Latest / The Craig Way Show / Florida Gators broadcaster Sean Kelley on D.J. Lagway's injury, facing Texas

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Florida Gators broadcaster Sean Kelley on D.J. Lagway's injury, facing Texas · The Craig Way Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are getting ready to talk Florida. So you know
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the clever man that Cameron Parker is. I see what
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: you did there, so very nicely done and very nice
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: as always to visit with the play by play voice
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of the Florida Gators Sean Kelly, who the last time
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I saw and you correct me if if I'm mistaken
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: on this.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: We were gathered around.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: A fireplace it wasn't lit because it was after all July,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: with our mutual friend West Rhama, the ACC Network. We
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: had a couple of others around there. I think my
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: wife was there, your wifles and we were all just
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: kind of gathered around at the sports media convention thing
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and just having a good old time and not keeping
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: track of the beverage count. Right.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, a couple of things here to unpacked, Craig. First
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: of all, great to talk to you again. Number two
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  Speaker 3: is thanks for the explanation on the rejoin. This is
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: a broadcast. First, I don't think I've ever had largo
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: on any broadcast I've been a part of. And yes,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: that that think of the summer is what I like
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: to call a session. We were having a session and
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Chris Stewart from Alabama was there and it was.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: A good group. Yes, yes, it was.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Uh. Folks have have have heard Sean over the years,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: uh doing a lot of ESPN play by play Bowl
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: games and college basketball and football, and then of course,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: uh the Hornets and most recently the what is this
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: year four for you on the Gator I'm trying to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: remember how many years for you if you now back
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: back working for one specific school.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the year three, year three?
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, all right, and time. I understand that I've
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: been there. I understand that I would say this though,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: given everything and I and I do say everything, everything
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that the Gators have had to uh undergo during this
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: college football season, before the season and during the season
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: up to this point, I'd say they kind of held
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: their head up pretty well having to deal with it.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: What's been the mood and the spirit like around in
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  Speaker 1: gains Will, given the fact that it was a team
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that played a really good Georgia team, really really well,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, better obviously than the Longhorns recorded themselves on
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  Speaker 1: their own home field against the Bulldogs, but also lost
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  Speaker 1: the outstanding talent at least during the game Saturday and
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  Speaker 1: DJ Lagway, who I've watched a lot playing in High
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: School for Willis and just coming off of that, getting
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: ready to go back on the road and this time
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: come to Austin. How about the pulse around Gainesville and Gator.
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  Speaker 2: Nation this week?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really been the roller coaster of a season,
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  Speaker 3: but the pulse, you know, other than the Lagua injury,
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  Speaker 3: which we'll get to in a minute, but the way
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  Speaker 3: that the team has comported for itself here over the
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: last save month has got people thinking a lot differently
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  Speaker 3: about Billy Napier, about where this program's going. And then
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: there's kind of this what used to be kind of
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: just like this almost gasped when you would talk about
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: the Gators schedule has now become a giggle. And and
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  Speaker 3: that's even with talking with people around the country like,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: oh man, the Georgia game and DJ going down, well,
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  Speaker 3: oh yeah, well who do you guys have next, and
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  Speaker 3: they're like, we're at Austin, Texas, and they just started
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  Speaker 3: to kind of giggle because every week is this top
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: five team that the Gators seemingly have to play. So
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  Speaker 3: there is some realization that there's still a long way
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  Speaker 3: to go, you guys over there then home against LSU
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  Speaker 3: own this still to come and Obviously, when the schedule
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: came out and all the gasping was going on, Florida
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: State was expected to be something different than they are.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: But that's how it'll wrap up. But I think I
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  Speaker 3: think they're pleased finally with the way this thing's going
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  Speaker 3: under Billy Napier. But now it seems like there's this
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  Speaker 3: conversation around how snake fit this team can be at times.
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  Speaker 3: And it's not just Lagway. There are other significant injuries
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  Speaker 3: too right now with the Gators, and and you got
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  Speaker 3: to go on the road and play against you know,
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  Speaker 3: one of the best teams currently in the country, you know,
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  Speaker 3: at their place too, by the way, So that's that's
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  Speaker 3: a long winded answer on the vibe that that's kind
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  Speaker 3: of appealing with the team right now.
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  Speaker 1: Well, is there also maybe a sense of a shrug
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  Speaker 1: of the shoulders and hey, we'll go right back because
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  Speaker 1: you had to go to you had to go to
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  Speaker 1: Knoxville and took Tennessee in overtime and that's a top
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  Speaker 1: ten team as we know as well before he even
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  Speaker 1: got to the Georgia game in Jacksonville.
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  Speaker 3: Well, what this, what the team itself has figured out
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  Speaker 3: is that they feel like whether it's a fact or not.
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  Speaker 3: They feel like they can play now with anybody in
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  Speaker 3: the country, and their frustration is, we're not finishing these opportunities,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: you know, like you said, overtime at Tennessee against Georgia,
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  Speaker 3: you're twenty twenty with walk on from Yale at quarterback
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  Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter, and you can't finish. Now. Again,
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  Speaker 3: there's reality and there's belief. But that's the way that
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  Speaker 3: the team believes they are right now. And the fan base,
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  Speaker 3: I think is just trying to rally around a group
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  Speaker 3: that that has really shown the fan base that their
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  Speaker 3: play as hard as anybody, and I think that they
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: take great pride in that Florida's got that kind of
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  Speaker 3: fan base personality that the team is a direct reflection
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  Speaker 3: of everybody who's ever worn orange and blue. So when
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  Speaker 3: that team plays hard, stays out of trouble, you know,
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  Speaker 3: represents the right way they they rally around the team.
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  Speaker 3: So that's kind of the two different perspectives from that standpoint.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any one specific thing you can point to
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  Speaker 1: as to how and why it flipped from say the
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  Speaker 1: one and two start and then you know, and then
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to gather some momentum going to Startville
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  Speaker 1: and then U see f then Tennessee what changed, if anything,
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  Speaker 1: a significant change to put the team on the track
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  Speaker 1: to where they've become very difficult customers to deal with
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  Speaker 1: with an opponent.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Correig, I think if you go back to that
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  Speaker 3: first bye week, you know you had the bad start,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: it turns out the teams you lost to have proved
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  Speaker 3: to be pretty darn good, even though we don't want
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  Speaker 3: to talk about that one team that's a little aways
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  Speaker 3: from you all that. Yeah, but anyway, those teams have
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  Speaker 3: been good, and so your losses are, if you can
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  Speaker 3: call them, quality losses, right. But the first bye week
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  Speaker 3: that they went through, they went through something totally different,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: changed up a lot of things, and there's a couple
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: of factors there. I think they simplify things defensively to
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  Speaker 3: some extent to where guys are playing faster with thutter
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  Speaker 3: strike points flying around because they were really athletic and
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: just seemingly couldn't get couldn't get it together in that
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  Speaker 3: first stretch of the season. And I think there's some
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: credit that has to go to the coaches for actually
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  Speaker 3: listening to the players and then the players realizing that
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  Speaker 3: they were being listened to then being maybe a little
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  Speaker 3: more coachable, and this team all of a sudden became
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: much more competitive. They now, look, if we're gonna really
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: break down film, just look at the line of scrimmage.
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  Speaker 3: The Gators have been better at the line of scrimmage
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  Speaker 3: both sides the ball since that point. And that's a
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: huge deal because it was not really well earlier in
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: the season. But that's the pivot point if you're looking
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: for it, is that first by week and then you know,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: settling in on who this starting offensive line really would be.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: There was some shuffling at the deck early on, finding
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: the right guys defensively, like a Jack Pieburn who would
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: kind of embody what the personality that defense should be,
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  Speaker 3: and to join a couple other guys like Shamar James
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  Speaker 3: and Pop Poward as far as leaders on that side
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  Speaker 3: of the football. So that's where things started to change.
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  Speaker 3: And then, isn't confidence is a wonderful thing. If you
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  Speaker 3: make a change and things start going well, confidence starts
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  Speaker 3: to steamroll a little bit. And that's why I think
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  Speaker 3: that's where they are now. Allbit shorthanded, but they feel
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  Speaker 3: like they can play with anybody in the country and
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  Speaker 3: they've shown that obviously, even with the way that things
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: turned out last week, and they you know, Georgia one
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: by fourteen, but they get they get a pick in
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  Speaker 3: the res you know, deep and floor in the red
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  Speaker 3: zone and turned that into the score. Now it's a
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: fourteen point game, and so the score is not quite
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  Speaker 3: indicative of how really tight that ballgame was. So we'll see.
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  Speaker 3: The Lagway thing is a big storyline going into the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: We'll see how it plays out.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's where I was going next as we visited
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  Speaker 1: with Sean Kelly, play by play voice of the Florida
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Gators here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the zone.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: It didn't look good obviously when he left the field,
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  Speaker 1: and I know that coach Napier called it significant at
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  Speaker 1: the time, but I also know that Hamstring's given the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: right amount of care and rest and things like that,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: guys can learn to play with them. Have you been
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: able to tell if if there's a feeling that he
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: might be able to go on Saturday.
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  Speaker 3: Well, they haven't ruled him out. I talked to DJ
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  Speaker 3: myself on Monday, you know, he said, yeah, it's scared me,
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  Speaker 3: but I've had a good morning and the MRI came
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: back much better than they thought. That was taken on
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  Speaker 3: Sunday night. Today, practice, which is in about an hour,
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  Speaker 3: will begin the process to really determine whether or not
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: he's he's in the mix. If he can't go, then
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: obviously it's it's Aid and Warner, the walk on that
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: I was telling you about earlier. But we've gone from
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: DJ Langley might be done for the year to maybe
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: maybe he could play at Austin And of course that'd
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: be really big for a Willis kid. The Wildcat wants
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: to come back home and and you know, play in
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: front of a Texas crowd. But if that can't happen
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: this weekend, it could be very likely that he would
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: be able to return when the Gators come back home
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: to play LSU a week from Saturday. So that's where
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: we'll go. I think they'll be smart with this thing.
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  Speaker 3: And as much as you said that hamstrings can you know,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: come in your favor, they can also be kind of
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: funky and you don't want to mess with it too much,
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  Speaker 3: So they'll be smart about this for sure.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned Aiden Warner and I was pretty impressed
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: watching him on Saturday here's a kuy who's a red
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: shirt freshman transferring into the SEC from the IVY League.
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  Speaker 1: And it didn't look like he flinched at all. It
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: was he perfect no, and had some mistakes, but by
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and large, I thought he he accorded himself pretty well
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: to be thrust into that situation.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Nothing's come really naturally for him in some ways. You know,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: here if Winter Park High school kid parents were both
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Gators lawyers, not football people or track and field or
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: anything like that. And he goes to Yale and decides
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: he wants to come back home, and you know, his
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: dream always to be a Gator. So he puts together
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: this workout video Craig and to get that in front
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  Speaker 3: of the Florida coaches.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: They loved it.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: They thought, hey, look perfect, preferred walk on guy. He
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: gets to campus, they do the physical and come to
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: find out he's got a torn ACL. He put together
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: the workout video and did all that with a torn ACL.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: They immediately have surgery and so he misses all of
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: spring and somehow finds a way to get back by
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: the very end of training camp and does well enough
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: to get to the number three spot on the Dutch start.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Really it's amazing. And like you said, he's thrust out
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: there for the first time in the second quarter of
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Florida Georgia, which is basically the equivalent of Texas ou
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: so you know, at quite a stage. And so yeah,
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: the numbers don't look great, but golly, I don't know
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: if I could have handled that myself if I were
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: in issues. And his teammates certainly were talking about it
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: on Monday about he just kind of stuck his neck
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: up and and and leaned forward into the same So
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: good for him.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: You mentioned the offensive line, and you know I and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the changes in the works that went under I was,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I was curious. One guy that really has me curious
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: is Damien George because I called two of the state
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: championship games.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: But he the dude was a home.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Wrecker when he was on the offensive line playing for
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Galena Park North Shore and then of course started at Alabama.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Uh there, and we saw him when Texas played Alabama
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of years back. But how about your thoughts
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: on the offensive line as it's worked overall, Like you said,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: they kind of underwent a little bit of a transformation.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's interesting when he arrived in Gainesville looking like,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: you know, an Amazon warehouse. I'm like, where how did
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: this guy get away? And he was a tackle at
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: the time, and so they worked in the tackle last
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: year and it just never really went well. You know,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Damian would tell you the same thing. I'm not telling
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: you something he wouldn't say himself. In the off season,
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: they decided maybe maybe guard's where you need to be,
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: and then he got a position battle at the guard
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: position and it's worked out, and so he has been
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: a now a steady guy on the right side of
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: the offensive line at guard alongside Senator Jake Slaughter, who's
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: really the anchor that whole group. But Damien's arc is
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: is not too dissimilar to other people that have bounced
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: to the transfer portal. And sometimes sometimes it's a change
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: of scenery, and in this case, it's that and a
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: change in position to move over to guard to where
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: I think he is a more comfortable fit.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: On the defensive side. Shamar James, Jack Pieburn, Grayson Howard.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Is there any one particular player you'd say that's the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: best player on the defense?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Gosh, you named three good ones. Triquaz Bridges, who's now
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: kind of really stepped into the four with regards to
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: leading the team and tackles. In the past two weeks.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: He had to play corner for half the game last time,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: moving over from safety because of all the injuries that
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: started to happen during the game. So he's been very
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: versatile and very good. Tyreek SAP's been improved. The one
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: guy though, and I'm hoping he's gonna be able to
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: play on Saturday, is Aaron Gates. That is a dude,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: that's a football player. He kind of plays what they
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: call the star position at Florida, which is basically the nickel.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: So he's the one I think that also has started
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: to pop a little bit here for the Gators too.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: He wears number thirteen, So those would be the principles
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: that I kind of keep my eye on with regard
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: to the Gators.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, when was the last time you did the game
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: in Austin, like for ESPN Radio.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: Let's see, it would have been the fall before I
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: took the Florida job. It was so Fall of twenty one.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: It was the Santa Claus game. That's what That's what
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: John Madanny, my former producer, everybody.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Everybody around here knows John. Yeah, yeah, Santa Claus game.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Santa Claus came out of the stands and ran the
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: course of the field. We came back from break early
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: enough that I actually called the whole sequence and Santa
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Claus got tackled inside the five guard line trying to
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: go from one goal line to the other.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to remember if that was Case State maybe, or.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Might have been Chase State. It was hot out, I
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: remember that, Yeah, it had I.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Was thinking either k State or Iowa State. But I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: was thinking it couldn't have been Iowa State. That would
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: have been a road game in twenty one. It had
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: to be Kansas State. I think it was Kansas State.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Probably, Yeah, probably the last. That was the last football game.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: I called it Austin, not long ago.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: No, No, it'll be good to see you again. I
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: appreciate you doing this. I know it's it's been a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: hectic week for all of us from basketball. How how's
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Florida basketball going to be?
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Number twenty one right now, gonna be pretty darn good.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: I was really pleased with what I saw during training camp,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: and then they were going to struggle a little bit
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: with South Florida on Monday night. When you guys were
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: out in Vegas against Ohio State and then just blasted
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: and putt ninety eight points on the board and took
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: care of business. They had fifty three in the second half.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: That's kind of what Florida's going to be. They're a
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: pretty good group. I'm really kind of excited to see
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: what happens here in toggle this third season.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. Hey, save travels.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you doing this and I look forward to
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: seeing you in the stadium on Saturday morning, bright and early.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: Graig, Craig, I can't wait. Yeah, we'll have brun We'll
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: have brunch of the Longhorns and the Gators on Saturday.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Breakfast tacos in the press box.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: My man, Oh perfect, perfect.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks Sean, appreciate you, all right, Craig, take care.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: All right, that's Sean Kelly, play by play voice of
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the Florida Gators and all around great dude. You'll be
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: calling it for in the Gator Sports Network. All right,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: coming up, we have today's edition of Inconceivable. When we
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: continue here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in the iHeartRadio app.