DJ Lagway will have the opportunity to compete in this rivalry game as a true freshman after he had a big game against Kentucky.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown the keys for the Gators on Saturday against the Bulldogs.

Quarterback DJ Lagway threw for 259 yards but freshman running Jadan Baugh stole the show with his five-touchdown performance.

The Gators defense stood tall in the game and limited the Wildcats' running game and caused three turnovers in the win including one that Cormani McClain returned for a touchdown.

Florida's defense held a Central Florida offense down for the majority of the game and they were able to get pressure on the quarterback as they had five sacks in the game.

The Gators' offense got going early in the game and put up 24 points in the first half behind a strong showing from quarterbacks Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown the keys for the Gators on offense against UCF on Saturday.

Andrew and Nick also breakdown what the Gators need to do in order to slow down UCF's running game and we pick two players who are key for the Gators on Saturday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown the keys for the Florida Gators on offense on Saturday against the Aggies.

Andrew and Nick also break down what the Gators' defense needs to do against a physical Texas A&M offensive line.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down what we liked about quarterback DJ Lagway as he debuted for the Gators.

Andrew and Nick also break down how the defense did against Samford, plus we start to look ahead to Texas A&M.

Billy Napier and this team are desperate for a win after losing their last seven games and they will look to do so behind freshman quarterback DJ Lagway.

Lagway will step in for injured quarterback Graham Mertz who has a concussion and hasn't practiced this week.

Andrew and Nick breakdown what went wrong for the Gators on offense and how quarterback DJ Lagway did once he entered the game.

Andrew and Nick also breakdown what went wrong for the defense and what the Gators' need to do going forward.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown the keys for the Florida Gators on Saturday as they look to get off to a good start this season.

Andrew and Nick also predict the score of the game, plus we go over the depth chart that was released on Wednesday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown how the Gators look on both sides of the ball as they dominated South Carolina from start to finish.

Andrew and Nick also breakdown the latest in recruiting with the big news that quarterback Jaden Rashada has flipped his commitment from Miami to Florida.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko are joined by Ryan Brauninger of TexasAgs to break down the keys for this game for both teams.

Andrew and Nick also talk with Ryan about how these two teams are similar as they're both struggling this season and looking to get bowl eligible.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down what the Gators' defense needs to do in order to slow down this Bulldogs offense.

Andrew and Nick also give you their three players to watch in the game on Saturday, plus we pick the score of the game.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down the latest in recruiting for the Gators and how things are headed after the bye week.

Andrew and Nick also quickly look back at the LSU game and talk about some things they would like to see going forward starting with the Georgia game.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down what the Gators need to do on offense to knock off LSU as both teams come in with near identical stats on the offensive side of the ball.

Andrew and Nick also give you three guys to watch for the Gators on Saturday, plus we make our prediction on the game.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down how the Gators' defense responded on Saturday and who stood out on the defensive side of the ball.

Andrew and Nick also break down how the offense played and what needs to improve going forward for the Gators.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown what the Gators need to do on both sides of the ball to get a win on Saturday.

Andrew and Nick also give you three players to watch for the Gators, plus we predict the score of the Gators game on Saturday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down how the Gators' offense looked on Sunday and how the quarterback position played.

Andrew and Nick also break down how the young guys looked as the Gators were able to play several young players who haven't played much this year.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down how the Gators' offense played on Saturday and what went wrong for the defense during the game.

Andrew and Nick also discuss the coaching staff and why they believe the future is bright for the Gators going forward.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down the keys for the Gators on offense and how they can potentially slow down this Vols offense.

Andrew and Nick also give you three guys to watch for the Gators on Saturday, plus we predict the game.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko recap what went right and what went wrong for the Gators on offense on Saturday night.

Andrew and Nick also evaluate the play of the defense as they tried to replace Ventrell Miller on Saturday night.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown what they want to see out of the offense following last week's game and what Billy Napier can do to get Anthony Richardson going.

Andrew and Nick also pick three players to watch for the Gators on Saturday, plus we pick several games around the country and the SEC.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down what went wrong for the Gators on Saturday night as the offense just couldn't get anything going.

Andrew and Nick also look ahead to the USF game on Saturday night and what the Gators need to do in order to get back on track.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko breakdown the keys for the Gators to knock off Kentucky as the Wildcats knocked off Florida last year in Lexington.

Andrew and Nick also make their predictions on several games around the country, plus we predict the Gators score against Kentucky.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down how the Gators' offense looked behind Anthony Richardson and what they showed against the Utes.

Andrew and Nick also break down the defense and look at some things the Gators need to improve on going forward.

Andrew Spivey and Nick Marcinko break down how they think the depth chart will look for the Gators once Billy Napier releases it on Wednesday night.

Andrew and Nick also give you some keys for the Gators as they head into the Utah game and for the rest of the season.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist break down the latest coaching hires for Napier as he has several new coaches.

Andrew and David breakdown how recruiting is going for Napier as well as he prepares for early signing day.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist discuss what Napier had to say during his press conference and what he calls the keys to building the program.

Andrew and David also discuss potential assistant coaches that could join Napier in Gainesville, plus we talk about Florida's upcoming bowl game.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist give you there thoughts on the hiring and what he brings to the table for the Gators.

Andrew and David also give you a few names to watch for as far as assistant coaches go for Billy Napier.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what's next for the Gators after Mullen was fired.

Andrew and David also preview the FSU game as the Gators look to become bowl eligible.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the keys for the Gators on Saturday as they to stop a good rushing attack by Missouri.

Andrew and David also pick three players to watch on Saturday, plus we pick several games around the country.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the Gators impressive offensive outburst on Saturday as Emory Jones had a career day.

Andrew and David also talk about the Gators defensive performance and the state of the program after the Samford game.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the coaching changes for the Florida Gators and what it could mean for the team going forward.

Andrew and David are joined by former Florida Gators tight end Clifford Taylor to get his thoughts on the team.

Andrew and David also give you the keys for the Gators as they try to turn the season around as they look for two more wins to be bowl eligible.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what went wrong for the Florida Gators on a night when the team looked out matched against a South Carolina team that has struggled all year.

Andrew and Davis also look at what's ahead for Dan Mullen and the Gators and what needs to be fixed to get the ship headed in the right direction.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what happened to the Gators on Saturday and how Anthony Richardson looked at quarterback.

Andrew and David also breakdown how the defense looked on Saturday and what's ahead for the Gators going forward.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the keys for the Gators to defeat Georgia on Saturday and what they have to do to win the game.

Andrew and David also pick several games around the country, plus we pick three players to watch for the Gators.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist break down what Dan Mullen had to say during teh SEC Teleconference on Wednesday.

Andrew and David are also joined by Eric Fawcett as we preview the Florida Gators basketball team as Mike White and the Gators get started in November.

TRANSCRIPT:

GCpodcast17

David:              What’s up folks of Gator Country? This is none other than your body David Soderquist, along with Andrew Spivey. Florida will be on a bye week, and hoops is starting up here soon. We will be having on Eric Fawcett here in a little bit to discuss hoops and Mike White going into another season with the Gators basketball team.

                       First on the podcast today, a little segment I officially want to call the Bye Week Blues. Spivey, what’s been going on in Florida Gator Nation, besides the little teleconference we had today?

Andrew:          Who got fired, Ed Orgeron or Dan Mullen?

David:              I don’t know. It feels a little different.

Andrew:          It’s hot.

David:              It feels a little different, doesn’t it?

Andrew:          It does. It feels a little different. Very strange feeling around the program right now. Obviously, Todd Grantham’s all but got a fork in him. I’ll be honest. Heading into the LSU week never would I have thought that the pressure would be this on Mullen if he lost, but the heat’s out there. He was on the teleconference on Wednesday. That’s his only media appearance for the bye week, and that’s normal. He usually doesn’t do very much media during the bye week. Coaches are out on the road. They take Monday off. That’s normal, but he was peppered. He was peppered with questions. He give his normal BS about evaluating this and evaluating that.

                       I think the one thing that stood out to me, David, was he says both quarterbacks are going to play. He didn’t want to say one guy was going to start with another, but if I was reading that press conference, I would say Emory Jones is your starting quarterback.

David:              Don’t say that. Please, don’t say that, Spivey.

Andrew:          That would be where I’m at.

David:              You know how Dan is though. He’s going to say one thing and then do another thing. The thing is Georgia’s going to prepare for two quarterbacks anyway. It doesn’t matter whether you say Emory Jones is starting, Anthony Richardson is starting. He said he’s going to play both, like he always does. Who cares? Just say Anthony Richardson is starting, if you want him to start. That’s the thing. We don’t know if Dan Mullen wants him to start or not.

Andrew:          Here’s the thing for me. I wouldn’t tell you. I wouldn’t tell you a lick. I’d keep it a secret all the way down to the wire. That would just be me. That’s the football coach in me. I wouldn’t say a word. I would say just like he said. You look at it, and obviously it’s gamesmanship. You’re never going to...]]>GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk the state of the program for the Florida Gators under Dan Mullen during the bye week.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist break down what Dan Mullen had to say during teh SEC Teleconference on Wednesday.

Andrew and David are also joined by Eric Fawcett as we preview the Florida Gators basketball team as Mike White and the Gators get started in November.

TRANSCRIPT:

GCpodcast17

David:              What’s up folks of Gator Country? This is none other than your body David Soderquist, along with Andrew Spivey. Florida will be on a bye week, and hoops is starting up here soon. We will be having on Eric Fawcett here in a little bit to discuss hoops and Mike White going into another season with the Gators basketball team.

                       First on the podcast today, a little segment I officially want to call the Bye Week Blues. Spivey, what’s been going on in Florida Gator Nation, besides the little teleconference we had today?

Andrew:          Who got fired, Ed Orgeron or Dan Mullen?

David:              I don’t know. It feels a little different.

Andrew:          It’s hot.

David:              It feels a little different, doesn’t it?

Andrew:          It does. It feels a little different. Very strange feeling around the program right now. Obviously, Todd Grantham’s all but got a fork in him. I’ll be honest. Heading into the LSU week never would I have thought that the pressure would be this on Mullen if he lost, but the heat’s out there. He was on the teleconference on Wednesday. That’s his only media appearance for the bye week, and that’s normal. He usually doesn’t do very much media during the bye week. Coaches are out on the road. They take Monday off. That’s normal, but he was peppered. He was peppered with questions. He give his normal BS about evaluating this and evaluating that.

                       I think the one thing that stood out to me, David, was he says both quarterbacks are going to play. He didn’t want to say one guy was going to start with another, but if I was reading that press conference, I would say Emory Jones is your starting quarterback.

David:              Don’t say that. Please, don’t say that, Spivey.

Andrew:          That would be where I’m at.

David:              You know how Dan is though. He’s going to say one thing and then do another thing. The thing is Georgia’s going to prepare for two quarterbacks anyway. It doesn’t matter whether you say Emory Jones is starting, Anthony Richardson is starting. He said he’s going to play both, like he always does. Who cares? Just say Anthony Richardson is starting, if you want him to start. That’s the thing. We don’t know if Dan Mullen wants him to start or not.

Andrew:          Here’s the thing for me. I wouldn’t tell you. I wouldn’t tell you a lick. I’d keep it a secret all the way down to the wire. That would just be me. That’s the football coach in me. I wouldn’t say a word. I would say just like he said. You look at it, and obviously it’s gamesmanship. You’re never going to say that. You’re not going to give Georgia any leads whatsoever. If Kirby Smart is smart, which I’m pretty sure Kirby Smart is pretty smart defensive guy, he’s going to prepare for Anthony Richardson to be the starter. Obviously, he knows both quarterbacks pretty well, and he even said that, Kirby did. I get it.

                       The issue becomes, and we’re going to get into this more after we talk to Eric, but the issue becomes when you get this far down the road that you really are, everything you say is scrutinized to a tee and picked apart to a tee. You’re in a no-win situation. I feel like that’s where he’s at. I think he could tell us the sky was blue, and we’d argue with him.

David:              It’s rightfully so though. He brought it onto himself.

Andrew:          Agreed.

David:              You can’t sit here and recruit lackluster all year and then on top of that, we’ll get into some other recruiting and all that towards the end of this podcast, but you can’t lackluster recruit. You can’t have an anemic defense two years in a row. You can’t lose games you shouldn’t lose, especially whether it’s by three, seven, or two points. It doesn’t matter. You can’t lose games that you’re not supposed to lose. Good coaches close out close games, whether they’re playing Alabama or they’re playing an LSU team that’s hobbled with 30 players. Good coaches, elite coaches, close out close games. You can’t do that on a consistent basis without getting some sort of criticism for it.

Andrew:          Agreed.

David:              We’ll get into it later on. Dan, the same energy Dan has, you can see it starting to wear on him a little bit.

Andrew:          Right.

David:              You’re wondering now what’s his response going to be? Is his response going to be it’s going to be the same thing each week, next week, the week after, evaluate this, evaluate that? Or is he going to take another step and say, I need to prove all these people wrong, the pressure’s too much, I need to do something, and then maybe accelerate that into the Jacksonville game? Maybe just start Richardson to begin with and see how he does.

Andrew:          I was listening to someone today. If you start Richardson, and Richardson pulls a shoe out of his hat and wins the game, people are going to be pissed that he hasn’t played all year.

David:              Don’t say shoe around here.

Andrew:          Whatever. Pull a bone out of a dog. Whatever. Still, if that happens. Again, Dan’s put himself in this position that it is. Everything is scrutinized. He’s 4-6 in his last 10 ballgames. That’s the same thing that Jim McElwain and Will Muschamp were when they got fired.

David:              That’s pretty bad.

Andrew:          The difference is those two guys got fired with really good recruiting classes coming in. Dan’s recruiting class, and we’re going to talk about this more, but Shemar James decommitted. That was their highest rated guy.

David:              It’s falling apart.

Andrew:          Probably going to go to Georgia. This class isn’t looking great.

David:              No.

Andrew:          Where are you planning to go from good to elite? I was reading a story on Wednesday, and they said you can out scheme teams and win eight and nine games, maybe even 10. You can’t out scheme yourself for 12 wins, 13 wins.

David:              No.

Andrew:          You can’t. Here’s the thing. It has shown. As our man, Wunderlich said, the margin of error for Dan Mullen is zero.

David:              You have to be perfect with that roster that you have right now. You have to have no injuries, nothing going on. You don’t have good quality depth. You don’t have elite depth. Who’s going to step in if one of the offensive linemen gets hurt? Who’s going to step in if a corner gets hurt, like Jason Marshall or Kaiir Elam? Who’s stepping in there? You don’t have good quality elite depth. Then you went to the portal to try to band-aid that, and now you got Elijah Blades out of here.

Andrew:          Right.

David:              Who do you have?

Andrew:          You look at it. We’re going to bring on Eric in just a second, after this point real quick.

David:              We’ll get into it later.

Andrew:          My last point on this is this. Alabama, for instance. Let’s just talk Alabama. The Florida game, their worst game of the year probably. They found a way to win. Great talent. You look at teams when things go wrong, and they’re able to still win games. When things go wrong for Florida, they lose, because they don’t have enough depth to just overcome it. They don’t have enough star power to overcome it. A lot of teams, great teams, can figure out a way to overcome eight penalties. Guess what? They have enough star-studded athletes. They can convert 3^rd and 15.

David:              You kind of saw it in the LSU game. You have one star, which a quarterback makes a huge difference. Don’t get me wrong. You can be depleted of skill level talent, if you have a good quarterback. You saw it in the LSU game. LSU, they were going to blow us out of the water, until Anthony Richardson stepped in. He’s one of those guys that is a good skill level athlete, but who do you have after? What if Anthony Richardson gets hurt? We got Emory Jones. I’m not trying to trash Emory Jones. Anthony Richardson is leaps and bounds better than Emory Jones, from what I’ve saw. If he gets hurt, who do you have?

Andrew:          Here’s the thing I want to say. Emory Jones would be a lot better with last year’s football talent. With Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney, Emory Jones would look really good. The talent surrounding him is not good. Let’s go. Let’s talk to Eric, David. We’ll talk some basketball, some Mike White. Maybe Eric can cheer everybody up with some Mike White talk.

David:              I don’t know about that.

Andrew:          Yeah. They may surprise some people.

David:              Maybe some other basketball talk.

Andrew:          We’ll get Eric. We’ll talk the basketball, and then we’ll come back, and we’re going to break down that video you had on Twitter.

David:              Let’s do it, man. Folks, we have on Eric Fawcett, basketball expert over here at GatorCountry.com, covers the Gators basketball team for us in every facet of the game. With all the bad news going on in Gator football, come shed some light on the Gator basketball team for us and give us some good news.

Andrew:          Bring us some good news, Eric.

David:              Good news. We need good news.

Andrew:          We’re over here talking bad about losing to LSU and Kentucky. Bring us some good news, my man. Is Florida going to beat Florida State this year?

Eric:                 That’s a tough one. You know what, both kind of my general thoughts on the team and what will happen against Florida State are a little bit tied in here. The first thing I’ll say is if you’re looking for an optimistic way of looking at this Florida basketball team, the first thing to look at is that it really does look like a team that’s very different than the Gator teams of these last couple of years.

What I mean by that is you look at the last couple of years, and there’s been a couple of returning players that the Gators like, whether that was KeVaughn Allen and Chris Chiozza or Kerry Blackshear or last year with Keyontae Johnson. Of course, it didn’t turn out that way, but with Keyontae Johnson and Tre Mann. All those teams had a couple returning pieces that you liked, but then there was a whole lot of young players, fairly highly thought of recruits, that were going to be really heavily relied on. What we have kind of seen with the last couple years is if you rely on young players, that’s just often not going to work in college basketball, where everyone is trying to get older and more experienced.

You look at this year’s Florida team, and they’ve got a hell of a five-star recruit in Kowacie Reeves          , who I love a whole lot, 6’7” shotmaker, but you know he’s going to have to be relied upon, because the Gators have Colin Castleton coming back. They have Tyree Appleby coming back as a fifth-year point guard, Anthony Duruji coming back as a fifth-year player. Then all the graduate transfers they’re bringing in, that I’m sure we’ll get to, Brandon McKissic and Myreon Jones and Phlandrous Fleming and CJ Felder. They have a bunch of players that are older, have already shown that they can contribute, a couple of them at the high major level, a couple of them just at a high level at some lower leagues.

Again, I just look at this Florida team, and it looks a lot different than these last couple of years, where Florida was going to need to get a whole lot of production from some very young players, and banking on that in college basketball, not just at Florida but around the entire sport, that has a recipe for experience. You can really look at them in a little bit of a different way than some of these past teams.

As that relates to Florida State, one thing that’s nice is that the Gators get to play Florida State in the second game of the season. You look at Florida. They are definitely the more experienced team. More new younger pieces for Florida State. They’ve got a lot of talent. They’ve got some really good recruits coming in, some good younger transfers, but Florida is the older team. So, I think when you look at a game that’s being played second game of the season, oftentimes those matchups are going to benefit the more experienced team.

That’s also I’ll say part of the reason why Florida State has really dominated the rivalry recently was because Florida State was always the older team, and then Florida’s bringing all these young players first or second game of the season. The Gators don’t know how to play together yet, and Florida State just comes out and blitzes them. I don’t think that’s going to be the case. If Florida is going to catch Florida State, it’s probably going to be this team, with the much older more experienced roster.

Andrew:          Two-part question for you. A, can Florida go more than seven or eight deep, like they were last year, where it seemed like it was a limited group? Then based off of what you know, who do you think roles out as that starting five?

Eric:                 This has been a good question. There’s the starting five that I think would be the best five, and then the starting five that I think Mike White is going to play, just kind of based off what he has done in the past.

Andrew:          Can you give him the starting five that’s going to win games? That’s what we want, Eric.

Eric:                 This is the starting five that I think will win games. Starting at point guard I’d have Tyree Appleby, fifth-year player. We saw him do pretty well next to Tre Mann last year, and now he’s going to be a lot more suited to his skillset, so I think we see a big year out of him. I see Myreon Jones, the Penn State transfer, 15 points a game, proven high major guy, at shooting guard. I see Kowacie Reeves, the five-star freshman, 6’7” shotmaker, at small forward. I see CJ Felder, 6’7” physical power forward, unlike anyone that the Gators have really had on their roster recently and a proven ACC player, played in one of the best leagues in college basketball the last two years. Proved he can contribute at a high level. I see him at power forward. And I see Colin Castleton, of course, preseason first team All-SEC, at center.

                       The lineup that I think the Gators are going to play, just based off of what Mike White normally does. Tyree Appleby at point guard. Brandon McKissic, UMKC transfer, combo guard, smaller guy, can really defend at the point of attack, shoots threes, and then I would say Myreon Jones at the three. That would be three 6’3” and under guards on the perimeter. Then I would see Anthony Duruji at the four. Mike White has always loved playing smaller, kind of more stretchy guys at the four than traditional power forwards. Then Colin Castleton at the five.

                       That’s the five I’m expecting to see when they open the season against Elon. I mentioned the starting five that I think is going to kind of emerge as the best one by the end of the season. You know what, Andrew, this is very easily the most depth that a Mike White team has had. As much as I say this is the starting five I think should happen, and this is the starting five I think is going to happen, I don’t hate the starting five I think Mike White is going to roll out. Let’s just roll with the starting five that I think Mike White’s going to roll out.

Andrew:          Do you think that helps get to the pace of play Mike White wants to play?

Eric:                 It certainly helps. You look at the Gators that...]]>b3570393-86a1-4d29-9929-af9c1230749dWed, 20 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -040058:59falsefullGatorCountry.com - The Insider Authority on Florida Gators Sports!Podcast: Recapping the Florida Gators 49-42 loss to LSU in Death ValleyGatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators 49-42 loss to the LSU Tigers on Saturday in Death Valley.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what happened on Saturday for the Gators and how things changed when Anthony Richardson took over at quarterback.

Andrew and David also look ahead to the rest of the season as Dan Mullen and his coaching staff will use the bye week to evaluate personnel changes that they will make before Georgia.

TRANSCRIPT:

David:​What’s up folks of Gator Country? This is none other than your boy David Soderquist, along with Andrew Spivey. Unfortunately, we have to do this podcast today, because I know a lot of you fans out there are a little ticked off. I’m a little ticked off. I know Spivey over there doesn’t look happy either, except for the fact that his Braves won this weekend here.

Andrew:​That’s right. 

David:​Little bit of good news for him, I guess. Florida goes into LSU Tiger Stadium here and just lays an egg again. Loses 42-49, and I can’t say they completely laid an egg, but as far as defensively, just looked awful. 

Andrew:​I don’t know why I had the sneaky suspicion in the back of my mind this game was going to be tough. I had said on the podcast on Friday, if this team came out very hot and just put it on LSU early and gave these guys a lot of doubt, I thought the game could be a blowout. But I had a feeling that Florida would come out slow like they always do, and they would come out slow like they always do at 11:00, Baton Rouge time, and they did. They get the blocked punt from Jordan Pouncey, and you think, this is some changes about to happen here. Florida goes down. They score a touchdown, but they miss the PAT. Then they allow LSU to just come back and continue to march. Tyrion Price Davis, LSU record 287 yards, the most rushing yards ever by a running back against Florida, breaking a record Hershel Walker had. They give 454 yards to an LSU team that has not been very good. 321 of those on the ground. 

​David, it wasn’t a complex scheme they were running. They were running a simple counter play, and then they were running a simple lead play with zone blocking, and they were allowing Florida’s defenders to take themselves out of the play. They used Florida against themselves. Florida’s problem this year and in past years have been the defensive ends shoot up the field with no contain. It’s been an issue for years, and it continued on Saturday where they allowed those guys to shoot up the field, and that was cool, because the tackle just pushed him aside. David Price would just cut it up underneath them, and boom, he had 8, 9, 10 yards. The man averaged 8 yards a rush. 

​That simply cannot happen. This is an LSU team that’s banged up. They don’t even have their best running back in John Emery playing. This is Max Johnson, who has a noodle of an arm. Threw for 133 yards. For the majority of them, I felt like it was dink and dunk down the field, play action passes. 

​Diabate said after the game, we made the adjustments we were told to make. Kind of calling out Grantham and Christian Robinson and those guys, because there was no adjustments to be made. They didn’t have any. They didn’t know what to do. It was a simple counter play. I got an idea for you. Tell your guys to play assignment football. Put guys in at defensive tackle who can clog the gap, and have your safeties understand not to run up field too much, but to be ready in the hole. 

David:​It’s just terrible. Florida would have 488 total yards. Zero penalties. We got onto penalties the last two weeks. Zero penalties, 488 yards of offense, and still manages to lose the game by seven points.

Andrew:​It’s one step forward, two steps backwards. It’s every time with this program, David. This program will fix one issue, and another issue arises. It was like last year. They]]>GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators 49-42 loss to the LSU Tigers on Saturday in Death Valley.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown what happened on Saturday for the Gators and how things changed when Anthony Richardson took over at quarterback.

Andrew and David also look ahead to the rest of the season as Dan Mullen and his coaching staff will use the bye week to evaluate personnel changes that they will make before Georgia.

TRANSCRIPT:

David:​What’s up folks of Gator Country? This is none other than your boy David Soderquist, along with Andrew Spivey. Unfortunately, we have to do this podcast today, because I know a lot of you fans out there are a little ticked off. I’m a little ticked off. I know Spivey over there doesn’t look happy either, except for the fact that his Braves won this weekend here.

Andrew:​That’s right. 

David:​Little bit of good news for him, I guess. Florida goes into LSU Tiger Stadium here and just lays an egg again. Loses 42-49, and I can’t say they completely laid an egg, but as far as defensively, just looked awful. 

Andrew:​I don’t know why I had the sneaky suspicion in the back of my mind this game was going to be tough. I had said on the podcast on Friday, if this team came out very hot and just put it on LSU early and gave these guys a lot of doubt, I thought the game could be a blowout. But I had a feeling that Florida would come out slow like they always do, and they would come out slow like they always do at 11:00, Baton Rouge time, and they did. They get the blocked punt from Jordan Pouncey, and you think, this is some changes about to happen here. Florida goes down. They score a touchdown, but they miss the PAT. Then they allow LSU to just come back and continue to march. Tyrion Price Davis, LSU record 287 yards, the most rushing yards ever by a running back against Florida, breaking a record Hershel Walker had. They give 454 yards to an LSU team that has not been very good. 321 of those on the ground. 

​David, it wasn’t a complex scheme they were running. They were running a simple counter play, and then they were running a simple lead play with zone blocking, and they were allowing Florida’s defenders to take themselves out of the play. They used Florida against themselves. Florida’s problem this year and in past years have been the defensive ends shoot up the field with no contain. It’s been an issue for years, and it continued on Saturday where they allowed those guys to shoot up the field, and that was cool, because the tackle just pushed him aside. David Price would just cut it up underneath them, and boom, he had 8, 9, 10 yards. The man averaged 8 yards a rush. 

​That simply cannot happen. This is an LSU team that’s banged up. They don’t even have their best running back in John Emery playing. This is Max Johnson, who has a noodle of an arm. Threw for 133 yards. For the majority of them, I felt like it was dink and dunk down the field, play action passes. 

​Diabate said after the game, we made the adjustments we were told to make. Kind of calling out Grantham and Christian Robinson and those guys, because there was no adjustments to be made. They didn’t have any. They didn’t know what to do. It was a simple counter play. I got an idea for you. Tell your guys to play assignment football. Put guys in at defensive tackle who can clog the gap, and have your safeties understand not to run up field too much, but to be ready in the hole. 

David:​It’s just terrible. Florida would have 488 total yards. Zero penalties. We got onto penalties the last two weeks. Zero penalties, 488 yards of offense, and still manages to lose the game by seven points.

Andrew:​It’s one step forward, two steps backwards. It’s every time with this program, David. This program will fix one issue, and another issue arises. It was like last year. They would fix the run defense, pass defense sucked. Then they’d fix the pass defense in practice, and the run defense would suck. They’re fixing penalties now, guess what? Now they can’t run the ball, because the guys can’t get off the ball. Ethan White and Gouraige were whipped all day long.

David:​They were. 

Andrew:​By BJ Ojulari and Glen Logan. Ojulari had a career day against Gouraige. Multiple times just flying by him. Gouriage not even touching him. Maybe Gouriage isn’t 100%. I don’t know. But the physicality of this football team, David, from Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3, is gone. There’s no physicality to this football team anymore. I don’t know what went on after that Tennessee game, but whatever went wrong after that Tennessee game, whatever has happened to this team, it’s gone. The physicality of this football team is gone. There’s no more physicality up front from this offensive line to where they’re getting to the second. They’re getting to the third level, and they’re just pushing people around. It’s gone. This team threw for 350 yards on Saturday. That’s great. That’s absolutely great, but that’s not the identity of this football team. 

David:​No. Florida historically has had great defenses in the past, and right now Florida has broken defensive records last year that were bad. Not this year they’re breaking even more defensive records that are bad, and this is all ever since Todd Grantham’s got here. If you go to Todd Grantham’s history, let me get started on Todd Grantham. Look at his history at Louisville, at Georgia, at all these other schools that he was defensive coordinator. The defenses have gradually gotten worse each and every single year. I don’t understand why firing a couple of assistants and keeping Todd Grantham helps you improve this defense, because obviously it hasn’t done it. 

​The first three games, I started changing my mind and started saying maybe this defense is starting to click, maybe it was Covid from 2020, maybe I just need to slow my roll. Now three more games into the season, I’m saying we’re seeing the same things from last year. This defense has gradually gotten worse, worse, and worse ever since the year has gone on. They’ve not gotten better. Other teams are studying Florida’s defensive schemes, their offensive schemes, and they’re pushing everybody up front. Florida’s not able to run the football now. They know Emory Jones can’t pass the ball. 

I’ll get into Emory Jones. I love Emory Jones to death, but right now we’ll get into the quarterback thing. Right now, teams are stacking the box, and they know that Florida cannot play good defense on the ground. LSU just ran draw plays all game. The same play for I don’t know how many times. It seemed like 20 times. Right down the middle. It seemed like LSU, whenever they wanted to get a 5, 10, 8, 20 yard chunk, they could just hand the ball off and do it. 

Andrew:​The thing is they were dragging guys as well. The issue is a couple things here. First of all, changing staff members only works to a certain amount. If the scheme sucks, it sucks. It just is what it is. The scheme hasn’t been very good. You’ve gotten away with it earlier in the year to some extent, because of some good players. Here’s the thing, David. This is what everybody forgets. It’s on Todd Grantham too, but it comes back to one thing, David. You know the answer to that? 

David:​What’s that?

Andrew:​Starts with an R. 

David:​Yeah.

Andrew:​Recruiting. It all starts with recruiting, David. You have no linebackers on this football team anymore. When Ventrell Miller got hurt, you had zero true middle linebackers. Diabate, not a middle linebacker. Jeremiah Moon, one of my favorite players, not a middle linebacker. Ty’Ron Hopper, not a middle linebacker. Derek Wingo, maybe, but not playing, because they don’t trust him or he hasn’t developed enough. You have zero, David. How are you in Year 4 of your program and you have zero true middle linebackers after your starting senior linebacker, who should be gone if it wasn’t for Covid? You have zero. I love Jeremiah Moon to death. I love Diabate to death. Both of them are good players. They shouldn’t be playing Mike linebacker. 

David:​No.

Andrew:​You don’t stop football teams when you have no linebackers. The thing is the linebackers has still not filled a gap correctly in four years. 

David:​Yeah. What was it? Ventrell Miller is probably our best run stopping linebacker, and now he’s hurt, out for the season. So, who do you got? Who do you have?

Andrew:​You’re playing three guys. You’re playing Hopper, Diabate, and Moon. You’re not playing Wingo, whatever that is. I’ve heard he hasn’t developed very well. Cool. Developing is on you, because you’re supposedly a developing football coaching staff, whatever. What is the issue? 

I say this, and I’m not trying to get down on players. You have three defensive players who transferred in. They transferred in for a reason. They didn’t transfer in because they were great football players everywhere else. They transferred in because they were either beat out, wasn’t going to play, or something or another. They transferred in. They’re not making the plays. Gervon Dexter, he had some okay plays. Again, he lost a lot of playing time to three transfer guys. Des Watson didn’t play at all. Didn’t play at all on Saturday. Don’t understand that. Clog the gap a little bit. I don’t know. 

It all goes back to recruiting though, David, and that is the end all end all. There’s no getting around it. At the end of the day, it’s all about recruiting. You have to have depth, or you don’t win in this league.

David:​Talk about offensive line and recruiting. I was talking to, I believe it was Will Miles in private message, and it may not have been Will Miles. Probably somebody else. I forget who I was talking to. They said, minus Tony Livingston, John Hevesy at a star level has not recruited past a three-star offensive line or offensive tackle, unless it’s come from the portal. In high school.

Andrew:​Tony Livingston’s not an offensive lineman. 

David:​Yeah. Exactly.

Andrew:​He’s a tight end. 

David:​Right. He’s a basketball player. 

Andrew:​And he’s not even playing with his team right now. 

David:​Right. Anyway, like you said, it comes down to recruiting. I said it on Twitter. I said this is what happens when Miami’s down, Florida State’s down, and you don’t take advantage of both those programs being down and get the guys that are in state. The elite prospects that are in state are still going to Alabama. They’re still going to Clemson. They’re still going to Georgia. 

Georgia, they’re just cherry-picking from your own state, a state that you should be able to go up to a recruit and say, your family can come down here, 100 miles, 50 miles, maybe even 150 at the most, travel to see you play just about every game. Instead, they’re all flying out to see their families play a game in Alabama, Tuscaloosa, South Carolina, and in Georgia. They’re traveling 400-500 miles to see their kids play, as opposed to just traveling 50 or 100, because they don’t want to come to the University of Florida. That’s a problem. Most of the talent comes from the state of Florida. We all know that. Why can’t you get any elite recruits from here? 

Andrew:​It goes back to a couple things. Don’t recruit well. Your guys don’t build good relationships there. Here’s the thing. Stop with the excuses that it’s the facilities. 

David:​Yeah.

Andrew:​First of all, you’ve got way more facilities right now than any previous coach at Florida has ever had. 

David:​More than Miami. 

Andrew:​More than Miami’s got. You’ve got an indoor practice facility that you can show off that’s about to be there. Stop. Just stop with the excuses. We’ll get into more of that in a minute. That’s defensively. Offensively, what’s going on? Where is Dan Mullen, the football coach who schemed up a great game against Alabama last year, Georgia last year, Alabama this year? Where’s that guy?

David:​Yeah. You don’t see it. Plus, we’ll get onto offense. Let’s do this. I want to get into quarterback play. It’s going to be the big talk right now, quarterback play. Anthony Richardson comes into this game. Struggling Emory Jones, he throws two picks. One of them was a pick six. He puts Anthony Richardson in around 14 minutes and 21 seconds in the third quarter. This is right after halftime, right after Emory throws a pick right after we get the ball. He puts Anthony Richardson in, and he starts Anthony Richardson the rest of the game. 

Anthony Richardson for two quarters would lead the team in total passing yards, 167. Total rushing yards he would lead, 37. Total touchdowns he would lead, three. He wouldn’t come into the game, like I said, until 14 minutes and 12 seconds in the third quarter. He would also account for 29 of the 42 points, which is 70% almost of the points scored all game. He would also score 29 points in 13 minutes and 21 seconds, less than one quarter. Why isn’t this kid starting at quarterback?

Andrew:​I have to think about it. I mean, I don’t have to think about this. I have to slow my roll about this for a second. I think there’s a couple things here. I think there’s a couple things in play. First of all, Dan Mullen has not put Emory Jones in a good position to win a football game yet, and that’s on Dan. Second thing, I don’t know that answer. I wish I knew that answer. I don’t know that answer. I will say this. Anthony had two picks too, and both of those were really bad throws.

David:​Ill advised throws. Yeah.

Andrew:​But I will say this, and your backup quarterback is always your favorite guy on the team. That is what it is. Now, whether or not it was because they were down in this game, and then Anthony came in, the team did look more energized when Anthony Richardson came in the game. 

David:​The offense did.

Andrew:​The thing about it is I don’t know why it is, but Dan turned the playbook loose when Anthony came in. There’s a couple of questions that have to be asked here, David. I don’t mean to filibuster your question. There’s a couple questions that have to be asked. Does Mullen trust Anthony more with the playbook than Emory? That’s Question 1. Question 2 is, if the answer is yes, why is he not starting? If the answer is no, then why doesn’t Emory have the entire playbook? You can’t tell me the playbook Anthony Richardson had and the playbook Emory Jones had was the same. I’m not trying to be an Emory apologist, because stats speak for itself, and he didn’t play well, but both quarterbacks are not given the same opportunities and the same playbook. It’s confusing to me. It’s frustrating to me. 

David:​Let me ask you this. Are the plays being executed better by Anthony Richardson than they are by Emory Jones? A lot of times I saw yesterday where Emory Jones progressed through his reads, would get confused, take off running with the football or do something, do whatever else. When Anthony Richardson was in the game, he was able to look off safeties. He was able to go through his reads quick, toss the football where it needed to go, and it was for the most part pretty accurate. He threw two picks.

​My opinion here is this. You can answer that question in a second. My opinion is Emory Jones, and I love Emory Jones to death. I’m not going to say he’s a bad quarterback. I don’t think he’s a bad quarterback. I don’t think he’s the quarterback that you need for this team right now, the way that they’re playing on defense, to win football games. Emory Jones is not a guy that’s going to dig you out of a 14 to 21 to 28 point hole and lead his team back to a victory, or even tie the game. 

Andrew:​Right.

David:​Anthony Richardson is the type of guy that he’s going to have his warts. It’s going to be pretty much his first year starting as well. He’s going to make his mistakes, but what do you do now? 

Andrew:​The thing is this. Here’s what you have to do. I’m sorry to cut you off. I get fired up.

David:​We’re all fired up here today.

Andrew:​What is next year? This year’s gone. 

David:​Exactly.

Andrew:​This year is gone. What is next year? Is next year Emory Jones your starting quarterback, or is Anthony Richardson your starting quarterback next year? Here’s the thing, and remember this, whichever guy you pick, the other guy is probably going to transfer.

David:​He’s probably gone.

Andrew:​That’s not me starting rumors or anything else. That’s facts. That’s the day and age we live in. Sorry. It just is. Don’t think for a second if Anthony Richardson is the starter Emory’s not looking for other places to play. It’d be dumb on Emory’s part. Don’t think for a second it’s the opposite way around. If Emory starts, and Anthony doesn’t start the rest of the year, don’t think for a second Anthony’s not going to look for other places to play. 

​It’s a question that has to be asked. I think the answer’s pretty simple here. I think though it’s this too, David. Again, I know I sound like an Emory apologist, and I’m not trying to be, but, yes, this is a quarterback problem, but, yes, this is an offense problem for Florida. This offense is not very good. There’s not a receiver on this team that can get open. When you look at the game in the first half, even in the second half at times, nobody was getting open. Nobody was getting open. Emory does throw some balls behind it. Anthony did throw some balls behind it. The receivers give them no help. There’s no help. There’s no separation.

David:​I think I saw one.

Andrew:​It goes back to one thing, David. Recruiting.

David:​Recruiting. I think I saw one play where they got separation. That was that Jacob Copeland pass for a touchdown that tied the game 42-42. I believe that one was the only play I saw some kind of separation on.

Andrew:​That was a double move.

David:​It was a double move, and the ball was kind of late a little bit on that play too. But still made it from Anthony Richardson. My thing is this. Anthony Richardson gives you the best chance to win football games right now. That’s not me saying that Emory Jones is a bad quarterback or whatever. Anthony Richardson is the bigger guy. He’s faster on his feet. I think he might have just about as good an arm as Emory Jones, probably better. He’s a bigger guy. But he goes through his reads and progresses through his reads a lot better than Emory Jones. 

I just saw him lead a team that was down by almost three touchdowns and looked checked out and came back and almost won them the football game. Usually when a quarterback can energize his offense and energize his players around him to lead a spark into the offense, to get these guys back in the football game, usually the defense comes out with fire and wants to get a stop. You didn’t see that. 

Every time it seemed like Anthony Richardson scored, Florida would just give up another touchdown on defense, and Anthony Richardson would have to roll back out there. There’s no question in my mind right now, if you threw Anthony Richardson out there at the beginning of the game and let him play all the way to the end, Florida could have scored at least 60 or 70 points on LSU. 

Andrew:​Yes. Probably. But you have to take it for what it is, and that is he played in the second half. We don’t know. We don’t know what changes LSU would have made. You got away from the...]]>f9c165a2-19af-472f-88a1-ac6e5c28560bSun, 17 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -040001:05:46falsefullGatorCountry.com - The Insider Authority on Florida Gators Sports!Podcast: Previewing the Florida Gators road game against LSUGatorCountry brings you a new podcast as preview the Florida Gators road game against LSU on Saturday night.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the keys for the Gators on Saturday as they go up against an LSU team that's banged up.

Andrew and David also give you three players to watch on Saturday, plus we predict several games around the country.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown how the Gators offense did on Saturday and how Emory Jones played at quarterback.

Andrew and David also recap how the defense played on Saturday and what they need to do in order to prepare for LSU next week.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist break down what happened to the Gators in Lexington on Saturday night and what went wrong with the offense.

Andrew and David also point to several things that the Gators can improve on going foward.

TRANSCRIPT COMING SOON

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist bring you the keys of the game for the Gators as they travel for their conference road game on Saturday.

Andrew and David also pick three players to watch for the Gators on Saturday, plus we predict several games around the country as it's a great slate of games.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown how the offense did and how Emory Jones' performed on Saturday night.

Andrew and David also look ahead to this week's action as the Gators travel to take on Kentucky on Saturday night.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the keys for the Gators in this game as they look to rebound from last week's loss.

Andrew and David also give you three players to watch for the Gators on Saturday, plus we predict several games around the country.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown how the Gators looked on offense behind Emory Jones and how the Gators ran the ball at will on Saturday.

Andrew and David also breakdown the defense and the keys to the game and what Florida must improve on going forward.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the keys for the Gators to pull off the upset on Saturday on both offense and defense.

Andrew and David also give you three players to watch for the Gators on Saturday, plus we pick the game.

Andrew Spivey and David Soderquist breakdown the Gators win on Saturday and how the offense looked with both Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson.

Andrew and David also bring you the latest injury news surrounding the Gators as they prepare for Alabama on Saturday.