GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday prediction podcast for Florida vs. South Carolina.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the latest with the quarterback position after Kyle Trask was injured on Wednesday.
Andrew and Nick also pick several games around the country, plus give you three players to watch for Florida on Saturday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Friday, Florida, Willie Muschamp. Here we go. Let’s do this. The Gators get back on the winning streak. Unfortunately, Wednesday brought bad news for the quarterback battle.
Nick: For the second year in the row, Kyle Trask’s season will end with a broken foot. Last year it happened in fall camp, and he missed the entire season. This year it comes in a week where he was probably going to get his best chance to start a game. Not guaranteed that he was going to start the game but would have been his best chance to. Comes up and breaks his other foot during a practice on Wednesday, so that ends it. Back to the Feleipe Franks show.
Andrew: Let me ask you this, Nick. Does that pretty much end any chance he had to ever start at Florida?
Nick: I don’t think so.
Andrew: Okay. I was just wondering. I think you and I will agree that there will be some kind of change next year. Dan Mullen and Florida are not going to go into the year with Feleipe Franks as their only option.
Nick: Right. I think Florida will be in the grad transfer market. I think Florida will be looking to see what Emory Jones is and what he develops into over the summer. I think Kyle Trask as well will get a chance. Not to say that he’s going to win it, but I think he’ll still have a chance. I think he stays. Maybe if he doesn’t get in last week as Feleipe Franks is doing so poorly, if he doesn’t get in, then you start to think what am I doing here? I think Kyle Trask will be back at Florida.
Andrew: I think he will too. This is just my take, Nick, and that is when you hear Dan Mullen kind of set things up saying never let a redshirt freshman play, to me he’s setting the bar to tell Emory it’s okay, be patient. I’m going to get a grad transfer to kind of bridge that gap, to let Emory have next year. I’ll say it. I’ll go on the record, Nick. I’ll go on the record here. We’re taping this Thursday, November 8, 2018, and I’m going to say Florida will have a grad transfer playing quarterback for them in 2019.
Nick: That’s a strong take.
Andrew: Just my opinion. I think you and I can both agree that Dan Mullen is not a guy that can sit there and watch bad quarterback play.
Nick: No. More so than anything else, when Will Muschamp was here, we joked he’s fine with whatever the quarterback is, doesn’t love the quarterback situation, but fine with it, but if you have a bad defense that made his blood boil.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: That’s Dan Mullen’s position, quarterback. Yeah. Makes his skin curl.
Andrew: What would you put the odds that there’s a grad transfer? Let me ask you that.
Nick: I’d probably say better than 50%.
Andrew: Okay. So, my bold statement wasn’t as bold.
Nick: Well, they’re not the only ones. That’s what I’m saying. You got to beat out. I mean, Miami has already gone and visited Kelly Bryant, I think. I haven’t even really looked at the entire market, outside of Kelly Bryant, but I know it will be competitive.
Andrew: You got Jalen Hurts, who I think you and I both agree will be out there. There’s always more. I’m not sitting here telling you Florida is going to land Kelly Bryant or Jalen Hurts. I just think that they have a different quarterback plan next year. I don’t see any way, shape, or form Feleipe Franks is the guy next year for 12 games. I feel too strongly about Dan Mullen and his want to at the quarterback spot to feel like he’ll go into it next year.
I understand this year. Dan probably thought, I’m a good enough quarterback coach, I can get him where I am. Then he sees it this year, and he’s like, maybe it’s not me, maybe it’s him. I’m going to fix this quarterback position. I probably don’t feel comfortable going into the year saying Emory Jones will have taken that step to fully be my starter. I’m not sure that Jalon Jones will be that guy either as a freshman, so let me go out and get me a guy who has shown on a national level he can do this. That’s what I believe.
Nick: Really the only option would have been Joe Burrow, and Joe Burrow is barely better than Feleipe Franks right now. He’s completely a lower percentage of his passes. Only has six touchdown passes on the year with four interceptions, 1,700 yards. It wasn’t even so much him saying I’m rolling with Feleipe, because I believe in him. It was more this Burrow kid sucks, and he hasn’t been in the offense, so he’d be four months behind the quarterback who doesn’t really understand and grasp the entire offense already. Do I want to do that?
Andrew: For me, you’re right. That’s a good point on Burrows. I also think it was a feeling out process for Dan.
Nick: He was making that decision very early on after meeting Feleipe.
Andrew: Right. Maybe, well, not maybe. Had Tom Brady walked through the door or been open for it, and I’m saying Tom Brady jokingly, but had a stud quarterback been out there, maybe he takes a swing at it. If this was the year Jarrett Stidham was available from Baylor, maybe he does take a swing at it.
Again, it’s way too early to talk about that. We’ll say this. Prayers up to Kyle. Hopefully he recovers. I will say this. This is, I guess, me being a fan, per se, I was really looking forward to seeing what Kyle would do if he got a chance to start.
Nick: Yeah. I was really looking forward to it as well. I think he is, from a pure passer standpoint, better than Feleipe Franks. I think there was a lot of thought, I guess, in the fans that he didn’t have a strong arm, just because it wasn’t as strong as Feleipe. Feleipe has …
Andrew: He has a rocket.
Nick: Yeah. He’s got a howitzer. He’s got a rocket for an arm. That doesn’t mean Kyle Trask doesn’t have an arm. Kyle Trask can make any throw you ask him to make on a football field. Then I think he’s a physical runner. It goes back to people are not really loving the way Feleipe Franks runs, especially being 6’6” and tentative. I think Kyle Trask has that willingness to drop his shoulder and get those extra yards. He’s just a tougher runner. He’s a big dude. He’s all of 6’4”, 6’5” and 245. He’s a big dude.
Andrew: Right. Unfortunately, Kyle won’t play. That’s out. It’s Feleipe’s team. It’s Feleipe’s season the rest of the way. I’ll stand by my statement. You’ll have to stand by yours. I don’t think that Dan is ready to pull Emory’s redshirt, so I still expect him just to play FSU and then the bowl game, unless something were to happen to Franks. Then all bets are off.
Let me ask you this. I’m going to throw this statement out at you, and this isn’t my view, Nick. Is the pressure off Feleipe now, because he’s not looking over his shoulder? Before you answer that I want to say this. I don’t think there was ever any pressure of him looking over his shoulder at all, because Mullen made that clear.
Nick: Yeah. I don’t think Feleipe has been looking over his shoulder at all this season. You’re probably, maybe your confidence is a little shaken, just because of you’re going into Week 11 now, and you were competing for your job again, where you hadn’t really competed for it since fall camp. Looking over your shoulder? No. I don’t think so at all.
Andrew: Right. Maybe his confidence is there. Maybe it’s not. For me, Nick, in this game, and I know it’s going to sound like a broken record when I say this, but Florida has got to figure out a way to establish the running game. I mean, it’s going to be tougher this week than probably ever before, because Muschamp is going to come into this game knowing, guess what, they don’t want Feleipe to throw the ball very much, so I’m going to go into this game, and I’m going to shut the running game down and force him to and see what happens. Even if that is, they got to figure out a way to run the ball. Mullen has got to get creative and figure out a way to run the ball.
Nick: Playing into that, South Carolina’s only twelfth in the SEC. They’re giving up 182 yards a game on the ground. Agree with you in what you’re saying. Really, I know you said it, and we both probably sound like broken records when we say you got to run the ball, you got to win this turnover battle, you got to make a big play on special teams. We sound like broken records, but until you get a quarterback that makes a defense that flip that and say, we need to stop this guy, then it’s going to be the running game. You still have these great running backs, three great running backs. To me, it starts right where you said, start with winning the running game. Win the game on the ground first. Establish that run. You got to make things easy on Feleipe. You start doing that by softening up a defense with your running game.
Andrew: For me, Nick, it ain’t so much of a turnover battle. Of course, you can’t lose the turnover battle, but Florida is a good enough team that they should not have to create. They’re a better team than South Carolina, they shouldn’t have to create a ton of turnovers to win the game. Now, like I said, they can’t go into this game and turn the ball over three or four times in the game, because if they do that, then all bets are off, and it could get ugly. For me, it’s just a situation where if they can come into the game and just figure out a way to get some kind of offense going in the game. I don’t believe in South Carolina at all, but I also know that if Muschamp comes in and shuts the running game down, and you’re asking Feleipe to throw the ball 20, 25, 30 times and asking him to win the game, it might be a very long game again.
Nick: I can’t watch too many more long games.
Andrew: I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, no matter what, on Saturday, but you and I can hope and pray that it’s not as bad as it was last week.
Nick: This will be a defense, and I asked John Hevesy about it, he had a lot of admiration and respect for Will Muschamp and what Will Muschamp is going to do on defense. He’s going to make Feleipe think by disguising blitzes. Listen, they’re out a lot. They’re on, your boy Chris Clark told you, they’re on safeties five and six, and they’re out a starting defensive end this week. They’ve got like 15 injuries, seven season ending injuries. To me, hurting defense, but Will Muschamp will find a way to create pressure from different areas, give Feleipe Franks looks that he hasn’t seen yet, that he’s not comfortable with.
Andrew: You telling me they’re going to make him think gives me nightmares.
Nick: You think, you play slower. Then you’re slower, and that ball comes out a second later, and now it’s an interception. That’s what Will Muschamp does. He is a defensive genius.
Andrew: Yeah. Let’s go to defense. Got to get pressure. You got to get pressure. A guy like Deebo, you better make that first tackle count with him.
Nick: Yes.
Andrew: You allow him to start breaking tackles, you allow him to get it going, that will be a recipe for disaster if that happens.
Nick: There’s not a ton of, when you look at South Carolina, a ton of guys on offense that you look at and you’re thinking, obviously, Jake Bentley is good. He’s completed 62% of his passes. He got 13 touchdowns. He does turn the ball over though. Not a ton of guys, when you’re looking at South Carolina, that make you think, shoot, got to worry about him. There’s the two running backs, Rico Dowdle, Tyson Williams, and then receiving it’s really just Brian Edwards is having a nice year, 35 receptions, six touchdowns. Deebo Samuel. It’s really just Deebo Samuel, the guy that you look at think that’s the guy, that’s the guy that’s going to hurt us. When you have an offense like that, you can key in on one guy. I think that’s an advantage for a defense that really is looking to and needs to get back on track.
Andrew: That will be the key, getting back on track and finding that swagger. It may start with Todd Grantham a little bit. If Grantham can dial some things up and get some things going to get the defense reenergized, I say this jokingly, but not jokingly at the same time, and that is this defense plays with kind of their heart or their emotions on their sleeve, I guess is the best way to say it. When things are going good, they play really fast. When things start to not go their way, you start to see things. You start to see some heads. You start to see some guys arguing with each other. I’m not calling nobody out. I’m not saying anything bad about nobody, but this is a defense that cannot start slow. It’s one of those things where when they start slow and have a bad quarter, that’s when things kind of go downhill for them for the game.
Nick: Playing with your heart on your sleeve and playing emotional, it can be good. Like you said, if you get a big play, and you get some momentum, that can spur you and send you forward, but also, like you said, when you play like that, and you don’t have a short memory, and you let one play affect the next, it spirals out of control. It can be a good thing, and we’ve seen Florida be able to take bad field position on defense and, like Todd Grantham likes to say, if there’s one blade of grass to defend, put the ball down, we’re going to defend it. You’ve seen them clamp down and play great defense when they didn’t have great situations, but you’ve also seen them kind of just shut down and get sloppy with tackling and get lazy trying to get after the passer. Then you see that thing start, like at the Z, you start to spread, and it goes from just one play to one drive to two drives to an entire bad quarter to an entire bad half.
Andrew: Right. We’ve seen the goal line stand, and that was amazing. Call it like it is. That was amazing. That was good.
Nick: Then Georgia scores on the next two or three drives.
Andrew: Yeah. Then we’ve also seen how many 90+ yard drives? I know three right off hand. You may know more, Nick. I know three right off hand. Two against Georgia and one against Kentucky.
Nick: Yeah. Kentucky, that was like 98?
Andrew: Yes. I believe Georgia had a 97 and 93, something like that. Yeah. You can’t have that happen, for sure. Again, it’s just a circumstance of how do you get yourself motivated? We talked about this. Nobody on this team has got enough in the bag, on film, to say I can quit the rest of the year and go on. None of them are Joey Bosa. Was it Joey? Is Joey the Ohio State guy, or is Joey the guy in the League, Nick?
Nick: Joey’s in the League. Nick.
Andrew: None of them are Nick Bosa, who’s got enough on film already that can say, you know what, I’m done. That’s a motivating factor, but then a pride factor is another thing. Listen, the bowl perks of going to the Citrus Bowl or going to the Outback Bowl compared to the Birmingham Bowl or the …
Nick: Stop saying Birmingham Bowl, please.
Andrew: To the Duck Dynasty Bowl in Shreveport, that’s even worse. It’s such a big difference. It’s a thing. It’s a pride thing. I think what Dan Mullen said at the beginning of the year is something that I think still needs to ring in a little bit, and that is you have to hate losing.
Nick: More than you like winning.
Andrew: I know some people say, how can you say you have to hate losing? Everybody don’t like to lose. Right. Nobody likes to lose, but you have to despise it. Losing has to piss you off so much that you cannot wait to get back on the field on the first play of the game and absolutely knock the shit out of the person in front of you. I don’t know if this team has gotten to that point yet, per se, but that’s what has to happen. You have got to get to the point where you just despise it so much that you can’t wait to get back on the field.
Nick: Yeah. You’ll see it all across the country when it gets to this time. Florida is 6-3. There’s a bunch of guys that have other aspirations, and it’s not just a Florida thing, you’re going to start seeing business decisions being made all over the field. I remember the Birmingham Bowl when DJ Durkin was the interim head coach, and Matt Jones decided I’m not going to play in the bowl game.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: I forget who else. Was it Darious Cummings? No.
Andrew: Darious Cummings got sent home.
Nick: There were a couple people that decided. Andre DeBose. Andre DeBose is another one. I mean, he was in his sixth year. He was like, I’m not playing in this bowl game. I’m just going to get ready. You’re going to see business decisions like that throughout. It’s one thing for a bowl game. It’s another thing, I think, to do it the second week in November.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. I think that’s the biggest thing that has to happen. Again, I feel like I’ve been tough on Mullen, but I also feel like I’ve been fair on him as well. I think there was some bad decisions made in the couple of losses, but I also think that the rest of the year is huge from program building. The guys who may quit or make business decisions not to go hard, get them out. Play young guys. Okay, maybe that young guy is not as good as that guy who’s quitting a little bit, but if that guy is going to give you 150% and hate losing, I like my chances with that guy than somebody who’s going to quit. I’m not saying none of the guys are quitting. I’m just saying if that comes a point where someone is, then you’ve got to make that decision.
Nick: Agree with you 100%. Maybe not even just don’t play them in the game. You might just need to get them away from the team.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: I know that sounds harsh, but even if they’re not playing, that attitude kind of goes through the whole team. It’s kind of a thing like, maybe you had this when you were growing up, I know I did, but it was you didn’t want to do something if you didn’t think it was cool. If I’m a freshman, and I’m looking up to a junior or looking up to a senior, and he was going really hard in practice, that made me want to go hard. Now I see him over there, and it’s someone I look up to, it’s in practice and he’s kind of jogging, maybe I should jog. I don’t want to be seen as the guy that’s trying too hard or trying to do too much. That’s not cool. It might sound silly, but that’s a thing that happens to kids. We’re still watching college football. We’re still talking about kids who are 18, 20 years old.
Andrew: No. You’re exactly right. That’s a key. Again, I’m not saying anybody has quit. I don’t think nobody has. I’m saying if it comes a point in that, then that’s a case. That’s something you have to guard against. That’s something every team that’s not playing for the College Football Playoff or playing for a conference championship have to guard against. That’s not just Dan Mullen, and that’s not just Jim McElwain or Will Muschamp in the past. That’s every school, like I said, that’s not playing for something. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes.
I do think the team will rally around Franks now that he is the guy. He’s the only one left that is going to play, so I do think they’ll kind of rally around him on Saturday.
Nick: Got you. I wanted to touch on one more thing about the defense.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: It’s 3rd down defense. You started the year strong. Charleston Southern converted 3 of 14. Not a good game against Kentucky. Kentucky converted 9 of 13, but then you’re back on track giving up 8 of 20, 8 of 18, 2 of 12 on the road at Mississippi State. I mean, right there, that 30% on the road at Tennessee, at Mississippi State, that’s fantastic. LSU, 4 of 17. Vanderbilt, 3 of 12. Then you get to Georgia. Georgia converts 8 of 14. Missouri converts 11 of 18. I think four touchdowns on 3rd downs in those two games. You’ve got to get off the field, if you’re Florida. You can’t keep extending these drives and letting opposing offenses, not only stay on the field and create longer drives, eat up the clock.
You’ve got to get off the field to give your offense more a chance. This isn’t an explosive offense yet. Florida is not going to need, kind of like in the McElwain era, if you give Florida 50 plays on offense, that ain’t cutting it. They need to run 60, 70, 80 plays on offense to get chances to score, to get chances to flip the field. If I’m Florida’s defense and Tommy Townsend pins the opposing team inside the 20, if we can just get a 3 and out there, and get Freddie Swain getting a punt on the 50-yard line, instead of letting them drive 60 yards and all of a sudden Florida is starting inside the 15. I don’t feel good about Florida’s offense starting a drive inside the 20, inside their own 20. The defense has to step up this week in a big way to help out the offense.
Andrew: I agree with you. I think the biggest thing is, like you said, getting off the field. The thing is it’s vice versa as well. When you don’t get off the field, you also give the other team momentum, and that’s a big, big problem Florida’s had is not being able to get off the field and allowing other people to kind of get going and allow other people, other teams, to have that momentum. I mean, Jake Fromm, three touchdowns on 3rd down. That’s killer. Can’t happen. A lot of that goes back to the no pass rush. There hasn’t been a pass rush since really LSU. Not even the Vandy game was there really a pass rush.
Nick: I’m trying to think back to the Vandy game. I think you’re right. I think you’re pretty on the money there when you’re talking about the Vandy game.
Andrew: I mean, outside of a couple plays in that game, there wasn’t really any pass rush. That’s something that has got to change, or it will be bad news again. It’s not just a push for Jachai to get pressure. It’s a push for everyone. It’s a middle of the defense, of the line, of the defensive tackles, Kyrie Campbell, Elijah Conliffe. It’s all those guys. Those guys have kind of been MIA lately of getting a pass rush. Adam Shuler was a guy who had been making some plays, kind of MIA lately. Really, outside of Jabari, the defensive line has been MIA.
Nick: Florida had 20 sacks through the first six games, including three in the opener. None against Kentucky, but three in the opener. Five against Colorado State. Six at Mississippi State. Five against LSU. Three since. Just one sack against Vanderbilt, Georgia, and Missouri.
Andrew: What’s the turnovers since then too?
Nick: I’ll pull that up. It’ll take me one second.
Andrew: I know it’s gone down.
Nick: Yeah. Turnovers have absolutely gone down. Game log. Let’s see. I’ll give you the margin and how many they’ve gotten. In the last three games have not recovered a fumble and have one interception. They’ve lost four fumbles and thrown two interceptions.
Andrew: The interception was Vandy?
Nick: Interception was against Vanderbilt, and the interception against Georgia. Lost two fumbles against Vanderbilt and lost two fumbles against Georgia.
Andrew: There you go. Can’t happen. Cannot happen. It’s a defense that was doing really well. I don’t think none of us figured that they would continue to lead the country in turnover battle, but what you just said goes kind of hand in hand with what I just said, Nick. When they were getting a ton of pressure, they were forcing teams to make throws that they weren’t ready to, or they were forcing them to try to hand the ball off a little quicker, that kind of stuff. It just hasn’t went. That’s a key for them.
That’s kind of what I was getting at earlier when I said maybe the jumpstart for this team could be Todd Grantham bringing some early pressure and going back to his aggressive style defense of bringing that extra guy off the edge or something along that line. To go with that though, it’s also going to have to be does he trust his defenders to make a tackle when it’s that short pass?
Nick: Yeah. You’re looking at that turnover margin at -5 since Vanderbilt versus +11 before, and not creating them. Not creating them at all. That starts with getting pressure. Fumbles can be luck. Fumbles are way luckier at times, or a lot of times, than interceptions, because it’s a weirdly shaped ball that bounces every which way. Maybe recovering 2, 3, 6, 10 fumbles in the first four games isn’t sustainable, but pressing a quarterback, making him uncomfortable. Dan Mullen talked about it on Monday. When a quarterback is throwing a ball and then instantly trying to move and duck and not get hit, because hit is not fun, that’s when interceptions come. When you got a quarterback that’s throwing the ball and not having to pick himself up off the grass, he starts getting comfortable and those passes start hitting their marks more.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. That’s key. Got to figure out how to get that pressure on the quarterback. Like I said, I don’t think they need to force a ton of turnovers. I mean, that makes things easier, but I just think don’t allow South Carolina to get comfortable.
Nick, give me the one key in this game.
Nick: Score more points that Georgia.
Andrew: Georgia?
Nick: I’m sitting here looking at stats. Score more points than South Carolina.
Andrew: No shit.
Nick: My key is going to be to establish that running game. When I look at South Carolina, I’ve watched a couple of their games, they’re really struggling to stop the run, so I think that’s really where it’s got to come from first and foremost. I’d be looking at Lamical Perine and Jordan Scarlett and even Damien Pierce and telling those guys, we need you this week.
Andrew: Mine is kind of the same thing, but I’ll change it up there and say that it’s tackling. Tackling for the defense. If the defense tackles well and can play fundamentally good ball, then they can keep this team in it and allow Feleipe to figure out a way to settle into the game a little bit and make things happen. That will be my pick.
Nick, you picked first last week, and you went Retire Moms, and you know how that failed.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: I get first pick this week, and I’m going to go with your key, and I’m going to go 22 to have a big game, Lamical Perine.
Nick: I’ll take the other one. I’ll take Jordan Scarlett.
Andrew: Okay. I’m going to go on defense and go with 33 up the middle. David Reese, one guy that I know will not quit. There’s no quit in David Reese at all. Expecting South Carolina to try to run the ball a little bit as well, so I’ll go 33 to have a big week.
Nick: I’m going to go with Jabari Zuniga.
Andrew: Okay. Any reason?
Nick: Just because he’s not Retire Moms this week.
Andrew: Just because he’s not Retire Moms this week. That’s a good one. I’m going to go with his counterpart, not Retire Moms this week, but a guy who Willie Muschamp recruited some, Little Frog, Cece Jefferson. Last SEC game for him in the Swamp. 96 gets a pass rush.
Nick: You could put him on a milk carton. Where has he been?
Andrew: Where has he been? I mean, I guess him and Jachai both. Where they been?
Nick: I’m going to go Brad Stew, B Stew.
Andrew: Think he’ll get his ankle broke again this week?
Nick: Nope, not this week.
Andrew: Okay. Just wondering. He might be still picking up linen off the ground.
Nick: Not this week.
Andrew: Him and Donovan Stiner both tore their girdle and everything else on last couple weeks. Yeah. They were picking up linen all over Jacksonville and Gainesville from the ankle breaks they’ve had.
Nick: Do you have an X factor this week?
Andrew: Evan McPherson.
Nick: You stole mine. I was going to go with Evan.
Andrew: I don’t know if you score too many touchdowns this week.
Nick: You stole mine.
Andrew: 3-2 is my prediction on the score this week.
Nick: First to three wins.
Andrew: First to three wins. First to the colored grass wins.
Nick: Man, I don’t know if they will do the orange.
Andrew: Those were sweet looking.
Nick: I thought it looked great.
Andrew: I thought it was cool. Some teams are getting untraditional. Penn State is going with an alternate uni this week, something I never thought would happen.
Nick: I haven’t seen them yet.
Andrew: I haven’t seen it yet either. I just saw a tweet about it. I’m cool with it. Let’s do the orange and go a little throwback. Listen, this is just me. I’m sure somebody is going to rev me in my mentions and everything else, but uniforms, helmets, whatever it may be, if that really affects the team for winning and losing, for me it’s just an excuse. It’s just another way to figure out an excuse for why the team is bad on certain days. I’m all for changing things up from time to time.
Nick: I love it. Love the uniforms. You got to have a team that handles it well. Don’t get into the locker room and spend two hours taking pictures of it and stunting for the gram and for Snapchat. Just it looks nice. Go out there and play like it’s a normal game. Look good, feel good. Feel good, play good. Play good, get paid good.
Andrew: That’s right. Nick, not a great week for games this week. Couple of interesting games, I would say. What you got first? What game you want to pick first?
Nick: I got them in order here. We’re going to start with TCU at #9 West Virginia.
Andrew: I mean, you’re asking me not to pick my guy. I’m going with the fighting Willie Griers.
Nick: I’m never going to pick against Willie Grier.
Andrew: I mean, come on now. That throw last week, oh my word.
Nick: Oh yeah.
Andrew: That’s an NFL throw. Question. First pick in the Draft?
Nick: No.
Andrew: I don’t think so either. For Will, I hope he’s not the first pick. I mean, who wants to go, who’s the first? Is the Jets the first pick again or the Bills? Might be the Giants. It’s one of those. I don’t know. It’s somebody, not a good football team. So, I’m going with the fighting Will Griers.
Nick: The Bills are at 2-7. The Raiders right now, 1-7.
Andrew: The Raiders. Yeah, they’re not picking a quarterback. They got Derek Carr.
Nick: Raiders and Giants are both 1-7. Jon Gruden is not making much sense out there, so he could.
Andrew: Chucky. Chucky ain’t doing good.
Nick: We both go West Virginia. Number two is #10 Ohio State at #18 Michigan State. I think this is an interesting one. Don’t think Michigan State is all that great, but what’s going on with Urban and what’s happening up there in Columbus?
Andrew: Sparty.
Nick: Just because.
Andrew: I mean, Urban is about to retire. Sparty.
Nick: Okay. I’m going to go with Ohio State. I don’t know why, and I don’t feel great about it.
Andrew: I mean, Ohio State was losing to Nebraska. Nebraska, Nick. Scotty Frost, Nebraska. I don’t think so. Give me Sparty.
Nick: #16 Mississippi State on the road at Alabama.
Andrew: Joe Moorhead said the losing streak would end this week. Is he dumb? Is he dumb, Nick?
Nick: I don’t know if he’s dumb, but he’s wrong.
Andrew: I mean, what are you thinking? Really? Did you really think the losing streak, what are you thinking? Like Alabama needs more bulletin board material? 23.5 point favorites, over-under at 53. I think Alabama covers the 53 by themselves and cruises.
Nick: Alabama doesn’t need you to give them bulletin board material. If you remember the run to the playoffs last year, they were making up stuff and putting it up in their locker room. It was like Alabama’s overrated – National Media. What? No. National media has been singing your praises all year long. Everyone’s been singing your praises all year long. I’m going Alabama. Big. Not close. Ugly game. Tua doesn’t play in the fourth.
Andrew: Yeah. What was it? What was Saban saying it was? Poison?
Nick: Rat poison.
Andrew: Rat poison. That’s right. That’s what it was. Rat poison. Alabama cruises. They cover the 53 points by themselves.
Nick: #11 Kentucky on the road in the hills at Rocky Top. Kentucky at Tennessee.
Andrew: Kentucky, this one is a weird one for me, Nick, because this is the same thing we talked about with Florida, and that is does this Kentucky team quit? I mean, what’s Josh Allen playing for? What’s Benny Snell playing for? Those guys, I mean, outside of the Draft, their hopes and dreams of making it to Atlanta are over, but I think those guys are a pride factor, and they would do anything to win 10 games. Give me the Wildcats, the bluegrass boys.
Nick: Yeah. That’s funny. You spend a minute talking about what does Kentucky have to play for, and then pick them.
Andrew: Yeah. I just, that’s a pride factor to those guys, Nick. Those guys going out and saying they won 10 games, that’d be huge for them.
Nick: I agree with that.
Andrew: They got an outside shot to make the Peach Bowl.
Nick: That’d be something for them.
Andrew: You know what I’m saying? They got an outside shot. Who you got?
Nick: I’m going to go Kentucky.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: We’ve only picked on separate game now. Maybe it changes here. #24 Auburn at #5 Georgia. Georgia has already locked up the SEC, but they’re still trying to get into the playoff.
Andrew: Not a chance in hell I pick Gus Malzahn.
Nick: The Gus bus. AD just came out and said he’s going to be back next year.
Andrew: You said it. You said they would never pay that payout, and they ain’t.
Nick: It’s too much money.
Andrew: What’s the over? What’s the point spread on this game? Let me pull this up real quick. Because I don’t even think it’s just fair. We’re both going to pick Georgia here. It’s 14. Georgia cruises. They get that 14.
Nick: At home?
Andrew: They’re covering.
Nick: That’s a lot of points. They cover.
Andrew: That’s a lot of points. They cover. Is that the last game we got?
Nick: We got South Carolina and Florida, but that’s it.
Andrew: Let me ask you this. I’m going to throw this one at you. We didn’t pick it. Clemson-Boston College. Boston College keep it close?
Nick: No.
Andrew: Neither do I. Okay. Gators-Willie Muschamp. Nick, what you got?
Nick: I’m trying to think here. I was picking well throughout the year. Let’s see. I picked Charleston Southern right, missed Kentucky, picked Colorado State right, picked Tennessee right, missed Mississippi State. We both went Florida over LSU, didn’t we?
Andrew: No.
Nick: You picked LSU.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: I picked Florida. Then I picked Florida to beat Vanderbilt. We both picked Georgia. We both picked Florida against Missouri. So, I’ve missed Missouri. I’ve missed Mississippi State, and I’ve missed Kentucky. I’ve missed three on the year. I’m going to go with Florida to beat South Carolina, and I don’t feel good about it. South Carolina has won a lot of really close games. I think this one will be close. I’m almost talking myself out of it. I’m going to go Florida, before I talk myself out of it.
Andrew: I almost talked myself out of it as well, but I do feel like Florida is a better football team. What tells me Florida wins this game? Maybe they’re at home, that’s it. I don’t even know if they cover the six-point spread though. Yeah. Florida wins, but don’t put a gun to my head and ask me why.
Nick: Yeah. Me either.
Andrew: Because I personally can see this going either way. Here’s the thing for me, Nick, and this is going to sound wild. I can see South Carolina blowing Florida out.
Nick: Really?
Andrew: Easily. I think it easily can turn. If the game starts out as bad as it does for Feleipe Franks as it did in the Missouri game.
Nick: You don’t see them coming back?
Andrew: No. I don’t. I think if you go down big, if you go down two scores, it could get out of hand, because I don’t think Emory Jones plays. I don’t. Not unless Feleipe gets hurt. Maybe they throw it to Kadarius Toney. Let Kadarius play quarterback.
Nick: Stop it. You’re going to incite that again. He’s not a quarterback.
Andrew: Feleipe is?
Nick: More so than.
Andrew: Stop it. Here we go. The campaign is on. Twitter, get it rolling. Somebody @ Dan Mullen. Kadarius Toney for quarterback, for QB1.
Nick: I don’t like what you’re doing.
Andrew: I do.
Nick: I don’t like what you’re doing.
Andrew: Well, I do. I just want to see somebody play quarterback that can do it.
Nick: I think you would see one drive of it and be ready to be done.
Andrew: I’ve seen enough of 13 playing quarterback, Nick, that I don’t need to see that anymore. I’d be good the rest of my life without ever having to watch that again. I’m good. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here. We’ll see everyone on Monday as we preview Gators and the, is it still the Idaho Vandals?
Nick: Still the Vandals. The mighty Vandals of Idaho.
Andrew: Only thing I know about Idaho is they are the Vandals. Don’t even know what’s in the state of Idaho. Wait, Idaho potatoes, right? Yeah. There you go.
Nick: Potatoes.
Andrew: They’re the state that looks like they’re pointing the middle finger at you, or the pointer finger at you.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: Tell everybody where they can find us.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. Podcast is anywhere you listen to podcasts. Just search @GatorCountry. Subscribe. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC, and he’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.
Andrew: There you go. Guys, we appreciate it. As always, chomp, chomp and go Braves.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.