Gator Country brings you our mid week preview podcast of the Florida Gators vs. Vanderbilt game that takes place on Saturday at noon in Nashville.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down why this game is so important for the Gators moving forward, plus raise some key questions about the game.

Andrew and Nick also break down the hiring of Scott Stricklin as new athletic director, plus talk about the LSU game time being set for so early.

TRANSCRIPT:

 

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, back with Nicholas de la Torre. Nick, new AD on Tuesday. We’re taping this on Tuesday. You’re listening to it on Wednesday. So that kind of overshadowed the week. Maybe a good thing for Florida after that game against Tennessee. Maybe it’s kind of a good thing to get the news and the focus off the team and onto Scott Strickland, the new Athletic Director.

Nick:                         Yeah. Nice timing.

Andrew:                 Nice timing. You and I talked about it as well, though. We didn’t think it was a good idea to do it last week and overshadow the rivalry. We thought it was good this week. Obviously we didn’t think the Gators were going to be coming off of a loss, but it did work out perfectly, and it would have worked out perfectly even with a win, just because of the week with Vanderbilt.

Nick:                         Yeah. I don’t like that we don’t get to talk to players today.

Andrew:                 I mean, I understand that. I think that it’s a down week to talk to players anyway, because of the mood after that. It’s there, but, Nick, a couple things. Strickland’s announced on Tuesday, comes from Mississippi State. He says he was called in June, and then had more talks in August. From what we know, and this is just from what we know, two guys turned it down before Strickland accepted the job. That was Bernard Moore, no, what’s his first name? The guy at Arizona.

Nick:                         Greg Byrne.

Andrew:                 Greg Byrne. That’s right. Moore is at Stanford. He did not a get contract. Anyway, then you had Cunningham in North Carolina. Both of those guys denied the job. Bernard Moore at Stanford was a guy that was interested. Florida never extended a contract. So we know that those were the two guys that did it. Now, how many more declined it, we don’t exactly know, but we do know from hearing it from Strickland today that he was one of the first probably three or four guys, five guys, that was called, and I think it’s a solid choice. It wasn’t a homerun hire that some of the other names would have been, not really, but then again, an Athletic Director, is there really a homerun hire?

Nick:                         I think so.

Andrew:                 Who’s the homerun hire then?

Nick:                         No, I think that Strickland is a good hire.

Andrew:                 Okay. I thought you were, I’m just saying like you could go and name just about any Athletic Director in the country and most people are going to have to go look up who he is.

Nick:                         Yeah. That’s probably true. Jeff Long at Arkansas maybe the exception, because of how brash he is on social media.

Andrew:                 Right.

Nick:                         Strickland I think is a good hire, especially given the climate of where Florida is right now, where the SEC is, where college athletics are going. Strickland’s not afraid to bilk, raised over $130 million at Mississippi State, is renovating the football field, built a standalone football facility. They have gigantic unbelievable kind of renovations going into their baseball stadium, building lofts