November 6, 2024 • 16 mins
The voice of the Florida Gators, Sean Kelley, joins the program to preview Saturday's Texas/Florida show. Kelley discusses the uphill battle for Billy Napier this season with injuries and a tough schedule, their close loses to Georgia and Tennessee, and what he expects on Saturday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are getting ready to talk Florida. So you know
the clever man that Cameron Parker is. I see what
you did there, so very nicely done and very nice
as always to visit with the play by play voice
of the Florida Gators Sean Kelly, who the last time
I saw and you correct me if if I'm mistaken
(00:20):
on this.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
We were gathered around.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
A fireplace it wasn't lit because it was after all July,
with our mutual friend West Rhama, the ACC Network. We
had a couple of others around there. I think my
wife was there, your wifles and we were all just
kind of gathered around at the sports media convention thing
and just having a good old time and not keeping
track of the beverage count. Right.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yes, a couple of things here to unpacked, Craig. First
of all, great to talk to you again. Number two
is thanks for the explanation on the rejoin. This is
a broadcast. First, I don't think I've ever had largo
on any broadcast I've been a part of. And yes,
that that think of the summer is what I like
to call a session. We were having a session and
Chris Stewart from Alabama was there and it was.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
A good group. Yes, yes, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Uh. Folks have have have heard Sean over the years,
uh doing a lot of ESPN play by play Bowl
games and college basketball and football, and then of course,
uh the Hornets and most recently the what is this
year four for you on the Gator I'm trying to
remember how many years for you if you now back
(01:33):
back working for one specific school.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah, the year three, year three?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, okay, all right, and time. I understand that I've
been there. I understand that I would say this though,
given everything and I and I do say everything, everything
that the Gators have had to uh undergo during this
(01:58):
college football season, before the season and during the season
up to this point, I'd say they kind of held
their head up pretty well having to deal with it.
What's been the mood and the spirit like around in
gains Will, given the fact that it was a team
that played a really good Georgia team, really really well,
in fact, better obviously than the Longhorns recorded themselves on
(02:19):
their own home field against the Bulldogs, but also lost
the outstanding talent at least during the game Saturday and
DJ Lagway, who I've watched a lot playing in High
School for Willis and just coming off of that, getting
ready to go back on the road and this time
come to Austin. How about the pulse around Gainesville and Gator.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Nation this week?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, it's really been the roller coaster of a season,
but the pulse, you know, other than the Lagua injury,
which we'll get to in a minute, but the way
that the team has comported for itself here over the
last save month has got people thinking a lot differently
about Billy Napier, about where this program's going. And then
there's kind of this what used to be kind of
(03:01):
just like this almost gasped when you would talk about
the Gators schedule has now become a giggle. And and
that's even with talking with people around the country like,
oh man, the Georgia game and DJ going down, well,
oh yeah, well who do you guys have next, and
they're like, we're at Austin, Texas, and they just started
to kind of giggle because every week is this top
(03:22):
five team that the Gators seemingly have to play. So
there is some realization that there's still a long way
to go, you guys over there then home against LSU
own this still to come and Obviously, when the schedule
came out and all the gasping was going on, Florida
State was expected to be something different than they are.
But that's how it'll wrap up. But I think I
(03:43):
think they're pleased finally with the way this thing's going
under Billy Napier. But now it seems like there's this
conversation around how snake fit this team can be at times.
And it's not just Lagway. There are other significant injuries
too right now with the Gators, and and you got
to go on the road and play against you know,
one of the best teams currently in the country, you know,
at their place too, by the way, So that's that's
(04:05):
a long winded answer on the vibe that that's kind
of appealing with the team right now.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, is there also maybe a sense of a shrug
of the shoulders and hey, we'll go right back because
you had to go to you had to go to
Knoxville and took Tennessee in overtime and that's a top
ten team as we know as well before he even
got to the Georgia game in Jacksonville.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, what this, what the team itself has figured out
is that they feel like whether it's a fact or not.
They feel like they can play now with anybody in
the country, and their frustration is, we're not finishing these opportunities,
you know, like you said, overtime at Tennessee against Georgia,
you're twenty twenty with walk on from Yale at quarterback
(04:48):
in the fourth quarter, and you can't finish. Now. Again,
there's reality and there's belief. But that's the way that
the team believes they are right now. And the fan base,
I think is just trying to rally around a group
that that has really shown the fan base that their
play as hard as anybody, and I think that they
(05:08):
take great pride in that Florida's got that kind of
fan base personality that the team is a direct reflection
of everybody who's ever worn orange and blue. So when
that team plays hard, stays out of trouble, you know,
represents the right way they they rally around the team.
So that's kind of the two different perspectives from that standpoint.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Is there any one specific thing you can point to
as to how and why it flipped from say the
one and two start and then you know, and then
you know, trying to gather some momentum going to Startville
and then U see f then Tennessee what changed, if anything,
a significant change to put the team on the track
(05:50):
to where they've become very difficult customers to deal with
with an opponent.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, Correig, I think if you go back to that
first bye week, you know you had the bad start,
it turns out the teams you lost to have proved
to be pretty darn good, even though we don't want
to talk about that one team that's a little aways
from you all that. Yeah, but anyway, those teams have
been good, and so your losses are, if you can
call them, quality losses, right. But the first bye week
(06:17):
that they went through, they went through something totally different,
changed up a lot of things, and there's a couple
of factors there. I think they simplify things defensively to
some extent to where guys are playing faster with thutter
strike points flying around because they were really athletic and
just seemingly couldn't get couldn't get it together in that
(06:38):
first stretch of the season. And I think there's some
credit that has to go to the coaches for actually
listening to the players and then the players realizing that
they were being listened to then being maybe a little
more coachable, and this team all of a sudden became
much more competitive. They now, look, if we're gonna really
break down film, just look at the line of scrimmage.
(07:00):
The Gators have been better at the line of scrimmage
both sides the ball since that point. And that's a
huge deal because it was not really well earlier in
the season. But that's the pivot point if you're looking
for it, is that first by week and then you know,
settling in on who this starting offensive line really would be.
There was some shuffling at the deck early on, finding
the right guys defensively, like a Jack Pieburn who would
(07:23):
kind of embody what the personality that defense should be,
and to join a couple other guys like Shamar James
and Pop Poward as far as leaders on that side
of the football. So that's where things started to change.
And then, isn't confidence is a wonderful thing. If you
make a change and things start going well, confidence starts
to steamroll a little bit. And that's why I think
(07:44):
that's where they are now. Allbit shorthanded, but they feel
like they can play with anybody in the country and
they've shown that obviously, even with the way that things
turned out last week, and they you know, Georgia one
by fourteen, but they get they get a pick in
the res you know, deep and floor in the red
zone and turned that into the score. Now it's a
fourteen point game, and so the score is not quite
(08:04):
indicative of how really tight that ballgame was. So we'll see.
The Lagway thing is a big storyline going into the weekend.
We'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Well, that's where I was going next as we visited
with Sean Kelly, play by play voice of the Florida
Gators here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the zone.
It didn't look good obviously when he left the field,
and I know that coach Napier called it significant at
the time, but I also know that Hamstring's given the
right amount of care and rest and things like that,
(08:33):
guys can learn to play with them. Have you been
able to tell if if there's a feeling that he
might be able to go on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, they haven't ruled him out. I talked to DJ
myself on Monday, you know, he said, yeah, it's scared me,
but I've had a good morning and the MRI came
back much better than they thought. That was taken on
Sunday night. Today, practice, which is in about an hour,
will begin the process to really determine whether or not
(09:02):
he's he's in the mix. If he can't go, then
obviously it's it's Aid and Warner, the walk on that
I was telling you about earlier. But we've gone from
DJ Langley might be done for the year to maybe
maybe he could play at Austin And of course that'd
be really big for a Willis kid. The Wildcat wants
to come back home and and you know, play in
(09:23):
front of a Texas crowd. But if that can't happen
this weekend, it could be very likely that he would
be able to return when the Gators come back home
to play LSU a week from Saturday. So that's where
we'll go. I think they'll be smart with this thing.
And as much as you said that hamstrings can you know,
come in your favor, they can also be kind of
funky and you don't want to mess with it too much,
(09:44):
So they'll be smart about this for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, you mentioned Aiden Warner and I was pretty impressed
watching him on Saturday here's a kuy who's a red
shirt freshman transferring into the SEC from the IVY League.
And it didn't look like he flinched at all. It
was he perfect no, and had some mistakes, but by
and large, I thought he he accorded himself pretty well
to be thrust into that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Nothing's come really naturally for him in some ways. You know,
here if Winter Park High school kid parents were both
Gators lawyers, not football people or track and field or
anything like that. And he goes to Yale and decides
he wants to come back home, and you know, his
dream always to be a Gator. So he puts together
this workout video Craig and to get that in front
(10:30):
of the Florida coaches.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
They loved it.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
They thought, hey, look perfect, preferred walk on guy. He
gets to campus, they do the physical and come to
find out he's got a torn ACL. He put together
the workout video and did all that with a torn ACL.
They immediately have surgery and so he misses all of
spring and somehow finds a way to get back by
the very end of training camp and does well enough
(10:54):
to get to the number three spot on the Dutch start.
Really it's amazing. And like you said, he's thrust out
there for the first time in the second quarter of
Florida Georgia, which is basically the equivalent of Texas ou
so you know, at quite a stage. And so yeah,
the numbers don't look great, but golly, I don't know
(11:14):
if I could have handled that myself if I were
in issues. And his teammates certainly were talking about it
on Monday about he just kind of stuck his neck
up and and and leaned forward into the same So
good for him.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
You mentioned the offensive line, and you know I and
the changes in the works that went under I was,
I was curious. One guy that really has me curious
is Damien George because I called two of the state
championship games.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But he the dude was a home.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Wrecker when he was on the offensive line playing for
Galena Park North Shore and then of course started at Alabama.
Uh there, and we saw him when Texas played Alabama
a couple of years back. But how about your thoughts
on the offensive line as it's worked overall, Like you said,
they kind of underwent a little bit of a transformation.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, no, it's interesting when he arrived in Gainesville looking like,
you know, an Amazon warehouse. I'm like, where how did
this guy get away? And he was a tackle at
the time, and so they worked in the tackle last
year and it just never really went well. You know,
Damian would tell you the same thing. I'm not telling
you something he wouldn't say himself. In the off season,
(12:21):
they decided maybe maybe guard's where you need to be,
and then he got a position battle at the guard
position and it's worked out, and so he has been
a now a steady guy on the right side of
the offensive line at guard alongside Senator Jake Slaughter, who's
really the anchor that whole group. But Damien's arc is
is not too dissimilar to other people that have bounced
(12:44):
to the transfer portal. And sometimes sometimes it's a change
of scenery, and in this case, it's that and a
change in position to move over to guard to where
I think he is a more comfortable fit.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
On the defensive side. Shamar James, Jack Pieburn, Grayson Howard.
Is there any one particular player you'd say that's the
best player on the defense?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Gosh, you named three good ones. Triquaz Bridges, who's now
kind of really stepped into the four with regards to
leading the team and tackles. In the past two weeks.
He had to play corner for half the game last time,
moving over from safety because of all the injuries that
started to happen during the game. So he's been very
versatile and very good. Tyreek SAP's been improved. The one
(13:28):
guy though, and I'm hoping he's gonna be able to
play on Saturday, is Aaron Gates. That is a dude,
that's a football player. He kind of plays what they
call the star position at Florida, which is basically the nickel.
So he's the one I think that also has started
to pop a little bit here for the Gators too.
He wears number thirteen, So those would be the principles
(13:48):
that I kind of keep my eye on with regard
to the Gators.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Okay, when was the last time you did the game
in Austin, like for ESPN Radio.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Let's see, it would have been the fall before I
took the Florida job. It was so Fall of twenty one.
It was the Santa Claus game. That's what That's what
John Madanny, my former producer, everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Everybody around here knows John. Yeah, yeah, Santa Claus game.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Santa Claus came out of the stands and ran the
course of the field. We came back from break early
enough that I actually called the whole sequence and Santa
Claus got tackled inside the five guard line trying to
go from one goal line to the other.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I'm trying to remember if that was Case State maybe, or.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Might have been Chase State. It was hot out, I
remember that, Yeah, it had I.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Was thinking either k State or Iowa State. But I
was thinking it couldn't have been Iowa State. That would
have been a road game in twenty one. It had
to be Kansas State. I think it was Kansas State.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Probably, Yeah, probably the last. That was the last football game.
I called it Austin, not long ago.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
No, No, it'll be good to see you again. I
appreciate you doing this. I know it's it's been a
hectic week for all of us from basketball. How how's
Florida basketball going to be?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Number twenty one right now, gonna be pretty darn good.
I was really pleased with what I saw during training camp,
and then they were going to struggle a little bit
with South Florida on Monday night. When you guys were
out in Vegas against Ohio State and then just blasted
and putt ninety eight points on the board and took
care of business. They had fifty three in the second half.
That's kind of what Florida's going to be. They're a
(15:25):
pretty good group. I'm really kind of excited to see
what happens here in toggle this third season.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. Hey, save travels.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I appreciate you doing this and I look forward to
seeing you in the stadium on Saturday morning, bright and early.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Graig, Craig, I can't wait. Yeah, we'll have brun We'll
have brunch of the Longhorns and the Gators on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Breakfast tacos in the press box.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
My man, Oh perfect, perfect.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Thanks Sean, appreciate you, all right, Craig, take care.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
All right, that's Sean Kelly, play by play voice of
the Florida Gators and all around great dude. You'll be
calling it for in the Gator Sports Network. All right,
coming up, we have today's edition of Inconceivable. When we
continue here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
in the iHeartRadio app.
We are getting ready to talk Florida. So you know
the clever man that Cameron Parker is. I see what
you did there, so very nicely done and very nice
as always to visit with the play by play voice
of the Florida Gators Sean Kelly, who the last time
I saw and you correct me if if I'm mistaken
(00:20):
on this.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
We were gathered around.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
A fireplace it wasn't lit because it was after all July,
with our mutual friend West Rhama, the ACC Network. We
had a couple of others around there. I think my
wife was there, your wifles and we were all just
kind of gathered around at the sports media convention thing
and just having a good old time and not keeping
track of the beverage count. Right.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yes, a couple of things here to unpacked, Craig. First
of all, great to talk to you again. Number two
is thanks for the explanation on the rejoin. This is
a broadcast. First, I don't think I've ever had largo
on any broadcast I've been a part of. And yes,
that that think of the summer is what I like
to call a session. We were having a session and
Chris Stewart from Alabama was there and it was.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
A good group. Yes, yes, it was.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Uh. Folks have have have heard Sean over the years,
uh doing a lot of ESPN play by play Bowl
games and college basketball and football, and then of course,
uh the Hornets and most recently the what is this
year four for you on the Gator I'm trying to
remember how many years for you if you now back
(01:33):
back working for one specific school.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah, the year three, year three?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, okay, all right, and time. I understand that I've
been there. I understand that I would say this though,
given everything and I and I do say everything, everything
that the Gators have had to uh undergo during this
(01:58):
college football season, before the season and during the season
up to this point, I'd say they kind of held
their head up pretty well having to deal with it.
What's been the mood and the spirit like around in
gains Will, given the fact that it was a team
that played a really good Georgia team, really really well,
in fact, better obviously than the Longhorns recorded themselves on
(02:19):
their own home field against the Bulldogs, but also lost
the outstanding talent at least during the game Saturday and
DJ Lagway, who I've watched a lot playing in High
School for Willis and just coming off of that, getting
ready to go back on the road and this time
come to Austin. How about the pulse around Gainesville and Gator.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Nation this week?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, it's really been the roller coaster of a season,
but the pulse, you know, other than the Lagua injury,
which we'll get to in a minute, but the way
that the team has comported for itself here over the
last save month has got people thinking a lot differently
about Billy Napier, about where this program's going. And then
there's kind of this what used to be kind of
(03:01):
just like this almost gasped when you would talk about
the Gators schedule has now become a giggle. And and
that's even with talking with people around the country like,
oh man, the Georgia game and DJ going down, well,
oh yeah, well who do you guys have next, and
they're like, we're at Austin, Texas, and they just started
to kind of giggle because every week is this top
(03:22):
five team that the Gators seemingly have to play. So
there is some realization that there's still a long way
to go, you guys over there then home against LSU
own this still to come and Obviously, when the schedule
came out and all the gasping was going on, Florida
State was expected to be something different than they are.
But that's how it'll wrap up. But I think I
(03:43):
think they're pleased finally with the way this thing's going
under Billy Napier. But now it seems like there's this
conversation around how snake fit this team can be at times.
And it's not just Lagway. There are other significant injuries
too right now with the Gators, and and you got
to go on the road and play against you know,
one of the best teams currently in the country, you know,
at their place too, by the way, So that's that's
(04:05):
a long winded answer on the vibe that that's kind
of appealing with the team right now.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Well, is there also maybe a sense of a shrug
of the shoulders and hey, we'll go right back because
you had to go to you had to go to
Knoxville and took Tennessee in overtime and that's a top
ten team as we know as well before he even
got to the Georgia game in Jacksonville.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, what this, what the team itself has figured out
is that they feel like whether it's a fact or not.
They feel like they can play now with anybody in
the country, and their frustration is, we're not finishing these opportunities,
you know, like you said, overtime at Tennessee against Georgia,
you're twenty twenty with walk on from Yale at quarterback
(04:48):
in the fourth quarter, and you can't finish. Now. Again,
there's reality and there's belief. But that's the way that
the team believes they are right now. And the fan base,
I think is just trying to rally around a group
that that has really shown the fan base that their
play as hard as anybody, and I think that they
(05:08):
take great pride in that Florida's got that kind of
fan base personality that the team is a direct reflection
of everybody who's ever worn orange and blue. So when
that team plays hard, stays out of trouble, you know,
represents the right way they they rally around the team.
So that's kind of the two different perspectives from that standpoint.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Is there any one specific thing you can point to
as to how and why it flipped from say the
one and two start and then you know, and then
you know, trying to gather some momentum going to Startville
and then U see f then Tennessee what changed, if anything,
a significant change to put the team on the track
(05:50):
to where they've become very difficult customers to deal with
with an opponent.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, Correig, I think if you go back to that
first bye week, you know you had the bad start,
it turns out the teams you lost to have proved
to be pretty darn good, even though we don't want
to talk about that one team that's a little aways
from you all that. Yeah, but anyway, those teams have
been good, and so your losses are, if you can
call them, quality losses, right. But the first bye week
(06:17):
that they went through, they went through something totally different,
changed up a lot of things, and there's a couple
of factors there. I think they simplify things defensively to
some extent to where guys are playing faster with thutter
strike points flying around because they were really athletic and
just seemingly couldn't get couldn't get it together in that
(06:38):
first stretch of the season. And I think there's some
credit that has to go to the coaches for actually
listening to the players and then the players realizing that
they were being listened to then being maybe a little
more coachable, and this team all of a sudden became
much more competitive. They now, look, if we're gonna really
break down film, just look at the line of scrimmage.
(07:00):
The Gators have been better at the line of scrimmage
both sides the ball since that point. And that's a
huge deal because it was not really well earlier in
the season. But that's the pivot point if you're looking
for it, is that first by week and then you know,
settling in on who this starting offensive line really would be.
There was some shuffling at the deck early on, finding
the right guys defensively, like a Jack Pieburn who would
(07:23):
kind of embody what the personality that defense should be,
and to join a couple other guys like Shamar James
and Pop Poward as far as leaders on that side
of the football. So that's where things started to change.
And then, isn't confidence is a wonderful thing. If you
make a change and things start going well, confidence starts
to steamroll a little bit. And that's why I think
(07:44):
that's where they are now. Allbit shorthanded, but they feel
like they can play with anybody in the country and
they've shown that obviously, even with the way that things
turned out last week, and they you know, Georgia one
by fourteen, but they get they get a pick in
the res you know, deep and floor in the red
zone and turned that into the score. Now it's a
fourteen point game, and so the score is not quite
(08:04):
indicative of how really tight that ballgame was. So we'll see.
The Lagway thing is a big storyline going into the weekend.
We'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Well, that's where I was going next as we visited
with Sean Kelly, play by play voice of the Florida
Gators here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred the zone.
It didn't look good obviously when he left the field,
and I know that coach Napier called it significant at
the time, but I also know that Hamstring's given the
right amount of care and rest and things like that,
(08:33):
guys can learn to play with them. Have you been
able to tell if if there's a feeling that he
might be able to go on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, they haven't ruled him out. I talked to DJ
myself on Monday, you know, he said, yeah, it's scared me,
but I've had a good morning and the MRI came
back much better than they thought. That was taken on
Sunday night. Today, practice, which is in about an hour,
will begin the process to really determine whether or not
(09:02):
he's he's in the mix. If he can't go, then
obviously it's it's Aid and Warner, the walk on that
I was telling you about earlier. But we've gone from
DJ Langley might be done for the year to maybe
maybe he could play at Austin And of course that'd
be really big for a Willis kid. The Wildcat wants
to come back home and and you know, play in
(09:23):
front of a Texas crowd. But if that can't happen
this weekend, it could be very likely that he would
be able to return when the Gators come back home
to play LSU a week from Saturday. So that's where
we'll go. I think they'll be smart with this thing.
And as much as you said that hamstrings can you know,
come in your favor, they can also be kind of
funky and you don't want to mess with it too much,
(09:44):
So they'll be smart about this for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, you mentioned Aiden Warner and I was pretty impressed
watching him on Saturday here's a kuy who's a red
shirt freshman transferring into the SEC from the IVY League.
And it didn't look like he flinched at all. It
was he perfect no, and had some mistakes, but by
and large, I thought he he accorded himself pretty well
to be thrust into that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Nothing's come really naturally for him in some ways. You know,
here if Winter Park High school kid parents were both
Gators lawyers, not football people or track and field or
anything like that. And he goes to Yale and decides
he wants to come back home, and you know, his
dream always to be a Gator. So he puts together
this workout video Craig and to get that in front
(10:30):
of the Florida coaches.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
They loved it.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
They thought, hey, look perfect, preferred walk on guy. He
gets to campus, they do the physical and come to
find out he's got a torn ACL. He put together
the workout video and did all that with a torn ACL.
They immediately have surgery and so he misses all of
spring and somehow finds a way to get back by
the very end of training camp and does well enough
(10:54):
to get to the number three spot on the Dutch start.
Really it's amazing. And like you said, he's thrust out
there for the first time in the second quarter of
Florida Georgia, which is basically the equivalent of Texas ou
so you know, at quite a stage. And so yeah,
the numbers don't look great, but golly, I don't know
(11:14):
if I could have handled that myself if I were
in issues. And his teammates certainly were talking about it
on Monday about he just kind of stuck his neck
up and and and leaned forward into the same So
good for him.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
You mentioned the offensive line, and you know I and
the changes in the works that went under I was,
I was curious. One guy that really has me curious
is Damien George because I called two of the state
championship games.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
But he the dude was a home.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Wrecker when he was on the offensive line playing for
Galena Park North Shore and then of course started at Alabama.
Uh there, and we saw him when Texas played Alabama
a couple of years back. But how about your thoughts
on the offensive line as it's worked overall, Like you said,
they kind of underwent a little bit of a transformation.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah, no, it's interesting when he arrived in Gainesville looking like,
you know, an Amazon warehouse. I'm like, where how did
this guy get away? And he was a tackle at
the time, and so they worked in the tackle last
year and it just never really went well. You know,
Damian would tell you the same thing. I'm not telling
you something he wouldn't say himself. In the off season,
(12:21):
they decided maybe maybe guard's where you need to be,
and then he got a position battle at the guard
position and it's worked out, and so he has been
a now a steady guy on the right side of
the offensive line at guard alongside Senator Jake Slaughter, who's
really the anchor that whole group. But Damien's arc is
is not too dissimilar to other people that have bounced
(12:44):
to the transfer portal. And sometimes sometimes it's a change
of scenery, and in this case, it's that and a
change in position to move over to guard to where
I think he is a more comfortable fit.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
On the defensive side. Shamar James, Jack Pieburn, Grayson Howard.
Is there any one particular player you'd say that's the
best player on the defense?
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Gosh, you named three good ones. Triquaz Bridges, who's now
kind of really stepped into the four with regards to
leading the team and tackles. In the past two weeks.
He had to play corner for half the game last time,
moving over from safety because of all the injuries that
started to happen during the game. So he's been very
versatile and very good. Tyreek SAP's been improved. The one
(13:28):
guy though, and I'm hoping he's gonna be able to
play on Saturday, is Aaron Gates. That is a dude,
that's a football player. He kind of plays what they
call the star position at Florida, which is basically the nickel.
So he's the one I think that also has started
to pop a little bit here for the Gators too.
He wears number thirteen, So those would be the principles
(13:48):
that I kind of keep my eye on with regard
to the Gators.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Okay, when was the last time you did the game
in Austin, like for ESPN Radio.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Let's see, it would have been the fall before I
took the Florida job. It was so Fall of twenty one.
It was the Santa Claus game. That's what That's what
John Madanny, my former producer, everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Everybody around here knows John. Yeah, yeah, Santa Claus game.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Santa Claus came out of the stands and ran the
course of the field. We came back from break early
enough that I actually called the whole sequence and Santa
Claus got tackled inside the five guard line trying to
go from one goal line to the other.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I'm trying to remember if that was Case State maybe, or.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Might have been Chase State. It was hot out, I
remember that, Yeah, it had I.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Was thinking either k State or Iowa State. But I
was thinking it couldn't have been Iowa State. That would
have been a road game in twenty one. It had
to be Kansas State. I think it was Kansas State.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Probably, Yeah, probably the last. That was the last football game.
I called it Austin, not long ago.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
No, No, it'll be good to see you again. I
appreciate you doing this. I know it's it's been a
hectic week for all of us from basketball. How how's
Florida basketball going to be?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Number twenty one right now, gonna be pretty darn good.
I was really pleased with what I saw during training camp,
and then they were going to struggle a little bit
with South Florida on Monday night. When you guys were
out in Vegas against Ohio State and then just blasted
and putt ninety eight points on the board and took
care of business. They had fifty three in the second half.
That's kind of what Florida's going to be. They're a
(15:25):
pretty good group. I'm really kind of excited to see
what happens here in toggle this third season.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. Hey, save travels.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I appreciate you doing this and I look forward to
seeing you in the stadium on Saturday morning, bright and early.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Graig, Craig, I can't wait. Yeah, we'll have brun We'll
have brunch of the Longhorns and the Gators on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Breakfast tacos in the press box.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
My man, Oh perfect, perfect.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Thanks Sean, appreciate you, all right, Craig, take care.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
All right, that's Sean Kelly, play by play voice of
the Florida Gators and all around great dude. You'll be
calling it for in the Gator Sports Network. All right,
coming up, we have today's edition of Inconceivable. When we
continue here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
in the iHeartRadio app.
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