This GatorCountry podcast focuses on the Florida Gators spring ball for week one as the Gators had its first spring football practice on Wednesday afternoon.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre talked about how the first practice went and who stood out not only the field but from a physical standpoint on Wednesday.
Andrew and Nick also recap the Florida Gators basketball win over Arkansas, plus preview their Friday match-up against Texas A&M in the SEC tournament on Friday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Once again, your man, Andrew Spivey, joined by my man, Nicholas. What’s up, Nick?
Nick: Friends, it’s a good day. Mike White and the Gator basketball team opened up with a win. Spring football is in the air, running around in underwear as Jim McElwain calls it. The diamond sports keep trucking along, including a no-hitter this week. We’ve got a lot of stuff going on in Gainesville, but I think we’ll start off with basketball, bit win over Arkansas.
Andrew: Big win on Arkansas on Thursday for Mike White and the Gators. It’s not pretty, but this team just doesn’t make things look pretty. They did play good defense once again in the game against Arkansas, and depending on what time you guys are listening to this, the Gators have either played Texas A&M, or are going to play Texas A&M as the game tips off at 1:00 Eastern, noon for Nashville where they’re playing. I think a good showing against A&M gets them in the tournament. I’m not in the belief they have to win, but can get blown out. A win, in my opinion, gets them in for sure. A close game puts them right on the bubble.
Nick: I disagree. It’s definitely a statement game. You’re playing a #1 seed in the SEC Tournament in A&M. It’s very good all year long. I think a win could get you in. Any loss, I think even if it’s a close loss, I just don’t see Florida getting in. I think they really need to get two games in the SEC Tournament, after losing three of the last four. I think they need to get two, and I don’t really think that changes. A statement game against A&M, against the Aggies, for sure, and I think a win over #1 goes a long way in getting you into the NCAA Tournament.
Andrew: I think a win gets them in for sure.
Nick: I’d like to think that, but I’m not even sure. They might need to get three wins in the tournament. I think the committee takes into account how teams have looked all season, as well as how they’re playing now, when it comes down to those final couple teams. Florida coming out, losing three of their last four, you get one win, and then you play A&M close, but lose. You lost four of your last six. Then they’re not playing well right now, and they haven’t played well for most of the season. That’s why I think a close loss might not necessarily get them in.
Andrew: I think to usually go with Joe Lunardi, and right now, after the win against Arkansas, he has them as one of the last four in. That’s kind of what he has them now, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m going to say this, Kasey Hill was probably the moving force there. Egbunu had a good game as well, because of having what his problem of his thumb going out. I think he did well too. I think that this is just a team that has to play hard, and if they don’t play hard they have no chance. If they play hard, they have a decent chance.
Nick: Tearing a ligament in your thumb sounds painful, and then you’ve got to think you’re doing a day before a basketball game, and then Egbunu goes out and pulls down nine rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. Eight points on three and three shooting, two of three at the line. He pulled down some big rebounds, and those cleaning up on the offensive glass is big. Florida needed him down low. They got him. He got into a little bit of foul trouble, but I think it’s really it was a gritty performance in the first half, and then you get a season high 18 points from Kasey Hill.
You really had no answer at all for Dusty Hannahs, except for just down the stretch. I think it was Arkansas’ second to last possession, and Kasey Hill plays in tough, forces the ball out of his hand. You get a missed shot. Florida gets a rebound, and at that point it was a one point game. Florida was able to clear out. Devin Robinson gets a big basket, and they’re able to close it out. I think maybe an inspired performance for Kasey Hill, and probably maybe his best game of the year.
Andrew: Probably his best game of the year. The thing with Kasey Hill is he sees one go in, one three go in, and then his mind gets going of I’m about to shoot the world on fire here.
Nick: I think that happened to the whole team kind of. Right around that same time where Kasey made one, a couple guys started making them. Florida did shoot 40% from behind the arc, but you got into a stretch where you had an eight point, nine point lead, and then you start wasting possessions by going up and one pass, chuck a three, one pass, chuck a three. Instead of doing what got you there, ball movement, driving to the lane, finding gaps, strong in double team, kicking out to the open guy.
Andrew: That’s kind of where this team goes. I don’t know. We’ll see where it is. In my opinion any post season is good for this team, because you’re starting to see Kevarrius Hayes and KeVaughn Allen come along a little bit. As we talk about in football all the time, getting to the bowl game gives you that extra bit of practice, and whether it’s the NIT, whether it’s the NCAA Tournament, of course the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal, but wherever you go it’d be good just to get that extra week or whatever, a few days, you can get out of practice.
Nick: Last note, before we move onto football, we have a ton to cover from spring practice. It’s a quick turnaround. You got to play a game today against a rested A&M team tomorrow. The only player who played more than 30 minutes today was KeVaughn Allen, so it’s nice to see Mike White kind of space out the minutes knowing that if we win this game we have a quick turnaround. Let’s see if we can be fresh for tomorrow. Maybe some guys will have fresh legs, with only one player really playing a ton of minutes on Thursday.
Andrew: Like you said, it’s a big one, and then Friday will be even bigger as they go down the stretch. Each game gets bigger, and each game starts to come with a little more prize, and at the end of the day if Florida wants to take the hands out of the committee, win the tournament. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. This team has good days and really bad days. You never know what team’s going to show up until you get there.
Nick: It’s not exactly an even pendulum. It’s they have like a ceiling of six, and a floor of negative 20.
Andrew: It comes out, and you’re like, the team that beats West Virginia, the team that plays good against South Carolina for stretches. Then you have teams that can’t even make a shot against Missouri. Let’s go to football. Opening day of practice was Wednesday. Got out there in the so-called underwear. Mark Thompson was compared to Derrick Henry. Luke Del Rio was compared to Tom Brady. If it happens, somebody is going to write about it. As I say all the time, don’t read a damn thing that’s written in that 15 minutes of practice.
Nick: We talked about it so much last spring, talked about it so much in the fall. It’s a choreographed dance that we’re seeing. The coaches know when we’re out there. They know what they want us to see, and that’s what we’re seeing. Also, first couple days, as we mentioned, I can complete passes on air. I can do it.
Andrew: Hold on a second now.
Nick: Now if somebody’s going out there and throwing two hoppers to guys when there’s no corner, there’s no safety covering, then there’s an issue.
Andrew: Hold on now. Last year they couldn’t complete passes on air. Let’s give a little credit that things are improved here, but anybody trying to anoint a starting quarterback out of watching that is full of shit, and I have no problem saying that. It is what it is, but it’s good to get them out there. You can’t really tell too much about anything until the pads come on, especially at the line position, which is probably one of, if not the biggest positions of, I guess you could say importance to go this spring.
Nick: To me, I didn’t even really waste my time going over and looking at the offensive linemen, other than to grab a few pictures of guys, see some guys, how they’ve been able to change weight. When it came time for offensive line and defensive line to basically go through the motions of stuff, I didn’t really look at that. You can’t tell anything when those big guys are practicing without pads. I really kind of just focused on the running backs, seeing how they move. Wanted to see Mark Thompson. Focused on new receivers, Freddie Swain, Dre Massey, and Hammond.
Also wanted to see basically the skill guys. Paying a lot of attention to the quarterbacks. I was impressed with their arm strength. The two things that really stick out to me about the quarterbacks, size and arm strength. Kyle Trask was listed at 6’6” in high school. Listed at 6’4” now for Florida. I think 6’4” is more correct. Feleipe Franks is 6’6”, definitely taller. Trask is built, think build, big upper body, bigger arms. Was impressed with his arm strength. Austin Appleby, impressed with his arm strength. Saw him get picked off twice from what I saw. One of them was a very good play from Nick Washington, kind of came out of nowhere. Then Luke Del Rio is definitely the smallest of the quarterbacks, but still 6’2”, bigger than anything you had last year.
Andrew: I think that is a prototypical Jim McElwain, Doug Nussmeier thing. They don’t want small quarterbacks that can’t see over the line. That’s something you might as well get used to, and it’s good to have, because guess what? You have some monsters on the offensive line in Stone and Fred Johnson and Sharpe and Ivey. They’re not 6’7”, 6’6” like those two guys, but they’re still big old boys. Good for those guys. Like you said, Mark Thompson is going to win the first off the bus award, because he looks like a machine. Whether or not he performs like he did in Juco ball or not is to be seen, but so far, so good.
Nick: Real quick, before I move on to that, a note on Trask. 6’4”, very high release. If we’re talking like baseball terms he would be a straight over the top pitcher where a lot of guys would throw from like a high three quarter slot, Trask kinds of just comes straight over the top, elbow almost at like a 90 degree angle, elbow’s high. So a high release on top of already being 6’4”. That’s good. When you get a guy that throws from that high release, you’re not going to get a lot of balls tipped at the line. Ryan Tannehill for the Dolphins is 6’3”, 6’4”, and he has more passed tipped at the line than Russel Wilson, who also has a high release, even though he’s only 5’10”. That’s just another note. Trask has been moving along.
Andrew: Hold on a second with Trask. This is a thing that I’ve heard a lot, and that is that he is a guy that fundamentally is there. It’s kind of some of his learning of the defenses, learning where he wants to go with the ball, learning what I call the small stuff, and the most important stuff is kind of where maybe he’s going to struggle for the first little bit of time. That is something that can be taught. Nussmeier and McElwain and all the guys that are working with him will have a unfinished project to work with and kind of train him to do kind of what they want for their scheme, philosophy, that kind of stuff.
Nick: That’s really the case I think for all young quarterbacks.
Andrew: But there’s a guy like Franks. Franks is a guy who has played in the same system for four years now. He has kind of an understanding of what he’s looking at from a spread standpoint.
Nick: A lot of what Florida was working yesterday was taking snaps under center, which is definitely new for both Franks and Trask.
Andrew: Right, but what I’m saying is there’s a big difference in a philosophy of a spread system quarterback who 1, 2, 3, I got to go, and a pro-style quarterback who is cover two, I’m going to check to this, cover three, this is what I’m going with. Franks hasn’t had to do that, because of his background, and that’s what I’m saying. That’ll take time to get old habits out of the way for new habits. Trask I think is a guy who hasn’t developed a habit either way, and that will be easier to adjust.
Nick: I see what you’re saying there, yeah. That kind of makes sense. For me, for both of them, it’s going to be a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to really grasping the offense, grasping the playbook. Jim McElwain talked a lot about it last year where as a quarterback the biggest thing he’s looking for, other than not turning the ball over, is elevating the play of guys around you, and when you’re a freshman, and you’ve got 10,000 things running through your head, you’re more focused on I can’t screw this up than I know everything. I know what I’m supposed to do, so that when I’m at the line I have such a good knowledge of it it’s second nature to me that I can turn and see Alvin Bailey’s on the line. He needs to be off. We’re going to get called for that. Alvin, step back. I think that’s where Del Rio’s advantage comes in. Played in Nussmeier’s offense, not played, but practiced in Nussmeier’s offense as a freshman at Alabama, and then had an entire year in that system here. I think that’s where Del Rio’s advantage comes at the quarterback position right now.
Andrew: Here’s another thing that kind of concerns me a little bit, and that’s that Franks never has shown that ability to be that leader, and that’s something that I’m also kind of looking to see. Is that something that maybe just we just didn’t see, or is that something that’s going to grow? I think that is one of the biggest things for him, and then a guy like Trask who hasn’t been the starter, where does he fit in in all this? Is he a guy that has that ability that’s just kind of been waiting his turn to get that starter role, or where is that with him? That’s for the young guys.
Nick: I think it’s so hard to develop that leader voice as a freshman, one, and then as a freshman who’s in technically a four way quarterback battle, because you get into the thought process of I come out, and I assert myself, and I want to take the reins and take the lead. Then I don’t win the quarterback job, lose out to a guy that has more experience, and now I’m that hotshot freshman that all the upper classman hate, because I was running my mouth and trying to be a leader, and now I’m on the bench.
Andrew: I think we’re kind of talking about two different things here. When I think what you were talking about at first was a guy that is maybe a guy that can say this is what we have to do. We have to go here, here, here. I need you to line up here. As in you want a guy like a Tim Tebow who gets in your face, a Tom Brady who’s going to call you out for mistakes. I think that’s kind of where the difference of a quarterback and a so-called cocky leader for a freshman comes out. A guy like Franks or Trask, whoever is the smarter of the two at the playbook, can help guys like Freddie Swain, Josh Hammond, Dre Massey, and those guys, more so than being that, like you said, cocky kind of leader.
Nick: I see that. I think that’s, I took what you were saying differently. To me I think you probably need both, and there’s just so many things that go into playing quarterback at a high level, at a Division I school. So I think that’s really what holds freshmen back.
Andrew: I agree.
Nick: Regardless if you think Franks or Trask is the option at some point, it might just not be right now. Then you have to start to think, we’re trying to win football games. Who gives us the best opportunity to do that right now versus what the future’s going to look like? If you start banking on what the future’s going to look like you might lose too many games and not have that future.
Andrew: That’s right. I say this, and one of the biggest things on Grier last year was he wasn’t a guy that was a leader of the team, and that’s something that was concerning, and probably kept him from being the guy that, well it did keep him from McElwain officially ever naming him the starter, because that was a negative against him.
Nick: They should have just gone out and said Will Grier was the starter, because it was really obvious that he was the starter.
Andrew: Right, but what I’m saying is that was the thing that McElwain continued to kind of call him out for was his leadership and that kind of stuff. I don’t want to bring this into a negative podcast or anything like that, but that’s kind of where, I don’t want to say people didn’t feel sorry for him, but there wasn’t a lot of people kind of jumping up and down for him, and maybe that was a little bit of it. Maybe that showed kind of what McElwain was talking about that he didn’t have leadership skills and didn’t affect people around him.
Nick: Maybe.
Andrew: Now let’s go to receiver real quick. Absence of Mark Thompson, I mean Antonio Callaway. You got Massey who’s a Juco guy with three years available. You got Hammond and Swain. I think those three guys really benefit the most from Callaway not being there, because they’re going to get more reps. You wouldn’t expect those guys to get a ton of reps with Callaway there, because that’s an extra number, but now they get a ton of reps. For a freshman there’s nothing better than getting beat up a little bit by Wilson, Tabor, Chris Williamson, those guys. Getting beat up by those guys will help them in the long run, because quite frankly those may be, or will be some of the best defensive backs they face all year.
Nick: Yeah. I think you can say it about two of them for sure. I don’t know if Williamson if you can say you’ve seen enough.
Andrew: I don’t mean that. I mean when you look at the whole they’re going up against, whether you go Wilson or Tabor, those two guys are going to be two of your better ones in the SEC next year, if not the nation.
Nick: Let me ask you a question. It’s something I’m thinking about. Are you tired of saying that and then seeing what happens with the receivers? I know there’s more that goes into a productive passing game than just the receivers. There’s offensive line. There’s an effective running game, which will help the passing game. There’s the quarterback. There’s a lot of things that goes into it, but are you tired? Like when you just said that at first I agreed, and then I was like, man, how many times have I said that? Why am I saying it again?
Andrew: What do you mean? As far as having to go up against the best?
Nick: Like saying the receivers are going to be better, because they’re going up against such great competition.
Andrew: I think it’s an excuse. I think it’s an excuse of why they suck in practice. If you want me to be honest with you, I think we use that as an excuse. Then when it comes game time.
Nick: We were saying it when Roberson and Purifoy were here, and it’s like they’re going against Marcus Roberson and Lucius Purifoy. Now Vernon Hargreaves. Look at all these guys. They’re going to make the receivers so much better, because when they get to the game they’re going to be playing worse competition. Then you get to the game, and it’s Florida threw for 110 yards.
Andrew: Should it make them better? Absolutely.
Nick: I guess on paper. Maybe that’s why we keep saying it.
Andrew: You do. You look at it. Let’s face it here. Florida opens this year with Wyoming, is that right? Who do they open up with this year?
Nick: We need to do more research. We need more research before we start the podcast. It’s not Wyoming. It’s Massachusetts, and then right into Kentucky.
Andrew: Okay. Massachusetts. Wyoming must be in two years. Anyway, whoever it is. You can’t tell me that Wyoming or Massachusetts or North Dakota State, Washington East, or whatever you want to call it, has as good of DBs as Florida does. So when they go up against those guys in the game it should be a lot easier. Whether it be the offensive line’s affecting, blocking as well, whatever it may be, they should be, but I do, I think it’s a full blown excuse as to why they suck in practice. We say, they’re going up against the best in the country. Lately you look for something positive, and you just hope that that is the truth, but it hasn’t been.
Nick: Then I’ll make a couple just from 15 minutes, a knee jerk observation. I’m not saying this is Bible.
Andrew: You’re not naming them the starter?
Nick: Not naming a starter. From the new kids, I liked Hammond. Liked his intensity going through drills. Liked Swain, his intensity going through drills. I thought, we had talked about when we talked about Dre where we said, he’s a slot receiver, not because he’s small, but because he knows the receiver position. There’s a difference. You’ll get a guy like Wes Welker, and sure he’s small, but he knows how to play slot, and I didn’t really see the crispness in routes that you’d want to see from a guy in the slot. When you’re playing in smaller spaces you need to be able to make sharp cuts, really plant that foot and move quickly. I just didn’t see the crispness from Dre. Obviously he hasn’t played football in a while, maybe knocking some rust off, but that’s something I’ll probably keep my eye on as spring goes along, and then as we get into real stuff with pads.
Andrew: I think he’s a guy that’s played a lot of positions in his life. Played cornerback in high school, and so I think he’s still learning the position. I think he’s kind of got that, I don’t want to say Brandon Powell mold, in that he’s still trying to finesse his way and find a role there. I definitely think that he is still learning the position. I do think that he will be fine there, but I do agree that, I even seen some tape where his routes were not as crisp as maybe you would like. He just tries to get away with speed, and in the SEC that doesn’t work.
Nick: Everyone’s got speed in the SEC. I will say, I was big on him before seeing him, his size, and then really down on him when I saw what he was listed at. He’s definitely bigger than Brandon Powell. Not as big as I thought he was just from watching him and seeing him, checking him out in recruiting sites. Definitely bigger than Brandon Powell. Good size, not great.
Andrew: You also had a good point on David Reese about him being more compact than you thought. Go ahead with that.
Nick: The knock on Antonio Morrison was he’s not big enough, and you’ll hear that if you’re following the NFL draft. You’ll hear that about Morrison. He’s not big enough, not tall enough. That’s what you should say about him. He’s not tall. Antonio Morrison is big. He’s compact. We would interview Antonio Morrison last year, and he would leave, and the reporters would kind of look at each other like how big is his bicep? Just a stocky, stout, I think stout’s a good way to say it. When I saw Reese, not as big as I thought he was, and kind of reminded me of Morrison as a freshman. Antonio Morrison ballooned, got so much bigger, especially in his upper body, from his junior year to his senior year, coming back from a knee injury. You can’t really work out your lower body, so he probably spent more time upper body.
Reese to me is the same height as Morrison, and kind of compact. A funny way for me to kind of think about it is if you took a Daniel McMillian, who probably weighs the same as Reese, but is a good 3, 4 inches taller, and just pushed him down into a smaller version, because Reese is thick. Upper body is thick. Lower body is thick. Calves look like a tree trunk. That’s what I mean. He looks like your prototypical middle linebacker, just a short compact, like a Zach Thomas kind of guy.
Andrew: I’m trying to remember. There was a guy at Alabama a few years ago, a linebacker. I’m trying to remember his name. He was right before CJ Mosely at the middle linebacker position. Anyway, I remember the first time I saw him on the sideline. I was coaching high school ball. I looked at him, and I’m like, this joker is 6’0 tall, and his body is 5’ wide full of muscle. His legs are like the size of tree trunks. It’s like big fat tree on his leg, and he’s not even fat. That’s kind of what I see with David Reese. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Reese is going to be a guy that when he’s coming through that lane in the running lane he’s going to be a guy you don’t want to mess with. He probably will struggle a little bit in the passing game, pass coverage, but that’s a lot of your bigger guys.
Nick: It’s going to be like an Antonio Morrison situation where you saw Morrison come off the field in passing downs last year. That’s what’ll happen with Reese. Really kind of a two down guy, at least in my opinion. What’s going on right now is we’re talking underwear Olympics, first couple days of spring. What’s really important for Reese right now is Alex Anzalone is going through all the drills because there’s no contact. So what’s important for Reese is to just almost to the point where Anzalone might have to call the Gainesville cops and get a restraining order.
You just need to be in Anzalone’s shadow watching everything he does, how he goes about drills, what is he looking to do? What kind of intensity does he bring to every rep? That’s what you’re going to do, because once you start contact drills Anzalone’s not going to be a part of that at all for this spring. So that’s more reps for you, and you don’t want to have to get your feet wet when the pads are on. That’s what these first four practices are for. So while you have him there, and while he’s still going through things, watch him. Learn from him, and then when he’s not going through contact reps, don’t be afraid to go and ask questions.
Andrew: I mean, that’s kind of what we talked about on Wednesday’s podcast. It’s more about this is kind of a glorified full speed walkthrough. You want to see Reese fill his gap, being in the right spot more so than anything. Is he in the right spot? Is he going from one drill to the next drill running, or is he walking? That kind of stuff. These practices are about learning how to practice as well. I know somebody might laugh and say, learning how to practice, what do you mean? There’s a way you can practice that you can practice the right way, or you can practice the wrong way. The wrong way gets you beat.
You always hear that if you practice right the game means nothing, and that’s kind of what this practice is. The practice should be like a game where it’s full speed, and it’s a lot different. It’s a lot faster than high school practices. You hear freshmen all the time, and they’ll say the biggest difference is the speed of the game. The speed of the game is a half second, a full second faster than it is in high school.
Nick: Maybe even more, depending on where you’re playing. I think I like Reese. I like what I’ve seen from him. McElwain and the players have talked about how smart he is, and you can’t really stress enough how important that is playing a middle linebacker position. It’ll be interesting to see for me when the pads come on. Speaking of when the pads come on, you mentioned Mark Thompson. If you had a travel football team, and you were the second team to the field, you’re sending Mark Thompson off the bus first, because he’s going to scare the other team. He’s not going to scare Jarrad Davis. When Jarrad Davis was asked about Thompson’s size he said, “Really the only person I can compare him is Derrick Henry,” and then I followed up with, “So are you waiting to get the pads on and meeting him the hole?” He said, “Oh yeah.” That’s what I’m waiting for.
Andrew: I think Coach Mac said on Wednesday, he said it right when he said, “He’s an SEC back.” You say, what’s an SEC back? An SEC back is a guy that doesn’t fall on first hit, likely doesn’t fall on the second hit, and when he does he falls forward. He ain’t falling backwards. That’s something Florida’s been lacking. Kelvin Taylor was a good runner, but what was he known for? His vision, his ability to cut. When you look at Mike Gillislee, what was he known for? His ability to cut, his vision, a little bit of speed. Matt Jones was known for his toughness, but he never was falling forward. It was a lot of falling backwards, and he was injured a lot, so he wasn’t able to take the hits. That’s something that Mark Thompson, and even Jordan Scarlett, that I thought would be able to do, is to fall forward.
Nick: It reminds me of when, going back to the season, when we were previewing these teams, and it was Jalen Herd. I was like, this is a guy that 3rd quarter you start making business decisions. Do I really want to tackle him?
Andrew: Right.
Nick: Maybe I can try to corral him, mosey him on over towards the sideline. Leonard Fournette, Leonard Fournette’s a little different. Leonard Fournette 1st quarter, do I really want to tackle him? On Wednesday you start thinking, before Saturday you start thinking, do I really want to tackle 7? Same thing with Derrick Henry. Hopefully, we’ll see, but my first impression Thompson appears to be that kind of guy that 3rd quarter comes, he’s picking up steam with carry 14, carry 15, and now you’ve got corners and maybe even safeties starting to think, maybe I can dive at his ankles and trip him instead of square up and try to tackle him. That’s something you mentioned. Even with Matt Jones, who is a similar size, I think Matt Jones is about 6’1” 225, 230 at Florida, but he was never really the back that you could say that about at Florida.
Andrew: That’s the thing I want to see is I want to see how he does when the pads come on. This is his first big boy competition. Juco ball was okay. Pennsylvania High School ball not very good, in my opinion. It’s decent, but it’s not very good. I want to see him do it now. We’ll see. We’ll see how it continues to go, and then accordingly, the defense. See how the defense adjusts as it goes. There’s nothing you can say about defense in the underwear Olympics. You have to wait till the pads come on before you can even start to judge that. Real quick, Friday afternoon, you guys are probably listening to this in the morning, so Friday afternoon Gators go, and then next week is when the pads come on. Another day of glorified underwear Olympics, and then next week is when the pads actually go on.
Nick: Yeah. We’ll get pads, but not full pads.
Andrew: Shells.
Nick: You have to go two practices with nothing, with just shorts and t-shirts basically, and then you get two pads, two shells, and by that we mean helmets, shoulder pads. Still in shorts though.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: That’s two practices. So practice #5 it’ll be next week, probably around Wednesday or Friday of next week?
Andrew: You can start to see a little bit more when the shoulder pads come on as well.
Nick: You’ll get into a thud then where you’re kind of wrapping up. We’ll get some pads popping then, but nothing to the ground. We might not see anything to the ground in the spring.
Andrew: No. You don’t really want anything to the ground, but you do get the when you’re in the shorts and shoulder pads you do get some one on ones with cornerbacks and DBs. You get to get a little pop going there. Get some shove off the line of scrimmage, that kind of stuff. That’s good there. Then you get some linebackers popping you there. Let’s go to the diamond now.
Nick: Wait.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Odell Kickem, Eddy Pineiro, reportedly, they didn’t kick any when we were there, but reportedly, and they can tell us whatever they want, made all of his kicks, including a 58 yarder where McElwain brought the entire team around him to yell and try to create some adversity, get the nerves up, get Eddy’s heart pumping a little more, to kind of create a pressure situation, and he hit a 58 yarder to end practice. Florida fans might be the only ones in the country who cares what their kicker is doing in the spring, but reportedly Eddy had a very good first practice.
Andrew: That’s what you want to see though. You want to see him get some pressure in. Like I said, the more kicks he can make in practice, the better off it’ll be. Mac did say the timing was off. That’s expected the first couple practices. That should get better, but it’ll be good for him to do that.
Now let’s go to the diamond. Gators victorious this week in midweek. Gators sweep North Florida in baseball, and in softball they sweep South Dakota, including a Delanie Gourley no-no, the second one of the season, and her second of her career. So a special moment on the softball diamond, as well as baseball.
Nick: One hit batter away from a perfect game.
Andrew: One hit batter away, that’s right.
Nick: That’s frustrating.
Andrew: The thing that is even more frustrating for poor Delanie is this is about the fourth time that she’s been one or two batters away from a perfect game. I believe it was Jacksonville earlier this year where the first hitter of the game hit a bloop single, and then she struck out the next 14, 15 batters. Next 15 batters, because they played five innings. So she’s two batters away from having two perfect games on the year.
Nick: That’s not bad. That’s efficient.
Andrew: It’s not bad at all, and guess what? The powers are starting to come to the Gator bats. Kayli Kvistad hit a walk off three run jack. Kirsti Merritt with two homeruns on Wednesday, so the power bats are coming to Florida finally.
Nick: How many does Kvistad have? I feel like every time you cover a game I see a tweet about her hitting a homerun. Does she have 70?
Andrew: She has four now on the year, but all four of those did come in the last seven games now, eight games, six over the weekend, and two. So four out of that. The thing for Walton is this, he kind of said this on Wednesday, he said he’s trying to still figure out what his game plan is for his offense. Does he want to go to that hit and run ball, to the sacrifice ball? Where does he want to go with this offense of this team? Not a bad problem to have when you’re 24-0. Real quick, quick shout out to Walton. Next win is win #700 for the old ball coach in Gainesville for softball.
Nick: They’re going to have to earn it.
Andrew: Earn it it is. They’re #1 versus #3, going up to Auburn this weekend. Auburn is, in my opinion, the best offensive hitting team in the country. They lead the country in just about every category, including SEC with runs. They’re way over 200. Florida’s a good softball team, and they just have something like 151, 152. So a really good offensive team, but the thing for Auburn is they’re kind of hit it out of the ballpark or nothing kind of team. I think Florida should be alright this weekend. Will be interesting to see how the freshman, Kelly Barnhill, does on the road in the first SEC hostile environment this weekend.
Nick: I’ll talk about it with Deacon Liput, but you start to get into a position where at some point in the season, yeah, they’re freshmen, but they’re not really freshmen anymore. I think Barnhill, with as many innings as she’s been able to go through, how much success she’s had, but also having to go through a little adversity. I think she might be getting to that territory where not really a freshman. Still probably going to be the biggest atmosphere, any time Florida goes into a place it sells out, and I’m sure it’ll be a great atmosphere in Auburn, because there’s not much else to do, other than to go watch softball.
Andrew: Roll some houses or something. I consider Walton to be very tough on his pitchers, much like Sully is, and that is that he doesn’t allow his pitchers to get their confidence destroyed. Barnhill, she struggled a little bit, and Walton has allowed her to work in that some, but once she starts dropping her head, getting frustrated, he’s pulling her out, talking her to the side, that kind of stuff. #1 versus #3, we’ll have a preview up on the site on Friday. You probably already read it, if you haven’t check it out. Be Saturday, Sunday, Monday is the SEC network series for this weekend.
Nick: The Gators will be playing baseball this weekend, not really the kind of marquee matchup that you’ve got.
Andrew: It depends. Are we talking the academic debate bowl?
Nick: Yeah. If this is the debate tournament it would probably be a little more contested, a little more hotly contested, but Florida will be welcoming in Harvard.
Andrew: Harvard.
Nick: This week. Logan Shore, A.J. Puk, Alex Faedo going to be your weekend starters. Gators came off of they won 6-2, and then a one run win on Wednesday over UNF. Really got pushed to the brink kind of on Wednesday. UNF had a tying run in the top of the 9th, 90 feet away, and the Ospreys had the first run of each game. Opened scoring in each game. Florida’s really struggling offensively. You go up and down the lineup, and guys like Deacon Liput, Dalton Guthrie. Guthrie is tearing the cover off the ball right now. Liput’s hitting great. Alonso is hitting great. Schwartz is hitting great. When you start naming that many people in baseball and that they’re hitting great, you say how are they struggling offensively? It just seems like the timely hits.
Florida got the first runner on base four straight innings on Wednesday night, and did nothing with it. It’s kind of those timely hits, situational hitting. You got to start to wonder. I think what Kevin O’Sullivan is really kind of dealing with now is do I start playing situational baseball, or do I let my guys hit through it? You, as a big baseball fan, you can kind of appreciate that. I need to win a game. Do I play small ball with a guy that’s struggling? It’s not SEC play yet, I’d really like him to be able to maybe come through with a hit here. Get that RBI, and maybe start building that confidence, start getting things rolling a little bit.
Andrew: The only thing to get you through a slump is to see one hit the ground.
Nick: You’re starting to see it with Mike Rivera. Mike Rivera hit a ball. Every pop fly was an adventure for UNF, and Rivera hit a pop up, should have been a can of corn easy play. It falls. He gets a double, and then all of a sudden RBI triple on Wednesday. It’s just it’s that hit. When you’re in a slump you’ll start crushing balls right at people, and it’s just that seeing eye single, that ball that you hit off the end of the bat, and it just skids by the second baseman that starts it. I think that’s what, sorry to cut you off, but I think that’s what Kevin O’Sullivan is hoping. Just get that guy that one hit.
Andrew: That’s what I was going to say. That’s it. You look at it, and you see just a bleeder go through, and the ball starts to slow down, I mean the game starts to slow down. The ball starts to become bigger. Then that’s when you see guys go on a tear. that’s kind of, not to go back to softball too much, but that’s kind of like Kayli Kvistad is right now. The ball’s a beach ball, and everything she’s hitting is hard somewhere. I think it’ll come. One thing I will say about this, and Florida had this problem in the South Dakota game, I didn’t watch baseball at all the two games against North Florida, so I don’t know the pitching, but everyone thinks slow pitching makes the bats get better. That’s the opposite. It’s the opposite.
Slow pitching is the worst thing good baseball teams and softball teams want to see, because their timing is shot, especially with a team like Florida who just got through playing Miami, a team like Florida in softball that played Michigan, that kind of stuff. That’s bad for your timing, and that ended up hurting the sticks a little bit, because then you see more popups out in front of the ball, rolling over, that kind of stuff.
Nick: Florida, the baseball team had 20 popups in a game, 20 fly outs in a game. To me, forget who Florida’s playing. You say Miami has good arms. Florida, their entire pitching staff has one guy who doesn’t throw over 90 miles an hour consistently, and that’s Kirby Snead, who’s throwing sidearm leftie with a Frisbee for a curve ball. You face them all fall. Then you face them all spring, and all of a sudden you face a guy from Dartmouth who’s got an 83 mile an hour fastball and a 67 mile an hour changeup, and you’re out in front of the ball. You’re popping it up, and it’s hard to sit back.
Being patient is one of the hardest things to do, and then when you get these guys you’re dialed in to facing A.J. Puk throwing 97, facing Brady Singer, Jackson Cowart 95. 93, 94 from Faedo and Logan Shore. Then you get a guy, a Saturday guy, a guy coming out of the bullpen topping out at 83. You’re like, that’s a changeup. Where is the fastball? It just gets slower from there, and it’s so hard to wait back.
A lot of times when you see guys, when I look in the press box, when you watch batters come into the box from the visiting team, and they’re playing Florida, they’re wearing out. That first batter comes up, and he basically erases the back of the batter’s box, so the umpire can’t see it, and guys are back real far back in the box against Florida. Florida’s doing the opposite against some of these guys. They’re moving up in the box to try to almost speed up the pitch, so it’s something closer to what they’re used to.
Andrew: That’s a good point. It’s a whole different ballgame. We’re running out of time here. Nicholas, tell the people where they can find us for all the baseball, football, basketball, softball, and anything else Gator sports this weekend.
Nick: You’re listening to it. Friday noon, or noon Central, 1:00 Eastern time, Florida/Texas A&M. 7:00 the men will play. What time is the softball game?
Andrew: Not till Saturday. Saturday, Sunday, Monday. It’s Saturday at 8:30 Gainesville time, 7:30 up in Auburn.
Nick: So tomorrow basketball, the last home meet for gymnastics as well. Senior Day for Bridgette Sloan. It’ll be a good turnout I think tomorrow, Friday night, at the Mack. If you’re there, let me know. Send me your pictures. Follow along on Twitter, @NickdelaTorreGC, @AndrewSpiveyGC, @GatorCountry. It’s Gator Country on Facebook, and The Gator Country on Instagram. As always, www.GatorCountry.com.
Andrew: That’s right. Hit the Ws and, as always, hit the Ws isn’t something that Mark and Butch like to do, you know, Nick? They like to hit the Ls. Hit the Ls. The L on me. That’s what those two guys do. As always, go Braves. Chomp, chomp.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.