Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators loss on Saturday to the Alabama Crimson Tide, plus update you on recruiting.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the SEC Championship game and what went wrong for the Gator on offense.
Andrew and Nick also look at this huge recruiting week for Florida, plus what the Gators are trying to do at quarterback.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, back with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, after the SEC Championship season’s over with for a little while, but recruiting goes on.
Nick: Recruiting heats up.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: That starts Sunday. So I’ll ask you this real quick, we’ll do a recap of the game, but last year Florida lost, and Jim McElwain was in a kicker’s living room. What living room is Jim McElwain in this year?
Andrew: Jarrett Steadman out at Baylor, the Baylor transfer quarterback is the hot commodity, and Florida’s out there, and selling what the offense can do. We’re going to talk about the game here in a second, but when you look at the game, Florida very well is a quarterback away from being a good football team. There was plays to be made on Saturday against Alabama. A quarterback with anything capable of being decent makes those plays, and it’s a different ball game.
Nick: I think Austin Appleby’s a decent quarterback.
Andrew: No.
Nick: Just to say that he’s not decent, I mean, is he a good quarterback? No. It’s like I said, there aren’t a lot of good graduate transfer quarterbacks. You can say Russel Wilson. There’s an exception to every rule, but I said it before the year, there’s a reason why you’re a graduate transfer quarterback. I think it got into, remember before the game I said, “Florida is not going to ask Austin Appleby to win games,” and I said that about Luke Del Rio before the year. Not going to ask Luke Del Rio to win games. When you play a team like Alabama, they’re going to take away what you do well, and they’re going to force you to do something else. That meant, “Austin Appleby, we need you to try to win a game today,” and that’s what’s going to happen.
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: That make sense?
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, it does, but it just is, it has to happen. You have to find a quarterback.
Nick: No, I agree with that. I just don’t think, everyone’s saying Austin Appleby’s a terrible quarterback. I don’t think he’s a terrible quarterback. Listen, people on social media were going crazy saying, “I miss Treon Harris.” No, you don’t.
Andrew: I mean, Treon Harris don’t make throws either. It’s just there is receiver after receiver after receiver wide open. The come back is, “Well, the running game sucked.” Yes, the running game sucks, but the running game sucks because there’s eight in the box, because quarterback can’t beat you. The first drive is a really good drive. They score, but guess what? He made the throws. The second possession the play action’s not there, and instead of just throwing it away he throws it across the field, which is a huge no no. Pick. Then the next drive Callaway has three steps on his receiver on the post route, and instead of leading Callaway to where he catches or it falls incomplete, he throws it behind. It gets picked off. You can’t throw behind on post route. It gets picked off. It just is on and on.
Then you look at the fourth drive. He hits Goolsby on a wide open wheel route. It’s a touchdown. It’s receiver after receiver after receiver wide open. You have to make those plays. If you’re going to beat Alabama, you had to throw, and you have to be on time. A late throw against Bama gets you beat. It gets you beat.
Nick: They’re too good. Too good, too fast on defense, to do stuff like that.
Andrew: People say, “Is Feleipe and Kyle not the answer?” We don’t know, but the thing is those guys needed a year to develop. Most guys need a year to develop. They say, “You’re going to get Jarrett Steadman because you don’t believe.” No. That’s not the case. It’s not that they don’t believe in it. Mac needs to have Steadman there to where if Feleipe and Kyle are not the world beaters, he has Steadman to do it. If Steadman gets on campus and gets beat out by one of the two other guys, good. You have a quarterback. Who cares who it is? You have to get a quarterback that is going to come in and at least give you hope to play.
Steadman’s not your usual transfer. Transfer are they weren’t good enough to play, so they transferred. Steadman’s totally opposite. He transferred away because of the domestic violence issue at Baylor. #1 quarterback in the country coming out of high school. He is a guy that changes your program. Someone said he could be the Tim Tebow for Jim McElwain. Very well could be. This is a situation where you land a quarterback, the whole thing goes away. You become good again.
Nick: Here’s the thing. So you’ve got a lot of attrition coming on defense. You lost 10 starters on defense. Different story on offense. So I kind of agree with you. You’re getting back pretty much the entire offensive line, both your running backs. I’m going to continue saying both your running backs, because Perine and Scarlett, that’s the future. You’re getting back basically all your receivers and your tight ends. So you’re getting back a lot on offense, and I think if you look at Florida’s offense you can easily make the argument that they’re a quarterback away from being a good offense. I said it before. This year Florida was built to win that 14-17 game. Next year, with what you’re losing on offense, you might have to win some of those mid 30s games. Might have to be able to score 40 points to win a game, and with a quarterback and the pieces Florida has they might be able to do that.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s very well. It may be. I am much higher on the defense coming back next season than you are, and that’s fine.
Nick: I keep falling into this damn trap. I keep saying, “Well, they’re going to get worse, because look at all these people that are leaving.” All of a sudden, somebody else steps up. So maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m wrong again.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. I think that it’s, the defense will be not as good, because you can’t be. I think it does depend on a couple of announcements. Does Alex Anzalone go pro? Does Duke Dawson go pro? I think it depends on a little bit of that. Up front, with the exception of Caleb Brantley and Joey Ivie, and I know those are two great defensive tackles, the edge is still there. I really like what Jachai Polite’s doing inside, what Taven Bryan’s doing inside. Then at linebackers you’re going to see a little drop off, because Jarrad Davis is just that great, but those two guys are really good, really good. I’ve been very impressed with Chauncey and Marcell lately at safety. You got to figure out your corners, but, like you said, got to score points. You score points, and you can make things a lot easier on your defense from that. I think you got to get a quarterback.
Nick: What are the schools? I’ve seen a lot about Auburn making a lot of sense for Steadman. What are the schools that we’re looking at?
Andrew: It’s basically and Auburn/Florida battle. Texas A&M’s kind of pulled out, because they’re going to keep Kellen Mond from IMG committed. They don’t want to mess that up, so it’s basically a Florida/Auburn battle. December 13 is his decision date. Right now Florida’s just waiting to see if they’re going to get an official. You don’t get an official, he’s headed to Auburn.
Nick: He took an official to Auburn when?
Andrew: He’s already took an official to Auburn.
Nick: That’s what I’m saying. He took it when?
Andrew: Tuesday of last week.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: So it’s there. There’s a lot of moving parts. Auburn’s recruiting several quarterbacks, including Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire. So they must not feel that it’s completely done, so it’s interesting. Let’s recap the game, then we’ll get into some more recruiting on there. Nick, story of the game, turnovers.
Nick: Yeah. That was part of the how do you beat Alabama, you win the turnover battle. I did, looked it up, in the 18 games Alabama’s lost during Nick Saban’s 10 years there, that’s pretty crazy, you can’t turn the ball over. Got to win the turnover battle. They’re -24 when they lose games, and you get three interceptions. Can’t have it. You’re not going to win football games against lesser teams turning the ball over that way, and you’re certainly not going to against Alabama.
Andrew: It was 16-9, and Alabama didn’t have a 1st down and had a -7 yards of offense.
Nick: The defense came out and immediately forced a 3 and out. The defense came out with their hair on fire, and I don’t know if this will make people mad to hear about the defense, but Jalen Tabor said, “We go into halftime, we should be winning the game. We should be winning the game at halftime, but we spotted them 17 points.” He goes, “Then when the offense gets down to the 1 yard line, has three chances to punch it in and doesn’t do it, game’s over.” Is the defense checking out there? Maybe they are, but we talked about it last year. It gets to a point where if you’re on the defense, and you look up, and you see we’re down 17, our offense isn’t scoring that. This game’s over. It doesn’t matter what we do the rest of the game. Our offense ain’t scoring 17 points. Unless we score some of those, this game’s over, and that’s what Jalen Tabor said. He said, “After that,” after the goal line stand that Alabama had, he said, “It’s done. Game’s over.”
Andrew: Here’s my thing, and I do agree with what he said, but he shouldn’t say that. He shouldn’t say that. At the end of the day, he didn’t do his job either. He and Quincy Wilson didn’t do their job either. Missed tackle after missed tackle after missed tackle. While I appreciate his comments, I don’t, and personally I think that is one of the things that’s wrong with this team. I think there’s several about me kind of guys on this football team that are older guys that have no loyalty to Mac, and have all loyalty to themselves, and I think that’s why you’ve seen a lot of games where they didn’t come out ready to play. I’ve been holding to say that until the end of the season, not mess with anything, and not to start anything on Twitter or anything else, but there are several guys on this team that are about me kind of guys, and them going to the NFL is not a bad thing for Florida. They’re great players, just about me kind of guys.
Nick: I mean, I think Vernon Hargreaves fell into that last year. I think Vernon Hargreaves was making business decisions last year.
Andrew: Yeah. Once again, I think it was a situation where Vernon was a great player, but he needed to go, and I think Florida was better off in the locker room because of that. Maybe not better off on the field, definitely not better off on the field, but it just is a situation where there’s several about me kind of guys. I’ve heard this from several people, and that is that there is a divide. There is the young guys, and then there’s the older guys. The older guys that have no loyalty to Mac that are about me kind of guys, and then there’s younger guys that are fully invested.
Nick: That’s always an issue with when you change coaching staffs, and I think these guys have bought in. I think Jalen Tabor loves Jim McElwain. Do I think that Jalen Tabor is thinking about the NFL? Yeah. I think he’s been thinking about the NFL since before the season started. Can’t blame him. That’s a natural human thing. Every player at Florida has aspirations to do that, and Jalen Tabor is now just a few short months away from probably being a first round pick. So I get that.
I also get the frustration, and I wrote about it. Listen, teams are not, no player is going to tell you in the first week of November when you ask them, “Hey, the offense sucks. Defense is playing great. Is that going to create a rift between the offense and the defense?” “No, it can’t. We can’t allow it. It won’t happen.” It does. It does, because the defense for years now, for the entire time that Jalen Tabor, Quincy Wilson, those seniors, those juniors, have been here, the defense has had to carry, not even carry, because the offense is so bad, has had to drag the offense behind them, and you’re sitting there wondering, like, “What am I doing? What am I busting my ass for every day in practice, every day in the weight room? Because when the game comes, it’s us who can’t score points, because we play defense, versus our offense and the other team.” It’s frustrating. It has to be frustrating.
Andrew: It has to be frustrating, but at the end of the day you do your job.
Nick: I think Jalen Tabor did. Jalen Tabor was…
Andrew: Tennessee says opposite.
Nick: He slipped on one play.
Andrew: But it was several plays that he got beat. I mean, there was three plays he got beat. I’m just saying. The offense can turn around and say, “Well, we gave you 21 points in the Tennessee game, and you couldn’t hold it up.” You know? I mean, what I’m saying is it’s a two way street, and my point is, while I understand that they should be frustrated, they have every reason to be frustrated, at the end of the day there’s a lot of about me kind of guys, and I do think that is an issue, and it is always an issue with a new coach. Those guys have no loyalty. They weren’t recruited by Mac.
Nick: Yeah. I wanted to also bring up the young guys. They probably had to play, but if you look at, I’m looking at the offensive participation chart. I think everyone on offense except for Austin Appleby and David Sharpe will be back next year, and then looking at defense you’re going to get Kylan Johnson, Marcell Harris, Nick Washington.
Andrew: David Reese.
Nick: David Reese, Keivonnis Davis.
Andrew: Chauncey Gardner.
Nick: Cece Jefferson, Chauncey Gardner, Khari Clark, Taven Bryan. You’re going to get those guys back, so there are a lot of names, but it’s still kind of a young Florida team.
Andrew: It’s a very young Florida team. It’s a team that is a quarterback away from being a really good football team. There is no convincing me otherwise. I’ll continue to say that. They are a quarterback away from having a really good offense.
Nick: Maybe. They could be really good. I just, maybe I’m scarred from seeing this, the offense. The four years I’ve been here the offense has been miserable.
Andrew: Quarterback can cover up for everything, and it’s very obvious several places. A quarterback could cover up everything. I mean, just take a look at Auburn, for instance. When Sean White’s not in the game they’re a terrible offense. When Sean White’s in the game, they’re a really good offense. It’s the difference of a quarterback. It’s a difference of moving the ball, hitting open receivers. This is not a hard offense to do, but you have to be able to throw the ball. If you can’t throw the ball, then you’re not going to win very many football games.
Nick: Another thing I wanted to talk about, because for some reason everyone has kind of made him the scapegoat. I thought Doug Nussmeier had a great game plan against a defense that’s not going to give you anything. I thought Florida had a great game plan.
Andrew: Best game plan of his two years at Florida. Maybe outside the Ole Miss game plan, best game plan. That game plan was super on point. The red zone plays were questionable, and I’ll give him that.
Nick: What do you do? Florida ran for 0 yards. What are you calling in the red zone? And when they’re down there at the red zone, remember Antonio Callaway was in the locker room, so when you get that Brandon Powell sweep, that wide receiver around, that’s Antonio Callaway’s play. He’s just not on the field.
Andrew: Right. I just, I would have loved to have seen the slant to Tyrie there, or something there. I would have loved to have seen that, but at the end of the day it’s…
Nick: At least they didn’t try to throw a fade. I hate throwing fades at the 1.
Andrew: I like it if you were going to throw it to Tyrie.
Nick: I don’t like the fade.
Andrew: Anyways, it’s just tough, and it’s a situation where 1st and goal on the 2, you like your chances, but it didn’t happen. Once again, outside of that I liked the play calling. He had the flea flicker, and it’s a play where it’s boom or bust. It’s either going to be a big play or it was nothing. At that point in time it was boom or bust. It’s fine. Overall that was just a really good game plan. He hit the weaknesses, and that’s the weaknesses of Alabama’s secondary. If you’re going to pick out a secondary, or a weakness, it’s their secondary. You’re not going to do anything against their front seven, but you better do something against their back half.
Nick: Yeah, and I think you were just incapable of doing that, right?
Andrew: Yeah. Incapable, because of quarterback.
Nick: Actually, there were a couple times where, especially on that first drive, when you get into 3rd down, 4th down, there were some times where it was obvious passing downs, and then the offensive line gave him, gave Austin Appleby a good pocket.
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. I mean, but you look at several plays that were just not made in the game. You go back to the interception. The post route was there. There was out routes to Brandon Powell where he just simply doesn’t even look his way. There was times where he’s hitting an open receiver. Open receiver has to dive to catch the ball, and instead of getting 20 yards he’s getting 6 yards. We can go on and on about this. No sense in bashing the guy any more, but it just is simple that there’s open receivers. You have to hit the open receiver. If you don’t hit the open receiver, the offense cannot work. There is nothing Doug Nussmeier can do except for design the play. The play should be known where to go. If you can’t make the play, there’s nothing the guy can do.
Nick: Yeah. He’s not throwing the ball. He’s not catching the ball. So you’re right there. There’s only so much a coach can do. I still, I don’t know if I think, I guess it would depend on who the quarterback is or how good the quarterback is, but I don’t know. When you see Alabama making plays on special teams, and Florida’s not, that’s just a better football team.
Andrew: It’s a better football team, for sure, but it’s, once again, it’s so many little mistakes that you gave yourself no chance to win. When you give yourself no chance to win, it just isn’t going to happen. You have to do that, and they didn’t. It came back to haunt them. Let’s move on with it. We’ll move on to special teams here, and that is that they have to get better at special teams. A lot of it is depth. A lot of it is coaching, and it has to be fixed.
There’s too many times where Johnny makes a good punt, and they’re not wrapping up. There’s too many times they’ll kick off where Eddy puts it on the 1 instead of kicking it out of the end zone, or puts it five yards in the end zone instead of 10, and they return it back. It’s just there’s too many mess ups. That’s on Nord. That’s on Keith Murphy, who is a quality control guy, who also helps out. It has to be fixed. Special teams has to be addressed. It’s been shitty for two years, and in order to be a great football team that lacks a little bit on offense, you better be damn good on special teams, and they’re not.
Nick: Why don’t they go after punts?
Andrew: They did against Bama especially. I told you on the first play, Vosean Joseph just absolutely drove the up back back, but it’s a situation where it’s not a very good block coverage. It’s more of an inside block instead of a bring your fastest guy, like you would prefer to have a guy like Chris Thompson or Chauncey Gardner coming off the edge like Urban did back with Chris Rainey.
Nick: Rainey and Demps.
Andrew: Then my question to you is this, and that is why even go for the block there when you had success last year with Antonio Callaway making a return on the kick, so why would you not try to set up the return there? I questioned when the block was even called, to be honest with you.
Nick: I’m not talking about just the SEC. I’m talking about, it’s been two years.
Andrew: I know, but I’m saying I’m questioning that time of that block, of the block setup against Bama, but it’s shitty. I mean, there is no way around it. You call it what it is. Call a spade a spade. It’s shitty. Shitty coaching. It’s shitty there, and, quite frankly, it’s shitty on the time, on recruiting from that position. So call it like it is.
Nick: Yeah. I was trying to figure this out in my head, and we talked about it a little bit. Where, what’s your feeling after this game? The season has now ended very similarly two years in a row. What is your feeling this year after, as compared to the end of last year?
Andrew: Last year I worried even about the offensive line, about whether, I didn’t think they had as many playmakers on there. This year I feel there’s differently, and I feel there is a difference in the thing. Last year after the game you didn’t see a lot of hurt guys, and I say hurt, not literally hurt, but emotionally hurt. Saturday you did. C’yontai Lewis and Tyrie Cleveland and Antonio Callaway were three guys that it really bothered them. Notice that I said three guys that are not going to the NFL.
Nick: Bryan Cox as well.
Andrew: And Bryan Cox was as well. Jarrad Davis was as well, but just very, just upset with it, and you could tell that the game cared, that they felt like they had a chance to win the game, and it’s just it was a different mindset. I really believe this is a different team than it was last season, with the exception of a few of the all about me kind of guys.
Nick: Yeah. There were some guys that were angry last year. It was definitely more hurt in the locker room this year. Guys kind of just inconsolable, and a guy like Antonio Callaway, he’s gotten there two years in a row, and has nothing to show for it. Someone like Tyrie Cleveland, he got here, and I asked him. He said, “I expect to be here. I came here. I expect to be in this game, and I don’t expect it to go this way. I expect to be competitive.”
Andrew: Props to Tyrie, and I know you’re going to write about this this week, but he was very open about, “I messed up. I got in trouble off the field. My season didn’t start, and because of that I wasn’t able to contribute like I wanted to.” For me, that was big to hear from Tyrie.
Nick: It shows maturity. When you say what he got in trouble for, that’s immaturity. Getting in trouble for shooting a BB gun into a dorm is being immature. To me, I think being able, what he basically said to us, to you, is that, “I caused myself to have a slow progression this year. There’s nobody else to blame. It’s not Kerry Dixon for not putting me in. It’s not Jim McElwain. It’s Doug Nussmeier for not calling me plays.” He said, “Because of what I did off the field,” and then the injury. He didn’t really mention the injury, but he battled a hamstring injury throughout camp. That set him back, and he took complete responsibility for that, and to me that shows you maturity.
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. I think that was, thought that was good on his part to admit that and to go with that. There’s a lot of young guys on this team that are going to be really good. You look at the plays Perine made in the game, and a lot of plays being made there. A lot of plays being made by Reese and Kylan, and Jawaan Taylor had a really good game as well. Martez had a good game. Just an overall really good performance by these young guys that are really starting to play ball. TJ McCoy I thought played pretty well there at center against what we call the best defense in the country. So the future is bright if you get a quarterback.
Nick: Yeah. I’m almost cautious to say kind of like, “You get a quarterback, and that’s the end all,” but you have to get a quarterback.
Andrew: Get a quarterback, and a lot of things get fixed, boss. That defensive end that’s pinning his ears back and just running right at the quarterback now has to at least thing about things. That linebacker, that nickel back that is just bringing, when Florida State was bringing seven guys, two guys off the edge, two weeks ago, they have to at least thing about, this quarterback can beat me with his arm. This quarterback can beat me with his legs, so I may need to wait a split second. Guess what that split second does? That allows Martez Ivey to get back in his stance a little bit. That allows Jawaan Taylor to get back in his stance a little bit. It allows that kind of stuff, and I think most people that don’t know the game as far as, don’t exactly get that sometimes, and it’s crazy to see that, while the offensive line is bad, you have to also give blame elsewhere as well.
Nick: Yeah. I agree with that.
Andrew: But I don’t know. You got to go in. You got to find a way to win this bowl game, very big for them to win a bowl game and to not let it be like last year. Once again, I think that these young guys care about this bowl game a lot, and I think that will be huge for them when they go to Tampa to play Iowa in the Outback Bowl.
Nick: Okay. I wrote a couple things.
Andrew: You write?
Nick: Yeah, I also do write. You can check that out on GatorCountry.com.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Wrote first that, or I wrote second, I said, “We need to see a different ending to this season than last season.”
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: You got blown out by Florida State last year, got blown out by Alabama, and then you got blown out by Michigan. Florida’s been blown out by Florida State, weren’t competitive. Blown out against Alabama, weren’t competitive. You can’t end this season the same way. You can’t make the quarterback the scapegoat. Is the quarterback playing well? No, but at some point it’s on the coaches to do something that the quarterback can do well to find a way to go, to find a way to win a game. Right now you can’t end Year 1 the same way you ended Year 2. The Honeymoon period’s over with Jim McElwain and the fans. Fans have been acting crazy, but you can’t end that way the same time. I also wrote, first off, do you agree with that? You can’t end with three blowout losses again.
Andrew: No. You can’t. You can’t.
Nick: It hurts everything. It hurts the fans. It hurts the program. It hurts recruiting. It can’t happen.
Andrew: Right. I agree with that. You can’t do that at all. I know what’s coming next, and it’s tough. It’s a tough balance.
Nick: Yeah. Also wrote that, listen, Florida needs to play one of the freshman quarterbacks in a game. Here’s my reasoning, and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma says this all the time. If you’re a good enough player, you’re not going to be in college for four years. If Feleipe Franks is your answer at quarterback, guess who’s not going to be at Florida in 2020? Feleipe Franks. If he is everything that you think, that the fans thing he is, he’s probably leaving after his redshirt sophomore season. So you need to find out, and you have two quarterbacks in the same class. You need to find out and use these 15 bowl practices, and then use the game, to figure out which one it’s going to be moving forward, to know if, “Do we need to go out and get, try to get a five star quarterback in 2018, because one of these two guys isn’t it? Maybe they’ll get us through a year, but they’re not it.” You got to find that out.
Andrew: Right. I said this to you, I think it’s depending on what happens these next couple weeks. If you land a guy like Jarrett Steadman on December 13th, maybe it’s not as important to play Feleipe. Maybe it’s not. If you don’t, and you know going into next season Feleipe or Kyle Trask is your guy as quarterback, no doubt about it, you play him, and you play him a lot. You give him the start, and you let him go. You let him go, but you do run the risk of it turning ugly if he doesn’t play well. Now, to be fair, Iowa’s offense is not very good. Florida’s defense, even battered up, banged up, should be better, or should be able to play with them. In my opinion, it all depends on what happens over the next week.
Nick: That’s true. I just wanted to talk about, that’s 100% true. You’re talking about if you get Jarrett Steadman, that’s probably your guy going forward, so that changes things, but if you don’t, people keep saying, “You don’t burn a redshirt for one meaningless game.” Is the Outback Bowl meaningless? Yes. Meaningless.
Andrew: It’s a preseason game. Let’s just be honest. It’s an exhibition.
Nick: Getting 15 practices is more important. Getting 15 practices is more important for those young guys than the Outback Bowl itself. So people are saying, “Well, why would you do that? Why would you burn a redshirt for one game?” You burn a redshirt for one game because the other option at starting quarterback isn’t going to be here next year. You have no idea what you’re getting next year. Go ahead and see what you’ve got. Let these guys for 15 practices run with the ones. Give them a chance. I think the main thing is that, like I said, if these guys are good, you’ll be able to find that out during the practice. If they are what you think they are, and if you think that they’re going to progress, they’re not going to be here for five years, and the redshirt means nothing.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, you have all good points, and there is no argument for your points at all.
Nick: If you redshirt Feleipe Franks this year, and he comes out, and he’s that dude as a redshirt freshman, and he’s that dude as a redshirt sophomore, he’s probably gone.
Andrew: Yeah, no, I mean you’re right.
Nick: Maybe plays as a redshirt junior, but he’s not playing as a redshirt senior. So what are you saving?
Andrew: You’re saving nothing. I mean, that’s what I’m saying. You have a good point in that. My thing is this, and that is that he hasn’t played. This isn’t an important game. It’s a risk you’re taking either way.
Nick: I think, an opportunity was missed in the South Carolina game to get one of the two guys in, just to play. Then you can get them in in a couple other games. There was no reason for both of them to redshirt. We said that before the year. It creates some separation between the two.
Andrew: I mean, you can break that down, and we can argue over that all you want. It was an opportunity, but it wasn’t an opportunity. The game never got out of hand enough to be that way. It’s your saying, and that is that if they were good enough to start they would have played, but here’s my thing, I don’t think that it’s a situation of them not being good. It’s a situation of them being a freshman.
Nick: That’s the other thing is that everyone, “They can’t be worse than this.” It’s not that they’re worse. It’s that they’re not ready and that they’re a freshman. The coaching staff who sees them every day has decided that they’re not ready to play. Jalen Hurts is a freshman. Yeah, man. Jalen Hurts isn’t playing for Florida.
Andrew: No, you’re right. You’re right. I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. They go down on the 27th. Mac says they’ll get the first couple days off this week, practice Thursday, Friday, and then they’ll get Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off of next week for finals, and then they’ll be back at it a little bit before break, and then they’ll resume out in Tampa.
Nick: I’m excited. I’d rather be excited for New Years in Tampa, excited for blooming onions, coconut shrimp, maybe a bowl gift. We haven’t gotten one of those yet.
Andrew: That’s what I was going to ask. I wonder if we get it, or if it’s another…
Nick: Even if the bowl gift is here’s a coupon for free blooming onion at Outback, yeah. That’s better than your bowl gift is a shuttle to and from the stadium.
Andrew: Yeah, when you can drive. Exactly. To kind of get things moving along, so we can get out of here, recruiting the rest of the week. They’ll be on the road recruiting all week. An official visit weekend next weekend. Dead period starts on Monday, so it’s a huge weekend all the way through. You got guys like Alex Leatherwood coming to town. It’s just a big weekend for them, and it’s a big week for in home visits there. Jarrett Steadman may or may not be visiting. We’ll have that on the next podcast on Wednesday, whether he’s coming in or not. Basketball also plays #5, Duke, on Tuesday. That’s a big one for Mike White’s team. Impressive, 7-1 with all the traveling they’re doing, Nick. I personally think it’s impressive what they’re doing. It will be interesting to see how this team is received now by fans now that football season’s over with.
Nick: I think a lot of that is going to have to be, you’re saying how the fans perceive or how the team perceives?
Andrew: No, sorry, how the fans perceive this team. Like what do they think about this team. Are they getting around this team now? Is basketball back?
Nick: I don’t know.
Andrew: See, I don’t either. I mean, #21 ranked under Mike White, that’s a good start.
Nick: I think people are starting to come around on Mike White. We’ll see. Let’s play Duke, and people will overreact if they lose to Duke.
Andrew: Duke’s a good basketball team.
Nick: Yeah. Sure are.
Andrew: Really good basketball team, but I do think this Florida team is a good team as well. Anyway, Nick, tell everybody where they can find us. We’ll get out. We’ll see everybody later this week.
Nick: www.GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. You can find us in podcast form on the website. The transcript is there as well. You can find us on iTunes. Search @GatorCountry. Subscribe to the podcast there, never miss an episode. On social media, on Facebook, @GatorCountry. On Twitter, @GatorCountry. On Instagram, @TheGatorCountry. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter.
Andrew: There you go. Come check us out. If you hadn’t joined yet, come join. It’s hot. It’s hot on the site, and it’s there. We’ve had plenty of scoop. You guys know about the Malik Zaire stuff. You guys know about the injuries before anyone else did on Friday. Recruiting updates are coming. I mean, Nick, I don’t know what else to say. If you want info before the info comes out on the rest of the internet, there’s only one place to come.
Nick: There you go.
Andrew: There you go. Alright, Nick, let’s get out of here. As always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Butch, Mark, you still suck.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.