GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators big win over Mississippi State on Saturday night in Starkville.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown how both the offense and defense did on Saturday night and what worked for them against Mississippi State.

Andrew and Nick also breakdown the play of quarterback Feleipe Franks and explain why they think it was his best game as a Gator.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, you and I will eat some crow, and do it proudly. Gators went out and took care of business in Starkville. Wasn’t pretty, 13-6, but it’s a road win, so I guess all road wins are pretty.

Nick:                         I think we’ll get more into it, but that’s probably the best way, or maybe the only way, that Florida was going to win that game. Hats off to Dan Mullen, Brian Johnson, John Hevesey, Billy Gonzales, the offensive staff, for recognizing that and putting that game plan together.

Andrew:                 Nick, this is what I think you see from Dan Mullen. You never see a game that is identical, as far as offensive game plans. I mean that in the utmost respect of a way. You don’t see game that’s usually won the same way, week in and week out. Last week it was a lot of up the middle running and throwing middle of the field, because that’s where they were weak. This week it was more about the extended run plays, like you and I talked about. I think that’s one of the things that really just separates Dan Mullen from a lot of coaches, and that’s an offensive-minded coach in Dan Mullen.

Nick, he did exactly what you and I had talked about Friday. You weren’t going to be able to run at this team constantly just right at them. You had to figure out a way to get some extended run plays in, the stand passes, the screens, the swing passes and that kind of stuff. For a majority of the night, that’s what he did, and that play ended up scoring Florida a touchdown on the double pass from Toney to Moral Stephens.

Nick:                         That play was just so well set up. I think we saw early on that the offensive line was overmatched, and it’s not even really saying anything bad about them. That’s just a really physical defensive line for Mississippi State.

Andrew:                 Listen, you’re not going to find too many better players than Montez Sweat and Jeffery Simmons.

Nick:                         Right. You and I were talking during the game. You can’t run up the middle, because Sweat and Simmons were collapsing that. Feleipe wasn’t getting much time to throw. People were asking, why aren’t we getting shots downfield? I said, you got two and a half seconds to throw. How far is your nine route getting before Feleipe is having to run?

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         So, you make the adjustment. It’s screen pass, stand pass, screen pass, stand pass. It’s kind of like you said on the Friday predication pass. If you’re not going to be able to run, because of what this defense is and how physical they are, use that quick passing game as an extension of your running game. Florida did that. The reason you were able to hit on the double pass is because you had thrown so many screens. The safety sees you throw to Kadarius Toney behind the line of scrimmage, and he immediately bites. He immediately runs, or immediately runs towards the screen, and then you’ve got a Moral Stephens wide open.

Andrew:                 You talked about not having the time for the seam route. Van Jefferson was wide open on a seam route, and listen, for the first time that I’ll say this, Feleipe didn’t have time to see that, because it was one of those where the pocket was collapsing. He didn’t have time to see that Van beat the DB at the time to have an open pass there. There wasn’t a ton of time. Like you say,

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday prediction podcast before the Florida Gators take on Mississippi State on Saturday night.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the game and what their keys are for both teams on Saturday and what the Gators need to do in order to get a win on Saturday.

Andrew and Nick also give you their three players to watch for the Gators, plus pick the top games around the country.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Friday before the cowbells. Are you ready for the headache of the cowbells?

Nick:                         I think I’m going to bring earplugs. I don’t think I’m ready for it. Some of the other writers that are going to the game have talked about being ready for it. I think they’re just full of it. I’ve heard cowbells once or twice in my lifetime and don’t care to have 60,000 of them being rung around me.

Andrew:                 I would much rather hear cowbells than that dumb Rocky Top.

Nick:                         No. That’s just wrong.

Andrew:                 No. That’s just right. That’s just your opinion, your flawed opinion. Nick, we all know that inside you like Rocky Top. It’s okay. But Rocky Top sucks.

Nick:                         No.

Andrew:                 It does. I was doing a radio show this week, Nick, with some Mississippi State guys. They continued to talk about the whole narrative with Dan Mullen, and they asked me something, Nick, and this is weird to say. The players are Florida are the least talked about people going into a football game that they have to play. All you hear about is Mississippi State players, how they’re going to react to Dan Mullen, how Dan Mullen is going to react to their players, and the Dan Mullen versus Joe Moorhead. When you take that narrative, the guys should be going in pretty free. They haven’t been talked about all this week this week. It was something that I didn’t really think about until it was brought to my attention. The guys are really the only ones that are really not talked about this week.

Nick:                         I think that’s what Mullen kind of said on Monday. He liked that narrative, because it kind of put the pressure on him and took the pressure off of his team. I think that’s what you’re talking about now and what we’re kind of seeing.

Andrew:                 Again, it’s going to be a hostile environment. It’s going to be a game that is going to be physical. It’s going to be a game that I think probably goes into the fourth quarter, or at least into the second half, in my opinion, I think both of them come out, and it would not surprise me to see both teams make some early mistakes as they try to get out to an early lead, as the adrenaline is coming about. This may be more on the side of Mississippi State. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Nick Fitzgerald come out and commit a big turnover, or turn that momentum into a big touchdown. Lord forbid if that happens. That stadium may fall down because of the atmosphere there.

Nick, I just go back to this. I’ll say it again, and I’ll say it again on Saturday. Whichever team can be more physical on the line of scrimmage on Saturday is going to win this football game.

Nick:                         If you say that, I don’t think it bodes well for Florida.

Andrew:                 Okay. Let me ask you this. I’m not saying that you’re saying I’m wrong, because I know, I’m pretty sure that you agree with me in some capacity that the physicality is going to win this football game. If physicality is not the number one key for you, what is?

Nick:                         No. I think that’s where this game is won or lost. I just don’t think that’s good for Florida.

Andrew:                 I agree. It’s not good. But this is what I said on Wednesday,

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we start to preview the Florida Gators vs. Mississippi State game on Saturday in Starkville.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre are joined by Brett Hudson of The Commercial Dispatch to get his thoughts on the game, plus we ask him about Dan Mullen’s time in Starkville.

Andrew and Nick also continue to breakdown the game as they give you their keys for the Gators on both sides of the ball.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, had a little technical difficulties, didn’t get to do the recap of the Tennessee game. We’ll do all that, no worries. It was a lot to talk about, but not a lot to talk about, because it was just another day, beating Tennessee.

Nick:                         Need to work on getting the good state of Tennessee some internet connection, which caused us to miss our Monday podcast, but we got a good one today. We’ll do a quick review. I know everyone wanted to hear your thoughts about the Tennessee game, so we’ll do a quick review, but we got to move on. Florida’s on the road, going to Starkville, and we got Brett Hudson coming to preview the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Andrew:                 The whiteout. It’s going to be a whiteout in Starkville with some cowbells. Should be interesting. I have to, in a few minutes after we talk to Brett, Nick, we have to talk about Mullen’s comments about the state of Mississippi, and his wife having to online shop. To me, that was hilarious. That was funny. That was awesome. We’ll have to talk about all that, as you can definitely tell this game is a very important game to Dan Mullen, to his coaching staff. It’s an important game for a lot of reasons. Not only is it important for Florida to win this game, it’s an important game because Dan gets to maybe show Mississippi State, listen, I built it, but I can beat you guys. It’s going to be a good one, I think.

Nick, let’s go to Brett. We’ll talk to Brett. We’ll get his thoughts on this game, get some X’s and O’s breaking down here, get his key matchups, and then you and I will come back and talk a little Tennessee, and then we’ll get into our key matchup as well. It’s going to be a good battle. I think it’s going to be a game that we’ll see who is more physical.

Nick:                         Joined now by Brett Hudson of The Commercial Dispatch. Brett became a friend during baseball season. We met each other out there in, was it Hoover, or was it Omaha?

Brett:                       It was Omaha, because they didn’t stay in Hoover long enough for Florida to get there.

Nick:                         That’s right. They made it to Omaha, despite losing their head coach five days into the season. I mean, that’s a story Gator fans would like to talk about, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Brett, let me ask you, what is the atmosphere like? What is the buzz around campus right now? Was the Kentucky game a game that was maybe overlooked a little bit? Have fans rebounded, and is it hate Dan Mullen this week, or respect Dan Mullen this week?

Brett:                       It is very much hate Dan Mullen this week. There probably should be a little more respect for Dan Mullen. I think there will be in time. I think they’ll eventually come around and realize that a very unfortunate November in his ninth year at Mississippi State probably shouldn’t outweigh the previous eight years and however many months that came before it, in which Dan Mullen did things at Mississippi State that a lot of people, myself included, didn’t think were possible, in terms of sustained success.

I think they’ll eventually come around to that, but now is definitely not that time. This is Dan Mullen hate week. Frankly, from a few days after Thanksgiving until now has been Dan Mullen hate eight months,

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday predictions for the Florida Gators vs. Tennessee game on Saturday night.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown their keys for the Gators against Tennessee on both offense and defense.

Andrew and Nick also give you three players to watch for Florida on Saturday, plus predict other games around the country.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. It’s hate week, Nick. Tennessee hate week that is. We’re at Friday for our prediction podcast. Time for the Gators to go up to Neyland and get some revenge.

Nick:​Last time they were there didn’t end well.

Andrew:​No. You and I were making fun of fans for leaving at halftime.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​So it’s your fault.

Nick:​It’s my fault. It’s always my fault. That was a fun trip. To me, I’m looking forward to making this trip, because I think that stadium is going to be wild. It’s Florida week. They always get up for Florida week, but a night game, give those people 12 hours, 10 hours, however long it is, to tailgate, drink some adult beverages before they go. I think that’s going to be a packed stadium, and the stadium is going to smell like booze.

Andrew:​I’m eager to see that, to see how that crowd is. I’m with you in that I think it will be a good crowd. A lot like Florida fans, and that is they believe, and they’re giving time to Jeremy Pruitt just like Florida fans are giving time and supporting Dan Mullen. I do, I think that that’s going to be a rocking crowd for that game. Tennessee’s stadium is definitely astadium that can get loud. That game you and I were at two years ago, where Tennessee came from behind to win, got loud at times as well.

I think it’s a challenge to the team to go into this. Their first hostile crowd, first road game. How does all that go? How does Feleipe Franks make his checks? How does the line go about that? On the defensive side of the ball, have to get their checks in and that kind of stuff. Of course, it’ll be quiet when the defense is out there. It’s a road game. It’s a different atmosphere. You’re in a hotel after plan ride, all that good stuff. How are you going to adjust to all that? Questions, but none of these guys, for the most part, will be making their first road trip, so it should be business as usual.

Nick:​Before we break into the game, I want to ask you a little bit about the betting line.

Andrew:​Okay.

Nick:​So, it opened at Florida -6. Florida’s the six-point favorite. The line has shifted about a point and a half, to 4.5. What do you think? I think a lot of people were surprised when the line opened at six.

Andrew:​I told someone, I did my radio show on Monday with Mark Moses down there in the Tampa area, and he was talking to me about it. He said, can you believe it, six points? I said, yes and no. I guess I get it, because somebody had to be favored. Basically, you were saying Florida was a nine-point favorite, because you get three points for being the home team. Did they expect Florida to be nine points better than Tennessee? That was kind of where I was at.

​I guess, I get the point of Florida being favored, just because of Tennessee not really looking good, even in their cupcake games, but to end up being a nine-point favorite? That was kind of misleading, in my opinion. This game is never a blowout.

Nick:​Right.

Andrew:​What was your thoughts?

Nick:​Maybe I’m just down on Tennessee. I don’t think they’re very good.

Andrew:​I think they’re awful.

Nick:​Yeah. I was talking to a friend on Sunday, before the line came out, and he asked me, where do you think it’ll be? I think it’ll be at 5.5 or 6. So, I hit the nail on the head. I think six is a fair number. If I was a betting man, I’d probably take Florida -4.5, but we’ll get into our prediction later,

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we continue to preview the Florida Gators vs. Tennessee game on Saturday in Knoxville.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre are joined by Trey Wallace from Fox Sports Knoxville to get his thoughts on the game and his keys for both teams on Saturday.

Andrew and Nick also continue to break down the game as they give you their keys for Florida on Saturday and all starts with the running game.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Tennessee hate week. It’s on. It’s in the middle of the week, and Mullen says they’re going to play Rocky Top. I’m so glad I don’t have to listen to that in practice.

Nick:                         Listen, I understand why Gator fans don’t like Rocky Top. It’s Tennessee’s song.

Andrew:                 It’s annoying, Nick.

Nick:                         If you take your orange and blue glasses off, Rocky Top is an objectively catchy song.

Andrew:                 It’s annoying. It is annoying. It is like a reoccurring dream that you can’t get out of your head. It’s annoying, Nick. I don’t care what you say.

Nick:                         It’s catchy.

Andrew:                 It isn’t catchy. It’s annoying.

Nick:                         It’s a catchy song.

Andrew:                 No, no, no. There is no way, shape, or form you’re making me believe it’s catchy. No. It is worse than their godawful uniforms they wear in what my grandpa calls throw up orange.

Nick:                         Throw up orange. It’s creamsicle. Rocky Top, objectively catchy.

Andrew:                 No. It’s objectively stupid.

Nick:                         We’ll ask Trey.

Andrew:                 We will ask Trey. We’re going to bring on our man in a few seconds here, Mr. Trey Wallace from Fox Sports Knoxville up there. Formerly with the It’s Optional. Still does a little bit of work for there. Quick little side note, Trey and I are from the same area. Both 251 boys. We’ll talk to him. Nick, without further ado, let’s go to Trey and talk to Trey.

Nick:                         Do it.

Andrew:                 Welcome back, guys. We’re with my man, Trey Wallace, from Fox Sports Knoxville. Trey, Alabama to Tennessee, what’s going on, my man? I told the listeners before you and I rep that 251 together. Now we’re on opposing sides.

Trey:                         It’s not even really opposing sides. We’re just doing our jobs here. There is no bias. We both represent the 251. At least our football team down there got a win this past week, and now we look forward to this big matchup on Saturday. You guys will enjoy hearing Rocky Top at least two or three times during the game.

Nick:                         Two or three times during the game. Even if Tennessee loses 150-0, I guarantee I’ll hear Rocky Top at least 12 times.

Trey:                         That’s because I’m going to come over there in the press box and find you, and I’m just going to blast it in your ear.

Nick:                         I’m fine with that.

Andrew:                 I’m not fine with that.

Nick:                         Objectively good song. Objectively catchy.

Andrew:                 No. No, no, and no. More no. No more Rocky Top. Trey, I have to ask you this. This rivalry is a rivalry that, let’s face it, in the ‘90s, 2000s, the winner of this game won the East. 99% of the time it did. Both of these teams are coming back from rebuild mode. You have Tennessee losing their last nine against Power 5, Florida the last seven. Both teams enter the game on Saturday with losing streaks against SEC schools. Does this game start the rivalry again? I guess, who is this game more important for?

Trey:                         I think it’s so fierce Saturday night,

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

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how the offense looked on Saturday and what improved for them on that side of the ball.

Andrew and Nick also break down the special teams play and how that could end up being the X factor for the Gators this season.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, 48-10, the Gators pull out and beat Colorado State. Score’s a little deceiving of how close the game was for the most part. I say that, but Colorado State threatened at times, but never really threatened, I guess is the best way to say it. It’s kind of cliché to say they threatened but didn’t threaten. Had a good chunk of yards in the game, but never really put it all together for the most part in the game. Ended up with 310 total yards, Florida 341, which is a little deceiving as well, as Florida had three drives, well, two drives that ended up in special teams’ touchdown and one that started inside the 10, because of a special teams’ play for the Gators. Little deceiving, but overall 48-10, Gators do what they were supposed to do, get a win.

Nick:                         Yeah. You do what you’re supposed to do. Get back on track after the loss to Kentucky. We had mentioned don’t overlook a Colorado State team because you have Tennessee coming up, that’s how you trip up and lose a game. I don’t think, based on how it goes, obviously you loved the special teams, but I don’t think fans watching that game are waking up today and thinking, feels like we won by 38 points.

Andrew:                 I said this to you last night a little bit. I said, the way the game went it was a tough game. If you go back, and you look at that game, you just watch the game and you don’t know the final score, you’re thinking it’s a two or three score game. I guess, what separates this game was the special teams’ points. 17 special teams points created by the special teams.

I posted this in my thoughts on the game on Gator Country, but we talked about in the years past the defense being the X factor for this team. This year, it’s the special teams. The special teams are able to create points, or able to help create points, setting them up in good field position, because of that precision and because of that focus on special teams. Freddie Swain, punt returner for a touchdown. Amari Burney with a blocked punt that allowed Tyrie Cleveland to recover in the endzone. You had the fumbled snap that James Houston caused that was recovered and set them up for a field goal. You had several points in the game that were create by special teams.

Listen, for a team who struggles to put drives together, starting inside your 20 or inside your 30 gives a team chances to score points that are easy points. They’re given. It’s kind of like an error in post-season baseball, or in baseball in general. It gives you extra opportunities, and that’s what it is, an extra opportunity for this team. For a team who struggles to put drives together, it’s a welcomed position for the team.

Nick:                         It’s certainly welcome. It’s something that was missing so much for the past …

Andrew:                 Since Urban left.

Nick:                         Yeah, really since Urban left, since the last time Dan Mullen was here. Again, it’s those hidden yards that you talk about all the time. The kick returns, you had, I think, 157 yards, or no. I’m reading that wrong. Sorry. All-purpose yards. Freddie Swain had 125 yards, or 107 yards on punt returns. Amari Burney had 28. It’s those hidden yards there. Then, obviously, like you said, you get the blocked punts. The defense helped out too. The defense recovered three fumbles. A lot of short fields to work with.

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday prediction podcast for the Florida Gators vs. Colorado State game on Saturday afternoon.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the key points for the game and what they’re looking to see from the Gators.

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

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Friday prediction time. Another game in the Swamp. The fighting Jim McElwains of Colorado State head to Gainesville.

Nick:​The McElwain List Bowl.

Andrew:​There you go. Pay McElwain.

Nick:​This is an expensive weekend for Florida.

Andrew:​A cool $2 million.

Nick:​Well, if you want to add it all up. $2 million, McElwain gets $1 million in July, so that’s $3 Million, and you’re paying Muschamp $787,000 still. Really, you got almost a $4 million price tag this year for coaches that aren’t coaching your team.

Andrew:​You better whip their ass.

Nick:​Could you imagine the headlines and the feeling on Sunday morning or Saturday night if Colorado State comes in and wins?

Andrew:​Stop it. Stop it.

Nick:​You pay a team $2 million to win.

Andrew:​Stop it. I will say this, Nick, we have some good news. We have some good news. Gator Country has an official sponsor for the 2018 podcast, and guess what, Nick? Welcome to Moe’s, your favorite place, my friend. Moe’s.

Nick:​My entire life has been leading up to this moment, Andrew.

Andrew:​I swear, I think you made this tailgate happen. They’re sponsoring a tailgate and have a deal where when you order their tailgate, Nick, they’re going to deliver it to you free on Saturday, as long as you order it before Friday afternoon, if you use the promo code Gator Country. Nick, they’re going to bring all the stuff you want, my friend. They’re going to deliver either a nacho bar, a taco bar, or fajita bar. They’re going to bring it to you. They’re going to set it up, and then they’re going to clean it up for you, and they’re going to give you free chips and salsa.

Nick:​Guess what I’m eating in the press box Saturday.

Andrew:​You’re going to ask them to deliver it to the press box, huh? That whole $200 or $400, however much you want to do, they’re going to bring it all to the press box, right?

Nick:​Yeah. I’m going to use our code. I’m going to get free delivery, and they’re going to bring a taco bar right up to the press box and set it up right in front of my seat. If the updates are slow, it’s probably because I’ve eaten myself into a Moe’s taco coma.

Andrew:​Then just page them when you get done, and they’ll come clean it up. If you want to do that, like Nick, either go to MoesCateringFL.com or call 844-797-6637. Again, we appreciate Moe’s coming on board and sponsoring the Gator Country podcast this year. If you haven’t checked us out on social media, they’re giving away a free tailgate this weekend, a $200 tailgate this week. All you have to do is show us your best tailgate setup to enter to win that.

Nick:​It is the burrito of Nick de la Torre, the burrito now of Gator Country, and the burrito of the Florida Gators.

Andrew:​There you go.

Nick:​Hey, man, that doesn’t get much better, when you’re tailgating, just to have somebody come over, drop some food off for you, set it all up. All you got to do is show up, crack your beer, eat some delicious Moe’s. We would never have Chipotle delivered to you. Eat some delicious Moe’s, and then it’s kickoff time. We’ll see you guys later. They clean up. You get back to your tailgate, and the food’s gone, all the mess is gone. That’s a good deal.

Andrew:​Hopefully you continue on to a good game. Nick, we’ll move on to that. John Hevesy, he says there’s no change on the offensive line this week.

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we continue to preview the Florida Gators vs. Colorado State on Saturday afternoon in the Swamp.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down how Colorado State has been on both offense and defense this year, plus who their star players are.

Andrew and Nick also break down what Dan Mullen had to say on Monday and what the Gators can do to fix last week’s mistakes.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, on Wednesday, here we go. Colorado State week. Things got to get better for the Gators. Mullen said as much on Monday. I think he might have listened to the podcast when he said the team needs to get more physical.

Nick:​I think he just watched the game. I mean, that’s something, the physicality is something we’ve talked about probably since Muschamp, since Will Muschamp left. I think you can question it some when Muschamp was there, the physicality with the offensive line. How many games did we talk about with Muschamp that the offensive line was just bad? That’s exactly what it is now. I say this, Nick, and, again, I never question anyone’s effort or want to or anything like that, but at some point or another that does have to come into question. Playing physical, blocking your butt off, making tackles, it all becomes a mental standpoint of wanting to do it.

Mullen said something that I think you and I had talked about on Sunday, and that was when you miss tackles it becomes a mental breakdown. He said that they mentally have to get that going. He said it’s not like they don’t coach it. He said the guys have tobuy into that. My thing to that, Nick, is I now question how much the guys have actually bought into what Mullen is talkingabout. All summer and fall we’ve heard about how the team’s really bought in. Now it seems like he’s backtracking on that.

Nick:​To me, the difference between buying in, you can buy in and you can just not be there, but that’s kind of the question that I had for you on Monday, on the Monday podcast. What is the missed tackling? Is it effort? Is it technique? Is it buying in? It’s not like when we get towards the end of the year and some guys look like they’re making business decisions. Guys that are NFL eligible, Draft eligible, you’re like it looks like he made a business decision not to try to tackle somebody there, want to stay healthy. At this point, you’re not talking about that.

It’s just concerning. We saw it against Charleston Southern, and then it just kind of kept going, and it happened again. We asked about it all week, because we knew Kentucky had a strong running back in Benny Snell, and a quarterback in Wilson that could run, so we asked about it all week. Is tackling being emphasized? Are you going to be able to tackle? Really, it’s still an issue. If it’s an issue again this week, this is a Colorado State team that just beat Arkansas.

Andrew:​Yeah. Listen, this is a Colorado State team that has a couple guys that were former big-time signees. When you look at the quarterback, Carter Samuels, when you look back at Preston Williams, he’s a guy that signed out of high school with Tennessee. You have a bunch of guys on this team that have some big-time experience. You can’t go in and lay down.

​Before we get into talking about Colorado State, Nick, I just think we need to go back and focus a little bit more on what Mullen said. I guess, some of the things that stuck out to me that was worrisome for me, Nick, is when he said he didn’t know how his team was going to respond. Nick, maybe I’m looking at this wrong, but, to me personally, it kind of looked like Mullen kind of expected what happened on Saturday to happen, based off of what happened last week in practice.

Nick:​We never hear that, throughout the week. You never hear that we had a bad week at practice until after a loss.

Andrew:​Right.

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators lost to the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night in the Swamp.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down what went wrong for the Gators on Saturday and how they think Feleipe Franks did in the game.

Andrew and Nick also break down what the Gators can do to fix the issues from Saturday night as they move on to face Colorado State on Saturday.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, the streak is over, my friend. You and I have seen Kentucky beat Florida. Something you and I have never seen before, and it happened.

Nick:​Never thought I would see the day. Last time it happened Halley’s comet had just passed the Earth. It comes around every 75 years. The way the series was going, it looked like old Halley would make another trip around and come back to Earth before Kentucky won, but the Wildcats took care of business. They had been getting close. Maybe not every year, but in recent years they had been getting close.

Andrew:​Listen, Kentucky just outplayed Florida.

Nick:​Yeah. I mean, Kentucky outplayed Florida last year.

Andrew:​For the last three games, honestly.

Nick:​I think it was four years ago maybe, it was the Driscoll year where they went into overtime, and he didn’t get the snap off.

Andrew:​Yes. To Demarcus Robinson.

Nick:​Yeah.

Andrew:​I thought that was three years ago, but you may be right. They all kind of run together. Nick, I guess let’s just get right on into it. You and I were fooled by the defense last week. You and I were fooled by, I won’t say I was fooled by Feleipe. I will give Feleipe Franks credit where credit is due. Feleipewasn’t as bad as his stats will show, as the score will show. 17 of 38, 232 yards, two touchdowns, an interception, 11 carries, 44 yards. I will say Feleipe didn’t have his best game, didn’t have his worst game. Forced some throws, was late on some throws, the pick, missed Malik Davis wide open in the end zone for a two-point conversion. It was not a great day for him, but this wasn’t sitting on Feleipe Franks, Nick.

Nick:​Yeah. I thought Feleipe in the first half was okay. It’s about what he’s going to be. I mean, I said it on Friday. I was encouraged by some of the things he did against Charleston Southern, but I needed to see it against Kentucky. For the beginning, before Florida got down, and then the entire offense needed to press, once Feleipe Franks started pressing, then you go back to what you are. When you’re playing relaxed, like he was against Charleston Southern, he was good. When he was relaxed, when they were up, or when the score was tied, and he wasn’t pressing, he was fine against Kentucky.

But that’s what he is. He’s not an All-SEC type quarterback. He’s never going to be a Heisman contender. Feleipe Franks is what he is. If you bought too much stock after beating an underfunded Charleston Southern football program in one of the least funded conferences in college football, then that’s on you. You didn’t listen to our podcast. We didn’t tell you to buy stock in him just because he looked a little bit better.

Andrew:​Hold on now. You picked him.

Nick:​I picked him. That was bad. I was on pace probably for a win, and then the second half, then they played the other half of the game.

Andrew:​Yeah. Here’s the thing for me, Nick, and I said this to you. Again, I’m not putting this game on Feleipe Franks. If anyone in America, and anyone on that coaching staff, and anyone in that football office, expects Feleipe Franks to win the game solely by himself, they’re crazy. Listen, that’s no disrespect to Feleipe Franks. I think you can say that with a lot of quarterbacks in the country, and Feleipe is one of them, unfortunately. What are you doing to believe he was the guy that could win it on his own? I’m just not sure of that,

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you Friday predictions for the Florida Gators vs. Kentucky game on Saturday night.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the keys for both the offense and defense on Saturday against Kentucky.

Andrew and Nick also give you their three players to watch in the game, plus we make our predictions for the Florida game and other games across the country.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:​What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, it’s back, Friday prediction time. Got this game this weekend. Gators-Kentucky. Is the streak going to continue? I think so. Anyway, we’ll break this game down a little bit more for you, give you our predictions, pick a little bit of games. Not a good week this week for games. Last weekend was really good. This week, by my count, Nick, from looking, it’s only two top 25 games where they play each other this weekend.

Nick:​Is there even two? I thought it was only …

Andrew:​Georgia-South Carolina and USC-Stanford.

Nick:​Okay. Yeah. It’s a rough go. That changed sort of recently. It used to be the Week 1 games you wouldn’t have any of those marquee games, and then all of a sudden that Chick-Fil-A game in Atlanta started happening, and then now Week 1 you kind of get some of these superstar games, and then Week 2 everyone is, all right, we went on the road and played a neutral site game, so give me that directional school in Week 2. You see it this week.

But hey, college football is back, so we’re going to keep complaining to a minimum, and we’ve got football this week. We’ve got a good game. Might not be a good game to people who aren’t fans of the two schools, but I’m looking forward to opening SEC play.

Andrew:​Then that South Carolina-Georgia game, it’s a game. I don’t know how good of a game it’s going to be. I personally think Georgia runs away, not to give away my pick. That’s a little bit of good action for the SEC.

Like you said, I think you’ll get a better feel for how Florida is this week. Still don’t know how much you’ll be able to take from the offense, except for whether it improves this week or doesn’t this week. I still think that you will get some direction, but not a ton. Just because I think Florida’s offensive line should be better than the defensive line, and Florida’s defensive line should be better than Kentucky’s offensive line. Again, Florida can come out, put on a good show, erase the last two years that were, let’s just call it what it is, lucky to get out with the streak still alive for Florida.

Nick:​Yeah. I think this week, I mean, if Florida comes out and lays an egg this week it takes away all the good feelings that you had from last Saturday. Like I said on the Wednesday podcast, and I’ve said, I think, probably the last two years, there’s more pressure on Florida to not be the first team to lose this game than there is on Kentucky to end the streak, I think.

Andrew:​We talked about that with Jen the other day. Who’s the pressure on? Probably on Florida more so than it is Kentucky, simply because you don’t want to be the team that lets the streak go. Then again, if you’re Kentucky, you want to be the team that breaks the streak. Kentucky could not win another game this year, but if they end the streak, fans are going to probably be happy. So, again, I don’t know.

​Let’s just go ahead and get a little bit deeper into this game, Nick. Obviously, we know about Kentucky on offense. It’s going to be the Benny Snell show for the most part. Again, I don’t think Kentucky can beat Florida. I don’t think any team can beat Florida defensively by just being one-dimensional. So, I think Kentucky is going to have to get Terry Wilson more involved in this game at the quarterback spot, but if what Jen says is correct, and that is the playbook has to be simplified, and he can only read half the field at a time,