Nick:Do you think?
Andrew:I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what the heck is going on with Brett Heggie. If you ask me right now, Shawn Davis is probably your best safety. Brett Heggie is probably your best offensive lineman.
Nick:I just want to watch good football.
Andrew:So do I.
Nick:I want to watch good football.
Andrew:I mean, yeah. Nick, again, we’ll see. To me though, we talk about DB and all that, at the end of the day, it’s a lineman’s game.
Nick:Both lines.
Andrew:Here’s the thing. This is a week, Nick, and if they don’t have a good week on the ground, things are bad, really bad, because this Colorado State team is giving up the rushing yards in bolts.
Nick:I looked at Mountain West Conference, and they’re rushing offense was also terrible. Their rushing defense they’re giving up 252 rushing yards a game on 43 attempts. That’s a 5.86 average. That puts them tenth in the Mountain West Conference. They haven’t even played teams that are going to run the ball crazy, like Air Force is in their conference, and Air Force runs the hell out of the ball. That number is only going to go up when you look at an Air Force team that, how many times have they run the ball already? Let’s see. Air Force has run the ball 133 times in their two games. Air Force is going to expand and blow up your running numbers. They haven’t gotten that game yet. They’re giving up 252 on the ground before even playing the team that’s going to run 70 times a game.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:So, that’s where it is. You got to get a push. It’s kind of the same thing, we’ll see. You didn’t do it against Charleston Southern, who had an undersized defensive line.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Can you do it this week? If you can’t do it this week, then I have no confidence you can do it on the road against Tennessee.
Andrew:Right. Again, Tennessee is not great, by no means are they great, but they’re still an SEC football team. If you think Tennessee is going to be worse than Charleston Southern or Colorado State, you’re crazy. You’re crazy. Are they going to be better than Kentucky? Possibly. We’ll see. For me, Nick, I say this kind of cliché, tongue in cheek a little bit, and that is if they can do this against Colorado state, does it finally give this team some confidence? The offensive line some confidence? Is it like a batter, a hitter who gets a Texas Leaguer, and then goes on a hot streak and carries a .300 batting average the rest of the year? Is it something like that? I don’t know, but I feel like these guys need to see a pancake block by one of their guys to kind of get things moving.
Nick:I think they eat pancakes. I haven’t seen many pancakes.
Andrew:Right. You know what I’m saying?
Nick:Yeah. I’m just trying a joke. Didn’t work.
Andrew:No. I know what you’re saying, but I’m saying do you think that’s the case?
Nick:Yeah. I would like to see that. I would like just some nastiness.
Andrew:Something. Something, Nick. I mean, I need to see something. I say this, and I hate to say it. I really do. I know you guys probably think Spivey is lying, Spivey’s an idiot, whatever it is. I just want to see the offensive line come out and look like straight up nasty football players. You look at some of the film out there at Kentucky. They’ve got guards pulling out and just wiping out safeties. Florida don’t even wipe out safeties. I posted this joke, and it’s not really a joke, it’s a truth, on Twitter on Wednesday when Kirby Smart was doing his teleconference. He was mad because his offensive linemen are not getting down field and blocking to get his running game. He said, “We’re doing 10-15. That’s not good enough. We need to have 20-30.”
Nick:Shoot. You and I are lucky to see 10-15.
Andrew:I’m looking to see 5 or 10. I mean, I don’t know. Again, it’s on you, offensive line. It’s on you. Nick, move on to Feleipe a little bit. Again, this is a team that’s not going to get a ton of pass rush. It’s not going to be in your face. Shouldn’t be, at least. As we said all along, another step for Feleipe, another chance for him to walk in and get better and gain confidence.
Nick:Yeah. It’s a week where you’d like to see that. Colorado State isn’t doing a good job stopping the run, which you would like to see. I would like to see, more so than getting Feleipe confidence, I would like to use the run to set up the pass. Whereas the first two weeks, it seems like you’ve been using the pass to set up the run, and the run just hasn’t been there.
Andrew:I mean, I think it’s been put to the wayside.
Nick:I mean, Colorado State, they’re giving up less than 200 yards a game through the air. Given up nine touchdowns, three interceptions. Colorado was able to throw for 246, but they kept Hawaii and Arkansas to under 200. So, to me, I’d like to see Florida use the run to set up the pass, whereas they have not been doing that in the past two.
Andrew:Yeah. My thing, Nick, is why not? Why not try to get Perine and Scarlett some confidence? Why not try to get those guys going, so Tennessee has to prepare for it now?
Nick:Right now Feleipe Franks is your leading rusher. I know some of that comes from broken plays or scrambles and what have you, but that can’t be the case. It shouldn’t be close.
Andrew:I say this too, Nick. Again, I don’t say this because I don’t believe in this person, but to me, it looks like Mullen and the staff isn’t confident in Kyle Trask and Emory Jones yet. So, do you want to continue running Feleipe Franks? Sooner or later, it’s going to take a beatdown on him. I mean, when you start facing the likes of Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, Georgia. Those guys are going to start putting a beating on your quarterback. Is that something you’re okay with? Is that something you’re confident in, that Kyle can come in and run the offense? If so, fine. I have confidence Trask can come in and run it, but to me, it seems like they don’t. So, that’s a question too.
Not only that, but you’re not going to win very many football games, and we say this all the time against Florida’s defense, even though Kentucky did it, you’re not going to win very many games being one-dimensional.
Nick:No. To me, that’s why I say it really starts with getting the running game going now. Like you say, you’re not going to run Feleipe Franks 15 times up in Starkville.
Andrew:No. You know they’re preparing for it.
Nick:After watching last week, I imagine Mississippi State is just licking their chops waiting for that game.
Andrew:No. I’m saying you know they’re going to prepare for the quarterback run.
Nick:Yeah. They just had nine years of Dan. Of course.
Andrew:Nick Fitzgerald is in there telling them what’s coming. He’s at the defensive coordinator’s side saying, listen, this is what’s going to happen. So, I don’t know.
Nick:What’s your keys for this week?
Andrew:Offensive line play. I need to see them get nasty and dirty. I would love to see the defensive line be aggressive but play disciplined. Then, Nick, my favorite phrase of the week, the get it to you list.
Nick:Does it exist? You said no.
Andrew:I don’t think it does. Prove me wrong, Dan. Prove me wrong. What’s your keys?
Nick:Listen, man, this is a team that you should beat. I don’t even know if there are keys. It’s just, as much as we say, and you shouldn’t say, just roll the ball out there, this should be a team that you can just roll the ball out there. I was asked on radio yesterday with Tennessee coming up, is this a team that Florida might overlook? I said, maybe if you hadn’t just lost to Kentucky.
Andrew:No. They’re not overlooking this game, by no means.
Nick:Yeah. I was saying, maybe if you hadn’t lost a 31-year streak to Kentucky, and you were 2-0, maybe you’re looking towards that Tennessee week. But no. Coming off of a loss, coming off that loss, I don’t think this is a team you overlook. I think it comes down to kind of like a Charleston Southern game, where you’re just more talented.
Andrew:This is gut check time. I mean, let’s call it what it is, Nick. This is gut check time for this football team.
Nick:Yeah. I see Florida going into Neyland at 2-1, and then, honestly, I see that being a game where the loser’s season kind of spirals. If Florida loses at Tennessee …
Andrew:That starts a bad stretch for Tennessee.
Nick:That’s a rough stretch for Tennessee. They’ve got, I’m pulling their schedule up right now.
Andrew:Bama, South Carolina, and Georgia, I believe. Right?
Nick:Yeah. There’s a bye week in there somewhere. They host Florida, at Georgia, at Auburn, host Alabama, then South Carolina. It’s really a five-game stretch. They’re going to be in a grinder. Florida is no cakewalk after that. You’re at Tennessee, at Mississippi State, LSU, and then Vanderbilt, which is a tough game. You get a bye week, and then Georgia. I mean, that right there, I see the loser of Florida-Tennessee kind of spiraling.
Andrew:They may not make a bowl game, the loser.
Nick:Yeah. That’s what I was going to go to next. The loser of that is going to be struggling for bowl eligibility.
Andrew:If you look at Florida, they got Idaho. That’s a win. That’s three. Then you’ve got to win one of Missouri or Vanderbilt. So, yeah.
Nick:South Carolina too. Missouri, South Carolina, Vanderbilt.
Andrew:Yeah. I mean, let’s get there first.
Nick:We’re not football coaches. We can talk about games down the line. We don’t have a team that we’re trying to get ready for Saturday.
Andrew:I’ve heard this, and I continue to hear this throughout the week, and people continue to say, give Dan time. He’s going to struggle. Nick Saban lost. Urban Meyer lost. I get that. I do. I get that. Again, none of us predicted Dan Mullen to go undefeated this year. None of us predicted him to get to Atlanta this year. None of us predicted all that. The thing that bothers me the most, Nick, that I think bothers a lot of people the most, and I guess I shouldn’t say bothers me, concerns me the most, is the play calling on Saturday was atrocious. The physicality of the team was bad, when you preach relentless effort all the time. That stuff was bad. If your team hasn’t bought in already, to me that’s a concern, because you’ve told us all off season your team has bought in. For me, those are the things that concern me.
There is no doubt in my mind that Dan will fix it, sooner or later, but the question is why are things so bad now? People say, Mac left a terrible roster. Yes and no. I think he left some talented players there and that kind of stuff, and he didn’t lose to Kentucky. He did leave some depth issues there. At the end of the day, the physicality was supposed to get better, and it’s not. The offensive line play, everyone talked about it was going to get better. It didn’t. Then play calling was still bad.
Nick:Yeah. Easiest thing to fix there would be the play calling. I don’t like how, and maybe it’s just coach-speak, but everyone talks about they’ve only been in the program for this amount of time, or we’re still just trying to get better. It’s like, you’ve had a lot of time to get better.
Andrew:Right. Exactly.
Nick:Why are you worrying about getting better on September 13th? Yeah, you need to get better every week, but lose to Kentucky, get better?
Andrew:Yeah. I don’t know. Nick, let’s go onto some more positive things. Let’s preview some games and stuff. While we got a little break here, don’t forget about Moe’s, guys.
Nick:I was going to say, more positive things, Moe’s. I’m geeked. Moe’s has been like the unofficial sponsor for four years.
Andrew:That’s it.
Nick:I think we’ve been doing the podcast for four years. However long we’ve been doing the podcast, Moe’s has been the unofficial sponsor.
Andrew:So, don’t forget to give them a call and get all that setup. They’ll bring the taco bar or fajita bar, whatever you want, to there and set it up, clean it up and everything else. Use promo code Gator Country. Maybe they do that while watching some games this week, Nick. Not a great schedule this week, Nick, but some interesting games. I told you one game we had to pick, and we’ll start with that game. It’s that Texas-UFC game. Is this a must win for Tom Herman?
Nick:Shoot, man.
Andrew:They don’t have a lot of big marquee games to win to get back on the national stage. When you talk, Nick, about Mack Brown and Texas back then, every year Texas was high up there in the recruiting ranking. When big kids were there, you were talking about it. If there was a five-star kid in Texas, they were going to Texas. Now, Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, LSU, Alabama, Notre Dame, USC, they’re pulling these top guys out of the state year in and year out.
Nick:I think right now the momentum is fully in College Station.
Andrew:100%.
Nick:It has been for a while. That started with Kevin Sumlin.
Andrew:Really since the SEC, they got into the SEC, it’s kind of changed. I think it’s a must win to get back on the national stage for Texas, and I don’t think it’s going to happen this week, Nick. I think USC wins.
Nick:USC is coming off of a tough loss. Didn’t have much offense against Stanford and have to go on the road. What’s Herman’s, I mean money doesn’t matter at Texas, but what’s his buyout?
Andrew:I don’t know. I don’t know, but they’re still paying Charlie.
Nick:He’s a Texas boy. Still paying Charlie.
Andrew:I think he’s kind of in the same boat as some of the other new coaches, and that is he’s going to get to stick there.
Nick:You lose to Maryland for the second straight year?
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:You struggle with Tulsa, and if you lose to USC at home, you’ve got a tough game against TCU at home the following week.
Andrew:Not to mention you’ve still got Oklahoma and Oklahoma State coming down the stretch.
Nick:Yeah. You go at Kansas State, and then you’ve got the Red River Rivalry on October 6th. Yeah, man. We talk about, and I think you got to give him some time, but the honeymoon period is certainly seemingly coming to an end there with Herman. He’s only in his second year, right?
Andrew:Yeah. It is. How do you see it going down? I said USC.
Nick:I’m going to go with Texas. Texas pulls it off at home.
Andrew:What are you smoking? Smoking some Moe’s or something?
Nick:I’m high on queso.
Andrew:Oh, Lord. That’s a big one for me.
Nick:That’s a huge nationally prominent game, just with the history. You’ll see the Rose Bowl National Championship. That will be replayed, Vince Young and Matt Liner, Reggie Bush.
Andrew:My, have times fallen. I mean, think about that. Think about the players that were in those games. Liner, Bush, Lendale White, Vince Young. What was the receiver? Crosby? Wasn’t that his name, the little receiver? Then all the defensive players on those teams. Man oh man, that’s a crazy one.
There’s another big game though in Texas this week, Nick. The Buckeyes of Ohio State are traveling down to take on TCU. That’s a big one.
Nick:I think until further notice I am a Buckeye believer right now.
Andrew:I think so too. My question, Nick, is does Ryan Day now get a head coaching job, because of what he did? I think people give him too much credit. Urban is still around. He’s still coaching practice, all that good stuff. I think you give him too much credit. I think he’s done a good job of holding them together, but I think they give him too much credit. But they still win this weekend. I’m a Dwayne Haskins fan.
Nick:Oh yeah. I think they also get a lot of credit, or he’s getting credit for having them stick together, but I think they’ve got this whole us against, and they’re wrong, because the Ohio State University was wrong. So, they’re wrong, but they’re probably using that as an us against the world mentality, that nobody wants us to do it, and I think that holds them together.
Andrew:Right. You’re right.
Nick:So, both of us are Buckeyes this week?
Andrew:Yeah. I’m going to go with the Buckeyes. I’m a Dwayne Haskins guy. He should be the starting quarterback at Florida. My oh my, how things would be different.
Nick:Let’s knock out the other non-SEC game.
Andrew:Okay.
Nick:Boise State traveling down to play Mike Gundy’s team, the fighting mullets of Oklahoma State.
Andrew:In Stillwater. Oklahoma State just beat up on my South Alabama Jaguars. Should have hired a better football coach, guys. You morons. I don’t know a ton about Boise State. I’ll admit that. But I do know Oklahoma State’s offense is really good again under Mike Gundy. It seems like he takes a shower and walks out, and a new quarterback is standing in his living room. Going out there and picking quarterbacks off the tree or something. I mean, good grief. Oklahoma State wins. Again, this is a game that I’m picking not knowing a ton about Boise State. I’ve only caught glimpses of the season so far. Oklahoma State.What you got? Cowboys or Broncos?
Nick:I’m going to go Oklahoma State too. Kind of like you, I haven’t seen a ton of Boise State, especially with our late games. They’re playing while Florida’s playing.
Andrew:Thank God it’s not on the blue turf.
Nick:I like the blue turf.
Andrew:That hurts my eyes.
Nick:I like that. I like that more than …
Andrew:The red turf?
Nick:The red turf. What is that? Portland State?
Andrew:I thought it was Washington.
Nick:No. It’s one of Mac’s old schools. Mac coached there a while back.
Andrew:Montana State?
Nick:I don’t know.
Andrew:I don’t know either. So, there’s a big one in the SEC.
Nick:Couple big ones. One really big one. We’ll save that for last.
Andrew:No. I was going to say there’s one big one for one school, and that’s Ole Miss. Ole Miss has a chance this weekend to shock the world in Oxford. Offense is scoring some points. Defense is suspect.
Nick:Good Lord, they don’t care about playing defense.
Andrew:They think they’re in the Big 12.
Nick:They’re playing like it.
Andrew:I said this, Nick, the other day, and I don’t know how true it will hold, but for the most part on the road Alabama usually struggles to open the door, open the game, against Ole Miss. Then sometimes it carries on in the second half, and they end up having to win by a field goal. I would venture to say Alabama struggles more with Ole Miss than a lot of schools. That’s just the case. Every school has that team that they struggle with a little bit more than others. That’s Ole Miss for Alabama, but I just don’t see this one being close, Nick. Tua is a freak. I’m going ahead and penciling him in right now as one of the top three Heisman go-getters.
Nick:So, you’re a Tua believer here.
Andrew:Yeah. If it’s not Tua, it’s Dwayne Haskins. Those might be your two best quarterbacks in the country.
Nick:Wow. I think Tua will certainly get himself into that Heisman talk. I got Bama in this game. I don’t know what the spread is, but I’ve got them covering it. Oh, no, maybe not. It’s a 21-point spread.
Andrew:Yeah. I don’t know, man. Bama’s defense is good. It’s so good. I say they cover it.
Nick:They cover three touchdowns? Yeah. That defense is good. I got Bama winning. I don’t know if they cover though.
Andrew:All right. Let’s go right on up to the plains. LSU vs. Auburn. Les Miles got fired because of this game. Joe Burrow vs. Jarrett Stidham. This is where I’m going to say, Joe Burrow, Miami’s defense wasn’t that good. Auburn wins.
Nick:I think Auburn is one of the best teams. I’m already looking forward to that Iron Bowl. I think Auburn is a really good football team. I’ve got them winning this game and winning it big.
Andrew:I think, Ed Orgeron is just a guy that he’s going to have to win a National Championship before I give him the respect he deserves. That guy just doesn’t, he’s just like Will Muschamp, and that is they find ways to screw things up.
Nick:Mine is a little bit less of that. It’s not as much of a huge I don’t believe in Ed O. It’s a little bit of that. More, I think Auburn is really good.
Andrew:Okay. Let’s go pick our players, and this was hard, Nick. We got about seven, eight minutes left on the podcast, and we’ll talk about these guys. It was tough, tough. You and I had to think a few minutes. Your #1 pick was a defensive guy.
Nick:Yeah. I’m going to go with Chauncey Gardner. Almost thought about going Trey Dean first, because I think he’ll be tested a lot this week, but I’m going to go Chauncey.
Andrew:My first pick, I went to the offensive side of the ball, believing that there is a get it to you list. I went with KT, Kadarius Toney. Gets his first touchdown this year.
Nick:That’s your get it to list, I guess.
Andrew:We’ll see. You did go to the offense with the second pick.
Nick:I did. With my second pick I went Van Jefferson. Right now, if Florida’s throwing the ball, it seems to be they’re throwing it at Van Jefferson.
Andrew:Okay. My second pick I ended up going with your first pick potentially in Trey Dean. I think Trey Dean gets INT #1 this weekend, as he gets tested a little bit.
Nick:Okay.
Andrew:That’s my pick.
Nick:Jachai Polite is going to be mine. Listen, Colorado State does not really even pretend to try to run the ball effectively, so I think it’ll be a day where you can get some sacks, get some tackles for loss. Right now, that guy is JachaiPolite.
Andrew:My third one is they’re going to get their running game going, finally, and I think the staff finally sees that Lamical Perine is the best option. Hey, I can’t strike out. Three strikes, you’re out. So, if I miss this one, Lamical, sorry buddy, but you won’t get picked again, because you’ll have struck me out. Lamical Perine finally gets a touchdown for the running backs this week.
Nick:That will be the first touchdown by a running back, in Week 3, which is ridiculous.
Andrew:I thought that group would just rack up the touchdowns.
Nick:Yeah.
Andrew:So, yeah. That’s it. Let’s go to the game, Nick. Obviously, I think we’ll both figure out and pick that Florida will win the game. How close?
Nick:To me, I thought, I mean the spread right now is 19.5, do I think Florida wins by 20?
Andrew:I don’t know.
Nick:I don’t. I do that Alligator Pick ‘Em for the Alligator, the newspaper, the school newspaper, the independent newspaper. I think I picked Florida to cover, but I’m not super confident about it.
Andrew:Okay. I say they cover, barely maybe, but I say they cover this week. I don’t know how though. I’m not sure. Again, it could be a couple big plays from Feleipe on deep balls or something. Until the offensive line proves to me they can continually make an effort to move the line of scrimmage, I can’t say that it’ll be because of the running game, even though I think we’re hopeful to see a better, improved offensive line. I can’t say without a doubt that that will happen. So, how it happens, not sure, but I do think they cover this weekend and have a little bit of a good mood going into the Tennessee game.
Nick:Okay. I think it’ll be a win, but certainly you could have a win and not feel good going into the game. So, we’ll see if you can get a feel-good win.
Andrew:Yeah. Recruiting kind of slow this week. It’s Colorado State. You’ve had two straight weeks of hosting visitors, but a couple commits will be in town, all that good stuff. That will be that. A couple 2020 guys will be in town. We’ll have all the updates and that good stuff. We will be ready to go.
Nick, one more time, give a shout out to our boys at Moe’s. Again, we really appreciate Moe’s coming on board. Nick and I have been doing this podcast, and Nick and I love doing the podcast. I think Nick and I both say this is some of our brighter spots of the week, just because we like chitchatting. Now, Nick’s favorite boys are going to feed him while doing the podcast. Nick, that’s what you need to do. Holler at Moe’s and tell them you want to tailgate while doing the podcast.
Nick:Yeah. I’ll do a live podcast from Moe’s. There is nothing like walking in, and you get that, welcome to Moe’s! I love that. Gator fans love taking a chomp out of Moe’s legendary homewrecker burrito. Now you can enjoy that same great food at your tailgate. Order Moe’s tailgate catering. They bring everything right to you, directly to your tailgate parking spot on game day. No shopping, no cooking, no hassle. Park, sit back, and enjoy. Visit them online MoesCateringFL.com or call 844-797-6637. Get it set up. Remember to use your promo code, Gator Country. Save yourself some dollar bills there on the delivery.
Help us out. Maybe overwhelm our Gainesville Moe’s. Our Gator Country listeners overwhelm Moe’s with your orders this week. You’re going to save money. It’s no hassle to you and show Nick and Andrew some love. Let’s see if Moe’s wants to come back and maybe even do some more promos with us, and some more opportunities for you guys to save money. Blow it out this week.
Andrew:Yeah. Do that. Make sure to tell them that we sent you guys over there. Tell them some good things. Don’t talk about the bad things over there. When you see them, tell them that you don’t like Tennessee. Might get you something extra. I don’t know. Maybe. Next week is Tennessee week, Nick. You know I always have a great time with that. It’s always a fun week.
Nick:We’ll get our boy Trey on, and we’ll see what kind of love Spivey has for Tennessee now that one of his Alabama boys is coaching. Might be a whole different tune to the podcast.
Andrew:It won’t be a whole different tune to the podcast.
Nick:It might be a whole different tune, where we find out Andrew has been a secret Vol agent this entire time.
Andrew:Let me tell you guys, Jeremy Pruitt is a good guy. I won’t say a bad thing about him as a person. He’s a good guy, good football coach, all that good stuff. He’s the repping the Hoover Bucs on MTV Two-A-Days. Listen, they got Chris Rumph and Drew Hughes and all the Florida guys up there as well. At the end of the day, Tennessee sucks. Get out of here. Never root for the Vols. That orange puke color. No, no, no. Listen, guys, I might have said last week I’d pick them, but on an official pick your boy is never going to pick them. As always, guys, Nick, tell them where they can find us, and we’ll get out. We’ll see everyone recapping a Colorado State win, or Gators win over Colorado State.
Nick:www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. The podcast is now on any platform that you can think of to listen to the podcast. Just search @GatorCountry. Subscribe. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instragram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC, and he’s @AndrewSpiveyGC. Andrew, I wanted to say a little congratulations. Your South Alabama Jags are getting a new stadium, aren’t they?
Andrew:Yeah. Little problem with the city, but they’re going to get it. Also, Nick, my Bravos.
Nick:I was hoping we’d get through a whole podcast without this nonsense.
Andrew:Ten games from clinching the division. I may cry. I may cry.
Nick:You will cry, and then you’re going to cry again when they lose in the NLDS.
Andrew:Probably so, but listen, it’s a great year. Baseball is fun again. Nick, you can attest to that. Baseball is fun again. Young players. As always, guys, go Braves. Chomp, chomp. Go see our boys at Moe’s.
Nick:You stay classy, and enjoy that queso.