Andy & Ari On3 - Florida is a legit PLAYOFF CONTENDER after hanging 52 on Ole Miss

Starting point is 00:00:00 reaction edition of Andy and our R and three presented by Polly Market. And Ari, we talked about the Florida Gators and the B word and the P word. The B word and the B word. I'm not ready to use the B word yet. I am ready to use the P word in conjunction with the C word. Florida is a playoff contender. 52 to 28 against Ole Miss, dominant run. I mean, they ran for 302 yards.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Jaden Baugh, 29 carries for 142 yards. Duke Clark, 12 carries for 1226. Dominant performance by the Gators. Absolutely dominant. So let me give you a fun Jadenbaugh stat, Ari. Jadenbaugh, five consecutive games with over 100 yards. There were only two other Florida players who have ever done that. Would you care to guess who those gentlemen might be?

Starting point is 00:00:52 I'll give you a hint. They both own gold jackets. I'm going to level with you. You kind of broke up for a second. I didn't even hear the question, so just tell us. So the only two players prior to Jaden Baugh at Florida, who had five consecutive 100-yard rushing games, would be Emmett Smith and Fred Taylor.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Oh, okay, yeah. I think I would have gotten that if I heard the question. But yes, you kind of threw me for a loop when we started when you said the C word. I didn't know what you meant, but contention is a cool word. Andy, I'm not going to be, cautious like you. That's another C word. I'm not going to be cautious. They are back

Starting point is 00:01:30 and I'm going to use the P word. They're a playoff team. They're awesome. Am I insane? They're awesome. They might be awesome. Listen, I've been burned before. But yes, there's a very good chance that they are probably awesome. When you can run the ball like that, it travels.

Starting point is 00:01:51 Defensively, there were some moments where Trinidad Chamblis kind of took over for a minute, but they were pretty opportunistic. Like the Jaden Woods strip sack fumble recovery situation, like, was a huge play in this game because that was when Ole Miss kept scoring to get it to three, and Florida would race back down the field and score again to make it 10.

Starting point is 00:02:13 That changed the whole math of the situation. It was like a service break in tennis, basically. It was a huge play in the game, and it was Jaden Woods, an elite recruit, an elite player that Florida retained. Remember, he went to transfer portal. He even visited Texas. But John Summerall went to his house in Missouri and said, hey, please come back. And Jaden Woods came back. Like, that's the kind of player you build around. That's the kind of player who helps you build a playoff team. And that's where they are right now.

Starting point is 00:02:45 That's why they are so good right now is they ID the guys they needed to keep and they kept them all. Yeah. I mean, you've got to beat the charges that you're a, you're too hard on Florida and you've got to start getting on the bandwagon with me, man, because I thought they looked incredible. And the thing that I can't stop thinking about and I don't know what you're writing after this game, there's probably a lot to unpack. You live in the town. You know how people feel and what makes them tick.

Starting point is 00:03:10 But the thing that's not lost on me here is that in the off season, or at the end of last season, Florida was in a position to find a new coach. Who was that coach that they wanted to find? That was Lane Kiff. And then what did Lane Kiffin do? he picked LSU, right? And then they ended up with John Summerall, another G6 coach from the state of Louisiana

Starting point is 00:03:32 that reminded them a Billy Napier. If you thought that, what do you think now, pal? I just like, it's unbelievable because this is an Ole Miss team that beat LSU at home last week. And I'm sure that there is some aspect of this, that Ole Miss was exhausted physically and emotionally after what they went through last week.

Starting point is 00:03:52 We know that that was one of the most toxic, emotional games that, you know, has ever happened in college football, and I, and I give them credit. I don't know if Ole Miss played Florida next weekend without having had to play LSU two weeks ago, if it makes a difference. Like, I think that it's like, to me, watching the game. That's not a letdown loss by Ole Miss. That's a you got your ass-kicks lost by Ole Miss. I don't think Pete Golding's going to, like, Pete Golding will do his press conference here in a few minutes. I guarantee you he's not going to be like, what was a letdown, there was too much of a circus last week. There's no chance that that's, that's.

Starting point is 00:04:24 Absolutely the case. Michael in the chat, you meant Ball, not Woods. Not Woods. Jaden Wins and Jane Ball were both priority return targets, retention targets. Jaden Baughn never entered the portal. Jade Woods actually did enter the portal. So, yeah, no, it's, they were all mattered. All of them mattered.

Starting point is 00:04:42 And can you, Bernal Brown, Brinle Brown, the third got hurt tonight. They bring in Eric Singleton, who's been dealing with an injury, but that's the guy that, you know, he was an Auburn transfer. He was at Georgia Tech before that, We'll Buster Faulkner and Aaron Philo and company, but they have some depth that maybe they didn't have before. I think Duke Clark having a big game and popping off as a prime example of that.

Starting point is 00:05:05 Yeah. Andy, take me through your texts because I know you get a lot of texts from Florida people. Take me through how, how like what's the general temperature? Like I'm assuming it's off the charts. There was a tweet from, uh, from my friend Shannon Snell. So Shannon was an offensive lineman at Florida in the early 2000s from Tampa. He's currently a barbecue pitmaster. I don't know if he's a pitmaster.

Starting point is 00:05:28 He was a barbecue pitmaster. But he tweeted this during the game. And I think it probably explains what a lot of Florida people are feeling right now. He said, this offense makes me want to cry. Not the Napier, I wish I was dead crying, but tears of joy. And I think that's where they're at. They have been waiting for this. Like, what did I say?

Starting point is 00:05:48 Now, he wears a hat. So he doesn't fit all the criteria. But during the coaching search, you and I went to the quarterback club in Gainesville, Ari, and those people all asking who are they going to hire, who are they going to hire? And I said, you know, what does Florida, what do Florida fans always want? What do they actually want? They want to coach you? Where's the visor scores a lot of points and talks shit?

Starting point is 00:06:09 Well, he wears a hat, but he scores a lot of points and he talks a lot of shit. Yeah. No, I mean, it's truly remarkable. And, you know, we did spend some time in the offseason trying to pay. which SEC knew hire first year coach was going to turn into the next thing. And like, I don't know about you, but John Summerall is laughing some of the other guys already. And in Pete Golding, who had a huge win last week. Can't take it away.

Starting point is 00:06:36 You know, that was an incredible, much needed win for Ole Miss. But, you know, I'm like, did Florida back ass their way into their next great coach? because of the whims of someone else? Is that what happened? Yeah. They might have. They might have. Because they really wanted Lane.

Starting point is 00:07:00 But the thing is, what's interesting about Summerall is everybody wanted him. So it should have been fairly telling. Like North Carolina, well, we'll go back in time. So, 2023 at the end of the season, he's still at Troy. He played linebacker in Kentucky. Mark Stoops is talking to Texas A&M about their job. Kentucky was going to hire John Somerall to replace Mark Stoops. Stoops ends up staying.

Starting point is 00:07:25 The following year, North Carolina's AD meets with him. The president meets with him, but they don't know that there's a pair. Well, the president knows, but the AD doesn't know there's a parallel search going for Bill Belichick. He would have gotten hired to North Carolina had there not been a parallel search. Last year, he's down the road with Auburn. He's talking to them. if Ole Miss had been able to run a conventional coast search and not Pete Golding being promoted have been the only course of action, John Somerall probably is at the top of that list.

Starting point is 00:07:55 So you think about how many different schools wanted this guy to be their coach. And I think that's the thing because I can tell you probably that's, well, I can definitely tell you, Scott Strickland, the athletic director of Florida, when he started the search, if you'd have said John Somerall, he just would have said absolutely not can't do it because of the circumstances. And then, but because he's, he's got to do his due diligence, he did talk to John Sumerall. And when they talked to John Sumer, and this is, this is still when they're pursuing Lane. So Lane's still the number one choice at this point. But they talk to John Summer on like, okay, if Lane doesn't come, this is the guy.

Starting point is 00:08:32 This is him. So it took, it took all of that away. And then John Summerall himself helped diffuse it more when they started really seriously talking about the job. Somerall looks at Strickland and goes, y'all sure you can hire a G6 coach from Louisiana? And it's just like, he gets it. He gets what he gets what he's walking into. And I think the fan base was already over all that during the offseason. I think every word out of his mouth, everything he did in terms of hiring assistant coaches like Buster Faulkner,

Starting point is 00:09:05 who by the way, somebody in the chat pointed out, offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner wears a visor. and he's the one dialing up these plays. So Florida may have actually hit on everything they want. They got the visor, they got the points, they got the shit talking. I think they got it all. Yeah, you know, I love this sport because, you know, there are a lot of passionate fan bases and there are a lot of teams that expect to win the national championship or at least be in the playoff.

Starting point is 00:09:28 And there's a lot of teams that are let down every year. And, you know, things go in cycles for most of the programs in the country. Sometimes you're down, sometimes you're up. But, you know, I've been to Gainesville a few times. I've talked about them quite a bit with you. You have your finger on the program in a way that most people don't. And I think it's just awesome to see the swamp light up the way it did today. I think it's awesome that a new team in the SEC is back on the radar.

Starting point is 00:09:51 And, you know, every time we get a personality that can help our sport be more interesting, that's a net positive for everybody who enjoys it. And Andy, John Summerall literally is the character in the making. So, you know, it's September 26th. We aren't in October yet. I don't know how the season's going to map out. Who knows what this is going to look like or how it's going to feel a month from now. What I do know is, it's really awesome to be talking about some new blood.

Starting point is 00:10:16 You know, you and I were a year early last year, but we are back, you know, it feels good. And we'll see, we'll see, you know, how it goes. But, man, that was an impressive win. I mean, that wasn't just like, you know, what this line doesn't make sense. It's three points. It's going to be a slog fest. It's going to be ugly. You know, Ole Miss will, you know, be within a touchdown.

Starting point is 00:10:35 And they might win or they might lose. they kick their ass. And I think that's the most important thing here. Yes. And I do think that we joke about the B word and the P word. I think you can start talking about playoffs with Florida. I think it should be a serious consideration. I know like John Summerall and the players aren't going to talk about it,

Starting point is 00:10:52 but among, you know, just us, us guys here. Like we can talk about this team being capable of maybe making the playoff because look at the schedule. Now they're going to Missouri. Missouri's been a house of horrors for the Florida Gators. of late. But who knows? This is a much better team than what we've seen

Starting point is 00:11:15 than the ones that went up there and got Dan Mullen fired and certainly didn't help Billy Napier's cause. South Carolina, that team's struggling a bit. Texas and Georgia, which there's an open date in between those two, but Ari, you saw Texas against Tennessee today. Like Texas lost to the four and eight version of Florida last year. Now, granted, Florida has to go to Austin this year. But has Texas shown you anything that suggests that they will dominate Florida?

Starting point is 00:11:45 No. Okay. So I think the P-word is very much alive right now. We can say it. I don't think that Florida's going to drop 50 on Texas, but, you know, they can certainly beat them because they're offences in question. So, you know, we have a big time show tonight, man. I'm happy you're there. I'm happy you got to feel it, see it, you know, taste it.

Starting point is 00:12:05 And, you know, we can touch on. on some of that stuff. I'm excited because USC Oregon's about to kick off. A lot has happened today, Andy, and I feel like we're just getting started into the evening. So who knows what tonight's going to bring, but I'm excited. All right.

Starting point is 00:12:19 Guys, we got an instant reaction show. If you didn't watch already, instant reaction show on a crazy finish in the Iowa, Michigan game, which if you were just watching the Gators, you might not have seen it. So go watch that because that one will blow your mind. Ari, I'll talk to you after USC Oregon.

Andy & Ari On3 - Florida is a legit PLAYOFF CONTENDER after hanging 52 on Ole Miss

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