Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we preview the Outback Bowl and talk about the latest updates from the Under Armour All-American game in Orlando, Florida.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the latest injury news on the Florida Gators team and what they have to do in order to win against Iowa in Tampa.

Andrew and Nick also discuss the Gators targets and commit did in day one of Under Armour practice, plus update the latest on their recruitments.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we are covering the state of Florida in twos.
Nick:You’re in Orlando. I’m in Tampa, and Gator Country’s everywhere right now.
Andrew:Yeah. Knocking out updates.
Nick:Feels good to be back podcasting. We’ve been, I mean we took a little break because of Christmas, but then you and I, as we just said, we’ve been all over the place.
Andrew:I’ve not really missed the podcast. Doing this podcast is brutal for me with you.
Nick:Said nobody ever, because I’m fantastic.
Andrew:Lordy. As you say though, in Orlando for Under Armour. You’re in Tampa for the Outback Bowl, and it’s a busy time for a lot of things. Orlando’s got the Under Armour game with just one commit, but several targets in there, in the game. Outback Bowl, as we said before, it’s huge. It’s a must win, must win game for Florida.
Nick:It plays into recruiting. Recruiting is not so much about wins and losses, per say, as it is about perception, and we’ve talked about this before. Florida loses this game, and it doesn’t matter if they’re playing St. Thomas Aquinas, Iowa, Alabama, Sisters of the Poor, you go into the off season with the same feeling of there was no progress from Year 1 to Year 2. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. You can’t end like you did last season with three losses, and that hurts recruiting, and people ask you until your ears bleed, “What’s wrong with recruiting?” The perception of the team is that things aren’t changing.
Andrew:Yup.
Nick:So you need to come out, and you need to change that perception on January 2nd in the Outback Bowl.
Andrew:There’s several reasons, like we said, and we’re not going to go back into why recruiting is bad right now, but I do, I think things are slightly starting to change a little bit. The coaching rumors are out there and all of that good stuff. I think things are slowly starting to change. It’s been, what? Almost a month now since Florida lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship game. Time heals all wounds. That is even for recruiting, but you can either continue to put that Band-Aid on, or you can open that wound back up in Tampa. Against a team like Iowa, and this is no disrespect to Iowa; Iowa’s a pretty decent football team. You can’t lose another bowl game. You just can’t.
Nick:Listen, Iowa’s not a very good football team, and they’re beat up. Kind of like Florida is. I said the opponent doesn’t matter, but like Iowa’s not a good football team. It should be a game that you can win. Iowa is, they’re not going to pretend to be something they’re not. They don’t throw the ball well.
Andrew:Right.
Nick:When the center snaps the ball, 62% of the time they are running it. They have two running backs. I think I’m saying this right, LeShun Daniels, Jr. He’s already over the century mark, and Akrum Wadley, 34 yards away from that. They’ve got basically 2,000 yard backs. They’re going to run the ball at you. Florida, a little dinged up, but you know, you’re playing a one dimensional team. You’ve got to win this game. I think last year the physicality of Michigan caught Florida off guard. You can’t look at this team, this Iowa team, and not expect that same kind of physicality. Listen, it’s a Big Ten team. The stereotype is slow, plodding, but physical. They’re going to be physical. They’re going to punch you in the mouth.
It’s going to be one of those