Ryan Brauninger joins the GC podcast: Florida Gators

This GatorCountry podcast is a big one as we are joined by Ryan Brauninger of TexasAgs to preview the Florida Gators vs. Texas A&M baseball series as the top two teams in the country meet in Gainesville on Friday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre talk pitching match-ups with Brauninger and they follow that up by previewing the Florida Gators softball series this weekend against Alabama.

Andrew and Nick also talk spring football as the Gators inch closer to the spring game, plus they talk some recruiting as Florida has hosted a lot of prospects this spring.

TRANSCRIPT:

ANDREW:              What’s up, Gator Country? Your man right here, Andrew Spivey, with my man, Nicholas de la Torre, Nicholas, what’s up, buddy?

NICK:                       What is going on? I’m excited to have Ryan, who we met out at the Under Armour game, on with us today talking baseball, talking Friday Night Lights, talking Texas forever. It’s going to be a good time.

ANDREW:              As he said, Ryan Brauninger from Tex Ags. Check him out. Good work over there. Good friend of ours, and he’s going to come on, and we’re going to talk #1 Florida Gator baseball—

NICK:                         #2.

ANDREW:              #2 Florida Gator baseball versus #1, Texas A&M, this weekend. That’s at McKethan Stadium, and it all starts Friday night at 7:00, correct?

NICK:                        Friday at 7, Saturday at 7:30, and then 2:00 on Sunday.

ANDREW:              We’ll have him here in just a second. He’ll be talking baseball. We’ll rib him a little bit about a couple other things, and we’ll also talk some football and talk some recruiting. It’s a big week. One week until spring ball, spring game.

NICK:                         Looking forward to the spring game, the culmination of everything here. Really though, looking forward to having an actual game. It’ll be the first time since I’ve been here, maybe it was my fault. I’d like to blame the guy that was here before me.

ANDREW:              It was Willy Muschamp.

NICK:                         That’s who I was trying to blame.

ANDREW:              The other guy is always the problem.

NICK:                        For me, it’s kind of just like, that’s cool. That’s pretty cool.

ANDREW:              That’s pretty cool. It is cool. I think it’s good for these guys to get it. It’s good for the fans, because the fans get a little glimpse of the team, and it can create some excitement. We always talk about good publicity, and free publicity. That’s what this spring game is all about, and I think it’s going to be fun. I really do. Glad to see it, and very excited to see the quarterbacks, the running backs, and see those freshmen at receiver. Should be fun.

Nick, let’s go to our good friend, Ryan. I’m sure he’s probably in a honky tonk bar screaming. What’s his dance? I forgot. The line dance and something else he’s doing. He’s probably doing that, and probably screaming Texas forever.

NICK:                         He’s screaming something. He’s doing some Aggie yells over there.

ANDREW:              Some Aggie yells with the twelfth man, the crazy student section over there. Let’s go to Ryan real quick. We’ll talk baseball, follow that by some softball, and then we’ll end on some football and recruiting. Stay tuned real quick as we head to our good friend, Ryan.

Welcome back, Gator Country. Nick and I are joined by my man, Ryan Brauninger, from Tex Ags. What’s up, Ryan? How’s Texas?

RYAN:                               Howdy, man. Texas, as always, the Republic of Texas is doing well, and it’s good to talk to you guys. It’s been a while since I’ve been on, but obviously enjoy what you all do, and we got a big one this weekend.

ANDREW:              Texas forever.

NICK:                         Texas forever.

RYAN:                              That’s right.

ANDREW:              It is a good matchup. #1 versus #2. I got to watch you guys against LSU. That was a great series. Catch us up real quick. Tell us about the season. What’s been the bright spots? Is there a weakness for this #1 Ags team? Just give us a rundown of the season so far.

RYAN:                             Coming into the year, obviously this A&M team had very high expectations. Coach Rob Childress has been here 13, 14 years now, and this is his deepest team. It’s also one of his older teams. They start a lot of juniors and seniors, and a lot of guys came back after being drafted. They entered the season with very high expectations, and they’ve delivered on those so far this year. You’ve had some guys that were kind of spot starters last year, role players, and were really streaky. Guys like JB Moss and Hunter Melton are two guys that have been fantastic so far in their senior seasons. Right fielder Nick Banks is A&M’s best pro prospect as a hitter. He’s just now getting it going. He kind of fought a lower back injury earlier in the year, but when he gets going there’s no doubt he’s A&M’s best pro prospect at the plate.

They got a transfer in at third base, Boomer White, who was the Big 12 player of the year when TCU went to Omaha a couple years ago, and Boomer has been fantastic, and he’s almost become something like a cult hero in College Station. When you guys see him this weekend, he’s kind of a short squatty sawed off little guy, but he can really hit. He’s on pace to break A&M’s single season hit total. JB Moss is as well.

They’ve been very productive. There’s not been guys that go into prolonged slumps. If they do, there’s other guys that are hot to get them out of them. There’s no doubt, I was on the radio this week in College Station, there’s no doubt that this A&M team is very good, but I don’t think they’re as talented from a prospect standpoint as Florida.

ANDREW:              First of all, Boomer, that is the biggest Texas name you can get. Boomer.

RYAN:                               His story is great too. He’s a great kid.

ANDREW:              You have an interesting point, because it’s something Nick and I talk about. When you look at it on paper Florida probably is the most talented team on paper than most teams, but I think Nick would agree with me in that Florida maybe doesn’t have the senior leadership a lot of other teams have. Nick, is that pretty good assessment?

NICK:                         Florida never has senior leadership really. Florida has two seniors this year. There was one senior last year. There were two seniors the year before. They just never really have seniors on the roster. What they do have is a great junior class this year. You’ll see Logan Shore Friday night, A.J. Puk on Saturday. They’ve really leaned on the juniors. I guess if you’re talking about Florida and veteran leadership it’s more about the junior class than the senior class.

RYAN:                               I’ll tell you what I’ve been really impressed, the freshman class at Florida is super talented.

NICK:                         Sully has put together recruiting classes, kind of like he did when they made runs in 2010, ’11, and ’12 to the World Series where each freshman class comes in, and there’s another three kids, four kids, that contribute right away.

RYAN:                               What’s funny is there’s a kid, I’ve got a kid on the roster that I believe he’s redshirting.

NICK:                         McGregor.

RYAN:                               McGregor. He’s out of College Station. He’s a kid that, for your listeners that don’t know, I also coach for a select baseball academy here in College Station, and I’ve coached and been around McGregor since he was a sixth, seventh grader. For McGregor to go over to Florida, as talented and as good as he is, for him to not see the mound and probably pick up a redshirt his freshman year really told us a lot about how deep that Florida team and bullpen and pitching staff were.

NICK:                         I saw him warming up one time, but did not make it out of the bullpen.

ANDREW:              Ryan, let’s dig in a little bit here. Let’s go to the pitching staff. Florida obviously will start Logan Shore on Friday. You say that A&M will throw Jace Vines. Tell us a little bit about Jace.

RYAN:                               Jace is a junior college transfer that had zero recruiting hype around him. He came. He pitched one year. He’s from Prosper, Texas, which is in north Texas near DFW. He played one year at Tyler Junior College, which is kind of a D3. For the Texas Junior College ranks it’s kind of an unheard of junior college. He pitches one year there, and A&M takes him out of there with no recruiting hype at all. All he’s done is come in in the fall and just throw a ton of strikes. He’s going to be 89, probably 88-92 with a lot of sink. He’s got a great feel for his changeup. The biggest thing is he’s not going to walk people. He’s going to compete in the strike zone, and you’ll be able to tell early in the game Friday night whether his stuff’s going good just based on the kind of swings he’s getting. Is he getting a lot of ground balls? Is he getting a lot of foul balls?

A&M has shored up their infield defense from last year. It’s a lot better. Adding Boomer White, and they’ve got a freshman playing shortstop who has been pretty solid defensively. So those two guys will be big for Vines. I know Florida is kind of a heavy hitting lineup, and they like to swing a lot. So I think it’ll be an interesting matchup, because of what Vines likes to do, which is throw the two sink, throw the changeup to get ground balls, and compare that to what Florida’s lineup wants to do, which they want to make you elevate the baseball, something they can get their arms extended and hit doubles and homeruns.

NICK:                         Friday’s good news for us, because that’s kind of Logan Shore’s scouting report on the mound too. A guy that’s going to pound the zone. Florida, the pitchers really attack the zone so much and don’t walk that many batters that when Dartmouth and Harvard came in these kids came in with the attitude of, shit, Florida’s going to throw strikes. We’re playing the #1 team in the country. Let’s go ahead and swing. It was kind of crazy to see how these kids were swinging first pitch, second pitch, and Logan Shore actually got touched up a little bit. Very similar scouting report with Shore. He’s more of a pitcher than anyone else on Florida’s roster, really understands it, understands how to work batters over in the zone, very good changeup, fastball, plus fastball 92, 94. So that will be a good pitching matchup on Friday.

Florida’s kind of been struggling at the plate. Looking at Texas A&M, Aggies are hitting .335 as a team. You’re over there kind of down on them. Florida dropped to under .300. They’re hitting .291 as a team after nine strikeouts to five hits against FSU Tuesday.

RYAN:                               I think Florida’s obviously played a little bit tougher schedule up to this point, but I don’t want to sound like I’m down on the A&M hitters at all. I think that they’ve got, like I said, they’re so deep, and they’re kind of a complete lineup. They’ve got a little bit of everything in there, even to the point where they’ll rotate their DHs to get them three or four different looks throughout the order, but they’ve got guys that, JB Moss has been over .400 or around .400. Boomer White’s around .400. Hunter Melton’s been around .350, and he’s driving in runs like crazy.

Ryan Burke is the second baseman who’s played a ton of games. He’ll hit in the two hole, and I think he’s been around .360 or .370 for a while. The only light hitting guy in the starting nine has been the shortstop, George Janca, and he’s a true freshman. They kind of expected him to hit around .250-.275, and he’s very solid defensively, and does a lot of good things from a shortstop. He’s kind of that unspectacular guy that just gets the job done.

I’ll tell you one thing, there’s one Florida kid on the A&M roster, and he’s a senior, and he’s had a fantastic year. It’s Michael Barash, the catcher. He’s out of Boca Raton, and he’s the leader of the pitching staff. You’ll see him. He’s a very high energy catcher, high energy player, and he has had a fantastic year. An unexpected fantastic year at the plate as well.

ANDREW:              Let’s talk real quick about Saturday. Saturday is probably the biggest question mark for Florida. A.J. Puk is one of the best players in the country when he’s on, but he’s on and off. This weekend should be his on weekend. Who do you expect A&M to throw on Saturday?

RYAN:                               A&M’s going to go with a true freshman, Tyler Ivey on Saturday.

ANDREW:              Tell us a little bit about Tyler.

RYAN:                               Ivey kind of made the rounds whenever A&M walked off, or at least over here he made the rounds when A&M walked off Texas on a walk off homerun. He kind of started a little scuffle between the Aggies and the Horns at the plate in their postgame celebration, but that’s kind of his attitude. What’s that?

NICK:                        Boys will be boys.

RYAN:                               I loved it, and I love that Texas got mad at it. It was just a competitive deal, but Tyler’s that kind of attitude. He’s fiery on the mound. He’s a big righty. He’s been up to 96. He’s probably A&M’s best pro prospect, just like A.J. Puk is. He’s probably A&M’s best pro prospect on the mound from a starter standpoint. He’ll throw four pitches for a strike. He doesn’t get too, he’s A&M’s only strikeout pitcher as a starter to go on the weekend. The other two guys are contact guys. Ivey’s a high strikeout rate guy. He’s a high swing and miss guy. That’ll be interesting to see, because if A.J. has been inconsistent, we all know that A.J.’s a future multimillionaire, but if he’s been inconsistent it’ll be interesting to see how Ivey can match that as a true freshman walking into the biggest series of his life, there’s no doubt about that.

ANDREW:              For the record, I do not want my Atlanta Braves drafting A.J. Puk, just for the record.

RYAN:                               I think your Atlanta Braves could use some help in a lot of places, from what I understand, but they’ve got one of my good buddies starting at second base for them, so I always pull for the Braves.

ANDREW:              There you go. If you want to send Mr. Peterson my way and make sure Andrew’s taken care of, we would like you.

NICK:                         His hand is always reaching out waiting for some kind of gift.

ANDREW:              That’s right. You got to do what you got to do. No. In all seriousness though, I think that A.J. Puk series, and Nick will agree, if A.J. Puk’s on, Florida has a good chance of winning, and if he’s off like he was up in Lexington last weekend then things could get a little wild.

NICK:                         Yeah. Not even that he was off in Lexington, but it was so odd. He gave up a home run in the first, and then cruised, and then all of a sudden hits a guy in the fifth, and it all comes apart. Now all of a sudden you’ve got a five inning start where you give up six runs. So it just happened so quick. With him, and you’ll agree with this, Ryan, doesn’t matter how hard you throw, if you’re getting into 2-1, 3-1 counts, and guys know that 96 mile an hour fastball is coming, they’re going to time it up eventually.

RYAN:                               Oh yeah. It’ll be interesting to see from A&M’s perspective too, because Alex Lang from LSU had been scuffling, and he came in here last weekend on Good Friday and was as dominant as anybody that has pitched at Olsen Field in a while, that I’ve seen at Olsen Field. He was simply fantastic. So this will be two weekends in a row, and you guys know this, it’s like this every week in the SEC. On Friday night you’re going to see a Major Leaguer, and so Florida’s got two of them. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle Shore and Puk. I think that Saturday game, the consistency of Puk, if he’s good or if he’s bad, I think that can go a long way in determining the series.

One thing we haven’t touched on, A&M’s bullpen has been fantastic. Now, the radar gun in the stadium here, at the ballpark here, is a little hot, but they’ve had three guys touch 100 miles an hour on the radar gun here, which probably means they’ve been 94-98 most of the time. They’ve got some power arms coming out of the bullpen. They’ve also got a couple of kids that do a little bit, some things different out of the bullpen. The A&M pitching staff has been fantastic. We’re looking at just two really good ball clubs this weekend.

NICK:                         That’s the other thing with Florida is that other than two games in Lexington the bullpen’s been great. There’s one guy on Florida’s staff that doesn’t throw 90+, and he’s a lefty that throws sidearm, and he’ll throw it 88, 89. So it’s kind of been a bullpen that Florida has kind of overpowered teams, and then they’ve moved another junior, Dane Dunning, who was the Sunday starter to begin last year, they moved him out of the bullpen. He’s been coming in, has been lights out out of the pens. Maybe we’ll get some quick games, if I’m lucky.

RYAN:                               You can start looking at lineups, and you start looking at how close these teams are matched. It could come down to something as simple as an error or a missed sign or something like that.

NICK:                         The big problem for me is Florida, the middle of Florida’s lineup, three, four, five, are slumping, all three of them. I think they’re 15 for their last 80 some at bats, and that’s JJ Schwarz, Pete Alonso, and a freshman, Deacon Liput. These are guys that you have to have producing in the lineup that just aren’t getting it done. Alonso, his batting average has dropped 80 points in the last week with how hard he’s been struggling. So Florida needs to get going, and like you said, in the SEC it’s not really easy to get going when you start facing these teams on the weekend.

RYAN:                               There’s no doubt. Listen, when you start looking around the conference, is South Carolina as good as they’re leading on? Right now you’d have to say yes. Over here in the West Ole Miss and Mississippi State are better than we thought they were. I think Kentucky’s better than people give them credit for. I think Auburn can give some people some problems if they figure out how to pitch. This conference, even the 12, 13, 14 teams, they’re good enough to beat you on any weekend.

ANDREW:              Absolutely. You look at a team like Alabama. Not doing well, and have surprised some teams. As you said, Kentucky has surprised some teams. It’s a good conference for baseball. I guess, to finish this off, anything you’re looking in particular out of this series? I guess, how do you think this series is decided? Is it going to be on the mound? Is it going to be at the plate for A&M? If A&M wins the series, what will be the biggest thing?

RYAN:                               For A&M to win the series they’ve got to be extremely clean defensively. I don’t think, as good as Florida is on the mound, and as successful as I think they’re probably going to be, I don’t think that that’s going to be the reason why A&M would lose the series, just because A&M’s going to run out eight upperclassmen in their lineup. So these are guys that have seen a ton of SEC baseball. They’ve seen a ton of baseball in general. So I think that they can find a way to manage the Florida pitching staff to keep themselves in games, and possibly even win a game late. As long as they’re not kicking balls defensively, if the pitchers aren’t allowing three base runners, I think the Aggies can hang in there and fight with Florida, a team that on paper is as talented as any SEC bunch that we’ve seen the last 3-5 years. I think what you’re going to see this weekend is a battle of a senior laden roster that’s a complete team and a bunch of absolute studs that are going to be millionaires.

ANDREW:              Could be a preview for Omaha.

RYAN:                               I hope so.

ANDREW:              Definitely. Ryan, we appreciate you coming on so much. We’ll be talking to you down the road. As we all know, I’m sure this matchup will happen again soon, and we’ll also talk recruiting and some football with you.

RYAN:                               Can you all stay out of our state? You got plenty of talent over there. Stay out of Texas.

ANDREW:              Tyrie Cleveland says hello.

RYAN:                               You all are back in on some more. You just need to stay, like I said, you got plenty of talent down there.

ANDREW:              Definitely. Ryan, we appreciate it, man. Take care, and for everyone that wants to follow you on Twitter, tell them where they can follow you.

RYAN:                               My Twitter address is @R_Brauninger.

NICK:                         You’re like me, when you tell someone it’s @NickdelaTorre, and good luck with that last name.

ANDREW:              Definitely.

RYAN:                               All right, guys.

ANDREW:              Ryan, take care. We’ll talk to you soon.

RYAN:                               Alright, man. See you.

ANDREW:              Nick, that was Ryan. That’s a good preview. It’s going to be a war. McKethan Stadium is not going to be easy. I say it with softball all the time, and we can say it for baseball. Every week, no matter what the team is, who the team is, it’s going to be a war, and that’s why you see SEC teams playing in Omaha so well.

NICK:                         Yeah. It really is. You can say it, you might gloss over it when you say it, they’re talking about just the SEC again, say the same thing about football. SEC baseball they really take it serious, especially the teams in the West, Mississippi State, LSU, Texas A&M.

ANDREW:              Ole Miss.

NICK:                        These guys play some serious baseball, and it is every week. Ryan said every weekend in the SEC you’re going to be facing a MLB guy on Friday. Florida, Faedo, Puk, Shore, all three of those guys are going to be pitching in the Majors. Dane Dunning can’t find a starting spot on this team. He’s going to be a Major League pitcher. Florida’s got Major League pitchers up and down the roster. He mentioned Alex Lange, who’s only a sophomore, as struggling. That was your SEC Player of the Year last year.

ANDREW:              I mean, let’s just run through it. The top five in the nation right now is Texas A&M, Florida, Vanderbilt, Miami, South Carolina.

NICK:                         Not bad.

ANDREW:              Florida faces all five. Florida faces all five. I mean, all five including Florida. So they face four. Every team in the top five Florida will have played or will be them, and then you look at #9 is Florida State. 11 is Mississippi State. 13 is Ole Miss. 15 is LSU. 18 is Arkansas, and that’s all in the top 25.

NICK:                        They also did play 22, Florida Atlantic.

ANDREW:              Yeah. Then you look at the teams getting consideration. Alabama, Kentucky are both teams that are in the SEC.

NICK:                         They play a very tough schedule, and part of that is just playing in the SEC, but it’s great. I joked with Kevin O’Sullivan. Obviously he is the guy that makes the schedule. They make it a couple years in advance, and he started talking about how hard the schedule was and playing this team then this team and this team. I kind of just chuckle, and I go, “Whoever made that schedule they should fire him, get him out of here.” He kind of laughed, and he said, “Yeah. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”

ANDREW:              I mean, it’s challenging for a reason.

NICK:                         I’ll tell you this. I think Ryan, he definitely does his research, and he knows baseball, but I think he hasn’t done enough research about Alex Faedo, and I bet you on Sunday he reaches out to us and goes, “Who the heck is this kid?”

ANDREW:              It’s a common thing in NCAA baseball is that Sunday…

NICK:                        You just throw a guy out there.

ANDREW:              Yeah. It’s Johnny Holstaff. That’s what it is, but we’ll see. We’ll see. I’m interested to see how Florida bounces back this week. I jokingly said with Ryan before we started taping, “Are you ready to get swept this weekend?” I could see Florida sweeping A&M coming off of what happened last weekend. I could see that happening.

NICK:                         I can see Florida sweeping. You would need a strong outing from Puk.

ANDREW:              It’s happening. He had a bad weekend last weekend. He has a good one this weekend.

NICK:                         I won’t tell the people that you jinxed him last week. To me, I’m getting back to the point with Puk, I was very high on him coming into this year, because of the way he finished. I’m getting to the point where you start thinking, who’s going to show up? It’ll be interesting to see what he does. I thought he had turned the corner, and then the step back last week. This is an A&M lineup that can hit. They can flat out hit. They’ve got eight guys hitting over .300. JB Moss hitting over .400. A couple guys, not really a ton of homeruns, but a couple guys hitting three, four homeruns all over the place. This lineup definitely can hit. You’ve got five guys that have double digit walks, led by Hunter Melton with 16. It’ll be interesting to see. Florida’s got a great pitching staff. They say great pitching beats great hitting, and it’ll be interesting to see how that shakes up. Is Florida’s pitching staff going to be too much for this, or is it kind of have they met an equal?

ANDREW:              You don’t have to go too far down the road to see another great matchup, softball. Over at Katie Seashole this weekend, #1 Florida and #6 Alabama. 33-1 is the Gators, and 26-6 is Alabama. Another week, another top ten opponent for softball. Finely Florida becomes the unanimous #1 team in the country, but somehow shape or form the NCAA still wants to have Michigan as the #1 RPI.

NICK:                         I don’t understand.

ANDREW:              Neither do I. Neither do I at all. It’s becoming a joke. I hate to say that. I kind of called out the SEC two weekends ago when they didn’t give Florida Player of the Week, and two straight weeks Florida’s got it. So maybe I should bitch to the NCAA a little bit.

NICK:                         You think it was your doing.

ANDREW:              Absolutely.

                        100%?

ANDREW:              1000%.

NICK:                         They follow you, and they were like, man, we really let Andrew down?

ANDREW:              Oh no, I tagged them.

NICK:                         Okay. You added them.

ANDREW:              Oh yeah, I added them. It wasn’t no joke. It was an @, the GatorZone softball Twitter retweeted it.

NICK:                        Oh.

ANDREW:              So they were upset.

NICK:                         They plugged it.

ANDREW:             They plugged it. They were like, oh hell, Andrew’s got our back; let’s go to war. He’s the chief.

NICK:                        They wanted you in their foxhole.

ANDREW:              They did. They wanted me being the captain, the Goat. The Goat’s returnt.

NICK:                         The Goat’s returnt, I like how you said that.

ANDREW:              It is, returnt.

NICK:                         Returnt.

ANDREW:             We have to get lit up in there. No. This weekend should be a good one. Gators #1 pitching staff in America ERA wise with a 0.78, and that is led by Aleshia Ocasio, Leelee, with a .36, the nation’s best. The team is really going well. I mean, 33-1 is tough to say anything bad about them, and there is times where this team does struggle with some runners in scoring position. Walton made a great lineup change on Saturday, I believe. I believe it was just Saturday. He put Taylore Fuller in the two hole, and kind of messed around with it. He’s trying to find production in that middle of the order.

Nick, you and I can both attest to this, probably your biggest, after your one, you want your leadoff hitter to be your best hitter as far as getting on base, but you really like your five hole hitter to be a run producer and someone that can drive in the runs, and that was where Florida was really struggling at was who’s going to be that five hole hitter that if they did walk the Kvistad, Lorenz tandem that five hole hitter was able to come through. It didn’t happen for a while. Walton decided to move Lorenz done, move Merritt to the three hole, and it produced, produced well. Maybe that’s the answer is the ever changing lineup has to happen almost every weekend.

NICK:                        It’s almost, when you’re going as good as Florida, as a manager it’s almost you can see things that aren’t going well, but you almost don’t want to mess with it.

ANDREW:              I mean, I guess it’s a little bit of a risk reward kind of deal. One thing though I wanted to say about this softball team before we move on is on Tuesday Walton took the team out canoeing, and that’s something Walton has said and tried to do with this team is keep it fresh, keep things not stale, I guess. Keep it not a grind. A couple weeks ago it was gymnastics, took them over to the gymnastics floor and was letting them mess around, have a little fun out there. The thing he was talking about with canoeing, and anybody that’s been canoeing knows that two people have to work together. That’s what he was saying. He said, this team is really good, but he’s still trying to get the freshmen to trust their teammates. I think it might have been more of a the season’s halfway done, my seniors are about to leave; let’s make sure my freshmen are getting ready to step into some of that experience.

NICK:                         It’s kind of I’ve seen these two girls really sitting next to each other on the bus, or hanging out when we’re on the road, in the hotel. Nope, you’re not sharing a canoe. I haven’t seen you talk to her. You two, get in the canoe, and don’t tip it.

ANDREW:              Exactly. It’s good. It’s good for Walton. Everyone is probably tired of listening to diamond sports. Let’s talk a little football real quick here. Gators scrimmage on Friday. You’re listening to this Friday morning, so Friday afternoon the Gators are scrimmaging, and be the second scrimmage. I expect to hear some things about that for sure. I guess, going in I’m interested to see does Mark Thompson put together another really good scrimmage? Does Chauncey Gardner continue to push his way to being that safety beside Marcus Maye? Then really how does the offensive line continue to do? I guess that’s where I’m looking at, as we head into that scrimmage this afternoon. What are you think about here, Nick?

NICK:                         For me, well my answer to your Chauncey question is yes, because the game is not too big for him, and you’ve got known commodities right there at safety. To me, I think yeah, he’ll keep coming on. That’ll be interesting to see where he ends up towards the end of the season.

ANDREW:              Right.

NICK:                         Or middle of the season, or how early can he get in there?

ANDREW:              Right. That’s what I was going to say. I think it’s interesting to see does he continue to progress and continue to get there? I mean, I think we can all say that we didn’t think he would be battling for a starting spot at the safety position, but as time starts to go on, and the more you start to hear about it, you start to think maybe it’s possible.

NICK:                         Yeah. Then you mentioned Mark Thompson. I think the biggest thing with him was kind of maybe not having that great first one. I think that was the eye opener. So to get back again and get another scrimmage onto the books, and now you only have a week, so you’re going right now through the rough time, the trying time of spring practice where it just it doesn’t end. I think when you go out on Friday for the scrimmage, as you’re listening to this Friday, one week. That’s all we got. Orange and Blue game, and then we get a vacation.

ANDREW:              We say it’s the rough time, but that last week of spring is kind of a good week, because it’s like it’s more of a refreshing course of putting everything you’ve learned there, and it’s more football more than it is learning. It’s more of this is what we’re trying to do here, that kind of stuff. I always liked that last week of spring ball. It just kind of seemed like it was we’re finally kind of almost done with the teaching part here. You treat it almost like a game week, and then it’s your last week of football for what? Four months, five months?

NICK:                         Why do you do that?

ANDREW:              I’m trying to think. What is that? It’s April, May, June, July, August, so five months. I was right.

NICK:                         I know you’re right, but that’s just depressing.

ANDREW:              It’s all right. Things get better. Monday is opening day of baseball.

NICK:                         That’s exciting for most people. Us south Florida people who are Marlins fans, not really an exciting day for us.

ANDREW:             Got to talk to Austin Appleby on Wednesday, Nick. First impressions of Austin?

NICK:                         Polished. First impression is polished. Both he and Luke Del Rio very good with the media. So that would be my first impression.

ANDREW:              Okay. I know he had some things to say. He expects to play, and good for him. That’s the attitude you want, and we’ll see. I think we’re both in agreement that we think he backs up Del Rio, but we’ll see. Still, like I said, five months till football season goes. Time to go there. I don’t know. I think when you look at this spring though you’re going to look back at this spring and think about how well these quarterbacks as a whole improved, from the two freshmen, from Del Rio, from Appleby. We’re going to look back at this spring and really look at how big and how much they got better. Had you told me the two freshmen would look as good as they have so far at the beginning of this time I would have probably laughed at you, just because I didn’t think either one of the freshmen were far enough along in their progression to do well in SEC football.

NICK:                         What is your opinion of Florida’s spring game on a Friday night? It’s something that I’ve been thinking about. I mentioned I’ve been looking around South Carolina. I think there’s six games on Saturday. What’s your opinion of the Friday night?

ANDREW:              I like it. I mean, this is my thing.

NICK:                         When it was first announced, and I think it’s understandable, when it was first announced a lot of people were saying, I can’t get off work. Fans that come from out of town, from across country, from out of state, I can’t get to Gainesville at 7:00 on a Friday.

ANDREW:              Right. I know that is some of concern, but in my opinion if you were coming to a spring game on Saturday chances are you’re probably finding a way to get off of work a little early and make it there on a Friday. My thing for it on Friday is you just said, didn’t you say five games, four games, Saturday?

NICK:                         Yeah.

ANDREW:              Florida gets the entire Friday night, and it’s next Friday night. Outside of baseball, what else is on TV? Final Four is over with. Golf, the Masters will be ending about the time the Gator game starts. What else are you doing on a Friday night? The entire country that watches SEC Network will be watching Florida. If it was on Saturday afternoon when the four or five are there, you have prospects and people going to those games. I hit on the prospects thing, and I think that might be the biggest thing. Not only is it in the Swamp on Friday night, but you have prospects that are now coming up on a Friday night, and you’re not splitting time with five, six other schools that night to get them on campus.

NICK:                         I agree with you. I think that’s the biggest thing is not sharing the stage. Having that night all to yourself with it on TV, I think that’s the biggest advantage. I think that’s really something you’ll see other schools try to do.

ANDREW:              Michigan, isn’t Michigan already saying they’re doing there’s on a Friday night?

NICK:                         Yeah, and they’re doing it on the moon.

ANDREW:              I’m sure. They’re doing it in Hawaii probably.

NICK:                         Yeah. Harbaugh, Michigan is actually they’re going to do it on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean, but it will be televised.

ANDREW:             They’ll be flying recruits out there and parachuting them down.

NICK:                        Fly them down, helicopter and parachute them on.

ANDREW:              No. It’s not even so much about the guys that get to come on campus, but, like I said, if a prospect’s in South Carolina or wherever.

NICK:                         It reminds me of so many times where in the past I’d ask you, who’s coming in for the spring game? So and so doesn’t know if he’s going to Alabama, FSU, or Florida. It’s like, geez. Now it’s, you want to go to South Carolina’s spring game? That’s fine. You can go tomorrow. We have ours Friday.

ANDREW:              Exactly. That’s the thing. It’s a situation where even if they’re not able to go, say you have Donovan Peoples-Jones in Michigan. I’m just using him for an example. I have no idea if he’s going to watch it, but Florida can say, turn on SEC Network or ESPN 3. Watch us. Watch Del Rio. Watch our receivers, and we’ll talk to you about it tomorrow. Someone’s going to be a smart-ass on Twitter and say, they don’t do that. They do that. Nick, I don’t know how many times you and I both have been told prospects saying we DVR games to watch the games. That’s what they’re going to do with the spring game. That’s the thing that I like about it.

You get into recruiting here. Let’s talk a little recruiting before we get out of here. Had a couple guys on campus this week. Big time safety, Devon Hunter from Virginia, and cornerback Amir Riep, however you want to say it. We haven’t decided how it’s supposed to be pronounced. Both of those guys came in. The Gators got a great chance with Devon Hunter, #2 safety in the country. He’s very close to Torrian Gray, very close to Coach DeBastiani from Norfolk State that’s now at Florida as a quality control guy. Florida needs a guy like Devon Hunter. We’re talking about needing a safety by Chauncey Gardner. Next year they’re going to need a guy to play opposite of Chauncey Gardner in Marcus Maye’s spot. That’s a guy like Devon Hunter could very well do that.

So far a very successful spring for Florida getting guys in, and the spring game should be loaded. We’ll get into that more next week. Guys like Trevon Grimes. Guys like James Robinson, Jake Allen, Kai-Leon Herbert. Several big name prospects are scheduled to come in on Friday night, and I expect to be a big atmosphere, and I think it’s going to be a successful event for Florida next Friday night in the Swamp.

NICK:                         Hopefully. Every spring game should be successful on the field, as you mentioned, off the field, and we kind of talked about the unique start time. Hopefully that will help, and those are some big names that you just threw out there.

ANDREW:              The spring, getting them on campus for spring is just the jumpstart into getting them back in the summer, getting them as coaches go out in the middle of April to visit schools for spring practices, spring games, that kind of stuff. It’s just a jumpstart to that. Good things are ahead, and they can only find it on one place there, Nicholas. Tell them where that’s at.

NICK:                         You know it. You can find it in several places.

ANDREW:              What several places?

NICK:                         You can find it at www.GatorCountry.com, on Twitter @NickdelaTorreGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC. You can also find it on our Facebook, just search Gator Country in the Facebook search bar, and Instagram, TheGatorcountry over on the IG.

ANDREW:             That’s right. Several good things are coming on those. Some nice edits from Kevin Camps, and we got some new interns around, Nick, and I think they’re going to be good for us. We introduced you guys on Wednesday to Austin Ryer, and he’s our newest one. We’ve got a couple other kind of pieces in our pocket we’re going to be bringing out and displaying to everyone, and that will only help the Gator Country brand become more dominant.

NICK:                         We do what we can.

ANDREW:             We do what we can. When you dominate you continue to put the foot on the throat of the competitors, and unlike the competitors we don’t mess up names and make up practice reports. Butch and Mark, you guys know the drill. As always, go Braves and chomp, chomp.

NICK:                        You stay classy, Gator Country.

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