GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we preview the Florida Gators match-up against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on Wednesday.
Andrew Spivey and Seth Varnadore breakdown the game for the Gators and the keys for Florida against Oklahoma.
Andrew and Seth also recap some of the keys for the Gators against Alabama and what else is going around the program.
TRANSCRIPT:
Cotton Bowl Preview for Florida vs Oklahoma
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with my man, Seth. Seth, we’re back. I got to get you a good intro here. I got to keep thinking on it. If any fans have got a good intro, let me know how we can get Seth. I have to mess with you in some way. I got to figure it out. We’re back. Took a little break for Christmas and getting ready for the Gators and Oklahoma out in the Cotton Bowl. I don’t know. I think this is the second time ever for Florida out in the Cotton Bowl, if I’m not mistaken? It’s been a long time.
Seth:It hasn’t been very many, that’s for sure. Only the second time ever playing Oklahoma too, so this should be an interesting matchup.
Andrew:Dan Mullen-Lincoln Riley. I think two of the best offensive minded coaches in football. Not just college, but football in general. This is an Oklahoma team that’s gotten better as the year has progressed. Spencer Rattler has done well. I think this is a game that you’ll see a lot of points being scored, but maybe just maybe this is an opportunity for Florida’s defense to kind of come in and know that Spencer’s going to throw the ball more than he’s going to run the ball. After you faced Alabama, it is a little bit of a step down in Oklahoma.
Seth:They’re not as good as they’ve been traditionally on offense. I think when you think Oklahoma, you’re thinking that super explosive offense. They’re still really efficient, because Lincoln Riley is a really good playcaller and schemes everything really well, and they’re talented, but I don’t think they have any guys, there’s no NFL first round Draft picks at receiver. There’s no CD Lamb. There’s guys that might get there, but they’re young.
Andrew:No Hollywood Brown, with the Ravens now. That’s the thing you look at with Oklahoma traditionally. They’ve been very good in the skill position, and they’re not bad at the skill position, by any means.
Seth:No. They’re young.
Andrew:They’re young. You don’t have that one just explosive player that they’ve had. We talked about Hollywood. We talked about CD Lamb. Those guys. They don’t really have that guy. I think that that is a good thing and a bad thing for Florida. It’s a good thing in that you don’t have to worry about a Devonta Smith. But it’s also a bad thing because they’re going to spread the ball around, and that’s where Florida gets into trouble.
Seth:They got some young guys that can go, but they don’t have that one consistent threat. It eases up a little bit. You don’t have to do as much doubling and stuff, you wouldn’t imagine, as you had to against Alabama, but they’re still pretty talented. They got a quarterback that’s got a lot of talent that can throw in some tight windows. They’re not going to be an easy opponent to play on the defensive side of the ball, that’s for sure.
Andrew:I’m very high on Spencer Rattler. I think he’s got a rocket of an arm. I think in Lincoln Riley’s offense he’ll do well. You go through the quarterbacks. Baker, Kyler, Jalen Hurts. That’s tough to follow those three guys. Again, we look at it, and we say they didn’t have a good year, but they only had two losses. They won the Big 12, for whatever that’s worth. I think they’ve continued to improve this. Like you said, I think this is a good matchup for Florida. It’s an opportunity to go out and showcase against another big opponent.
You were on national television a couple weeks ago against Alabama, and I think you put some respect on the logo by your performance. Now go out and end your season on a high note against Oklahoma. Take that into the offseason and continue to build up. The expectations are going to be the same next year. You’re going to expect to get to Atlanta and win next year, whether that’s fair or not fair. Your expectations continue to rise every year.
Seth:Yeah. I think this is going to be an interesting matchup for Florida offensively. Oklahoma’s defense traditionally you don’t think of them as being very good defensively. It’s usually the opposite. They’re pretty terrible. They’ve been pretty good by a lot of metrics this year. I just don’t know how good the Big 12 has been on offense this year. It’s almost like they’re kind of trending more towards some better defenses. You have Oklahoma State that was pretty tough on defense. Baylor with Aranda is pretty tough now. The SEC is starting to trend the opposite, where the offenses are better in the SEC. Oklahoma’s got a good defense number wise, but it’ll be interesting to see how they matchup with Florida, who is one of the top, maybe top 2 or 3 offenses in the country, even with Kyle Pitts not going to be playing in the game.
Andrew:I think that’s a key to continue to watch. It does look like most of the guys are going to play in the game. Kyle Trask is going to play. It does look like Toney and Grimes and those guys are going to play in the game. I think that was a big key. People have asked me, and we’ll talk about it now. They said, why play in this game? Seth, you’ve been on the field just like I have. You’re a competitor. Yes, there’s the risk of injuries, but 90% of guys that does not go through their head, I may get hurt, because it’s just another game for them and another opportunity. I feel like most of these guys want that one more game. Does it mean anything? No, not really, but it’s another opportunity to play.
For a guy like Kyle Trask, it’s an opportunity to play in his home state. For a guy like Kadarius Toney, it’s another opportunity to continue to rise up Draft boards even more. Then a guy like Trevon Grimes, he may be the beneficiary of Kyle Pitts not playing in the game. So, go out and have a big game and end your career on the right note. Nobody wants to go out with a loss.
Seth:I was going to say exactly that. You don’t want to go out. If you got a chance to go out with a win, you’d rather do that than go out with a loss in the SEC Championship game. You get the opportunity to kind of have the national stage to yourself too. Even the SEC Championship was mostly by itself. There’s still some games on around it. This game will be the only game on at that time. It’ll be in the middle of the week. You’ll have pretty much the whole country watching. That’ll be a good way to put a stamp on the season, put a stamp on your career and go out and get yourself some momentum going into the pre-Draft process, if you’re a guy that’s looking to leave. I think you got a lot to play for. If you were worried about getting hurt, you’d never play.
Andrew:Yeah. If you’re worried about it, you’re going to get hurt, because you’re going to be slow, and then that’s when an ankle injury or an ACL injury or whatever it is comes out and happens. You have to play just like it’s a regular game, and I think they will.
Seth:Yeah. I think all these guys want to go out on a high note here at the end of the season. Put a nice cap on kind of the turnaround this group has helped lead from two, three years ago to where they are now. A win against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl would be a nice sendoff.
Andrew:You would think about it, then you’d have a Peach Bowl win to your name, an Orange Bowl win to your name, and a Cotton Bowl win to your name. None of those are the College Football Playoff and none of those are the SEC Championship, but that’s something to be proud of. There’s only one team that gets to walk away with the College Football trophy every year. I don’t know, Seth, if you were told this, or if you preached this, but my head coach always preached this to our teams. Only a select few teams get to go out every year and into the offseason with a win. Be one of those teams.
Seth:Yup. If you got a chance to go out a winner, you got to take advantage of it. You don’t want to go into the offseason. Those losses really hurt going into the offseason. They can linger for a little bit, so you want to get that win, get that nice momentum going into the offseason. Got to get you hungry for next year.
Andrew:Let’s get into some more stuff with this game. Obviously, Kyle Trask is going to play a lot. That’s going to be Mullen’s respect to Kyle. Obviously, Emory is going to get some run in this game, maybe Anthony Richardson. I doubt it, but Emory is definitely going to get some run, and some young guys are going to get some run in this game. What are some guys that you want to see get some reps in this game, more than they have all year?
Seth:I think maybe some of the young offensive linemen would be nice to see. Kind of let them get some looks. Now, what’s difficult is this isn’t your traditional bowl prep.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:To where you could get a bunch of practices in, you can get some more of those young guys that hadn’t played a lot of reps. It’d be nice to see some of those guys play. Some of the young skill guys. I’d love to see some more of the young receivers play, with Pitts being out. They rotate them in quite a bit, but let’s see some of those young guys there. I think there’s guys you can sprinkle in all over on defense to get some reps. I think the most important thing is winning the game. If you can do that and get some of these young guys some experience, that’s kind of a double win.
Andrew:Obviously, Tarquin and Josh Braun are two guys as well. I want to see a guy like a William Harrod or a Kingsley or a Griffin McDowell, because next year you could potentially need another guard. If you don’t sign a grad transfer or a transfer at tackle, Richard Gouraige is going to have to play tackle. Then you’re going to have an open spot at left guard. I want to see one of those guys potentially come in and get some playing time.
Like you said, I think that we have to simmer down our expectations a little bit. The Gators didn’t practice until Saturday before this. They had virtual stuff all last week and then had Christmas and Christmas Eve off. So, there hasn’t been but three practice and a walkthrough on Tuesday, and they’re not even going out to Dallas until Tuesday. You don’t even have your traditional 13 practices that you usually would for this game. I think that will hurt some, but still a guy like Braun and a guy like Tarquin, they’ve played enough this year that they’re ready to go. No offense to Stewart Reese and Jean Delance, but they’re seniors. Split some reps with those guys to see are they going to be able to go next year and be the player you thought they were. Then what are they going to do?
Also, like you said, I want to see Jaquavion Fraziers play more. I want to see Xzavier Henderson get some more run. Then I would definitely like to see Keon Zipperer get more reps at that tight end spot with Pitts out of the game. Just seem some young guys and kind of get a glimpse, but also get those guys some tape to watch in the offseason.
Seth:I think it would be a good spot, especially for the guys up front. Oklahoma has some talented guys up front. Ronnie Perkins is a rush end they have, pretty talented guy. Probably going to be a Draft pick down the line. You get yourself a good test too, so as you’re going into that offseason you know this a pretty good group they’re playing right here. How do they handle it? So, I think this would be a good spot to get some of those guys in in a game that it counts, but not really.
Then like you said, I would be interested to see more Zipperer too, just because of all they hype he had coming in. You can see flashes of that talent. Love to see him in a more expanded role and see more of what he can do.
Andrew:For me with Zipperer, the ability is there. The question for me is is he more of a H back, or can he move and end up being, obviously not Kyle Pitts. There’s only one Kyle Pitts. The guy’s a freak. Can he play the tight end role of Kyle Pitts, where you can line him up outside and run mismatches, or is he more of that H back style tight end? I think that’s a question that we still have. Obviously, one game is not going to answer that. He has shown at times where he can be that guy, but that’s something I think you need to see as well.
On the defensive side of the ball, I want to see some run with those young guys up front. Bogle, Chatfield, GervonDexter, those guys. Turn them loose a little bit. Let them go get the quarterback. I know you say you want to win this game, and obviously you do, but you also want to continue to use this bowl game as a developmental thing for next year. That’s what the bowl games were basically meant to be, especially with the practices.
Seth:Those guys, you say you still want to win, those guys played a good bit in the SEC Championship game. So, that wasn’t a game you weren’t trying to win.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:They were trying to win that one too, so I think you’ll see some more reps from those guys, and that’s not a bad thing. They played pretty well, I thought, in their reps against Alabama. This will just give them another opportunity.
Andrew:I’ll say this, and I’ve said it all year long. You’ve said it the last few weeks as well. Trey Dean’s your safety. He showed that against Alabama. First of all, he had the really good pick. Had the unfortunate fumble in the game, but overall he played really good safety. I know we’re getting off topic a little bit here, but Trey Dean’s your guy. Continue to run Trey Dean out there and see. The question mark is is it Rashad Torrencethat is the guy starting next to him next year, or is it maybe Corey Collier or another freshman coming in starting next to him? Let’s see a lot of Torrence and Dean kind of playing that safety spot.
Now, you will be down a corner, because Chester Kimbrough has entered the transfer portal. It’ll be Jaydon Hill and Kaiir Elam getting most of your run at corner.
Seth:It’s strange to say after giving up so many points, but I thought Florida’s defense played better than expected overall against Alabama. There was a lot of self-inflicted mistakes, but they got two or three stops in the first half, including Trey Dean’s great interception. Then you give them back with a fumble, then a couple penalties took some stops you had off the board. If you would have told me going into the game that Florida was going to get three stops in the first half, I would have taken that for sure.
I thought they played better, and then Trey Dean was a guy that played well. I thought Brad Stewart played one of the best games of the year. Maybe one of his best games of his career. He played really well playing nickel. Obviously, it wasn’t good enough, but you saw some improvement from some guys. You just can’t make those self-inflicted mistakes against a team as good as Alabama.
Andrew:Like you said, they had two stops where it was penalties. The Zach Carter hands to the face, that was BS, but whatever. Kyree Campbell not getting off the field, and they have a 12 man on the field at the time. Then they had two drives where they were 4th and 1, and they just didn’t get a stop. I say they had two more drives, obviously they didn’t get a stop. Still, forced a 4th down.
Then in the second half they did play much better at times. I thought Florida’s offense didn’t do the defense many justices a couple times, but they did play much better. The one key in that was there was a lot of freshmen. You look in the back end, lot of freshmen playing. You look up at the front as well, and that was Gervon Dexter playing more. Chatfield had a big sack in the game. You saw a lot of those guys that were younger playing in the game, and I think that’s a big thing and what I want to see in this game on Wednesday as well. Kind of let Grantham turn it loose a little bit and let some of these guys go and just play free a little bit.
Seth:What do you got to lose? One thing when you watch Oklahoma, I’ve had to watch them for some other stuff I’ve done throughout the season, Spencer Rattler will turn the ball over when he’s pressured. They’re not quite as good up front as they’ve been in the past, where they’ve been winning like the Joe Moore Award for the top offensive line in the country. They’re not quite as good as they’ve been up front in the past.
I think this is a team you could get some pressure on them, and Rattler, when he has pressure, he has made some mistakes this year. Now, he’s been taking better care of the ball as of late, but you can throw on the Kansas tape. Kansas gets some pressure on him, and he rolls out, tries to throw late across his body, and gets picked off against a really bad Kansas team. Kansas got to him clean a few times. I think this would be a great game for Florida to turn up the pressure and see if they can force a young quarterback into making some mistakes. They tried to on Mac Jones, but Mac Jones just did a really good job of understanding where the ball needs to go to beat this particular blitz, and Alabama’s backs are unbelievable picking up blitz too. They tried to, but it didn’t work.
Andrew:It doesn’t hurt when Najee Harris can catch the ball out of the backfield like he does either.
Seth:Oh yeah. I think after the first drive I was like, if you can get some good odds on Najee Harris being the MVP of this game, you might want to go ahead and jump on that. You could see a big game was coming from him.
Andrew:They sent us our MVP ballots in the stadium in the middle of the second quarter, and I was joking. I was like, would they get mad if I just went ahead and sent my ballot in for Najee? At the time he’d already had three touchdowns and 150 something. That’s what I was going to say though is you’re not going to face a better offensive line than you just faced.
Seth:No. I thought they played pretty well. They didn’t just get rolled over in the run game, and they got more pressure, I think, than anybody’s gotten on Mac Jones all season.
Andrew:Yeah. That’s exactly what I was going to say. They got pressure on him. Mac Jones is just a really good quarterback. I know people say he’s just benefitting from a great team. Yeah, he sure is. He is benefitting from a great team, but he’s also smart. He also understands that when the pressure comes just dump it off to my back, and my back is going to get yards.
Also, this is the biggest thing Florida’s problem is, and that is Florida cannot tackle. They can’t. They miss too many tackles, and that was the situation with Najee. They would try to tackle him, ankle tackle him. You’re not going to do that. You’ve got to wrap up and bring him down. It wasn’t a situation of Florida just getting bullied up front. They were in several situations where they were in position to make a play and just simply didn’t make a play.
Agreed on getting pressure on Oklahoma. Yes, they are a decent offensive line. Spencer Rattler is going to get rid of the ball, but you still like your chances to get pressure there. Any time you get pressure helps out your secondary, and that’s a big plus for this team.
I think for me, Seth, how does the linebackers play? That is Ventrell and James. Those two guys could get exposed a little bit in this game, just like they did in Alabama, but Florida and Grantham did adjust in that and brought in Mohamoud Diabateand brought in Burney and those guys to play more of the running back and slot receiver. I think you’ll see more of that. I don’t think you’ll see James Houston and Ventrell going out and having huge games.
Seth:Oklahoma, what they’re going to do a really good job of, they always will under Lincoln Riley, is putting those guys in conflict, with RPO stuff, pass games, it spreads the field really wide from sideline to sideline, so you got to cover people. Then there’s the play action stuff off their run game. They’ll be similar to Alabama in some of that stuff. You’ll see a lot of counter, and you’ll see the play action off the counter, and it’s tough, really tough on a linebacker. They’re not going to make it easy on you.
You saw during the game, and I may have a video going out today. We’re recording on Sunday. I talked with a coach, and we went through and looked at the Alabama game. Florida did some interesting stuff up front to try to combat the run stuff and use the linebackers in a few different ways. Some of those guys, you could see them get better as the game went along, as they got more reps at it. It’ll be interesting to see if they can kind of carry over that improvement and those adjustments into this game, where they’re going to face, I think, a somewhat similar schematic offense.
Andrew:Florida definitely stunted more up front.
Seth:Yes. They moved a ton.
Andrew:That was something you didn’t see a lot this year, but it has been more of a staple in Grantham’s defense is Florida stunting a lot. Also, you saw Florida really try to get their pass rusher in situations to make the best play, and you hadn’t seen that a lot this year. You hadn’t seen them moving around more and adjusting to different formations when they went in motion. You didn’t see a lot of that adjustment, but Florida definitely did. They stunted a lot more in the game. A couple times it hurt them, because Najee found the open hole that they left, but a lot of times it created situations to make plays in the game. I think that was a credit to Bogle, Chatfield, Dexter, and some of those other guys as well.
Seth:They did a really good job. Like you said, they were moving a little bit, and they’d also do some interesting stuff. There was one play in particular that had Brenton Cox on the end. They moved, and then they folded him back inside, so he almost came and like replaced where the linebacker was, and the run cut right back to him, and he was able to make a tackle for like a two-yard gain. They did a lot more moving up front, and that’s kind of what you have to do against these really good offenses. I wonder if we’ll see, I’m kind of hoping you do see that translate into this next game against Oklahoma, but that’ll be interesting to see if they keep that same kind of movement up front, because I think they can use that to their advantage against Oklahoma.
Andrew:When you’re a team who is lost, and I say lost, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, but it is what it is, lost defensively, I think you have to try to get creative and try to get to a point where you just confuse the offense more than you would in a normal setting, just because you have to figure out a way to get your defense any advantage possible against an offense. Again, is Oklahoma’s offense as good as it has been? No. It isn’t, but it’s still very good.
Seth:They’re still really efficient. One number you can look at is success rate. That’s kind of did you get the necessary yardage? On first down are you get five yards? If it’s 3rd and 2, are you converting 3rd downs? They’re 14th in the country in success rate on offense. They’re still pretty good. They’re very efficient. Just for reference, Florida is 8th. So, they’re not quite as good as Florida, but they’re still a very good offense.
Andrew:Right. Like you said, or like we said at the beginning, Lincoln Riley is going to have his boys ready to go. Just like Mullen does, Lincoln Riley is going to scheme up to Florida’s weaknesses defensively, and that’ll be a big key going into this game as well.
To get a little further into some things here, we’ll talk about that Bama game. We won’t recap the whole thing, but for me, Seth, the game showed me two things. Florida has gotten better, and Florida isn’t to the physicality standpoint that Bama is just yet. I think that is kind of what’s separating these two teams. When you look at Alabama physically up front, and even in their skill positions, they just out physicaled Florida a lot, and I think that’s a big step that’s got to improve this off season.
Seth:Yeah. You see kind of the broken tackles, missed tackles on defense. Then offensively, I believe that the fumble from Trask was you had a speed rusher come around the edge. Trask looked to step up, and you have your guard getting pushed back into his lap basically, and he’s got nowhere to go. So, it’s really up front is kind of the big difference, I think, between the two teams. Florida’s closing the gap a little bit. I was surprised how well they played defensively against Alabama up front, just getting pressure and things like that, because nobody’s really gotten pressure on Mac Jones this year. That was kind of interesting to see that Florida was the team that got there the most.
I thought there’s some things that show kind of what’s the limit of the Florida offense this year, as good as they’ve been. The run game hasn’t been there, and this is something they may have been holding back, but teams started to, when Florida would go empty, and you never seen anybody play a Dan Mullen offense like this.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:When Florida goes empty, they’re taking their linebacker and having them kind of look outside of the receivers. They’re basically leaving a four man box with just their down linemen, and Florida was able to take advantage and run a little bit, but there was a time where I think they had a quarterback power on, and you just see that Trask isn’t quite that guy in the run game. There is a hole, and he kind of runs into his lineman a little bit, but that cost them a drive, and every drive was really important against this Alabama offense. They’re close, but just a couple little things. They’re almost there, but not quite.
Andrew:I think that was a thing that disappointed me a little bit in the game was I would have liked to see Nay’QuanWright get some more play in the game. When Florida went nobody in the box, and they just went with their four down linemen that we’re talking about here, Alabama went to a five wide with Najee Harris in the slot. They were just running slant routes, the angle routes, and just different things like that, because it was easy money with a linebacker or a safety. That’s where I think I would have liked to see more in this game with Florida.
Now obviously Florida’s running backs aren’t Najee Harris, but I would have liked to see more of that. They did take advantage of it a couple times with Kyle Pitts, but I’d like to see it more. I think too that will be something that you’ll see more of with Emory Jones. They’re not going to go empty very often against Emory Jones, because he will just absolutely make them pay. Kyle Trask did at times. I was screaming. We were in the press box, and our press box angle was the endzone. That’s where we were at, in the endzone. I was like, please, just run the ball with Kyle right up the middle. You got five on four.
Seth:Yeah. You should win. That’s kind of that one drive where he had three or four runs in the drive. That’s what it was. This is something when you talked about Florida was maybe saving stuff, that opportunity was there against Tennessee. That opportunity was there against LSU, but they didn’t call those runs, for whatever reason. Against Alabama, in a game you have to win, that’s when they kind of pulled it out, and it’s there. I think they tried. They kind of adjusted, what you’re saying, to try to get the back a little more involved.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:It was kind of one of their adjustments. I don’t think that was initially what they were thinking, because they did, I believe they put Nay’Quan Wright out. They motioned him out and he had a linebacker on him, and they just threw them. If the linebacker was off, they just threw him the hitch. I think it was the same drive. Then they got a couple of those pass interference calls with the linebackers matched up on the running back. They had seemed to adjust to it, but I would have liked to see more of that, because those guys did seem to have an advantage over the Alabama linebackers in space.
Andrew:Right. I think that that’s something that you’ll continue to see more of. Demarkcus Bowman will be the guy to do that. He is an all-around four down back. We’ve talked about it, but I don’t think we’ve stressed it enough. Florida doesn’t have a four down back on the team right now. Nay’Quan is probably your closest guy, but Malik’s not that good in the running game. Dameon Pierce is getting better in the passing game, but still isn’t that great in the passing game. Lorenzo Lingard is still just not healthy. I think that’s a thing that we don’t talk about enough is needing that four down running back, and I think that’s what Demarkcus Bowman brings.
Seth:You saw it on the other side of the field. Najee Harris is just a beast in the run game, and he’s also, I think, their second leading receiver in terms of catches. He’s a nightmare, because he can catch just as well as a receiver, and then you get him matched up on linebackers, and they have no shot. You’re looking for that guy, a guy that can be that matchup nightmare, like you have at tight end with Kyle Pitts. You need kind of the same thing out of the backfield, a guy that can run and then, if you match him up on linebackers in the passing game, a guy that’s going to win consistently.
Andrew:Right. That’s something they’ll continue to do in that. You look at just overall though, like you said, they matched up better than we thought they would in the game. You see what they have to do to take a step. Alabama was just, they’re more physical. That’s just what it is. They’re more physical up there, and that’s what Florida has to do in order to be that elite team. We talk about it. Everything is won on the line of scrimmage, and that’s where that game was won on Saturday.
Seth:You know that Mullen’s got to see it.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:Saw it in person. He knows what he’s got on that offense. He knows his guys. He saw what the standard in the SEC, and really the standard in the country. That’s it. That’s the playoff. That’s the championship standard right there.
Andrew:Yeah.
Seth:You got to compare yourself right to it. You got the film to look at it, and you know kind of where you need to make your changes and where you need to improve. He’s a guy that’s shown the ability to kind of make those changes and kind of improve. They’ve gotten better each year he’s been here, so he got the template. He got the blueprint. Now he’s just got to go make the changes and those fixes.
Andrew:Everybody is wanting to talk about the changes on the defensive staff. That’s not going to happen till after the bowl game. Do I think some change happens? Absolutely. 100%. You can’t look at this year and not make changes. You can’t. That’s just the nature of the business. That’s the world we live in right now. Is it fair? No, probably not. College football is a money game and winning is everything. You don’t have it happen, and you allow records to be broken. I think it was the first time Florida has ever lost when scoring 40 points. That’s insane. It’s crazy.
Seth:You have three losses on the year, and you scored, I think 34 was the lowest point total. That’s crazy at Florida. Coaching is a tough gig. I had a coach tell me, a guy I worked with, he said, listen, there’s only two types of coaches. Coaches that have been fired and coaches that are going to be fired. It just happens in this business. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad coach necessarily. Sometimes you just need a different voice.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:Sometimes it just gets to that guys need a different voice. They need a different set of eyes looking at the same guys. I hesitate, and I think you would agree with me, I don’t think any of these guys are bad coaches.
Andrew:No.
Seth:We’re talking about the top 1% of 1% on Earth are these guys, in terms of coaching. It’s just sometimes you need a different voice. You need a different set of eyes on things. It’ll be interesting to see what direction they go, if they go any direction at all.
Andrew:Yeah. Like you said, even the great ones get fired. Saban was run out of Miami. Belichick was run out of the Browns back there. Everything is about the situation you get put in. Whoever replaces Nick Saban at Alabama is going to have an incredibly talented football team. Look at what Urban had with Ron Zook. Ron Zook didn’t have bad football players, just didn’t know how to do it. Jim McElwain didn’t have bad football players. Look at the guys he has right now. They’re really good football players. Guess what? He just couldn’t coach them up to be elite like Mullen’s done.
Again, I don’t know who all will be replaced. I do think there will be some changes to be made. It’ll be interesting to see what direction they go in, like you said, what style. Do they want to continue to run the style of defense Grantham wants to run, or do they want to kind of change it up? I think you would agree with me when I say this, and that is defense is evolving in a different way. No longer do you need to be the meanest linebackers up front. You need to be the most versatile linebackers who can do a little bit of both, and that’s crazy to think, but the old-school linebackers of the Brian Urlachersaren’t needed anymore.
Seth:You don’t need those big in the box only thumpers anymore. You’re going to face very few teams that you’re going to have to play that way against, and most of the ones you do nowadays aren’t the teams that are at the top, the elite teams. None of the elite teams are running that pro style two back, run the ball down your throat stuff. It’s the teams with lesser talent, so you can kind of overwhelm them with talent. You got to get the guys who can play and match up on these explosive offenses nowadays. The game has definitely changed, even in the last two or three years.
Andrew:Yes.
Seth:It’s totally different than it was 10 years ago. It’s a totally different game on defense.
Andrew:You look back at Alabama, for instance. Dylan Moses was a guy who was a thumper at middle linebacker. A thumper. Nick Saban loved him, called him his future CJ Mosley of his defense and stuff like that. On Saturday, Mosely was exposed at times, because guess what? That thumper of a linebacker can’t cover in space, and he had two pass interference calls against him. They’re having to recruit different style linebackers, and that’s a big thing. That’s a thing that I think we’re all looking for answers. You and I were talking about it before we got on the air. Does Florida have a true middle linebacker on the team, outside of Ventrell and James Houston? I think the answer is no.
Seth:We were kind of saying, how many of these guys that you have linebacker were true linebackers in high school? A lot of them, you get some of these guys that were more safety type guys, and then you get some of these guys that were more rush end type guys. It’s kind of even trickling down to the high school level where you have very few true big bodied middle linebackers, that traditional Dick Butkus, that 250-pound plug. There’s not really any of those. They’re not making any of those anymore. Those guys play defensive end now.
Andrew:Exactly. That’s exactly what you say. For instance, a guy like Diwun Black. He was more of a safety. You look at Amari Burney. He was a safety in high school. You see a lot of these guys. I think that’s the thing that maybe is the biggest question for Florida going forward. Some of these guys, do they want to gain weight to play linebacker, or do you want to get them in better shape to play safety? I think that’s a question mark and something that has to be figured out this offseason.
Seth:Both those positions, safety and linebacker, those are somewhat instinctual positions too. It’s tough to be constantly converting. This is where I think recruiting is really important, because those guys that are playing linebacker that are those dudes, those are the elite level recruits. The guys that are playing linebacker that are big and fast that can play kind of in all facets of the game, come up and play the run, get out and play the pass. Those are guys that are the elite level recruits, and you got to go win those guys. It’s tough, I think, to convert guys into these positions where instincts matter and reps matter. That’s why I think you’re seeing maybe a tougher transition from some of these younger guys that didn’t play linebacker in high school that are having to transition to a position that you need a lot of reps to really get in there. I’ve heard some guys, they say it’s the blender, because there’s so much going on around you.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:It’s hard to get comfortable in there. That’s kind of what you got to do. It takes reps. It takes time, but when you get the guys out of high school that have been in there, that’s where you can kind of get those guys ready to play right away.
Andrew:Like you said, it’s very instinctual driven. You kind of have to read the play before it happens. You have to be able to read an offensive lineman’s eyes. Are they about to pull and knock me out, or did they miss a block? Offense is all about confusing the defense and that kind of stuff. Seth, we’re running out of time here. We will get out of here and come back next week and recap the Cotton Bowl and talk about any changes or whatever we see out of this game. Tell everybody where they can find you, and tell us about anything you got going on in the site here coming up soon.
Seth:@SethVarnadore on Twitter. Just my full name. No spaces. I’ll be putting up a video. I think it may be coming on the site as well. I got with a defensive coordinator that really knows Florida’s defense. He understands the basics. He started to go through the Alabama game a little bit, just to show what was Florida trying to do. Was it problems with the play calls, or was it problems of execution, or was it a bit of both? Just to try to get a really deep perspective on the Florida defense, what they’ve been doing this season. I’ll be putting that out today, so by the time you’re hearing this you can find it on my Twitter and possibly the site. Then I’ll probably put out some type of video previewing Oklahoma’s offense and defense as well. That’ll be on my Twitter or the site. @SethVarnadore on Twitter. You can find all that stuff there.
Andrew:Awesome. We appreciate it, guys. As always, you can find us on Apple or anywhere else you find your podcasts. Check us out. We’ll be back later this week. Hope you guys enjoy the Cotton Bowl. Thanks, guys.