Speaker 1: The Florida Football Insiders podcast is brought to you by
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Speaker 2: A look at college football news, analysis and insight from
around the Sunshine Stage. This is Florida Football Insiders, a
part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast Podcast Network
and here's your host, Jason Cowers.
Speaker 1: Well, welcome in Florida Football Insiders podcast. I appreciate you
finding us. I'm your host, Jason down in Tampa. We
are part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast Podcast Network.
You can find a bunch of great different podcasts from
all over the country as part of the feed, so
definitely check that out. But again, appreciate you finding us.
If you have not already done so, hit that subscribe,
rate and review button on your podcast platform. You can
also find our video interviews on my YouTube channel at
the Jason Power Sports channel on YouTube on this episode,
in all of our archived episodes the last couple of weeks.
You can also check out my Powers on Sports podcasts
as well, and you can find those video interviews on
the Jason Powers YouTube channel as well. All right, so
the theme of this podcast, obviously if you're just finding
us for the first time, we are talking all things
college and a little bit of pro football here in
the state of Florida, USF, Florida FSU, UCF, fiu FAU
and Miami. So talking all things state of Florida. You
can talk a little Bucks, Jags and Dolphins as we
get through the podcast. Got a great episode for you.
Got JP Peterson, host of The JP Peterson Show. He'll
be joining us to really talk about Florida, Florida State, USF,
and Miami. Lots of stuff going on. Obviously, the Seminoles
have been the biggest disappointment in the country, losing their
first two. We'll talk about that in depth. What is
in store for Billy Napier in company? Who do they
start at quarterback? USF and Miami seems to be the
cream of the crop in the state so far. So
before we get to JP Peterson, let's just do a
quick little recap of the scores from last week. USF
loses at Alabama. They fall to one in one. They're
gonna see Southern miss out on the road. Be careful here,
this is a potential sandwich game. You got the University
of Miami come into town to Raymond James Stadium next
Saturday night on the twenty first, So be careful here
if you're South Florida played really hard against Alabama, probably
got beat up a little bit in that game physically.
Do not slip up here because USF is JP and
I are going to talk about. There is an opportunity,
a big opportunity here for USF if they can get
through this week and then with a huge game next
week against Miami. So USF one in one heading to
Southern Miss Saturday, Florida Gators. They beat Samford, they get
to one and one. They're gonna host Texas A and
M this week again, another big game for Billy Napier.
What does Florida do at quarterback? Is it mert? Is
it DJ? Lagway? Lagway started last week against Sanford, played
really well. Is he ready for an SEC type opponent
in A and M. We will see and again JP
and I will talk about that. So that interesting storyline
there up in Gainesville, Florida State coming off of bye week,
oh to two lose two conference games again, huge question marks.
What's what the heck's going on up there? Leadership? Do
you make lineup changes, personnel changes, motive? What's the motivation now?
At oh and two Memphis, Mike Norvell's former team coming
to dope Campbell on Saturday. Can Florida State get a
win much less stay in any kind of acc contention here? Again,
some you will hear lots of drama up in Tallahassee
going on. Can the Seminoles rebound? UCF two and oh
they beat Sam Houston State Over the weekend, they have
their first road Big twelve game at TCU Saturday night.
Be a tricky place to play again, a game they
can win, but a game they can also lose. So
we'll see if u CF and and kJ Jefferson can
go on the road and get a big start. Their
Big twelve season off to a good start. So they're
two and oh and again critical time here. If you
are Gus Malazon and the UCF Knights, you see excuse me,
f au fau and two. They lose to Army at
home last weekend. They will play their in state rival,
their South Florida rival, the f IU Panthers. They'll be
hosting them on Saturday down in Boca ratone again. Tom
Herban and company getting off to an OH to two start.
We will see again can they bounce back and again
on the on the board again. This is kind of
a recruiting game for those two schools, very similar in talent,
very similar in uh obviously location right down the road
from each other. We'll see a little South Florida battle
here on Saturday with f IU and FAU go out
at FIU, gets to one in one. They manhandled Central
Michigan fifty two sixteen in the debut of the Pitt
Bull Stadium. You know you saw if you saw on
social media. Pitt Bull, the music entertainer has sponsored that stadium.
His name's on the stadium, so it's Pitt Bull Stadium
there at FIU, So good for him for investing in
the community down there. But f IU Dan Mike McIntyre
gets off, gets to one and one again. He and
Tom Herman are gonna go at it with him. They
have an FAU on Saturday in the Miami Hurricanes. They
beat Florida A and M. Over the weekend they will
face ball stayed at home again another their first big test. Obviously,
they went to Gainesville two weeks ago and man handled Florida.
They will come to Raymond James Stadium next Saturday night
ESPN to see a very dangerous South Florida team and
we will see if they can handle the accolades that
they are getting national and lots of people think this
is a playoff team, ACC championship team, So we will
see how they handle the pressure moving the next couple
of weeks at South Florida home to Virginia Tech in
the next two weeks after this Ball State game. So again,
you can get off to a fantastic start in September.
If you can beat South Florida in Miami and Virginia Tech,
your path to the a SEC title game will be very,
very strong if you can get through those two games.
But we've known Mario Cristal Ball over the years has
had some stumbles. But can cam Ward. I think cam
Ward's a difference maker here and will not allow this
Miami Hurricane team to stumble. South Florida is gonna give
them a game. Remember I said that we will preview
that game next week strongly. But again you'll hear j
Peterson talk about what he thinks of that game. But again,
very tricky game next week, but again, if they get
through those two games, look out for the Hurricanes. So
there's your recap again. All the state teams are playing
this week. Again, can Florida State get off the snide
and get a little bit of positive vibes back in
that program after a disastrous first three weeks of the season.
We will see again.
Speaker 3: J P.
Speaker 1: Peterson coming up here in just a minute. Hosts of
The J. P. Peterson Show want to give a shout
out again. We're commemorating nine to eleven, twenty third anniversary,
you know, hopefully again. I know most people listening probably
don't know anybody personally that was involved up there, but again,
this was a national where were you on this day
moment in our lives? And I was in Birmingham, Alabama
at the time, working at the University UAB up there.
I actually had worked late the night before, so I
slept in that day, so when I woke up, all
the activity and all everything had already happened. So I
you know, obviously I followed it on you once you
wake up, your phone's blown up, but you know I
was not awake when it was actually going on live.
So again just a terrible situation. Have your thoughts out
for those families that are still going through all that,
and all the families of the first or sponders who
are If you've read articles, there are thousands of first
responders and people that were in and around all of
that that are having health issues do to all that
stuff that happened. So keep those people in your thoughts
in mind here as we celebrate the anniversary number twenty
three of nine to eleven. So there you have it again,
appreciate you find us. We're also going to talk a
little bucks get off to a great start one to
oho Jaguars and Dolphins playing. Jaguars give one away in Miami,
Miami with a with a late field goal Sanders at
the gun after at TN fumbles on the one yard line.
Would have been twenty four to seven Jacksonville. Late third quarter,
Miami turns out around with an eighty r touchdown pass
to Tyreek Hill to turn that game completely around and
give Miami credit. They come back from a game they
probably should have lost and were able to get out
of that game alive. They play Thursday night at home
against Buffalo on a Big AFC East Clash on Amazon
and so we'll see there have some injury issues at
running back between Mosterre and a Chain, We're not sure
their status. Moster's out, We're not sure about a Chain.
Keep an eye on Jalen Right, running back rookie out
of Tennessee from Miami as as potentially a lead running
back there. He had a really good preseason. They really
like him down there. A ton of speed comes out
of that Tennessee program. So keep an eye on Jalen Right.
And also the last thing we'll mentioned before we get
to JP's that is the Tyreek Hill situation. Obviously, you know,
we all saw the body cam footage of Tyreek getting stopped,
uh not cooperating. Again, there's blame on both sides here.
The police most definitely overreacted, but also Tyreek Hill did
very little to help the situation by not rolling the
window down, being being kind of a smart ass to
the cops, being a defense you know, not cooperating. You
know these remember guys, police officers are in a terrible
situation every time they nick of trafficks. Now they never
know if somebody in the car has a weapon, whatever.
And when you can't oblige to the most basic of
commands of roll your window down. You're gonna piss cops off.
You're gonna make them irritated and trigger them a little
bit more than needs to be roll your window down,
keep it down. Tyreek Hill made the comment about, oh,
just write me a ticket. Well, they can't write you
a ticket if you don't roll your window down. If
Tyreek would have just cooperated on that front, I don't
think any of the other stuff would have happened. So
there is some fault on Tyreek's side of things. Obviously
no excuse for what the cops did of being a
little too aggressive there, pinning them to the ground, dragging
them out of the car and all that. Have some awareness.
If you're the police down there, you're a block from
the stadium, you gotta know it's a Miami Dolphin player
probably that you're pulling over like that. If you don't
know Tyreek Hill is and you work in Miami Dolphins games,
take a glance at the roster. Know Tyreek Hill is.
This guy's the best player on that team. Arguably, so
blame on both sides, but again, cooperate with simple commands.
The police officers was not asking anything out of line
of him, you know, roll your window down, keep it
rolled down, give me your license and insurance. Even if
the guy just wrote him a ticket and moved on,
it would have been over. But it doesn't need to
escalate like that. Follow some basic commands of the police,
and I think you'll see that they want that. That
situation would not have escalated without tyreek Hill kind of
being a jerk. And he did come out publicly and
say he could have handled that situation better later in
the week here, but again, no excuse for what the
cops did. Should he be fired not fired, that's debatable.
That'll be something that'll get worked out. But again, we
need to have more less division, more unity, more cooperation
when when possible. I know not every situation is the
same and I get it, but be cooperative when it's
when it's easy to be cooperative. I think that will
diffuse a lot of situations and things like this will
be much minimal, minimized, much more than they are. So
all right, find me on ex and Twitter at JPO Sports.
Love to hear your comments. Again, Subscribe, rate and review.
You're gonna enjoy our conversation with JP Peterson, host of
the JP Peterson Shows, a longtime Florida media member, worked
in Tallahassee for a long times, worked in Tampa for
a long time, so you will enjoy our chat discussing
the college football and the NFL teams here in the
state of Florida. So we'll be right back. JP Peterson
coming up Florida Football Insiders Podcast. Are you looking for
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Florida Football. Inside of this podcast, we are now going
to talk Florida State, Florida, USF and a little Miami
and no better person to talk all these programs, ups
and downs, disappointments, meltdowns and everything in between. JP Peterson,
host of The JP Peterson Show Monday through Friday ten
to twelve a twelve noon Eastern Time on the fans
Stream Sports app. In all these social media spots, you
can find JP at JP Peterson Show, on x and Twitter.
Speaker 3: Welcome back, sir, What's up Jason? How you doing buddy?
You know, I was chatting with an old colleague today
and we were talking about how long we've been covering
college football, and for me, it started as a intern
in nineteen eighty five. Nineteen eighty five WTXLTV Tallahassee.
Speaker 1: Is that Danny McManus.
Speaker 3: Danny McManus, MacManus, by the way, my backup at South
Broward High School only because he was a sophomore and
I was a senior.
Speaker 1: Was he really wow? Here I go?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, so yeah, that's how long? For so forty
years I've been covering college football in the state of Florid. Dad, Dad,
gummy boy, that is a lot of football.
Speaker 1: You do a hell of it. You do a hell
of a job doing all.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: First, you want to get to you went to you
were old. You know, you know you look good man.
I've seen the pictures of you posing at the pool
and all that.
Speaker 3: Right, man, you know, I got I gotta I got
a young wife that keeps me and keeps me young. Brother,
you got to keep up. You gotta keep up. Yes,
I went to Ireland. It's Ireland, and uh had plenty
of guinness and not a very good football game, but
it was. Uh, it was a hell of an atmosphere.
I'm glad I did it. It's you know, it's history. Yeah,
in terms of you know, the global game. I believe
that's the first time any Florida team has played internationally
as far as I can recall. Uh, it was an
incredible scene. This stadium was really cool. And the walk
from college game Day, which was down at Trinity College,
was about twenty five thirty minutes through Dublin City on
a beautiful fall day. You know, it's it's temperate in
the sixties, and there's like little beautiful pubs all the way.
It's like doing a pub crawl from college game day
to the stadium, and you know, you walk into these
gorgeous pubs and there's FSU people everywhere, Georgia tech people everywhere.
The Irish people are just the most hospitable people in
the world. It's such an amazing city through the architecture
and the people and the pubs and the traditional music.
And it was a special time, no question about it,
just in terms of the atmosphere, you know. To me,
college football is all about atmosphere, you know, and the traditions.
If we're going to keep anything, Lord, let's just keep
that as far as college football goes. And I thought
it was really really cool. And next year I think
it's Iowa State and Kansas State. Our good friend Scott
Reynolds will be going over there and taking it in,
and Rock Obec and the back family will be taking
it all in. So highly recommended if you get a
chance to do that.
Speaker 1: And probably the cool thing is the soccer stays on
what probably fifty thousands, so it's very into it. It's
very tight. That probably makes.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, that seminole side was chopping their
ass off, and you know it was it felt like
a home game. And there was points in the game
in the fourth quarter where I think their tech was
like third and seven after FSU had gone to long
drive the two fourth downs to tie it up, and
you're like, the chop is chopping. They get they get
a penalty right right now because of the chop and
it's third and twelve now, and what do we do?
Give up another third and long They go down drive
six minutes and score them winning. It's like, if there
was ever a moment for these young lads to pony
up and get their backbone up in the middle of Ireland,
that was it. And they failed miserably.
Speaker 1: So let's get to the on the field problems again.
You know you were there, You've been there. Obviously. We
saw the second game at home against Boston College, an
epic disaster at home on Labor Day night. You know, DJ,
the offensive and defensive lines. For you on the field,
what's been the biggest issue?
Speaker 3: Oh God, where do we start? I mean, if you
can't stop the run. If you can't stop the run
and seventy yards rushing, I mean, that's I don't even
know what that is. I mean, that's just lack of heart,
lack of courage, lack of detail, lack.
Speaker 1: Of My defensive line touted to be the best in
the country.
Speaker 3: I mean unbelieving. You go back and I go back
and watch the tape, and there's just gaping holes. Nobody
can get off a block. They're out, they're out leveraged
every single play through motion, motion and alignment. They're out
of alignment. They're not getting off they're not running to
the ball, they're not making plays. Everybody's just you know,
you're getting getting blocked and allowing themselves to be blocked.
The two defensive tackles are playing way too high. Just
it's simple. You know, nobody sets the edge on the
defensive ends. And Marvin Jones Junior and Patrick Payton, you know,
or two hundred and forty pound guys that don't play
the run very well. Uh, and they're just getting exploited.
The linebackers are slow and can't tackle. There's no adjustment
to backs out of the backfield. They can't cover back
out of the backfield. I mean, the lack of adjustments
is mind boggling. I don't I just it's I've never staff.
Speaker 1: That's the confounding part the staff is the defensive staff's
in place, not like it's a new system.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just so much of it is just confounding,
Like what what the hell is going on? And you know,
I saw Norbelle's press conference this week and he's like,
we're not making wholesale changes. We're just gonna get him
to play better. And I'm like, good luck with that.
I mean, so defensively, I don't know what the answers are.
These are supposed to be talented players and they're not
and they're not talented or they're not playing hard enough,
they're not playing the right way. I would I would
make wholesale changes. I'm not put leaving Marvin Jones Junior,
who's never put his foot in hand in the ground
as a as a as a as a hand in
the ground defensive end. I'll bring him in on passing situations,
but he cannot play the run. Patrick Payton was great
last year, but evidently there were a lot of guys
around him that were making up for his errors. He
can't set the edge, So I I mean, I don't
the answers on defense for me are Gavin, Yeah, get
new plaid guys to play that are actually gonna play
hard because those guys are not, and or get the
message through to him. Listen. If you think you're going
to the Pros with this tape.
Speaker 1: Good luck.
Speaker 3: I got another thing coming. In no way, nobody's picking
you Patrick Payton, I'm I'm sorry, not not the way
you're playing now. And all that goes for all of
them across the front, Josh, Josh, Barmer, Derek, I mean,
all of them. It's that's it's awful. So I'm anxious
to see what happens against Memphis. This is a very
good offensive team. They're balanced, they have they have a
little trouble running the football, but they're balanced. And unless
f SU you know, figures this out and starts playing
defense the way they can play defense, they should be
playing defense. I don't know what the answers are offensively.
I mean, it starts with the quarterback. He's awful?
Speaker 1: Did he just he's over evaluated by the coaching staff.
To me, that's just a To me, that's a coaching
staff evaluation error. He's never been great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree. I mean if I thought, if you're
bringing him in, then you saw something in his development
at Oregon State that said he's better and he'll be
a good fit in our offense. I mean, that's not
my job to go look at the Oregon State tape.
I just said, you know, I trust Norvelle and the
offensive coaches, and from what I've seen and from what
I've heard from my guys that are watching practice, he
never distanced himself from Brock Glenn in practice. So what
do we see in the game. We see a lot
of inaccuracies. We see a guy who cannot move. No,
I mean, he is slower than Christmas. And if you
can't move in this offense and there's no threat of
an RPO, you're hurting the offensive line, you're hurting the
running game. So okay, he then he'll make up for
it with his pinpoint accuracy. As a passer.
Speaker 1: He ain't accurate, he ain't never been accurate.
Speaker 3: And it's like, whatso what is he giving you? What
is he giving you? To me? He's taken away a
lot And so for me, I would not start DJU.
I would I would have been giving Rock Klenn all
the reps in practice to get him ready to play,
because he can move. He's a four star quarterback that
shows FSU over Ohio State. Luke Cromanhak is a five
star drop back passer, So I wouldn't necessarily true freshman,
so I wouldn't necessarily go to him, but I would
absolutely go to Brock Glenn R. At this point, I
don't think the team believes in Dju. He's showing no
leadership whatsoever. Now it's not all him, don't get me wrong,
it's not all him, but obviously the quarterback is the
most important part of this. The offensive line has been
dog crap. We were told that was going to be
a great unit, but I think a lot of their
issues are because of Dju in the run game and
his lack of mobility. Yes, Jordan Travis covered up a
lot of the warks of this offensive line, There's no
question about that. So get a quarterback in there that
can move. He can't be a worse passer, he can't
be worse than what we've seen. So I just don't
see the upside to stick with Dju. But it looks
like Norvel is going to do.
Speaker 1: So, and that goes to my next question about decision making.
With Norvel so invested in the transfer portal, paying DJU
whatever they're paying them, is it it's harder for these
coaches to sit a guy down when there probably hasn't
been much competition in fall camp where the guy's making
a million bucks or million five or whatever. He's making
hard of a decision to do because that's a bad
sign you send to the rest of the country down
the road. You think that's a part of the mating.
Speaker 3: That's a much bigger conversation as far as your you know,
your whole you know, uh program concepts in terms of recruiting.
You know, I think Mike knew that he had to
hit the portal hard to get this team back to
this program back to winning again, which you know, a
plus on that thirteen and oh is it was an
amazing accomplishment. But we learned that, you know, they nailed
all those the last two years, they've nailed almost every
portal pick they've had, and this year they whift they
whiffed on Marvin Jones Junior or they're not using him correctly. Uh,
they whiffed on dj U and a bunch of others
that they brought a couple of those two guards that
they brought in from the SEC, Richie Leonard, then the
other guy, Ferguson I think his name is. They haven't
been great, so you know, you you kind of I
kind of feel like, well, let's go to the guys
that you've recruited. You've got some good players. You've got
some four and five star players that you're that are
not playing, and I would go to them as soon
as I possibly can. This season is lost. You're not
winning any you're not going to the playoffs this year. Mike.
Mike should know that he has plenty of of of
of leash here, you know, and he's not if he
goes you know, if they get four wins with rock
Brock Glenn, then you know, so be it. You're not
getting fired. It's a it's a you know, it's a
rebuilding year. It was you know, we were we were
sold that this was going to be a better team.
It's not cut your losses in the off off week
and and and go forward with the young players. That's
what I would have done. It doesn't appear to be
what they're doing. So you know they're gonna go into
this Memphis game as a six and a half point favorite.
Throw everything you have on Memphis, because until I see it,
I can't I can't believe it. I'm not gonna believe
the hype anymore. I mean, why would you. It's been
it's been awful. That's by the way. The Norvell fourth
down call against Boston College the first series of the
third quarter, you're down one score. Your defense has just had,
you know, two three and outs and a halftime break.
You you're fourth and five. I mean, well, not no fee,
I mean you're a you're at your own forty three.
If you're at your own forty three with the best
punter in in the in the college game, right and
you you're just had two good defensive stands and you
go for it there with a drop back quarterback play
that fourth and five. You got to throw the football.
They know you're gonna throw the football, and you have
a less than hot quarterback and your passing game sucks.
I mean, what part of that equation on fourth down
says you should go for it? If you're just looking
at analytics, you know, analytics taking the consideration that you
know you have a decent passing game. I mean, this
is where analytics need to go out the window and
you got to look at the actual context of the game.
And there's nothing in the context of the game that
says you go for it there and he throws a
pick and essentially gives up a touchdown and you go
to a three score game. I mean, you just lost
the game for your team, and with a with an
absolutely egregious four town Gods, a complete panic move, and
I mean there's there's just I don't even know what
to say about that. But again, I think Mike's a
good coach. I think he's built a great culture. Coaches
make mistakes. He's made a bunch of them in a row.
Now he needs to write the ship and that that
starts this week. Look, get a win this week. You
got three winnable games coming up, and then the then
the real shit hits the fan, right so, and it
could get ugly, And that's all the more reason for me.
You get Brock ready because as slow as dju is,
he's he's gonna get destroyed by Miami. These good and
Clemson's defense, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Any Notre Dame's got a good defense.
Speaker 3: I mean, you got to give yourself a fighting chance
with a mobile quarterback and get him ready to play
for the Gauntlet. That's what I would do, but I don't.
It doesn't seem like that's the plan. So we'll we'll
see what happens.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's let's slide over to Gainesville. Obviously even
more drama going on there with Napier's future. Now you
have a little bit of a potential quarterback controversy. Lagway
plays good against an inferior opponent. Merch is probably ready
to play, but will he get the start? With A
and m coming to town. Just give me a thought
or two about the Gator program through two weeks.
Speaker 3: I never thought i'd say that I think the Gators
are a better football team than FSU. But from what
I've seen in the first two weeks, you know, even
though Florida got blown out by Miami, I mean, it's
just that bad in Tallahassee. And it can change year
to year. Now with the portal, right, it's you can
be so good and you can be you can get
really bad.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: But Florida, I think is an interesting situation, but somewhat
similar to FSU. You know, you're you're not going anywhere
this year. This should be a year of learning and
growing the best quarterback that you've picked up and since Tebow, right,
I mean, DJ Lagway is a Gatorade National Player of
the Year. And as Jesse Palmer said in Week one
when he came in for Mertz, it just looks different.
The ball comes out different, it spins different. It's more,
it's just different. Graham Mertz is a very serviceable, experienced quarterback.
Gardner minshew, but you you know, what are you selling
in terms of hope? The billy tip here thinks that. Listen,
I'll go with Graham Merps and maybe I'll squeak out
five and six wins and and I'll keep my job.
That's not working for the program. I would rather, you know,
if I if I'm the A D I say, look, man,
you know, go with your go with Lagway unless you
think that your offensive line is so bad that he's
going to lose confidence and get beat up by A
and M, which I don't think is the case. I don't.
I don't think they're that bad, and I don't think
A and M is that good, right, So I would
I would stick with Lagway, and just you know, he's
the future of your program. And if you want to
keep him in Gainesville, if you are going to fire right, Billy,
you better play him and let him, let him get
some you know, some some chemistry going with Trey Wilson
and some of the other skill position players, and you
know who knows, maybe they you know, he goes out
and beats A and m you know, at home, it's
the stranger things have happened, my god. I mean, the
swamp is is still a tough place to play, and
you know, you get some things right that you didn't
get right against Miami. You had a couple of really
bad penalties that kind of took you out of the
game and and and kept kept your crowd from getting
into the game and putting any pressure on Miami. So yeah,
and he wins that game, he wins an SEC game,
and now all of a sudden, you're like, wow, Okay,
you know this could this could we could maybe do
some I would rather win four with DJ than win
five or six with Mertz. I mean that makes sense
to me. If I'm if I'm building a program for
the future, and I think it's a better chance for
him to keep his job. To be quite quite hard.
Speaker 1: If yeah, and get for me if if if Florida
goes five and seven, but they're competitive in their losses
with Wagway playing and developing, then you can you can
sell hey, Napier's getting it going a little bit another
year with Lagway. But if you go get beat by
three four touchdowns in a couple of these SEC games,
it's lights out that fan base and you know it,
those boosters, they're ready to write the check to get
him the hell out of there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you lose by three or four touchdowns
with Dj lagwin he makes mistakes, at least you can
sell hope, right. You know he's learning on the job,
he's learning. I mean, if you don't play him much
this year and Mertz, you know, wins five or six
or four or whatever, and you're you're right back to
the starting bock, you lose a year of experience that
you can have in the SEC. And frankly, I think
by the look to win games and the way Florida
wants to win games, you got to have an exceptional
player at the quarterback position. Graham Mertz is not an
exceptional player. He's a good player. DJ Lagway can be
an exceptional player. He can be a difference maker. So
get him going. I mean, lord, he's six foot four
two and thirty nine pounds. My god, he right, Culpepper, Yeah,
I mean what do we what are we doing here?
I don't think this is a hard choice for either coach,
to be quite honest, I don't and I don't see
what they're doing or why they're doing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, what is the kind of coach? You know,
we've seen the flamboyancy of Spurrier and some other Urban
Myris that the kind of coach Florida needs just a
I don't give a shit flamboyant kind of guy. Where
or what's the what's the remedy? What are they missing
in Gainesville the last ten years?
Speaker 3: Well, we certainly know Urban Myers campaigning for the job.
Did you see that evisceration of Billy Napier that he
did on some podcast? I mean, he's like it was bad.
I've never seen a you know, a sitting analyst in
a former coach attack a present coach the way he did,
especially one that's at his alma Maters. Another class list
move by Urban Meyer. But what do you expect anything less?
I mean would would Florida sell their soul to go
back to that guy? I mean, I know it's desperate,
but if I think you make that choice, wow, wow,
I can't see it, but maybe they will. But you know, Billy,
you know, I think he's done a good job recruiting.
I think he's you know, you know it made some
necessary changes that he needed to make in the offseason.
But it's kind of like you say, man, he just
he doesn't fit it. He just doesn't feel like he's
he's an exceptional coach. He doesn't. I don't get the fire.
I mean, he couldn't even beat a bottle of water.
I mean, the water got the water got the best
of it. It's like, I know that's just silly, but
it's it's just so apropos I can't even take them right, Like,
you're just not the guy. You're just not the dynamic
guy that that Florida needs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not interesting. Interesting, all right, Let's go to
see how a Coral Gables got I mean the most
dynamic again. Why cam Ward maybe wasn't in the mix
of Florida State.
Speaker 3: Oh he was. They wanted him. They wanted him over
dju and from what I've heard, you know, he wanted
over a million dollars and FSU didn't want to pay
the money, or he couldn't pay the money. It was
out of their budget at that point. I don't know.
I know that their first choice was cam Ward, and
I think they settled for Dju and and when when
cam said he was gonna go pro, they kind of
panicked and with the Dju route. But anyway, we talked
about that situation. Cam Ward is the best quarterback in Florida.
I think that's in college ranks for sure. Because Baker's bacon,
We're gonna get too. Yeah, he was fantastic. I mean
he was that first play in the first quarter when
he scrambled out and ran to the sideline and then
just kind of sashade sauntered out of bounds and the
two Gator football the two Gators didn't even like hit him.
I mean, he was stelling if he's in bounds, take
a shot, right, and he just kind of walked and
stopped and I went did the whistle blow, Like what
the hell was that? And then he did it again.
I'm like, this dude is like the coolest dude I've
ever seen, Like what is this and he just he
looks so good back there, so under control, the way
he moves with with with purpose to extend the play
and then make the throat.
Speaker 1: And they've got a good offensive line to help him
with some skill. Guys. I mean they've got a chance here.
Their schedule is very due to you look at Clemson
on the schedule, you get Florida State at Miami. I
mean their schedule, they ought to go eleven and one
at the worst. Yeah, I mean they're not eleven and one.
Speaker 3: I have faith in christ the ball that he'll screw
it up. I mean, the history tells us he's gonna
have it up somehow. So, but I think even with
two losses in your the as the a SEC champion
I can get And I don't see two losses on
our schedule. I'm with you as well. I mean, Florida
State's not beating them, no way unless something drastically changes.
So yeah, I think Miami is gonna be the client.
I tell you what game is gonna be interesting? And
you know what I'm saying, That game at Raymond James Stadium.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're gonna get to that.
Speaker 3: Yes next week to be an interesting game.
Speaker 1: Yes, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 3: I love I love Miami's players. They look they're they're
finally maybe their talents as they finally put it all
together because they have a quarterback. So we'll see. It's
I think, you know, until again, until they do it
on a long, consistent base and don't choke like they
always have done in the last twenty years, then you know.
But I yeah, I'd lean towards Miami being the ACC
champion at this point.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good. Let's get back down here to Tampa
here again. You mentioned it in the USF again, played
Alabama close again two years in a row. Again they
played Alabama's full compliment of players. This year. There was
no Milrose sitting out. Give Alex Golish all the credit
they was. That was a fourteen to thirteen game basically
with ten minutes to go. Just give me you a
general thought about Goalish. You like where he's going with
this program, how he's building it.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, absolutely, he's you know, he's done a fantastic job.
That was no fluke, you know, because Milrod didn't play
last year. I was a hot day.
Speaker 1: And monsoon weather delay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. That was a weird game, so you
kind of could say it was a little bit of
a flukey thing, but evidently it wasn't because this game,
you know, those Alabama fans were all full quiet, they
were nervous, and that's because you you have, Seth was
taking it to them defensively. I mean, that to me
was the biggest shock. They shut down their run game,
and for the most part, it's at mill Row, they
were phenomenal. I mean, they got a couple of big
fumbles and turnovers, but hey, they caused them, you know, good,
good on them. And then uh there, what was it?
Twenty one thirteen and they're at the four yard line
USF and he kicks a field goal? And what are
we doing? I mean, the most confident coach in America?
Is it Tuscaloosa? With six seven minutes left in the game.
You're at the four yard line, one score down, and
you kick a field goal. Bro, yeah you still need
another touchdown to win at that point.
Speaker 1: I gotcha, what are we doing?
Speaker 3: What are we doing? I mean, I hate to criticize
the guy, and then he doubled down on it in
the press conference. I'm like, but whatever you need you.
Speaker 1: I mean that last year he went throw it every
time I'm throw down against Alabama every time?
Speaker 3: Are you not at the four yard line?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: With that quarterback the way he can run, I'll take
my chances.
Speaker 1: My one concern is running Byron Brown too much. They
ran him to death and that's you know.
Speaker 3: I think that. I think that affected his accuracy too.
I think he may have taken one too many hits,
if you know what I'm saying. He was just I mean,
that's not the thrower that we've seen. We've we've not
seen it. He was. He was very inaccurate. I was
shocked by that. But I think it may have been
because he took some hits either either physically he was
hurting in his arm or his shoulder or torso or something.
Or he was maybe a little cuckoo. I don't know,
but that wasn't him.
Speaker 1: He's the second best quarterback in the state of Florida.
Speaker 3: I would agree with that. I would agree with that,
and I listen. I think I think they got a
legitimate shot at beating Miami. I really really do so.
And I think that may be the toughest game on
their schedule because it's in you know, obviously, it's it's
not at home. So yeah, circle that one. Get your
tickets and your popcorn ready. But us US UP should
win nine games. They should win nine games this year.
Speaker 1: There is a there is a manageable path to the
playoff as the group of five representative. You beat Miami
and maybe lose one conference game, if not run the table,
you're gonna be in the playoff as the twelfth seed.
Speaker 3: I agree, I wholeheartedly agree.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't figured out USF fans, that game
has been moved to seven o'clock prime time on the
twenty first, So it's gonna be a night game. Raymond
James Stadium, that place is gonna be jumping all that.
If I'm sure that game will be better, be a sellout.
If that game ain't a sellout, shame on USF fans.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Yes, yeah, because Miami's gonna bring they'll
they'll bring plenty the.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shame on them, Shame on them. All right, give
me all right, listen to J. P. Pearson, host of
the JP Pearson Show Fans stream sports. We're breaking down
the college football in the state of Florida. I got
a couple I'm gonna ask you a couple of NFL
things to out the state team. Sure, let's get it,
let's stay here in State of Florida won a performance
by that Buccaneer offense, Liam Cohen Baker Mayfield. I don't
think I'm I think that was the best game of
Baker Mayfield's career.
Speaker 3: Personally, I'll take the Packers game last year, and maybe
even the Philadelphia game. But it was good. It was
really good. You know, I'm considering the opponent, right.
Speaker 1: But the confidence he showed running that offense was tremendous.
Speaker 3: You know, I count I just got through the first
half of what rewatching the game and the tape, and
I counted five escapes from Baker, you know, sure sacks
situations where he escaped and made plays. I mean five
of them in one half. He does not get credit
for his elusiveness. He does not get credit for his
ability to make plays on the run, which, as you know,
in this league is so often the difference between winning
and losing. You go back three times a game, you
got to run for that first in third you go,
We'll go look at Patrick Mahomes's big plays in the
Super Bowl and playoffs. Almost every one of them is
an off schedule play where he makes something out of nothing,
and Baker's done a really really good job of it,
and he's playing from the pocket really really well. And
this Liam Cohen offense. You know, I asked Baker after
the game. I said, you know, you've said that you
got a lot of opportunities at the line of scrimmage
to change plays and get into better plays. How many
times did you do it? And he said, honestly, not much.
He said, Liam called such a good game that everything
he called we didn't need to check against the defense,
which is a great sign. And he's so much better
than Dave Canalis. And we love Dave. He's a nice dude,
but he was over his skis last year. This guy
knows what he's doing and he's got so much talent
to work with. And I'm telling you, and the big
thing is Graham freaking Barton. Only his CFF grade, by
the way, which was ridiculous. He played tremendous football. I
retweeted the Baldy breakdown that he did of Graham Barton
and this kid. From the moment I saw him on
the practice field, I said, this dude is special. He
is quick, he is athletic, his technique is flawless. He
played against two of the best tackles in the end
of fell and he more than held his own. And
Bobby Wagner as well. He's out, you know, reach blocking
on Bobby Wagner on outside runs. He's really good. And
Hainsey last year was really bad. So you get a
marked improvement on the interior of your line. That's gonna
That's why the running game was so much better. You know,
they may rush for one hundred and twelve yards and
I think the numbers and they could have been so
much better. They had some some some bad negative plays
and Rashad White I think lost fifteen yards on three
plays that he had no chance. So I think Rashad
White ran it well, although the numbers might not show it.
Speaker 1: But he's going to be a player.
Speaker 3: He is, you know, at six to eight nine yards
per carry, Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Well, that's to me, that's twenty twenty four war done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, body, he is. He's and he's got vision and
he's got a burst. I mean, you go back and
look at the tape and he's making every right decision.
He's really really good, and they compliment each other really well.
And this this receiving group. My god, Jason, let me
throw to these guys. Are you kidding me? I mean
Evans is still playing at just an elite level. You
go one on one with him, he's just throwing it
up and he's coming down with it. Two touchdowns for him,
Chris Godwin, I mean, they've got him on third down
lockdown he is, and Baker knows, and Liam's got him,
you know, in motion. Get him.
Speaker 1: Man, it's Cooper Cup of Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: It's it's so good and he's so perfect that he
catches everything you throw to him. Eight targets, eight catches,
seven of them for first downs or touchdowns. I mean,
that's that makes your offense go. And then Jalen McMillan
should have had four touchdowns, right had four? Right, Baker
misto on the first one, he had one down the
middle where he grabbed his face mask. He had two
yards on him that was gonna be another touchdown, the
one on the right sideline that he dropped, and then
the one he caught, he put four touchdown. I'm telling
you the Bucks left left at least seventeen points on
the field and they scored thirty seven. I mean, I
thought that offense was gonna be good. I didn't think
it would be this good this early early. Yeah, So
I'm couldn't be more impressed with that whole group. And
and then defensively, they're they're in trouble right now. They've
they're down four corners injury wise, three corners ant one
went down, you know, which is a you know, we
don't know what in what the injury is. Is it
a break, is it a high ankle? Is it two weeks?
Is it four weeks? We don't know. That's a big injury.
That's a huge, huge injury. Now this week you're going
to Detroit. It's not a game you thought you were
gonna win anyway, So I'm not you know, it is
what it is. Go up there. If you can outscore them,
out score them, that's that's something that could they could do.
Uh deep. The Lion's defense looked a little vulnerable the
other night against the Rams. So but again, it wasn't
one you thought you were gonna win. But you got
to come back and get the next one, the next
two and and if Winfield doesn't play, that's gonna be tough.
And can see with the damn calf injury, the same calf.
I'm worried about that. So defensively, I think they're you know,
they've got some injuries that they need to overcome. That's
gonna be tough. So right now, those are those are
my concerns.
Speaker 1: And lay the over over.
Speaker 3: What is it? Have you seen it yet?
Speaker 1: I haven't, but that'll be a high score game potentially
in Detroit.
Speaker 3: Yeah. By the way, you know, we give out our
prop bets every Thursday on my show, and I gave
out seven prop bets for for for Buccaneer players. Yeah,
nailed every single one of them, seven for seven because
I had you know, Bucky over, McMillan over, you know,
receiving and rushing for Bucky. What else we had Baker
touchdown passes, God went over. I mean these were easy
to me. I mean easy. We'll look at this one
this week and give you some more Buck players, because
the great thing about the Bucks is they're so underrated.
Even Vegas underrates them. They are they underrate. I mean
for the whole season.
Speaker 1: Everybody's looking on Atlanta. Everybody is that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's it's easy money.
Speaker 1: Might give me a thought on the Jaguars, is Trevor
Lawrence ever gonna figure this out?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 1: Or is this guy just two steps foward, two steps back?
Speaker 3: I you know, is it is it him? Is it
the organization? Whatever it is. You can't lose that game.
You cannot lose. I mean, he didn't fumble at the
two yard line running in. That wasn't Trevor Lawrence. But
I mean you you got to find a way to
win that game. I mean that, and and and a
lot of times it does fall on the quarterback. You know,
I didn't get a chance to watch the whole game,
but I saw, you know, I saw bits and pieces
of it and the highlights and what have you. And
it's just I don't know what it is about Jacksonville.
They should They just don't win games. And a lot
of times that's on the quarterback. You gotta make the
plays to win games. And you know, I mean, how
do you not pay him? But at some point he
has to he has to start earning that cash because
he's just not you know, him and Justin Herbert, you know,
the two of them, to me are it's it's just
supremely talented, but they just can't win squat, win squat
and Jacksonville roster is good.
Speaker 1: They are good.
Speaker 3: That's a game you gotta win. It's a game you
gotta win. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Last thing, give me a thought on the Tyreek Hill situation.
Obviously you saw the video come out. You know, arguments
on both sides about you know, police officer too aggressive,
Tyreek not not listening, and just being a jerk in
the car. Give me a quick thought there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you nailed it. There's plenty of blame
to go around here. The biggest blame, of course, is
the media, mostly at ESPN, and we're going to turn
this into something that it is not. And kudos to
Tygreek who said, listen, I'm not gonna play the race
card and go crazy with this. You know. He said
that right after the game. He said, we're gonna make
this into a positive. We're not gonna you know, so
let nobody go crazy. You You would wish the people
at ESPN could do something like that, but they can't.
They make too much money on the race baiting, so
they have to do it. I guess they have the
upper agenda. People have to have to have that. So anyway,
I think there's First of all, I was taught you
get pulled over. Yes, sir, no sir.
Speaker 1: Roll the window down, roll the window.
Speaker 3: Tells you, sir, no sir. Every command that they give
you you follow, believe it or not. Most I'm saying
most times. But you can get you can talk your
way out of it if you're in cooperative, especially if
you're Tyreek Hill. I mean, you know, if your first
thing is don't don't knock on my window, don't knock
on my window, don't knock on my window. I mean,
if that's where your first.
Speaker 1: And you have tinted windows at that and you have, and.
Speaker 3: You roll it up, and then when they tell you
to get out of the car, you don't get out
of the car. What the hell do you think is
gonna happen? You know? And the people that are defending this,
you know, without looking at both, it was the was
the cop over zealous? I mean, can we de escalate
it a little bit? Do we have to yank him
out of the car.
Speaker 1: We don't need to pin him on the ground, and
we need to pin him on the ground.
Speaker 3: It's like, we know it's Tyreek Hill. He's not coming
out shooting. I don't think you know, But as a cop,
I understand the protocols. I understand. I've talked to cops
about this, you know, and they yeah, and a lot
of times they just they can't do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they a situation. Hopefully again, you would think a
block from the stadium, Yeah, there'd be some awareness of Okay,
he probably was screwing around. Write them. If you're gonna
writehim a ticket, writehim a ticket and get him out
of there. Or hey, bro, nobody doing that crap again, man, bro?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and you just can't. You can't let a
guy roll up the window because you don't know what's
going on exactly. It's your safety and that just can't happen.
Speaker 1: That's where ty Read needs to come out and say,
you know what, I screwed that up. I should have
done better on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just do it. Just do what the cop says.
Inn percent of the time, you're gonna be fine. Yeah,
you know. So it's it's an unfortunate situation, but it
doesn't get crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 3: Should not be fired.
Speaker 1: No, No, I'm with you. I'm with you. JP pears
a great job, man. Tell everybody where they can find
you on online and where they can find the show.
Every day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're live ten to to well each and every
day on fan streamsports dot com, on YouTube, on Facebook,
on x just go to any of our social media
you can get the show live right there. Please like
and subscribe to the JP Peterson Show on YouTube and
my Twitter at the JP Peterson Show. Thank you, Yeah,
with you man anytime.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he does great work. He does post game at
the Bucks game USF games, so check that out as well.
He's also gonna be back, like I was gonna say,
the Night season starts in about a month. They'll be
back at Emily Arena in game entertainment first, all the
good stuff. He does a great job with the lightning
as well. So can we get them back on track please?
Speaker 3: Yes, I think they'll be fine. I think they'll be fine.
Speaker 1: All right, buddy, appreciate the time, sir, and we will talk.
So maybe I'll see at the Miami and the press
box for miamis out.
Speaker 3: As you will. We'll see you there, you guys, buddy.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Florida Football Insiders podcast as
part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast Network.
Please remember subscribe, rate, and review if you've not our
He done so, and you can reach out to me
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Check out our video interviews as well on my YouTube channel,
Jason Powers Sports Channel, and we'll see you next week
on the Florida Football Insiders podcast