GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the Florida Gators bowl match-up against Virginia in the Orange Bowl later this month.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown the Gators appearance in the Orange Bowl and what it means for the program.
Andrew and Nick also talk recruiting and how the Gators did this past weekend with official visitors.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, Gators are Orange Bowl bound. Yeah. The season is wrapping up quickly.
Nick:                         Andrew, I couldn’t be happier. I’m going home. I’m sitting there and Saturday night I’m watching Ohio State, and I’m thinking, oh my gosh, Ohio State’s going to lose to Wisconsin. I’m going to end up spending Christmas in a hotel room in Dallas by myself. This is going to be terrible. Of course, Wisconsin comes back. Florida, at that point I’m looking at it, and everything the way Saturday shook out, and I’m thinking I’m going home. So, I’ll get to spend Christmas down in South Florida with my parents, and I get to cover a bowl game in a stadium that I watched the Marlins win a world championship in in ’97. I watched countless miserable Dolphin games growing up. So, I’m a very happy guy right. Going home for the bowl game and for Christmas.
Andrew:                 Yeah. I’ve never been to a game in Miami. Not like I miss much, but I will be down there and get to go down and watch that. Nick, you look at the way that things finished, and I know I have been very vocal, and some other people have been very vocal that didn’t make the playoff, and it’s not a great year. I mean, again, to finish in the New Year’s Six bowl is a very prestige thing, and I think it’s good for the Gators. You get a chance to go into that game, and if you win that game, there’s a chance you might finish top five in the country.
Nick:                         Yeah. I mean, the way you look at it, I think that’s certainly a possibility. Georgia will be playing in the Sugar Bowl. I was surprised that they didn’t really drop. They said there were even conversations about Georgia still making it. They weren’t competitive. They didn’t look good. They didn’t look like they had a chance to beat LSU really at any point in the SEC Championship game. So, for me, I’m watching the SEC Championship game and thinking, man, if Georgia gets blown out, is Florida going to jump them? Is Florida Sugar Bowl bound?
Andrew:                 Right.
Nick:                         So, to me, they love Georgia, I guess, but Georgia could lose in the Sugar Bowl.
Andrew:                 I agree with that. Florida played LSU much closer on the road.
Nick:                         At night at Death Valley. Listen, I said neutral site, and some people were yelling at me about calling it a neutral site game.
Andrew:                 There were some LSU fans.
Nick:                         There were some. It was definitely more Georgia fans than LSU fans. The game wasn’t played in Athens. That’s all I was saying.
Andrew:                 Right. Yeah. I mean, like I say, I could have understood the argument, but at the same time, Georgia did beat you. Two loss teams. Georgia won. Sorry. It just is what it is. Again, I said this, and I’ll continue to say this, not to take anything away from the Orange Bowl, but the Sugar Bowl is the prestige of the SEC. It’s like the Rose Bowl for PAC 12 teams. It’s special. If you go to the Sugar Bowl, it’s special.
Nick:                         I didn’t get the whole, a lot of fans, whether it was on the message board or on social media, were like clamoring to go to the Sugar Bowl over the Orange. The Sugar is not more prestigious.
Andrew:                 I think so. I think so.
Nick:                         I don’t. The Orange Bowl has been played longer than the Sugar Bow...