Podcast: Recapping the last Florida Gators recruiting news, plus talking football season

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the last few days for the Florida Gators in recruiting as they landed two top targets in the Class of 2021.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the Florida Gators landed Jason Marshall and Corey Collier, plus what’s left for the Gators on the board.

Andrew and Nick also talk about the latest news surrounding the football season for the SEC and other college football teams.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re back. Right now, SEC football’s still on. We’ll see where it goes. Big 10, PAC-12 says hidey-o’s, but they’ve been doing that pretty much for the last 10 years or so, so what’s new?

Nick:​Probably felt great about it until Friday, and then all this news starts coming out Friday that the Big 10’s going to cancel, and the PAC-12’s going to follow them. The MAC does cancel, and you’re kind of just left there sitting with like a pit in your stomach, and you’re thinking would the SEC and the ACC play by themselves? If you have the minority of the Power Five, would two conferences just do it? I don’t know. Just optics wise, probably not, but the Big 12 comes out and says, our doctors say they want to do it. Our players say they want to do it.

There’s going to be some extra stuff that they do. They’re going to look at heart monitors for players, stuff like that. I think it’s all what the SEC’s been saying this whole time. It’s really just we’re giving ourselves time. The NCAA came out with mandates, and the SEC is like, cool, those are fine. We have stricter ones than the NCAA even wants us to have. As we sit here taping this on August 12, it looks like we’re going to have three conferences playing football.

Andrew:​Don’t forget, my boys in the Sunbelt said they’re still playing.

Nick:​Three Power Five conferences. Sunbelt, yeah. Three Power Five conferences. There are some Group of Five. Who else? The AAC is going to be playing ball too.

Andrew:​Conference USA is playing still. A few. Here’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to be the Power three, and then maybe one of those Conference USA or Sunbelt teams go undefeated, and they get a playoff bid too. Guess what? They make some extra money.

Nick:​I’m not even worrying about bowl games. I’m not worrying about College Football Playoff. Cool. If we get to that point, let’s run it. Just give me September 26 and that first game.

Andrew:​Our good friend, Trey Wallace, that covers Tennessee for Fox Sports up there, we’re all in a little group chat together, and we were talking. I said, listen, have those three conferences go play, and then have two at large or three at large and go for it. Play a little playoff that everyone’s been hollering for. Everybody wanted a bigger playoff than four, so go get it and make it happen.

​This is what I’m going to say. We’ve always talked about the NCAA being dumb on decisions, but, Nick, this in my opinion is the dumbest thing they’ve ever done. As the president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert has done an awful, has done just an awful job in general. What president of an institution or an association can honestly sit there and say, you know what, I’m not making a decision? That’s what you get paid millions of bucks to do is to make a decision, a uniform decision for college football. What are you doing?

Nick:​Yeah. I think everything we’re going through right now is going to cause some change.

Andrew:​Oh, 100%. It’s coming.

Nick:​I don’t want to call it a conspiracy theory, but the PAC-12 players come out. We were all kind of heading towards college football, all five Power Five conferences. The Power Five was heading towards football, and then the PAC-12 comes out with a list of demands. I think you and I have talked about it. It’s like, that’s good you’re using your power that you’re getting right now, your leverage that you have right now, but some of that stuff was never going to happen. A 50/50 revenue split.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​Some of this stuff was never going to happen.

Andrew:​This isn’t MLB.

Nick:​The Big 10 comes out with their players, and their list of demands are super reasonable. Just like we want uniform medical testing. Their demands were basically like, we want to know that you guys give a crap about us.

Andrew:​They wanted protection.

Nick:​And that we’re actually going to be tested, and that you care about our health. Yes, we want to play, but we want to be more than just …

Andrew:​Pawns.

Nick:​Don’t let the cookie jar go dry. We want to keep making money here, so make sure those idiot players get out there, even if it’s not safe. Make sure they get out there. Big 10 just wanted to know that they were going to be safe. Then all of a sudden, like 48 hours after that, it’s Big 10, PAC-12 thinking about canceling the season. I’m like, are they going to cancel the season just so these kids don’t have any power? Would you rather just lose revenue for one season than actually give the players more power than have to give them more in perpetuity, for the rest of time?

Andrew:​Right. It’s like you and I were talking about off air as well. If the NCAA would just be smart here and say, these kids are not amateurs.

Nick:​They’ll never do that, because then … I think we will get to a point where the Power Five doesn’t need the NCAA, and the Power Five will just do its own thing. The problem is the Power Five needs the NCAA when it comes to swimming tournament, when it comes the baseball tournament and softball. Power Five football does not need the NCAA whatsoever.

Andrew:​We might be headed there soon. This may set it up to be that. Again, if the NCAA would acknowledge what is the truth, it’s like you and I talked about, you could bubble these teams together. You could play. You and I were running through some.

Nick:​You have to admit that Power Five football players are not amateurs if they want to do that.

Andrew:​Right. You and I were running through some ideas. You could easily bubble the SEC in Atlanta or Birmingham or Orlando or Nashville, anywhere. You could bubble each team somewhere and play, but they’re not going to get to that point. Here’s the thing for me. I get that they get a lot of stuff and all that. In no way, shape, or form should they get 50/50. There should be some kind of compensation. I mean, that’s crazy to not, and it’s crazy not to have some kind of insurance policy or something set up for these guys, especially for this year, in general.

I just think that, and I may be getting a little off topic here, but I feel like canceling the season, Nick, is going to hurt a lot of people. I hate to say this, but I don’t know if you see some of these guys ever play football again, for the simple fact that they’re going to go home. They may not do their schoolwork. They may go home and be homeless and be hungry, starve, that kind of stuff. That’s the stuff that bothers me the most, Nick. You know this as well as I do. You help me with recruiting so much and meet a lot of these kids from their hometowns. A lot of these kids don’t come from anything, Nick. Their getaway is to go to college. Their best meals and best night sleeps are in dorm rooms or with the football team. That’s the stuff that I think the presidents and the ADs and the NCAA need to wake up and realize.

Nick:​How many times have you talked to a kid, and like the general consensus will be, it’s going to be tough to get that kid out of Miami, or it’s going to be tough to get that kid out of here?

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​Then you talk to mom one time, and she’s like, no, he’s not staying home. Look around. He’s getting away from this. I’m getting him as far away from the situation that we’re in now.

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​To me, a lot of people say, why are they going to get kicked off of campus? To me, I would stay on campus, even if I wasn’t playing football, just for the fact that I think I’m safer. That’s another reason why I thought the decisions from the Big 10 and the PAC-12 were premature. Florida’s football players are getting tested twice a week. You have UF Shands right here on campus, one of the best hospitals in the state within walking distance from your dorm.

To me, you’re safer within the testing protocols and the health and safety protocols that your university has, being on campus, than being somewhere else. If I want to continue working out, and I’m a Florida Gator, I’m not worrying about did the guy working at Crunch Fitness making $10 an hour wipe down the machine properly when I go home. I’m going to the indoor practice facility, which is an indoor/outdoor space, and I know that whoever’s working at UF has scrubbed the leather off of the machine I’m about to sit down on.

Andrew:​They’ve used tons of Lysol. That’s exactly right. You look at the testing. Lord forbid, someone does get super sick by the virus, they got the best possible resources, like you said, there. They’re going to be taken care of. If something can be done to help further along, get them better quicker, that’s going to happen at Shands. That’s not going to happen at your local family doctor or your urgent care or whatever, because guess what? You’re just another person to them. If a Florida student athlete gets sick, they’re not just a normal person. They’re going to get the best treatment out there, because of who they are. Right or wrong, that’s just what it is.

​You and I talked about this. We’re both huge baseball fans. Outside of your Marlins and the Cardinals doing things they shouldn’t have, it’s went pretty clear. I just think everything right now is being done to get ahead of things and not to look bad, or is it they just don’t want to compensate? I don’t know what it is, but I just think that right now it’s just a general overreaction of we need to get ahead of something that you don’t need to get ahead of right now.

Nick:​To me it seems premature.

Andrew:​Yes.

Nick:​Listen, I understood completely. I think that the Florida-Florida State game is tremendous, and when the schedule came out, and the SEC said, we’re not starting the 3rd, we’re starting the 26th, fans were pissed. Why can’t you play FSU? Now you only have really 10 weeks to play 11 games.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​You need to have some kind of buffer built in. If Florida and LSU or Florida and Texas A&M couldn’t play a week because of something Coronavirus related, you’ve got that December 12 fit in where everyone’s off.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​You can fit any kind of game in. That took away the opportunity to play those games, but to me moving back to September 26 is kind of what saves the SEC. It gives you time. You’re going to get kids on campus soon, and there might be a spike. Listen, I think what you saw from Florida, when the guys got back originally, there’s not really a sense of urgency. Florida’s had over 20 guys on the football team test positive at some point since they’ve gotten back. I think what you really see is once you get a little surge of that, and you see not only did I get sick, but now anyone that was in my workout group has to quarantine, even if I didn’t touch them or talk to them that day. Now they have to quarantine. For over a month now, you haven’t had a positive test or anybody in quarantine at the University of Florida on the football team. I think that shows you how these athletes realized really quick, once people started to get sick.

Andrew:​It’s real.

Nick:​We can’t go out. We can’t go out to Fat Daddy’s or Salty Dog. We can’t go to house parties. The real test is going to be when you get the student body back. A lot of the bars are still closed and stuff like that, but it’s college. There’s going to be house parties. There will be frat parties. There will be all kinds of stuff to do. I think what the football players have learned, because they’re in a quasi bubble right now, really there’s only international students and athletes on campus, can you carry that discipline over that you’ve showed the last six weeks, eight weeks? Can you carry that over once there’s other students on campus?

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​I think Florida and the entire SEC has put themselves in a position where you’ve got a couple week buffer there of if they’re not, we’ll be able to find out and figure out how to handle that too before games start.

Andrew:​Right. Exactly.

Nick:​The Big 10 was going to start September 3. There’s no time there.

Andrew:​Someone said to me the other day, and, again, I don’t see the problem with it, they said, what if it is October 3 before we start a season? Who cares? Who cares? Why are you rushing? If there is going to be no bowl games, which I don’t think there will be, who cares if the season ends first of January, end of December, if the regular season ends there? Who cares?

Nick:​I think Big 10 fans might care. Would you want football in February if you lived in Michigan?

Andrew:​No, but you know what I’m saying. I get that, but what I’m saying is why does everything have to be done on a normal schedule? There’s nothing normal about this year. There is nothing, not a thing, normal.

Nick:​No. Shoot, down here, I’ll start June, July, whenever you want to kick football off, February, let’s do it.

Andrew:​Trust me, I just want that. I just want to see baseball and things get back to normal. That’s it. I don’t know. I’m going to put you on the spot here, Nick. August 12 here. Is there football season for the SEC? We can’t hear you.

Nick:​Sorry. The dog was freaking out in the room, so I put myself on mute. You and I have both said, and I think consistently said that we want, or not that we want, obviously we want, but that we thought there would be football. Maybe I’ve wavered in confidence sometime, but I’m sticking with it. I think we will have football on September 26.

Andrew:​There you go. I think so, but my confidence has went down tremendously.

Nick:​Okay.

Andrew:​Tremendously. I think there’s got to be a lot done, honestly. I do. Just from the standpoint of how now do you align things? Do you play if there is no championship? What is that? I’ll say this. If this is a money-driven thing, think about the ratings ESPN is about to get if it’s just SEC, ACC, and Big 12. About to rack up.

Nick:​Is ESPN contracted for televising the Big 12? No. That’s Fox.

Andrew:​Yes. Fox.

Nick:​But ESPN Network, SEC Network.

Andrew:​Doesn’t ESPN own the Big 12 Network, like the SEC Network? Or no?

Nick:​No. They own Longhorn Network.

Andrew:​I mean Longhorn Network. That’s what I meant.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​Yeah. Nick, we’ll change the subject here a little bit. Recruiting’s good again.

Nick:​I thought they were done.

Andrew:​I did too. Nobody’s getting fired this week. This week.

Nick:​Not this week. Even Ron English is getting some credit this week.

Andrew:​Even Ron English is getting a pay raise this week. Big week, or weekend. Sunday and Monday, big week. You went out, and you pulled the two Palmetto DBs and now the highest ranked guys in the class. Jason Marshall, who’s considered a five-star by a lot, and then Corey Collier, who is one of the top safeties in the country. Both of those guys from Palmetto. You go down there, and you beat out Alabama and Miami for Jason, and you beat out Miami and LSU for Corey. That was a whirlwind for those two guys. It was back and forth of are they coming or are they going elsewhere? Where are they at? Florida was able to kind of push the tide and continue where they were at and ended up getting both of those guys.

Nick:​How big of a surprise, I think Collier, at least from what I saw, like fans and a lot of people on our message board, kind of thought he’ll be coming Florida’s way.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​Or felt confident about him. How much of a surprise was Marshall?

Andrew:​I think the biggest thing with Jason was just he was going to announce August 1, that was the rumored date. If he was going to announce August 1, it seemed like it was going to be Alabama. Well, then he delayed that. The talk and the momentum was Miami had picked up the lead there for him, so it just kind of kept lingering on. Before the Alabama talk on August 1, I felt very good that Florida was going to get him.

There was some things that happened behind the scenes back in May when Clinton Burton decided to come out and without telling anybody reconfirm that he was going to be in the class, after not talking to Florida forever. Jason and Corey kind of was taken off guard by that, because a lot of people had been telling those guys that he wasn’t going to be in the class. Florida kind of had to overcome that with him and make sure that he knew this wasn’t something we did. We were caught off by it like you were. Once they were kind of able to overcome that part of it, then it was rebuilding that trust. They did that.

It was just more one of those things that wasn’t so much of a shock that he committed because, again, I felt like Florida was in good spot for him for a while. It was just how much of a turn of events it kept being in his recruitment. But a huge pickup. He’s a guy that comes in and probably plays Day 1 for Florida.

Nick:​ When I look at Collier, I look at him and I say, I see the tools I see the projection. Long, lean. He’s got a frame that he’ll keep adding. I look at Marshall, and I’m like, looks like he and Nick Savage have already met and have already been working out together. It’s just a kid with a college body already.

Andrew:​It continues that trend that Torrian Gray likes, tall.

Nick:​Long, tall. 6’2”. You think of Quincy Wilson, Jalen Tabor, Kaiir Elam’s a big guy like that. Those are the kind of guys. Marco Wilson’s probably bigger than Quincy ever was when he was at Florida.

Andrew:​Yeah. It kind of continues that trend that Gray likes. You were feeling for a little bit of time that where’s the DBs going to go? When you lose CJ, when you lost Chris Steele before he ever played a down, you were kind of starting to worry about depth, and you quickly rebuilt that with last year’s class and then with Elam already on there, and now with these two guys. You feel good.

​The thing I’ll say about Corey is Corey’s going to be a guy who’s going to play that safety, free safety position. With Florida losing some guys this year, he could easily be a guy that I could see coming in and getting a lot playing time next year at that position, simply because Florida doesn’t have really anybody who’s proven, besides the guys who are going to be gone after this year.

Nick:​Yeah. I think if you look at it, Florida’s got right now 18 seniors?

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​On scholarship. Depends on, scholarships are not four-year things. They’re every year. They had space last year. They might not have it this year. Then also, with Kamar Wilcoxson reclassifying to 2020.

Andrew:​That’s where we’re going to next.

Nick:​I need to figure out. I need to talk somebody at UF. Where is his counter? Where is his initial counter?

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​Just kind of figure things out. I think Florida right now is just putting itself in a really good spot in terms of recruiting. The class is now, you and I don’t put a ton of weight into where the rankings are, but I’d say they’re top 10.

Andrew:​Oh yeah.

Nick:​No matter where you go to look.

Andrew:​Depending on where you looked, anywhere from six to seven, in that range. I know people are still going to gripe about that, and I get it. I’m a guy who believes Florida should be Top Five three out of four years. I just do. Is there still some work to be done? Yeah. Absolutely. We’re going to get into that in a second here, but there’s still a lot of big names that Florida’s out there on and could very easily rise up into that. My biggest thing is you showed you could go and get the two guys that you wanted the most in Marshall and Corey Collier.

You lost Leonard Taylor to Miami. He was a big one of those Palmetto guys. You lost him, and you think, that sucks, but when you go back and you look, and you say, where was the position of need? I think the position of need was more DB than it was DT in Leonard Taylor. That’s not to say that Leonard Taylor wasn’t a huge need. He was. Most people considered him to be one of the best, if not the best, defensive linemen in the country for this year. I just feel like if you had to choose which ones you wanted more, it was those two guys.

Nick:​Yeah. How many of the Palmetto Five considered Florida State?

Andrew:​Zero. Corey Collier’s daddy played for Florida State.

Nick:​He played linebacker for Florida State for three years, four years?

Andrew:​Florida fans get pissed off when Marco wasn’t fully onboard and committing and when Xavier was thinking about going elsewhere. Can you imagine if your dad was there, and you didn’t even consider them? Florida fans would have really been hot.

Nick:​Money Mike. Money Mike Norvell, getting the fighting Florida State Seminoles off to a hot start.

Andrew:​I thought Willie Taggart was still down there the way they’re recruiting.

Nick:​Might be.

Andrew:​That was bad. That’s really bad. Let’s talk a little bit about that Kamar situation for a second though. I’ll say this. We’ll get into this here in a minute when we talk about other guys, but I don’t know that Kamar’s the last one to do that. With high school football season being cancelled around the country, if you have the opportunity to early enroll, why not?

Nick:​Yeah. It’s super interesting. This is not early enrolling in terms of I’ll be there in December. This is I’ll be on campus in a week. What do you got for me?

Andrew:​If you’re Kamar, would you rather train at Florida, or would you rather train at your local gym?

Nick:​Yeah. Then the FHSAA is just so in over their heads and doing their typical FHSAA thing. Are you going to have a season?

Andrew:​If you’re Kamar, you wasn’t playing high school football in the spring anyway, because he was going to early enroll. You definitely weren’t doing that. So, especially if Florida plays ball this spring and don’t have a spring season, which I don’t think they’ll have a spring season, even if they don’t play this year, but I just don’t see a negative to it. I know people have said, he’s got to come in and redshirt. Probably so. Could he see three games? Could he see some limited playing time on special teams? Sure. Even if he comes in and just redshirts, who cares? You basically got a JUCO transfer or something on your team next year who is going to be ready to come in and compete. He’s going to be physically ready to come in and compete. He’s going to be everything ready to go. Who cares if he has to come in and redshirt? He was going to take up a spot anyway.

Nick:​I agree with you. I think you said it kind of the right way. It’s almost like you’re getting a redshirt freshman coming in ready to play in 2021, rather than getting him in in 2021, and it’s like let start learning all that stuff now.

Andrew:​Right.

Nick:​There was one big announcement, and I’m normally better with names than you are, but I don’t think either of us are going to say this one right.

Andrew:​I can say this one.

Nick:​Take it.

Andrew:​Tunmise.

Nick:​Tunmise Adel– Adeleye.

Andrew:​No. You asked me. You know me. I got one of them right. I got one of them.

Nick:​You got one. If you can get one right, that means he’s like Madonna. You just call him by one name then, Spivey.

Andrew:​Yeah. It’s like Diabate, just call him by his first name back then. He was the guy that I was just hinting at with Kamar. He’s thinking about reclassifying. He leaves that Ohio State class. He’s good buddies with Kamar at IMG. He’s already left IMG. He went back to Houston, because Texas is thinking about still playing high school ball this year. With the uncertainly at IMG, they don’t know. He’s thinking about early enrolling too. Nick,

I’m going to say this. He may be a guy who was going to be in the 2021 class, but multiple people I have talked to said if he reclassifies, he plays this year and contributes. That’s hnowgood he is. Someone told me this, and the person I talked to about this I trust his opinion a ton. He said, Tunmise is a guy who helps you win a National Championship. He is that big of a contributor.

Nick:​To me, he tweeted the iPhone note with his decommitment, and just to see the amount of players in Florida’s class right now quote tweeting it. You know where to go. You know the move. You know what to do. I’m just like, these kids, they’re in it.

Andrew:​Yeah.

Nick:​They are actively recruiting.

Andrew:​That was Florida’s kind of problem last year. You didn’t have that one guy who was kind of like that lead recruiter/just guy who generated interest. Gervin was a guy that a lot of people gravitated too, but, no offense to him, he just wasn’t Kamar, or he wasn’t Diwun Black. He wasn’t any of those guys. This year you’ve got a ton of those guys. When you just go through the list, like I just said, you’ve got Kamar. You’ve got Carlos Del Rio, who’s big on that. You got DiwunBlack, who’s very good that. Chief Borders has been very good at that. I’m missing one. Daejon Reynolds is the other one. All those guys have been very good at that.

​You and I, we’ve had the longstanding Nick Washington Award of who was the best recruiter. It was a joke at first, but it’s the truth. With social media, if you got these guys, they’re really good. I ran a story last week or the week before last asking these guys their thoughts on the class, and then I asked them who was their remaining targets. Overwhelmingly, they were all saying the same guy. There was here and there of a guy maybe pushing a teammate or a local guy, but for the most part everyone said pretty much the same guy. They were on track of we want these guys to join our class. That’s huge. That’s what Urban did when he was doing great. That’s what Saban does when he’s doing great. That is having everyone on board to build a class and build a team before they even get on campus.

Nick:​Yeah. It’s kind of like being a quarterback. We say all the time, the quarterback gets more blame than they should and more credit than they should. I think it’s Dan Mullen can’t recruit. You’re like, Dan Mullen’s not the one calling 150 guys. There’s an entire team of people, from the position coach to graduate assistants when guys are on campus, and they can run in and they’re around and talking to them, to recruiting staff and strength and conditioning. Now, like you just said, you’re getting the guys who are committed to you being active participants in helping that and in saying we are going to try to put the biggest class we can together. I think you saw that with Tebow and Spikes. You saw that certainly in 2010 when it was Ronald Powell and Dominic Easley and Shariff Floyd. Those guys were like, we want to play together. I think you’re starting to see that a little bit from this 2021 class.

Andrew:​Exactly. We always say some of Florida’s worst teams were the teams that didn’t have anybody or didn’t have good team chemistry. Some of Urban’s worst years were when they didn’t have good team chemistry. If you can build that before you even get on campus, you’re a let up already. Again, a lot of it does fall on the quarterback, but at the same time you got to have other guys who are doing that. Not all quarterbacks are outspoken guys like that, but you need to have other guys as well. First of all, this class has a little bit of a built-in cheat code, because they got Diwun Black, and we all know how good Diwun is at that, but other guys, like I said, have joined. Kamar is definitely one of those guys.

Nick:​Yeah. Seems to be all in.

Andrew:​Yeah. No offense, Kamar, but you know once you get on campus you can’t flip again. No offense, Kamar. You will always get that joke, Kamar. Sorry. That’s just kind of reality. Anyway, Nick, I wanted to run through a couple things real quick. Just kind of remaining targets, that kind of good stuff. You got a few guys left. You got Tunmise. You got Bryce Langston, the defensive end that was once committed that’s from Ocala.

You got a couple of offensive linemen. Yousef from North Carolina, Diego Pounds from up there as well. You still are after the Palmetto trio, I guess you could say. Savion Collins doesn’t have the official offer yet, but that could change. Leonard Taylor has committed to Miami, and then Brashard Smith is committed to Miami. Barshard’s a little bit iffy, because kind of Charles Montgomery took his spot.

Then you have, I’m missing some names here. Xavian Sorey is another big one that is still on the board. You got several guys that are kind of still on the board there, with limited spots to go, but all those guys that I just said are pretty must elite. Sorey’selite. Langston’s elite. Tunmise is elite. Those guys are just elite guys. I forgot Terrion Arnold, the safety out of Tallahassee. That’s the other one. Big names that are out there. Just who you going to finish with to fill the class?

Nick:​Probably only have one or two more spots, depending on …

Andrew:​You know how that is. You and I were told by a former recruiting director a long time ago, and that is the numbers always take care of themselves.

Nick:​They always seem to work out.

Andrew:​Always seem to work out. Here’s the thing for me, Nick. I think for the most part that Florida has filled every one of their needs, expect for offensive line and running back. Any final thoughts?

Nick:​No. Just happy. Just happy today.

Andrew:​Happy today. Okay. Nothing wrong with that.

Nick:​Hopeful and happy.

Andrew:​My Braves are doing okay, except for we can’t stay healthy, so that’s okay.

Nick:​Are you going to bring up the NL East leading Miami Marlins?

Andrew:​You’re not leading. We’re tied.

Nick:​The NL East leading Miami Marlins. Winning percentage of .636, which is higher than the Braves of .579. NL East Champion Miami Marlins. End the season now. Start the playoffs. We’re in.

Andrew:​I will say this.

Nick:​Cough on everybody. End the season. Give the Marlins the trophy.

Andrew:​The Marlins are playing the style of baseball that I love, that never, ever, ever give up mentality.

Nick:​It almost happened last night.

Andrew:​I did. Did you see the Oriels with an inside the parker?

Nick:​No. I missed that.

Andrew:​Extra innings. Extra innings, inside the park two-run homer to win the game.

Nick:​I was watching HBO. Had Hard Knocks back. They’re following the Rams and the Chargers, both LA teams. It is weird. It is not a typical Hard Knocks. I think they’re still not in pads. They won’t be in pads until Week 3. There’s no preseason games. This whole offseason has been so weird. All my old fantasy football leagues are hitting me up like, still want to play? I’m like, I hadn’t even thought about fantasy football. Yeah. Definitely want to play, but hadn’t even thought of it yet.

Andrew:​Exactly. I totally missed Hard Knocks last night. Totally missed it. I will have to be going on HBO and checking that out. Totally forgot about that. I think the biggest thing for the Marlins, they just keep fighting.

Nick:​They’re a young team.

Andrew:​I’m cool with it. My Braves should make the playoffs anyway. I’m cool with your Marlins making it. As long as the hated Phillies and the hated Mets and the disgusting Nationals don’t make it, who cares? Bring it on. Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out of here. We’ll see everyone next week.

Nick:​www.GatorCounty.com for all your Florida Gators news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can listen to the podcast wherever you consume your podcasts. Just search Gator Country. Subscribe. Never miss an episode. Do your social media thing. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.

Andrew:​There you go. Guys, we appreciate it. We’ll see everyone next week. As always, chomp, chomp, and go Braves.

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.