GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap Florida Gators spring practice for week number two as we talk about how the players are doing under Dan Mullen.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down which positions are doing well on offense and defense, plus how the practices are different under Mullen.

Andrew and Nick also talk about how recruiting is different under Mullen and recap the new facility news that was announced on Friday.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, lot of things going on over the weekend, and it’s another busy week in Gainesville. Let’s not forget, it’s Opening Week for baseball.

Nick:                         Yeah. Let’s see. Last weekend, little recap, Florida wins two out of three against Arkansas, after losing on Friday. You’re always surprised when they don’t a game that Brady Singer starts.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Nick:                         Softball did well.

Andrew:                 Yeah. Softball, of course, plays on Monday night. We’re taping this on Monday, so we’re not going to be able to recap that. Florida’s 2-0, 3-0 on the week. They beat Jacksonville, and then they have the two games against A&M so far. Excuse me, they beat South Florida. You guys beat Jacksonville. Then Georgia loses a game, so Florida’s now right in the top of the SEC standings. Just a game behind South Carolina, who’s played three less games in the SEC. Everything seems to be going well. Gymnastics, they kind of had a good meet, except for a couple flaws, and they ended up finishing third in the SEC Gymnastics Championship. Overall, good week.

Good week of recruiting. Good week of spring practice.

Nick:                         Florida will play Florida State in Jacksonville this week, so that’s always a fun one. Then Vanderbilt comes in over the weekend.

Andrew:                 Florida has a non-SEC weekend this weekend in softball. With Vanderbilt not having a team, you always have one weekend throughout the year that you don’t play an SEC series. That weekend will be this weekend for Florida. They’ll host a few teams in kind of, I guess you could say a mini tournament this weekend. Then they’ll tilt it back up as they get ready to finish the SEC play. I mean, when you talk about SEC play, Nick, not only in baseball, but softball, South Carolina is really good this year. You look at what Mississippi State is doing this year. This is a really good SEC conference.

Florida started the RPI that was just released last week fifth in the RPI. I mean, when you think about it, it’s going to go way up. Texas A&M is #8 in the country, and Florida may very well sweep. You got Alabama. You got South Carolina. You got Mississippi State. You got LSU still to play. You got top 10 teams. That RPI is going to be way up there.

Nick:                         Yeah. I guess for Florida there’s times, I almost think for Florida it doesn’t even matter. I don’t know Florida’s RPI right now.

Andrew:                 What does it matter?

Nick:                         Just because they’re not going to be a team that’s like on the bubble to get into a regional. Yeah. Just by the sheer fact of who they’re playing, and who they have to play, absolutely.

Andrew:                 Yeah. It goes the same way with you guys over in baseball. It doesn’t matter, because you’re going to get in. Especially this year with softball, there’s a few good teams out in the Pac-12, and Florida has taken a loss already to Georgia, #6 team in the country right now. When you look at being one of those top teams to host through the Super-Regionals, that’s kind of where the RPI comes up. It may end up being a factor for baseball as well, but you want to have that high RPI. Again, baseball and softball both doing well.