Recapping the Arkansas game for the Florida Gators: Podcast

Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators loss to Arkansas on Saturday, plus break down what can be done on offense.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre discuss the quarterback position at length and discuss what the other options are.

Andrew and Nick also break down what happened on defense, plus look ahead to the Gators big recruiting weekend against South Carolina.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 Welcome back, Gator Country. Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, I feel like I was ran over by a truck, and that team looks like it was ran over by a truck.

Nick:                         Boy, I think the biggest thing is, everyone feels bad for a loss, but I think the biggest thing is that really at no point did you ever feel like Florida was going to win that game.

Andrew:                 No. Zero.

Nick:                         Even at 14-7.

Andrew:                 No. When it got 14-0 it seemed like it was over with. Do you agree?

Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, even after Florida scores, and makes it a one touchdown game, you’re sitting there thinking, “I don’t think they score twice. Can they win 17-14? I don’t even know.”

Andrew:                 The thing that bothered me, Nick, and I feel like I’ve said this till we’re blue in the face, the team lacks energy. Before the game, they lacked energy. After halftime they lacked energy. It’s body language that is showing. I said this to someone yesterday, and that is that you had a chance, and we can laugh all we want, but you were in the playoff picture. Laugh all you want, you were. You were in position to lock up the East on your Senior Day at home, and you dropped a load of shit in Arkansas. That’s what you did. You got ran over all day long, and it wasn’t one of those Vanderbilt games where it was just a nasty game. This was a nasty game because you got clobbered.

Nick:                         Yeah. Florida’s really struggled in the 3^rd quarter, but you come out of halftime, so Jim McElwain says, “They did some stuff that took away our inside guys.” Talking about Caleb Brantley and Joey Ivie, some new blocking schemes. Where is the adjustment? You come out of half, 3 and out, 6 yards, 1:21 used. Next drive, 3 and out, 5 yards, 1:32 used. Next drive, 5 plays, 27 yards, 1:43. Done. You’re done. You come out, there’s no energy. 3-3, or back to back 3 and outs to start. Where are the adjustments? What are you doing in the locker room at halftime?

Andrew:                 Here’s my thing, and I’m about to go full Butch Jones. I’m about to go in my Butch Jones rant. What message did Mac, Mac is this, and I am the biggest Mac supporter out there. Do you agree with that, Nick? Before I say that, that I am a big Mac supporter?

Nick:                         Yeah. You’re on Team Mac.

Andrew:                 I’m always that way. I’m always taking his side on things. What message did you send to Mark Thompson and to Jordan Cronkrite? Two guys that failed your football team. Mark Thompson, who failed your football team by smoking weed, or whatever he did, got caught with weed. Probably smoking it. That was an accusation that I shouldn’t have made on that. I apologize, Mark. If you weren’t smoking it, my bad. You had it with you. The smell was there.

Nick:                         I don’t know why you’re carrying it around if you’re not smoking it, but he wasn’t smoking it when he got caught.

Andrew:                 Right. Jordan Cronkrite quit your football team, quit your football team. That is what bothers me. You benched your two guys, Scarlett and Perine, two guys that have been your workhorse the entire football season. Georgia you worked those guys, 25 and 15 carries, and then you’re going to bench those two guys for two guys that quit your football team, that failed your football team? Mac talks about choices. You have choices. Those guys made choices to screw up, for better terms. You let them back in. What message did you send to the rest of your team? You sent a message to your team that it’s okay to quit on your team. It’s okay to get suspended and arrested for your team, because guess what? You get to come back as soon as your one game suspension is over with. For me, that is the biggest thing that bothers me with the game in general for Mac.

Now, there’s a lot of things we’re going to talk about here in a second, but that one thing bothered me, because I’ve always seen Mac as a guy that was going to be a discipline guy. I didn’t think he was going to be, for better terms, Nick Saban, who suspends them for one game, and then they’re out there. You gave them, Mark Thompson played more than any other running back. Cronkrite played second most of any other running back. Where are they last week?

Nick:                         They were watching at home in Gainesville. You look at the numbers, and Scarlett had more carries, but almost nonexistent in the second half. Jordan Crokrite didn’t get a carry, but he did have two catches, was in the game a bunch. I think Mark Thompson really was in the game the most. He only had three carries, same as Perine.

Andrew:                 Had catches, two or three.

Nick:                         Mark had two catches for 20. Scarlett had two catches as well. No catches for Perine. I mean, Perine only had three attempts for three yards. It’s hard to get going when you only get three attempts. Mark Thompson had three carries for 19 yards. He had a 21 yard run. He lost two yards on his other two carries. What are you doing?

Andrew:                 He runs so tentative.

Nick:                         What are we doing here?

Andrew:                 He runs so tentative. It doesn’t even matter, Nick. We’re talking about this situation if he runs for 100. You didn’t set a good example. You didn’t set a good example. You didn’t set a good example in the game. You set a bad precedent for the team. You set a bad precedent, and I’m sure there’s going to be somebody that gets me, and, quite frankly, I don’t care, because this is an opinion that I’m stuck on. It’s not even, I do not try to hide my bias. I’m a big Perine guy. He’s from my area, watched him through high school. I’m a big Perine guy.

I admit that, but I feel as bad for Scarlett, a guy who, in my opinion was really starting to be that superstar we expected him to be. You saw that in the Georgia game. You saw that in the Missouri game. Quite frankly, he gets nothing. He doesn’t even hardly play after the first series of the game, and for me that’s tough. What do you say to him? Mark’s not better than him. Cronk’s not better than him. Those two guys didn’t even play last week. Cronk didn’t practice for two weeks. During the bye week he was having vacation.

Nick:                         It’s kind of what we talked about before. We were asking, what kind of message are you going to send? I brought that up. Are you going to be the disciplinarian where you cross me once, and it’s over, or are you going to be the guy that forgives? I can’t say that you’re wrong in your opinion. I can’t say you’re wrong.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you this.

Nick:                         It’s a choice. It’s a choice that Mac made, and it’s one we talked about him having to make. I just don’t think you and I saw that coming.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you this. This is, I’m a guy, and I said this Wednesday, or Monday, whenever we talked about the Cronkrite thing. I said, “He shouldn’t be kicked off the team.” I am in agreement he should not have been kicked off the team, but at what point do you have to earn your way back into it? Not you come back, and you basically replace the two guys. I’m even more so with Mark. Cronk I can, I’m a little bit more on Cronk, there was some personal things going on, and he needed to find out, so I’m a little bit more on him.

Mark made a choice that he was going to fail his team on a Thursday night at 12:30 at night, that he was going to have weed in his car, get pulled over, and be arrested. You’re looking at situations, and the Tyrie situation, Tyrie had to work his way back into playing time. He shot a bb gun, I understand that. That was dangerous as well. Mark’s was dangerous as well, too. What are we doing here?

Nick:                         Seems like different sets of standards for different people.

Andrew:                 Right, and I’m not understanding that.

Nick:                         I agree with that. To me, it’s puzzling. All off season I kept saying, “There’s not enough carries for the four guys to go.” Jim McElwain’s history is that he’s going to pick a guy. Why are you straying away from that?

Andrew:                 Right. The thing is it needs to happen. The running game, in my opinion, was really never given a chance to succeed on Saturday, and that was from the start. The first play is three receivers, or, excuse me, two receivers, two tight ends, and they were all split, so it was basically a four wide set at the time, and it seems like, did you watch that Auburn tape where Auburn ran for 583? You know what I’m saying? That’s where I’m at. Before we go any further, I’m going to make this statement, and that is that Doug Nussmeier’s play calling wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

Nick:                         It’s not. We see that on social media, and I’m not trying to get down on anybody, our jobs allow us to go and watch the games. It’s not feasible for everyone to do that, but you sound silly when you can’t see the entire field, and you’re saying the play calling’s trash. Players were open.

Andrew:                 Players were wide open. First of all, on the Cleveland pick six in the beginning, it was a bad decision, but the ball should have been caught. Okay? The Callaway post route where it was picked off, Brandon Powell is running a drag route, which is basically a crossing route. He’s heading to the pylon, is wide open for there. I said this to someone today, on Sunday, and that is, “Del Rio kind of reminds me of a guy trying to play Madden Football against his buddy that doesn’t want to get sacked, and he just drops back, drops back, and then tries to heave it up.” When Del Rio gets sacked, he’s getting sacked for 25, 30 yards it seems like. I know one time on Saturday it was an 18 yard loss, because he dropped himself back that far. I don’t know.

I don’t know if it’s Del Rio’s knee is bothering him so bad that it is making him take away his mental focus. Maybe that is the case. Something is making him not see things. At the beginning of the year he wasn’t locked into his first read I guess is the best way to say it, but he wasn’t one dimensional in that he would only look at one side of the field. That’s where he is now. If the first read’s not open, he’s instantly looking for let me find a check out, or let me force it real quick.

Nick:                         I think he said it best. He said that, “Our schemes,” this is Del Rio I’m speaking about, he said, “The plays and the schemes are drawn perfectly. If my first option isn’t open, and they have it covered, the second option should be open. If the second option is covered, the third option is absolutely open,” and he’s saying that because of the way the play is drawn up. If they’re covering this, then that means they probably have somebody out of position, option two is open. If somebody’s open in option two, then the play is designed that the only way they could cover these two things would be if this is left open, and that’s your third option. He’s not going through that.

Andrew:                 No.

Nick:                         He’s not going through that progression. He’s locking in onto that one guy until it’s too late, and now option two is now covered. The play is not designed, it’s not a video game where that guys staying 15 yards by himself, and nobody else is there. You have to be able to notice, one is going to be covered, where’s two? Two’s going to be covered. Back on the other side of the field, there’s three. Get rid of the ball. Not one’s covered, one’s covered…he’s not going to get open. Not two, and now the pocket collapsed. You’re not going to get eight seconds to throw.

Andrew:                 Did you see that at the beginning of the year?

Nick:                         At times. It seems like he’s locking onto players more. At times in the beginning of the year, yeah, he would lock onto people, but I also saw him looking off safeties. I also saw him going through progressions, maybe even getting off his first read, looking at the second, and coming back to the first, and now it’s back open.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         I don’t know what it is. I think you might get into a position now where you’re losing confidence.

Andrew:                 See, that’s what I’m saying. I think it’s that, and my thing is he worried about the knee and taking a hit, so he’s trying to get rid of it quicker? The one thing we applauded him on at the beginning of the year was two things, and that was, A, he was going to throw the ball away instead of throw the pick. He’s not doing that no more. B, we said, he’s going to know where the open receiver is with the look of the defense. That’s no longer the case. No longer the case is that happening. To me, that’s where I say it’s time to see what else you got, because we were never in agreement that Del Rio was the best athlete to play quarterback, by any means, we said he was the smartest. Now that you’ve taken away basically his brains for the game, no reason to continue going forward with the guy.

Nick:                         My devil’s advocate would be, the season’s not over.

Andrew:                 But here’s the thing, do you win…

Nick:                         You can still get to the SEC Championship.

Andrew:                 Do you get there with Del Rio?

Nick:                         I think Del Rio can beat South Carolina.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing.

Nick:                         My hang up is I wouldn’t go with Austin Appleby.

Andrew:                 No. You go with Kyle Trask.

Nick:                         I worry about throwing in a freshman quarterback against Will Muschamp. Listen, for all of this faults as a head football coach, Will Muschamp is a very good defensive coach.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you this. What are you concerned about with a freshman playing? Del Rio is not getting you down the field. He’s throwing multiple picks a game. He’s not doing anything for your offense.

Nick:                         That’s the thing that we’ve said is that he’s an average quarterback that’s not going to turn the ball over. Last three games, two touchdowns, six interceptions.

Andrew:                 Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. What are you, what is your basis for saying to keep him in? I’m not coming at you. I’m asking. You give me your side. Give your devil’s advocate side of this is why Del Rio should stay.

Nick:                         No. My only reasoning is that I don’t feel comfortable with a freshman going against Will Muschamp. Will Muschamp has been dreaming about this Saturday, whether he’ll admit it or not, been dreaming about this Saturday since he took that job. My question is, the game’s already going to be set up, you’re about, I just don’t feel comfortable giving the ball, I get what you’re saying is, we’ve seen Del Rio. That’s what you’re going to get. It’s not getting the job done, so go to something else. My only reservation is Will Muschamp’s going to throw some stuff at Kyle Trask that he’s never seen before. We just saw how ill prepared Florida was to play a team coming off a bye week that put some new stuff in, how unprepared they were for that on offense and defense. Now I’m worried about how simple do you have to make the offense? What can you run with a freshman quarterback who has not taken a snap?

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Are you paring down the playbook to the point where you become predictable against a team and a coach who is going to scheme against your offense, which is not a very good offense to begin with? That’s my reservation. It’s not in any way, shape, or form me being confident in Luke Del Rio. It’s me being unsure or uneasy about what a freshman will do in his first start against a Will Muschamp defense.

Andrew:                 Here’s my thing to you, and this is tough for me to say, and you’re going to know when I say this why it’s tough for me to say. I almost say you see what you can get at the risk of squandering a chance to get as whooped by Alabama. I mean, at this point you’re at a crossroads. I say this, and I said this on Saturday on the thread that I posted that said, “Mac learned a lot about his team and his staff.” I didn’t call anyone out in particular. I’m not going to call anyone out in particular. You’re year two. You’re what? 22 games into the season.

You are what you are, and that is you are what you are as far as an offense right now. Yes, this offense is still not very good talent wise. You can still thank the guy that’s going to be on the opposing sideline on Saturday, Will Muschamp, for that. Offensive line is bad, and a lot of it is because of him. It’s the hardest position to develop on the field. It takes the longest to develop on the field, and it’s very tough to get a guy to plug and play year one. Waany’s there, but Waany’s starting to struggle. Martez is finally coming into it, and he’s a year and a half into school.

I think you’re at a crossroads where it’s, let me really see what these two freshman quarterbacks have got, or do I need to just go look at every Juco quarterback in the nation, every transfer quarterback in the nation, because, let’s face it, if you go into next season, and Kyle Task and Feliepe Franks suck, you and I have are having a totally different tone about everything. If you’re sitting here, and this offense is looking just as bad as it is right now next year, we’re having a totally different tone about things, completely. A tone that I don’t want to have, and a conversation I don’t want to have, but at some point you have to figure out what you got.

I’ve heard, people’s told me that watch practice all the time, these two freshmen quarterbacks are going to be very good players. One person even said, “There’s no way we’ll hang onto both, because both of them are going to be big time players that are going to have a chance to play in the League.” Let’s see.

Nick:                         What happens if you put Trask in, and he doesn’t do well for two games? That’s not necessarily an indictment of what he’s going to be as a sophomore or as a junior.

Andrew:                 No, but you will know what you—

Nick:                         But we’re talking of a fan base right now that wants to fire a coach who’s 22 games into his career.

Andrew:                 Again, that’s…

Nick:                         That’s not rational thinking.

Andrew:                 No. That’s stupid, but I will say this, and that is, once again, I’m the biggest Mac fan there is, some criticism is warranted. If you’d have told me the beginning of the year this offense would still be as bad as it is and, quite frankly, regressed some, I would have probably told you you were crazy. It’s true. It’s regressed. It’s bad. It’s really, really bad. Someone said to me this, and, Nick, I’m going to throw this at you, they said, “Mac’s team was built to win 17-14 this year, because of a great defense. Next year his team needs to built to win 45-38. Right now nothing shows me they can score 45 points against Michigan or Tennessee or anybody.

Nick:                         How the hell do they score 45 against Kentucky?

Andrew:                 Right. That’s what I’m saying. At some point or another you have to see. Now, I agree. You throw Franks and Trask out there two games, let’s not shut the door on them. Just like South Carolina with Brandon McElwain, you can’t just shut the door on him.

Nick:                         Right. That’s what I’m saying.

Andrew:                 You have to see.

Nick:                         You might not be putting, and I can’t say for certain, but you might not be putting, if you’re playing one of the two freshmen this week, you might not be putting them in the most optimum position for them to have early success, and then does the fan base turn on them, because they weren’t successful in their first game ever? What does that do? I think Kyle Trask is going to be Florida’s best, I think Kyle Trask might already be the best quarterback Florida has. That doesn’t mean he’s the most, I don’t even know how I can say that, because we might have gotten to the point. I was going to say, I don’t know if he’s the best quarterback to play right now.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         But we might have gotten past that point, given what Del Rio’s doing, might have gotten past that point.

Andrew:                 I had someone tell me on Saturday, and I won’t go any further than to say someone, that said, “Trask is the guy that needs to play now, because he’s already smarter and knows how to protect the ball, but knows when to take shots.” Then they turned around and said, “But in two years, when Feliepe learns everything that’s going around him, he may be the best.” They said, “Right now, he sees an open receiver, doesn’t see that guy tailing behind him. He thinks, I can throw it 150 miles an hour and beat that guy there.” You and I know, that may work one out of five times. You can rely on that. Everybody’s not Brett Favre who can sneak that ball in. I mean, Brett Favre now does have the NFL record for most interceptions, so maybe it didn’t work out a little bit for him. That was the comparison that I got was Trask is comparable to Del Rio, except for he has a better arm. That is a huge concern with Del Rio.

Nick:                         Brett Favre threw 336 interceptions.

Andrew:                 That’s not too good.

Nick:                         Brett Favre’s also a Hall of Famer.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but that’s still not good to have 300, but you know what I’m saying. That was his mentality.

Nick:                         Yeah. Listen, man, I don’t know how Kyle Trask will handle his first college game. I don’t know how he’ll handle going against a defense, a Will Muschamp defense, how he’ll go in being able to be a leader of 10 other guys. This kid can throw the damn football. He can sling it. Watching him throw is fun. He’s got a big arm. I think Franks has the biggest arm on the team, but Trask has a much better arm, I think probably #2 on the team, probably close to Appleby. I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I stand by saying that I’m worried about the reasons that I said before, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I said early on that I thought Kyle Trask was the guy next year.

Andrew:                 Yeah. We said it, and I’ll say it again. That is that Franks has come a long way. People tell me he’s come the longest out of all the guys, because he was so far behind, but everyone that you speak to says he’s come a long way. He still needs a little bit more seasoning. I think you and I said it at the beginning of the year, and that is think of Kyle Trask as an infant who’s just learning how to walk, who’s just learning how to talk and eat. That’s what he was with football where Nuss and Mac didn’t have to fix bad mistakes. He was still young with the thing, so everything he learned was the first time, and it was new. He was able to go about that. That’s why he’s probably the guy that’s ready to go now.

Nick:                         What, put a percentage on it. Percent chance that Florida starts someone not named Luke Del Rio on Saturday?

Andrew:                 I can’t give it a very high percentage, and that’s not because I don’t believe Mac wants to.

Nick:                         We’ll do this. You and I will both give one each day, each podcast. We’re doing this on Sunday. I’m laying in the yoga room at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. I’m going to put it at 10%. I think Luke Del Rio’s your starter right now, and that will change after we talk to people who are at practice, and we hear what’s going on in practice, but right now having not had any practice, given that you still have the chance to win the SEC, Florida can win the SEC East on Saturday. If Kentucky beats Tennessee, and Florida beats South Carolina, they’re in. I think that is the reason that McElwain will say, I think McElwain might see going to a freshman as kind of being like almost like giving up. Saying like, “We made it eight games in, and it’s not working, and we have to try something different.” So I only put it at 10% as of today.

Andrew:                 See, I was going to say 10% as well, just because I think that it’s that.

Nick:                         I listened to you, and you made such great points.

Andrew:                 You did. You made a great point. I’m don’t doubt that, what you said. I mean, it is a situation where you have to kind of admit defeat a little bit, that it didn’t’ work out, but at the same time I think Mac earns a lot of points in the fan base that he’s willing to try. Now, you can’t lose. That’s just all there is to it. I just think you have to try. I do. I think you have to try. I think you have to see something. Maybe not even so much of, they need a spark, man. They need a spark. I kind of going to reference the Cubs in the World Series here a little bit. The Cubs kind of got that spark with Kyle Schwarber coming back off of the DL, and I think that’s kind of what Florida needs is they need that spark, that energy guy on offense. They have no leader on offense. They have no leader on the offensive line, and what leader they did have was Cam Dillard, and right now we’re taping this at 6:30 Florida time, and we’re still waiting on MRI results. It looks like the worst.

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s Florida not only got a loss, but…

Andrew:                 Who’s your spark, Nick? Who’s your spark on offense? Who is the guy that can look you in the face and say, “Let’s get this thing going?” We make fun of Winston all we wanted in Florida State, and I’m the biggest one to make fun of, but he was that guy that could look at his guys, look them in the eye, get them going, and they would get going and go. Who is that guy for Florida?

Nick:                         Couldn’t tell you. I mean, we talked about it. You told me I couldn’t do it, and I said, “Johnny Townsend’s the offensive MVP.”

Andrew:                 But he’s not, you know what I’m saying. He can’t be your leader. He’s not out there.

Nick:                         No. He’s not even an offensive player. I’m saying that’s what I think of Florida’s offense. The punter is their best player. So that, to me, is my answer to your question. Listen, man, I picked the punter as Florida’s best offensive player, so don’t ask me who the leader is, because there obviously isn’t one.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I mean, I don’t know, boss. I think it’s a sickening loss. I’m not even going to lie about it. It’s one of those losses where, that Tennessee loss was a bad one, because you gave up the game, and you left that game. I said it, and I don’t mind saying it, Florida was the better team in that game, but you walk out of Saturday, and you’re like, man, they just got their ass whooped.

Nick:                         Arkansas won, both lines of scrimmage. They’re able to get these big chunk yard plays. I’m trying to look them up right now.

Andrew:                 I think it was 10. They gave up 10 over 10.

Nick:                         Yeah. 10 over 10. It’s just kind of like, man, where? It was just so like, Florida doesn’t do that. Where are these yards coming from? Why are you giving up 20, here’s their chunk plays. Arkansas, they call it chunk plays, gains of 15, nine. Nine plays over 15 yards. The 43 yard screen to Devwah Whaley. If we’ve gotten to the point, excuse me, passing chunk plays, they had nine passing plays of over 15 yards, and nine running plays of over 10 yards. So that’s 18 plays, 18 explosive plays.

Andrew:                 Here’s my thing for the defense, and that is this. You look at the beginning of the game.

Nick:                         I mean, there were two different points in the first half, and then in the second and 3^rd quarter where Florida had run half of the amount of plays that Arkansas had. Florida’s defense was on the field for almost 40 minutes.

Andrew:                 That’s what I’m saying. The defense was gassed, and then injuries happened. Anzalone goes down with a broken arm. Davis goes out of the game with the ankle sprain. We expect him to play on Senior Day, next Saturday against South Carolina, but he was still out. Kylan ended up going out. He’s supposed to be back, and you have Vosean Joseph, a freshman, that hasn’t played at all at middle linebacker, playing, and he’s the one that gives up the late touchdown, because he fills the raw gap. He didn’t scrape to the A gap, he kind of stayed back on the back side and didn’t fill, and that’s where that was in that. You lost things.

For me, the biggest things defensively were the injuries, the exhaustion, but against a team like Arkansas is key to stay in your zone, or stay in your area. If you’ve got A gap, you need to stay in A gap. If you’re a linebacker, and you’re supposed to fill A gap, you need to stay home and fill A gap. Don’t go, if it looks like a play action, and you’re going to read play action, you better damn sure make sure it’s play action. That was the biggest thing for Florida on Saturday was Jabari and Cece both at the snap of the ball the offensive tackles were letting them fly by them, because guess what? That running back was hitting that gap. They were hitting it right where he was supposed to be filling as a seven technique. He was just hitting it every time. It was play after play after play. They were double teaming Caleb and Ivie, and making them fill the A gap together. Guess what? B gap was wide open. They were scraping the linebackers big time.

The screens, they were allowing Florida’s young defensive line to say, “We got a free pass rush.” Boom, dumping it off. It was the little things of the discipline that you didn’t expect from Florida, and it happened, and then guess what? That bad eye of a second safety that you and I have been waiting to see, it popped up Saturday. They picked on that second safety all night long.

Nick:                         Yeah. Daniel McMillian was getting picked on early. Florida kind of had to go away from that 4-3 and get back into using nickel, because it seemed like Arkansas’ game plan was find 13, and throw the ball at him. Doesn’t matter who’s there, but find 13 and whoever he’s covering. That’s option one.

Andrew:                 It was one of those things where when Daniel McMillian was on the field they were checking to play action, or checking to different things, and that’s exactly what it is. They had a good game plan, and that was that they were going to pick on that. They made Marcell Harris look bad.

Nick:                         They had been doing all right. Harris and Washington have been doing all right. I think Washington more so, but they hadn’t been bad.

Andrew:                 No.

Nick:                         Better than I expected, right?

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         Question for you.

Andrew:                 Okay.

Nick:                         What is the deal with Florida and playing on the road against SEC West teams? 2012, Johnny Manziel, Johnny Football’s first game, you win 20-17. Since then, you lose 17-6 at LSU, 42-21 at Alabama, 35-28 to LSU, and then 31-10 at Arkansas. Outscored 142-85 on the road against West teams.

Andrew:                 I don’t know. I mean, I wish I could let you know that there was some big answer, but you look at the Arkansas trip, that’s a trip that was a little longer, and no clue of why they didn’t come out in that game. You go to Alabama a couple years ago, and you didn’t expect to win that game. Haven’t won at LSU. I don’t know what that one answer is, because Florida’s done okay on the road in the East. It just is, I don’t know. The only common denominator is there’s better teams in the West.

Nick:                         That gap seems to be gigantic. The only win the SEC has is Vanderbilt beat Mississippi State. Florida hasn’t won in Baton Rouge since 2009, last time Tim Tebow was there.

Andrew:                 That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know. I don’t know what that answer is, to be honest with you. I don’t know. It’s got to be fixed though. I think that’s what you start looking at all your options, and go, because you’ve got to show, this is starting to get more about recruiting than it does the season, in that now you’re thinking, “Okay, how do I get recruits excited for this offense that, quite frankly, looks like a JV football team’s offense?”

Nick:                         And losing the game gives you a new game for your last, your biggest recruiting day. What is the impact of that?

Andrew:                 It’s the worst. It’s the worst. You had guys like Devon Hunter. You had guys like Raheem Johnson. You had guys like Elijah Blades, guys that are coming from out of state, Virginia and California, that could have flown out at 9:00 LAX or flown out at 9:00 in Virginia and made it to Gainesville by the afternoon for a 7:00 kick. Now forget it. Those guys can’t come, and, yes, you’ll still get your in state guys, and it’ll be all cool, but if you win against Arkansas you got a chance to win the East. You’re playing Will Muschamp. I guarantee you the Swamp’s—

Nick:                         Playing at 8:00 at night, 7:30. Now you’re going to have a ghost town in the east stands.

Andrew:                 Yeah. The Swamp’s electric, you win, and you win the East. You got a big celebration. The coaches are happy. The players are pumped. Now you win, and you’re like, shit, we’re going to Baton Rouge next week. That’s what it is. I try not to be that person, but is LSU good? No, they’re not good, but it’s at Tiger Stadium, and that place is going to be hectic.

Nick:                         That place, and they just lost to Alabama, but 10-0, probably feel good about a 10-0 loss to Alabama. If Florida makes it to the SEC Championship, and they lose to Alabama 10-0, I’d be shocked.

Andrew:                 Yeah. With Anzalone I wouldn’t have said, I mean, quite frankly, against this defense, and I said this on Saturday and got trashed for saying it, I didn’t see anybody going to do to Florida’s defense what they did. Tennessee worked Florida’s secondary on some missed assignments, that kind of stuff, but Florida on Saturday got out manned, out everything, in that game, and it was bad. It was bad. I mean, it was just they physically got whooped up and down the field.

Nick:                         How do you not let one turn into two? How do you not have division in the locker room? They will say all the right things this week. They said all the right things last week, and then it gets to when we’re talking to guys after the season, when we’re talking to guys in the locker room in Atlanta, how do you get the defense to not think, “To hell with these other guys. To hell with these offensive guys. They’re not pulling their weight.”

Andrew:                 I don’t know if it’s a division though. I don’t know if it’s that. To be honest, I don’t think that there’s the division there. I do think there is something going on with the guys maybe. They don’t looked pumped. They don’t look energetic. They’re just lethargic, and I hate to say that, because there are some guys that are really playing hard, but the energy level is just so bad. It’s embarrassing.

Nick:                         It’s not good.

Andrew:                 No. It’s not good at all. You’re game what? 11, 10? You’re still thinking about that. You’re still looking for an identity. I don’t know.

Nick:                         Shouldn’t be even in consideration, looking for an identity.

Andrew:                 Especially when you were #10 in the country.

Nick:                         They keep saying they found their identity, keep saying they found their identity, that they’re going to run the ball, and that they’re going to be a team that wants to run the ball. Run the ball then, man. Don’t say you’re going to be a team that you want to run the ball. You’re not. You’re throwing it, and you can’t throw it, but you keep trying. I don’t get it.

Andrew:                 Here’s the thing. We’ll get out of here on this point. I go back to this, and it’s Nuss says he has a get it to them guys. Callaway is not getting enough touches. Brandon Powell had one touch in the game. Now, I agree Brandon Powell is not the explosive playmaker everyone wants him to be, but he still has speed. When they were doing what they were doing to you, and putting all those guys in the box on Saturday, see what you got there. You had this supposedly big plan for Dre Massey, Brandon Powell has to be able to do something like that. You have your best two running backs sitting on the bench. What are you doing? That’s me. Get the ball, the easiest offense is to get the ball to your best players. Your best players always make you look better. Some of these offenses aren’t good, but great players can make you look a lot better.

Nick:                         Del Rio said, “Arkansas shaded the free safety over to Antonio Callaway,” and that he had never seen that. It was a unique defensive strategy. Your father is an NFL head coach. You’ve never seen safety help?

Andrew:                 Yeah, see, that’s me. It’s been there all year. My thing is this, and that is we see one stand pass, and Callaway got what? 11.

Nick:                         Maybe the play’s illegal. You can’t keep doing it. Can’t pick up 11 every play.

Andrew:                 You look at Callaway had the second play of the game was the end around, or what we call the sweep, speed sweep. That was gone. You see this stuff, and it’s like where is this stuff? I don’t know. Let’s get out of here, Nick. Tell everyone where they can find us, and we’ll see everybody on Wednesday.

Nick:                         www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there on Gator Country in transcript and audio form. If you never want to miss a podcast, you can subscribe on iTunes. Search @GatorCountry. On Twitter and Facebook it’s @GatorCountry. On Instagram it’s @TheGatorCountry. You can follow me @NickdelaTorre. You can follow him @AndrewSpivey. Actually, @NickdelaTorreGC. @AndrewSpiveyGC. Can’t forget that.

Andrew:                 That’s a big one.

Nick:                         That’s it. It’s a big week. Boom’s back in town. I will be tweeting Will Muschamp gifs all week long.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It’ll be a big recruiting weekend, be a lot of guys in town. If you’re listening to this, and you’re a fan that wants to get better, do your part. Get in the stands. Make the atmosphere alive again. That’s the best way you can do your part is to do that. Mac’s not going anywhere, so you can stop with that. Not showing up doesn’t do anything except for make the university look bad. So do your part, and, as always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Butch, Mark, you suck.

Nick:                         You stay classy, Gator Country.