Gator Country brings you our Friday prediction podcast for the Florida Gators game against Kentucky on Saturday afternoon in the Swamp.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the key match-ups in the game, plus what the Gators need to do in order to win the game.
Andrew and Nick give you their three players to watch in the game on Saturday, plus they give their predictions for the Gators game.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: Hello, Gator Country. Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, start of SEC play. For me, it’s the start of real football season. Call it what you want, last week, in my opinion, was just a glorified preseason game. So let’s go. SEC ball, big game, whether you think Kentucky will win or not. Big game.
Nick: Good thing it was a glorified preseason game with the Florida’s offense showed up. This week, got to bring it. Can’t bring what you brought last week. That won’t get you a W. Kentucky has closed the gap these last two years, almost winning two years ago. I’m sure they’ll tell a tale of the play clock from two years ago, so got to bring it this week.
Andrew: They got to bring it, and they’re probably thinking the same thing Florida is right now. Can last week be a preseason game? Because having that Southern Miss loss on the good old record book isn’t what you want if you’re Mark Stoops.
Nick: I don’t think Mark Stoops ever wanted to have, no matter what point of the season, a Southern Miss loss on the resume.
Andrew: Exactly. The game, the matchup has definitely gotten a little closer. Some of that is Florida being not as good. Some of that is, I do think Kentucky has gotten a little bit better, but I’ll be honest. I think this might be the worst Kentucky team they’ve had since Stoops has been there, especially defensively. I know Matt Jones said their secondary was good. I mean, it’s okay, but Westry didn’t have any SEC offers, and Demarcus Robinson kind of owned him last year, and it wasn’t a great year for Demarcus. I know Coach Mac says offensively they’ve got some skill players, and I agree with that. Should they win? No. Should it be close? No.
Nick: It will be close.
Andrew: It will be close, but it shouldn’t be close.
Nick: That’s on Florida.
Andrew: I just said some of it’s on Florida; some of it’s on Kentucky.
Nick: I think Saturday is going to be a low, maybe not low scoring in the sense of last year’s 14-9, but a very close game.
Andrew: We’re going to predict that in a minute, and I’ll go ahead and give you a sneak peek. I don’t have it being close. Couple of things to get caught up on. Tyrie Cleveland, Rick Wells, both are going to play. Coach Mac says they can play, and they’re going to probably get in the rotation. He said if needed. I expect both to play, especially Tyrie. Rick probably plays a little bit on special teams. He may get in the rotation on a receiver, but definitely expect Tyrie to. CJ Worton was cleared to go, and for me, Nick, that is not as big as Tabor coming back, and C’yontai coming back, but very close, because that means that’s less reps for Ahmad Fulwood.
Nick: Yeah. That’s true. When you look at it, you kind of know what you’re going to get from 5, and you think you know what you’re going to get from 89, Tyrie Cleveland, but you’re not sure. The upside of 89 beats what you know you’re going to get from 5.
Andrew: And from what we saw in the fall, from what we’ve heard in the fall, CJ was better and more focused and everything else. If you get a productive CJ Worton there, then it’s better than 5.
Nick: I was on that train his freshman year. I was back on it his sophomore year. I caught hell, because we really haven’t seen him yet, but CJ Worton is one of your best wide receivers from a complete wide receiver standpoint. I really feel that if he stays healthy and keeps his nose clean, he can make an impact on the field. We’ll see that this week. He was running with the ones, and you look at a guy who can play outside, but can also play in the slot, because of his route running and his quickness. So that puts you in more packages. It’s kind of like what McElwain said on Monday when I asked him about being limited with only five receivers last week. He said, “We teach the guys concepts, not just routes.” So the more concepts you know, and the more positions you can play in different concepts, the more opportunity you’ll have to be on the field.
Andrew: I think that’s a big thing for him, because with Massey going out you’re still needing someone to kind of step up. We all know Brandon Powell is not going to be able to play every snap as slot, and he is a guy, Brandon is a guy, that you can play outside too. Even Coach Mac says on Wednesday, and that is Callaway can play some inside and outside. I like that. I like that they’re going to move Callaway around, try to find some mismatches, that kind of stuff for AC. Good. Good for that. I think when you look at it having Tyrie and CJ back will help the other receivers, and that is Brandon and AD, Antonio, because it’ll take the focus so much off of those guys, but if the Gators are going to win big this week it’s going to be running game. They should run, and run for days. It is what it is. Kentucky is not a very good run defense. Their defensive line is not very good. Running game should be key, and I think this is a big week for the offensive line. This might be, outside of Carolina and Vanderbilt, the worst SEC defensive line you’re going to face. You need to dominate this game.
Nick: Kentucky gave up an SEC worst 262 rushing yards last week, but that came on 68 carries. So if you look at the average per carry, they’re right there kind of bottom middle of the pack at a 3.8 yard per carry clip. The three touchdowns isn’t great either, but I agree with you. Florida needs to run the ball. You challenge. You show your offensive linemen the film from last week to the point where they’re pissed off and embarrassed, and you challenge them to be better this week. We remember when Will Muschamp beat Georgia.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Talking to the offensive linemen after that game, and we talked to offensive lineman Max Garcia, Jon Halapio, guys after that game, and that’s an offensive lineman’s dream. Florida ran the ball I think 60 times that game.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: That’s an offensive lineman’s dream. If a team can win a football game without throwing a forward pass, sign every offensive lineman in the country up for that.
Andrew: Right. Exactly. I think this, and I do think that the offensive line will get better. I think the offensive line improved each game last year. Now, it might not have looked that way, because Treon didn’t help things. Let’s just call a spade a spade, and that is Treon didn’t help that offensive line by any means. That will be there. I think that you’ll see some more Jawaan Taylor for sure in this game. I think that’ll help. Then one more game under their belt is there. I’m like Mac though. I want to see the energy. I mean, I said it on Monday’s podcast, I believe, and that is an offensive lineman to block a defensive line is more about effort. It’s more about lining up and saying I’m going to beat the SOB in front of me, and I’m going to beat him hard. That’s energy, and I did think the energy last week was dead for the most part, and that’s even from your leaders in Sharpe and Dillard. You didn’t see those guys come out with a fire. I mean, blow off the ball. Get out of the huddle and go, and blow people off the ball.
If Florida’s able to show a good running game against Kentucky this week, it’ll only help them against Tennessee, because Tennessee’s not looking at the UMass tape. They’re not looking at the North Texas tape. They’re looking at the Kentucky tape. It will help them in the Tennessee game to see Florida run the ball really well against Kentucky.
Nick: Yeah. I don’t know if I share your optimism about the offensive line. I think it is what it is.
Andrew: Let me make sure you understood what I said. I’m not saying they’re going to be great. I’m saying they should be better than last week.
Nick: If you said they were going to be great, I would have stopped you in the middle of it.
Andrew: I’m saying I think a lot of it can be fixed with the energy. I do think they were lethargic, and I do think they were slow off the ball. I do think that maybe they were disinterested in the game, and kind of what Mac said, why would this team be disinterested in a game when you’re coming off three straight butt whoopings to ends the season last year.
Nick: Yeah. At what point then is it not being disinterested and is it just a talent thing?
Andrew: That’s a good point. I don’t know. We’ll see. I think we both said it on Monday. This week will be the tale of was last week a joke, a fluke, or is the season still going to be bad offensive line play? I think we see that coming up this week. I do. I think that. My thing is I don’t think they can be as bad as they were last week, but then again I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m ready to see the game. For me, Saturday is a big one.
Nick: I think they can be as bad as they were last week again. I think that’s quite possible. I’m down on the offense as a whole.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: I can’t stress enough how bad UMass is.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Like it wasn’t even a situation where Butch Jones can come out and say, “That’s a good App State football team; that’s a good team that we beat, and we’ll get a chance to see what they do against Miami next week when Miami goes up to play App State.” Jim McElwain didn’t even pretend. That was a bad UMass football team, a team that gave up 60 points twice last year, 50 points twice last year, 40 points in multiple games. That’s a team Florida, like last year, should have beat by 30 going through the motions. To me, I’m kind of down on the offense. I’m sure there will be a game this year where the offensive line does something well, and I’ll get yelled at on Twitter, because I wasn’t praising the offense this week. I’m down on the offense as a whole, and I don’t know. It would take a very strong showing against Kentucky for that to kind of change my mind and make think last week was a fluke, more so than last week’s probably what we’re going to get. They’ll play up to some competition. They’ll play up for Tennessee. They’ll play up for LSU, but as a whole they just might not be that good. Might not be as good as we thought.
Andrew: We’ll see. I mean, I don’t know. I really just don’t know how you can be as bad as you were last week, but the one thing the last few years has taught me is to never say never. I’ll reserve my full opinion for after this week. If you get abused this week by a bad Kentucky defensive line, then no more. No more fooling me. I won’t believe it.
Nick: Yeah. I’m in with that, and I don’t think that Florida will be able to be dominate this week. Will they do better? Maybe, but I don’t anticipate them doing well enough to the point where I’m thinking okay, yeah, they got it; they’re good.
Andrew: Right. We’ll see. Like I said, we’ll see. We’ll see where things go for that. Defensively for Florida, stop the pass. Put pressure on Drew Barker. Make him do it. You got DBU back together for Florida. For me, Kentucky’s run game has to be there. I know they ran for 100 against Southern Miss, but, once again, Southern Miss isn’t a good defense. They’re an okay offense, bad defense. I think Kentucky’s got to get some run game going, or Florida’s just going to pin their ears back, go after Barker, and they’re not going to throw on Wilson and Tabor. I know Matt Jones said those two receivers are good. Yeah, right. You got the two best corners in the SEC you’re going up against. Good luck throwing the ball 30 or 40 times against those guys.
Nick: I also think Matt misremembered a little bit. He mentioned Garrett Johnson having a good game against Florida last year. Garrett Johnson had one reception for 10 yards.
Andrew: I think he meant two years ago in the game at the Swamp. I do remember him.
Nick: He had a big game then, as a freshman. Six for 154.
Andrew: Right. I remember that game being a good game for him, because I remember that because of the fact that Florida had Muschamp had kind of flirted with him a little bit in recruiting, and then Mac didn’t really go after him. Yeah. Like I said, I think it’s Boom and Jojo have got to establish the run game somewhat for that to go. Besides that, I mean, is Kentucky going to score some points? Sure. I just am not seeing very many points.
Nick: Maybe. I don’t see anyone scoring a ton of points, like Matt says, like 30, they might have to score 30. I don’t see Kentucky scoring 24 unless you’re turning the ball over on offense, and I don’t think Florida turns the ball over on offense. Kentucky hasn’t been able to run against Florida, really I think at all. You go back 2014 in the Swamp, 33 attempts for 81 yards. 2015, last year, 41 attempts for 115 yards. That’s 2.8 per carry, 2.4 the year before. It’s really they haven’t been able to run. They’re more of a pass team with that spread offense. Drew Barker can throw the ball around, but like Quincy Wilson said, “The Gators like teams that like to throw the ball.”
Andrew: Yeah. You do, because like I said, I mean this isn’t 14 playing on the outside. This is 31, and if I know anything about Tabor that is he’s coming back with a pissed off vengeance for missing last week. He can talk the talk and say he wasn’t upset about missing the game. Bull crap. He was upset. He’s pissed off about missing the game.
Nick: He can’t talk the talk, because we weren’t allowed to talk to him.
Andrew: That’s true. He can say what he wants to say. He understands Mac and whatever else. He’s pissed off. He’s ready to go. Bad for Garrett Stephens, he gets the pissed off Tabor on Saturday.
Nick: Still waiting for Teez Tuesdays. That’d be nice to be able to get him, Florida’s best player. I agree with you, man. Jalen Tabor came back after missing the Tennessee game last year.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Like a bat out of hell.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s not going to be good, and I’ll say this. I expect Florida’s defensive line to have a good game. Cox, JZ, that’s what we’re going to start calling Jabari, JZ, Sherit.
Nick: That might be your best nickname you’ve ever given.
Andrew: Sometimes I’m…
Nick: Jabari Zuniga.
Andrew: JZ.
Nick: Not going to attempt it.
Andrew: There you go. Sherit, Cox, Jabari, JZ, who am I missing? I’m missing one more. I’m drawing a blank here.
Nick: Caleb Brantley.
Andrew: No. Keivonnis. I was trying to think of Keivonnis. Keivonnis Davis, those guys all had good games last week. Should have good games this week. Brantley, Khari Clark and Joey up in the middle. Expect Cece to see some more time. This should be a good game for Cece, because of him being at the defensive tackle position against a pass team. This should be a good game for Cece. Those guys need to have big games, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the team have 4-5 sacks.
Nick: You’re going to have a lot of opportunities for that, I think. I want to see a little more from Keivonnis Davis.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Want to see a little bit more from him. Want to see more from Bryan Cox, to be honest. Only had one tackle last week, so I want to see a little bit more from him. I think those are really the two. I’m not down on either of them right now. Just would like to see more production from them this week.
Andrew: Okay. I agree with you. I mean, Bryan is a guy that kind of shows flashes, and so I think that, I do, I think they have a good game this weekend. They need to have a good game against the pass. I mean, this is a game where you’re going to be able to pin your ears back a lot of times and just go and go hard, and that’s why I think Cece as well. Should be interesting game. Of course, Eddy being the new man on campus gets to, hopefully doesn’t need to be used a lot, but you have that in your back pocket.
Nick: You should have stuck with your boy Eddy last week.
Andrew: I should have stuck with my boy, Eddy, last week. Instead of being 2-0 I would have been 3-0.
Nick: You would have. You would have gotten the undisputed win then.
Andrew: I mean, I already got the undisputed win.
Nick: It’s absolutely disputed, so not undisputed.
Andrew: Your opinion means nothing, Nick.
Nick: That’s just rude. Your words hurt.
Andrew: It’s okay. At the end of the day, buddy, I love you. Give you a big old hug.
Nick: Let’s talk, I want to ask you a question. I’m on the gambling site here.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: The over/under, the best over they could find was 48.5. The best under they could find was 49. So right in that 48.5, 49 point spread area. That would mean Kentucky/Florida is kind of like they think Florida’s going to win 27-20, or right around, 21-20, right around in that ballpark. Excuse me, 28-20, right around in that ballpark with the under being 49.
Andrew: See, I don’t see Kentucky scoring that many. We’ll go prediction here in a minute.
Nick: I guess what I’m saying is 49, it’s not a very big over, but do you see this being a high scoring game, or a low scoring game?
Andrew: I think low.
Nick: Two years ago you had the high scoring game that went to triple overtime. One year later it’s 14-9. That game was ugly as all get out, almost painful to be at.
Andrew: I would say if I was setting it I would set it at about 40.
Nick: Man, that’s super low.
Andrew: What would you set it at?
Nick: I just told you. 48 is kind of low.
Andrew: So you’re going over?
Nick: No. I think the line is good. I’m just saying what we thought Florida’s offense was going to be, you shouldn’t be getting lines like that.
Andrew: I agree. Let’s go to our buy and sell segment real quick, before we go into prediction. Nick, I know we had a couple of Twitter buy and sells. Give those to us.
Nick: Yeah. Let me grab.
Andrew: While you’re finding that.
Nick: No, I was looking for the name, but I can’t find it. It’s way down in my notifications now. Sorry about that.
Andrew: His name was DJ.
Nick: You’ll know who you are. Thank you for sending these in. They’re pretty good ones. First one, buy or sell, C’yontai Lewis goes for six catches, 85 yards, and a touchdown?
Andrew: Can I buy part and sell part?
Nick: We did that last week, and I want to hold us to it this week, because these two that he sent in are very tough.
Andrew: If we’re going 6, 85 I’m going to sell.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: But if you would let me split it apart I do think he scores and could get six catches. I’m just not sure 85 yards. That’s about 13 yards a catch. I think he might get some shorter ones. I guess I’ll sell.
Nick: I’m going to buy.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: After all this shit I’ve been talking about the offense, I got a tight end playing in his first game of the year going for almost 100 yards.
Andrew: Okay. I can go with that. C’yontai’s a big time player.
Nick: He is. Second one was, Jalen Tabor.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Eight or more tackles, so 8+ tackles, one interception and two pass breakups.
Andrew: Here’s the thing. I’m going to sell this, because 8 tackles means they’re coming his way a lot, and I mean, listen, I have the utmost respect for Quincy Wilson. I am a Quincy Wilson supporter, but they’re going to go after Quincy and go his way. So I’m going to have to sell, because I’m not sure he gets 8 tackles.
Nick: I sell.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Jalen Tabor’s not going to be getting, like you said, not going to be getting the kind of action that will warrant those stats.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Is that all he had?
Nick: Yeah. Those two.
Andrew: Okay. Here’s mine. Buy or sell, Florida has 150+ rushing yards?
Nick: Buy.
Andrew: You’re buying?
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: I’m buying as well. Alright, if I would have said 200 would you still buy?
Nick: That gets close to me, so I think I would sell at 200.
Andrew: Okay. I would still buy at 200.
Nick: You should have made it 200 then.
Andrew: I would still buy. I wanted 150, because for me 150 is a good game.
Nick: You got to risk it for the biscuit. Make it 200. Then I’ll sell it. You can still buy it, like you said, and we’ll create some separation in the buy/sell standings.
Andrew: There you go.
Nick: Wait. Are we doing that?
Andrew: We can. We can do it. 200.
Nick: 150, I’m writing it all down, keeping you accountable.
Andrew: 200 you sold, and I bought.
Nick: 200 rushing yards. I sell.
Andrew: Okay, and I’m buying.
Nick: You bought.
Andrew: Buy or sell, the four running backs play this week?
Nick: Buy.
Andrew: I’m buying as well, because I believe they all play this week. Herndon still plays special teams. The next one that I had for you, buy or sell, Tyrie Cleveland has 3+ catches?
Nick: Sell. I’m going to sell it. I don’t like it, but I’m going to sell it.
Andrew: Buying it. I believe Mac finds a way to get the rookie, because he is a rookie, because he didn’t play last week, some catches early. I’m buying it. He’s going to be the guy that gets the stand pass.
Nick: That’s kind of where I was like wavering on it a little bit, but I’ll still stick with my sell.
Andrew: Okay. That’s the only three I had. Do you have any right off the top of your head?
Nick: Yes. I did. I wanted to do, I was looking up the stats when we started. Over/under 450 total yards of offense for Florida.
Andrew: Under. Selling that they go over. Under.
Nick: So you, that’s what I meant. Buy or sell Florida has 450+ yards of offense.
Andrew: No. I’m selling. They’re not going over 450.
Nick: How are they going to score all these points you’re talking about?
Andrew: Here’s the thing, Nick. I was trying not to give away.
Nick: Hold on, I also sell.
Andrew: I was going mid 20s in the points.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: I’ll share why here in a few. So we’re good. I’m under 450, just because that’s a hell of a lot of yards.
Nick: It’s not really that many yards.
Andrew: That’s a good amount of yards. When was the last time Florida had 450 in a game?
Nick: They haven’t been a very good offense.
Andrew: Yeah. I bet it’s been a while.
Nick: They had 363 last week. Last time they had 450 in a game was the first game last year, 606 against New Mexico State.
Andrew: They didn’t even have 450 against Ole Miss.
Nick: Ole Miss, where is that game? They had 355.
Andrew: Wow. It seemed like a lot more.
Nick: 392 against Tennessee.
Andrew: Selling. Selling for sure. Any more?
Nick: That’s all.
Andrew: Okay. That’s cool. We can roll with that. By the way, if you guys have any more for next week, just shoot them to myself or Nick. NickdelaTorreGC, AndrewSpiveyGC. That’s both of us on Twitter. Shoot us one there, or put it on the message board. We’re always looking for them. Nick and I just go off the fly on ours, so we don’t talk about them. We just come off the fly. Bring them on. Those were good. Those were two good ones. Let’s go to where we make the bucks, our three players of the week this week.
Nick: You’re up first.
Andrew: That’s right. I’m up first, because I won last week. My first pick of the week is Jordan Scarlett, and I say Jordan Scarlett, because I think himself goes over 100 this week. I’m very big on that.
Nick: Okay. That’s fine. That’d be a big week for Jordan, big week for St. Thomas Aquinas. My first player is going to be Teez Tabor. Like we talked about before, coming back with a vengeance. I think he will, in the limited opportunities he has. Even as we said it before, you’re not going to test him, what are you going to do? Throw to Quincy? So he’ll get some opportunities, and I look for him to have a pick this week coming back.
Andrew: I do think he gets a pick this week. I do think he gets a pick.
Nick: And a pick this week would get me a win.
Andrew: Yeah. I do think he gets a pick. That’s kind of why, with that buy or sell a minute ago that I was kind of like I just don’t know if they run at him.
Nick: Yeah. I felt like we kind of took the easy way out last week though. Being able to say I buy this, and I sell that, and I push that. It’s like you should just do everything in one stand. I was trying to make it a little tougher on us this week. I definitely feel what you were saying there. I mean, 8 tackles is a lot. Quincy Wilson had two last week.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, I just don’t know. Another thing is we’ve got to remember with Kentucky they’re going to be running Tabor and Quincy off. So there’s going to be man. So they’re going to be off. If a run play does happen it’s probably one of your linebackers or Duke or your safety. So that’s kind of where I was at there. My second pick I’m going with AD, All Day Callaway. Nick, how he gets to 20, how Florida gets to the mid 20s, early 30s, I’m going with it again this week. He gets a special teams touchdown. Return to the house.
Nick: See, you can’t do this.
Andrew: Why?
Nick: You can’t do it. Last year I called it, I think I called it one time, the first time I called it it happened. Now two weeks in a row you’re calling special teams touchdowns. There were none last week. You’re calling it every week. I’m going to call you out when you don’t get it.
Andrew: I won’t call it next week at all. I’m not calling it.
Nick: You just said he would get a special teams touchdown.
Andrew: I’m not calling it next week. I’m telling you this week.
Nick: Unreal. You’ll call it again next week, and then the one week you get it you’ll pound your chest, and you’ll talk so much crap on this show.
Andrew: It’s okay.
Nick: So I need to let you have it. You got that prediction wrong last week.
Andrew: I did. Fine. I did. It’s cool. I still won the week.
Nick: That’s debatable.
Andrew: I still won the week. I do think thought. It was really close last week. Callaway, two touchdowns this week though. Two.
Nick: Two touchdowns. Mark it down. Jarrad Davis, my second player. He’s going to go out there, and he’s going to lead the team in tackles again.
Andrew: Lead the team in tackles again. Nick, I cheat every week. Right?
Nick: You got to stop cheating. That’d be fantastic if you stopped.
Andrew: I had a chance of mind again. I had a chance of mind. I’m going with 17 to have a big game on defense. I talked myself into going with Jordan Sherit.
Nick: Wow. You and Jordan have come a long way. Your relationship has come a long, long way.
Andrew: I’m going with 17 to have multiple sacks in the game. 17 is pick #3 for the Goat.
Nick: Wow. I feel like if you and Jordan Sherit can kiss and make up maybe you and Riles have a chance too.
Andrew: Jordan actually started playing ball. 51 still ain’t. He’s already went into his sports casting career.
Nick: I think Antonio Riles is taking over the [Oxcord] this week. He tweeted last night, getting ready for the playlist. I am pulling an Andrew Spivey with my third pick.
Andrew: You’re going with 6.
Nick: I’m switching up, and I’m going with C’yontai Lewis as my third player.
Andrew: There you go.
Nick: I talked myself into it with the buy/sell. If C’yontai Lewis goes 6, 85, touchdown, boom, that’s a win. That’s a huge week.
Andrew: That’s cool. I mean, it’s cool, but I’m getting three. Scarlett, you can mark that down. AD is a touchdown machine. You can mark that down. Sherit is going to have a big game, so you can mark my three down. Your first one was Brandon Powell, right?
Nick: You actually cheated twice, because you were supposed to go with Quincy Wilson and CJ Worton.
Andrew: No, I did not go CJ Worton.
Nick: When we talked before the show that was the name you gave me.
Andrew: Was it?
Nick: I wrote it down. So you changed two of your three picks from what you originally picked, but that’s fine.
Andrew: I can’t remember all that mess. We’ve been talking here for 33 minutes.
Nick: You have Scarlett, Callaway, Sherit. I’ve got Teez, Jarrad, C’yontai. I dropped Brandon Powell.
Andrew: You dropped Brandon Powell. You have Teez, Jarrad, okay. We’re good. We can roll with that. I’m going to be 5-0 after the week.
Nick: I hope that you all listening enjoyed college football Week 1. I sincerely hope that you took time out, watched all the games, watched Sunday night that Notre Dame/Texas thriller, watched Monday as FSU had the biggest comeback in program history, watched Saturday as Florida won, as USC got rolled by the Tide. Week 1, mad real. Week 2, my God these games are ugly.
Andrew: Yeah. We usually pick five games outside the conference, and then go with the Gators game. We only came up with three, and we were hard pressed to find the three. So here we go. Battling Bristol, VA Tech, Tennessee in the game that 150 might be there, but only about 50 may see the game.
Nick: They need a bigger screen. I saw a picture from one of the seats in the grandstand, and you can’t even, you’re so far away that you can’t even see the screen that’s hanging over the field.
Andrew: For me that is, I don’t know.
Nick: I would buy the ticket just to say I have a ticket, and then I could lie and say that I’ve been there. That’s a garbage way to watch a football game.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s one of those games where you go, and you end up watching it on your phone, because you can’t see it. I don’t know. I didn’t get that when they did this. It’s different with racecars going around, because it’s right there, but this is what? Probably 200 yards inside the racetrack or better?
Nick: Neyland Stadium is massive, seats 100,000 people.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: It sits almost comfortably in just the infield. That’s how gigantic this stadium is. It’s how ridiculous this is. Saturday night, Sunday morning you’ll hear horror stories of people who were sitting there and couldn’t see anything going on.
Andrew: So the line is Tennessee is an 11.5 point favorite. What do you pick?
Nick: Are we picking lines now? Because we’re picking lines.
Andrew: No.
Nick: Oh, Tennessee wins this football game.
Andrew: Handily?
Nick: No. It’ll be a close game. They’ll win by probably 10. It’ll be a touchdown late or a field goal late will make it look not as close as it really was.
Andrew: It pains me, Nicholas. It hurts. I can’t even say the words. Virginia Tech loses. Close game. Virginia Tech loses.
Nick: If Florida loses to Tennessee in two weeks you might have to sing Rocky Top on the podcast.
Andrew: Hell no. You’re crazy. Come on.
Nick: We both picked Tennessee.
Andrew: No, I predict Virginia Tech to lose.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: The next game we had, Nicholas, was Arkansas.
Nick: Arkansas at TCU.
Andrew: Yeah. I think this is going to be a good football game.
Nick: Kenny Trill is not a bad quarterback.
Andrew: The line’s only 7.5 too. I think they’re giving Arkansas. I’m going Arkansas.
Nick: I picked TCU in the Alligator, the Independent Alligator Sports Pick ‘Em. I’m going to pick Arkansas and cover my bases.
Andrew: You’re going to pick Arkansas and cover your bases.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: You got to win one of them.
Nick: I’m going to win one of them. I have no feel on this game. So I’m going to win one of them.
Andrew: The only other SEC game besides Florida/Kentucky is South Carolina and Mississippi State in Starksville. I’m going with the cowbells.
Nick: Me too. Clanga, clanga.
Andrew: Will Muschamp doesn’t win two SEC games in a row.
Nick: Clanga.
Andrew: Yeah. They get over the South Alabama disappointment last week, cowbells do, and they win this week. Here we go. Gators/Kentucky. I think we’re both saying W for Florida, right?
Nick: Yes.
Andrew: How close is this football game, Nicholas?
Nick: One score game.
Andrew: What’s the score?
Nick: I don’t know. I never give a score. I picked Kentucky to win in the Alligator Pick ‘Em poll with a 17 point spread. So I think Florida, I honestly think this is going to be another close game where Florida wins by a touchdown or less.
Andrew: Really?
Nick: Maybe 10 points or less.
Andrew: What is your, give me…
Nick: You ask me to give the score every week, and I never give the score.
Andrew: No. I’m not asking you to give me a score. I’m asking you to give me kind of, if you had to set the line of over/under what would you give it?
Nick: I think Vegas has it right. I mean, they don’t build big shiny casinos out in the desert because they’re losing bets.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: They build big shiny casinos and pay Cher and Brittany Spears stupid money to come sing at those casinos, because they’re winning bets. I think that 48 is probably a good line, 48.5.
Andrew: Gators 27, Kentucky 10.
Nick: So you’ve got a push on the over/under.
Andrew: Yes.
Nick: 27-10, you’re being very quiet about that, very confident. So I’m going to write that down, make sure.
Andrew: I feel like that Florida’s going to get a touchdown from Callaway on a punt, and they’re going to get the two field goals from Pineiro. What?
Nick: The offense is so bad that for Florida to get to 27 seven of those points are coming from, excuse me…
Andrew: 13.
Nick: 13 of those points, almost half of those points are coming from special teams?
Andrew: Yes.
Nick: That’s not going to make me feel good about the offense after the game.
Andrew: Yes. 27-10. Gators beat Kentucky.
Nick: Okay. Mark it down. 27-10.
Andrew: Mark it down.
Nick: The offense still looks ugly then, apparently.
Andrew: You come back, and you give me a go Braves and do the tomahawk for 30 seconds if 27-10.
Nick: That will just sound like the Seminole war chant, so I don’t think our listeners will like that.
Andrew: Seminoles can kiss it. No. It ain’t there. Couple things, couple cleanup duties here as we get out of here. Gator Country calendar’s out. Kevin Camps tweeted it the other day. Gator Country tweeted it on Thursday. If you’re not a member of Gator Country, you want a calendar. Come join us, and get it. Get you a nice calendar with Jon Jon Bullard on the front. I promise I had no say so in that, as coincidental as it is. They’re cool, and when you sign up you get the awesome inside information we got, and, Nick, it’s been a good week for content. If you can think of content that you wanted, you pretty much got it this week. It was from film rooms to take a deep breath to Khari Clark to JZ. You think about it, you got it this week.
Nick: It’s always a good week at Gator Country.
Andrew: That’s right. It is. Hit us a message, one of us, and we’ll get you on. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here. We’ll see everyone on Monday after a Gators W.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. @GatorCountry on Twitter. @GatorCountry on Facebook. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC. Make sure to follow us on Saturday. I’ll be down at Gator Walk with Andrew and David Bowie. So it will be a fun Saturday, and the game ends early enough that I might even be able to go and enjoy the nightlife on Saturday night after the game. Won’t be up till 4:30 in the morning like last week.
Andrew: I’m really hoping just to see a little bit of the battle of Bristol. That’s what I’m hoping to do.
Nick: We’ll be able to watch that after the game on the TV, but I’m talking about going out and mingling.
Andrew: Mingling.
Nick: With the crowds.
Andrew: Whatever suits your highness. Alright, guys. We appreciate it. Hit us up. Let us know what you think. As always, go Braves and chomp, chomp.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.
Watched the UK-SM game last night on the internet. We should have success on offense if we run the ball and are ready to counter their blitzes when we drop back to pass. Without blitzing UK never pressured the QB, and WRs were finding open areas of the field pretty regularly. If we can’t run the ball this weekend, we’re in for a long sad season I fear.