Recapping the Florida Gators big win over Tennessee: Podcast

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators big win over Tennessee on Saturday in the Swamp.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the Gators improved on offense as the game went on, plus how the playmakers did.

Andrew and Nick also break down the defense and how played well and not so well, plus go over our predictions.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, what a game, what an atmosphere. Glad football is back.
Nick:​That was a stinker for like 56 minutes.
Andrew:​Yeah. Really three quarters I would say. Then you had the CJ Henderson pick six opened the floodgates.
Nick:​Yeah. That started the 4th quarter. That was in the third play of the 4th quarter. Man, that was, for three quarters that was really bad football.
Andrew:​It was almost like a chess match of who is going to suck first on offense? Who’s going to make that big mistake on offense first, because once you do it, then we’ll open the gates up. Happened. CJ got it, made that play. Tennessee turned it up. Actually, Malik Davis turned it up and had the ball popped out at the goal line. It’s 20-3, just like that.
Nick:​That’s a huge swing go from 20-3 to 13-10. That’s a hustle play by, I don’t remember the guy from Tennessee. Hustle play on Tennessee’s part.
Andrew:​Justin Hunter? Is it?
Nick:​No. Justin Martin maybe.
Andrew:​Justin Martin, that’s it. Juco DB kid from last year.
Nick:​Yeah. That was just a hustle play on his part. What a run by Malik. Hit the hole and just gone.
Andrew:​That’s what I was going to say. It’s a hustle play. Could Malik have caught, ran with the ball a little tighter? Yeah, but, like you said, it’s a hustle play. Something kind of stood out to me. Malik tweeted after the game something about, “I made a mistake. I’ll learn from it.” Jake McGee, who is probably the biggest pro Florida guy out there on Twitter, even though he only played two years at Florida, tweeted, “Never apologize for working hard and doing your best.” That was something that stood out. That was a good run by Malik. We’ll talk about it in a minute, as we get into the running backs, but find more carries for the guy.
Nick:​Yeah. There’s a fine line when you’ve got four running backs. Perine having 11. Thompson had 7. Toney had 1, and Davis had 4.
Andrew:​That’s what I’m saying. Here’s my thing. Actually, I’ll save it. I’ll save it for in a minute. We’ll get into that in a minute. Like we said, the 4th quarter kind of got thing started, and who called plays in the 4th quarter, Nick? That wasn’t Doug Nussmeier calling plays.
Nick:​It was. It was Doug Nussmeier.
Andrew:​Are we sure?
Nick:​100%. Doug Nussmeier was calling plays in the 4th quarter.
Andrew:​You can’t make me believe that. I’m saying that knowing that you’re right, but you still can’t make me believe that, because it just wasn’t Doug Nussmeier calling plays. It was like someone took over his body and called plays, because it actually looked like an offense that was pretty good. The Brandon Powell touchdown, nice play. It was a good play of getting your playmakers out in space and doing it.
​Now, I will say this. Florida did do a much better job of getting some of their playmakers the ball. Toney, Hammond, got Malik involved a little bit, and got Brandon Powell involved a little bit. It was coming out party for Kadarius Toney.
Nick:​Yeah. Finally got that get it to list, and there it was. I’m texting you during the game, “Hey, there’s that stand pass.” They’re just getting the ball out of Feleipe’s hands quickly to get it into somebody else’s, one of your playmaker’s hands. Let them do something.
Andrew:​We talk about it all the time. If you can’t run the ball, a stand pass is basically an outside running play, because it’s a get it out there really quick. I’m going to say, and I’ll correct it when I’m done saying this. It’s almost a guaranteed 4-5 yards every time they had that stand pass. Now, does it get 4-5 every time? No, but it’s almost one of those things where you throw it out there, you’re going to get good yardage, unless you’re throwing it to Demarcus Robinson, who is going to run out of bounds.
Nick:​In off coverage, in zone coverage, it’s 15 yards. Make a guy miss is 15, 20 yards. You know what I mean?
Andrew:​Right. Exactly. You go back, and you put on Alabama film, and you watch the number of times that a guy like Julio caught it and made one or two guys miss, and then was gone. Now, that’s the best receiver in the NFL doing that, but what I’m saying is when you start to do that you allow for your playmakers to get it. I’d like to see Kadarius get one of those stand passes and just see. As you seen on Saturday, he makes one guy miss, and boom, he’s gone. I’d like to see that happen. Get it to you list showed up for the first time in three years on Saturday.
Nick:​Yeah. I was beginning to doubt its existence totally. We saw it Saturday, finally.
Andrew:​We needed to see the paper heading into this week.
Nick:​You can kind of see. How many touches did he have total?
Andrew:​Five touches.
Nick:​Five touches total.
Andrew:​That’s okay.
Nick:​He’s still very young.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​You don’t need to know the playbook to say, “Hey, son, we’re going to line you up outside and throw you the ball really quickly. Make somebody miss.” “Okay, Coach.”
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​What’s the play call? No, that’s the play call. The play call is take a step back from the line of scrimmage, catch the ball and run.
Andrew:​Even with the wildcat quarterback where he was in and took the direct snap and went at it, that was 5 yards. Guess what? Next play’s 2nd and 5, and Doug Nussmeier’s favorite play call on 2nd down’s a run. Now you’re probably setting up 3rd and short, so you’re good. Now, in the 4th quarter Nussmeier wasn’t as predictable. Things were a lot better. Franks ends up 18 of 28, 212 yards. Granted, 63 of those was on Tyrie Cleveland’s touchdown catch at the end of the game, but still.
I said this in the 2nd quarter. I said, “Serious question, do you think about bringing Del Rio in?” Some people were criticizing a little bit, but at the same time, I thought maybe bring in Del Rio just to see if he can settle down the offense a little bit, because in the 2nd quarter Franks did look like he was getting a little jittery. Now, in the 4th quarter he did calm down.
Even on the interception, and you and I talked about this off the air, was it a great pass? No, by no means was it a great pass. Should it have been caught? Yes. C’yontai should have caught it. Was it a fast ball? Yes. Was it the right call? No, but it still wasn’t a terrible pass, and it wasn’t a terrible read. I mean, if C’yontai catches, he gets 1st down.
Nick:​It’s one of those things where it might just have been should have thrown the two sink fastball. You threw the four sink fastball. Just a little too hot for such a short pass.
Andrew:​Right. Exactly. Overall, I never did think Franks was playing bad. I thought he was getting a little nervous in the 2nd quarter, trying to make things happen that weren’t there. Was it that? I will say this, Nick. Offensive line did improve a ton. Now, the running game still wasn’t great, but again, when it’s 2nd down and everybody in the stadium knows it’s a run, it’s not hard to stop it. I will say that the offensive line played better Week 3 than they did Week 1.
Nick:​What do you think that is? Obviously, we talked about it. Tennessee’s defensive line was weak. Certainly weaker than the defensive line you faced. Is that it? Should we be reading more into it about the offensive line, or just they played lower competition?
Andrew:​I think it’s a little bit of both. I think that they played lower competition. I’ll say it. We talked about it. I think Michigan’s a better than average front seven. I think their front seven is probably top 10 in the country. I don’t doubt that, but the offensive line just played that bad in that game too. I think it’s a combination of a couple things. Them getting a little bit better from Week 1 to the next game, lower competition there, and maybe play calling in the 4th quarter being better. Maybe. There’s a couple things that can be said on it.
I did think this though. I thought that the tackles, and even the tight ends did a lot better blocking, especially on the edge. 1st quarter, on the little stand pass to Brandon Powell, Waany was out there blocking his tail off, and slung some poor kid to the ground.
Nick:​The last thing a cornerback wants to see is a right tackle with a head full of steam coming his way on a screen pass.
Andrew:​See a guy as big as Waany Taylor.
Nick:​He’s a building.
Andrew:​So, overall, that was that. Let’s get to the final play. We’ll talk final play, and then we’ll talk about the plays leading up to it. Final play was just a well-executed play. I hear some people, and, Nick, I know you said the same thing. You called it a hail Mary. It was a hail Mary, but it was also a designed play. It showed Feleipe’s arm strength and his ability to throw a good ball that was well placed. It was placed that it was going to be Tyrie who was going to have a chance to catch the ball. Then what a great route by Tyrie, and great concentration to catch that ball.
Nick:​I said to somebody, there was a national writer I was talking to yesterday, and I said to him, “That’s a ball that the other four years I’ve been covering this team that gets dropped.”
Andrew:​Yes.
Nick:​Then you go into overtime, and whatever happens in overtime, whether you win or you lose. That’s just a play that hasn’t been made the last four years.
Andrew:​No. It hasn’t been.
Nick:​Whether or not it’s the quarterback not throwing it, whether it’s the receiver dropping it, or throwing it and it being a bad pass, that’s just a play that doesn’t get made the last four years.
Andrew:​Let me ask you this. I said this, and I guess it’s the easy way, but I also can’t remember anything else. That’s the biggest play in Mac era since the Callaway catch.
Nick:​I would say that Grier to Callaway’s a bigger play.
Andrew:​It is.
Nick:​Just because you were trailing.
Andrew:​Right. What I’m saying is that was the biggest play since that time.
Nick:​Shit. Are there even any other contenders?
Andrew:​That’s what I’m trying to remember, if there was another bigger play. I guess you could say the Vosean hit last year, the goal line stand that gets you to the SEC championship was, but that was on defense. I’m saying offense. You think about it. I’ll be honest. I didn’t have much faith that play could happen.
Nick:​No. You can’t really see it when you’re watching on TV, but it was Martin again, the one who had the great strip.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​Kind of just sat in his coverage on the line.
Andrew:​No. You would think that Butch—well, okay, I answered my own question. Letting Butch think. You would think that DBs themselves would think, “Nobody behind me.” Kind of like in baseball, where they say no doubles defense.
Nick:​Exactly.
Andrew:​You don’t have anybody get you by. Anthony Schwarz had a good thing in our recruiting reaction, in our story. If you don’t know him, he’s an American Heritage receiver, 2018 prospect. He said he was sitting in the end zone, and he said he was looking. He thought to himself, and he said he turned to his dad and said, “Dad, if they throw a post to Cleveland, it’s a touchdown.” I’m sitting here thinking, “Wow, if a prospect in the end zone noticed that, how did Tennessee not notice that?” But it was a great play.
Great execution by Franks to buy himself some time, make the play. I’m hoping that that makes Franks, and you said Franks is very confident and cocky already, and I understand that. I think that that persona outside of the field hasn’t led to him on the field yet either. I say that just because, and this is going to sound crazy when I say this, but you haven’t seen Franks throw some balls into coverage he shouldn’t. When Franks is confident, he’s doing that.
Now, somebody is going to say, “We don’t want him throwing picks.” At the same time, if he’s throwing more touchdowns, who cares? I wanted to see that confidence lead over, and I’m hoping that that play makes Feleipe feel like he belongs at this level.
Nick:​Yeah. He’s a confident kid to begin with.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​Confident, cocky. Yeah. A moment like that.
Andrew:​Look what it did for Grier in the Old Miss game.
Nick:​Yeah. I think Feleipe, I didn’t really see it too much from Del Rio. Grier did it too. It was kind of like, even when it was scrambling, “That guy’s 30 yards down the field with his hand up in the air, let’s choke it up.” That’s kind of that gunslinger mentality we talked about with Franks that will get him into trouble at points this year.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​And at points in his career, but it also can create moments like that.
Andrew:​Yeah. Here’s the thing too. I think, and I want people to really think about this, and this is something you and I have talked about, Nick, so I’m not catching you off guard when I say this. Up until the Tennessee play, Will Grier had done nothing at Florida. You guys can argue, and you guys can do whatever. He had done nothing. Let’s just be honest. Him and Treon Harris were doing about the same, up until that play against Tennessee with Callaway.
Nick:​You are misremembering. He had a great game against ECU.
Andrew:​Okay. ECU.
Nick:​He only played five games, man.
Andrew:​What I’m saying is he wasn’t spectacular.
Nick:​You put him in the same breath as Treon Harris. How dare you?
Andrew:​Okay. He wasn’t.
Nick:​How dare you.
Andrew:​Whatever. He had not cemented himself.
Nick:​They’re the same thing. Ugh.
Andrew:​Maybe I did go a little far there. Anyway, what I’m saying is up until that play he had really not shown an ability to be that guy. He showed that ability in that game, and then, boom, it took off from there. That’s what I’m saying you could see from Feleipe. Until that moment, he hadn’t shown he could be that guy. Now he’s shown he can be that guy, when a two minute drill can win you the game.
​Now, let me take a play back. What the hell were they doing on that play? On the play before, where Feleipe, I’m guessing they thought he got the 1st down.
Nick:​We asked McElwain about that. He gave an answer, but it’s not really an excuse for what happened.
Andrew:​What was the answer?
Nick:​The answer was, “We thought he had a 1st down, and that the clock would stop. Then we thought we would at least get a measurement, and then that didn’t come.” You wasted about 20 ticks. You wasted about 20 ticks of the clock. I’m looking down on the field like, “What are they doing?” I see TJ McCoy frantically looking over at the timeline and saying, “Time out. Time out.” Like call it. I don’t know. That could have come back to bite you.
Andrew:​Think about it. It would have been about 26, 27 seconds on the clock.
Nick:​And you had two time outs left.
Andrew:​Right.
Nick:​He said, “We were trying to save a time out.” I’m like, you’re misremembering, because you had two. You don’t need to save one. You had two. You’d be able to run another play towards the sideline, or run something over the middle of the field, and then get out of bounds. You had two time outs.
Andrew:​You had 37 seconds go. I mean, you were on the 37-yard line, so you think you’re probably needing 30 yards, 35 yards, to get really Eddy range, to where you could kick it.
Nick:​That’s another thing he said. He said, “You guys are about to find out what Eddy’s range is.” We were all about to find out.
Andrew:​That’s why I didn’t understand that. Now, it all worked out fine and dandy. We won the game, but I’m just wondering what the hell was going on on that play. I’m sitting here thinking, “Wait, did they stop the clock, and it’s just running accidentally? What’s going on here?” I just didn’t get it at all. That’s something that has to be fixed. You honestly can’t blame that on Feleipe, because of that. I didn’t understand that at all. I guess that was two plays, because Mark ends up picking up the 1st down on the next play. Still, I was just, it was mind-boggling.
Nick:​Yeah. That could have been bad. It kind of leads me into my next statement. I haven’t said this to you yet.
Andrew:​Okay.
Nick:​Enjoy that moment. That goes down in the history books. That’s up there with any of the great plays in Florida history. Embrace the moment. I’m not embracing the offense yet. I think the first three quarters is much more of what this offense is at this current time than what they did in the 4th quarter.
​Neither of those teams, I wouldn’t have been surprised, even regardless of the ending of the game, wouldn’t have been surprised if Florida had dropped out of the top 25 this week. I would have had no complaint with that either. They do not look like one of the 25 best teams in the country.
Andrew:​No. They didn’t. Here’s what I was going to say, and that is when the offense was moving in the 4th quarter, you thought, “This could be that.” I will say this. I thought, and it didn’t show in the game, but I did think that Franks and the O line improved from one to the other.
​Now, here is what I was going to say as well, and this is not an excuse, and this nothing else but something to remember. This was technically Game 2 for Florida, because didn’t have last week. Let’s see how much they improve to next week, into next week. I do think that this is an improving offense each week, if the play calling continues to be like the 4th quarter, and not like quarter 1-3. Again, Nick, first series of the game, best series of the game looking plays, until the 4th quarter.
Nick:​To me, it’s just how do you not run on this Tennessee team?
Andrew:​It was kind of what I texted you in the middle of the game too.
Nick:​You ran for 40 more yards than whatever bum school they played last week.
Andrew:​Indiana State. It’s kind of what I told you through text in the middle of the game, and that was Georgia Tech ate them alive on the perimeter. Keep running the perimeter, and then, boom, Malik Davis has a 94-yard run, or a 72-yard run. You’re thinking, “That’s where they should have been hitting all day.” I just didn’t get that, why they didn’t continue to hit the edges with that.
​Now, here’s my next point, Nick, and that is stop running Mark Thompson on toss sweeps. Please. Get the guy who can run, Malik Davis, the ball on the outside. Mark Thompson’s not an edge runner. He’s a bulldog runner that runs up the middle. Please stop giving him toss sweeps, and please, for the love of God, get him out on 3rd downs. He cannot block. He does not catch.
​Perine had a missed block as well, and I’ll be the first to admit that that was not good at all. Maybe Malik’s your guy there on 3rd down. Please, Mark Thompson has not shown he can block on 3rd down, hasn’t shown he can catch on 3rd down. Get him out. On the first series of the game, he gives up on the screen ball. Now, Malik overthrew it, but Mark gave up. Go get the ball.
Nick:​I don’t even know if he’s a between the tackles runner. He seems to like to try to jump over people more than he likes to run through people.
Andrew:​Again, give him credit where credit’s due. He had a decent game on his seven carries for 30 yards. He ran hard, that kind of stuff. Just don’t show me on 3rd down him anymore, please. Give Malik the ball on the outside. Mark Thompson’s not breaking tackles. I’m chasing Mark Thompson down. You’re chasing Mark Thompson down. No. Give it to Malik, who’s an elite speed guy.
Nick:​He’s just got this burst, and he gets to this different, even more so than, I wouldn’t even say that he’s the fastest player on the team.
Andrew:​No.
Nick:​It’s just that burst, that acceleration. He had the ball, and he’s got a patience, especially for a younger player. He’s got some patience, and once he decides to hit that next gear, he’s just gone.
Andrew:​Yeah. You seen that. Everybody’s going to point to the long 72-yard run, but there was a couple of other plays, Nick, where he was in there, and he was one or two blocks away from taking care of business there. Again, just please stop with 3rd downs with Mark Thompson. He’s not going to block, whether you practice it all week or not. The guy can’t remember. He doesn’t know. Just stop. He’s not going to catch the ball if you have a passing play to him. Just stop. Don’t waste your time with the guy anymore.
Nick:​I’d like to see more, then again, maybe there’s stuff going on behind the scenes where he doesn’t know this play book as much, or we’re getting him on plays that he’s comfortable, stuff like that. There could always be stuff like that behind the scenes, but if that’s not the case, then I’d certainly like to see more of Malik Davis.
Andrew:​My thing is this, and that is you’re going into the game, and as a pass blocker you’re saying, “This is my read. This is my gap. I have to block this gap, or I have to block Mike.” When the quarterback gets under center, he’s saying, “Mike 32, or Mike 43.” He’s telling you. He’s telling you who to block, and you still don’t block him. You’re going to get your quarterback killed.
Nick:​Maybe. There was once, I forget who sacked him, but one kid just like threw Feleipe to the ground. I was like, ooh.
Andrew:​I mean, the play he had, the missed block he had on the second series of the game, the offensive line had it blocked really well. Had he blocked his guy, it’s an open pocket. Just go chomp him, Mark. If you’re dumb enough that you can’t remember who to block, guess what? Block the guy that’s free, that’s running free. Chances are, that was your guy.
Nick:​Let’s go to the defense.
Andrew:​Okay. Marco Wilson. Marco Island.
Nick:​It’s funny, because there’s actually a Marco Island in Florida.
Andrew:​Chances are Chad Wilson named that for his son, because of that. It’s just, and, Nick, I say this all the time, and I promise we’re not bragging, but it goes back to the conversation you and I had with the Wilson family, Chad, Marco, and Quincy, up in Orlando when Quincy was an eighth grader, or Marco was an eighth grader. Quincy and Chad both looked at us and said, “He’s better than Quincy.” Talking to Marco. You and I were like, what? How do you know that? He is. The swagger he brings is crazy. It’s crazy to see how good Marco is after not even playing his junior year, because of a torn ACL.
Nick:​Yeah. I’ll probably keep saying it. Nothing he does on the football field will surprise me.
Andrew:​No. Nothing will. Nothing will. He’s just a special player, and you and I, we’ll go ahead, and we’ll get it out there. We’ll eat a little crow on CJ Henderson. You and I both were, not questioning his ability as a player, but questioning how soon he’d be able to contribute at DB. He got burned a little on the one on one play to Callaway—he didn’t get burned. I need to rephrase that. Callaway just made a better play than him. He just outjumped him at a play. CJ was in position for that there. Just got burned there a little bit. Again, he was there. I’ll be the first to admit, like you I’m sure, and you said it to me yesterday, be the first to admit that he played better than this. First time since ’96 that a DB has had a pick six in consecutive games. Not just a freshman, any DB.
Nick:​Yes. Since ’96. I put that on my story yesterday. Took one of my five things, my five takeaways from the game, made one of them I was wrong about CJ Henderson. Not the first time I’m wrong, not the last time I’ll be wrong, but you and I never have a problem admitting when we’re wrong about things. He stepped right in. I think Bryan Edwards—I’m sorry. I think Brad Stewart was ahead of him to begin with, to begin camp, when they both showed up. I think CJ just made more strides and kind of made those other guys wait, and Putu as well. Putu’s not going to play when these two freshmen are playing the way they are.
Andrew:​Now, to the bad. Do you want to say it, or do you want me to say it?
Nick:​Go ahead.
Andrew:​Chauncey Gardner, shut your mouth and get in the tackling drill. Call me out on Twitter. Say whatever you want to say. I’m sure he’s going to say something. Shut up and play ball. I mean, he has no desire to tackle. No desire to tackle at all. Then that stupid penalty on the goal line. Dude, you didn’t even do anything.
Nick:​Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing, or what caused him to get a penalty. We called him the Mouth of the South when he was a recruit. He likes to talk. He tackles like a cornerback though, not like a safety. He does that dive towards your knees with your back, and we used to make fun of kids in high school trying to tackle like that.
Andrew:​I mean, Nick, I don’t know about you, but that’s a concern. Jawaan Taylor played decent ball on Saturday, and Shawn Davis. Do you start to think about maybe moving Chauncey down? Because I don’t know if you can get away with Chauncey missing that many tackles. I mean, I never want to say one guy did, but Chauncey almost single-handedly let Tennessee win that ballgame, because of missed tackles on the secondary.
Nick:​He says he only missed three.
Andrew:​Yeah, whatever.
Nick:​I think that might be a little low, but it seems like when he missed the tackle it went for 35, 40 yards.
Andrew:​He missed three tackles on one play. Yeah, whatever. Then, dude, if you miss a tackle, get up and take it like a man. Don’t act like you’re hurt. That frustrates me more than anything in the entire world.
Nick:​Then also, I don’t know what you’re going to gain from calling fans irrelevant.
Andrew:​Yeah. What are you gaining from that? What do you gain from calling fans irrelevant? First of all, it’s just kind of contradicting your coach and the rest of your players. You got the rest of your fans and players jumping in the stands celebrating. You got recruits calling them the greatest fans in the world. You got Mac saying, “This is what you come to Florida for, to play in front of those fans.” You got other players thanking the fans. You got Randy Shannon on Thursday saying that the fans are going to be a big part of the game. I mean, they made Tennessee confused, and then you’re going to call out your own fans? What are you doing?
Nick:​I don’t get it.
Andrew:​It’s disrespectful.
Nick:​You need a little thicker skin.
Andrew:​It’s disrespectful.
Nick:​Need a little thicker skin there, in my opinion.
Andrew:​I mean, you’re in a spotlight like that, you better take the good and the bad. It’s just what it is. Some days you’re going to be the star. You’re going to make a pick six and win a ballgame, and you’re going to be congratulated. The next day you’re going to be the dud.
Nick:​Yup.
Andrew:​It is what it is. The better response for Chauncey would have been, “Listen, I apologize, but I’m glad we won the football game.”
Nick:​Got to get to a certain maturity level before you’re able to say stuff like that.
Andrew:​You didn’t see Malik Davis calling the fans out because he fumbled, or Perine calling the fans out because he fumbled, or anybody else who played—didn’t play bad. I don’t think either one of those guys played bad, but you didn’t see those guys calling out the fans either.
Nick:​No.
Andrew:​Yeah. I don’t know. Here’s the thing, Nick. You’re 1-0 in the SEC. That’s your goal. You got a chance to show in the 4th quarter that you can play a little bit on offense, and that your quarterback is able to do that. You’re going to go into Kentucky, and you’re going to face a Kentucky team. Nick, I told you this on Saturday night, after they beat South Carolina, that I thought they were a better team than people give them credit for.
Nick:​Yeah. I’m not going to pick them, but their defense is better.
Andrew:​That little quarterback is shifty.
Nick:​He can move a little bit.
Andrew:​It was Will Muschamp that he beat. Again, that’s that. You go into this game not expecting Kylan Johnson to be back. Still dealing with that hamstring. I’ll say it now, before we get a zillion questions. I don’t think the suspended players are back this week. Possibly next week. Go ahead and get that out of the way. I think that’s about it.
​On the recruiting front, you can get a blowout win, and the offense look great, and that’s all fine and dandy, but a game like yesterday sends the kids home realizing the atmosphere, appreciating the fans, and home on a high note. Could not have went better on a recruiting standpoint for those guys.
Nick:​At one point, you and I were talking during the game, 2nd quarter, maybe 3rd quarter, and just like, “This is terrible.” It goes past, “I can see playing early.” It goes past that. It goes to “I don’t want to play here.”
Andrew:​Yeah.
Nick:​“I don’t want to play on this team. This is bad. I don’t want to play on either of these teams.” To an incredible atmosphere, and an entertaining 4th quarter.
Andrew:​Exactly. I know I’ve said this in the past, but this is for sure. Zach and I will be doing our recruiting podcast tomorrow. The reason we hadn’t started it was came down with mono, so he’s been under the weather and out of things. It was a big weekend for basketball recruiting as well. We’ll have that go up on Tuesday. We’ll tape that on Monday, or today as you guys are listening to this. That’ll go up on Tuesday. Promise to get that up, and then we’ll have our normal stuff with Kentucky. We got to find a new guy. We’re not going back to that guy again, Nick. We haven’t even talked about that, but we’re not going back to him again.
Nick:​Could be fun.
Andrew:​No. He gets on my nerves. I don’t like that guy.
Nick:​Kyle Tucker.
Andrew:​Who’s that?
Nick:​That’s the guy’s name, Kyle Tucker.
Andrew:​No. It wasn’t. It was something else. Matt or something, the Kentucky radio guy.
Nick:​Oh, no. Kyle Tucker’s SEC Country.
Andrew:​Yeah. He’s a moron too. We’re not going with him either. We’ll find somebody. Anyway, look ahead for the week. We’ll have that. We’ll have plenty of content. Nick, before we get out of here, your boy took care of you in predictions this week.
Nick:​Yeah. We both picked Louisville. Terribly wrong. We both picked LSU. Terribly wrong. I picked South Carolina. Thanks a lot, Boone. You took Kentucky. You get that win. We both picked USC correctly.
Andrew:​That was a good game, by the way.
Nick:​That was. I rarely get to watch games. When we have 3:30 games, I barely get to watch football that night, because I’m leaving on the way to stadium in the middle of the 12:00s. Then I’ve got my game on. It’s a CBS game, so it’s at 4:00. It’s a four hour game. Then working after the game for 3, 4 hours. I miss most games. I was able to watch Texas-USC while finishing up some writing.
​You picked Cal. That’s a winner. I picked Ole Miss. That’s a loser. We both picked Florida. You cleaned up there.
​We go to the players. I’m getting a no for my pick of LP. I’m getting a yes for calling the pick from Duke Dawson, and I’m getting a yes for Jabari Zuniga’s six tackles, two quarterback hurries, tackle for a loss, half sack.
Andrew:​Yeah. I’m giving you that, because the defensive line in general played really good ball, and was getting a lot of pressure. When you look at guys like Kyree Campbell, Kyree Campbell was having a good day. Jordan Sherit was having a good day. I’m not getting a win for Cece, but I still think Cece had a good day. Overall, even Taven Bryan had a good day. Yeah. You had a good day in general that overall there was a lot of good effort. I think you said it on Friday, when you said you could pick any of the defensive linemen and be right, and you were right. Jachai Polite played well. Defensive line played really well.
​I’m getting a win for Feleipe Franks. Definitely getting a win for Tyrie Cleveland. Getting a L for Cece, for no other reason than he just didn’t have anything big in the game to desire a win.
Nick:​So that puts up at me with a 4-2 lead after two games.
Andrew:​Okay. That’s fine, but I’m up two in the predictions.
Nick:​Yeah. Predictions were not my strong suit this week.
Andrew:​It’s a better week next week. Real quick, before we get out of here, Vandy goes and beats K State at home. What a win.
Nick:​They’re not ranked. You got LSU who got drug through Stark Vegas. They’re still ranked. You got San Diego State that’s ranked. Give my Vandy boys some love.
Andrew:​Yeah. That was good, and then Memphis over UCLA.
Nick:​Tennessee Volunteers are the third best team in the state.
Andrew:​That’s crazy. Butch Jones, oh my God, that guy. That guy’s so bad. His decision making. Nussmeier makes some scratch your head calls, but on the goal line? What are you doing? Dude, Kelly had been killing people. Chandler, killing people, and you’re going to run it, or throw it from shotgun? Whatever. The one thing I’ll say with Nuss is for the first time in a long, long time they ran slants, and they got under center and ran a quarterback sneak. I mean, that’s what you do on the goal line.
Nick:​Just came across Twitter, before we close out here, Brent Pease just got fired at UTEP.
Andrew:​He’s not very good either. Whatever. He was the product of Chris Peterson. How thing would be different if Alabama hired him and not Florida, when they were in the bidding war. Yeah. Crazy, crazy times. Anyway, Nick, tell everyone where they can find us. We’ll get out of here. See everyone on Tuesday for recruiting podcast, Wednesday for the regular podcast with a Kentucky guy to be named later, and then Friday back for a prediction podcast. Just a sneak peek, neither Nick or I are picking Kentucky until they win a game.
Nick:​www. GatorCountry.com for all your Florida Gator news. The podcast is there in audio and transcript form. You can follow us—excuse me. You can get the podcast also on iTunes. Search @GatorCountry. Subscribe there, and never miss an episode. Follow us on social media. Like, retweet, double-tap on it, all that stuff. @GatorCountry on Facebook and Twitter. @TheGatorCountry on Instagram. I’m @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s @AndrewSpiveyGC.
Andrew:​Had a lot of good stuff. We’ll have tons of recruiting stuff and football news as they get ready to go to Lexington. You’ll be out there in Lexington. All that good stuff will be good. Should be another fun week of football. Finally a week of football. Feels like it’s been a while. As always, guys, we appreciate it. Go Braves. Chomp, chomp. Butch, you still suck in that trashcan.
Nick:​I’m mad they didn’t bring the trashcan with them. You stay classy, Gator Country.
Recap of Tennessee​​Page 14
Transcript by Five Stars Transcription