GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we start to preview the Florida Gators opening game against Ole Miss on Saturday in Oxford.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre are joined by Nick Suss of the Clarion-Ledger to get his thoughts on the game and how good Ole Miss should be this year under first-year head coach Lane Kiffin.
Andrew and Nick also breakdown the Gators depth chart that was released on Monday by head coach Dan Mullen.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, game week is here, finally. We have it. We’ve talked about being optimistic until it happened, but feel pretty good. Let’s go. Got a roster. We got a depth chart. CJ Henderson no longer plays for the Gators.
Nick: That’s so sad. He is the Rookie of the Week this week, so playing well no matter where he’s playing, that’s for sure. Happy Game Week to all. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be in Oxford, Mississippi in a couple days’ time.
Andrew: We’ll get to see a game, a real SEC game. That’s going to be satisfying to see. I say this, Nick, and I still say this is going to be a wild and crazy year, but finally a little bit of normalcy for the year. I’m happy for it. To see the depth chart and to see the excitement back out there again is exciting to see. Some interesting points on the depth chart, I would say, to some of us. Not so surprising. We’ll dive into that here in just a second.
Nick: We’ve got a depth chart, and we’ve got an actual roster. Not too many surprises, but there’s definitely a lot to talk about.
Andrew: Coaching promotion too.
Nick: Yeah. Pretty historic one. We’ll get into that. We’ve also got Nick Suss joining us. He’s an Ole Miss beat reporter. Listen, I don’t much about Ole Miss, and he certainly knows more than you and I do. We’ve got some questions. You’ve got Matt Corral or John Rhys Plumlee. Who’s playing quarterback for Ole Miss? How’s Lane Kiffin doing? Have you spotted Lane Kiffin around at the bars up there? I’ve got some questions for Nick.
Andrew: Has he been at the sorority house yet? You know that question is going to come up. Let’s just go ahead. We’ll talk to Nick, get his thoughts on this Ole Miss team, and then we’ll come back, and we’ll break down this depth chart and talk about what Nick had to say. We’ll wrap that up and get you ready. Guess what? On Friday it’s prediction time. Let’s go to Nick.
Nick: Happy to be joined by Nick Suss from the Clarion Ledger. Nick, it’s been a while. We met in Omaha for the Florida-LSU College World Series. We were there for a long time.
Nick Suss: I think that was 13 days. I was staying in Iowa. I was staying over the border. 13 days in Iowa is not really something you sign up for when you start doing this job, but it was great. I love the College World Series. Favorite event in sports, really.
Nick: It was a great time. Certainly, that was great baseball. You can’t change my mind. I know everyone loved Oregon State that year, but you can’t change my mind that those were the two best teams in the country. We got to see them play like five times that year, six times that year if you include the disastrous SEC Tournament games.
Nick Suss: That was a really fun season. You just can’t help but wonder, if LSU had that one more pitcher, if they didn’t have a UCL injury against Oregon State, how is that final three series different? I still think Florida was the better team, but that would have been fun.
Nick: Yeah. That’s a different lifetime, and now you’re covering the Fighting Lane Kiffins at Ole Miss. It’s a strange opponent for us here on this side, just trying to cover it, because it’s not an opponent that we really get to see. When Florida and LSU play, I know who’s there, who’s on that team. I saw them last year. We really just have some questions just to get to know what’s going on at Ole Miss.
We’ll start with quarterback. I know you didn’t really get an answer, because the writer’s dreaded or on the depth chart. Florida fans are very familiar with Matt Corral, who was committed to Florida in 2017 before Dan Mullen took over here, and then, obviously, John Rhys Plumlee, Florida’s coaching staff is familiar with him, having offered him when they were at Mississippi State. Dan Mullen even said he thinks that John Rhys Plumlee would be the fastest player on Florida’s team. He thinks he’ll be the fastest player on the field. What do you expect? I know Lane’s not going to name a starter, but what do you expect the quarterback situation to look like Saturday?
Nick Suss: You brought up the dreaded or. It really should be the dreaded and. I would be really thoroughly surprised if we don’t see both of those guys on the field Saturday. If I had to go off gut, I think Corral is probably going to be the starter, because the one advantage Ole Miss has in any realm in this matchup against Florida is that they can do something that Florida doesn’t expect. This Florida staff’s been together since their Mississippi State days. They got six, seven years of tape of what Grantham does with Mullen and what these offensive coaches do with Mullen. Everybody knows what this Florida team’s MO is.
Ole Miss, none of these coordinators have worked with Kiffin before. Kiffin’s never worked with this talent before, and Kiffin doesn’t have a type. He’s not like Leach out here running the air raids since the ‘80s. So, you bring out Corral. You bring out Plumlee. You can do anything with the two of them, short of maybe run the Veer triple option. I think you’re going to see Kiffin and this staff throw the kitchen sink at Florida, because that is the one element that Ole Miss has the advantage on, pure surprise.
See Corral come out there. If Corral’s there, this offense is a 100% blank slate. They could be an air raid. They can be a pro style. They can be a run first spread. They can do anything with Corral. You bring in Plumlee, he has that threat that so many people are salivating over with Taysom Hill and the Saints. Is he going to throw? Is he going to run? Is he going to be an up back? What are you going to do with him, because he’s such a pure athlete? If you just throw on the tape with him against LSU last year, you can see him run better against the National Champions than probably anybody in the country last year.
That’s not to say these quarterbacks aren’t without their flaws. There’s a reason that one can’t win the job over the other for another second straight year. Plumlee’s still not a super polished passer. We haven’t seen him in camp, but unless he took huge bounds, he’s not John Elway. He’s still a guy that struggled throwing to his left. He’s still a guy that struggled throwing accurately and consistently. Corral just needs to get better as a decision maker. He doesn’t really play within a system all the time, and that’s kind of what coaches complained about in the past. You want to see him more do what he’s expected to and play within the confines of a play and not improvise. If Corral becomes more of that regimented player, more focused, like he says he is this year, and if Plumlee develops more as a passer, this Ole Miss offense could be anything, and I think that’s what Kiffin wants people to think right now.
Nick: Especially Week 1, like you said. The coordinators haven’t really coached with Kiffin. You can look at Kiffin’s offenses at FAU, Tennessee, USC, very versatile. I think Dan Mullen has kind of said that. I think there’s a nervous energy with Dan. Dan’s saying, I trust Todd Grantham, and he’ll figure it out, but we don’t know what we’re going to see Saturday. Like you said, Dan Mullen, John Hevesy, and Brian Johnson and Billy Gonzales, have been together since they were coaching Brian Johnson at Utah. There is plenty of tape on what a Dan Mullen offense will look like and what they’ll do. Then even with the quarterbacks, they’ve got tape on both the quarterbacks too from this offense.
Nick Suss: Exactly.
Andrew: My question was going to be, not only with the quarterback position, but with Ealy as well. How do they improvise with him? I don’t want to say he’s not a true back, but I think he’s more of a guy that you can do a lot of different things with. How do you see his role going? Does Ole Miss’ offense go as he goes?
Nick Suss: I think so. For Florida fans who might not be aware of Jerrion Ealy is, he’s a former five-star running back. He’s heading into this sophomore year. He was an All-SEC kick returner last year. Second on the team in rushing last year as a freshman, behind Plumlee. It’s going to be interesting to see how he uses him, because the one thing that Lane Kiffin’s offenses have always had was a focal point, whether it was Reggie Bush at USC or whether it was Amari Cooper his first year at Alabama, Derek Henry his second year, Jalen Hurts that third year, Devin Singletary at FAU, Harrison Bryant at FAU. He identifies who the best player on his offense is and builds everything around that.
I think Ealy ends up being that guy for Ole Miss this year, which means maybe you see him used in a role similar to the way Kiffin used Reggie Bush at USC or TJ Yeldon at Alabama. Maybe that’s what you end up seeing, Ealy being this very agile, very elusive back who’s shifty in space but big enough to run between the tackles, and he ends up being that, I don’t want to make another Saints comparison accidentally, but that Alvin Kamara type player that I think a lot of scouts envisioned him as when he was coming out of high school and turned down offers to Alabama and Clemson to stay instate at Ole Miss.
I think he ends up being the focal point, and I think he is the most electric player. I can tell you, Mullen might be saying Plumlee is the fastest player on the field, but Ole Miss has actually done this really cool thing this fall where they are tweeting out after every practice who the 10 fastest players on the team were that day by body monitor. They’re checking everybody’s top speed, and Ealy is 22 miles an hour every day. He is a very, very fast guy. Second or third fastest player on the team behind a true track star named Dannis Jackson. It’s going to be really fun to see how they use him, because Kiffin has had bruising running backs, your Devin Singletarys, your Derek Henrys, but he’s also played really well with those running backs in space. I think Jerrion Ealy has to be that guy for this team to be anything better than a 3-7 team.
Nick: When he’s tired of getting hit, he can go back to hitting baseballs. He is one hell of a baseball player too.
Andrew: At receiver, who should Florida fans be really looking at as being that kind of receiver? Like you said, Lane Kiffin’s had some very good receivers, especially during his times at Alabama. Who is that receiver when Ole Miss has the ball that Florida should be worried about?
Nick Suss: I think that if there’s one player on the Ole Miss roster, other than Corral and Plumlee, who Florida fans might recognize, it’s Elijah Moore. Not just because he’s an instate kid, but also because of the way last season ended. He is the infamous celebration guy from the Egg Bowl.
Andrew: He’s the dog peer.
Nick Suss: He is also a very gifted slot receiver, who caught 67 passes, 850 yards, and six touchdowns last year. I have those numbers memorized, because no one else on this team caught more than 20 passes, I believe, last year. All of the seven returning receivers, other than Moore, don’t add up to his touchdowns, receptions, or receiving yards from last year. He was the entire passing offense last year, and he’s back. He’s a shifty little guy, probably 5’8”, 5’9”, 5’10” type receiver that’s going to go underneath, and he’s going to find space, and he’s really good at those eight yard out routes and spacing routes and getting catches on 3rd downs.
Yes, he’s the dog pee guy, and that’s kind of going to carry with him forever, but he is also third team, I think, preseason All-SEC. He is a very good route runner who we will see how he can match up against. I know Florida’s always got tons of talent at defensive back, and he’s going to be the one that they’re going to have to have corners and safeties match up on, because you never know if he’s going to go over the middle or if he’s going to go to the sideline, but he is always the go to target when they need a key 1st down.
Nick: What Florida does, last year even with a running back now who is in the NFL, really weren’t able to run the ball. They bring all those guys back. Then they lose all the receivers. Looking at the receiving corps, I think Florida’s receivers will be good again. When I look at Ole Miss, and you can tell me if I’m wrong, I think the strongest point of the defense is probably the linebackers. A lot of talent there. If Florida can’t run the ball again, does Ole Miss have the guys at the skill positions to be able to take advantage of that? If Florida makes itself, like it did last year, one dimensional, and we’re going to have to pass the ball, does Ole Miss have the skill guys at safety and at corner to kind of match up with a pretty deep wide receiver and tight end group?
Nick Suss: If you want to have nightmares, go on CFB Stats and check what Ole Miss’ pass defense looked like last year. Then remind yourself that virtually everybody is returning. Double-edged sword. Maybe you can say all these guys have one more year of experience, and they’ve gotten better. Maybe you can say all of these guys are back, and they were pretty bad last year. They ranked last in the SEC in passing yardage allowed per game, which some of that was because they had a pretty good run defense, and other teams needed to pass the ball, but also some of that is because you played Joe Burrow, and you played Tua Tagovailoa, and you play all these guys, and they shred you for five touchdowns in the first half, and you realize maybe we don’t have that much talent at secondary.
I think Ole Miss’s problem is still we don’t know which guys are going to be good yet. We couldn’t see it as reporters. We don’t know. It’s going to be interesting. They have a couple of DBs who are returning from last year who I like. Keidron Smith, a cornerback, I think has a chance to be, by the time his senior year comes around next year, a Day 2 NFL Draft prospect, because of his length. You have Jaylon Jones at safety, who hasn’t been the same since he tore his ACL two years ago, but still a very electric player. You can go through it. They’ve got a lot of pretty talented guys, but no guys who really stand out. If Kyle Trask is as good as some of the people have built him up to be, the fact that Ole Miss has virtually no pass rush returning from last year and has minimal secondary you can trust at all, I think Florida might be able to get away with being one dimensional in this first game.
Nick: We’re in the same boat here. It’s the offensive line was so bad last year, but you return four of five. It’s like if you return a bad offensive line, is it one more year experience, or you just got another bad offensive line this year? What is it?
Nick Suss: You never know with that sort of stuff. It’s crazy. Who knows?
Andrew: When you look at Ole Miss defensively, what are you expecting them to come out? With Todd Grantham you know what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a guy who is going to blitz a ton and is going to play a lot of man coverage. What are you kind of expecting Ole Miss to do defensively?
Nick Suss: I’m expecting a lot of multiplicity. Florida fans will remember what DJ Durkin’s defense looks like from his years down there. Durkin is the co-defensive coordinator at Ole Miss now, so Florida fans might have more familiarity with the defense than Ole Miss fans would. I think they’re going to vary up their fronts. You’re going to see some 4-3, some 3-4, a lot of nickel. I think because of the veteran presence they have linebacker you’re going to see guys like Lakia Henry, Momo Sanogo, Jacquez Jones, Tavius Robinson, Sam Williams, those five upperclassmen linebackers, rotating through. Some of them playing at nickelback when they have to drop to coverage packages, especially somebody like Lakia Henry. Maybe you’ll see Jacquez Jones put his hand in the dirt and be a pass rusher in a three-man front every once in a while, or maybe on a four-man front when they need a wide nine.
I think you’re going to see a lot of variability, because they do have that versatility at the linebacking room, but you’re replacing all of your starters on the defensive line, from Benito Jones, who was an All-SEC performer last year, Josiah Coatney, and Austrian Robinson, who both signed NFL contracts. I think they’re still on practice squads at the moment. You’re losing three guys who played pretty well last year, replacing them with a bunch of players who have one combined start, or one person who has ever started combined, and then a couple of freshmen, most notably Demon Clowney, Jadeveon Clowney’s cousin. We’ll see how those guys can fit together and gel together, because it’s hard to say you’re going to run a three-man or a four-man front if you don’t know anything about any of your defensive linemen.
Andrew: DJ Durkin’s going to play very good defense. That’s the biggest thing I remember about DJ Durkin is that he’s always going to do that, and he’s going to make very good half-time adjustments. That’s what he’s going to be. He’s going to be a fiery coach.
Nick Suss: Yeah. Between him, and they brought in another co-defensive coordinator, Chris Partridge, from Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan. Two Harbaugh style guys. I know Dirkin started off his career coaching with Harbaugh at Stanford. That’s going to be the style of defense Ole Miss is trying to play this year.
Nick: DJ was great. He was here when I first got to Gainesville. He just toed the line. It’s whatever Will Muschamp said, ask coach. Then he became the interim coach when Muschamp was fired, and he was just a wealth of information. I was like, where has this been the last two years, DJ? We would talk to you once a week, and it was you got to ask Will about that, you got to ask Will about that. He was great. He just a great guy, nice guy. I know we’re living in the end times right now, so you probably haven’t gotten a chance to really meet him, but really nice guy.
Nick Suss: Kiffin is definitely following the Saban model of coordinators talk once a season. We will see how often he gets the chance to be that fount of knowledge, but when I have talked to him he’s been great, nothing but charismatic and reconciliatory for how things ended at Maryland.
Nick: Now, on the Kiffin train, on the Kiffin note. I think my favorite coach, one of the only coaches I don’t cover that I follow on Twitter. I think it’s kind of toned down a little bit since he got another SEC head coaching job. I was shocked that he left my hometown in South Florida, that he left Blue Martini. Beautiful people all over South Florida, and a lot of them like to drink at Blue Martini, which is five minutes away from FAU’s campus. How is Lane assimilating to a much different way of life and a much different group of people in South Florida to Mississippi?
Dan Mullen was so nice talking about Mississippi and the sense of faith and community and how nice the people are in Mississippi, and I’m like, that’s not what he was living in in Boca. It’s fake, and it’s flashy, and it’s fast. It’s very different. How is he assimilating into the Ole Miss culture? Is it just the case of he’s the new coach who hasn’t lost a game, so we love him? Call me when this season ends 5-5 or 6-4, 4-6. When a coach starts losing games, it doesn’t matter how nice they are, because we hate them.
Nick Suss: I’m going to try and say this tactfully, because I don’t want to insult either Boca or Oxford. The person that people think Lane Kiffin is is the perfect coach for Oxford, Mississippi. Now, the perception of Lane Kiffin and the reality of Lane Kiffin is a not well-kept secret. The reality is Lane Kiffin is an introvert. He doesn’t like the attention that much. He just can’t help but throw barbs when he knows they’re necessary. He’s not like Leach. He’s not out here saying everything that pops into the dome of his head. If he says something controversial, it’s calculated. If he says something funny, it’s calculated. He’s tested it. He’s kind of like a standup comedian who’s worked through these jabs.
I think the person that people perceive him to be, this freewheeling insulting guy who’s going to do things his way, kind of a Jesse James cowboy type character, that’s perfect for what Oxford wants. If you think back to the very famous College GameDay in Oxford, and the person that Chris Fowler played and the amazing guest picking segment from Katy Perry, and the Grove and all of this stuff of just what Oxford is personified as this old Southern fancy hotty-totty drinking type town of William Faulkner and Southern class and all that stuff. If you think about that, these people who are stereotypically high class Southerners who are willing to show off their education and their prominence, I think Kiffin fits that perfectly.
We’ll see how his game day style fits that, because I think Hugh Freeze toed that line between extremely confident well-educated Southerner and what ended up happening with Hugh Freeze. I think Kiffin’s going to be much smarter about it and much cleaner about it, but we’ll see how it works. Kiffin has carte blanche right now. Fans are in love with him. Fans are expecting this to end up a season where maybe not this year, but two years down the line, you’re looking at Ole Miss being in that tier of teams that can compete for the top half of the SEC West. I think that’s all you can ask for, if you’re Ole Miss. You can’t want to be Alabama. You can’t want to be LSU. First you got to start going 8-4 again. I think that’s kind of what fans expect.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: It’s hard to say, we plan on winning our division, when your division consists of LSU and Alabama, Nick Saban’s Alabama.
Nick Suss: Yes. You can’t.
Nick: That’s a lot to ask. Nick, when we have a writer from Florida’s opponent, we always ask, and we take these super early, if they’re comfortable going with a prediction. This is the time for a prediction, if you want to do that. You can decline and just say how you think the game will go, or if Ole Miss wins the game, this is what I think has to happen, or this is what happened, if we’re talking Saturday at 4:00, and the game’s over. This is how Ole Miss won. Either one.
Nick Suss: I just criticized Kiffin for using canned jokes, but I’m going to use my canned joke before I give you a real answer. My prediction is that one team will have more points than the other team at the end, and if they don’t, it will go to overtime. The real answer, I don’t see how anyone can look at Florida being, what’s the last odds I saw? 14.5 point favorites or something like that.
Andrew: Yes.
Nick Suss: And think, oh no, I think Ole Miss can cover this. Nobody knows what anybody’s going to look like. It’s a crazy offseason of Covid. I know there’s a lot of expectations for Florida, and I think Florida’s going to be a really good team, but I don’t think anybody’s going to be that good right now. I think it’s really hard for any team to go into their first SEC game of the season where nobody had spring practice and summer was limited, and you never know how many players on Florida’s roster are going to be missing. I know there was that big Covid outbreak last week that’s probably going to end up quarantining at least a couple of players, maybe more than we know.
I think with all of that circulating it’s borderline impossible to say, I expect this SEC team to beat this other SEC team by more than two touchdowns. I think Florida’s going to win, and I think you kind of have to be wacky to not think Florida should win this game, but I’m not out here saying it’s going to be the biggest blowout. Not having anything to do with Ole Miss, just having everything to do with the circumstances of this game. It’s going to be early, and it’s probably going to be a little hot. I just have no idea how anyone’s going to play.
Andrew: Sounds good. Do us a favor. Tell everybody where they can follow your work this weekend, and we’ll get you out of here. Look forward to seeing you on Saturday.
Nick Suss: Go ahead and follow ClarionLedger.com. You can find coverage of not just Ole Miss but Mississippi State, and for people in your neck of the woods, Deion Sanders. We’ve covered the heck out of that. Jackson State hiring Florida State legend Deion Sanders has been a hell of a week for us. Visit ClarionLedger.com. Follow me on Twitter @NickSuss. I’ll be tweeting stories and links and fun facts about this Ole Miss team throughout the week. If you want to know more about the opponent that Florida is about to face, give me a holler.
Andrew: Thank you so much.
Nick: We appreciate it. Nick is the guy to follow if you want to know who Florida’s playing this week, that’s for sure. I look forward to getting out to Oxford. It’ll be my first time, so I’ll give you a shout when I’m there, and you can socially distance show me Oxford.
Nick Suss: For sure, man. For sure.
Andrew: Guys, we’re back. Good stuff from Nick on that. It should be an interesting game. I do agree a little bit with what Nick said, and that is that if Ole Miss has an advantage early on it’s because they could come out and run the I formation. We don’t know. We don’t know what they’re going to run. You pretty much know what Dan Mullen’s going to come out running. If there is an advantage, that would be it. Good thing is it’s quick adjustments.
Nick: I think it’s a quick adjustment, and we’ve talked about that so often, how good has this coaching staff been. Every team comes in with a game plan. Will Muschamp used to say it. Everyone has a plan, until you get punched in the mouth. It’s what do you do after that. I think this coaching staff has done a really good job of being able to adjust on the fly. They’ve been a team that’s been able to not only make adjustments when they get in the locker room, but in the second quarter. If that’s not working, scrap it. We’re going to go with this.
There’s no way really to prepare. You can go and look at FAU or you can go look at when he was OC at Alabama and look at some of those, but those aren’t his players, and those aren’t the coaches that he was with there. Everyone else on Ole Miss’s roster will be watching this Florida game, because nobody knows in the SEC exactly what Ole Miss is going to look like on either side of the ball. You probably have more of an idea because of Partridge and Dirkin, like Nick said. It’s probably going to be a Jim Harbaugh style defense, but offensively, no clue.
Andrew: Exactly. It’ll be interesting to see where they go. Again, I think you know when Plumlee’s in the game probably look for run first. When Matt’s in the game, you probably look passing. Again, I think Ealy, however you say his name, is going to be a focal point. I’ll tell you this, Nick. I voted Ealy on the All-Purpose guy for the media poll that comes out on Wednesday. I think he’s that good of a player.
Nick: Yeah. Certainly was good enough to get drafted if he wanted to play baseball too. To have that much talent. Good for you.
Andrew: He was an Under Armour All-American in both. Him and the kid from LSU were both first timers in that. That’s interesting as well. I think it’ll be interesting on that.
Let’s dive into this Florida depth chart a little bit. I’m going to run through the offense real quick, and then we’ll talk about it. At offense is Trask, then Emory, then Richardson. No surprise there. Running back, Malik or Damien Pierce and Nay’Quan Wright. Receiver. At one of the receivers, it’s Copeland and Shorter. At the other receiver position, it’s Grimes and Henderson. At the slot it’s Toney and Trent Whittemore. At tight end, it’s Pitts, Gamble, or Keon Zipperer. At left tackle, it’s Stone or TJ Moore. At left guard, it’s Richard Gouraige or Griffin McDowell. At center, it’s Heggie or Kingsley. At right guard, it’s Stewart Reese or Josh Braun. At right tackle, it’s Jean Delance or Michael Tarquin.
First observation for me, Nick, is the missing of Ethan White, who had knee surgery. Only supposed to be out a couple weeks. That’s what Mullen said?
Nick: Mullen didn’t really put a timetable. He said we should get him back soon, soonish. I was told it was a meniscus. If you look at that, Ethan had surgery over a week ago, and that’s typically a 4-6 week recovery for meniscus. They call it a noninvasive knee surgery. It’s just a scope. You’re not getting cut open or anything like that.
Andrew: Right. That kind of forces Gouraige back inside and Jean Delance at right tackle. That staff has been pushing in their press conferences that Delance was hurt last year, and that was a big reason why he didn’t play well. We’ll see. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt there. Him and Stone at times struggled mightily at tackle. I do feel very good about the inside three in Gouraige, Heggie, and Stewart Reese.
Some people have asked why Delance there, I thought the depth at guard was better. I don’t want to say the depth at guard isn’t better, but from everything we’ve heard, Josh Braun is a guy who’s nasty and is ready to play. The thing is he just needs to continue to improve learning the game speed. That’s no knock on Josh Braun at all. He’s a guy that early enrolled but didn’t get spring practice. By Game 5, he might be ready. I think he very well could. You’re going with a veteran base offensive line, and that’s kind of a characteristic of Dan Mullen and John Hevesy.
Nick: That would be the one maybe surprise. I think the only thing that really surprised is when you lose Ethan White. He was going to start at center. Brett Heggie was going to start at left guard. Then it was would Richard Gouraige have pushed to be the starting right tackle in front of Jean Delance? Could that have been the case? He’s a guy that can play four of the five spots. To me looking at it, really no surprises on offense.
The other thing is we don’t know, and we’ll get more into that when we get to the defensive side of the ball, but we don’t know is just the depth chart or if this is the depth chart because they know that so-and-so has Covid and will be in quarantine and won’t play Saturday. We’ve asked. It is nice. Nick Saban is not letting anyone know in the media who has Covid, if anyone has Covid. The entire team could be sick, and they wouldn’t know. We’re getting numbers. We’re never going to know who the players are, and that’s okay. That’s fine. I’m happy just to get the numbers, because I think from a public safety standpoint you need to have numbers out there.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: That’s what I’m saying. We just don’t know. Does the starting right guard have Corona, and he’s on the depth chart, and they already know he’s not going to travel Saturday? We don’t know.
Andrew: Right. That’s something we’re going to have to learn this week. We’ll know it for future times here. One thing that I wanted to point out, and a bunch of people’s talked about this, and that is the left out of Lorenzo Lingard. It’s simply Lorenzo is still trying to recover from that knee injury and to be fully healthy and trusting that knee. Now is that to say his knee’s hurting? No. I don’t think so at all. It’s a process of trusting that knee and trusting that you can do it and to be the player you once were. He’s not there yet. We saw that with Malik Davis, and now Malik Davis is finally able to kind of be back there.
Nick: Two years after to really where a guy’s feeling, like you just said, feeling comfortable and confident.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. No surprise there for me at all that he’s not there. Do I think he’ll have an impact on this team down the road? Yes, I do.
Nick: Okay. Any other notes? I like to see Xzavier Henderson there behind Trevon Grimes. I think he’s a guy that we talked about as a freshman that I think will get in. Ja’Quavion Fraziers, not on the initial roster. You and I, I don’t think we’ve said one single negative thing about him. We’ve been gushing about him. Even though he’s not on this depth chart, I think we’ll see him.
Andrew: I don’t really buy, not buy. I do buy that this is top six, but I really don’t care about receiver depth chart.
Nick: They’re going to rotate them. They’re all going to play.
Andrew: Yeah. I could honestly care less what the depth chart says. Those guys are going to play, and they’re going to play a lot. Would it surprise me at all to see a formation with Copeland, Grimes, and Henderson or Copeland, Grimes, and Shorter? No. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Nick: You’ve seen how they rotate last year, in both of Dan Mullen’s years how they’re going to rotate there. That’ll be interesting to see. I do want to see guys. You’ve got five offensive linemen that are sitting there starting, but you’re going to see Griffin McDowell. You’re going to see Josh Braun. You’re going to see Michael Tarquin. You’re going to see TJ Moore. You’re going to see Kingsley. There’s going to be a rotation. They don’t have five guys that are going to play all 70 offensive snaps in a game.
Andrew: Right. Especially this year. Especially early on. It’ll be interesting who that number six guy is. If I was betting, I would say it was probably Griffin McDowell, but that’s just a sense there. We’ll have to see. Run through the defense.
Nick: Looking at the defense. We’ll start at buck and work our way down to safety. At buck, Jeremiah Moon or Khris Bogle, with David Reese. There’s still a David Reese on the roster. Not the one you’re thinking of. I’ll wait. We’ll get into it. I’ll just run through it. Defensive tackle, Zachary Carter, Gervon Dexter. Nose tackle, TJ Slaton, Marlon Dunlap. Defensive end, Brenton Cox, Jr., Andrew Chatfield. Weak side linebacker, Amari Burney, Mohamoud Diabate. Middle, Ventrell Miller, James Houston. Star, CJ McWilliams, Tre’Vez Johnson. Cornerback, Marco Wilson and Kaiir Elam starting, Jaydon Hill, Chester Kimbrough, behind them. Free safety, Shawn Davis and Rashad Torrence. Strong safety, Donovan Stiner and Trey Dean.
First thing, got to talk about the elephant in the room. Kyree Campbell is not on the depth chart, the guy who came back for his senior year. Brad Stewart, not on the depth chart. Those are the first two things that stick out to you. There’s rumors going around that Kyree Campbell might opt out. We’re not confirming that here. Just keeping you informed of what’s being talked about. Then Brad Stewart, I think we’re in the kind of territory where we were at the beginning of last year where Brad didn’t play in the first two games.
Andrew: With Kyree, there’s definitely talk. He’s definitely thinking about that. We’ll see whether he decides to stick with that or whether he plays. It’s a decision that could be made up until probably Game 10. Guys are opting in and opting out. With Brad, I think you can kind of read between the lines there. This is Year 3 of the same thing. He would be starting there. People are not very happy about a certain nickel back starting though, Nick.
Nick: That’s going to be CJ McWilliams, as of now. We’ve talked about Tre’Vez Johnson. I’ve asked Todd Grantham as well as Dan Mullen about them. They rave about Tre’Vez and his football IQ. To me, if they would have never said a word about Tre’Vez Johnson, and I saw that you have a freshman who didn’t get spring practice and got this weird fall, and they have him on the initial depth chart at star, that tells me all I need to know about how smart of a football player and a person he is.
Star is interesting though. People see it, and I know people were mad. First off, guys can get better. CJ McWilliams, if the only thing you saw of him was the 2017 Georgia game, you probably don’t want him on the team at all. Guys can get better. He’s also coming off from a knee injury that kept him off the field all last year. I’m sure he’s hungry and ready to prove that he’s not that player that you had the last memory of from that 2017 Georgia game.
That’s also a position that it doesn’t matter what it says on the depth chart, because CJ McWilliams is not going to be playing star or nickel on 3rd and 2. You’re going to have someone like, you can put Jeremiah Moon in there. You’re going to put a linebacker in there. Brenton Cox is a guy who I don’t think can do that. What I’m trying to say is you’re going to have a bunch of different people playing that position, based on the down and distance. If it’s 1st and 10, that’s when you have a CJ McWilliams or when Marco Wilson was playing it, but even if you watch games last year, Marco Wilson might have played star or nickel on 1st and 2nd down, and now it’s short down and distance, and you put a linebacker there. You put an Amari Burney there. You roll a safety down to go to play in that position.
I’m going to reserve judgment until I see CJ McWilliams. I’m a big you are what your tape says you are kind of guy, but he’s an older kid, a senior. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt until I’m proven wrong Saturday or one of the subsequent coming Saturdays.
Andrew: I think there’ll be a lot of rotation. We talked about this on the last podcast. This might be the most versatile defense as far as being able to move guys around. We’re baseball guys. I’ll say this, kind of make a reference this way. More of if there’s a lefthanded pitcher, this is what it’s going to be, if there’s a righthander. That’s kind of how it’s going to be on defense there.
When it’s a passing down, would not surprise me at all to see a Will linebacker of Tyrone Hopper or in a middle linebacker of Amari Burney, with a nickel of Tre’Vez Johnson. Would not surprise me at all to see that or see a guy like Gervon Dexter playing inside, because he can get a pass rush there. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to kind of see more of a run-based defense and a pass-based defense. Florida finally has that ability to kind of match up and be more of a matchup team. In past years, you kind of had David Reese there, and it was David Reese. That was going to be your middle linebacker there. Not so much this year, in my opinion.
Nick: Yeah. Interesting for me. Like we’ve said, there’s so many guys. I think Khris Bogle, he looks bigger. Then when the roster finally came out, up 21 pounds. Jeremiah Moon, obviously, super hungry, being a senior. All the guys he came in with, Lamical and Quincy Lenton.
Andrew: Jawaan Taylor.
Nick: Forgetting my boy, Jawaan. All those guys are gone. He didn’t expect probably, if you’d have asked a 17-year-old, 18-year-old Jeremiah, would you expect to be playing football at Florida in 2020? No. Things haven’t gone his way. I’m hoping to see a healthy and motivated Jeremiah Moon, but you’ve also got Khris Bogle there. Brenton Cox, I’m still super pumped to see him. Andrew Chatfield, you’ve got so many guys that can get after the quarterback.
To me, it’s interesting to see Mohamoud Diabate working at that weak side linebacker. I think he’s super athletic to do it. Really hasn’t filled out maybe the way that I would have expected yet, still only 220 pounds. If you’re thinking about buck, you probably want him in the 250s, 260s. Maybe that’s why he’s there. He’s another guy that can run over there at buck and brush the quarterback. To me, you’ve got a lot of guys that can get after the quarterback there. I’m interested to see how that goes.
Then, with no Campbell on the roster, now you’ve got Zach Carter and right behind him, Gervon Dexter. Listen, he’s going to be All-SEC at some point in his career, and we’re going to see him early rather than later, especially if Kyree’s not playing.
Andrew: Exactly. Then the return game, you and I have talked about this several times. This is the one part on the depth chart that I usually don’t believe, because Dan Mullen kind of moves guys around there. Right now, he has it as Toney and Copeland for both kickoff and punt return. It would not shock me at all to see someone totally different back there, but that’s what he’s going with.
Nick: We’ve gone from steady to Freddie to no idea what’s going to happen when Kadarius Toney is back there. It could be the best thing you’ve ever seen. It could be 80 yards of running for a two-yard return. He doesn’t put the ball on the ground that often, so I’m not worried about stuff like that. It’s just you’ve gone from knowing exactly what you’re going to get to just throwing a wrench into someone’s plan. You have no idea what’s going to happen when the ball’s in Toney’s hands, good, bad, or indifferent.
Andrew: Same thing with Cope. He could do a lot of things. It’ll be interesting there.
Nick: Shoutout to Jacob Finn. Redshirt senior. I actually talked to Tommy Townsend. Dan said there was a punting battle, and I’m like, no way, Tommy’s got it. Tommy said no, it came down to like the last week between Jacob and I. He said, I was lucky that I won it out, but he’s going to be a great punter at Florida.
Then the one I really wanted to address was a lot of people, especially on our message board, and maybe some people on Twitter, were mad that Florida’s wasting a scholarship on a backup punter. No, you’re not. If Jacob Finn is able to punt, and you don’t have to use Jeremy Crawshaw this year, that’s what they tried to do with Johnny Townsend his freshman year. You had a guy who was All-SEC in Kyle Christy. Now we’ve got a punter on scholarship, and we’ll redshirt him. Now we’ll have him for four years. We don’t have to waste a year where he’s not playing. Of course, Johnny ended up kicking his freshman year, and then redshirted his sophomore year. You’re not wasting a scholarship on Jeremy Crawshaw. If Jacob Finn is able to pun the whole year, now you’ve got Jeremy for four years, and you would like to think you’ve got your punter for the next four years, and you don’t have to worry about it.
Andrew: Exactly. One other injury, Ethan Pouncey’s done for the year with hip surgery. He was likely going to redshirt anyway. So, redshirt year coming for Pouncey. Hope for his speedy recovery there. Nick, any final thoughts before we get out of here on this Wednesday podcast? We’ll be back on Friday. We’ll do some predictions and break down who we think might get the first INT touchdown, all that good stuff. It should be a fun Friday podcast.
Nick: I didn’t mention, while talking about the linebackers, I’m also excited to see James Houston. He’s another guy that has looked big. I’m just excited for football. I think Florida’s defense will be very good this year. I’m really excited about the talent that they have coming back. I’m excited for Saturday. I’m excited to get out to Oxford and just happy to have some SEC football back. I have not complained, but the football has not been great. Some of that’s because of the conferences we’re watching, and some of that’s because the teams just haven’t had the same kind of offseason that they’re normally used to seeing. I’m excited for some SEC football.
Andrew: One quick thing. TO and Warren Sapp are going to be on Deion Sanders’ coaching staff.
Nick: I just saw tweets go through on the computer as we’re taping this. The coaching staff that he’s putting together is wild. Jason Phillips.
Andrew: That’s going to be a fun staff.
Nick: Terrell Owens, wide receiver coach. Mario Edwards as the backs coach.
Andrew: Fun. Tell everybody where they can find us, Nick. We’ll get out of here. We’ll see everyone on Friday. We’ll be one day closer to game day.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can find the podcast wherever you consume your podcasts. Just search Gator Country. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.
Andrew: There you go. Guys, as always, chomp, chomp and go Braves.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.