GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we start to preview the Florida Gators big game against the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the big keys for the Gators on Saturday and how they can knock off Georgia in Jacksonville.
Andrew and Nick also get you caught up all the latest injury news for the Gators, plus we breakdown what Dan Mullen had to say on Monday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re running a day behind, but we’re here. Gators-Georiga. Kind of what we thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year. Winner pretty much goes to Atlanta.
Nick:                         Yeah. It’s kind of like order restored. This is what you expect Florida-Georgia to be, what we expected Florida-Georgia to be at the beginning of the year, during the off season. Maybe even Florida in a better spot than you or I would have thought heading into the year, because Florida comes in really in the driver’s seat. Their loss is to LSU in the West, and Georgia’s loss is to South Carolina in the East. When you start getting into tiebreakers and things like that, it’s better to lose to a team in the West than the East. With that being said, you got to win Saturday. You’re in the driver’s seat, but you quickly move to the backseat if you lose to Georgia.
Andrew:                 I was doing a couple radio shows, Nick, and I’ll ask you the same thing they asked me. They said before this season did you think Florida was as near talent-wise with Georgia or had caught Georgia as much as they have now? My answer was no. I feel like, definitely not the talent gap, because that’s not something you can gain in the middle of the year, but I feel much better about Florida’s chances against Georgia now than I did, say July.
Nick:                         Yeah. I think in July we both probably would have said there’s still the talent gap from recruiting. I did pick Florida to win, to win the SEC East, so I thought this is probably Florida’s chance. I think it was more, I still thought there was a talent gap. I just think X’s and O’s that Florida has the better staff. I think with the team that I knew Florida had coming back and their coaching staff, that I thought this would be the year that they could beat Georgia. But yeah, I agree with you. I still thought the talent gap was there.
Andrew:                 I agree with you. I think Mullen X’s and O’s on game day is better than Kirby X’s and O’s on game day. There was no doubt about that. I felt like Georgia was a little bit better of a team, but now that the season’s taking place, I think it’s a tossup, Nick. I said this, and I’ll ask you the same thing. For me, it’s a little bit of a weird year, in that we don’t worry about Florida’s offense showing up. We worry about Florida’s defense showing up. It’s kind of the same thing for a team like Alabama, a team like LSU. You don’t worry about either one of those offenses showing up. You worry about their defenses showing up. If Florida’s defense shows up on Saturday, you like Florida’s chances.
Nick:                         100%. I like Florida’s chances either way. By virtue of picking Florida to win the SEC East, I’m guessing way back then I picked them to beat Georgia, but I think I feel much more comfortable. If you’d have asked me at SEC Media Days, even after filling out the ballot, is Florida going to beat Georgia? I might have been like, uh … I don’t know. Let’s see. I think Florida is absolutely more than capable of beating Georgia. Georgia has shown to me that they bleed, just like everyone else does. They’re not this Alabama 2.0, they’re Alabama lite that gets whoever they want in recruiting, and then just runs roughshod through their entire schedule. They’ve proved that that’s not what they are.