GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we bring you our Friday prediction before the Florida Gators take on Towson at 4 in the Swamp on Saturday.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre give you some keys for the Gators to work on during Saturday’s game as well as some guys they want to see play more.
Andrew and Nick also pick several games around the country, plus we pick our three players to watch on Saturday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:         What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Gators-Tigers for the first of three. I’m just kidding. This is Towson, not a best of three series, but the Gators do play three straight Tigers. It goes from okay to good to great.
Nick:               Yeah. Then you get Missouri to cap off the fourth Tiger of the year.
Andrew:         And that might be the worst of all the Tigers.
Nick:               It might be. Who knows? That’s the weird series and the weird game.
Andrew:         There you go. That’s a rivalry game. It has like a rivalry game feel, because of how bad Florida’s been against Missouri, but it’ll be good. It’ll be interesting. Another opportunity for the Gators to improve this week and continue to move forward. As Dan Mullen says, they have a ways to go as far as improving as a team. He’s stressed, and I think that it kind of reminds me of last year, Nick, and correct me if I’m wrong here, but kind of reminds me a little bit of what he did after the Kentucky game. It’s kind of weird the way he’s doing it, but he continues to stress that this team has to stay focused. I don’t want to say that it’s a problem, but I definitely think that it’s something he is concerned about.
Nick:               Do you think it’s more of a concern, or it’s just really trying to drill it in and prevent it? I think it’s more preventative than him seeing something and commenting on it. I think it’s more if I just keep saying this, maybe it won’t happen.
Andrew:         Right. Yeah. Maybe so. Like I said, you continue to hear it, and between that and injuries. I mean, we all know how bad the injury bug has been to Florida this year, but he continues to say, listen, we need to stay healthy and stay focused. That’s been a key for him. So far, I think that I haven’t seen the team not focused is what I was trying to say. I haven’t seen that be a problem.
Nick:               No. I mean, I called it a trap game, and I think people didn’t take that the right way.
Andrew:         Okay.
Nick:               It’s a trap game in the sense of you’ve got a potential top 10 matchup in the Swamp next week.
Andrew:         Right.
Nick:               That’d be the first time since 2012 that there will be a top 10 matchup. That was Florida-South Carolina back then. I’m not saying, listen, this is a great Towson team coming in, and Florida’s overlooking them. I’m saying it’s an FCS opponent, and you’ve got Auburn coming in next week.
Andrew:         It’s Homecoming.
Nick:               It’s easy to think about Homecoming and next week, and who the heck are these guys? They’re not even an FBS team. It’s easy to overlook Towson. I meant a trap game in that sense. I think that’s what Dan Mullen was talking about being focused. Don’t focus on the opponent. Focus on us. Because that’s what they keep preaching to the team is if we focus on us, and we play up to our standard, we’re not going to lose to a team like Towson. We’re not going to lose to a Kentucky or a Tennessee. If we play our brand of football and up to the standard that we’re trying to hold you guys to, we’re not going to worry about losing focus. We’re not going to worry about a trap game or anything like that. I think that’s really what he’s been getting at with hammering in the focus and worrying about us and what we can control.
Andrew:         Yeah. I mean, again, I get it.