GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Orange and Blue game for the Florida Gators that took place on Saturday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the game and why it was a success under Dan Mullen and the coaching staff.

Andrew and Nick also break down how recruiting went for the Gators on Saturday and the big news around recruiting.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, spring football is over. I say it to you now, and that is it went by fast. It seemed like this year was a little bit different than last year. It was a lot quicker spring. Maybe it’s because we were so busy. Who knows?

Nick:                         Those first two weeks where everything was open, I’ll tell you that did not seem fast. We were at three practices and three hours. Some of the older beat reporters, they call it Meyer time, where practice doesn’t really end when they say it’s going to end. I started joking and saying, “Never had that problem with McElwain. How many periods is practice? 13. We’ve done 10 good ones, let’s get out of here.” There was never waiting around.

Then over the last two weeks, when things were kind of closed, there was some stuff for first responders and the police around Gainesville. We’ve talked about when we’ve had the past couple years where games have been cancelled because of weather, just how big the scope is and how many people it takes to create a safe game day environment. They had some stuff open for people like that. There was a practice open to university employees. There was still stuff, even though it wasn’t open to the media. Still stuff that was open.

We’ll get into the spring game, but I think as a spring as a whole I think Dan Mullen did a good job. The coaching staff did a good job. They probably got out of it exactly what they hoped to.

Andrew:                 I mean, it’s something guys have told us, and Mullen talked about, and that was the first 13 practices were the work practices. This game was more fun, have fun, let loose a little bit. Don’t get anyone injured, even though a couple guys did get injured in the game, and we’ll talk about that in a minute. You had that, and this was a game to get the fans involved and the former players involved. They got the former players involved. You had Lawrence Wright and you had Travis McGriff both catching a touchdown pass. Listen, was that gimmicky? Sure. Lawrence Wright and Travis McGriff are talking about that with everyone. Those guys had family members, young family members have never seen them play. They got to do that. It was just fun.

I told you this off the air, and that is which spring game is fun? There isn’t spring games that are fun. There is no winning a spring game, because if the offense looks good, your defense sucks. If the defense looks good, your offense sucks. We talk about the Feleipe Franks long 60-yard run, was that a long run? No, it wasn’t, but you had to do something. There again, who knows if he does get tackled. You don’t know. I don’t know how you make the game more fun. There’s probably nothing you can do really. We can go back to the Muschamp or McElwain seven-on-seven days, if you want.

Nick:                         Those were not fun. Man, those Muschamp ones where there were four healthy offensive linemen, those were not fun. I think the only thing, and I’ve seen something on Twitter, I got to meet him on Saturday. He’s GatorRyan on Twitter. I think he probably said the best way. He said, “Just let us know,” as far as fans, “Let us know that that’s what it’s going to be.” I think what he means is don’t build it up to where you think it’s going to be something, and I’m driving a couple hours, or somebody’s driving up from Miami, and they’re driving six hours, expecting to see something, and that’s not what they get.