Podcast: Talking Florida Gators recruiting and softball

This Gator Country podcast hits on a lot of topics including Florida Gators recruiting as prospects were on campus over the weekend to meet new defensive backs coach Torrian Gray.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how those visits went, plus they recap the opening weekend for the Florida Gators softball team as they went 4-0.

Andrew and Nick also talk about the latest college football news around the country, plus they preview baseball for this coming weekend.

TRANSCRIPT:

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

Nick:                         We got those stick ball sports underway. Softball with a perfect weekend. Stumbling on the hard court for Mike White’s basketball team, and we creep ever closer to my favorite season, baseball season.

Andrew:                 Do you call it a successful weekend when you beat everyone 38-1 in a four game set, including #2, Michigan?

Nick:                         No. No, I think I would say they were just okay. The girls were just okay this weekend.

Andrew:                 Just okay. There you go. It’s a fun weekend. It was a little different than I expected. When you look at the four game set, you go in. Did I think Florida was going to win all four? Absolutely. Did I think they were going to run rule all four of them? Maybe not. I mean, for the first time in Florida program history they run ruled their first four opponents.

Nick:                         I think we all assumed Illinois State was going to kind of be a sacrificial lamb. I think we had joked 22-0. Maybe we even joked about it so much that when I saw 11-0 I was like, what happened? You know what I mean? Almost like you had built up some crazy almost fictional score in your head, so that when they still kill team you’re like, only 11? Then I think both of us expected Michigan to be maybe like a 2-0, 2-1 kind of pitcher’s duel, but that was not the case.

Andrew:                 No. Kelly Barnhill comes in in her first career start. #1 player in the country last year in high school.

Nick:                         I thought she was going to pitch against Michigan.

Andrew:                 I did too. You and I had talked about that.

Nick:                         I thought that that was kind of the best way to do it. Here it is. You came to Florida to play the best competition. Here you go. Play #2.

Andrew:                 Play #2. Yeah. She didn’t disappoint. I mean, I guess she did disappoint. She didn’t throw a no hitter. She didn’t throw a perfect game. It was only a one hitter, and she only struck out two, but went five perfect shutout innings against Michigan for an 8-0 win. Then that was followed up on Sunday by shutting out Virginia Tech. Then allowed their only run of the tournament on Sunday afternoon against USF. We talk about Barnhill, and we talk about Ocasio, but Delanie Gourley was kind of the weekend warrior this weekend. Pitched a perfect game, or not a perfect game, pitched a shutout game against Illinois State on Friday, and then on Sunday Kelly Barnhill starts the USF game and goes two and a half of really strong work, and then walks the bases loaded, gives up a run. Delanie Gourley trots out there with a 2-0 count to the batter, bases loaded, and no outs, and she somehow or another gets out of that without any more runs scoring.

Nick:                         Yeah. You look at it. All three pitchers had one complete game on the weekend.

Andrew:                 Yes.

Nick:                         Barnhill, who struggled a little bit with her accuracy, hitters are only hitting .160 off her on the weekend, and I think the thing that really sticks out that you mentioned to me was how hard she throws. Florida’s had, maybe Baumbacher was the last kind of girl that would throw that hard, but not many girls are throwing in the 70s.

Andrew:                 She hit 73 a couple times, and was living in the 70s. I said this to you on the phone earlier on Monday. I thought the biggest thing that probably hurt her in the USF game was she started off with four consecutive strikeouts, and then started trying to overthrow. You and I both know overthrowing usually leads to a lot of walks and to bad shape. That’s usually what happens, and that’s exactly what kind of happened with her over the weekend was just kind of started overthrowing a little bit. You know, what’s funny is Barnhill comes in and has a successful weekend, but is overshadowed by another freshman in the class, and that’s Amanda Lorenz, who was, surprise, surprise, the #2 player in the country last year. All she did was hit a cool .500 this weekend.

Nick:                         Five of 10. Nine runs scored.

Andrew:                 Entering Saturday, Sunday’s last game she was hitting a cool .660. Probably the best deep batter for her for the weekend was against Virginia Tech when she had bases loaded and laced a double off the wall for a three run double. That was the Gator’s first extra base hit of the weekend. Yeah. She had a really good weekend. Nine runs scored. Five RBIs, and a cool .500 batting average.

Nick:                         What sticks out to me with her also, on top of scoring nine runs, hitting .500, earning five walks as well.

Andrew:                 Yes.

Nick:                         Then you look at the on base percentage at .667. Really impressed with Taylore Fuller, an .800 on base percentage. Got hit three times to aid that though.

Andrew:                 The thing with Fuller is this, and it’s kind of weird for her, but she’s in that four hole hitter, four hole spot, and she’s the beneficiary of a lot of good at bats, good placement I guess you would say. When you have Stewart and Merritt and Lorenz ahead of you, chances are you’re coming to bat every at bat with a runner on base, running in scoring position, or multiple runners on base. She hit .571 this weekend, and had that .800 on base percentage. The thing for me was this. Her biggest problem over the last couple of years has been striking out, and didn’t strike out this weekend, and drew the five walks. Got hit by the pitch eight times, or three times, for a total of eight on free passes.

For me that’s showing that she’s not letting herself get too big for the role she was at. She’s allowing herself to still be herself, while in that four hole hit spot, and allowing Janell Wheaton, Nicole DeWitt, and the other girls behind her to do their job. Janell Wheaton was probably the beneficiary of that this weekend, drove in nine runs and had the first home run of the year for the Gators for herself. For her, being a sophomore, she kind of struggled a little bit last year and kind of is coming into her own this first weekend.

Nick:                         What I really want to get into is Florida scored 38 runs. Outscored their opponents by 37, and I think unarguably the best player on this team in Kelsey Stewart was 1 for 11, hitting .091. So you’ve got your best player having a bad weekend, and you still dominated. I think that says a lot for just how deep it is. We’ve talked about how this program is kind of turning into a machine that recruits itself, and I think you can see that. When your best player slumps, and you still dominate, it kind of goes to show how deep Florida is on the softball team.

Andrew:                 Deep or scary?

Nick:                         Both. I think being so deep leads to it being scary. Baseball and softball, the schedules, the years are so long, and talking to people around Florida I think Florida has one of the best, if not the best, baseball team in the country, but every team they’ll play, Dartmouth, Harvard, every team in the country has a Friday night guy, their ace. Somebody that’s capable of going out any day and giving you eight innings of shutout ball or one run ball. Something can happen. You can lose a game, and then if you don’t have your best player playing like your best player it can lead you into losing some of those close games to a team that on paper you shouldn’t lose to. Florida didn’t come close to losing any games, and you didn’t get the production out of someone that you can pretty much not pencil in, Sharpie in, she’s going to have a great year.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Had you told me should would have got one hit this weekend I’d have probably told you you were, are you talking about the first game of the year she has one? Which game she had one hit? She’s 112 now hits shy of setting the all-time record for most hits in a career. The thing for Kelsey is this. Still walked several times, and I kind of think it might have been more timing. She was rolling over the pitch. Nick, you’re very familiar with that, but for people that aren’t, that’s simply either not taking the pitch to where it’s pitched at, or being off timing wise, and that simply allowed her to roll over a lot of pitches to second base, and even to the first baseman. I expect that to come in. It’s Game 1. When we look back at the end of the year Kelsey Stewart’s going to be hitting .400 or very close to that.

Nick:                         I am all too familiar with rolling over, which is not what you want to do when you play baseball. I am familiar with it, but it can be a number of things. Being out in front of the pitch. It’s still, yes, she is a senior, but it is the first weekend, and everyone’s still shaking off rust to some degree in that first weekend. Finally seeing a different pitcher.

Andrew:                 Let’s transition to football for a second. Several things going on this weekend. Let’s first hit on a couple guys that visited Florida this weekend and met new DB coach, Torrian Gray. Nick, you and I, we’ve kind of been waiting for that to happen a little bit. Florida kind of picked the right few guys to come on campus this weekend. They had big safety, Cyrus Fagan from Daytona Mainland. Had a 2018 five star corner, Tyrie Johnson, come in. They had Ohio State DB, Shawn Way, come in. It’s kind of a who’s who of DBs for the 2017/2018 class come in to meet Torrian Gray with their pro impact and high school coaches. So it was a big weekend. Maybe the funniest thing I heard, and Cyrus Fagan told me this, is he said, “Gray said he was going to bring his part of DBU to Florida to create the whole DBU.” For me that was pretty funny.

Nick:                         So DBU is a puzzle, and it’s missing one piece, and he is that piece.

Andrew:                 Yes. Then he said he had DBU with the Fuller brothers. So there’s not another Fuller brother. I would say chances are he’d want to bring that Fuller brother to finish the piece, but LSU, Torrian Gray says he has completed the puzzle of DBU in Gainesville.

Nick:                         I think it might have already been complete before he got there, and I think some of the players on the roster, some of his new players, might say that as well.

Andrew:                 Jalen Tabor, I know you listen to this, so let us know what you think about that. Did you give Coach Gray some hell about that comment?

Nick:                         What is the early sense from guys you’ve talked to, from recruits, about new coach, Torrian Gray?

Andrew:                 It’s kind of weird, because it’s like DB coaches, receiver coaches, they are known more than like an offensive line coach or a tight end coach or a defensive line coach.

Nick:                         It kind of goes with the position. Offensive linemen are often forgotten. You get defensive backs that like to talk a lot, and all of a sudden it’s the sexier position.

Andrew:                 Right. I feel like these guys do their research more on that. Cyrus Fagan, he told me flat out. He was like, “I knew that Coach Gray put Cam Chancellor into the League.” I’m sitting here thinking, I didn’t know he put Cam Chancellor in the League until I started doing research on him. Of course also, it helps that Gray did recruit the state of Florida while he was at Virginia Tech. He’s from Lakeland, but the overall sense that I’ve gotten from talking to a couple of guys, even to a couple of coaches that were on campus, was that Gray fits right in, and that these kids really like Gray. I think the thing that’s going to be interesting to see, and not really interesting to see from the standpoint well it worked, it’ll work, but how much of the energy does a guy like Gray, Collins, and Rumph together create? Because those are all three high energy guys, and that kind of seems to be the overall response about Gray is that he’s a real energetic guy, and we know the Rumphshaker’s got some energy. Nicholas?

Nick:                         Florida’s got a bunch of coaches on staff that are young, and a lot of high energy. I think maybe that Gray is 41, I think maybe some of that being young will help in relating to players, because when we talk about recruiting it’s really turned into the prospects are picking, and we tell never pick based on a coach, but it’s really where their building the closest relationships with these coaches, and it’s kind of you always hear like I feel like I’m at home. I feel like it’s a family. Maybe getting younger coaches is going to help relate to these recruits. I’m not sure if it does, but it seems to be the trend is that kids are picking schools based on relationships that they have with coaches, and I don’t know. It’s probably tough for a 70 year old coach to relate to a 17 year old more so than it is a coach that’s 38, 39, 40.

Andrew:                 I think it’s especially true at DB. I can’t stand T Rob. There’s no secret about my feelings towards T Rob, but T Rob does a good job, not a great job, contrary to belief, he does a good job because he’s young, energetic, and is like that, is very involved with his guys. I think that’s one of the biggest things that helps him. Speaking of that, you just actually kind of led me into my next point that I wanted to talk about. Dameyune Craig leaves Auburn to LSU this past weekend. Basically kind of takes a demotion almost. He was co-OC wide receiver coach. I know he didn’t actually call plays at Auburn, but he had that title, to go to LSU to be receiver coach. Nate Craig picked Auburn pretty much for Craig. How much of that is it? That’s kind of a right at it. You don’t pick a coach for the school kind of deal.

Nick:                         Yeah. I think there’s a couple kids at Auburn that maybe…

Andrew:                 Are pissed off?

Nick:                         That maybe thought the coaching staff wouldn’t look the way it does right now.

Andrew:                 Byron Cowart, are you trying to throw shade at Byron?

Nick:                         Maybe. Maybe Byron.

Andrew:                 Jeffrey Holland.

Nick:                         I don’t understand committing to a coach that’s not even your position coach though.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         Can we, you love your state. You love the state of Alabama.

Andrew:                 I do.

Nick:                         What is the appeal of Auburn, Alabama?

Andrew:                 I don’t know.

Nick:                         What’s out there?

Andrew:                 I mean, I don’t know. I will sit there, and I can say this. I know I’m going to get bashed for this.

Nick:                         I’m not going to believe a single thing you say.

Andrew:                 I don’t like Auburn. I don’t like Auburn. I can’t stand Auburn, and I’ve never understood. Why do you go to the plains? When they say you’re going to the plains that’s really what it is, farmland. There’s nothing. You’re an hour and a half, two hours, from Atlanta. You’re an hour and a half, two hours, to Montgomery. Where are you going? Where are you going here? You’re in the middle of nowhere. I say the same thing really about Tuscaloosa, but at least you’re winning championships at Tuscaloosa. What are you doing at Auburn?

Nick:                         Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa was a nice little college town.

Andrew:                 Auburn is not even really a college town. It’s like it’s so spaced out.

Nick:                         I’ve got nothing for Auburn.

Andrew:                 I don’t either. I mean, is it pretty, the buildings? Sure. I mean, who really cares about pretty buildings? That’s a girl thing.

Nick:                         They should throw toilet paper over the entire town and start over.

Andrew:                 There it is. Let’s go back to Craig though. I told you this before we went on the air just a second ago. I just don’t understand this move. I know someone’s going to say, Gus is going to get fired next year. Sure. He probably is, and it is what it is. He’s not doing very well at Auburn, but that’s his alma mater that he went to. Craig’s known as a big name guy. I mean, Auburn fans love Dameyune Craig. Whoever would have took the job for Gus would have likely kept him on staff. You’re going to LSU, who wanted to fire Les last year. They’re not going to be that much better this year. Are they going to keep him again?

Nick:                         I don’t know how you can fire him.

Andrew:                 Right. But you know what I’m saying. They’ve already planted the seed.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 I mean, you and I have both been told by several people that half of their coaching staff was looking to get out of town. That was very evident when Frank Wilson, the running back recruiting coordinator, who loved LSU, I think he even graduated from LSU, was looking to go to Tulane. Then went to University of Texas San Antonio to get out of there. I know LSU people who don’t believe Corey Raymond was looking to get out of town, but he absolutely was. What are you doing?

Nick:                         I think maybe what they did last year was make the inconceivable something that was widely talked about, because when it was first brought up that LSU’s thinking about getting rid of Les Miles I think most people just kind of joked, other than people covering LSU. I think we were all like, yeah, that’s funny. You’re not going to get rid of Les Miles. Because of how it played out, now it’s gone from something that’s inconceivable that you would shrug off and joke about to, man, I don’t know how they would, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked. I wouldn’t agree with it, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked. So maybe I agree with you in that sense.

Andrew:                 Something’s always easier to bring up the second time, and the seed was already planted now. So if they have a bad season, guess what fans are going to do? Fans are going to be like, you should have just went ahead and got rid of him last year. So it’s going to make things easier, and you know as well as I do, as much as they say those talks were cut off because of Les doing a good year, you and I have both been told it’s because Jimbo Fisher told them no. You know what I’m saying? What if a Tom Herman has another great year, and LSU is struggling again? LSU’s not winning the west. LSU’s not winning national title next year. They still have Brandon Harris playing quarterback. Who’s to say they don’t look elsewhere?

Nick:                         Man, I don’t get it. You got a guy that wins 10 games a year.

Andrew:                 But you know what I’m saying though. That’s my question. I know Dameyune Craig well. A little background, I coached with him at University of South Alabama when he was a receiver coach. I was just a little measly old GA, student assistant, and he was still slinging the ball. He’s a great guy. I just would love to, maybe I should call him and ask him, what’s going on? What were you thinking?

Nick:                         I don’t know. Do you think it’s leaving one sinking ship for another?

Andrew:                 Exactly. You are leaving one sinking ship for another, and you’re leaving your alma mater. I mean, you know how it is, Nick. I’m trying to think of who it would be. I don’t know. You know what I’m saying? It’s easier for a fan base to get behind a player and keep him on staff, especially someone as good as recruiter as him, at Auburn than it is LSU. Nobody has ties to him at LSU.

Nick:                         He is getting out of the plains.

Andrew:                 He is getting out of the plains. Maybe that’s what it was. Maybe he was sick of the plains.

Nick:                         That is a solid positive, getting out of the plains and going to get some delicious Cajun gumbo. I would do it.

Andrew:                 Maybe he wants the alcohol at Tiger Stadium.

Nick:                         That’s such a great move. Every college stadium should bring alcohol in.

Andrew:                 Maybe. Who knows? We’ll see.  I don’t know. It’s interesting. I said it on Twitter yesterday. I don’t understand it. We’ll see. Another coaching move on Monday was Brent Key, the UCF offensive line coordinator goes to Alabama, and is the offensive line coach there, and they’re now supposedly moving Mario Cristobel to tackles and tight ends. Wow. The rich just get richer.

Nick:                         That seems to continue to happen.

Andrew:                 I’ll say this. I know a couple of guys who played at UCF, and they hated Brent Key with a passion. I’ve been told by a couple other people as well that he’s not the most friendliest coach, and let’s be honest. UCF’s offensive line sucked.

Nick:                         Yeah. He’s a young guy. UCF dealt with a ton of injuries last year, including offensive linemen. To me, Saban doesn’t make bad hires, and if he does make one that doesn’t really work…

Andrew:                 They’re gone pretty soon.

Nick:                         Yeah. I think you’ll see Brent Key be there for maybe like a year.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you this. Does this say more about Cristobal or does this say more about Key? Because there was some talk that Cristobal at one time was going to get the Miami job, and then there was some talk that he may be moving on. Is it more Saban getting frustrated with Cristobal, or is it more to do with Brent Key?

Nick:                         Key is from Alabama, and he didn’t have a job. He wasn’t retained.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         I think it might just be he was the recruiting coordinator at UCF. He has a ton of ties and history and relationships with kids in the state of Florida. Maybe Saban, I think we both know that Saban’s not happy about Jim McElwain going into Alabama and cherry picking kids. So maybe it’s just another recruiting move.

Andrew:                 Right. Also, let’s face it. Alabama’s offensive line wasn’t very good last year either. I would be reasoned to say that might be the worst offensive line they had in a few years, and they were pretty damn talented up front. Florida and Clemson both made them look like chopped liver for a good portion of the game. Now, granted, Florida and Clemson’s defensive lines are both very good, but Florida was living in the backfield in the SEC championship game.

Nick:                         Yeah. It was not your typical Alabama offensive line we’ve kind of gotten used to, but I don’t know. I see it as more I don’t really think it’s a demotion to Cristobal. I think it’s more, in my mind, recruiting is everything. So in my mind I think it’s more of a recruiting ploy. You get a coach who you maybe believe in, and you have another guy who is familiar with and can recruit the state of Florida, which has the best kids in the country.

Andrew:                 Alabama hired Derrick Ansley at DB coach, and he’s from the state of Alabama as well. He actually played ball at Troy with a good friend of mine, and, damn, he’s a hell of a recruiter. I would take Torrian Gray over him as far as on field skills, but Derrick Ansley is a hell of a recruiter. But it’s the off season for football, let’s talk a little hardwood. Gators fall to Bama on the road, I mean at home, in a ugly shooting performance of a game on Saturday.

Nick:                         That’s going to happen. I kind of went off on their effort, and you can’t fault them for effort. They dominated on the glass, 54-35, including, astonishing, out rebounding Bama 23-6 on the offensive end. That just doesn’t happen. So the effort’s there.

Andrew:                 You say the effort’s there, Nick, and this is I know you were watching the game, and you were watching as well as I did, and I guess the thing that bothers me with the effort is this. Defensive rotation was terrible and missed layups. For me that’s concentration. That’s effort. You can’t have that happen.

Nick:                         Yeah. A lot of missed shots. There’s no excuse for missed layups, but maybe missing shots you kind of get into a funk.

Andrew:                 Lazy.

Nick:                         You get into a funk of, no, it’s just lazy. Yeah. It’s just not finishing. It’s not focused. There’s no excuse, and this is really before the game we talked that theoretically Florida could still win the SEC regular season.

Andrew:                 It’s all your fault. Right now. It’s your fault.

Nick:                         I’ll wear that one, but then home loss to Alabama, and now we go from the conversation where theoretically they could win the SEC to this looks really bad as far as even getting into the tournament.

Andrew:                 They were a seven seed heading into the weekend. I believe now they’re an eleven seed or something like that. Not good. Guess what? The road games are coming, and the Gators are not very good on the road.

Nick:                         No. Two road games this week. That’s really tough. I don’t know how, what does Florida need to do to finish? Because when you start looking at it, and you look realistically at the schedule is 1-1 this week best case scenario?

Andrew:                 Who is it? Georgia and LSU?

Nick:                         At Georgia and at South Carolina.

Andrew:                 South Carolina. Yeah. I mean, you got to win one of two. 0-2 would be miserable, but you look at Georgia. They’re 14-9, sixth in the SEC. I mean, they very well could win the game, and then you go to South Carolina. South Carolina is an up and down team. It’s almost like Florida. It’s like theirs two teams. Which team is going to show up? You got to go one of two there, and then what really becomes key is that Vandy game the following week at home. That’s going to be a game you got to win, because then you’re going to LSU.

Nick:                         At the fighting Ben Simmons, and then the fighting Cals come in.

Andrew:                 Right. Then you go to Missouri on the road. Missouri is not good, but it’s a tough trip, like you say, and they’re not a bad team. They’re not very good. You look at this, what is it? Six games left. Realistically you need Florida to probably go 4-2, maybe.

Nick:                         Yeah.

Andrew:                 I mean, 500 is going to get them to what? What’s the record going to be? 500 would get them to 19-12? I think you need 20.

Nick:                         I was told there’d be no math. I think you need to get to 20 wins. The problem with what I see is that they’re 2-6 on the road.

Andrew:                 That LSU game on the road is going to be huge. A win in LSU, a win on the road at LSU, or maybe a win on the road at South Carolina this weekend, could give you the fire power to get you in. Of course you’re going to have to have a decent showing at the tournament, but what would a win at Carolina and at LSU do for your resume?

Nick:                         There’s six games left, and you’re 16-9. So I don’t even know if, can they go 4-2 over that stretch?

Andrew:                 It depends.

Nick:                         Four gets you to 20.

Andrew:                 Right. I mean, it depends. You tell me a team that showed up against West Virginia or a team that showed up early in the season for games, yeah. I think they can. They beat LSU.

Nick:                         They showed up really well at East Lansing, playing against Michigan State. They showed up for that game. You don’t get a win, but that’s the kind of effort that you need to bring on the road to have a chance these next two games.

Andrew:                 It’s almost kind of like the football team. It’s like they play well against good teams, and they play down against bad teams. That Alabama game, it was a recipe for disaster in my opinion anyway, because Alabama plays really good defense, and they played that zone, and Florida just doesn’t move the ball very well against that zone, but it was a still a bad loss for Florida to lose that game.

Nick:                         No, it’s a loss that really hurts the tournament resume. You thought, especially being able to get two home games in before having to go on the road, it’s just not, it’s going to happen, because it’s shooting. Sometimes the shots aren’t just going to go in. I do like to see the effort though. I just don’t know. I think a lot of people are kind of checking out on this team. I don’t know. I think 20 wins, maybe we’ll include an SEC tournament run, winning a couple games there. I think that’s successful, especially when you look at the two players that I think I’ve been most impressed with, other than Dorian Finney-Smith who’s having a great senior year, are the two guys that Mike White brought in, and it’ll be interesting to see how this team rebounds from a frustrating loss Tuesday night. It’ll be interesting to see how they rebound after this season as well, and kind of attack and adapt towards year two under White.

Andrew:                 It’s a kind of a situation where it’s like you know this team is not going to shoot lights out. You know this team is not going to play power ball inside. So what do you win with? You win with effort, and it’s like when the effort’s there they play really good, and they do well. When the effort sucks, they don’t play well. I can’t, for me missing a layup is like fumbling a football in football. It’s all about being lazy and about effort, not concentrating, and that’s what it is. Poor defense, leaving three point shooters open in the corner. Not doing your assignments on the press. For me that’s lazy.

Nick:                         And there’s no excuse. At this point of the year you should know your deficiencies, and you should have a very clear picture of what kind of team you are, and you should know by this point, like if we don’t come out and give 100% effort we’re not going to look good. There’s some teams that can show up, maybe not give full effort, and be okay. This is not one of those teams. To not realize that at this point of the year, and to not be able to kind of look at yourself in the mirror and realistically assess we’re not strong enough to play with 95% effort. If we don’t bring it every single night we’re going to get embarrassed, and I think that’s, this team’s not young. It could be tough for a young team to do that, but this team’s not young, and we’re so far into the season that that should have already happened.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I agree. I don’t know. I don’t know what the answer is for the next couple of games. It’s do or die. If you look at a stretch where they go 2-4, no way are they getting in. I don’t know. Be interesting to see just kind of how they finish and how they do in these next three games. Is it three games or four games on the road? Three games on the road?

Nick:                         There’s six games, and four of them are on the road.

Andrew:                 So four of them on the road. They go to find a way to gut one or two of those out, or problem will be coming about. You’ll be in the NIT. I don’t know. It’s baseball week finally. Opening week is upon us. Gators and Florida Gulf Coast this weekend? That’s correct?

Nick:                         Florida Gulf Coast. Yes.

Andrew:                 Big weekend for that. Expecting Shore, Puk, Faedo. Is that the three?

Nick:                         Yeah. It’s going to be Logan Shore on Friday, A.J. Puk on Saturday, and Alex Faedo on Sunday. Basically Sully said should A.J. Puk, has A.J. Puk earned a Friday night start, to be considered that guy? Yeah, but what has Logan Shore done to not be the Friday night guy? Not bad. Not a bad problem to have.

Andrew:                 I think you would agree with me though when I said this. That is that I think it’s good to have Puk in that Saturday start. Go right, left, right. To me if you’re going to go with a lefty I never want to see a lefty as your ace unless you’re a lefty dominate team. You look Glavline. Glavline used to always be your #2 guy, mixed between Smoltz and Maddox, because it was simple as go right, left, right. You don’t have a lineup. You can’t throw all your right handed sticks in the Friday night, and then have your left handed guys go the next two games. You want to go right, left, right.

Nick:                         Yeah, and Sully’s a big matchup kind of guy. I really honestly just think that it is Logan’s been doing it since his freshman year. What has he done? Last year the record wasn’t great, but it was almost comical how little run support he got on Friday, and Florida would win a game on Friday 2-1, and Shore would get no decision, and then they’d come out on Saturday and they’d score six runs in the first inning, and Puk would go out there on Saturday with a 6-0 lead. If I’m Logan Shore, I’m sitting there thinking, where was any of this last night? He just didn’t get the run support that he would have needed to kind of have that great record, but his stuff was dynamite. He really turned it on towards the end of the year, and this team.

This pitching staff is just incredible. Wait till you see freshman, Hunter Bowling. There’s so many guys on this team that, Brady Singer, that are really good, but you’re only going to see them when Dartmouth comes in on a Tuesday and a Wednesday. You’re just like, how is this staff so deep? There’s nobody on the team that will throw less than 90, and even the guys that are only throwing 90, “only”, are throwing, Kirby Snead and Rubio are throwing from like 90 degree angles. They’re throwing sidearm. It’s going to be a very fun team. It’s a long season, 56 games, but they are going to be a very fun team to watch.

Andrew:                 It’d be interesting to see how that goes. Does a Singer or another one of those guys that are in midweek, do they step in and take Faedo’s spot on Sunday?

Nick:                         Faedo kind of did that last year.

Andrew:                 That’s what I was going to say. Sully showed he can do that, and he will do that.

Nick:                         What Faedo has done, so he took the summer off, and it’s similar to what Shore did after his freshman year. I don’t mean he sat on his couch and ate potato chips, but he didn’t go to the Cape Cod League. They just said, we’re going to shut your arm down. We want you to work out, run, get down to this certain weight, and he did that. He’s picked up like three miles an hour on his fastball. So maybe there was something to that, maybe some arm fatigue, but he’s sitting 92, 93, 94 now, where he was in the low 90s towards the end of his starts last year. He would be throwing in the high 80s. There’s just more life on his fastball. So if somebody comes and takes his Sunday night role, that’s a good thing for Florida, because that means somebody is pitching really well.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It wouldn’t surprise me, especially with Sully. Poor Faedo, how do you say his name?

Nick:                         Faedo.

Andrew:                 Faedo. He has a poor first game, and Sully may be sending him to Tuesday starts. Sully’s a different character when it comes to his pitching staff.

Nick:                         Dunning started 5-0. Dunning started 5-0 and lost his Sunday job.

Andrew:                 He was 5-0, but it wasn’t perfect. It’s perfect. Got to do perfect. It is what it is. You got to be perfect. Couple things before we get out of here. Nick, you and I both talking about this. On iTunes we’re a top 15 podcast now. That goes to you guys, everybody that’s listening to this and has supported the podcast, and is giving us rave reviews and that stuff. We appreciate it. Nick, I know you’ll say the same. It’s great. I can say for myself I never expected it to be this big, and we really appreciate you guys.

Nick:                         Yeah. I had to talk you into it. You didn’t even want to do it.

Andrew:                 Don’t even go there. Don’t even go there with that talking me into it. No. It’s pretty cool. When you look it up, and you’re in the top 15. It’s pretty good, and we beat Bama. So it’s always good. We want Bama.

Nick:                         We want Bama. We do appreciate that. As always, we haven’t asked in a while, but if you feel inclined go ahead and throw a rating down there on iTunes for us. We would appreciate that. Feedback. How are we doing? What do you want us to talk about? What do we need to talk about less? Let us know.

Andrew:                 Definitely. We’ve had a lot of new members. Over 25 new members since Signing Day, and we appreciate that, and come on. Keep coming over. I think you can ask people on Twitter, on the message boards, if they’ve got what they paid for, and I’d be willing to bet nobody would say they haven’t, because this podcast is just a little bit of what we bring. Come on over. Join the site. You won’t be let down. Baseball and softball coverage is unbelievable. Nick’s bringing it with baseball. Softball was last week, and got a Junior Day coming this Saturday for recruiting. Should be fun next couple months.

Nick:                         Absolutely. Will you be in town for Junior Day?

Andrew:                 It depends. It depends on who’s all coming in this weekend. It just depends. Right now it’s only a small couple of guys, two or three guys.

Nick:                         We know how those, the recruiting lists, can shrink or expand very rapidly. They’re very fluid.

Andrew:                 Yeah. I expect a big Junior Day to be the next weekend. I expect that one to be the bigger Junior Day of the two. I wouldn’t even consider this a Junior Day as much as I would consider it just a couple guys coming in to visit. A couple of guys from the Carolinas are coming in to visit. We’ll see. We’ll see who all comes in, and need someone to jump on board. The Swamp ’17 chomp, chomp movement on Twitter needs to get livened up a little bit.

Nick:                         It’s a little slow right now.

Andrew:                 It is. Tell the people where they can find us, Nick, and we’ll get out of here and stop bugging the people.

Nick:                         You know where it is. @NickdelaTorreGC on Twitter. @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. @GatorCountry on Twitter. Also follow us on Facebook. Just search GatorCountry.com. It’ll pop up right there. On Instagram, TheGatorCountry.

Andrew:                 Got some cool edits coming as well. Our man, Kevin Camps, and my man, Gator Edits. Two guys to follow as well. You can find them on Twitter, because they’re doing the show, and it’s really good. As always, Mark Richt, Butch Jones, you know the drill, and as always go Braves. 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.

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