GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the latest news surrounding the Florida Gators football program.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the Brenton Cox transfer to Florida, plus what he has to do in order to become eligible for the Gators in 2019.
Andrew and Nick also talk about how the latest scrimmage went for the Gators and what group stood out for Florida.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, you get close to fall camp, and you think adding and subtracting players isn’t going to happen very much, but in Gainesville the unexpected is always the expected.
Nick:                         Yeah. Never a dull day covering the Gators. I always say it.
Andrew:                 Yeah. The transfer portal has turned this into this, to what we got now. The transfer portal is a free agency. Let’s call it what it is. They can say they’re waivers, yada, yada. The transfer portal is free agency. That’s what it is. Gators benefited, landing five-star outside linebacker/defensive end Brenton Cox from Georgia, and just four days after he left the Georgia program, he’s in Gainesville. Big pickup for the Gators talent wise.
Nick:                         Moving quick.
Andrew:                 Moving quick.
Nick:                         I mean, entered the transfer portal on a Monday, August 5th, and you’re enrolled and in classes August 9th, Friday. I think some of the familiarity, and Dan Mullen didn’t mean to bash his old school. These are just facts. He said, when asked, did you have a prior relationship with Brenton Cox? Yeah. Somewhat. We recruited him when we were at Mississippi State, but he wasn’t coming to Mississippi State. The 11th ranked player in the country by ESPN isn’t going to Mississippi State unless he’s from Starkville or from somewhere in Mississippi.
Andrew:                 Right.
Nick:                         I think there was some familiarity during the recruiting process, and then there’s also a bunch of players on Florida’s roster that have played with him and had conversations with him. Obviously, a player of that talent and that skill level wanted to stay in the SEC, and what better place to do it than at Florida?
Andrew:                 The familiarity of him with Gainesville. He’s a guy that Mac and Randy Shannon and Geoff Collins, those guys, recruited. I told you this when I was going through in the spring. I went up and visited Brenton. It was a longshot that Florida was going to land him, but he was still someone that was in the area when I was going to visit Justin Fields and those guys. Stopped by and visited him. So, there’s that familiarity already with Gainesville. I think one thing that we talk about, but we don’t talk about a ton, and it’s something I thought we needed to hit on, was how popular Todd Grantham’s schemes are. We always talk about how good of a defensive coordinator he is, this, that, and the other, but what he does scheme-wise and what he was able to do with Jachai Polite is something that took notice around the country and took notice around the SEC. It’s a draw. It’s a draw to Gainesville.
Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, that’s a draw to Gainesville. I think getting another player, because when you look at it, Jeremiah Moon’s a redshirt junior, if I’m not mistaken. You’re going to lose Jonathan Greenard. Sure, you’ve got Khris Bogle, Mohamoud Diabate, but if a player of this caliber asks you to come, you don’t say no. We can maybe even get into how Dan Mullen is building the roster, and there’s been a lot of transfers, and there’s been some JUCO guys, stuff like that. I think it’s something he probably got comfortable doing at Mississippi State, like I alluded to or even said when talking about Brenton Cox, he kind of had to do that at Mississippi State.