GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we discuss the Florida Gators fall scrimmage from last Friday night in the Swamp.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre breakdown how the Gators looked in the scrimmage and what guys stood out during the first scrimmage of fall camp.
Andrew and Nick also breakdown the latest news surrounding the football team as they head into another week of fall camp.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, we’re back. Fall camp is still rolling. That’s a positive sign. Gators had their first scrimmage. All reports say that it was a good scrimmage. Definitely showed that there was some things to be worked on. Some guys maybe, I don’t want to say that were under talked about, underappreciated, stood out, but some guys that maybe hadn’t had good scrimmages or hadn’t played a lot in the past had a really good scrimmage. That was good. That’s kind of what you want to see out of fall camp. As you said many times, you definitely want to see this year, you want as many guys to be ready to play in this Covid-19 era as possible.
Nick:                         That’s going to be the trick is to get everyone, as many people as you can, ready. You look at LSU, you lose basically an entire offensive line room really out of nowhere. That’s going to be something to keep an eye on, and that’s something that the coaching staff has to deal with and try to get as many people ready as they possibly can. I think the biggest thing I got from the scrimmage is that the younger guys, Princely, Gervon, those guys. How do the freshmen handle being in the Swamp, under the lights? No fans, but in the Swamp, under the lights, music going, the video boards going. How do you handle that? I think of the guys that we heard about that wasn’t too big for them.
Andrew:                 It wasn’t too big at all. We’ll just go ahead and get into it. We definitely heard that Xzavier Henderson had a big scrimmage. Jaquavion Fraziers had a good scrimmage as well. We’ve talked about those two a ton. Everyone kind of knows my feeling on Fraziers. I think that was good to hear on that. Trevon Grimes didn’t scrimmage, because of some different things. I don’t want to say it’s big, because what does Trevon Grimes get out of scrimmaging in fall camp? He’s a veteran. A chance for the young guys.
The name that continues to be brought up a lot is Ja’Markis Weston. Everyone says he might be the most physically gifted receiver on the roster, as far as physical goes, overall. It’ll be interesting to see how he’s used as well. It sets up to be a really good group. You got really now six guys at that receiver position that are performing well or have performed well in Grimes, Copeland, Toney, and then Weston, Henderson, and Fraziers that we talked about. That’ll be interesting to see if there’s anybody else that steps up. Then how do you get all those guys involved? Dan Mullen’s done a good job of that in the past.
On the defensive side of the ball, Nick, Tyron Hopper is a guy that we continue to hear a ton about. I think the big thing for me with Tyron Hopper, and I think you’ll agree with me here, and that is he can cover a tight end. You’re not going to worry about Isaiah Nauta in 2018 driving the length of the field basically against you play after play on out routes and score a touchdown at the tight end spot. You feel comfortable with Tyron Hopper covering a tight end, because he is basically a safety in a linebacker body.
Nick:                         To me it’s just where does he play? You and I can just spitball a little bit right here. Where does Hopper play, and who does he play over?
Andrew:                 Right. I think he’s kind of a Will, a Will backer, in that role. Does that mean Ventrell Miller doesn’t play as much, or James Houston doesn’t play as much? I don’t know. Here’s my thoughts,