Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators big recruiting weekend last weekend, plus talk about the basketball team.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre also break down how the new coaches are doing in recruiting, plus update you on how this staff is different from years past.

Andrew and Nick also recap the Florida Gators softball season-opening tournament and talk about the upcoming baseball season for the Gators.

TRANSCRIPT:

 

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here again with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, softball under way. Pitchers and catchers reporting today. Junior Day, baseball starting, basketball, lacrosse. You name it, it’s going on.

Nick:                         Lots of stuff going on. It’s a busy time of year with softball getting going last weekend at the USF tournament, baseball gets going this week with William & Mary, and then, of course, recruiting. Recruiting’s back on after basically a one week hiatus.

Andrew:                 I want to talk about this, Nick, real quick. The reason I bring it up is some people accuse you and I of being hard on the new hires. I personally didn’t take it as us being hard. I personally took it as you and I having some questions that we wanted to be answered. Not that it was a bad thing, just simply us looking. I do feel like we’re a fair and balanced podcast here, and so when we find out the information we relay it back. That is that we’ve heard nothing but positive things about the new hiring, the new coaching staff at Florida.

What Ja’Juan Seider, Corey Bell, and Brad Davis did over the weekend with connecting to these kids was impressive. The kids really liked them. For the first time in a really long time, offensive linemen walked away saying that they liked chilling with their offensive line coach in Coach Davis. That’s not to say that they didn’t like Summers. It was just they didn’t connect on a personal level. They didn’t have that relationship, tight-knit relationship, with him. That’s something we heard this weekend. Like I said, we’re fair. I’ll say that a lot of my questions about how these guys would come together has been answered.

Nick:                         Everyone I spoke to out at Junior Day on the players’ standpoint really enjoyed Coach Davis. Talked to a couple staff members, and they all really enjoyed, are enjoying, all three of the new coaches. I had one person say, “I think Ja’Juan Seider is the best recruiter on staff.” They said that with the caveat of, “You know how good I think Tim Skipper is as a recruiter.” It’s really a testament to the staff hires. Listen, people are saying, “Portland State, where are they getting these guys from?” You’re really looking for people that can connect to kids on the recruiting trail, and then once you get them there you want to see how they develop them. Right now, the connections are being made on the recruiting trail, and we’ll see. Spring practice is not too far away. We’ll see how they are as coaches on the field too.

Andrew:                 It’s like I said to you over the last week. Name me 10 offensive line coaches. Can you name every one of them in the SEC, Nick? I can’t. I’m just going to be honest. I can’t.

Nick:                         No. My dog, Herb Hand’s there.

Andrew:                 Herb Hand. You got Brent Key, but that’s about it. I can name a few more. When the rumors are going around that Silverfield or whatever from Memphis was a candidate, you and I both said, “Who?” We had to go research it to find out who it was, because we didn’t know.

Nick:                         That’s another thing. One rumor comes out, and then people just, for whatever reason, that’s if you don’t ge