Podcast: Recapping the Florida Gators win over Arkansas

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators 63-35 win over Arkansas on Saturday in the Swamp.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown how Kyle Trask won and why he should be high in the Heisman race following the game.

Andrew and Nick also breakdown the Gators defense and look ahead to the Vanderbilt game.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re back, and we’re going to talk about a blowout win. Kyle Trask, the Heisman talk continues for the gunslinger from Texas. Gators roll.

Nick:​23 of 29, 356, six touchdowns. Listen, this is your ex came into town, and your new girlfriend got all dressed up and looked real nice and made your ex jealous. That’s what happened on Saturday night for the Gators.

Andrew:​Feleipe didn’t play bad in the game. Let’s see here. Let me pull back up to his. He was …

Nick:​15 of 19 for 250, two touchdowns. Hit two big plays. He played well. The Gators got after him a little bit. Listen, Kyle Trask, you and I, I’ve written it, and we’ve talked about. I think some people are just now getting on the Heisman boat with him, but he’s been there, buddy.

Andrew:​He has.

Nick:​Kyle Trask throwing his hat into the Heisman ring.

Andrew:​I think the biggest thing for Kyle, and I think it’s kind of for everybody really, there’s only one really big game for them to kind of see him in it. There’s a lot of games to lose it, and really only one game probably for each guy to win it. I guess you could say for Mac Jones at Bama the Auburn game is an opportunity to win it against Auburn, because it’s a rivalry game. You look at it, and Kyle’s probably biggest game to win it will be against Alabama. You look at Ohio State. They don’t really have anything left. You look at Clemson, they’ll have the Notre Dame game left to win it for Trevor, so you have some games to win it. It’s going to be close. I say it’s going to be close.

For me, I just hope that will people will look at the numbers instead of looking at the team per se. It sucks to say that a team like Florida just won’t get it, just like they should, but the national media right now loves Bama, and they love Ohio State, and they love Clemson, probably a little bit more than they love Florida.

Nick:​Listen, last night Kyle Trask set a record for most touchdown passes through the first six games by an SEC quarterback. He also tied the record. Let me see if I’m getting this right. Trask now has thrown 28 touchdowns this season, tying Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell for most passing touchdowns by a player through the team’s first six games. That’s national record. This isn’t a normal season where you’re playing North Southwestern Louisiana Tech in Week 1, and you’re not playing North Dakota State in Week 2. You’re playing six SEC teams. I think what Kyle Trask is doing this season is incredible. That’s the biggest thing is that you’re not getting those cupcake games.

You’re right, coming into the season the Heisman frontrunners were Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence. You’re going to have to do something to get ahead of those guys. Obviously, Mac Jones is in the race. But when you look at national stats, nobody in the country has more touchdown passes. Kyle Trask is fourth in the country in yards per game. The completion percentage, where is he? He’s tenth in the country in completion percentage. Yards, top ten in the country in yards. Top ten in the country in rating and attempts, interceptions. He’s up there for everything. Playing an all SEC schedule.

Andrew:​You can’t argue with his year. Numbers are right there with Burrows from last year. The numbers are there. You can’t argue with it in an all SEC schedule. You can’t argue with it. I don’t know how when you look at it, and you look at games played, I don’t know how you can’t say. I know Justin Fields had a great year, but he’s only played three games. How do you compare his stats to Trask or Jones? You look at Trevor, and I know you can’t blame him for the Covid thing, but it’s still two less games. I think you have to take that into consideration when it comes time to make a vote here. They announced it on Saturday. It’s going to be virtual from ESPN on January 5th is when they’re going to announce it. A little bit later.

Nick:​Talk about pissed me off.

Andrew:​For real.

Nick:​The one year that someone from Florida is eligible for it, and I won’t be going anywhere.

Andrew:​Sit in the room with all those guys would have been awesome.

Nick:​Right.

Andrew:​The greats of the great. Yeah. It sucks. Again, I don’t know how you look at those two, Jones and Trask, and you can compare them. I mean, I don’t know how those other guys can be compared to those guys, simply because of that.

Nick:​No. If you’re being objective, Trask’s numbers and what he’s done compares to all of those guys.

Andrew:​Right. Exactly.

Nick:​Really I think Florida, if you look at Florida’s schedule, probably played their last really tough test would be last night. The rest of the way is Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee, LSU. Kentucky struggled with Vanderbilt last night. Tennessee, Kyle Trask has as many touchdown passes on Saturday night as Tennessee has all season. Vanderbilt stinks. LSU stinks. We’ll see if that game even gets played.

​Like you said before, other than that, the next test for Kyle Trask is going to be Alabama, assuming everything goes the Gators’ way until December 19th, and assuming that these teams can play football. You’re looking at these next couple games, and you’re thinking, what are the stats going to look like in those?

Andrew:​Right. That’s what I’m saying.

Nick:​Time to run those stats up.

Andrew:​It’s an opportunity to lose it, but I don’t think that it’s really one of those to win it moments, just because of that, unless he goes out and puts up 10 touchdowns or something like that. It seems very clear that Dan is going to get the younger guys in as much as possible. Try to get Richardson some throws, and he got Emory in there. He wants to get those guys in there as much as he can. We’ll see. Some people were upset that they allowed Emory to get the rushing touchdown in the game instead of let Kyle pad it, but Kyle had his night. He didn’t need no more.

Nick:​Yeah. He played plenty well. I like that you got those guys in, and that you let Emory run the offense, and even when Richardson gets in there, you’re letting him run the offense. It’s not just get in there just to exist between the snap and the handoff kind of deal. Not necessarily Spurrier, where Spurrier’s up 40 points and put the third string guy in and is still throwing passes 40 yards down the line, but I like that you at least ran some stuff. Watched Emory throw a touchdown pass to Xzavier Henderson. Anthony Richardson gets in there, and although his first pass didn’t go, not one to remember with his arm getting hit while he’s throwing, but let the guys run the offense when they came in there. That’s something we always chirp about when they bring in the backups. Let them run the offense.

Andrew:​I thought it was good. Like you said, Anthony just had the ball tipped. Wasn’t upset about it. Good moment to learn there for him. I just continue to say that as much as you can get these guys in there, the better off it is.

​I wanted to start talking a little bit here, Nick, as we get into breakdown this game. I thought the running game was better. We talked about it, that Arkansas was terrible against the run. Florida on a couple drives basically said, this is going to be a running drive, and they ended up with 208 yards rushing in the game. A group effort. Dameon and Nay’Quan both over 50 yards rushing, and then Emory and Malik both had 37 in the game. I thought at times Stewart Reese did a really good job on his pull blocks. I thought he did really good. I thought Stone had another pretty good game overall. I think that the running game is there at times when they need it to, and I think that the pull blocks are starting to get better, kind of as the season goes on.

Nick:​That first drive really came out, and it’s kind of what we talked about. I kind of just raised the question to you on the Friday podcast, just raising the question and saying, listen, Florida, not what they do. They’re a high-powered offensive passing juggernaut, but if you look at what Dan has done, each week it has been find something that works, and then attack that. I said, if you look at Arkansas’ rushing defense, garbage. Second to worst in the SEC. Will Florida go away from what they’re so good at to try to attack a weakness? You look at that first drive, I thought they came out and they said, attack it. 14-play drive. What was the time? 14-play drive.

Andrew:​It was half the quarter, 7:36, I think it was.

Nick:​Yeah. 7:36 and a touchdown. 14 plays, 9 rushes, and then three screen passes. You had said, maybe use that short to intermediate passing game, and look at the plays. The first pass was for KT. It was over the middle. Then there was a slant pass to Grimes, a screen pass, a screen pass, and nine rushes. So, short intermediate passing game, and then a power running game. I thought Stewart Reese looked really good on that first drive.

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​Pulling with some urgency, which is always what we get on about. But then the rest of the game you got Kyle Trask, and you got that passing game. They just used it. I think what Florida’s doing at least, at the very least, is showing, putting on film, we can rush. We can run the ball when we want to run the ball.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​If you’re putting film out for Nick Saban and that defensive coaching staff to look at before a potential SEC Championship game, you don’t want to put on film that we’re a finesse passing team. You want to put on film and say, if we need to, we can get dirty, put eight men on the line and run the ball right at you if we need to.

Andrew:​Yeah. I thought that that was a good sign. I thought Keon Zipperer at times had some good blocks filling in for Kyle Pitts. I thought that was another thing. The offense continued to roll without Pitts. That was a question you and I had was how would the offense get separation for other guys. Trevon Grimes running wide open. Keon Zipperer was running wide open at times. Copeland had the touchdown. Xzavier Henderson should have had a second touchdown in the game. He was wide open. He beat a guy on a little screen and go, and it was just outside of his hands. Looked like Trask had double clutched a little bit and overthrew him, or he has a touchdown. Overall, the offense looked good. Justin Shorter, he climbed the ladder and went up and got that one.

Nick:​Where are those Penn State fans that said Justin Shorter can’t catch? Because they lied.

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​They lied all summer. Listen, offensively 593 yards. Again 10 receivers with a catch. Eight different guys rushed the ball. No Kyle Pitts, and that was the big thing. Listen, I’m not wrong when I say that Kyle Pitts creates for everyone else when he’s on the field, but Florida showed it’s not just Kyle Pitts, Kyle Trask, and Kadarius Toney. Kyle Pitts is probably their best offensive player, and they didn’t have him, and that didn’t stop them. This isn’t a pushover Arkansas defense. They’re not good against the run, but they were second best in the SEC in terms of pass defense. It wasn’t a pushover. Now, they’re no longer second best. They dropped all the way to five after what Florida did.

​To me, just a complete offensive performance, without your best player. You really can’t be any happier with the offense and what you saw offensively last night. Unless you’re me with my Malik Davis, Kadarius Toney picks from Friday. We’ll get to that later. We’ll get to our picks later. For me, a lots getting talked about the defense, but Florida scored 63 and only had 7 in the first quarter. Just went off in the second quarter. Went off in the fourth quarter. Complete performance. Six of seven in the red zone. Nine of 12 on 3rd downs. Had 36 1st downs in the game, doubled up Arkansas. Can’t say enough about this offense.

Andrew:​The 4th down that they missed in the first quarter, face mask. Should have been a face mask. That was blatant, as blatant as it can be. The guy pulled.

Nick:​Dan Mullen got caught saying a no-no word on TV. I heard.

Andrew:​He dropped the F-bomb a little bit.

Nick:​Making sure, call it.

Andrew:​It was bad. It was a bad call. Geez Louise, that was a bad call. That was kind of the only, I would say, play that was questionable. I don’t understand why they didn’t run the ball there. They had run the ball that whole drive there. I didn’t really understand that.

​To go to defense though, it was kind of what we expected, and that is there was going to be a few big plays. I’m going to take one of the big plays away. The Mike Woods play. Come on, that’s pass interference. You pushed Chester Kimbrough down on the ground, and you run wide open for a touchdown. I’m not giving you a touchdown. Sorry. Period. That was BS. The play, just beating Kaiir Elam deep, that was frustrating to see, because Kaiir’s been your best player at the DB position, and he gets beat deep. I just don’t understand it, Nick. I don’t understand how they continue to get beat deep, especially against a quarterback like Feleipe, who you knew was going to do that.

Nick:​Yeah. The secondary again, Kaiir got beat deep. Kimbrough fell on a play.

Andrew:​He didn’t fall. He got pushed down.

Nick:​Okay. I didn’t see the push. I texted you right when it happened. I said, Chester’s just fell, and you said he got pushed. Hey, listen, fans, you know how Feleipe reacts when you boo. Feleipe got booed when he took the field, immediately throws a bomb for a touchdown. That’s just happens when Feleipe gets booed in the Swamp. He makes plays.

Andrew:​Yeah. I think that’s my biggest concern, Nick, is just continuing to see that. You and I were joking during the game, this is going to be a basketball score between Florida and Bama. I’ll ask you this. Is it better that they just every now and then give up one big play and let them score? I don’t know. I’m trying to look at some positives in this whole thing. That’s the one frustrating thing is when your team gets out, like for instance on the scoring drive, and then the next play it’s a bomb that they beat Kaiir. It’s like, your offense has to get a little frustrated. You think, thank God our offense is as good as it is, because if not, we’d be in trouble. I don’t know, Nick. That’s a worrisome part. I’m at the point in the season where I just don’t think it’s going to get no better.

Nick:​You want a silver lining?

Andrew:​Yes.

Nick:​Give up a big play, and you get your offense back on the field quick.

Andrew:​Yeah. Until you run into a good defense.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​I don’t know if there’s one out there that can stop Florida’s offense, because I think Florida’s offense is the best in the country, but you run into that. You get that one kind of issue. I said this, and he came out, and he made some comments after the game. I guess I’m just going to probably get on his shit list already, but I said it last week, and I’ll say it again this week. I think I’ve seen enough of Shawn Davis out there at safety that I’m ready to see more Trey Dean. I continue to see Trey make plays when he’s in the game. I know Rayshad Torrence has had some ups and downs, but I think overall Rayshad’s playing really well. How many times do you have to watch bad angles from Shawn to know that that’s what’s going to happen every time?

Nick:​Yeah. Shawn took to Twitter and said, if you aren’t calling plays, you don’t know my responsibilities and keep it to yourself.

Andrew:​Here’s the thing I do know. A safety’s angle is never to run up there with your eyes closed. So, again, I don’t have to know the play to know that. I don’t have to know the play to know that you took a terrible angle to the ball and that you came in there acting like you was ready to knock somebody’s head off instead of coming out there to make a play. Sorry.

Nick:​Right.

Andrew:​This isn’t Keanu Neal days, where you can come up there and knock somebody out, because guess what? You’re probably getting ejected if you do land that hit, so what’s the point? Make a play. Make a play. That’s it. We can get on Grantham all we want to, but if Shawn Davis makes a play there that run doesn’t go for 83 yards.

Nick:​Yeah. Couple big plays, a bunch of big plays for Arkansas.

Andrew:​I’m just saying, we get on Grantham, and rightfully so. I think Grantham at times calls some boneheaded plays, but at the same time, make a play. That’s it. If you would sit down and make a play, just break down, make a play. Don’t use the hit stick on Madden. Sit down and make a play. Break down, get in good position, and make a play as a safety.

Nick:​Yeah. That’s true. We also, not me, people get on Grantham for saying the players have to make the plays. The players will tell you that too. It’s not Todd trying to shift blame on himself. You can call the right play, but if somebody gets out of position or if you miss one tackle. One miss run fit on a play can be a 10-yard gain, but one missed run fit could lead to an 82-yard rush.

Andrew:​Yeah. That’s what it did last night. That’s my whole thing. I saw it after the game, and I told you. I was like, I guess I’m going to have to piss him off some more, because I’m just tired of watching it. I’m tired of watching it.

Nick:​I wrote it after the game last night. I feel way better about Florida’s front seven. Got to Feleipe last night. Got some pressure. Four sacks on the night, eight tackles for loss. I loved what the front four is looking like. I thought Brenton Cox played all right. Got some pressure. Didn’t really get to the quarterback, but got pressure.

Andrew:​Oh, but he bruised up Feleipe.

Nick:​Yeah. Got to the quarterback. Zach Carter got to the quarterback a whole bunch, also recovered the fumble. Rumbled. He said that’s probably the first touchdown he’s had since Little League, when he was maybe eight years old.

Andrew:​He was holding to that ball so hard.

Nick:​He might have deflated the ball. Tom Brady might be throwing that football on Sunday, just because it doesn’t have as much air in it the way Zach was clutching it.

Andrew:​Is Zach your best player on defense right now?

Nick:​Yeah, man. He’s a guy that you were probably getting close to putting a bust label on, just because when you come from that Tampa area you’re already getting more attention. When you come from Tampa and Jacksonville, those are such big Florida alumni bases that you get some buzz around you just as a prospect. Then you’re kind of just waiting on what’s Zach Carter? Is this the year? Then we in the media write stories every year, because his teammates are the ones talking about him. Zach Carter’s about to blow up this year. Okay. Cool. We write it, and then it doesn’t happen. Zach Carter might be your best defensive player right now. He’s playing out of his mind.

Andrew:​Yeah. 100% agree. I don’t know that I was close to calling him a bust. I think he was just a guy that …

Nick:​I don’t think we got there, but you know what I mean? I think the hype was so big for Zach, and then just never, whether it was opportunity or what, wasn’t living up to it. You and I weren’t calling him a bust, but you’re getting to the point where it’s like, you’re getting into your fourth year, when are you going to do something? Show me something.

Andrew:​I think a lot of it was just kind of growing into his body as well.

Nick:​He’d been moved all around.

Andrew:​I think that’s another thing that we have to remember. You saw it at the end of last year. You knew. You had a pretty good idea coming into this year that it was about to be Zach Carter time after kind of how he finished last year. Kyree’s playing really well. We might have downplayed his loss a good bit.

Nick:​Yeah. I kept saying. I said it over and over, he’s not Aaron Donald or an All-American player, but shoot. I still don’t think he’s an All-American, but you cannot understate how much better the defensive line, and then in the front seven, has been since he got back.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​He has made all the difference. He has made all the difference with his return. It’s just allowing. Zach Carter looks so much better, because now he can play end instead of tackle. Brenton Cox looks so much better. I’ve said it over and over and over again. Kyree’s taking on double teams, and Kyree’s doing the dirty work down in the middle there with TJ Slaton. Certainly, we understated how much they missed him while he was gone. Didn’t really appreciate it until he came back and you saw what he is.

Andrew:​Right. Exactly. It’s big to see what he’s doing and that. I wanted to hit on something, Nick. I don’t want to be negative in this podcast at all, but I do think that there’s one point of this team that we need to hit on that has got to improve, and that’s special teams. That’s special teams. This team special teams wise, outside of Evan McPherson, it’s pretty below average. Their kickoff coverage is really bad. Even punting the ball, I feel like Finn hasn’t punted the ball really well this year overall. Their kick coverage, Nick, is terrible.

Nick:​I’m trying to look it up now. Another year of not blocking stuff.

Andrew:​They were close last night.

Nick:​Yeah. Looking for it here. Let’s see. Kind of right in the middle. The touchbacks are great.

Andrew:​Yeah. But I wonder why he’s not always just booming out.

Nick:​The kick coverage was not great. The kick and punt coverage had some returns last night. But yeah. Listen, we’re getting to the point where Florida’s win last night was dominating, and we’re getting to the point now where we have to start comparing them to Alabama. I know everyone is going to say, one game at a time. Cool. I’m not game planning. I don’t have to make plays on Saturday. I can see where Florida’s going. I’m not going to get distracted and lose a game. Anything I say is not going to cause Florida to win or lose on Saturdays. I’m starting to look at Alabama, because that’s where we’re heading. Florida, again last night, Kyle Trask was asked about the Heisman. He said, stats are cool. Win games and win a National Championship.

If that’s your goal, you’re going to have to go through Alabama. So, now we’re holding you up to an Alabama standard, and we got to start nitpicking. Listen, Alabama is the team that will make any weakness you have, will take advantage of it. So, we’re going to have to start talking about some stuff like that, and that’s what Florida is going to have to do when they’re looking at themselves and self-evaluating. Where is our weakness? We’ve got to figure out where that is, and where Alabama’s going to attack it, and how to get better in that. The weakness is not offense. Listen, your offense is so much fun to watch. That’s fine. You’ve got to find your areas of weakness and figure them out, fix them.

Andrew:​I think that’s the thing. I expected it to be always a strength under Dan, because of just being in the Urban tree and everything else. I expected that he would always have one of, if not the best, special teams in the country, just because of how important it is to Urban. You’ve seen it the last few years, and it hasn’t been. I know kicking is. The field goal kicking has been really good and all that, but there’s other facets of the game that you have to win, and Florida hasn’t been doing a good job of that.

Arkansas, I know they had the holding call, and I know someone said it should have been another holding call on the other, but still, at one point in that kickoff there was one guy on that side of the field where he was at. You just can’t. You look at it, and you say, for instance, let’s just go to like you said, Alabama there. Do you really want to give Alabama a free touchdown in the game on a kickoff? I think the answer is no.

Nick:​No. The answer is no. A resounding no.

Andrew:​Right. So, that’s what when we get to talking about that. I just haven’t understood why it’s been as bad as it is. I don’t know. Just seems like that’s something that is maybe forgotten about a little bit, and it’s surprising, like I said, under Mullen, who is a guy who’s been under Urban forever. You would think that this would be a very important factor to him. Like I said, even with the punts, they very seldom go after a punt, and that used to be a staple of Urban Meyer’s game. How many games would Chris Rainey, I mean I know it’s Chris Rainey, but how many games did he have multiple blocks in a game?

Nick:​Yeah. That was such a run with Rainey and Demps and all those guys coming off the edge. They were a terror. I don’t know who that guy would be. I don’t know if they have. I’m trying to wrack my brain. Who would you even put? Who sticks out in your mind? Would it be one of the younger guys? We’re not really seeing Ja’Markis Weston, who is an athletic freak.

Andrew:​I’m letting KT go after it. Fastest guy off the line of scrimmage.

Nick:​Is he even on those teams? I haven’t noticed.

Andrew:​He’s on the whatchamacallit. He’s the returner, so you’d have to bring him up at times to do that when you’re going to sell out. I mean, you want your fastest guy usually to go get it, so I’m wanting him to go get it. I don’t know. I don’t know who it is. Again, we’re nitpicking, because we can. There’s not nothing else to nitpick on this team, and like you said, you just want to get to the portion of Alabama, and I think that’s that step. I don’t know. Maybe they don’t have a guy on the team that can do it, but you have to improve, especially if you’re not going to come get it, you at least have to improve in coverage.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​That’s another thing too. Teams just aren’t kicking the ball to allow Kadarius to return it either.

Nick:​No. That has ended. I don’t even know if it really got started, but that has ended. Listen, Florida’s going to be able to score points with Alabama, and Alabama will be the best defense that Florida plays this year, but Florida’s going to be able to score points. Kind of like what I said about Ole Miss. I was like, Ole Miss is going to score on anyone. Florida’s going to score on anyone. I think it’s great.

I hope it doesn’t sound negative, but we’re now talking about Florida in the same breath as Alabama, and the last time we did that was when Jim McElwain brought Florida to the SEC Championship game, and that conversation was, you see how far you have to go now. Even going into that game, I didn’t feel, and I don’t think you felt or anyone in Gator Nation, if they were honest with themselves, felt we’ll probably compete with Alabama today. If I’m sitting here and look at that game right now, my thought process is it’s a boat race. It’s going to be a lot of points, and Florida can score with anyone. If you get a stop, one stop might be the game with those two offenses.

Andrew:​It very well may be. That may be the situation where you go into this game thinking you need to score every possession you get. It may be a game where you definitely want to have the running game to kind of limit the possessions each team have, and Bama may do the same thing, just because, like you said, it might be a boat race. It might be an Oklahoma City-Houston Rockets basketball score, if you’re not careful.

Nick:​It will look like a basketball box score in that game, for sure, and not a Florida-Virginia basketball game either.

Andrew:​You and I were joking. I said, each team may go for a thousand yards in the game. I mean, that’s joking. The teams ain’t going to go for a thousand yards in the game, but still it’s one of those that it’s going to be a boat race. When you look at it, you start to kind of nitpick of what does each team need to do to kind of improve, and that would be the thing for me on Florida is special teams.

Nick:​Yeah. Got to just look for areas to improve. We can sit here, and we can just gush about the offense all day long. Listen, 200 rushing yards. I remember saying on Friday podcast, maybe Florida will try to really show that they can run the ball and rush for 200. I remember saying, maybe not 200, thinking that that was crazy. 208.

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​It’s fun though. How much more fun are you having this season than the last, maybe not the last couple. This offense is more fun than last year. I’m having more fun covering this football team with how explosive the offense is. This team is just fun, man. They’re confident. They play fast. They play hard. I’m just having a really good time covering this team.

Andrew:​Yeah. For sure. It’s a team that’s a lot of fun to watch. A lot of guys getting involved in it. For the most part a team that looks like they’re a pretty tightknit group, and a group that battles every week. I think that’s the biggest thing is they battle. Let’s go through some of our picks, Nick. Not so good a week for you, my friend.

Nick:​We’ll do the game picks first, because we picked all the same teams, and we were solid. Wisconsin. Michigan is an absolute dumpster fire.

Andrew:​One yard of offense the first quarter.

Nick:​Dumpster fire inside of a volcano. The khaki culture is dead in Ann Arbor. Let me see. Miami snuck back to beat Virginia Tech. Wisconsin beat Michigan. We both picked that. Ole Miss beat South Carolina. Put up 8,000 yards against Will Muschamp. I was scrolling through some South Carolina Twitter. They want Will Muschamp’s head on a platter. They are done with him.

Andrew:​Yeah. Lane Kiffin’s clipboard throw was pretty.

Nick:​Loved that. We both picked Kentucky. They barely squeaked by, 38-35. I picked Florida to cover but under. Florida went over on their own.

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​You picked Arkansas to cover, but over. We split that. Neither of our Masters picks are going to win. You picked JT. I picked Xander. DJ is running away with it.

Andrew:​We’re taping this on Sunday afternoon, and DJ is currently with a three-shot lead. My man Justin Thomas couldn’t hit a putt late. It was bad. They’re still looking for Bryson’s ball.

Nick:​Still looking for any of Bryson’s balls. John Roth, which one?

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​Let’s give you some props real quick. Justin Shorter was your first pick. Where is he here?

Andrew:​One catch, 21 yards.

Nick:​Only one catch, but a spectacular touchdown. Go ahead and give you that. Your other pick was your boy Trevon Grimes. Six catches, 109 yards, two touchdowns. One of them he’s just running naked down the middle of the field. Nobody wanted to touch him. Then Zach Carter, obviously another touchdown. All three. How often does that happen? All three guys you pick, including a defensive player, with a touchdown. That’s just a solid week.

Andrew:​I need to go to Vegas.

Nick:​You wasted it on the podcast and made no money.

Andrew:​Made no money. I should have went and threw some lottery numbers down. Should have went and done it.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​Go ahead and tell us about yours.

Nick:​Picked Malik Davis. He had eight carries for 37 yards, one catch for 12. That’s 49 all purpose yards. No. My Kadarius Toney pick, normally a safe pick. He had one rush for -1 yards, seven catches for 57. That’s a no. We already talked about Kaiir Elam getting run right by on the first drive, so that’s a donut for Nick.

Andrew:​It was not pretty. It was not pretty there, Nicholas. I’ll start sending you some advice every week, okay?

Nick:​Yeah. I might actually take it after that week.

Andrew:​Florida State’s still terrible.

Nick:​I posed the question last night on Twitter. What would the score be? What would the score be if Florida and Florida State played this year?

Andrew:​A lot to a little.

Nick:​I mean, they are just awful.

Andrew:​They’re bad.

Nick:​They’re terrible. I would love to watch that game.

Andrew:​That’s a bad football team. The bad problem is, for them, they have nowhere to go. They have no future, because they haven’t recruited well. Norvell is probably worse than Willie Taggert. The culture there is done. You’re not buying him out. What are you looking for again?

Nick:​I don’t know. You’re stuck.

Andrew:​You’re stuck. You’re stuck for a while.

Nick:​You’re a long way from being good too. It’s not like you’re about to turn the corner. Long way from being good.

Andrew:​He better go hit the transfer portal and hope every one of them pans out.

Nick:​All of them. Got to be Transfer Portal U, because it’s going to take a while to be good. We saw it with Florida, when Florida was bad. It’s hard to recruit to a bad school, to a team that’s not successful. Hard to recruit.

Andrew:​Like I said, there’s no quarterback for the future. There is nothing. There’s nothing there. I saw where they offered an Old Dominion guy or something, a transfer guy. I’m sitting here thinking, it’s probably not the answer to getting back quick.

Nick:​Yeah. I’m enjoying it.

Andrew:​Cool by me. I love to see it. I don’t even have to check the score every week. I just know they lost. I just know they lost. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here, and we’ll see everyone on Wednesday, as we’ll get into Vandy.

Nick:​Probably not have anyone on to break down Vandy, but we’ll do our best. Vandy is 0-6. Showed some life on Saturday, but yeah.

Andrew:​That’s about it.

Nick:​Not a great team. www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can find the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search Gator Country. Hit subscribe. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.

Andrew:​There you go. Guys, we appreciate it. We’ll see everyone on Wednesday. As always, go Braves and chomp, chomp.

Nick:​You stay classy, Gator Country.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.