Gator Country brings you our recap podcast for the Florida Gators football win over Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon in Nashville.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down what happened with the offense on Saturday, plus what can be fixed.
Andrew and Nick also break down the offensive line play, and look back at our picks for players of the week from Friday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, back with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, slug fest, defensive slug fest. That’s what we got on Saturday. I guess you could say it was a typical Florida/Vandy game from say the last 10 years really. You kind of called it. You said that you thought it would be a defensive slug fest. I thought Florida would pull away late. They definitely didn’t. It was ugly.
Nick: That played out exactly how I thought it would play out.
Andrew: It started how I thought it would play out, and I think I said 27-10 would be the final, and I thought that the Appleby fumble at the goal line, that would have been there. I thought Florida would get a couple garbage touchdowns and win, obviously. I think we both thought that Florida’s defense would play really well. They did, and, Nick, that bad feeling I had turned out to be a little accurate, my friend.
Nick: Yeah. I don’t know what it is about Vanderbilt, but it’s just like that game of Florida. For some reason, to me, it made so much sense. Of course, it’s going to be a close, ugly game. I think I said before the year, when we were talking about this week, I said, “Hey, that’s a tough game, because you’re going up to Nashville.” At the time we though Vanderbilt’s defense was good. They’re not. Vanderbilt’s defense is terrible. That’s just a bad football team Florida played yesterday. I said before the year, “That’s a tough week. You’ve got Tennessee. You’ve got LSU, and somewhere sandwiched in there is a game in front of 30,000 people at Vanderbilt. That’s tough to get up and going.” Jalen Tabor said as much. He goes, “I don’t want to say that Vandy got to us, but ya’ll can say that.” Almost like I don’t want to say that we skipped it this week, but that might be what happened.
Andrew: It’s a game, and I’m not making excuses, because we’ll dive into how bad this game was, but we’ll dive into that in a second. Every team, I think, has that team they struggle against. Alabama’s is Mississippi State. It always is. Alabama will struggle against Mississippi State. It doesn’t matter how good, how bad Mississippi State is, they struggle. They always struggle. Auburn’s is Kentucky usually. They just always struggle. It just seems like a team they struggle against. It’s weird the way that is, but it seems like every team has it. I mean, a lot of guys have played in front of more fans in high school than they played in front of Vandy fans on Saturday. They’ve played in bigger stadiums than they were on Saturday.
Nick: There’s no reasoning for it. You can’t point to something and say, that’s why.
Andrew: Right. It just, it is that game. It always is that game. We talked about this off the air that some of the Urban teams, some of the Spurrier teams, they struggled against Vanderbilt, and it just is that way. Now, let’s get into why this team struggled on Saturday. It’s one person.
Nick: Only one?
Andrew: Only one.
Nick: Very interesting.
Andrew: There’s only one.
Nick: Very interesting.
Andrew: It starts with the quarterback play. Nick, I rewatched this game 10 minutes after it stopped.
Nick: There’s not a drop off. Stop. Twitter told me. Twitter told me there’s no drop off. So go ahead.
Andrew: I made the argument with you. Let me say this. I didn’t make the argument for or against. I told you that we needed to wait and see. Right?
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: We see it.
Nick: What did I say?
Andrew: You were totally against it.
Nick: No.
Andrew: I give you 100%. You said it was going to be bad. I watched the game, like I said, 10 minutes after it went off. I rewatched it. I didn’t travel to Nashville. I was lucky enough to be able to watch it again. I rewatched the game again, and the offensive struggles I will put simply on the back of 12. Every struggle on offense I will put on the back of 12, every bit of it. I had people on Twitter say, “You’re being too tough on it. The offensive line play sucked.” Yes. The offensive line play sucked, but the offensive line play has sucked for two years, or the last two years under McElwain at Florida, the last four years under Will Muschamp, and probably the last two years under Urban Meyer. It just sucks.
You have a weakness on the offensive line, and Florida has been able to go against that weakness by being balanced. Against Vanderbilt, Florida was not balanced. Austin Appleby is 19-28 for 144 yards. Nick, you and I, 10 years removed from our playing careers, go out there for more than 144 yards if we complete 19 passes with the athletes Florida has. It is sad the way Austin Appleby did. Receivers running wide open. It was, and, no, Austin Appleby is not as bad as Treon Harris, but it was like Treon Harris was last year where receivers were just running wide open, because the opposing defense didn’t think the quarterback could hit that wide open receiver.
Nick: Yeah.
Andrew: Deandre Goolsby’s still open in the end zone.
Nick: There’s a reason why Austin Appleby lost the quarterback battle. People that we talked to wanted to say it was close. They wanted to say he’s good and say this and that. There’s a reason why he lost the quarterback battle, and there’s a reason why he didn’t play in those first three games until it was garbage time.
Andrew: I’m with you.
Nick: It’s clear. Every player that has said something, or the coaches, good for you, because you were being good teammates. You were being nice to someone on your team, but it’s not close. It never was close. So I was talking to friends last night. They all went to Florida, and they said, “Do you expect Luke Del Rio to come back next week?” I said, “Yeah. I would expect him to be back next week.” “Thank God.” They start talking about it, and I’m like, wait. I didn’t tell you that Tim Tebow is playing quarterback for Florida next week. I feel like fans have built up an unrealistic Luke Del Rio. Like when he comes back next week I feel like they’re expecting him to go 31 for 31, 876 yards, six touchdowns. Luke Del Rio’s an okay quarterback.
Andrew: Right. Luke Del Rio…
Nick: Like you can’t let an Austin Appleby 19 for 28, if Luke Del Rio’s playing we beat Vanderbilt 76-4.
Andrew: No. You don’t beat them 76-4, but you beat them.
Nick: Listen, Luke Del Rio’s okay, and the offense is going to be better with him. It’s a mediocre offense, with or without Luke Del Rio. It’s a mediocre offense.
Andrew: You’re right. The difference between Del Rio and Appleby is very sizeable.
Nick: I agree.
Andrew: I think what fans are saying is the offense will be much better with Del Rio, because it’s balanced. He does hit those open receivers. Let’s face it, he knows how to make a read.
Nick: The offense will be better, but it’s still a middle of the road, middle of the pack, SEC offense. So Del Rio doesn’t come back in next week against LSU and that’s 600 yards of offense. That’s not it.
Andrew: No.
Nick: It’s kind of the same thing that happened last year when Treon was playing. You even fell to this a little bit. Give me Josh Grady. I kept telling you, no. You don’t want that. It can’t get worse, and I’m like, no, no. It gets worse, and then Josh Grady takes two snaps in Orlando, in the final game, and people are like, get this out of here. I’m like, you spent all year telling me that was supposed to be the answer.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: It’s like when something bad happens, or when one backup is playing bad, it’s like you almost forget all of the sins of the other person. You almost forget all of the flaws of the other person. I’m just saying, it just caught me off guard with how excited my friends were last night. I looked at him, and I was like, “Lamar Jackson’s not playing for Florida.” Like what?
Andrew: Let’s go back to Del Rio in this. Del Rio was what we call a game manager. He knew where to go with the ball before the ball was snapped. Okay? Appleby knew where he was going with the ball, not because it was the right route, because it was what he had decided on. Nick, I challenge you to go back and watch the game again.
Nick: Do I have to?
Andrew: Yes. Just watch the offense. The amount of open receivers that were simply just open in the game. You go back, Deandre Goolsby, you and I make that throw, Nick. It is simple. There is nobody within 10 yards of Goolsby. You don’t throw 100 mile an hour fast ball at the guy.
Nick: The one that sticks out to me the most is trying to squeeze a ball into the end zone when you had Callaway for a first down down there on the red zone.
Andrew: Callaway’s jumping up and down, probably pulling off his clothes. Jumping up and down in his birthday suit.
Nick: Hopefully not.
Andrew: I mean, that’s what he was doing. It was like, usually that’s your worst receiver you don’t throw it to, but that’s your dude sitting right in front of you. He could have caught the ball, walked into the end zone or tiptoed into the end zone. It was that bad. There was a few other plays in the game. There was a 3rd down where he threw it to Callaway deep, and he has his back running a wheel route, and nobody’s guarding it. There was another one late in the game where he tried to fit it in to Goolsby deep. Brandon Powell’s running a crossing route, same thing, wide open. It’s just open receivers you have to hit.
I think this kind of goes back to what you said. When you’re not a great offense, you have to take advantage of the plays that you get. That’s what can make you an average offense to a terrible offense, and I think that might be what your friends are saying. The terrible offense is what you see with Appleby. With Del Rio you have an average offense. Let’s face it. There’s a big gap between terrible and average, and then there’s a big gap between average and great. Florida needs to be in that average. They can’t be in that piss poor bottom.
Nick: I just caution fans who are going to say, “Del Rio’s back, everything’s fixed.”
Andrew: Right. Absolutely.
Nick: I’m not trying to bring Del Rio down. Is Del Rio better than Appleby? Yes. I’ve said that since the summer.
Andrew: Those offensive linemen ain’t getting better. I mean, David Sharpe’s not getting better.
Nick: Oh my, David turnstile. David swinging door.
Andrew: Him and Martez Ivey have too many, oh shit, watch out, blocks.
Nick: Goodness. The left side of that line is a mess.
Andrew: David Sharpe, when you told people before the season you were thinking about going pro, you wasn’t talking about the NFL, big boy. I think the thing that bothers me the most with David, and I say this with caution, Nick, because I’m going to say this, and it’s going to come off as harsh when I say this.
Nick: Most of your great sayings, most of your great statements, come after saying, I’m going to say this, but…
Andrew: I think he’s lost interest. I think he’s becoming partial lazy. I don’t what it is, but you look at his mindset. You look at his expressions after getting beat. His shoulders are shrugged. His head is dropped. I don’t know. It’s just different with David. He’s not getting better. Everybody was wondering, how bad is it going to be when he goes to the NFL? I mean, does it get worse with whoever comes in after? If you have to move Jawaan to left tackle next year, is it that bad? He’s bad right now, really bad. Martez cannot handle a bull rush. He is a left tackle, tackle, all day long, who handles the speed rush, not the bull rush.
Nick: Listen, Martez is going to get drafted.
Andrew: David Sharpe’s getting drafted too, but I’m saying…
Nick: They’re going to get drafted.
Andrew: DJ Humphries got drafted.
Nick: Yeah. Arizona’s probably still thinking about that one. It’s not all on the offensive line. I’m down the field yesterday, or on Saturday, and Jim McElwain kind of walked over. The offensive line all sit kind of in chairs that are in a circle, with Mike Summers there, and Jim McElwain kind of just walked over and stood there, right over Mike Summers’ shoulder, and like looked at the guys. It almost looked like looking at them like, that’s not acceptable. Didn’t say a word. It was interesting. Didn’t say anything.
Jim McElwain was just standing there looking at all of his offensive linemen in the face with a look that was like a disappointed dad. It was very interesting to me. Didn’t say anything. Stood there. Looked all of them in the eye. Kind of shook his head, like, you’re not getting it done. I think you know that, and I’m over here not saying anything, but I’m over here to let you know that I understand you’re not getting it done, and that I’m letting you know that you’re not getting the job done, but there’s nobody else. That’s the problem. Florida’s playing their best five.
Andrew: Here’s the thing that’s starting to worry me, Nick. I’m about to go down a road that I swore to myself I wouldn’t go down in the middle of the season.
Nick: What’s that?
Andrew: It’s becoming coaching.
Nick: We can’t blame the coaches.
Andrew: Here’s the thing.
Nick: Everyone on Twitter, Jim McElwain’s been fired two weeks in a row. Everyone’s fired Summers. They fired Nuss yesterday. Give it a rest.
Andrew: Listen to me, Nick. Listen to me. I watched several games yesterday, several. Some shitty games, some good games. There are offensive linemen that are very bad football players who are blocking better than the Gators, Nick. I watched Georgia. Two guys go down, two backups come in. They do okay. I watched LSU. Couple starters are out, backups are in. They’re doing well.
Nick: Dude. LSU did that thing yesterday.
Andrew: When do you start questioning it? Here’s the thing. I am probably the biggest supporter.
Nick: Of?
Andrew: Of coaches. I will 99% of the time always side with them, because I was in that situation. People firing Jim McElwain and firing Doug Nussmeier, they’re about as stupid as all get out. Jim McElwain will do fine at the University of Florida. Remember what he was dealt when he got here. Part of it is last year. He did great last year, set bad expectations for himself this year. Let’s just be honest. When does it become a question of how Mike Summers is developing his offensive linemen that you’re not seeing development in your veterans? You look at Fred. He redshirts. He’s still really bad. Look at Cam. He’s still struggling some. You look at Martez. Still bad. You look at David Sharpe, a third year guy. Bad. You look at all the backups that he has. They’re still bad.
Now, people will say, they’re not good players. You recruited them, and teams are having backups that are bad come in and get the job done. Your guys aren’t getting the job done. I don’t know. Usually an offensive line can do one or two things good, pass block or run block. Usually they struggle with the other. Right now the left side of Florida’s offensive line can’t do either.
Nick: We’re friendly with Max Garcia and Jon Halapio, some of the old offensive linemen. They love Mike Summers though.
Andrew: Alright. Here it is, Nick. You tell me what’s going on. I am fired up now, because now I’m…
Nick: You’re hollering at me.
Andrew: Now I’m hot.
Nick: I’m just saying.
Andrew: No. Tell me. You tell me.
Nick: I’m not saying anything you just said is wrong. I’m just saying the offensive linemen love him. They speak about Mike Summers with reverence. They love him. They say they love his coaching style. So, to me, it’s just like where is the disconnect then?
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. Are we just saying every Florida offensive lineman outside of Jawaan Taylor is shitty? Is that what we’re saying? Because it’s either coaching is not getting better, or Florida has what? 16 offensive linemen, so minus one. 15 offensive linemen that are just downright shitty. It’s one of the two. It is probably somewhere in the middle, sure, but something is going wrong. If I’m Jim McElwain, I don’t know what else to say to those guys either. I mean, it has to be the same message every time. It’s like, what are you doing? You get on the goal line. I’ve coached tight ends. I was with offensive line coaches. One of my best friends is an offensive line coach, and he’ll tell you. In the goal line offensive linemen are just taught to go ahead and whip the guy in front of them’s ass. There’s no assignments. It’s gap football. Go crush the guy in front of you football. That’s it. They fail at that. Fail.
I’m not understanding. I watched football yesterday a lot, and I grew pissed off at the way Florida’s offensive line plays, because I’m sitting her watching my Jaguars play, and they’re playing San Diego State, who is mediocre, but I’m like, how do my Jags block better than the Gators?
Nick: I’ve said it before. It’s kind of like the offensive line is never as bad as you think they are, because when you look at it you’re looking at when do you see the offensive line? If they block well, and the team gets a pass play, the camera moves. You don’t see the offensive line. The only time you’re really seeing the offensive line when you’re watching a game is a sack, something bad happens.
Andrew: Now, go back to that statement. You watch the games with me a lot. Where do I usually watch the game? I mean, what do I usually look at, and what do I always say to you when watching the game?
Nick: You watch the line of scrimmage.
Andrew: Yes. I feel like my arguments are a little different than the majority of people, because I agree with you. Now, a lot of this goes back on Appleby, again. I said a lot of it was on Appleby.
Nick: I just feel like we can’t make him a scapegoat.
Andrew: I’m not. I shouldn’t have said he was the main, the only problem, but in my opinion when you become so one dimensional, as he was on Saturday, you hurt the offensive line, because then they’re pinning their ears back and just coming at your offensive line, and you’re showing their weakness even more.
Nick: I just think that we are, not you, but Florida in general is just saying, this is all because of Austin Appleby, because of the offensive line. This is just Florida. Florida I thought was an eight win football team before the year. I think that’s what they are.
Andrew: I don’t know.
Nick: I’m about to rock your world though. What are they next year?
Andrew: I mean, you hope they improve on offense.
Nick: The defense is gone.
Andrew: You lose nobody on offense.
Nick: The defense is gone.
Andrew: Right. I’m saying to you, you hope your offense is better.
Nick: I don’t know. I have no hope for that.
Andrew: We’re not talking about next year.
Nick: It gets bad. I bring it up, because so what happens if Florida wins eight this year, and then you look at next year, look at that team next year, that might be a seven win football team.
Andrew: We’re not talking next year, Nick. Shut up. I have this little button over here that I can mute you, and if you continue down that stretch we’re muting you. Sorry.
Nick: You shouldn’t mute me.
Andrew: I absolutely will. Let’s talk something that’s really going to get me fired up, running backs.
Nick: My God, stop it. Stop with this rotation. Seven carries for 11 yards. Mark Thompson had seven carries for 11 yards. How do you keep putting somebody in? I asked Jordan Scarlett after the game, “Is the rotation predetermined?”
Andrew: It is.
Nick: He said, “Somewhat, but once we get into the game it’s all very fluid.” I was like, it doesn’t seem that way, because if you’re talking about we’re going to feed the hot hands, Jordan Scarlett was the hot hand yesterday, and he carries the ball 12 times. You ran the ball 35 times.
Andrew: 33.
Nick: 33?
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: Jordan Scarlett was 12 of those. I don’t understand.
Andrew: Okay. Let me ask this, because I am a little biased when it comes to the running back position. I try to refrain from talking about this too much, but I’m going to ask you. Who plays?
Nick: Listen, Jordan Scarlett’s your best running back. That’s it. Lamical Perine was running the ball well. Jordan Cronkrite’s your 3rd down back. Mark Thompson, I’m sorry man, I got three running backs, and one of them’s only playing on 3rd down. Other than that, I’ve got two. That’s our rotation. Perine comes in when Scarlett needs some Gatorade.
Andrew: I’m the same as you are, and I wanted someone else to say this before I did, because I guess I am a little favoritism here. Whatever. I’m sick of watching Mark Thompson tiptoe his ass to the hole. Dude, you’re 240 pounds. I mean, good grief. He reminds me of a center in basketball who decides he wants to shoot the jumper instead of take it to the rim. Bro, you’re 240 pounds. Lower your damn shoulder, get some pad level, and go, big dog. Go. You can’t read a hole, so you might as well just go. 1.6 yards per carry for a 240 pound back flat out sucks. Flat out sucks.
Now, Jordan Cronkrite, stop giving him the ball to run. He ain’t a running back. He’s a receiver, slot receiver, who is too small to play receiver. So he’s at tailback. Just throw him the ball. That’s it. Don’t give him the ball. I’m so sick of watching him tiptoe. I mean, just I don’t know. I’m watching this game, and I’ll admit, my Twitter was lit yesterday. I’m calling people out left and right.
Nick: You were in rare form yesterday.
Andrew: Rare form or always form?
Nick: Florida keeps playing like this it becomes your normal form.
Andrew: Yeah. I just am sick of watching 32 and 24 run the route. Period. End of discussion. I’m so sick of watching it. Now, I will say this, Nick. Brandon Powell had one carry, and it was a loss, but I like seeing them get the ball to him.
Nick: No. Stop that.
Andrew: No. You stop that. I called for wanting to see the playmakers get the ball. They tried. It was a shitty blocked play, poorly executed play, but I liked seeing them try to get the playmakers the ball.
Nick: How is that, the blocking wasn’t great, but how is he ever a running back? He doesn’t have the vision to be a running back.
Andrew: Everybody is running back and quarterback in high school. Everybody.
Nick: They can go ahead and retire that play. Please.
Andrew: I liked it. Needs to be blocked better.
Nick: For me, the running backs, I guess yesterday they go kind of hot hand and run Scarlett more in the 4th quarter, but you had one touchdown drive. Scarlett scores. 28 of the 53 yards you had on your touchdown drive come from him on just two carries. Then you go 21 offensive plays without getting him the ball again.
Andrew: I agree.
Nick: He didn’t touch the field in the 3rd quarter.
Andrew: I agree. Here’s the next thing I’m going to say. So we talk about Perine getting the next carries. He goes 9, 5, 4, and then he’s off the field for an entire quarter.
Nick: 9, 5, 4, that’s my home area code.
Andrew: You know what I’m saying? He hits a 9 yard little zone play to the left. Hits a 5 yard zone play to the right. Hits a 4 yard play up the middle.
Nick: Out. You’re out.
Andrew: He doesn’t get tripped up he probably houses the thing, and then he’s out. He’s out.
Nick: I need to see Lamical start breaking some tackles.
Andrew: I am with you.
Nick: It’s just with everyone not named Jordan Scarlett the first defensive player that makes contact is making the tackle. There’s no broken tackles from any of them.
Andrew: Right. Here’s the thing. Outside of Perine and Scarlett none of them know how to hit a hole. Don’t know how to read a hole.
Nick: I have a stat. We’ll get off this. We’re just ranting now.
Andrew: Hold on a second. I want to say this. That is, if there was something negative in the game for Perine and Scarlett it was they both had really bad days blocking. Both of them got pushed around a little bit blocking.
Nick: Let me see.
Andrew: Go ahead with your stat.
Nick: Through five games, Florida has 14 points combined in the 3rd quarter.
Andrew: I’m glad you brought that up.
Nick: That goes back to your coaching.
Andrew: Yeah. It bring me to something. I’m glad you said that. I wanted to get onto this and just didn’t really know how to towards the conversation this way. Mac keeps saying this team lacks toughness, and they’re not coming out focused. Damn, what the hell does it need? What does it take to come out focused, come out ready, come out with some damn intensity, and come out tough? I’m just so tired of seeing it, Nick. I’m tired of seeing it. I’m tired of seeing the guys walk to the line of scrimmage. It just is getting frustrating. It’s like at least be tough. If there’s one thing in football you can ask it’s to be tough. When you’re not tough, you don’t have intensity, quite frankly you’re setting yourself up to fail, and the last 12 games they haven’t been. They’ve been failing.
Nick: Who is that on?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Nick: Everyone blames coaches, and I get it, but at some point you just have to look at the players and say, “That’s on you, man.”
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying.
Nick: It’s not always the coach’s fault. At some point you have to look at the player and say, “What are you doing? You’ve been told the right things. The coaches are doing what they’re supposed to do. What are you doing?” At some point you have to look at the players and say, “That’s on you.”
Andrew: It’s gut check time. I mean, it’s like you can do everything you’re supposed to do as a coach and have your guys ready, but if they don’t execute, they don’t play hard, they don’t do this, what else are you supposed to do? That’s the thing that I tell these people that are Mac and Nuss. It’s like, Mac has called his team out every which way possible, and they’re still not doing it. For me, a lot of teams if you call them out for not being tough the next game they’re going to come out and whoop your ass. If you’d have told Brandon Spikes he wasn’t tough, guess what? Next sneak you’re probably looking at him going to the locker room, because he beat the shit out of somebody, because you called him not tough.
Nick: Who’s that guy? Who’s that guy for Florida?
Andrew: Jarrad Davis.
Nick: It hasn’t been though.
Andrew: You look at him, he had 15 tackles yesterday. He led the team. Now, here’s my thing.
Nick: What I’m saying is, who is that Brandon Spikes guy who has enough respect in the locker room to do stuff like that? To take a stand and say, “You’re not getting the job done.”
Andrew: It’s Jarrad, but Jarrad’s not that kind of guy.
Nick: So Florida’s missing that person in the locker room.
Andrew: In my opinion, yes. There is nobody on offense. I love Antonio Callaway to death, but Antonio Callaway is not that kind of guy. David Sharpe, shit. If David Sharpe tells me to get tough I’m going to look at him and say, “Dude, when you start blocking somebody I’ll let you know. I’ll do the same thing as you are.” So there’s nobody on offense. Quincy is not that kind of guy. Jalen Tabor, he just wants to talk shit. There is nobody. You lost that guy last year in Jon Bullard, Keanu Neal.
Nick: Yeah. Maybe they need that, maybe they don’t. That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying they’ve had that in the past. It’s a leader thing, but it takes a certain kind of person to be able to make a stand, call somebody soft, say, “You’re being soft.” It takes a person type of person to be able to do that, call a teammate out, but what I’m saying is what it takes a certain kind of person to have that respect, so that it doesn’t instantly start a fight. Just to have enough respect in the locker room where you say that, and the person looks at you and is like, “Damn, if he’s saying it it’s probably right.”
Andrew: Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. Have a team meeting and do it that way, because, for me, it’s a lack of that leadership. There is no leadership on offense right now. I think Del Rio’s a leader. He’s not a vocal leader, but he’s a leader. So when he’s not in the game there is no leadership. You’re just missing it. That’s why I can’t blame Mac for it. It’s not a Mac thing. Mac can’t go play the game for these guys. Nick, I just told you last week. It’s just there’s a weird feeling around this team, and it’s still there. It’s a weird feeling like something’s missing. Not from a Xs and Os standpoint or playing standpoint, just feels like something’s missing.
I don’t want to say it feels like the team has given up, because they haven’t, or they wouldn’t have played like they did. They wouldn’t have played as hard, and the defense wouldn’t have, but it just feels like something’s missing. You don’t play flat every freaking game. Same thing with Tennessee. If I’m Tennessee I am pissed off because of the way I played in the first half. Florida has that in the second half.
Nick: I don’t know. You’re looking at an LSU team that did whatever they wanted to do against Missouri last week.
Andrew: You go into this LSU game playing like you did against Vanderbilt, you’re getting your ass whooped.
Nick: It’ll be a long day if you show up like that.
Andrew: Ed Orgeron will walk out there and kick everybody’s ass on that LSU team, they walk out flat.
Nick: So I bring up LSU, what’s going on with Florida’s run defense?
Andrew: Here’s the thing, and this is what’s starting to concern me. Florida’s getting a little beat up, definitely.
Nick: Defensive line is taking some hits.
Andrew: I’m beginning to feel like they’re just slap wore out. When you’re going 3 and out and turning it back to a Vanderbilt team, and let’s just call it like it is. Vanderbilt’s not good, but Ralph Webb is a decent running back that if you don’t tackle him he will run over you.
Nick: That’s a bad football team.
Andrew: Right, but what I’m saying is Ralph Webb is their bright spot.
Nick: He’s a very good running back.
Andrew: If you don’t tackle him, he will run over you, but I cannot blame the defense. 265 yards of total offense, six points. Take that every day.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: Take that every day. You win 99% of every football game you go in and play if you give up six points.
Nick: Back to back weeks you give up 3.8 per carry, 179 yards to Tennessee. 144 to Vanderbilt.
Andrew: Now, stop.
Nick: This is what I’m getting at, because Joey Ivie’s out, Caleb Brantley misses some time last week against Vanderbilt, is there something to be concerned about when you have LSU coming in? LSU didn’t have Leonard Fournette yesterday.
Andrew: Sure. Now, here’s the thing. I think there is some concern, but tell me this, Nick. Majority of the Tennessee rushing yards came when?
Nick: All of them came in the second half.
Andrew: Okay. Vanderbilt, second half. Last six quarters, what does the defense have in common with something else?
Nick: You got to give me a little more than that.
Andrew: Offense, 3 and out, 3 and out.
Nick: I’m still not worried about Florida’s defense, but LSU runs for 418 yards and six rushing touchdowns against Missouri without Leonard Fournette. I’m worried about, so even if we say, “It goes back to the offense going 3 and out, and the defense gets tired.” Is the offense going to do that?
Andrew: Here’s the thing. The depth of the defensive line is bad right now. Inside there they are banged up. Banged up bad. So, yes, there is some concern there for me in that. I will say this. I want to see this LSU team next week. This week was easy to get up. It was at home. Orgeron’s first game. We’ll see how it is next week. Nick, we got about five minutes here. Let’s move on to a couple things. Got some housecleaning to do. Your pick of Jordan Scarlett, you get a win.
Nick: Always.
Andrew: Your pick of Tyrie Cleveland, negative. Loss.
Nick: They did get him involved more.
Andrew: He got two catches.
Nick: Which is more than all year.
Andrew: Still loss. Quincy Wilson got a pick. You got a win.
Nick: Quincy did not get a pick.
Andrew: No, he didn’t get a pick. So, wait, so do you get a win for Quincy?
Nick: He had his first career sack.
Andrew: That’s right. Sack, not a pick. What was I thinking? Let’s see, Quincy. No, you’re not getting a win. Three tackles and a sack, no. Loss. Sorry.
Nick: Why did I just do that to myself?
Andrew: I’m sitting here thinking of the sack. I was about to say. No, you got a loss. One of three. I went with my first pick was Antonio Callaway. He didn’t get much in. They didn’t involve him very much in the game. If Austin Appleby throws him the ball I probably get a win, but he didn’t. So I get a loss. My next pick was Jarrad Davis. Nick, I don’t think you can honestly give me a loss for that.
Nick: 15 tackles, 9 solo.
Andrew: He will probably be SEC Player of the Week on defense.
Nick: Could be.
Andrew: 15 tackles, three pass breakups. That’s a win.
Nick: Caused the interception at the end, the one that Nick Washington came down with.
Andrew: Now, Deandre Goolsby, I had him. He led the team in catches with eight, had four 1st downs. Nick, I can’t take a win.
Nick: You don’t feel good about his eight catches.
Andrew: No. I’m still wondering why he can’t break a damn tackle.
Nick: He posts yesterday on Instagram a picture with him and C’yontai Lewis, and it said, “Pick your poison.” I looked at it like, “What do you mean? I’ll take both. Neither of you are really doing anything. What do you mean, pick your poison?”
Andrew: Get the hell out of here. So we’re both one of three. Nick, LSU week coming up. We’re going to turn this table. We’re going to get positive here. We’re going to get positive. We’re going to turn a page. We’re going to get positive on Wednesday. Nick, a ton of recruiting coming in. For me, that makes me happy.
Nick: Big week.
Andrew: Big week for that. Should be good. SEC Network is coming in for their little SEC Game Day thing. So that means the legend, the Goat, Tim Tebow, will be in town. Marcus Spears will be in town. The lovely Laura Rutledge will be in town as well. Big week coming up. Anything else? Basketball Media Days are Thursday. That’s something to game plan around. We’ll have plenty of coverage from that as well.
Nick: David Bowie with the photo gallery for that. They always take care of us at basketball Media Days, so that’s always a good photo gallery that we get out of that.
Andrew: Usually get those fire photos. Wasn’t it flames a couple years ago or last year? Where he did something like flame basketball or something like that?
Nick: He does a background. We want to, we have not gotten the okay. David has this material, or this liquid that you light on fire, and he uses it to take pictures. You light it on fire, and it won’t like burn the basketball. It’s like just the liquid would burn. It wouldn’t burn the basketball, but they don’t trust us with fire.
Andrew: Probably not. I want to keep Gator Country around, and I don’t know if we got enough insurance policy for all that. Our luck Kevaughn Allen would burn his hand or some trash.
Nick: We’ll be back. We’ll have Ross Dellinger joining us to preview LSU this week. So, as always, you can find all that stuff, everything you need about Florida Gators. It will be on www.GatorCountry.com. On Twitter, @GatorCountry. On Facebook, @GatorCountry. On Instagram, @TheGatorCountry. iTunes, search Gator Country. Find us there. Subscribe. Never miss a podcast. Also, it’s on the website. You can follow me, @NickdelaTorreGC. Follow him, @AndrewSpiveyGC. That’s all I have.
Andrew: Follow me with care. Follow me with care lately. If you’re coming into town, I know a lot of people said they’re coming in, hit Nick and I up. We’re at Gator Walk, all that kind of stuff. Love to meet you guys. Anything else going on will be cool. We appreciate it. See you guys on Wednesday. Check on Monday, should have visitors list up, some recruiting news up. Like I said, Thursday is basketball Media Days. So we’ll have some cool stuff on that as well. As always, chomp, chomp and go Braves.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.
Putting this all or even mostly on Appleby is ridiculous.
So who do you put this on?