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Previewing the Florida Gators with Sean Kelley · The Craig Way Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: On a yacht rock Wednesday here on Sports Radio AM 1300,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: as I have a feeling that producer Jake Herman is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: bouncing back. with Bill Withers Standard. Lovely day just to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: make me and Sean Kelly feel better about life. Sean,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of course, the outstanding play-by-play voice of the Florida Gators.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: He joins us now. You know, and thank you for
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: doing this. I can't help but be struck by some
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: mirrored similarities of the Gators and the Longhorns. Both got
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: gigantic top 10 ranked home wins. Both had been on
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a roll and then both kind of Hit the wall
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  Speaker 1: one game for the Longhorns, two for the Gators, and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: both have had some injury issues as well. But I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: know you probably have some more context than what I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: just laid out there, but how about your thoughts on
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: your ball club, on the Gators getting to this point
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: after such a great start and then having the back-to-back
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: difficult weeks?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, can you hear me okay, Craig?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, loud and clear, absolutely.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: It's been interesting, and not just parallels between this season,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: but as we get ready for Saturday's game, parallels between
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: when these two teams met a year ago. Interesting, like,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: you know, Texas was top 10 at the time. Florida
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: was unranked. And both teams kind of felt the same
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: way in the sense that I think Texas and Florida
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  Speaker 3: are both in this position. They can beat anybody in
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  Speaker 3: the country. Florida, maybe more so than Texas, can probably
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: lose to any team of the country. And that's kind
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: of where things stand midway through this first year under
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: John Summerall. And, you know, red hot start. And then
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: these last two weeks, just kind of like shock and awe,
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  Speaker 3: but in a bad way for Gators fans.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Because of what they witnessed the first four weeks. Craig,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: it's interesting.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I've been trying to get through some of that Nick
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Saban documentary that's come out from our friends at ESPN.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: And you look at Saban's first year at Alabama, and
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  Speaker 3: there are eerie parallels to what John Summerall's got going on.
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  Speaker 3: At Florida, hot start that year for Alabama, yet they
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: found a way to lose to Louisiana Monroe, right? And
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: then the roller coaster ride kept going, and then they
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  Speaker 3: end up having a winning season, and we know the
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  Speaker 3: rest of the story. I'm not saying that Alabama year
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  Speaker 3: one was the same as Florida, but in watching that documentary,
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  Speaker 3: there are parallels there. And the other thing about the
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  Speaker 3: process here, to use their phrase, is that it's always
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: that tricky first year. Sark had it, what, six, seven
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  Speaker 3: years ago now, to where he's trying to get a
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  Speaker 3: culture in place. And he's inherited a bunch of guys,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: and he's also brought in some new, fresh faces. And
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  Speaker 3: so chemistry-wise, buy-in-wise, all those things seem to be good
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  Speaker 3: for the Gators. And they had to try and learn
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  Speaker 3: a little bit about how to play with success. Now
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  Speaker 3: they're trying to figure out how to play when it's
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  Speaker 3: not so much fun.
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  Speaker 2: And line of.
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  Speaker 3: Scrimmage seems to be a big pivot point with this
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  Speaker 3: ball club. The thing, Craig, that shocked me more than
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  Speaker 3: anything else at Missouri and maybe even a little bit
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  Speaker 3: at home last week was that Florida would take the
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  Speaker 3: fight to their opponent in the first month of the season.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: And they got the fight kind of pushed back on
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: them these last two weeks. And then you combine that
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  Speaker 3: with some bad mistakes at really bad times. And that's
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  Speaker 3: what's led to now a 4-2 record. And go from
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  Speaker 3: the darlings of college football through the first month to now,
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  Speaker 3: you know, are they a fraud? You know, how real
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  Speaker 3: are they? I think you and I both know that
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  Speaker 3: in this conference right now, and this is the fun
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  Speaker 3: part about broadcasting this conference.
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  Speaker 2: Hmm.
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  Speaker 3: If you like to gamble on college football and SEC football,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: you got to have a screw loose.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, come on. That's what we're looking at kind
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  Speaker 2: of like as I look at Saturday's game.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt about it. It's been almost two months to
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  Speaker 1: the day when I had you on when we were
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  Speaker 1: doing a preview, doing SEC previews. And I remember asking
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  Speaker 1: you back then a couple of questions. One, what was
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the vibe like around? with John Summerall there. And you
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  Speaker 1: said it's early days yet, but it was really upbeat
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  Speaker 1: and positive and guys were really excited about it. And
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  Speaker 1: then you said what I think you just referred to.
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  Speaker 1: You said the success or lack of with this football
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  Speaker 1: team is going to be directly proportional to how interior
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  Speaker 1: line plays. play is offensive line defensive line I think
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  Speaker 1: we knew Jaden Ball was going to be really really
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  Speaker 1: good and he clearly is you know and we knew
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  Speaker 1: there would be questions and we'll get to to follow
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  Speaker 1: on the quarterback situation all that in a minute but
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  Speaker 1: yeah but I remember distinctly you talking about especially on
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  Speaker 1: the defensive side, also on the offensive line. But I
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  Speaker 1: remember on the defensive line, you were talking about how
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  Speaker 1: crucial this was going to be. What's been your review
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  Speaker 1: on what you've seen? You made kind of a reference
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  Speaker 1: to it there a moment ago, but overall in the
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  Speaker 1: interior line play.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's start offensively here first. This is kind of
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  Speaker 3: interesting here. First four games, opponents were pressuring Gators offensive
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  Speaker 3: line 22% of snaps. And in four games, he allowed
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: two sacks.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. They seemingly had opened the door for Jaden Ball.
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  Speaker 3: But I think that all of us, if you go
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  Speaker 3: back and you really start to pick apart Jaden Ball's runs,
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  Speaker 3: Ball's the kind of running back that can do well,
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  Speaker 3: even though maybe he's not getting great help up front.
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  Speaker 3: He can mask some things with the way that he runs.
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  Speaker 3: Sure enough, last two games against Missouri and South Carolina,
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  Speaker 3: that pressure, pass-to-pro pressure was up to 32%, and they've
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  Speaker 3: allowed six sacks in the last two games. So the
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  Speaker 3: approach by their opponent has changed, and maybe it's exposed
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: a little bit here on an offensive line that, again,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: like I told you a month ago, had some question marks.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see how that goes.
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  Speaker 3: But, again, they continue to stay healthy, knock on wood,
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  Speaker 3: and– They've shown that they can get the job done,
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  Speaker 3: but they've also put Aaron Filo and Jaden Ball into
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  Speaker 3: a trick box a little bit on having to change
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  Speaker 3: the balance of the Gators' offense. The interior of the
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Gators' defensive line, I think, has been okay. And their
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: edge guys keep getting better, specifically Jaden Woods, who in
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: conference play alone has kind of cranked things up a
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  Speaker 3: little bit.
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  Speaker 2: SEC games this year, six and a half.
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  Speaker 3: Tackles for loss, four sacks, a forced fumble, and three
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  Speaker 3: quarterback hurries. So the freak show that we all thought
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  Speaker 3: and hoped that Jaden Woods would be is starting to
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  Speaker 3: come now over these last, what, three, four conference games.
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  Speaker 3: Then they had this kind of rotating door on the
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  Speaker 3: other side. And our good friend and the guy that
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  Speaker 3: you love, Oye Badajo, has flashed certainly, has moved himself
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  Speaker 3: really into being kind of the starting opposite edge of Woods,
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  Speaker 3: but yet Cam James has flashed.
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  Speaker 2: Cam doesn't play last week, strangely enough.
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  Speaker 3: LJ McCray, who was poised to kind of have that
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  Speaker 3: get-right season, there's something missing there. And I can't get
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: my fingers on the pulse of that. And maybe we'll
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  Speaker 3: know a little bit more here during these next two games.
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  Speaker 2: But they've stopped the run, Craig, with no problem.
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  Speaker 3: Even against the South Carolina team that was leading the
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  Speaker 3: conference in rushing going into last weekend.
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  Speaker 2: But there are the occasional chunk plays.
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  Speaker 3: And this inability right now for the Gators the last
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  Speaker 3: two games to get off the field on key third
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  Speaker 3: downs has been a monster problem for Florida.
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  Speaker 1: Interesting enough. Visiting with Sean Kelly, play-by-play voice of the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Gators here on 13 Under the Sun. I think this
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  Speaker 1: is the first time. Now, this is Texas' third year
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  Speaker 1: in the SEC. So it's their third year of.
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  Speaker 1: Complying with and being a part of the SEC student
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  Speaker 1: athlete availability report. That said, and the reason why I
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  Speaker 1: bring this up is I think this is the first
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  Speaker 1: time that I have ever seen a player listed before
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  Speaker 1: the first student athlete availability report other than season ending injury.
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  Speaker 1: And I read Pete Thamel's take that Aaron Filo's listed
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: as questionable. And the first one's coming out tonight, and
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  Speaker 1: maybe Aaron will be listed as questionable on that. What
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  Speaker 1: do you make of that and what you know about
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  Speaker 1: his shoulder and the situation with Filo?
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  Speaker 3: It's certainly a question mark, obviously, now that it's come
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  Speaker 3: out today that Aaron got banged up last week. And
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  Speaker 3: I think what was mysterious for those that cover the
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  Speaker 3: Gators and now for their fan base.
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  Speaker 2: Is, What happened?
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  Speaker 3: Because he came back in the game after he did
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  Speaker 3: go down hard on a particular play. And then the
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  Speaker 3: game kind of slips away and Tramell Jones comes in
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  Speaker 3: and finishes it up, you know, orchestrating the last offensive drive.
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  Speaker 3: So there was nothing that led you to believe on Monday, hey,
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  Speaker 3: what's up with Aaron Filo? And so now this is
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  Speaker 3: kind of a surprise. with these reports coming out, I'll
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  Speaker 3: meet with coach Summerall tomorrow. I'll probably get a better
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  Speaker 3: picture of it. He, he has been very good as
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: it goes in college football about sharing injury type news.
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  Speaker 3: And so it doesn't surprise me a little bit that
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  Speaker 3: there's been some reports today before, as you said, that
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  Speaker 3: official report comes out tonight. If he can go great
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: for the Gators, you know, obviously continuity there.
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  Speaker 2: What's that shoulder like? Hard to say.
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  Speaker 3: If he doesn't go, if he can't play on Saturday
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  Speaker 3: or they decide they need to be careful with him,
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  Speaker 3: then Tramiel Jones Jr. makes his first career start at DKR.
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  Speaker 3: And are you kidding me? And I think back, Craig,
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  Speaker 3: two years ago, Aiden Warner, a walk-on from the Ivy League,
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  Speaker 3: starts for the Gators at quarterback at Texas.
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  Speaker 2: We know how that went.
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  Speaker 3: And sure enough, what will happen if Aaron Filo doesn't
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  Speaker 3: play on Saturday and Trammell Jones Jr. starts, which, by
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: the way, he's proven he can be kind of 1A
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  Speaker 3: on the depth chart. Then here's Aiden Warner, who's a
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  Speaker 3: play away again from playing against Texas at DKR. So,
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: you know, just when you think, you know, and your
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: game prep's wrapping up, hold on, hold on, make sure
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  Speaker 3: you've got some notes on some other guys because there's,
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  Speaker 3: you know, obviously late developments as we head toward a
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  Speaker 3: very early kick Craig, nice.
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  Speaker 2: Job on that. That's your fault on Saturday.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Need I also mention that at the same time,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: or at least overlapping, the same time as Texas and Florida,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: DJ Lagway will be 100 miles up the road in
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  Speaker 1: Waco leading the Baylor Bears against the TCU Horned Frogs.
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  Speaker 2: Who's had a nice season, right?
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: And injured a little bit early on, but... you know,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Baylor's a nice story out of Waco right now. Uh,
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  Speaker 3: Billy Napier, meanwhile, has got James Madison rolling the roster
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  Speaker 3: he inherits. Um, but there's no, there's nothing going on
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: around the Gators right now that say, boy, how do
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: we let Lagway go?
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Or boy, I don't know. Did we, do we make
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: the right move with regard to Napier?
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  Speaker 3: There's, there's been none of that, but it is an
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: interesting sidebar to use, you know, J school terminology. Um,
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: as to what's going on and the ties that continue
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: to weave this thing.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: In college football where I don't know about you.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: I'm having that hard time of like, do I say
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: where the guy played last year? Do I do it
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: like a pro game where we're doing transaction reports in
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: the middle of games?
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Or what about guys who are on their third school too?
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: I've almost gotten Craig to the place where it's so-and-so
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: plays for the Longhorns.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: And that'll be just fine for today's news.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I have two segments that are set aside in the
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: pregame to go in detail and depth on the starters.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: So I give myself enough time to say, began his
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: collegiate career at James Madison, began his collegiate career at Baylor,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: something like that. I give myself enough time. I don't
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: always get to it, that sort of thing. But it's
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a good point. One more thing I wanted to ask you.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the uh the the old deal about what area do
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you feel needs the biggest step forward this week regardless
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: of whether aaron filo can play and if he's good
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and all that other kind of stuff but what what
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  Speaker 1: other area or what area do you feel needs to
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: take the biggest step this week on the road in
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: austin i think that.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: The gators have got to get their run game thing
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: going again um.
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  Speaker 2: And that not just goes for Saturday. That goes for
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: the rest of the way.
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  Speaker 3: Because of the way Buster Faulkner's offense is built, it
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  Speaker 3: sets so many other things up.
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  Speaker 2: The stat's not relevant now. Well, it is relevant. Or
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: it gives you some, I guess, perspective here.
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  Speaker 3: Aaron Files' first seven touchdown passes this year were six
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: of them were off play action. So the run game
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: was having an effect. Not just monster numbers and explosives,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: but it was setting things up. for a terrific class
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: of wide receivers. The top two guys have been banged up,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: but hoping they'll look more like themselves this week if
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Ronell Brown III can return. And Eric Singleton's again a
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: little bit better with that high ankle sprain that he
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: suffered last month.
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  Speaker 2: So that's one thing.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the other thing too, Craig, is that
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: if you're looking on the defensive side of the football,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: it's been a really leaky secondary. Can they get something
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: against Arch Manning that maybe makes them feel a little
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: bit better? Now, when Texas rolls out their, you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: band of merry wide receivers, probably smiling from ear to
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: ear looking at Florida's defensive pass numbers right now, that'll
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: be an interesting deal. But I'll go back to the
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: third down comment I made earlier. I think Texas will
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: give the Gators some chances to get off the field.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: And if they don't take advantage of that, it's going
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: to be a big problem. If Texas is sputtering a
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: little bit offensively, but yet the Gators allow them to
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: convert a third and long type situation, extend a drive,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: then all you've done is made yourself more vulnerable to
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: the crazy or giving Arch one more chance to beat
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: you with his feet or make that throw that seems
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: like Arch pulls out of his toolbox every once in
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: a while and makes you forget about some of the throws.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: That frustrate you. So, That's a deal.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: And then mentally too, Craig, whether it's Philo or Jones
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: at quarterback or whether the start goes well or not,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Florida has to get mentally to the place where they're
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: not in a, oh, here we go again situation. And
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: they also have not done well playing from behind. And
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: that can happen on the road. So those are some
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: bullet points, I guess, as far as what Florida would
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: need to do to kind of shock Texas and then
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: re-energize their season before the bye and then Georgia so
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: we'll see.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Always great to visit with Sean Kelly play-by-play voice of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Florida Gators I look forward to seeing you in town
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: this week um I look a little less than forward
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: to showing you your broadcast but you've heard it you've
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: heard where you're going to be by now so you
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: know the deal you know that I'm anxious to get
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: your your your perspective uh comparing that with Auburn since
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you've been to Auburn. I haven't, but I've heard.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Stories about Auburn.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: We'll talk more on Saturday and I'll try to have
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: a cheery spirit about it. But, you know, visits to
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: like Matt's El Rancho and Salt Lick, they'll help ease
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: the pain a little bit. And I'll still regard Austin
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: as one of my favorite road stops. And I'll be
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: a good sport, Craig. I appreciate that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Hey, thanks.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: It's great to visit with you. I appreciate you doing this.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you on Saturday. On Friday.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: See you on Friday.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: On Friday, yes. We'll do that.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: And I look forward to getting the rest of the
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: playlist for Yacht Rock Wednesday.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Please do. Update me on Friday. I'll do it.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Sean. See you.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: That's Sean Kelly, play-by-play voice of the Florida Gators. More
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: coming up on Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and the iHeartRadio app.