Previewing the Florida Gators bowl week and Under Armour

This week’s GatorCountry podcast focuses on previewing the Florida Gators matchup with the Michigan Wolverines in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, plus the Under Armour All-American bowl week that starts on Monday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the three Florida Gators players who are suspended for the bowl game, plus preview all of the Florida Gators prospects that are in the Under Armour All-American game.

Andrew and Nick look at which players will have to step for the Gators this week, plus some key match-ups to watch in the Under Armour game this week.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? This is your man, the goat, Andrew Spivey is here. Nicholas de la Torre is here. What’s up, my man?

Nick:                         What is going on? We are both in Orlando, Florida for a jam packed week.

Andrew:                 This place sucks, because traffic sucks. I have very bad anger management problems, as you guys can probably tell, and this traffic does not make it any better for me.

Nick:                         I went to school here, so I’m used to it. As Andrew’s driving in he’s telling me, “I’m only such-and-such miles. I’ll be there in this time,” and I’m thinking to myself, “No, you won’t.” That’s not the time you’re going to get in. Welcome to Orlando.

Andrew:                 Welcome to Orlando, that’s right. A lot of things going on. You got two bowls, the Russel Athletic Bowl as well as the Citrus Bowl, Under Armor Bowl as well. Then New Year’s as well. As you said, jam packed week. You and I will be splitting the time here. Some time we’ll be at the Under Armor game where there is four commits and well over a dozen, about 15, targets. Then Gators in the bowl game as well. It should be a big week. Nick, you and I were kind of talking about on the way here a little bit. It’s the first time in a long time there’s this many guys, 24 guys in general for Florida that are either committed or targets, in the Under Armor game. Kind of the first time you and I get to actually watch some seven on seven and see possible Gators going at it, and then as well looking at some offensive linemen. It’s been a long time coming. It’s going to be fun.

Nick:                         The last time we were down here, a couple years ago, we definitely were looking at Isaiah McKenzie, but that was someone Florida was getting in on late. I remember there was a running back. I can’t remember his name right now.

Andrew:                 Kid that went to Minnesota.

Nick:                         Minnesota, yeah. Not a lot of those skill position players, and this year it’s just a buffet of wide receivers and running backs that we’ll be able to watch. I’m looking forward to it. There’s a lot of stuff going on, but we’re not going to miss anything. If you’re on Gator Country, you’re not going to miss anything this week. We will be burning the candle at both ends to make sure we don’t miss anything.

Andrew:                 We’ll also kind of sneak in some fun. Don’t you guys worry.

Nick:                         Our whole job is fun.

Andrew:                 Don’t worry about us not having fun. Nick, a little bit of bad news to start the week for Florida. Mason Halter, Anthony Harrell, both suspended academically, and then Jordan Scarlett suspended for team rules for the game. Three guys out. It is what it is. Scarlett’s probably the biggest impact, because he maybe carries the ball, but this is KT’s farewell game. Mac’s going to get him out there and go. I don’t know. I don’t see it being that big of a deal for the game. I know you and I are going to talk about it in a second, for future it’s big. I guess do you see it being an impact in this game?

Nick:                         First off, how weird is it that a grad student, two grad students, are missing the game for academic reasons? These are guys who already have a degree, from Georgia Tech, which is a very good school, and from Fordham, which is a good school. To me that’s kind of puzzling. I don’t know. I don’t know what goes behind that. Maybe Jim McElwain will shed some light, probably not, shed some light on that. As far as impact goes, to me I think, I was told that the team has kind of been preparing for Halter, so they knew. As a senior he wasn’t out there practicing with the rest of the guys early on, and then by the time that everyone else was rejoining they knew. Fred Johnson’s been getting those reps right there and right tackle.

To me, it’s almost a good thing. Sure, this is the end of the 2015 season, the end of Jim McElwain’s first season, but it’s also, and I wrote a story about it, also kind of the first step towards next season. What are some of these guys who either have been redshirting or not playing that much this year, what are they doing with these 15 bowl practices, and what can they do putting their best foot forward for next year? For me, okay, thank you, Mason Halter. You came in, you definitely filled a need, played every game. You filled a need that Florida had on the offensive line, but Fred Johnson’s the future there. If he’s going to get any more reps, that’s a good thing for Florida.

Anthony Harrell really only plays special teams.

Andrew:                 Hold on real quick before you go to Harrell. Let me say something on Halter real quick. This is something that kind of bothered me just a little bit. I say this, because as we’re doing this I got a message from Mason Halter’s mother. It was kind of a message that kind of hit home a little bit. She goes, “Can you tell me why Florida fans are hating on Mason? All of a sudden everyone hates Mason.” I see your point. He’s gone, everything else. This season his career’s over with, but let’s remember, Mason was a big part in helping this line stay consistent, helping this line get better, and is a big reason why this team did win 10 games, whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

Did Mason struggle at times? Sure. He’ll probably be remembered for his body slam that he received courtesy of Derwin James, but let’s remember that Mason was a big part in helping guys like Fred Johnson, Tyler Jordan, Martez Ivey, Sharpe, all those guys develop. I think while we look at this game also remember that parents see Twitter, see social media. Kind of a chill out just a tad. I’m the world’s worst, so I have no room to talk, but just remember family does get on there.

Nick:                         Yeah. I think some of it is just, I fall victim to it sometimes too. It’s the Twitter world that we live in, and you’ve got to have your hot take. You have to get it out quick, and it’s got to be as soon as something happens you have to take one side or the other. It’s embarrassing to be academically ineligible for anybody, but I think at the end of the day that’s really the right stance to take is, “Sorry that this year’s going to end this way, but thanks for coming in. Thank you for what you did.” Fan is short for fanatic, so I get a fan’s reaction to be angry, but take a step back and just think about things before you hit that send button on the tweet.

Andrew:                 Exactly. It’s a deal where it’s kind of like, you did your time here, thanks. Now I’m going to shit on you.

Nick:                         Kind of, yeah. It’s like it’s all we. We did this. We won. We did that. We weren’t academically ineligible. It was that guy. You’re pointing a finger now.

Andrew:                 Again, you had the pleasure of talking to Mason a lot more than I did and knowing a lot more about him than I did, but from everything I’ve heard, first class citizen that the coaches loved and the players loved.

Nick:                         Yeah. What he did was really fill a need. Was he an All-American on the field? Was he All-SEC? No, but he provided senior leadership, and like you say, provided continuity.

Andrew:                 I think it’s the thing you and I said before. I think heading into the season you and I both said, “Is Mason Halter going to be the best player on the Florida offensive line?” And we both said, “No.” Then we both said, “But he may be the smartest, may be the guy that brings maturity.” You and I had a source tell us during the summer. They looked at us and said, “The biggest key for Mason Halter coming in was leadership.” You and I both remember that. That can’t be judged on the football field. Like you said, Fred Johnson gets to play. That’s great. I’m very excited to see him. Maybe Martez Ivey gets to play a little tackle as well in the game to kind of see where it’s going forward. You and I will disagree here a little bit. I think Ivey and Sharpe are your tackles next year. I know you think Fred stays there and maybe Martez stays at guard, but we’ll see. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re not. Maybe I’m right. Maybe I’m not.

Nick:                         I don’t think it’s a problem, or it’s a problem you’d like to have. We have three really good tackles. How are we going to get them all on the field? I’d rather have that problem than saying we have one tackle. What the heck are we going to do? To me it’s I’ll take on that problem. I would rather have that problem than a lot of other problems.

Andrew:                 Exactly. You do have the benefit of Ivey, who did play some guard this year, that gets to play it. Everything I’ve heard is Nick Buchanan is tearing it up. I’ll give a hot take right now and say I think he might be your starting left guard next football season.

Nick:                         He could be. It’ll be interesting to see, because I’ve never really seen, David Sharpe has worked a little bit in practice, from the small portions of practice that we get to see. I’ve seen David Sharpe there a little bit. It’ll be interesting to see. Is Martez the left tackle of the future? It’ll be interesting to see how they move those pieces around. I really have not seen Fred Johnson playing any kind of guard. I think he is just a tackle.

Andrew:                 Way too tall, in my opinion.

Nick:                         He is a monster.

Andrew:                 Now I say that, Trenton Brown was a monster playing guard. I just don’t know. I don’t know the word to say. I don’t see Fred playing there, but to move on to Harrell. You were going to say something about, and then I kind of interrupted you on that. I guess, we’re both kind of in agreement that it is what it is.

Nick:                         He is really only a special teams player, and I really don’t think there’s any kind of impact from him missing this game in this game, or him not being there in the future. For me, I think it is a really big missed opportunity for Jordan Scarlett. This is Kelvin Taylor’s goodbye game, but, like I said with Fred Johnson, it’s also your next step. Florida’s back field is going to be deep next year, very deep, with Mark Thompson, both Jordans, and Lamical. So this is not how you want to start. If you’re Jordan Scarlett you’re going to be in a back field with four guys. This is not how you want to start your sophomore season. Make no mistake about it, this is the start of his sophomore season.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was going to say. Does this lead into something more though? That’s kind of where I’m at with the Scarlett thing. Does this lead into him being in the doghouse? Does this lead into more problems down the road? Are we starting to see something, or as one person put it, is it simply a freshman making a stupid mistake? I don’t know. I will say this. Scarlett better get his act in gear, because, as you said, there’s two workloads coming in next year, and neither one of them care to sit the bench. If Scarlett wants the reps, he better earn them this spring. Thompson and Perine are coming for carries.

Nick:                         Yeah. Especially Mark Thompson. Not to take anything away from Lamical, but any time a kid comes in as a junior, already in their mind, “My clock is ticking. I don’t have the four years. I have to come in running and ready to go.” Especially with Thompson, because he’s an older guy, and he’ll come in knowing, I have a very limited time to make an impact. That’s somebody who will be actively fighting for carries next year, if not just the lead back. I never want to minimize it. Weed’s illegal. Should be, that’s not the issue. Should it be legal, should be illegal, that’s not the issue. The issue is it is illegal. You can’t do it, and to me it’s not so much that the act is bad. It’s just dumb.

Andrew:                 To give background real quick, tell everybody kind of about that arrest situation that happened for Scarlett.

Nick:                         It’s not an arrest. When you hear arrest you think handcuffs, cop car, mugshot. In Florida a cop can use discretion, and by that I mean you can issue a citation. Because Scarlett, he was allegedly smoking marijuana in his dorm room. Somebody in the dorm smelled it, called the UF Police Department. UF Police Department shows up. They say that they can smell the odor of marijuana. Come in, they start asking him questions. He said that he didn’t really have weed with him, because he had smoked it. He was being honest, which at least you weren’t trying to cover it up. You messed up, and you were honest. You didn’t compound the error and piss the cop off because you were lying to him.

Andrew:                 I don’t know what part’s good here, lying or not lying. Good for you.

Nick:                         At least he told the truth. He shows him a pipe, which is used to smoke weed, and there was a joint that was like half smoked. He was cited for possession of marijuana under 20 games, which is a misdemeanor, and possession of drug paraphernalia, which would be the pipe. Both are misdemeanors, and he wasn’t taken in. He’s issued a citation. It’s like a written arrest, but you’re not actually brought in. He’ll have a court date.

A lot of these things you can kind of go to, Florida has this thing called a drug court, and if it’s your first offense you can enter drug court, and you go to, it’s kind of like being on probation. You have like a probation officer. You go to these classes. Then it can get wiped off your record. It’s something that it’s not going to ruin his life, but it’s obviously not going to make the coaching staff like him any more.

Andrew:                 It’s not a path he needs to be traveling down.

Nick:                         No. It’s not a dead end, but it’s not a smooth road. It’s not newly laid cement that he’s driving on now.

Andrew:                 Right. Again, it’s KT’s farewell game. Good for Cronkrite, maybe see some Mark Herndon, Case Harrison in the game as well. Like you said, it is what it is with the three guys. Is it good to have guys missing? No. It kind of is what it is with the three guys. Still think Florida’s got a good shot to win the ballgame in Orlando in the Citrus Bowl. We’ll see what Treon Harris does, if he’s gotten better. For me, it’s one last chance to see Vernon and Jon Jon on the field in that Gator uniform. You know me. I’m a big Jon Bullard fan. For me it’ll be great to see 90 go out again and have a big game. Then also Antonio Morrison. A year ago this week went down with a knee injury, so I’m sure he’s itching to finish out a bowl game. Also two bowl games in a row, get a win in both of them, that’d be nice for the future.

Nick:                         Yeah. I’ve harped on it a lot about it being a look into next year, but it also is, like you said, it’s one last chance to see Vernon Hargreaves in orange and blue, Jon Bullard. These are guys who have been through a lot at Florida, and it’s cool. It almost seems like Vernon Hargreaves just got to Gainesville. I’m sure you remember covering his recruitment.

Andrew:                 I was going to say it seems like he’s been here forever. That’s kind of what I was going to say.

Nick:                         Really?

Andrew:                 Yeah. It does.

Nick:                         That’s how I feel about Bullard. I feel like Bullard, man, he’s been here a while, hasn’t he? With Vernon, kind of like last year, I remember people got mad at me, but even last year I remember tweeting, this is Vernon Hargreaves’ last trip to Nashville to play Vanderbilt. This is the last time Vernon Hargreaves will play in Neyland, and people were like, what do you mean it’s his last time? He’s only a sophomore. I’m like, he ain’t staying. He ain’t going to be here in two years.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It’s, I don’t know. I don’t know what to say why that is, but it does. It seems like he’s been here a while. It just seems like he’s…What’s that?

Nick:                         Bullard was a little bit overshadowed in my opinion, early on, by Dante Fowler. I think Fowler kind of burst onto the scene a little bit at Florida, early, and Jon kind of took a while to get comfortable, and then had a really good end of the season, and then he had a really good end of the year his sophomore year, and a really good end of the year his junior year. He kind of put it all together this year. For me, he’s the one that I feel like he’s been here forever.

Andrew:                 Again, it kind of is what it is on that. I don’t know. I can’t explain why I feel that way. It just feels that way. It just kind of feels like Vern’s been here a while, and just kind of seems like he’s a senior instead of a junior. It is what it is. Couple things real quick. We hadn’t really touched on it a lot, but McAlister gone, not going to play in the game. Whether he’s suspended, kicked off the team, whatever it is. McAlister’s not coming to the game, won’t play. He’s going to head pro.

Nick:                         His mind was made up. There was no draft grade coming back or anything like that that would have kept him in Gainesville. He was always, in my opinion, it was always his plan to kind of leave after this year. He’s a guy who scouts will see size measurables and they’ll drool. The NFL’s about having a franchise quarterback, protecting your franchise quarterback, and getting to the other team’s franchise quarterback. Alex McAlister is one of those three things.

Andrew:                 Exactly. We talked about the team that’s here, the current Gators. Future Gators that are in Orlando, as we said in the beginning, there’s a lot of them, a lot of them.

Nick:                         Before we move on.

Andrew:                 Okay, go ahead.

Nick:                         Shout out to my boy, Jake Rudock, Michigan quarterback. I grew up with Jake and his older brothers, playing sports with them. Jake’s dad coached me. It’ll be cool for me to be able to cover a game where I’m covering a game of a family friend. Before we move on, shout out to Jake, hope he does well in his last college game. Not too well, but I hope he does well in his last college game.

Andrew:                 Where was he before Michigan?

Nick:                         He was at Iowa.

Andrew:                 Okay. Kind of background on him a little bit.

Nick:                         He started early at Iowa. It’s one of those things. He comes on, and plays a little bit as a freshman, and they love him. Then I think his freshman year he had like 18 touchdowns, threw a bunch of picks, but you kind of gloss over some things when you have a freshman quarterback. He’ll learn. He’ll get better. Did better in 2014, and then for whatever reason lost the job last year. Graduated, and decided to transfer to Michigan. It kind of worked out for both teams. Iowa had an incredible season this year, and Michigan, their record, three losses, 9-3 on the year, but in a turnaround season he’s kind of been the steady factor that has allowed them to, some of the games that Michigan won this year were games that they lost last year with Devon Gardner or with Denard Robinson as their quarterback. He just provided them with something steady at that position.

Andrew:                 Right. Speaking of quarterbacks. Probably the name that will make us a lot of money this week, we’ll just go ahead and call it like it is. Maryland quarterback commit Dwayne Haskins, coming to the Under Armor game this week, and I guess he made his own news this week by spending Christmas in Coconut with Chauncey Gardner. He does have family in town, but he spent a heck of a lot of time with Gardner, including working out on Christmas Eve and Christmas with Gardner. He made speculations go wild on his own.

Nick:                         That’s interesting to me. You told me that he has some family, but it’s interesting to me that he would be down. He knew he was going to be in Orlando for a week for the Under Armor game, but he came down a little bit early and spent a lot of time with Chauncey Gardner.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Chauncey Gardner is the guy you want recruiting for Florida if you’re McElwain and the guys. That kind of is my next point. These guys get worked, worked, worked. Recruiting will be crazy for this Under Armor game, and that brings me to the guys. There’s four commits for the Gators in this game, defensive end Antonius Clayton, center Brett Heggie, he could be snapping to Haskins, Gardner, and Josh Hammond, receiver Josh Hammond. That’ll be interesting to see those four guys get to work. Hammond catching passes from Haskins. Heggie could be snapping it to him, and then Gardner will be trying to pick it off.

Nick:                         You are stirring the pot right now.

Andrew:                 I am stirring the pot. I just said I want to make money this week.

Nick:                         You are stirring the pot. This guy’s going to be snapping to this guy. This guy, one of them’s a Maryland commit. Who knows.

Andrew:                 I will say this. Real quick. Let’s break it down real quick by position here. At receiver Florida targets are Eli Stove, Sam Bruce, Tyrek Cleveland, Nate Craig-Myers, and am I missing someone? Nate Craig, Eli Stove, Sam Bruce, Tyrek, that’s it. Keith Gavin is also in the game. Excuse me, Keith Gavin is playing in the, no he is playing here. He is on team white, so he’s on the opposite team of Nate Craig and those guys. For me that’s going to be interesting to see all of those receivers, because Cleveland and Nate Craig both are really top notch big receivers, and then two slot guys in Bruce and Stove are two guys that are really good at the slot position. Then Keith Gavin is just kind of an all-around guy. For me, it’ll kind of help separate those guys, and also see Nate Craig finally healthy again will be interesting to see. Then I really want to see the matchup of Gardner versus Bruce. You and I have already talked about it. Gardner trash talking Bruce should be fun all week.

Nick:                         This is really where Sam Bruce kind of excels. His skillset is almost kind of like an And1 basketball player, that guy at the park that’s dribbling between your legs, his legs, the coach’s legs. He’s dribbling between fans’ legs, throwing alley oops. Sam Bruce, his ability to stop and go, that acceleration, that quickness, and then when you bring in the factor that Sam Bruce likes to chop it up, Chauncey Gardner likes to chop it up. These two guys are competitors.

Andrew:                 And Gardner did well at Friday Night Lights in these one on one events. He was trashing little bitty 5’2” kids. He’s not going to be afraid to trash talk Sam.

Nick:                         No. Not at all. To me, I’ve always said about Sam Bruce is that he plays like somebody. Everyone says, “We have a chip on our shoulder, because such-and-such.” Sam Bruch plays like somebody with a real chip on their shoulder, and everybody that has ever looked at him and said, “You’re too small to play football.” I think he has every person who’s ever told him he’s too small or couldn’t do something written down somewhere. He plays, he’s got that dog in him. So does Chauncey. For me to see them kind of go up against each other in practice, that’s really what I’m looking forward to. Those are two competitors, two guys with a ton of talent, that play like people who are mad that they’re being overlooked, even though they’re probably not being overlooked. That’s the kind of mentality they have.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Chauncey’s little primetime. That’s what I call him. Little primetime. He doesn’t back down. Another corner that I’m going to like to see this week is Kristian Fulton. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him play in person yet, the DB out of Louisiana, and he’s a guy that I am excited to see as well. He’s a long corner that’s athletic, and while Chauncey may be the more athletic speedster type guy, the faster guy, Fulton’s probably the more athletic corner, and to see him go up against these elite receivers is going to be fun as well. Then also tight end Jacob Mathis is in the game. He’s a target for Florida out of Berkley Prep, and he’ll be in the game as well. It’ll be interesting to see how well he does having to block these linebackers. Is he physical enough to go across the middle in this game, being that he’s a little smaller, more of your flexed out tight end, kind of like C’yontai Lewis was coming out of school?

Nick:                         I guess the other position for me that I’ll be looking forward to, other than the seven on seven stuff with guys like Bruce and Nate Craig and Eli Stove. I’m really looking at the linebackers. A seven on seven’s not really a good environment for it, but when the pads come, and you see it in the game, what does Matt Wilson look like? Dontavious Jackson, Jeffery McCulloch, Aaron Hansford. Florida needs linebackers.

Andrew:                 Right. There’s another…

Nick:                         I need to see that position.

Andrew:                 Another linebacker too, Maryland commit Keandre Jones is a guy that is starting to look at Florida a little bit. May take a visit. He’s another guy that’s there. Mack Wilson is a guy that he’s your first off the bus, but he can back it up. Had the opportunity to kind of see him at that Alabama Mississippi All-Star game a couple weeks ago. He’ll knock the crap out of you if you allow him to, but he’ll also cover his space. Then guys like Jackson and McCulloch are guys that are kind of more headhunters as well, but in this game you’ll see that, and we’ll see it in practice when they’re able to kind of go through one on one drills and that kind of stuff. It’ll be interesting to see who stands out out of that bunch.

Then also when is the last time we had offensive linemen to talk about and look at in this game? It’s a pile of them. You got Landon Dickerson out of Carolina. You’ve got Terrance Davis, Richard Merritt, and Jawan Williams all three out of Maryland. Then you got a guy like EJ Price out of Georgia. All of those guys are either taking visits or have taken visits to Florida, and they’ll have the opportunity to go up against big guys like Rashan Gary, #1 defensive lineman in the country. Have to go up against Mack Wilson and those guys, Shavar Manuel, defensive tackle. One on one offensive line play should be good.

Nick:                         Yeah. That’s one thing. I mentioned the linebackers. We won’t really get a ton of big hitting in practice, but there’s really no kind of competition, I think what I’m trying to say is the fiercest competition outside of wide receivers and DBs, where you’re going to one on one and that gets intense, is probably the one on one’s when you’re looking at defense and offensive linemen. You can’t afford to go half speed when you’re playing this caliber of player. When the offensive lineman and the defensive lineman get together, pads are popping. That’s probably the hardest hitting we’ll see during practice, unless Mack Wilson forgets where he is and hits a running back a little harder than he’s supposed to.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That wouldn’t surprise me either. Got to look at Shavar Manuel a little bit, defensive tackle. It’d be interesting this week to see where he does. He was a defensive end, gained weight this off season, a defensive tackle. Struggled mightily this season. Did have a little bit of a hip injury, but there’s nowhere to hide this week. You’re not going to be able to go up against a 5’8” 215-pound offensive lineman. You’re going to go up against the best of the best. He’s either going to move his game up, or he’s going to fall back some more, and we’ll see. It’s kind of do or die now in the All-Star games. This is the elite of the elite. For me that’s another one that I’m interested in seeing is kind of how Shavar does at defensive tackle. Does he get some defensive end work, or is he strictly just a tackle?

Nick:                         That’s interesting. You look at him, and you think, he could play end in like a 3-4 scheme, maybe he’s more of a tackle in a traditional 4-3. I would expect that they would kind of move him around. This is an All-Star game, and you’ve got a lot of people that play the same position. If you can move somebody around, you’re not playing for a state championship here. It also leads to guys being willing to do a little bit more, and maybe play a position that they’re not as confident in to try to work on it.

Andrew:                 Definitely.

Nick:                         That’s the other thing. There’s great coaches here too. So to be able to line up at three different positions and have a former football player, a former professional football player, telling you, “Young buck, try this when you’re here. If you’re here and you see this look, try that.” To me, it’s almost better for them to play a position that they know less about or that they’re less comfortable in, because you have more room to grow there, and you have fantastic coaching. Really a chance to pick some guys’ brains who got paid real American dollars to play the sport that you’re playing now.

Andrew:                 Hopefully it wasn’t Euros.

Nick:                         The Euro’s a little stronger.

Andrew:                 Definitely. Tell the people where they can find us this week, and we’ll get out and be bringing the coverage starting bright and early on Monday.

Nick:                         We will be out 10:00 in the morning, Eastern Standard Time, stalking high school boys as they show up for the Under Armor All-American game. As always, you can find updates, pictures, links, everything you need, on Twitter. @NickdelaTorrGC. You can find Andrew, who didn’t call himself the goat today.

Andrew:                 Yes I did. That was at the beginning, the intro.

Nick:                         I tuned him out. It’s like the mute feature on Twitter. I’ve muted him saying goat. I just don’t even hear it anymore. @AndrewSpiveyGC, @GatorCountry on Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. We’ll have pictures of practice and players from Florida’s bowl practice as well as Under Armor practice all week long. Of course, www.GatorCountry.com. Thank you to all the new members who have joined this year. Hope you are enjoying it, and if you’re in Orlando at either the bowl game or at Under Armor practice, let us know. More than happy to shake hands and kiss babies, do our presidential thing, as we see you guys out and about in Orlando.

Andrew:                 Definitely. That’s right. See you everybody on the site. Make sure to check us out on Twitter and on the site. We’ll be here all week. For me, I’m signing off. Butch, Mark, you know the drill.

Nick:                         You stay classy, Gator Country.

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