GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we breakdown the latest news from fall camp for the Florida Gators.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown how the second scrimmage went for the Gators on Monday and who looked good during the scrimmage.
Andrew and Nick breakdown which guys have had a good fall camp and which freshmen could play a lot this fall.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, back. Gators had their second and final scrimmage. We’re now, today is September 9th, we’re taping this. Gators have 17 days before they kick it off. Football season is right around the corner.
Nick: Football season for Florida is around the corner. When this podcast goes out, depending on when you’re listening to it, Miami might be playing on your TV. ACC starts on Thursday with Miami. Full slate of games on Saturday. We’re back.
Andrew: Sunbelt started last week. My Jaguars got a win, and then ran the Southern Miss coach out of town. What’s that?
Nick: South in your mouth.
Andrew: That’s right. That’s right.
Nick: South in your mouth.
Andrew: They also opened their new stadium this weekend.
Nick: It does kind of look like a Texas high school football stadium, but a lot of Texas high school football stadiums look like college football stadiums.
Andrew: Yeah. It sucks, because you had everything planned. They were ready to go, and they were ready to have a nice opening of the stadium and everything else. Now it’s going to be 6,000 fans. It’s going to suck, but what do you do?
Nick: We talked about that. It’s huge financial hit to the schools like South and those non-Power Five schools, not being able to play. South was going to get a nice paycheck from Florida. They were going to get a nice paycheck. That stuff pays for all that, and then you just built a brand-new stadium. Ticket sales, concessions are going to help foot that bill. That money’s gone. I’m just happy we’re playing football, and I’m sure South would rather be taking the financial hit that they’re taking right now than not having football at all.
Andrew: They actually had to drive the two hours to Hattiesburg for their game the day of the game. They didn’t even stay.
Nick: Listen to this story, everyone. You told me this, I think the day before the game or the day of the game. This is a wild story.
Andrew: They drive up, get to the stadium, dress for walkthrough at 4:00, get off the bus, go to the field for walkthrough, do all their things. Go in, get dressed for pre-game, and go back out. They had a team meal and everything on the bus. Insane. You think about the creatures of habit everyone is, where Dan Mullen has everything from Friday night to Saturday morning planned out. What would happen if they had to drive to Tallahassee the day of the game? It’d be insane.
Nick: I guess, of the away games this year, you’re not driving to College Station.
Andrew: No.
Nick: Oxford is a 10-hour car drive, 9.5-hour car drive in a bus. That might be 12 hours. You’re not going to do that. Shoot, Knoxville and Nashville, those aren’t drives either. Maybe you could probably do it for Florida-Georgia in Jacksonville. That would probably take two hours in a bus.
Andrew: Still, they always go up the day before and have their little walkthrough in the stadium on Friday, and then go to St. Augustine and stay the night, and then drive over to the stadium on Saturday morning.
Nick: That’s rough. Hopefully we won’t get to that. Schools like Florida and the resources they have, you’re taking chartered jets to places.
Andrew: Exactly. Let’s go through some news. Dan Mullen met on Tuesday to recap the scrimmage. Wasn’t very happy, per se, about the scrimmage. Everything we heard, Nick, is that him being an offensive guy he wasn’t very happy that there was a couple interceptions in the scrimmage. The way it was described to me was it wasn’t that the scrimmage was bad, it was just that each position kind of made some plays. The defensive backs made some plays and really picked off Kyle and Emory, and then the offense made some plays and made the defense look bad. I think that’s just a head coach being frustrated in general. I don’t think that it was that the team played necessarily bad.
Nick: That’s the issue with every coach and every fall camp. If your quarterback has a great day, what was the secondary doing? Were we getting a pass rush? If you’re running the ball, why aren’t we fitting lanes? If you’re not running the ball, offensive line, what were we doing? When you’re going up against yourself, one person’s success typically, not always, means another group was failing.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: I don’t think you’re ever going to come out super happy from a scrimmage. You’re kind of looking for how are guys progressing, how are the operations going? Are we getting on and off the field? Do we know who’s on what team? If a wide receiver taps their helmet, does the guy who’s going in next for him know that he’s going in, so we’re not going to get a procedural penalty for too many men on the field? You’re not going to get penalized for not enough people on the field. You’re penalizing yourself there. Just stuff like that that you’re looking for.
It’s also interesting. I watched BYU. I’m sure you did as well. I watched BYU and Navy, and Navy’s coach, he’s a great coach. He’s been there 22 years, as the head coach for 12. Turned down a BYU job just this past offseason. They decided not to do any contact. There was no tackling. There was no scrimmaging. When Navy went out there, they looked like a team that the last time they tackled was back in January for their bowl game. I think it’s going to be interesting. Dan Mullen keeps saying he thinks it’s going to be sloppy football to start the season, and Navy was. It’s going to be interesting to see what coaches have decided to do to prepare their teams. That’s an individual choice for every coach across the country. I agree. I think there’s going to be some sloppy football to begin the season.
Andrew: I think there’s going to be some injuries.
Nick: Certainly. You haven’t had the same time with your strength coach. You haven’t had the same time to get into football shape, and then when you look at Florida, they normally would have had three scrimmages, only had two this fall camp, just because of the time restrictions.
Andrew: Right. You and I are big baseball guys, and the amount of injuries in Major League baseball this year is insane. There has been some major injuries, but then there’s been a lot of hamstrings or shoulders. I’m not comparing. You’re not going to have shoulder injuries in baseball like a pitcher does, but I’m just saying from the lack of preparation. You are, I think, going to have that. I think you are going to look at a little bit of sloppy football. I think it goes back to what you and I have said all along, and that is you kind of got to prepare this year like no other, and that means you need to have all 85 guys ready to go, as many of those guys ready to go as possible and be prepared to possibly play a sloppy game, be prepared to possibly play a shootout kind of game and just be ready for anything kind of thrown at you.
I think the biggest thing, and it goes back to what you and I have talked about frequently and what someone told me out of the scrimmage, and that is Florida will be fine because of the veteran leadership on this team. When you think about all the big positions, you want your quarterback to be a veteran. You want your veteran DBs to be ready to go. You look at safety and corner, all veteran guys. I think that’s what’s going to help Florida and what puts them at such an advantaged compared to teams like LSU, compared to teams like Georgia and some other schools.
Nick: That consistency in the coaching staff and consistency at key positions. Talking about quarterback, Kyle Trask got 10 starts last year. Emory Jones had a bunch of playing time. Even the receiver, congratulations to all four Florida receivers that were drafted, made rosters. I want to really highlight Tyrie Cleveland.
Andrew: All of them but one made it.
Nick: Josh is on the practice squad.
Andrew: Yes. Okay.
Nick: He’s on a roster, but not on the 53.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Really want to highlight Tyrie Cleveland. They took Jerry Jeudy in the top 10, took another wide receiver with their second pick. As a seventh round Draft pick, you’re not guaranteed anything. You’re more likely to get cut than anything.
Andrew: Especially with no preseason.
Nick: No games, preseason games, to do anything. It’s crazy to me to be a seventh round pick, where it’s very unlikely to make a team, and then you’re at a position where they used two high Draft picks. Those guys are making the team no matter what. Unless they get arrested off the field for something bad, they’re making the team no matter what. Hats off to Tyrie Cleveland. He must have worked his tail off and shown them something.
Andrew: I think it goes back to what you and I always talk about with that, and getting off subject here a little bit, and that is Tyrie can play everywhere. He can play every special teams. He’s going to compete on special teams. He’s going to be a willing blocker there. He’s going to do all the things you want to do. When you’re talking about a 53-man roster, you need those receivers to be special teams guys and to be four-down guys or three-down guys at the receiver position. Like you said, it’s props to him. Freddie Swain’s another guy that goes undrafted and then is kept by Seattle. You just look at what he’s done. Then Van out there competing for a starting job in a loaded Rams receiver corps.
Nick: Loaded. That was really cool to get an inside glimpse of Van with Hard Knocks being out there in LA. Just finished watching the last episode. Really cool to see someone like Jalen Ramsey, who just became the highest paid cornerback, I think ever, to really be working with him and helping Van really hone his craft. I saw Aaron Donald was asked who is impressing out of the rookies. He said #12. That’s Van. Gators, of colleges with players on NFL rosters, only four teams have more than Florida. I can run down a list if you want me to run down the list real quick.
Andrew: Go ahead.
Nick: Let me pull it up. Pull it up on our message board.
Andrew: I’ll say this real quick, while you’re pulling that up. Doesn’t shock me at all that Van Jefferson’s balling out.
Nick: No. He was, in my mind, the most NFL ready prospect of any Florida Gator that was Draft eligible last year. Even more so than CJ Henderson. I think Van was the most NFL ready guy. I got it all sorted by team alphabetically. Arizona, DJ Humphries, who was actually just named a team captain, Max Garcia, Marcus Gilbert, he opted out, and Jon Bullard, Jon-Jon is on the practice squad.
Andrew: I seen he got cut.
Nick: Got picked back up though, so he’s on the practice squad. They’ve got four extra guys on the practice squad this year. I think there’s 12 practice squad spots instead of eight. Falcons have Keanu Neal, Brandon Powell, good for him getting and staying on that roster, Dante Fowler, Jr. as well. Brian Cox Jr. is on the Buffalo Bills practice squad. Eddy Pineiro is still with the Bears. He’s going to start the season on injured reserve though. Bengals have Carlos Dunlap entering his tenth year and Fred Johnson. The Broncos have Duke Dawson and Tyrie Cleveland. The Lions have Jared Davis. Houston Texans, VH3, Vernon Hargreaves and Jon Greenard. You’ll watch both of them on Thursday against Kansas City. Kansas City has Demarcus Robinson and my boy, Tommy Townsend. The Colts have Trey Burton. He’s starting the year on IR. Chaz Green is in his fourth year.
The Jags. Here we go. Taven Bryan, Lerentee McCray, but he opted out, Jawaan Taylor, CJ Henderson, and Josh Hammond on the practice squad. Dolphins signed Antonio Callaway. He’s suspended. We’ll see when he gets back on the field. Trent Brown in his sixth year with the Raiders. Chargers have Mike Pouncey. The Rams have Van Jefferson and Jachai Polite. I didn’t know that Jachai Polite had been picked up by the Rams. Didn’t see so much of him, or any of him, on Hard Knocks really.
Andrew: No.
Nick: New Orleans Saints, Alex Anzalone and CJ Gardner-Johnson, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson/Ceedy Deuce, whatever he’s calling himself nowadays. New York Jets. Marcus May, Brian Poole, Quincy Wilson, Lamical Perine, and Jabari Zuniga. He starts the year on the IR. Steelers have Joe Haden, Maurkice Pouncey. Seahawks have Freddie Swain and Quinton Dunbar. Niners have Marcell Harris and Jordan Reed. Then the Washington football team. Jon Bostic, David Sharp, Caleb Brantley. Brantley’s opted out of the year.
Andrew: That’s a lot of guys, and a lot of guys that are going to compete and play a lot. My guy, Perine, has got to get healthy, and he’s going to play a lot. CJ’s going to play a lot. Lot of guys going to play a lot there. Let’s go back to the current team for a second, Nick. We talk about all those receivers right there. Man, the receiver corps this year, from everything we’ve heard, has done well. You know what Trevon Grimes is going to do. You hear Mullen talk highly of Kadarius, and we’ll see. We’ll see with that. Can he stay healthy? We think Jacob Copeland can have a good year. We know he’s a good player. Then the two freshmen in Henderson and Fraziars, and then Ja’Markis Weston playing well. You look at those six guys, and you go from question marks to this is a receiver corps that I feel pretty good about.
Nick: You’re always going to have question marks, but it comes with such a caveat, you know what I mean? I think we all know the kind of player that Jacob Copeland can be.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: I think we know the kind of player that Trevon Grimes is and can be. So, even though you’re losing guys, and you don’t get more dependable than Freddie Swain, Josh Hammond, and Van Jefferson. You don’t get more dependable than those three guys, but I think that’s probably just the dependability and the consistency is what you really need out of the guys that are there, but the guys that are there you feel good about.
Then all the reports we’re hearing, Fraziars is getting a ton of love, and then I think Trent Whittemore is a guy that can play. Kadarius Toney, talking about consistency, he’s a guy that just needs to be more consistent. You need him to be a wide receiver and less of an AND1 basketball mix tape player.
Andrew: Right. That’s kind of what we heard about Trent Whittemore. I was talking to some people about that as well. They said, think about what he is. He is a guy that is like a Josh Hammond, a Freddie Swain, one of those guys. He’s going to always be around the ball. He’s going to know where to be. He’s going to be in the right place. He’s going to run the right routes. He’s going to do everything that he’s supposed to do. Is he going to do anything great? Probably not, but he’s going to do everything really good.
We’ve talked about this so many times. You need those guys on your team. You go back to Clemson with Hunter Renfrow. What’s he done? You go back to the Auburn game last year with Freddie Swain, and a guy that wasn’t talked about, first play of the game he’s gone for six. You really like what you get from a guy like Trent Whittemore. I think, again, it’ll be a group that goes from some worrisome to feeling pretty good about it.
Nick: Yeah. To me, I guess that’s the thing. The talent’s there. I don’t think the talent level drops off a ton. Is it a little bit lower? Maybe. It’s just that dependability and that consistency.
Andrew: Experience.
Nick: Dependability, consistency, and experience. That’s what you’re lacking at receiver. You’re not lacking in talent.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. Then you kind of go to that running back spot, a spot that has a lot of good players there. Everything we hear is that Damien and Malik are having really good camps, and Nay’Quan’s coming on of late. I think that’s big. We talked about this a lot. Florida has to replace a guy in Perine who was a four down back that could block really well, could catch out of the backfield really well. I think Malik catches out of the backfield. I’m not sure about his blocking. Nay’Quan, on the other hand, has the body type to be that guy. You would love for him to kind of step up and be that guy. We’ll see what you get out of Lingard. Hearing some thing that he still doesn’t fully trust that knee there. We’ll see what production you get out of him. You really like what you’re getting out of Damien. Now can you get Nay’Quan to be that guy to be that all-around guy?
Nick: That’s going to be interesting. I think I said it last podcast, and I even asked Dan Mullen about it point blank. I said, first year you split a lot of carries, last year it was Lamical Perine. He was the bell cow. How does it shake out this year? He kind of said, we’re going to get a lot of guys touches. We’ll see how it plays out. I think the most encouraging thing I’ve heard is just all the positivity around Malik Davis. Frankly, it really hadn’t been there last year. We weren’t hearing, whether publicly or privately. We really hadn’t heard anything too positive.
Andrew: Right. We always get hyped up, he’s back, and this guy’s back at this time, and everything else. I think we maybe get carried away a little bit. I think Marco Wilson’s another case. Yes, he was back. I don’t think Marco fully trusted his knee last year. Malik didn’t fully trust that ankle last year. You look at a guy like Jaydon Hill, who had ACL surgery his senior year, didn’t fully trust that knee last year. You see some of these guys, and once they get to year two of being fully recovered, they really start to trust things and really put it all together. I think that’s what you’re going to see from Malik. I think that’s why you’re going to see Marco have a big year and everything else. I just think that we always get caught up in how quick they get back, and we forget that, yes, they may be back on the field, but do they fully trust whatever body part put them out?
Nick: There’s no guideline. It’s very player-specific.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: There’s no timetable for that.
Andrew: Some bounce back quicker than others. Some don’t. Some don’t ever. It’s kind of the nature of the body, honestly, and just how everyone reacts. You think about a guy like Malik with an ankle injury, he’s a guy that cuts and everything else. If you don’t fully trust that, he takes away that. He’s not a bruiser. You talk about a guy like Marco who’s a jam guy and a flip those hips kind of guy. If he don’t fully trust that knee, does he flip those hips as quickly? Maybe not.
Nick: Because there’s such limited time, and Dan Mullen was kind of explaining it to us. When you’re in training camp, which Florida is in, technically in training camp. When they’re in the beginning of training camp, you have unlimited amount of time. You would have football practice in the morning. Florida would typically go at like 8:00 or 9:00. After that, the players leave, get a meal, and then get a little down time. Then they go do like a recovery lift. They go and lift for a little bit. Then they go, and they watch film. You just have unlimited time to kind of be around the guys. Now you’ve got 25 practices in 20 hours a week.
Andrew: Right. And school.
Nick: And school. Before they would have unlimited amount of time with only one day off. They’d be able to be on the field six days a week with that schedule I just talked about, and then that off day you’re strictly in the film room. You’re really seven days a week with the guys. Now you’ve got 20 hours a week and limited to 25 practices. That’s where you come in, and I said I think we’re going to be sloppy. You talked about injuries too. I think that’s really frustrated Dan, and he’s kind of shown it and kept harping on it. I can’t blame him. When you put it plainly like that, because the average fan, even some of us in the media, aren’t privy to exactly what the changes are and exactly how they’re going to affect a team. I wonder, like you just said about Tyrie, good for him making the team with limited chance to show himself. How are guys that are maybe trying to get more snaps or trying to make a second team or make a third team or get more reps, are they getting a chance in the limited amount of practice to prove themselves?
Andrew: We’ll talk about this real quick. I was asking a couple people, some freshman, who’s going to play and who’s going to play a lot? A couple of guys I was asking about, and we were talking about with several different people, for instance, Josh Braun. A guy who everyone thought was going to play a lot, and he still will play some, but hasn’t been able to fully get up to speed with the offensive line just because of limited practice. That goes for all the offensive line. That goes for other people, other positions, as well. Just haven’t been able to have that time to really go through it. Here’s the problem too. Usually you get the directional school first game, and it’s a blowout, and those guys get a little bit of a time. Guess what? There isn’t that no more.
Nick: Yeah. First game is Ole Miss. Hey, Ole Miss, between injuries and positive Covid tests, they have 27 guys out for their last scrimmage.
Andrew: Right. Exactly.
Nick: Maybe the Fighting Lane Kiffins are as much– No. I take it back. As much of a directional school as we will get in the SEC is Arkansas and Vanderbilt. Ole Miss is a tier ahead of them.
Andrew: Tennessee had to cancel their scrimmage. It’s what we talked about. Every week is going to be who’s ready to go, who could play, and everything else. We talked about this a little bit on our Zoom call. How do you get guys experienced for next year in those games? That’s going to be tough as well. Then how do you get guys experienced for this year? Let’s look at the linebacker group, for instance, and a guy like Tyrone Hopper. He’s going to play a lot, but wouldn’t you love to have that directional school game to get him ready for that Ole Miss game before he kind of gets thrown into the fire a little bit? Even Brenton Cox, you would love to have him a game in there to play, but you’re not, and so you’re going to learn on the fly a little bit. It goes back to Mullen’s point. It’s going to be sloppy because of that.
Nick: Yeah. I will take sloppy football over no football.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: Ten times over.
Andrew: Bad football is better than no football.
Nick: 100%.
Andrew: I think that the good thing is everyone’s going to have it, and you’re going to see some guys step up. You’re going to really see some guys separate themselves, and I think you’re going to see who really put in the work this, I don’t want to say offseason, but during the whole quarantine process. You’re going to see who put in that work. The biggest thing for me, Nick, and it goes back to what we said many times, and that is experience. For the most part, Florida has the experience. There’s some concern depth wise at offensive line. There’s some depth concerns other places, but for the most part you feel pretty good about your depth, and I think you feel pretty good about six to seven guys on the offensive line.
Nick: Yeah. I think, if I’m a coach at Florida, I think I probably feel good about the offensive line, just because of that consistency coming back. John Hevesy wants to get to, really you want to get to 10. You feel good at eight. Feel better at nine. Ideally you’ve got 10 guys. I think right now at Florida you’ve probably got seven.
Andrew: Yeah. I think you put Delance in there. I think if push came to shove, Braun could play. Braun’s definitely physically ready. It’s a little bit of catching up to speed, and that’s tough for any offensive line there. I’m trying to think of other guys. Really, after those, I think you kind of question yourself a little bit. Wouldn’t you say?
Nick: Yeah. I think you would question it. Even a guy like Delance, how long has been in Gainesville now? And we really haven’t seen him at all.
Andrew: You slide him at tackle, if something happens. I guess we’ll hit on that real quick. We have heard of an offensive lineman going down in the scrimmage. If that happens, Delance would slide in to be your starter there at offensive line. Again, you hope that everybody stays healthy, and you don’t have to worry about that. One point I wanted to make, Nick, and that is safety, a position that we talked about having question marks. I think it’s went from a question mark to almost a position that has the potential to be a strength for this team, if guys like Trey Dean play up to how he’s played all fall, if Shawn Davis plays up to potential, that kind of stuff.
Nick: To me, how many times have I said it? That’s of big interest for me. How does that star safety kind of area check out? I think you posted some notes on the message board about star, what are you hearing about that position? I mean, we can talk about Shawn Davis, but I think everyone wants to know what’s going on at star.
Andrew: Everyone’s asking about Marco, and I think Marco does play there a little bit, but I think Brad Stewart’s played well down there some. Amari Burney’s played well down there. Here’s the thing. Amari Burney is a guy that can play very well there in the run game. He’s a bigger guy. Brad Stewart’s a guy that can play that star position in passing situations and do a well. He’s a guy that can still blitz off the edge, and he’s a guy that can cover and everything else. You have that versatility.
I think that’s the biggest word of this team a little bit, and that is versatility. Overall, there’s a lot of versatility with a lot of guys. I just said Marco could play inside there. Kaiir could probably play inside, if absolutely needed. You have some depth there that now allows you that versatility to move around and kind of get the best players on the field. We talked about Hopper being a guy that’s going to be able to cover a lot of guys from that linebacker spot, so that versatility I think is the biggest key for this team on the this defensive side of the ball.
Nick: That’s really what Dan Mullen said. It’s really a unicorn, if you can find someone that does all of it.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: This is what I think will happen, makes the most sense to me. You know Marco can do it, so people keep asking about him. Is he practicing there? I’m like, yeah, a little bit, but it’s kind of like Kyle Pitts hasn’t played in either scrimmage. We know what he is. We see it every day. We watched Marco play great there last year. Let’s work in other guys, and I think Marco will be your safety net.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: If it’s Hopper down there, or if it’s Stewart or Burney there, if that stuff doesn’t work out, it’s we can put Chester Kimbrough outside with Kaiir Elam outside, and we’ll put Marco at star, depending on the package, down, distance, stuff like that, and it’ll work out.
Andrew: Right. Yeah.
Nick: To me, you’ve got a really good safety net in Marco Wilson, and you try to figure out can we get somebody else there. We know we have this option, but let’s see what else we can do.
Andrew: Let’s get our best 11 on the field and go for it. If that’s Marco playing star, so be it. Whatever it may be. I think that’s the biggest key. Like you said, you have that safety net there. You would love, especially at safety, if Shawn Davis and Trey Dean are two guys that can play a lot, or if Stiner ends up playing, Brad Stewart, when healthy and on the field, has done well. Do you really want him sitting on the sidelines, if he’s a guy that can play star? Have Marco play corner opposite of Kaiir.
Nick: Got to get your best five out there in the backfield, or in the secondary.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. Let’s move on a little bit. Let’s talk some freshmen that we think are going to play, Nick. We’ve talked about this a lot. Let’s just kind of get into it here. I say on the offensive side of the ball the two guys that I feel very good in saying are going to play are Henderson and Fraziars. Would you agree?
Nick: Yeah. I think Xzavier, baby Hendo, definitely a guy that’ll play, especially when you look at the receivers and how much they in and out and shift. Then Jaquavion Fraziars is a guy that I think will play on special teams as well, as well as getting some shine on offense. No. I won’t even say that. I was going to say maybe more on special teams than offense, but I think, from what we’re hearing right now, I think I’d be comfortable saying he’s going to get some catches this year as well.
Andrew: Right. Trent Wittemore is another guy that I think will play. He’s a redshirt, so I think he’s there. Then defensively, Nick, I feel good in say Gervon and Princely are two guys that are going to play and play a lot. Princely, everybody that I’ve talked to about Princely says Princely is what you want a defensive end to look like.
Nick: I watched this, shout out, Princely’s got his own YouTube channel that I’ve been following whenever he posts videos. He and Gervon raced after a practice, and Princely’s like 6’4”, 240. Gervon is 6’7”, probably 290, 295. Gervon was only a step behind him. I’m looking at them like, my goodness. You guys don’t even really play, that’s a defensive tackle keeping up with like a DE, a defensive end.
Andrew: I think with Princely you can move him a little bit inside on third down and create that mismatch with him pass rushing as well.
Nick: Yeah. So, to me those two guys really, I think you’ll see a lot of as freshmen on the defensive side of the ball. It’s tough, because I love a guy like Derek Wingo, but when you look at that outside linebacker spot, and you’ve got guys like Moon and Cox and Khris Bogle, I think that’s just a really loaded room right now.
Andrew: Yeah. I think you’ll see him in some blowouts.
Nick: I don’t expect a redshirt at all, but I think you’ll see him. Yeah.
Andrew: Same thing with a guy like Rashad Torrence. I think he’s ready to play. I just don’t know that you see him a lot because of depth there.
Nick: He’s a guy, super smart. Really intelligent player that the coaches are high on. But again, we named four safeties off the bat, all guys with experience, and that’s just a tough room to break into right now.
Andrew: Exactly. Let’s run through it here. I’m going through all the enrollees here from last year. Dexter, who’s going to play. Wingo’s going to play some. Henderson’s going to play. Jahari Rogers, I don’t think you see him a ton there. Fraziars is going to play a lot. Pouncey, probably not. Still coming back from injury. Richardson, we know is not going to play. Princely I think is going to play a lot. Josh Braun, again, I think he plays some, it’s just how much. As he gets up to speed, he’s going to be a player for Florida down the stretch. Kamar, not going to play. I say not going to play, I don’t think he’s going to play much at all. Rashad, depending on the safeties, don’t think he plays a ton.
Avery Helm, from what I understand with Avery, Nick, still kind of coming back from that knee injury, probably needs a year before he’s ready. Mordecai McDaniel probably needs a year. Lamar Goods and Jalen Lee probably need a year. Finley Graham has got the injury. Tre’Vez Johnson, that was a guy, Nick, that Dan Mullen kind of mentioned a little bit.
Nick: Say that again.
Andrew: I said Tre’Vez Johnson, that’s a guy that’s been mentioned a little bit by the staff working at that star position.
Nick: I don’t know if he’ll be a guy that plays a ton at star. That obviously depends on how things shake out there. Like we said at the safety spot, kind of cluttered there. I think he’s a guy that is winning the coaches over, and you’ll see him on special teams. At the least, you’ll see him on special teams. He’s been another guy that book smart, film, is working really hard. I think he’s a guy you’ll see, and potentially a guy that you’re talking about might be a starter in Year 2. Right now, impressing the coaching staff. Sucks to be in a position that’s loaded, but he’s doing everything in his power to get on the field in 2020.
Andrew: Yeah. Jonathan Odom’s kind of the same way. Getting up to speed.
Nick: I just keep hearing it’s a strength thing with him. Just got to keep getting bigger, keep getting stronger. He potentially might be that kind of guy. Not as athletic as Kyle Pitts, but a guy you think will block better than Pitts does. Maybe more of an all-around tight end, if not at the level of a Kyle Pitts in terms of an offensive weapon, but a guy that you hope by Year 3 is, not competing, but a guy that is there in that kind of all-around tight end package.
Andrew: Yeah. I think it’s unfair to even compare those two guys, because Pitts is just such a different player, more of a receiver kind of guy. Again, like you said, strength and kind of getting up to speed. Just it’s a big difference going from high school ball to college ball, just the speed.
Nick: Yeah. 100%. Then the size of the guys that you’re blocking.
Andrew: Good luck blocking Brenton Cox.
Nick: Not just the speed of them, but the size too.
Andrew: Brenton Cox isn’t lining up from you at Jesuit High School down there. Any final thoughts, Nick, before we kind of get out of here? We’ll be getting ready for the season here shortly. Like we said, that’s the last scrimmage, so we’ll have some more practice notes next week. Just overall, good scrimmage for Florida. Time to get healthy.
Nick: Yeah. Just the one note that we got here on Wednesday, the update. Florida athletics Covid testing. I’ll just do football. Since the athletes returned on May 26th, they’ve done 523 tests. There were 22 positive tests. They’ve done 101 tests in the nine days in September, and they have one positive. That’s Florida’s first positive since at least July 14th, when mandatory stuff started, since mandatory workouts started. Then the only question there is that one person. We’re not going to know who it is. That information is not going to be released. We will continue getting these Covid-19 test updates throughout the year, but we’re not going to get names of people. The one positive test, then you have to think, you watched LSU lose an entire offensive line group for like a week. They do contact tracing. You’d certainly think if that one player lives with three other people, and they’re all football players, you’re going to have more than just the one person who tested positive in quarantine. I think for the contact tracing, if you didn’t test positive, but you were in contact with somebody who did, I think that quarantine is 8-10 days.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: The person who tests positive, I think it’s 10-14 days. They have to then test negative after.
Andrew: Exactly. Be interesting to watch. Something unfortunately, we’re going to have to watch all year.
Nick: It’s not a political thing. It’s just this is what we’re dealing with in terms of playing football and having to play football.
Andrew: Exactly. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here, and we’ll see everyone next week. We’ll talk some more fall camp, as we get ready for the season in Oxford.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can find the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search Gator Country. 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. As always, chomp, chomp and go Braves.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.