Gator Country brings you are Monday podcast to recap the Florida Gators 24-7 win over UMass on Saturday night in the Swamp.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the game and what went right and what went wrong for the Gators, plus we talk about how the Gators can improve in week two.
Andrew and Nick look at their three players that they predicted to well, plus look ahead to the week against Kentucky this Saturday afternoon.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? We’re here. Game is over. First game is in the book. Nicholas, we can officially say the 2016 football season is underway. As bad as it looked on the first weekend for everyone, except for Alabama and maybe Houston, the season’s underway.
Nick:I wonder if Lane Kiffin offered to give Coach Helton a ride to the airport after that beat down Alabama put on USC. Alabama looked fantastic. The rest of the SEC looked like straight hot garbage.
Andrew:Well, except for Georgia. I hate Georgia.
Nick:Listen, Georgia’s not going to make it long running Nick Chubb 32 times a game.
Andrew:Oh no.
Nick:They need to get Sony Michel back, because Nick Chubb you’re asking for trouble running him 32 times a game.
Andrew:Yeah. You’re right. No, I mean they didn’t look great, but I’ll say this. They looked a heck of a lot better than I expected them to. Here’s the thing. I don’t think highly of North Carolina, but I think they’re a decent team. Here’s the thing for me, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think the University of Alabama would play a dual threat freshman quarterback in Game 1 of a season.
Nick:I thought after one play that it was probably going to be done too.
Andrew:Yeah. There you go. I don’t know.
Nick:Maybe not the first play, but, no, it was the first play. That botched snap and turnover.
Andrew:Yeah. His first play. Blake Barnett actually got the start, and I expected Barnett to be good, but here’s the thing, and we can talk more about this. The Gators won 24-7. It was ugly. It was boring football. We’ll get into my points with that in just a second. Tennessee, my boys up in Knoxville, they sucked ass like we all knew they were. Well, like the people who have common sense know what was going on. Then, Nicholas, what was the biggest upset of the weekend, my friend?
Nick:South in your mouth.
Andrew:Yes, sir. My boys in South Alabama, you guys maybe not know this. I had the opportunity, I was a G there the first of the year. I was under Coach Jones. Those are great people. That’s my school, and yesterday started off great for me. I’m sitting here thinking, my boys at South Alabama pull out the W, the Gators are going to hang 70. Tennessee sucks. This is going to be a fire ass podcast. Well, that didn’t really happen, the 70 part, but it’s always great. Dan Mullen, that lateral move, come to South Alabama, because you ain’t wanted.
Nick:We said it. You and I both said it. It was two years ago I think when Mississippi State, it was the first time they’d ever gotten to #1 in the country.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Dan Mullen should have taken the money and run, gone somewhere else. They are in for a long season. I can’t believe Vandy let us down.
Andrew:Oh my God.
Nick:Letting the fighting Will Muschamps get back into that game.
Andrew:And he has a kicker.
Nick:That helps.
Andrew:We’ll say that was Steve Spurrier’s kicker. We all know Willy doesn’t know how to recruit no kicker.
Nick:Yeah. Six SEC teams lost a game on opening week, first time since 1995. The SEC just straight up took it on the chin, and even Florida doesn’t lose, so they’re not part of that stat, but they didn’t look good. This is a UMass team that’s bad. Bad UMass team. They gave up 62 to Bowling Green last year. Bowling Green lost 77-10 on Saturday.
Andrew:Arkansas doesn’t look against LA Tech. Kentucky loses to Southern Miss. I’ll say this about Southern Miss though.
Nick:Kentucky got whooped. They gave up 44.
Andrew:What was it, 35 unanswered?
Nick:Yeah.
Andrew:Here’s the thing I’ll say about, and this is no excuse for Kentucky losing, but that Southern Miss team can score some points. They’re very high powered offense there. Here’s the thing with Florida. Their defense looked incredible, except for the one series. We knew that was going to be what it is, that they were going to look really good. The offense looked bad. We’ll talk about that more in depth here in a second. LSU, Nick. I believe I’m the one that said they were going to suck this year, and you said they were ranked properly.
Nick:LSU is a very good and deep football team. LSU doesn’t have a quarterback. That last interception, what are you doing? You threw the ball directly to a person in red.
Andrew:Yes. Here’s my thing.
Nick:But I did say that. LSU has probably the best or top 2 running back in the country in Leonard Fournette. I think it’s between him and Dalvin Cook, in my opinion. Guice behind him is great. They have a good offensive line.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Great defense. It’s just you need, you’re handing the keys to a Lamborghini to Brandon Harris, and you’re saying, hey son…
Andrew:Don’t lose the game.
Nick:Please don’t crash this expensive car.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Brandon Harris veered off the road yesterday doing 100 and crashed the Lamborghini. You just got to get out of the way.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Like in Friday Night Lights, if you want to win, let Booby spin. You just need to exist in the couple seconds it takes for you to take the hand off and give the ball to Fournette and Guice, and you can’t throw the ball directly at defensive backs.
Andrew:It’s the same thing.
Nick:You were already in field goal range. You’re down two points. You’re in field goal range. You scramble away from pressure, and then immediately like turn up field and throw. Throw the ball away.
Andrew:Yeah. I mean, it’s almost…
Nick:LSU is a good football team. I’m not backing down from that. I don’t know what people thought. All the stories yesterday were it’s the same archaic offense. Yeah, man, that’s what LSU does. Why did you think Brandon Harris was going to be something different? That’s what he was.
Andrew:It’s the same damn OC there.
Nick:Don’t get me started on Cam Cameron.
Andrew:You know what I’m saying.
Nick:I’m a Dolphin fan. We don’t have any love for Cam Cameron, but yes, same OC.
Andrew:They lose three games this year. Now to Tennessee. What the hell was that that they put on the show? First off, here’s the deal. Let me just go ahead and wrap this up for you. Whoever, my boy Barrett, 3,000 and 1,000 for Josh Dobbs, get out of here. Josh still looking for anything that can get right out there. He’s as bad as Brandon Harris, maybe even worse. Offensive line, that looked like Florida’s offensive line under Will Muschamp. Defensive line, oh my God, I’ve seen high school defensive lines look better than that. Defensively, atrocious. Offensively, atrocious. That’s a shitty App State football team too. Watched them in person last year. Watched them again. Nothing but triple option, and you couldn’t beat them. That’s a shitty thing. If that doesn’t prove overhype for Tennessee, don’t know what it is.
Nick:That App State team is better than UMass.
Andrew:I mean, I would say yes, but then again it’s kind of like I told someone on Twitter last night. You asked us to talk about UMass.
Nick:I’m just being argumentative. I hate that transitive property of we beat so-and-so, and they beat so-and-so, who beat so-and-so, who beat Jane, and that’s why we’re better than you. I don’t like that stuff. I was just being…
Andrew:You know what I’m saying? Someone asked me, is UMass better? Maybe. I don’t know. Talk to me in Week 14, after the season, after I’ve been able to see them through the whole season. I can’t tell you if they’re better. Did they look better on Saturday night? Sure. That was against Florida. When they go play, I don’t even know what conference they’re in, whatever conference they’re in, when they go play a conference game.
Nick:Who?
Andrew:UMass.
Nick:UMass was so bad, so bad, the last six years, 8-40, that they did not get invited back to the MAC.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:The MidAmerican Conference. They didn’t necessarily get kicked out. UMass will get angry at you if you say they got kicked out, but they weren’t invited back to the MAC.
Andrew:Right. That’s what I’m saying. Whoever it was, you can’t say were they better, because I mean, did they look better on Saturday? Sure. But I don’t know, they could have been playing up. So you can’t answer that question after Week 1. You just can’t. Florida hangs 80 on the board last night, does that mean Florida’s so much better? Maybe.
Nick:No, but that’s what you should do.
Andrew:Right. What I’m saying is it’s a situation where no matter what happens in Week 1 it is Week 1.
Nick:Yeah. I said, last year huge opening week, temporary expectations. It’s New Mexico State. Maybe the same. Maybe I’m not giving it the same treatment, because the opposite happened. Like you said, it’s only Week 1. To me, I’m very discouraged by what I saw, with some caveats, because I know that there were some guys missing that I expect to be contributors down the road.
Andrew:Here’s my thing, and this is what I’ll say with that. We’re talking about it now. We’re in this segment. Let’s talk about it. My thing with this is this. The defense looked spectacular, in my opinion. Outside of the one series where they just decided they were going to have brain farts all day long, they looked good. I thought that the defense missing Tabor, having Anzalone come back for the first time, and then losing Dawson in the game, I thought the defense still looked pretty good. You’re going to talk about Chris Williamson here in a second, but there was guys that contributed.
They did throw at Quincy Wilson. We knew that was going to happen when Tabor wasn’t there. Jabari plays really well, breakout party. Two sacks in the game. Joey Ivie has a good game. Brantley has a good game. Our guy, Keivonnis Davis, who we told everyone is just a gamer. He’s just going go out and make plays in the game. He’s not going to do anything spectacular. He has a good game. Bryan Cox has a good game. Jarrad Davis and Anzalone both did what we expected them to do there. Nick Washington and Marcell, we’re not talking about them, so that’s a good thing. One thing that I will say is this. Cece was lost. Never seen Cece, and that was the thing that I worried about with him moving inside.
Nick:Yeah. People kept asking me constantly. I got all day, where’s Cece? Is Cece out there? Where’s Cece? I’m saying, listen 96 is playing. Like I don’t what you’re looking at or what game you’re watching, but you can see 96 is out there, but it’s like you said, kind of got lost. Didn’t do much. To me the big thing is, how many times have I said it, Andrew? There’s three cornerbacks. Last night one of them was suspended, not playing. The other one got hurt on the second drive of the game. Quincy Wilson could have looked at the receiver he lined up against before every play and said, “Hey, buddy, do you want to like sit down, because they’re not throwing you the ball. You see 14 over there? That’s where they’re throwing.”
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Chris Williamson got picked on. The drop off from those three, and I think Joseph Putu played well.
Andrew:Chauncey played well.
Nick:I think they played well, but even that, even with Putu playing well, even with Chauncey playing well, they’re not playing at that level. They’re not a Tabor and a Dawson and a Wilson level.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Chris Williamson looked like he was in the wrong jersey last night. He could have been playing in white, and you would have said, that makes sense.
Andrew:Let me ask you this though, and this is a serious question. When Putu and Chauncey were on the field, you didn’t see the big play.
Nick:You should never see the big play in that game.
Andrew:What I’m saying though is this, and this goes to whoever it is. Williamson was getting beat. Chauncey, Putu was doing their job. Chauncey had a play that should have had the pick, but he didn’t in the game. That was just there. I do want to talk about this one play though. The crossing route in the 4th quarter where homeboy’s coming across, and he sees Quincy, and he decides he’s going to have a seat. No part does he want of Quincy.
Nick:No. Listen, he wanted no part of that action, boss. Wanted no part of that action. It didn’t save time. It didn’t do anything, because he went down. It was a 1st down, so the clock stops anyway. He just wanted no part of that action, boss.
Andrew:He saw 6 coming and decided to get it. It’s one of those, if you could have had a Go Pro on Quincy to see his eyes, and to me it kind of looked like he had a smirk on his face, kind of like, you’re scared of me, bro. It was just one of those plays.
Nick:I think he stood over him and was like, really?
Andrew:Really?
Nick:Really?
Andrew:Really, dude? Really? Mouth of the South, Chauncey Gardner, got some talking in.
Nick:As he always will, but I think…
Andrew:Hold on, I want to say this as well. Credit to some of the freshmen that got in. Moon got into play.
Nick:11 true freshmen played yesterday.
Andrew:But we’re just kind of talking defense here, with Jeremiah Moon getting in he had a couple good plays, but you can’t say it enough. Jabari stepping up and showing what we all thought he would be was there.
Nick:Who’s that?
Andrew:Jabari.
Nick:Jabari…?
Andrew:I don’t know how to say his last name, and I don’t want to mess it up. No. I just don’t. I want to just call him Jabari, and that’s it. Jabari, everybody knows who I’m talking about. Jabari, the defensive end, #92, had a really good game. For me this, the pressure was there all night long for Florida. There was no chance whatsoever. Caleb got called for one off sides, and I think the ref just threw the off sides because he felt there was no way he got the jump, but he absolutely did. Another time, Alex Anzalone looked like he had been shot out of a pocket rocket, and patted the ball in the quarterback’s hands before he barely got the ball.
Nick:His timing on blitzes last night was very impressive.
Andrew:All night long. Go ahead. I know you had something you wanted to say on the defense. Go ahead.
Nick:Yeah. So the defense, I think you’re going to get back Jalen Tabor. Duke Dawson, I learned last night, put it on our message board, so if you are on Gator Country you knew about it on Saturday night, just a stinger for Duke. He’s gone through that before. It’s kind of like a pinched nerve. Common in football. He’ll be fine. He’s expected back against Kentucky on Saturday. If those three are healthy, the secondary will be fine. I think Nick Washington played okay. I would like to see a little bit more Jawaan Taylor, in my opinion.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:I think Marcus Maye played fine.
Andrew:Didn’t think much of Marcell.
Nick:He was on the field a bunch, but yeah, no.
Andrew:So that’s there. Let’s go to the offense. First off, Dre Massey, we’re taping this at 2:10 on Sunday, reports are out that he tore something in his knee and will miss the rest of the season. He can redshirt. He had three years remaining, two of which were playing and one redshirt, so he can redshirt. We haven’t heard if it’s torn ACL or what. It most likely is if he’s out for the season. Killer blow.
Nick:Yeah. I mean, you look at the offense yesterday, and I don’t care if you want to say that it was a vanilla game plan, or what have you, Florida needs playmakers. This dink and dunk offense maybe that’s all you can do.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Because of what the offensive line’s giving you, but it’s not, there’s not, Josh Hammond’s not making somebody miss when he gets that screen pass. Freddie Swain made some nice catches. There was one, I think, where he got his arms under the ball in a low throw. That’s impressive, but Dre Massey is just a guy that in three phases of the game, on punt return, kick return, and also as a receiver, maybe even being able to throw the ball. He was a high school quarterback. Huge loss for Florida from a playmaker standpoint, and I don’t really know if you have a way to replace that.
Andrew:Right. Here’s the thing for me, and let’s talk dink and dunk offense first. I think that, so I don’t, that was shitty. Like I don’t know what you call that offense, but part of me is just wondering, and you’ll never get Mac, or you’ll never get Nuss, you’ll never get any of those guys to admit, but I just wonder if they decided we’re going to let Del Rio get comfortable against UMass. We know we can run the ball, so we’re going to throw the ball a lot. No way in hell do you see that offense against Tennessee not running the ball. You just don’t. That’s not a McElwain offense, not a Nuss offense. So part of me wonders if that was there, if they just decided they were going to save the running game, try to get Del Rio there. I have no clue what Del Rio was doing, why he was checking down all the time, but that was bad. Could have threw the curl route to death.
Josh Hammond stepped up and is going to be something special. Freddie Swain also had a pretty good game there as well. Brandon Powell is back. If he can just stay healthy, he’s back. Callaway is who he is. Didn’t see Goolsby make any plays, and, of course, C’yontai wasn’t there. That’s two things you got to think that will come back into your offense against Kentucky, or you would hope at least some.
Nick:Well, the wheel route is what opened up the first touchdown.
Andrew:Yes.
Nick:Because the wheel route is undefeated.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Even when the wheel route gets covered, it opens up a touchdown for somebody else. That’s how good the wheel route is.
Andrew:Here’s the thing, and so people are harsh on Del Rio, and I get it. He’s the quarterback.
Nick:You know why they’re harsh? Because people aren’t listening to us. They expected him to come out and be Dan Marino, and we’ve been telling people since last year that’s not what he is. What you saw last night is what Luke Del Rio is going to give you. He’s a serviceable quarterback.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:He’s an above average quarterback.
Andrew:He’s not going to mistakes.
Nick:Listen, the above average quarterback will make a mistake, a game changing mistake, every once in a while.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:But not like last year where Treon Harris would give you one of those a quarter, two of those a quarter.
Andrew:You look at Alabama’s last two national championship quarterbacks, McElroy, Jake Coker. Both were average quarterbacks. That’s what they were.
Nick:People last night are roasting Del Rio.
Andrew:He’s 29 of 44, 256.
Nick:Two touchdowns. No interceptions. He’s throwing the ball away. I loved his pocket presence. He was able to sense when Fred Johnson and some of the other offensive linemen were giving him lookout blocks, was able to sense that pressure, move up in the pocket, escape the pocket.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:Check down. Hit his safety, or throw the ball away.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:People forget that no Gator quarterback threw the ball away last year.
Andrew:Here’s the thing for me. You look at the 29 of 44. Three passes to Mark Thompson dropped. Two to Callaway dropped. One to Hammond dropped. That’s six right there that I know off the top of my head. You have four or five that he threw away as well. He didn’t do a bad job. If the running backs at the University of Florida don’t start catching the football, they need to stop throwing to them. Mark Thompson can be as great of a runner as he wants to, but was awful at catching the ball, and that’s just inexcusable. Drops a touchdown in the 2nd quarter. Drops a touchdown. Florida goes on to get 0 points in that, because he drops it, and you see people making excuses. It was a little behind him. He’s a running back out of the flats. The ball is not going to be put right on his spot. He’s running.
Nick:As a quarterback you’re taught to know who you’re throwing to.
Andrew:Right. That’s what I’m saying, but Mark turns around, and the ball’s there. It hits him in the hands. Catch the ball. This is another thing. Someone, and I won’t name names, you guys know who I’m talking about when I say this. Calling out Jordan Scarlett for blocks. Stupid. You’re stupid. I’ll say it. You’re stupid. Tweet them. I don’t care. It’s stupid. Jordan Scarlett played a near perfect game. No missed blocks on Jordan’s part. Now, might have been some oh shit blocks from Fred Johnson where Jordan tried to chip him off, but that wasn’t on Jordan. Mark, he missed some blocks. My guy, Perine, fumbled the ball. No excuses for that. That was a bad play there.
Nick:I want to make a note of how highly you’re talking about Jordan Scarlett right now, and we’ll revisit that in a little bit.
Andrew:Here’s the thing, and this is something, Nick, you and I know, we talk about this here. I had someone tweet at me last night saying, “You lied to me about Scarlett.” No we did not. If you listen to us weekly, we give you weekly reports. Heading into the first scrimmage Jordan Scarlett was running with the threes. He was. He had a really good scrimmage. He started being a consistent football player. Consistent football playing makes you there. There’s no questioning Jordan Scarlett’s talent. He’s always been talented. He was talented when he came out of St. Thomas. The difference was his work ethic and consistency every day. He started doing that. Look what happens. 70 yards on 13 carries. Does okay. Has a catch for 8 yards. Leads the team. Probably is your starting running back next week. Good for it. Don’t call us out for something that happened three weeks ago. Three weeks ago we weren’t talking about Antonio Callaway playing. He did. So are you telling me I lied to you because we told you three weeks ago he wasn’t cleared to play?
Nick:No lies.
Andrew:You know what I’m saying? You know how I get, Nick. I don’t appreciate someone calling us out for shit when it’s like…
Nick:Was it an egg?
Andrew:No it wasn’t.
Nick:Okay. Don’t respond to eggs.
Andrew:I was our boy, Row, and I have no problem calling him out, because I called him out on Twitter when I replied. It is what it is. It’s kind of, I’m not going to lie, it’s a pot shot. I mean, that’s exactly what I call it, one of those not tag you kind of say it, and it’s kind of like, okay, cool. Cool pot shot there, bud.
Nick:Will Row was subtweeting you?
Andrew:Yeah. Pot shot. It’s a pot shot, that’s what I call it. It’s what I call middle school shit. Whatever. He had a good game. I’m there. I give the man props when he deserves props. He looked really good. He’s looked really good the last two weeks. Now, here we go, the guy that I’m not high on. What the hell are you doing, Fred Johnson? Did you take over the 51 jersey of Antonio Riles? Because that’s what it looked like on Saturday. What were you doing sometimes? He was making that UMass defensive end look like JJ Watt. I mean, the guy was roasting him all game long. When Jawaan Taylor comes in, and I’m very high on Jawaan Taylor, but when he comes in Florida’s running behind him, and he’s mauling human beings, pushing them and driving them out of the way. Coach, make the call. Play the freshman. It can’t be worse than Fred. Sharpe, at times he had a few mistakes. Ivey I’m sure had a few mistakes. Cam had a few mistakes. Jordan had a few mistakes. They weren’t catastrophic. Fred literally killed, I would say, 10% of the offensive plays, because he was that bad.
Nick:The defensive line for UMass, starting defensive line, defensive end, 6’3” 257. Defensive tackle, 6’1” 266. Nose tackle, 6’2” 274. That’s a 265 pound average on the defensive line.
Andrew:Yeah.
Nick:Florida’s offensive line averages 319. The offensive line couldn’t change the line of scrimmage. Florida’s line of scrimmage was consistently a yard behind where they started. There was no push. I think Tyler Jordan had a good game at right guard, and I think Jawaan Taylor, when he was in, also had a good game. To me, there’s no excuse. When you’re that much bigger than a defensive line, when you’re that much bigger and you just let them be more physical than you, there’s no excuse.
Andrew:It’s like Mac said. Mac called them out for their energy level, and it was piss poor. It was piss poor. It was piss poor. Here’s the thing. Offensive line is simply who wants it better. I hate to use that analogy, but it’s who wants to be the bigger man. Period. End of discussion. That’s just what it is. The whole David and Goliath thing, sure. It’s there. If the smaller man wants it better, you’re going to win. If the bigger man wants it better, he’s going to win. It don’t take as much for the bigger man to win, but it’s a simple concept of just playing with energy. I don’t know what it was. If I’m pointing to anything wrong with the offense I’m pointing out the offensive line. The play calling, it was the first game play calling, but if the offensive line does well it’s there. You look at some drive killers in the game. You look at the Mark Thompson drop in the red zone. Drive killer. You look at the Ahmad Fulwood drop. Drive killer. Good thing we sold that, because same Ahmad Fulwood. You look at some of the just dumb plays that kill drives, and it hurt. Martez with the hands to the face killed a drive. Stupid penalties.
Nick:Yeah. That was my question to Mac last night. I think I got a little wink from him like you know that I’m not going to answer that, but I know what you’re asking. Those three personal foul penalties will be treated very differently than the other penalties.
Andrew:Here’s the thing, and this is the thing for me. Yes, those three penalties were bad. For me, I’m not as upset with Martez as I am for Jarrad and Joey. They’re seniors. They know better than hitting the quarterback five steps after they throw the ball. So that’s there. For me it was just some of the, I guess it was the timing. The timing was bad for some of those penalties. The Martez penalty came at an awful time, and the two roughing the passers came at awful times. It was just, I mean, it’s a difference of Florida shutting out UMass and we’re talking about a 24-0 win, or a 24-7 win. UMass finished the game with, what’d they finish the game with, Nick? I don’t have that right in front of me. Do you have that right in front of you?
Nick:I got you. UMass finished the game with 187 yards, 46 on the ground, 141 passing. UMass had seven penalties for 25 yards.
Andrew:So out of the 187, 80 of those came on one drive, or 60 of those came on one drive?
Nick:No.
Andrew:That’s right. 30 yards in penalty.
Nick:35, the touchdown drive was 75 yards, and only, so maybe 40 yards on that drive.
Andrew:Yeah. There you go. I don’t know. I mean, like I said, I’m not going to be rough on the defense, because they played well. Bright spot, Eddy Pineiro. Ain’t nothing getting to that guy. He just walks out, dabs it up, and just has fun with it. I’ll say this, all three of those kicks were good from a long ways further than went in.
Nick:Eddy joked with us after the game about his first kick. Gets his first kick, goes in. Celebrates, and Jim McElwain takes it off the board, and that right there was him calling out the offensive line early.
Andrew:That’s what I’m saying.
Nick:Didn’t answer the call, but Eddy was a bright spot. Three for three, really four for four on the night. Hit both of his PATs. Did a good job with kickoffs too. There was one that he just sailed clear out of the end zone. Others that they’re kind of trying to like bait guys into bringing it out.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:By having him hit it high and right around the goal line or a yard into the end zone.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:They didn’t really take the bait last night, but great hang time on those kicks.
Andrew:I think the biggest thing for them is with the new rule of going out you get it on 25, if you can stick it with hang time on the 1, you like your chances of sticking the team inside the 25. I liked it. I thought it was good. There’s no questioning what Eddy’s leg is. He has a leg that he can kick it sky high, whatever it is.
Nick:Let’s not forget.
Andrew:The punter.
Nick:The punter. Punt man, Johnny Townsend, four kicks for 178 yards. That’s a 44.5 average. Two of those kicks were downed inside the 20, and then he also had the kick that was over 50 yards, kind of just basically because of where Florida was when he was kicking, but had that one 50 yarder where he was kicking out of his own end zone, flipped the field a little bit there. So Florida’s special teams, actually special this year.
Andrew:Yeah. Callaway had some good returns as well. I love watching Antonio Callaway return the kick. It’s not the same feeling as you had with Brandon James, but it’s one of those feelings that’s like, are you stupid for kicking to him? Because he has that ability that he can really take any kick back to the house. He has that ability.
Nick:You definitely get that sense with him. I didn’t think he got very close to breaking one last night. Even though get the sense that he can, I didn’t think he got close last night, and maybe that’s more on the kick cover team and the punt cover team than anything else.
Andrew:I thought they did a good job of hang time. UMass was making sure.
Nick:UMass had a great punter.
Andrew:Yeah. They made sure not to kick it short or kick a low ball, line drive ball, for Antonio to get it. They did well, but he’s special there. Nick, I want to say one thing on the offense, and then we can move on. I really like Josh Hammond getting those stand passes. Really liked those stand passes. Those are basically an outside run, and you’re going to get 3 or 4 yards sometimes. You may get hit for a loss sometimes, but there is going to be a few of them that you break. It is, and Mac made that play big when he had Julio, and Josh Hammond’s no Julio. Don’t tweet at me saying that, but I liked that play. I really liked that play.
Nick:I’d like to see that play with Dre Massey catching the ball.
Andrew:Yeah, but see, I don’t think you even run that with Dre though, because it’s more of you want a guy that’s a little bit bigger as far as physical wise to break that tackle. You don’t want exactly your speed guy catching that stand pass.
Nick:Okay.
Andrew:In my opinion now. Maybe Coach Mac has something different, and if he does he can roast me. I don’t care. He can take the pot shot. Let’s go to our three players here. Nick, first pick was Luke Del Rio. You get a win for that, buddy.
Nick:Yeah. Going to take a win. I don’t understand why people are down on him. That is what you’re going to expect. Luke will have better games than that, and he’ll have maybe games that are slightly statistically worse than that, but that is about the average game you’re going to get from Luke Del Rio.
Andrew:Here’s my thing, Nick.
Nick:Regardless of the opponent, that’s the kind of game you’re going to get from Luke Del Rio.
Andrew:Let me ask you this, and here’s the thing. He’s going to hit some big passes, because teams are going to come up and shoot on the run when they’re running the ball, but everyone loved Will Grier last year, and outside of the Ole Miss game, he did nothing. I mean, he hit the play to Callaway, but he wasn’t spectacular in the Tennessee game.
Nick:The play to Callaway was not a great throw. It was just wide open. That was a great block by Brandon Powell and a great turn and run.
Andrew:Yeah. So outside of the Ole Miss game he didn’t do anything. So I get that. I don’t get that. My first pick was Callaway. That’s definitely a W.
Nick:Callaway, that’s a touchdown. He had 137 all-purpose yards and a touchdown. 72 receiving, 32 kick, 33 punt.
Andrew:Even in fantasy football that’s a win.
Nick:That’s a win. You get a win for Callaway.
Andrew:Jordan Scarlett, you get a win for that.
Nick:I was going, in case you tried to protest I made sure to point out when you were being very high on Jordan Scarlett for running the ball hard. Jordan Scarlett was making people earn tackles on Saturday night. Like to see that from him. 13 carries, 70 yards. That’s a 5.4 average. That’s getting the job done.
Andrew:Yeah. I thought he did well. Really good blocking. I was very high on his blocking as well. I thought he had a really good game there as well. My second one was Jarrad Davis. Led the team in tackles and, outside of the boneheaded play, had a really good game.
Nick:Yeah. Jarrad Davis and Alex Anzalone are going to be special players. The two of them combined for 15 tackles and 1.5 sacks. So those two guys are going to be very good. Jarrad Davis was great, 2 solo tackles, 9 total, half a sack, and broke one pass up.
Andrew:Yeah. Your third was…
Nick:My third was Marcus Maye.
Andrew:So here’s the thing with me.
Nick:5 tackles, 4 solo. I think he had a good game.
Andrew:I’m a big Marcus Maye fan, and you know that, Nick. I thought he had an okay game. Here’s the thing. I think he had a good game, because he didn’t get picked on or anything else. I just can’t give you a win for it, because he had five tackles. We don’t give wins for them doing their job.
Nick:I’m going to say okay, because there were times where last year where you really tried to stretch some of your guys to make wins, and I think if I make a stand here you’ll point back to this the rest of the year.
Andrew:Yes. Now, my last guy was Duke Dawson, and he was on his way to having a really good football game. I mean, he forced a fumble, had a pass breakup, and had a tackle. He was on his way to having a really good game. We said it was inconclusive, but, man, I should have stuck with Eddy Pineiro, because that would have been sweet.
Nick:Eddy Pineiro you would have gotten three. That’s what you get for trying to be sneaky.
Andrew:I win the day, because I didn’t have a loss.
Nick:You don’t. We both have two wins.
Andrew:I didn’t have a loss, Nick. You had a loss.
Nick:Both had two wins.
Andrew:But you had a loss. You had a loss. Even in baseball, you lost by half a point.
Nick:I didn’t know we were playing baseball.
Andrew:No, we’re not. We’re just playing standings, and you’re half a point back. So your winning percentage is what?
Nick:666 repeated.
Andrew:What’s mine?
Nick:You are 2-0.
Andrew:So that’s 1,000, so I won. Shut up. You lost. End of discussion.
Nick:That’s not how it works. We both have two wins. We’ll keep the record throughout the year though.
Andrew:That’s fine.
Nick:Right now in that I guess you would be ahead at 2-0.
Andrew:Yes. I won.
Nick:I am 2-1.
Andrew:I won the week. We got to go. Picks for the week. You and I both were off on the UMass score bad. Florida State/Ole Miss is still out there. We both picked Bama, so we won there. What did we pick on the, did we both pick LSU, or did I go Wisconsin?
Nick:We both picked LSU.
Andrew:Okay. So we lost that one. I don’t know what I was thinking there.
Nick:We both picked Vandy.
Andrew:We both picked Vandy. What were we thinking there?
Nick:We both picked Tennessee.
Andrew:We didn’t pick the Tennessee game.
Nick:Because that was Thursday night, right.
Andrew:Yeah. We both picked the Clemson win. Got that right. Texas/Notre Dame game is still going on, so we’re good there. Quick recruiting update, Shawn Wade did make it in, and as we’re taping this at 2:35 now Sunday, he’s still at Florida with his parents. They’re meeting with the staff. Jake Allen made it in, and a couple 2018 prospects made it in. Kentucky weekend should be a better visitors list for this Kentucky weekend. Look out for that. We’ll have some recruiting updates on that as well, and we’ll have some stuff this week for Kentucky. We’ll get much more enthused about it. They did get beat by Southern Miss. Southern Miss to the top. So Florida should be okay this week. I’m going to say the offense gets better this week. Jawaan Taylor is going to play at right tackle. However it may be, Nicholas, tell the people where they can find us this week. We’ll get out of here and see everyone on Wednesday. We’ll have, hopefully, have Matt Jones. Who? Matt Jones from Kentucky this week.
Nick:www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gators news. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. @GatorCountry on Facebook and @GatorCountry on Twitter. @NickdelaTorreGC on Twitter. @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. Hit us up on Instagram. @NickdelaTorre on Instagram too.
Andrew:Yeah. Do that. If you have any buy or sell questions for this week, hit us up, let us know. If you have anything you want us to talk about, let us know. As you can tell on this podcast, not too much is off limits with this. People tell us they like that about us, that we’re honest about it. We’re maybe too honest sometimes. I know I am. I get a little out of control with it, but that’s why we’re what we are.
Nick:Yeah.
Andrew:Anything else to add, Nick?
Nick:No. Running a where were you, what was the world like, piece, the last time Kentucky beat Florida. I was not alive. I had not been born yet.
Andrew:When was it?
Nick:It was 29 years ago. It was 1986.
Andrew:I wasn’t alive either.
Nick:Or 1987. ’86 or ’87. It was before I was born.
Andrew:If it was ’87 I was born. I definitely don’t remember that. Real quick, Nick, I want to say this. Special moment for Coach Spurrier. Nick I won’t speak for you. I’ll let you speak for yourself when I say this. For me, I grew up idolizing the Spurriers. Spurrier was the guy. Spurrier was one of the biggest reasons that I said I wanted to be a football coach, because of Spurrier. I don’t remember Coach Spurrier in the Swamp as much as some other people do, but to see him out there again was awesome for me. To see him talking smack again, that’s what I loved about Coach Spurrier, and for me, personally, I loved it. For me it was a special moment to see Coach back and see all those guys back, Danny Werfel, those guys. Those were guys that I looked up to, so it was special for me.
Nick:Yeah. Pretty cool. Spurrier took over in 1990. I was one year old, or two years old. Don’t remember it as much as a lot of guys, but remember the visor throws. Remember hanging half a hundred and hearing that. He’s a one of a kind guy, and I think he’s right when he says that getting this is probably the biggest honor. People say, what about the Heismann? He said, they give that thing out every year. They don’t put people’s names on stadiums every year.
Andrew:This is something we’ll be talking about. I mean, you’ll tell your grandkids about it. You’ll tell everybody. When we’re long and gone it’s still going to be Steve Spurrier Field, and that’s how people talk about Bear Bryant at Alabama. That’s how they used to talk about Joe Paw. I’m drawing a blank, Bo Schembechler at Michigan. Those are the legends. You talk about those guys, Lombardi, and that’s what Steve Spurrier is to college football. Him and Bear Bryant are probably the two best to ever roam the sidelines. Special moment for me. I was just really glad to see it happen. Guys, we’re running out of time. We literally got 30 seconds to wrap this bad boy up. So as always, guys, follow along. Let us know if you want to join Gator Country. Come on. As always, go Braves and chomp, chomp.
Nick:You stay classy, Gator Country.