GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the beginning of spring football that started on Thursday.
Andrew Spivey, Bailiegh Carlton, and Ethan Hughes breakdown what Dan Mullen had to say about spring football, plus we look at some of the things that have happened so far.
We also breakdown how the baseball and softball teams did this past weekend on the diamond.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey back. We got a different podcast coming. We’re going video this time. Got Baileigh. We got Ethan. What’s up, guys? Y’all ready?
Baileigh:Hey, Andrew.
Ethan:I’m ready.
Baileigh:Ready. See how it goes.
Ethan:Right off the bat we’re talking over each other.
Andrew:Ethan, come on, man. Your first weekend on the job, and Sully loses two games.
Ethan:I know. Must be me. First time. Could be the stadium too, but it’s easier to blame people than it is buildings, so I guess I’ll take the blame for that one.
Andrew:McKethan’s down, so what are we going to do? I don’t know. I was telling Ethan before we jumped on the air, a team that went from looking like it was going to be indestructible. It was 16-0 last year. On paper they’re better than they were last year. That’s just what it is, but it’s baseball.
Saturday, that was terrible. I know some people are blaming Sully for it. I don’t know that I blame Sully for it. It’s early in the year. You got a young guy coming in, and you want him to go. Sunday, it’s kind of how it goes when a team comes back and wins a game the day before from a big comeback. They have the momentum. I don’t know. What do you think, Ethan? What’s got to change? Is it just pitching, hitting? Jud Fabian’s got to hit. That’s for sure.
Ethan:They got to get Jud Fabian going. The bottom of the lineup today wasn’t very productive. It seemed like they were just relying on Jacob Young, and then the middle of the order had some good at bats. The pitching, like you said, was just absolutely horrible. There’s just no way around it. You can’t let 13 free base runners in a game, and then give up six runs in the first three innings of the next game. You can’t ask your offense to have to score nine runs a game to even have a chance. You might win some midweek games and some games against lesser competition, but you’re not going to beat Miami or anybody worth a darn playing like that.
Andrew:You’re not beating Vandy. The thing is is that’s un Sully like. Usually Sully gets pissed off. One walk, he’s out the door. That’s just usually Sully. I was listening to the game on Saturday, the 8th and the 9th I was traveling and listened to that on the radio. I was sitting here thinking, Sully’s about to pull him. He’s going to pull him here any second. Kept going. Kept going. I’m like, what in the world? Steve Russell’s about to have a heart attack on the air. He’s just screaming.
We talked about that before. Baileigh, softball’s the opposite. Softball can pitch, but they can’t hit the broad side of a barn right now.
Baileigh:Yeah. Until today, they finally came through in that last game and got some hitting going, but it’s been a disaster. With the exception of Charlotte Echols. She’s been inhuman, basically, until today. She started looking a little more like a human. They’ve got to get something going.
Andrew:It’s been the Adams Echols show.
Baileigh:Exactly. Where’s Lindeman been? She hit a homerun on Saturday, but she just hasn’t come through yet. Maybe it’s just some early season kind of got to get going.
Andrew:I’m going to call BS. Because it’s an occurring theme lately. Two years ago, it was the Amanda Lorenz show. That was it. If Lorenz didn’t hit, it was nobody. Something has got to change from a philosophy standpoint of whatever it is. You continue to see Tim Walton and his girls. It’s all about taking pitches. It’s all about getting hit. That doesn’t work anymore.
Baileigh:No. I don’t like that at all. If you get a strike, that first pitch is always going to be your best pitch to hit. Once you start getting deep in those counts, the pitchers can start throwing all their junk. They’re going to hit you with those rise balls or the drop balls that you just can’t do anything with. That’s what Florida’s doing. They’re letting them get them too deep into the count, and then it’s a pitcher’s game from there.
Andrew:While we’re talking diamond sports, we’ll move on here for a second. We’ll come back and talk about it here at the end, but football is starting. It was out of nowhere. I’m not going to lie. I thought it was going to be 1st of March, middle of March. Dan Mullen throws it on us, like he always does. Got spring football. You guys are listening to this on Monday, so Practice 3 is later today. It’s there. Most of the country is dealing with snow. Florida’s done with spring practice already.
Early on we talked to Dan Mullen, what has been y’all’s perspective of Dan Mullen? Some people have asked is he ready to go, or does he seem like he’s just trying to get spring over with before Covid? I think it’s a little bit of both. I think he absolutely knows Covid is out there, but I think he’s absolutely trying to get as much time in post spring with these new coaches to learn film.
I’ll start with you, Ethan. Give me your first thoughts. What’s been your impression of Dan Mullen, and what’s your take on it?
Ethan:Mullen explained to us that he wanted to start spring so that they could get spring practices earlier, and the players could watch themselves on tape, and that helps them learn better than watching other people. To me, that just didn’t make a whole lot of sense, because either way you’re only watching the same amount of film. You’re still only practicing the same amount of days. You’re just adding more off time in the summer instead of in the winter. I think there’s definitely some, I guess Covid based a little bit, because last year they didn’t get it at all, and the teams that did go through some spring practice seemed to have an advantage in the season. I think that’s definitely the competitive advantage of that would be something that definitely motivated him.
Baileigh:They’ve got this new Covid variant that’s out there too. We don’t know what’s going to happen with that. I think it honestly is a good idea to just go ahead and get it out of the way in case.
Andrew:First of all, let’s not be starting that. We want March Madness. We want baseball. Stop speaking that.
Baileigh:I’m sorry. I’ll just stop.
Andrew:Go ahead. You’re good. Go ahead. I’m just letting you know.
Baileigh:I put it out there.
Andrew:We’re not speaking negativity. We’re playing baseball. We’re playing April 1. We’re playing ball.
Baileigh:It’s going to happen, for sure.
Andrew:Right.
Baileigh:I’m just saying, if you’re Dan Mullen or the Florida football program, you have to kind of think ahead there and be like, this is a possibility. That’s just my thoughts on it. I do think that he has a little bit of a point there. Guys are going to want to watch themselves a lot more than they’re going to want to watch some other guy playing their position. It’s just not the same seeing someone else make mistakes as it is seeing you do it, so it gives them a little bit more time. I don’t know how much of an advantage that’s going to be when the season comes around, but it is a little bit more time that they can watch themselves.
Ethan:I also don’t really understand … I don’t understand how I was going to finish this sentence.
Andrew:I will say this. I do think, from my background in coaching, obviously you’re only going to watch a certain amount of film. I think the more that you can get on the board and really get into this is what you’ve got to do it is better. I’m going to throw out something too. It hasn’t even been brought up, and I’m just spit balling. I may be getting crucified here on Twitter in a couple weeks or a couple days or couple hours, whatever it may be. Is there a possibility he’s getting spring outto see what he needs in the transfer portal?
Baileigh:That’s actually not a terrible thought there. I hadn’t thought about it, but it definitely could be.
Andrew:You know the portal’s going to be hot as soon as spring practice is over.
Baileigh:Gives him a jump start on it too.
Andrew:Paul Tyson at Alabama may be out and everything else. Who knows what it’ll be. Let’s just say Dan Mullen figures out his right tackle is not the best in the world. We all know that. Let’s just think he maybe finds that out. John Hevesy finally realizes that. Again, we all know that. And he goes out and hunts for it. The linebackers. We think Derek Wingo is going to be ready. We think Tyron Hopper is going to be ready. I just think there is a little bit to that.
I also do agree with him in that getting those guys on the field. I say this. I don’t even know that it’s 100% just for the players. I don’t know that it’s not for the guys like Jules and McGriff. The quicker they can get on the field together, maybe the quicker they can start learning each other off the field, learning what they need to do off the field to get better on the field. I don’t know that it’s completely there. I don’t know that it’s not completely there with Garrett McGee with the rest of those guys on the offensive staff. I don’t know that it’s 100% just players and not just some of the coaching as well.
Baileigh:I can see that for sure. I’m not sure, not that a month is going to make a difference, but the last secondary coaches, I’m not sure that they were exactly a culture fit for Florida, and maybe this is a way of getting them in there early and meshing with the team a little bit more that those guys might not have been able to do. We’ll see. I’m not sure.
Andrew:You’re going to call Ron English not a great fit at safety.
Baileigh:He wasn’t a good fit in any capacity, but we don’t have to trash anybody here.
Ethan: I was about to make the same point about the secondary coaches. I know Mullen, it seemed like he forced the comment in the press conference talking about they were going to create cohesion and communication in the secondary. He wasn’t even specifically asked about that. I thought it was interesting that was one of the biggest talking points he had on Tuesday.
Andrew:He doesn’t want to see Marco Wilson and Brad Stewart looking at each other asking who’s going to guard who. I’m cool with it.
Ethan:Too many people shrugging after plays the last couple of years.
Baileigh:Every single time.
Andrew:We’ve been able to see, I don’t know, 10 minutes of meaningless practice and 30 minutes of worthless practice on Instagram. Props to Florida. I appreciate it. It’s something. I will say this. Saturday, I believe it was Saturday. Yes. It was Saturday. Watching [INDISTINCT] and Jules go through just simple getting off the block, making tackles in the safety and secondary, we say that was meaningless, but how many times did we watch these guys not be able to get off a block, and when they were getting off a block, not be able to make a tackle? I say it almost has to go back to basics, because it did. It almost had to go back to basics, and you absolutely see those two guys with more energy. I said it before. Find me a defensive back who’s not cocky. Not too many.
Baileigh:I literally saw Jules tackle somebody during practice. I was like, that’s cool. Didn’t see that very much from the last guys.
Andrew:Grandpa Ron English would have had to have knee replacement.
Baileigh:For sure. It hasn’t been ideal, what we’re getting right now, but honestly my thought is we didn’t get that much more when we were allowed to go to practices.
Andrew:That’s true.
Baileigh:We only got a certain number of periods that we could be out there, and most of it was stretching.
Andrew:You didn’t learn anything about their flexibility?
Baileigh:I learned a lot about their flexibility, actually.
Andrew:What’s that, Ethan?
Ethan:I was going to say we learned that Desmond Watson is as big as a truck, and he seems pretty flexible for size. 7 and and and and and and and and and and n/
Baileigh:He’s got shed some pounds there.
Andrew:I think we see why Dan Mullen loves Desmond Watson. Desmond Watson was four bills and still able to move. When he’s three bills, he’s really going to be able to move. Gervon Dexter looks like a freak show out there. Not that he didn’t last year, but he really looks like a freak show right now. Derek Wingo looks built. Obviously, Dan Mullen’s not going to show us crap when it comes to quarterback. You can forget it and hang it up. He’s not going to show you anything when it comes to that.
Again, from seeing what we can see, and it’s only been two practices. There’s no sense in really making an assumption one way or the other, but it definitely seems like the energy is better in the secondary. Again, find me a defensive back that’s not arrogant and who’s not cocky, and I’ll show one or two that being successful. Most defensive backs are arrogant, cocky, and have some energy about them. Florida had zero. Kaiir Elam is one of the most quiet guys out there. He needs some energy. If McGriff and Jules are going to bring that, so be it.
To move onto another point, it definitely, from talking to Dan Mullen on last Tuesday, it 100% seems like it’s McGriff running the secondary, and Jules is just going to be assisting that. People have harped on it. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Let Jules learn from it, and let McGriff, who’s done it before, really go at it.
Baileigh:I honestly don’t even think it’s that big of a deal. How many teams out there only have one secondary coach? It’s not something new. Florida brought the two whenever Dan Mullen got here, but for a while we only had one at Florida. It’s not a big deal. Let Jules focus on his recruiting stuff too. You did see them not necessarily coaching the positions that Dan said they were going to be coaching in those few clips.
Ethan:Right. They used to only have nine on field assistant coaches up until a couple years ago, so for years this is how teams won championships, with secondary only one coach. Basically, your tenth assistant coach in an ideal world is just an extra recruiter anyway.
Andrew:Right.
Ethan:It seems like that’s finally what they’re getting to finally using it as.
Baileigh:I honestly think that sometimes having two coaches can mess with that chemistry a little bit, because you’ve got two different philosophies trying to teach.
Andrew:Two different voices.
Baileigh:Exactly. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
Ethan:I think in an ideal world you have a head coach, an offensive coordinator and a quarterback coach all be three different people, but obviously that isn’t going to be the case here.
Andrew:Right. Again, to go back to the offensive side of the ball, people are freaking out about Hevesy and Billy Gonzales being co-offensive coordinators. The hell with what the title is. Just forget the title. The title is Dan Mullen’s offense. It’s just like defensive coordinator at Alabama. You’re not going to tell me there’s a defensive coordinator out there who runs the defense at Alabama. Nick Saban runs that defense. I don’t care who comes in as offensive coordinator at Florida. Dan Mullen’s running this offense. Dan Mullen is the one checking off every play before it goes in. That was with Brian Johnson. That’s with Garrett McGee. That’s with Tim Tebow, if he’s the next quarterback coach down the line. No, I’m not starting rumors, even though he retired from the Jets.
Stop freaking out a little bit. It’s a pay raise. It’s a title. Again, is it a little buddy system? Sure, it’s a little buddy system. That’s why they got the title. You couldn’t elevate McGee from analyst to Offensive Coordinator. You just couldn’t. You would have made too many bad friends there. Again, I don’t see an issue with it. I know some people have had issues with it. I don’t see an issue. Again, it’s Dan Mullen’s offense.
Baileigh:Exactly. Personally, I love Brian Johnson, but everybody made such a big deal of we’re losing him, the offense is just going to go to crap now. It’s always been Dan Mullen’s offense. He is the mastermind. No matter who’s in that chair, it’s going to be Dan Mullen. It’s going to be okay. He’s still going to be calling plays. Even if Brian Johnson had a little bit, or a lot to do with the offense being great in 2020, it’s still going to keep going.
Andrew:Everybody has wrinkles that they’re going to add to it. Brian Johnson had his wrinkles. You’re starting to see Garrett McGee have his wrinkles in the recruiting of more pro-style quarterbacks. You’re always going to see wrinkles. It doesn’t matter if it’s McGee. When Tim Brewster came, I’m sure Tim Brewster brought some ideas from his time at A&M, from his time at Texas, from his time at North Carolina. Everybody brings ideas to the table. If you’re not adapting to ideas, you’re not doing yourself a good service. You’re doing yourself an injustice. You’re not doing your team right, if you’re not taking ideas from everybody.
Again, like you said, Brian Johnson is a huge loss. It’s a huge loss in recruiting. It’s a huge loss as a quarterback coach. Is Garrett McGee a terrible hire, a terrible quarterback coach? I don’t think so. He’s around one of the best offensive minds of our lifetime in Bobby Petrino.
Baileigh:Yeah. He has the background, definitely, to be in this role. Even though he hasn’t been in this role in a while, he came in, as you said, an analyst, and he was on the defensive side of the ball even, but I don’t think it’s an awful hire. It probably could have been better, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.
Ethan:I also think the timing probably played a factor as well, because Brian Johnson left kind of late in the process, like late January. Where are you going to find a better quarterbacks coach on that short of a notice than promoting from within?
Andrew:That’s a good point. You’re at a situation where you’re not going to really take away a guy from another school. If he was going to leave, he was probably going to leave anyway. I do agree. The thing too is this. This analyst position was put in to be a “minor league” of your coaching staff. Whether or not they always promote within, it’s there in place for that reason. You saw Saban do it at Alabama several times. You’ve seen other schools do that. It’s there in place for a reason. You’re not hiring some jack rabbit to come in and be an analyst on your staff, because what good’s he going to do? You’re still paying him. You’re going to hire good quality coaches to come in and do that.
Again, I don’t see a big deal about it. I’m okay with it. Obviously, we haven’t seen a ton from the quarterbacks in the little bit of Instagram Live we’re going to get. Probably won’t get to see that until the scrimmage comes on SEC Network, if that’s what it may be, on March 20th. We’ll see. If not, we’ll wait till fall camp and hope and pray we get that opened up. We’ll see how they continue to develop. Obviously, Emory Jones, he’s the guy right now. You guys got to speak to him on Wednesday. No. Friday, right? Give me your thoughts on him, Ethan. Is he confident enough to be QB1 at Florida?
Ethan:It was actually Thursday we got to speak to him, so you went right around the date there. He’s kind of hard to get a read on. He doesn’t speak as much. Then again, neither did Trask when we first got to talk to him. He gradually got better at it. He definitely, I think, is embracing the competition. Every time somebody would try to ask him a question about what it was like to be the guy now, he would always kind of deflect that and talk about how Richardson and him are pushing each other to get better, which that’s what I expect a quarterback to say in that situation. I think he’s in the right place mentally, whether that translates on the field or not obviously is a different story, but we’ll find out soon enough, hopefully.
Andrew:Baileigh, what was your read on that? Again, like Ethan said, I don’t think you can read too much into him. He’s a quiet kid. He’s always been a quiet kid. Deep down inside, there is a competitive fire with him that I know from speaking to some of his quarterback coach and people around him. There’s a fire under him. He’s ready to go. Hopefully that means he’s got the confidence in his passing game to be ready.
Baileigh:Honestly, I wasn’t in on the little Zoom with Emory this week. I had something else going on. Just from being around him before, he is a little bit of a quiet guy, at least when the media is around. He doesn’t say a whole lot. I also think it takes a little bit of time once you’re in that role. Once he’s starting and everything, you get more confident. He hasn’t been the big guy on campus yet. It’s just he’s got to fill in those shoes, and he’s got big ones to fill. It might just take a little bit of time. I think he’s definitely a guy that can become a more confident guy.
Andrew:Is Garrett McGee going to keep up the Brian Johnson on Emory eating? Did you guys see that during the year? Did you guys not see that during the year?
Baileigh:I saw something about it, but I didn’t really.
Andrew:On game nights, or the night before the game when they were having team dinner, Brian Johnson would always sneak in a film of Emory Jones taking a bite of his food, and he would take like five or six bites. Finally, towards the end of the year, Emory would catch on that he was filming him.
Ethan:Maybe they’ll continue that tradition over Zoom or something.
Andrew:There you go. Let’s get some Zoom.
Ethan:He can Zoom in from Philadelphia.
Andrew:There you go. Get us some Zoom action. Anything else that stood out from you guys? Again, we’re two practices in, two press conferences in. Anything else stand out from Mullen’s Zoom or anything else so far?
Baileigh:Go ahead, Ethan.
Ethan:From the brief clips we’ve gotten to see, DemarkcusBowman looks like the real deal. He seems to have a pretty quick burst around the edge there in some of those drills they’ve been doing. Again, who knows what that actually means.
Baileigh:It’s hard to tell from all of that. Mullen even said he doesn’t know what his status is at the moment. We don’t know if he’s even going to be eligible.
Andrew:That’s clickbait. That’s clickbait.
Baileigh:We have to assume.
Ethan:He would have to be.
Andrew:That’s clickbait.
Baileigh:Not that football and softball are the same here, but we see Skylar Wallace. She isn’t cleared yet, coming in from Alabama, for softball. Pretty much everyone is getting those waivers. I don’t know what the criteria is that we’re trying to meet here.
Andrew:Demarkcus has already set out his year. In my opinion, it’s Dan Mullen saying, we haven’t gotten the NCAA paper saying he’s good to go for 2021 fall. There will be an absolute burn down of the NCAA office in Indianapolis if Demarkcus Bowman is not cleared. It will be more from Bowman’s camp too. There’s no way he’s not eligible. I take that as that.
I will say this. One thing that did stick out to me during the press conference with Dan Mullen was him talking about going two backs. I said this a little bit in past podcasts, when we were doing them with Seth. You go from your strength of your team being your receiver position, your tight end position, to now the strength of your team really being your running back position. Obviously, you can only hand the ball to one guy. There’s only one football.
I do think you can get a little creative with Malik Davis and Demarkcus Bowman back there. Maybe Demarkcus Bowman can play a little bit of that slot receiver that Kadarius Toney did, where he comes in motion and gets the ball. Maybe Malik Davis does that. Maybe it is Lorenzo Lingard, if the knee is healthy. Definitely something that I thought would happen, and then to hear Dan Mullen say it was kind of music to my ears. Again, that’s the position that is going to be your deepest position with your playmakers at is running back. Early on, obviously.
Ethan:Nobody ever doubted Greg Knox, right?
Andrew:There you go. I will say this. Daejon Reynolds looked good in a couple of the clips. Good to see him back from his knee injury. Ethan, I know you had a good story on him about that. He’s nine months now post-surgery, give or take alittle bit. Good to see him back out there running. I’m going to be honest. I didn’t think you’d see him much in the spring.
Baileigh:Sorry. I thought you were talking to Ethan there. I wasn’t honestly sure what to expect from Reynolds either. I did notice those couple of clips. It’s like you said. We don’t really get to see a whole lot. We don’t know what they’re doing once they start team stuff. Just in these drills, he definitely looked like it’s not really a factor for him right now.
Andrew:Which one of y’all’s got the drone and going to go spy on a practice? That’s the question. Who’s got the drone?
Baileigh:I can find one somewhere.
Ethan:If they hadn’t built an indoor facility, we’d be able to stand on top of the garage. Unfortunately, they had to build that thing.
Andrew:Get you some climbing gear, and just be on top of the garage. Wear some white to blend in. There you go.
Baileigh:Florida has reached out and asked us, what can they do better on these? Hopefully, they’ll take some of our feedback here and maybe start giving us a little more. I know they’re not going to give us too much. They’re not going to give us anything that’s going to reveal their schemes. I hope we start getting to see some more newsworthy things from these.
Andrew:We already had a pissing match between Alabama and Georgia fans on Florida’s Instagram page the other day.
Baileigh:There’s more of those on there than Florida fans.
Andrew:Nick Saban’s on there somewhere. You just didn’t catch him. Let’s move on a little bit. Some recruiting news. Not too much recruiting news going on, but some virtual visits going on, so that’s good. The dead period is pushed back again. May 31st. Bull crap. NCAA is doing an injustice to these kids. There’s just no way around it. To ask a kid to make a lifelong decision on a school he’s never visited is atrocious. Kids are now going to go to schools they’re not going to know enough about or are going to go to schools that maybe they know more about but isn’t the best place for them, just simply because they don’t know anything. It’s an injustice. Obviously, the virtual visits are great, but you guys both know there’s nothing like getting on campus at a place. There’s nothing like meeting a coach in person. Again, it’s an injustice. NCAA being the NCAA.
Ethan:Yeah.
Baileigh:Yeah.
Ethan:The transfer portal is going to be booming here in a couple of years probably.
Andrew:I guess that’s what they wanted.
Ethan:People making rush decisions.
Andrew:Free agency.
Baileigh:I agree with you. I don’t think there’s any way you can really get to know someone over a video call. Everybody is different whenever you meet them in person. You just don’t know how you’re going to fit in with all these people, and you don’t know how you’re going to fit in on the campus. I really don’t understand what the difference is. We’re letting crowds come in at 25% capacity, but we can’t let a few players who are going to be on these teams in a few years?
Andrew:That’s the thing. Max it out. Say 10 guys per weekend. That’s it. The indoor facility holds 125 players, plus 30-40 staff members, every day. Why would you not have the ability to allow 10 guys to come in with their families? Space them out. Don’t have them in the same room. If you do have them in the same room, make sure they’re in the team meeting room, where there’s 125 seats, and space it out. It’s simply retarded. Yes. Don’t get on a flight. Don’t do whatever it may be. Guess what? Those same parents are flying to vacations, doing whatever it may be. They’re flying to seven-on-seventournaments. It’s BS. It’s stupid. It’s the NCAA being retarded. They continue to push this likeness thing, and that they’re here for the players. Then they do this nonsense. It’s retarded.
Baileigh:Yeah. I can agree there. I’m not going to speak any more on it. I’m not a fan either.
Andrew:Any final thoughts here? We talked baseball here. Baseball’s got to get better. Softball’s got to learn how to hit. Basketball, they tried to find a way to lose the Georgia game. They continue to play well, and then it’s the second half, and it’s like what’s going on? Noah Locke, 200 career threes. That’s awesome. Our man Eric says right now it looks like they’re 9 seed. Not what you want to be in the NCAA Tournament. A lot of games still to come, but I’ll say it again. Mike White’s team it depends on what team wakes up on the side of the bed every day of the week. There is zero consistency with Mike White’s basketball team.
Baileigh:I agree. You never know what you’re going to get. You go into a game thinking Florida is about to destroy someone, and they’re down 20 points at the start of the second half. Then you go in thinking Florida has no chance, and same thing, they’re up 20 points. What’s going on here?
Ethan:They’re definitely very entertaining. They win just enough games to keep you coming back for more. Certainly a very interesting team to watch, even if it isn’t very good at times.
Andrew:The West Virginia game, the Tennessee game. Just games throughout the year where they’ve played really well, and then they lay an egg against Carolina. They lay an egg against Arkansas. Is Arkansas a good team? Sure, but they’re not great, by any means. Georgia. You should win that game by 25. You were up by 18 for most of the game, 15 for most of the game. You end up winning by, what, six, eight? Something like that. Zero reason for it. I’m not a Mike White hater and fire Mike White and everything else, but there’s got to be something that changes with this team consistency wise. Is it a leadership problem on the team? I don’t know. Something has got to change. The lack of second half ability to sustain a game is insane. The South Carolina game, now the Georgia game. Luckily they won the Georgia game, but as Eric says, it might as well have been a loss in the books, because Florida dropped still.
Baileigh:Yup.
Ethan:The most concern part is that they turned this roster over several times the last couple years, and it is still the same problems, the same issues occurring over and over again. Where in this world is this high tempo offense we were promised before the season? I get that they lost Keyontae, which is a big loss, not underselling that, but really your whole philosophy of playing is going to change because you lose one player?
Andrew:Again, Keyontae is a huge one, but Scotty Lewis for instance, five-star talent, incredible athlete, but there’s no rhyme or reason for getting him the ball. When he does get the ball, it’s whatever. This team attacks the glass for 75% of the game, and then it’s like the next 25% of the game they just forget about it. This is not a style of offense that’s built to go through your big man in Colin Castleton. This is a style of offense that’s meant to run and shoot.
Then it turns into the defensive side of the ball too. When this team’s scoring points, they play good defense. When they’re not scoring, it turns into their defense. They allow their offense to go to their defensive side of the ball. Again, big week. Got Auburn this week. Then Kentucky Saturday. You got to go 2-0. That’s my thinking.
Baileigh:We don’t know what the makeup schedule is going to look like, if there’s going to be anything. Florida’s missed, what, 10, 11 games here? There’s one date that teams can make up games.
Andrew:Three SEC games.
Baileigh:I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. There’s definitely not a lot of time left, and Florida has to show that they’re deserving, if they want to get into this tournament and have a decent spot in it.
Andrew:Texas A&M still hasn’t played, and they got another game cancelled. Bracketology said that Duke would be out of the NCAA Tournament right now. What in the world is going on?
Ethan:Duke and Kentucky, I think.
Baileigh:Kentucky. Yeah.
Andrew:Hell’s freezing over.
Ethan:North Carolina is barely in probably.
Andrew:Getting snow in Texas and Louisiana. Duke and Kentucky aren’t in.
Baileigh:We need to get in our bunkers or something.
Ethan:Gators can’t pitch in baseball. It’s just all kinds of crazy stuff going on.
Andrew:Gators can’t pitch. Sully’s walking, letting guys walk the world out there. I don’t know. Only thing right in the world is Ronald Acuna’s reported to Braves spring training. Let’s go.
Guys, any final thoughts? If not, we’ll get out of here. Just a quick programming note. Looks like we’re going to try to do this two times a week. We’ll be back and getting this going. Spring practice, basketball, baseball, softball. Gymnastics won, even though they were down a few people. That was good.
Baileigh:I watched a little bit of it.
Andrew:That was good. They’re the real deal. They’re going to win.
Baileigh:Oh yeah.
Andrew:Going to win a lot.
Baileigh:They’re awesome. I love watching them.
Andrew:Even though Trinity Thomas wasn’t there. Some girl, and I’m drawing a blank now of her name, got a 10. She was replacing.
Ethan:Leah Clapper got the 10.
Andrew:That’s right. I was going to say Mia. Me and names don’t go together.
Ethan:Leah, Mia. Kind of close.
Andrew:There you go. Something like that. Guys, we appreciate it. As always, check us out on Gator Country on the website, www. GatorCountry.com. Check us out on Gator Country on Twitter and on Facebook. We’ll be posting. Ethan and Baileigh will be posting scores. We’ll be posting scores as well. Eric will be handling basketball as always. We’ll talk to you guys soon. Thanks.
Baileigh:Thanks, guys.