Florida Gators Land Football Star + Exclusive Interviews with Neil Blackmon and Sean Kelley

The guys sit down with Sean Kelley (the voice of the Florida Gators) as well as Neil Blackmon to discuss Florida Gators basketball. We will discuss the commitment of Peyton Joseph, a 4-star OL, to the Florida Gators. Plus, the departure of Darnell Stapleton to the NFL and his potential replacement.

Stadium and Gale is the premier Florida Gators podcast. Join us each and every week for updates on the Orange and Blue!

In the SEC Conference we’re going to build the best football program in the SEC Conference you have now arrived at stadium in the kick it’s been blocked again it’s been Lo again it’s going to heat one deep down the field it’s going to be to the goal line it’s going to be

G it’s the touchdown and the the gameand I can’t believe what I just dropping back to th thps and fires the balls over the midle it’s got a touch down dor got a touch down oh man D’s got a touchdown AAR black and his final game

Of the Gator takes it all the way home and sends urvan out the winner you have now arrived at stadium and jail boys and girls ladies and gents welcome to another episode of stadium in Gale it’s your favorite uncle silk it’s Dam and delator same Corner same time it’s

President’s days right I always get Veterans Day and pres it’s President’s Day happy President’s Day how y boys feeling yall good good good uh had a had a great week in Canada back just in time to to celebrate president day um but uh but yeah know it’s good to be back do you

Guys want to do a one through 46 ranking of presidents today or yeah yeah let’s definitely jump into the politics perfect I didn’t prepare maybe we can do that next week did you bring back any maple syrup Daniel no uh but they they do love maple

Syrup up there I did bring back some bourbon um those bourbon drinkers especially in Florida know that it has been hard to find Buffalo Trace blands those kind of things uh Eagle Rare here in uh Florida but in Canada it is overflowing so brought back some bottles

Of bourbon uh that uh by the way shout out to America shout out to the dollar bill uh this spending power in Canada is absolutely incredible basically everything’s like 30% off so uh shout out to the US economy shout out to the uh to the US dollar as well no you

Didn’t bring back any crown royal royal no no no I can find that pretty easily here um but uh let’s see over there say what no exclusive uh no no exclusives no no uh no Canadian exclusives over there I did have some poutine uh what else um

Big tobacco big tobacco state by the way a lot of smokers up there a lot of chewing tobacco uh they don’t uh allow you to sell nicotine pouches uh which we’ll talk about Lucy here in a second but uh just kind of an interesting place Whistler beautiful uh anybody that’s a

Skier would highly encourage you to go uh visit Whistler so had a had a great time up there but uh enough about me uh Nick baseball got cancelled so how was your weekend yeah um had some people over watch the fights on Saturday uh good UFC

Card Sunday just hung out with the wife um baseball got swept by St John’s technically well I don’t think they got swept I think they just lost one game so I think you one game S one game sweep Sil how’s your weekend ah man a little gloomy with the

Weather but yeah little bit of the same man just been working uh knocking out these rollup interviews in person so we had Kermit Whitfield this week we shot out we shot down uh so far D Gordon uh Tyreek Stevenson and Chris Johnson we got Zack Carter on Deck we just you know

Knocking out some work for this relaunch and you know just work bro not a whole lot going on have you seen Zach since he got to cinnati I seen him last off season uh when I went up there to do some beyond the chunk work in the summer he was

Working out with Malik Davis and those guys man but he’s a true defensive tackle now I tell you bro he blew up that’s what I was gonna say he blew up yeah no no no tweener anymore when you when you talked about him going into the draft you’re like ah a little under

Sized maybe a week de defensive end uh uh not anymore not anymore true defensive tackle he was talking about workouts and uh at that time him and um nean was was talking about the difference between college and pro workouts and he was saying like man listen I do more yoga and just random

Workouts and balance stuff then I do all that strength and and slaying weights around so yeah he’s a true D tackle now man it’s going to be interesting to catch up with him though absolutely absolutely well we got a a big show today we have Sean Kelly the the new

Voice of the Gator I guess he’s not new anymore he’s been here a few years now since Mick Hubert retired then we got Neil Blackman coming on to talk a little bit more about Florida Gator basketball which is one seven to the last eight uh I believe and right now uh definitely in

The uh in the picture and in the hunt for a decent spot uh in the NCAA tournament uh Todd golden and portal God Todd is now 4-0 against Mike White which I know disappoints a lot of former uh fans of Mike White and definitely the Florida Gator beat which seems sad every

Time Mike White uh loses not you Nick just some other folks in general but uh before we do that let’s give a quick shout out to our friends over at Lucy Lucy is a made pardon me a deliver straight to your door nicotine pouch 100% pure nicotine and always 100%

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Apple ice espresso mango a whole lot of different options for you flavor-wise they also do a monthly subscription which allows you to save 15% off of your order there is no commitment you can cancel at any time so again uh we’ve talked about Lucy a lot on this show I

Know Nick has used it I know I have um great product great quality so encourage you if that is a path that you want to go down from a nicotine pouch perspective go take a look at lucy. Stadium you’ll get 20% off of your order and free shipping all of the time

Here’s the F print Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified this product does contain nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical okay perfect little uh they have a little Trash pouch for you there on top Dan yeah creative dump

Your pouch dump it in there good to go good to go good to go I appreciate show and tell Nick that was great um uh so uh obviously a lot of announcements uh to to talk about we might uh split these up a little bit depending on when Sean

Joins us this morning uh but first piece of news is assistant offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton is headed to the NFL we’ve been hinting at this for a few months that there might be a shake up on the offensive side of the ball with the

NFL this is what we were alluding to uh there was a hope for for a long time now to uh to be back in the NFL uh so Darnell Stapleton former uh Pittsburgh Steeler and two-year Florida Gator offensive line coaches heading to the Washington commanders uh joining Brian

Johnson and a few other uh former Gators under Dan Quinn who was the gator defensive coordinator with uh with Will musam so uh Nick that leaves an open spot on the offensive side of the ball you’ve been hammering home every single time somebody asks there’s not an open position on the

Offensive side of the ball and sure enough now there is so your excuses are done so Nick what’s Florida gonna do here uh with their open uh coaching roster spot yeah well you’ve got less than three weeks to um until spring so I don’t know that you’ll I

Don’t know that Billy Napier has shown uh that he rushes to hirings or decisions so I don’t know that you’ll have a offensive coordinator uh picked outside of him for that I don’t know that you’ll have another coach picked I think last year um Carrie Colbert leaves for the NFL and

Then you saw uh David Decker move move into an onfield role I could see Ryan O’Hara being moved to an onfield quarterback coach which would free Billy Napier up from coaching the quarterbacks and let him kind of maybe move around practice um see every group uh not tie

Him to one spot on the field um I could see them hiring another offensive line coach at some point uh because that seems very important to Billy Napier he’s said multiple times um without being asked and every time he’s asked two offensive line coaches uh he says are very important to him and

The program you’ve got 13 guys to be coached why why would you not split them up doubling doubling down on that would be nasty work I mean but would would you be surprised n i mean I would like for the uh if they go off offensive line again

For that guy to come in with some coordinating experience of some sort but if they double down it better be like a super home run higher here and I wanted to ask this question I’ve seen so many people saying that we we got rid of the the worst of the two offensive line

Coaches like how do like how do people figure that out because commment one they don’t but two they don’t figure it out and two we didn’t Florida didn’t get rid of anyone right right right right now lost lost got rid of however it may have happened but I

Just trying to figure out who’s the better out of the two like I don’t know how they did that they had triy outs or something yeah yeah stap had a nice 40 uh edged out the only thing that we know between the two of them there was about

A $700,000 difference in yearly salary other than that we don’t know who was better who was liked more who has liked less I mean I think that we’ve heard pros and cons about both um but I don’t think that the way that we’ve heard about anything about Darnell Stapleton

Is that he was the worst of the two or or that Rod stales are worst of the two too I think it’s just a matter of perception I think it’s a matter of coaching but I think that uh or individual coaching style but I think at

The end of the day Florida has um or Billy Napier has said multiple times that he wants two offensive line coaches if what we’ve seen out of the offensive line last year with two coaches doesn’t get significantly better three offensive line coaches maybe maybe try four maybe try four but but more

Coaches more better so so hopefully we can they can figure it out but that does leave that open spot um you know Florida’s obviously still without a strength and conditioning coach with uh Craig fitgerald heading up to Boston College so that’s unfortunate timing I know that they’ve got um we’ll talk a

Little bit more about it here in a second but they they’ve got a leader and a program in place right now but um you know does Ryan O’Hara move up do you move one of the analysts into the offensive line coach position until no you find somebody what what do you do

U but I would imagine that most coaches aren’t chomping at the bit to uh to leave their programs right now either okay I offer this yeah like so O’Hara has like a role where he’s technically not on the field coach but he’s on the sidelines and he can uh encourage things

And whatnot right that but that’s it that’s it and and I like that definitely not under invest ation they do not break NCAA rules so Ryan oare is certainly not coaching well they they are under investigation for and and investiga for sure I hope they don’t look into O’Hara

But since can we get a oara to back up sale how about that like won’t we won’t we find that guy like since we got these guys that we can have on the sidelines and encourage but not you know instead of two offensive line coaches like I

Don’t I mean there’s a lot they already have a lot of a lot of not coach analysts right at every position so they’ve got some at offensive line they did lose uh Black Shear I know that he took a an onfield coachy yeah I know that he was one of

The analyst that the Gators have but I I would imagine that the Gators have at least three or four folks that Focus solely on the offensive line that are in some sort of analyst type of role yeah I’m just saying like we could get a little bit more fible with who we

Hiring on the offensive side because if we can have this this off the field guy that kind of coaches the quarterbacks like said but not said type situation then you can do that with a second offensive line guy instead of having two on the field offensive line guys like

You got you got opportunity right now to to upgrade that side of the ball with you know just find somebody Elite across the country that can fit a need but I don’t want to just find some offensive line coach when we could just do the O’Hara thing at offensive line

Looks like Caleb Johnson is your offensive line quality control guy he respect on his name he was a strength and conditioning assistant and offensive line performance liaison at ruter oh that was a r the NFL played in the NFL for the Bears Browns Cardinals Chiefs Eagles Ravens and Vikings over

The course of five years and is from my favorite town of Jacksonville Florida um I that was a nice plea silk uh and I look forward to your response when the second offensive line coach is hired at some point in this off season hey man I’m just I’m just I just

Call it when it happens brother you know uh but at this point if you roll out and we going to get into offensive line recruiting we got uh big fish uh this weekend but if you roll out a bad offensive line again this fall bro like there’s like no more excuses your guys

Are here you’ve been here long enough uh you’ve rotated coaches in that spot that’s at this point like there’s no excuses for a terrible offensive line yeah so uh but that does leave Florida you know numerous options it doesn’t seem that they’re going to go down the offens coordinator route do you

Promote Ryan O’Hara that seems to be uh Florida’s kind ofo if something like this happens last year they promoted Russ Callaway not saying that Russ didn’t deserve the job uh but they lost pigler to the NFL promoted Russ Callaway from a from an analyst role into tight end Coach uh

Obviously they went and got Billy Gonzalez uh once Carrie Colbert left a familiar guy to the University of Florida so we will see but let’s pause that conversation gentlemen we have the voice of the Gators Shan Kelly joining us now Sean it is a pleasure to chat with you my

Friend well good morning happy Monday happy Monday to you happy Monday to you A big weekend uh in Florida Gator basketball uh but Sean I know this is your first time on the show so I want to get to know you a little bit um tell us

A little bit about your story I know uh you’re appreciative of of you taking over uh for Mick Hubert but talk to us a little bit about your story of coming to Gainesville and uh you know ultimately how you you landed here in uh with the

Orange and blue I I guess the story is somewhat unexpected uh you know after a long run with the New Orleans pelican and Saints I went to ESPN fulltime in 2019 and uh was working there on a variety of sports and was really in negotiations for my next ESPN contract

When Mick retired and this the news came out of the blue and then the I guess the the uh the contact for my interest or whatever was certainly unexpected but the more I looked at it the the more I like the idea of it and especially with

Me staying at ESPN in a smaller way um the Florida job was even more attractive so there there weren’t many jobs I would say that I was going to leave that situation for but but Florida would be on that list and so it’s worked out

Really well and and here I am uh you know in Gainesville Florida where I never expected to be two years ago 10 years ago 20 years ago so um I’m a gator and and that’s where I plan on being the rest of the way but I think that

Probably I’m best suited for this job now because of the cumulative experience that I I gained over the years it wasn’t going to be easy following in the footsteps of a guy that you know was the generational voice of this program and had been you know Courtside or Press Box

Wise for you know championships through the golden years of of the Gators but uh I’m glad I did it I really am I have no regrets we talked to you we talked to you right after um you I don’t even know if you had called a game yet but we

Talked to you Zach and I and you mentioned being part of a team and that’s kind of something that that you missed um a year and a half a couple Seasons into it now do you feel part of that team even you know especially when you then go to Yankee Stadium and you’re

Flying in you’re calling a game on Sunday night for the radio and and then you’re back out out of you know New York or wherever ESPN takes you yeah you know it when I got into this business and this was a long time ago guys you know

The the idea was to be uh you the voice of a division one program and and be a part of that program and wear the colors and that’s kind of where my career started it kind of took a hard turn toward the NBA um 2004 is thereabouts

And and so you know being with the team continued in that sense just in a you know at a different place or a different sport I guess um when I went to ESPN it was the i i dabbled in doing some national stuff while still with New

Orleans and really liked it you you know every game was a big game and it was one of those deals it was a time in my life was like if if if you want to find out if you can do it at a national level now’s your chance because otherwise it’s

Going to go it’s going to go away that window’s going to close so yes going to Yankee Stadium or you know calling an NBA Western Conference Finals game you know in Los Angeles or seeing all the great college football venues across the country the NFL all of that you know is

Is tremendous and there was some uh mental benefit to doing a game and then at the end just clearing out have have no vested interest in who wins or loses you’re just a mercenary you fly into the war zone handle handle a battle and you’re out yeah enjoy the venue enjoy the

Moment and um don’t have to deal with you know the consequences of a loss or the roller coaster of wins and losses you know over time but I did miss it I really did and and I guess I I didn’t realize it but I missed being around

This age group too a little bit so now I get the best of both worlds right so I get to still go do some of those ESPN things but I’m back being with the team again even though it wasn’t very long that I was away from a a particular team

But you know it’s interesting I came in at the same time as Billy Napier and Todd golden both and I was very curious to see how those programs would be built from the ground up because they they both needed a ground up rebuild basically so I love process and I wanted

To be around that and both of those gentlemen and their staffs and and and the players of the else have been most welcoming I mean I have unfettered access to all their practices I travel with them I basically live with them for the most part during a season

And so I get to share in their journey and and and their development and and that’s that’s as much fun as doing the games themselves so I’m glad I have that again and uh you know baseball is a little bit of a different animal because

I’m in and out with them this time of year but it won’t be long I mean you know in about a month or two I’ll be with them on a daily basis too so um all those things you know make this the coolest job ever well listen Todd’s won

Seven of eight you you might be going to the final four somewhere and and we’ll we’ll push you out of the Baseball Press Box uh as long as we can if that means basketball is continuing to win well it’s interesting when I made my ba my baseball schedule a little while back I

Sit down with Steve mlan and we kind of try and map this thing out right and sure enough there’s a baseball Series at LSU so I wanted to I certainly wanted to work the rematch of last year’s National Championship Series my grown children live over that direction um and I and I

Lived an hour away from Baton Rouge before I came here to Gainesville so that was a series that I was very interested in in working well lo and behold that series Falls the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament so when we made the schedule

And I I think I’ve believed this now for some time that Florida basketball is the tournament team this year so it’s bittersweet I I I wanted to work that series baseballwise but I’m excited because I think that I’ll be busy with men’s basketball during that same

Weekend if you want to get a good laugh tell God your Plans yeah um Sean I I want to ask uh just you being able to prepare for for football baseball basketball and then you also have some other ESPN assignments how how does your your brain kind of function to to fluctuate between because obviously there’s different Paces for all of them there’s lot more

Dead time maybe during football and and baseball to fill in although baseball seems to be getting a little quicker but talk to me a little bit about kind of mental preparation of being able to balance between you know kind of a fast-paced basketball game to you know

Maybe a slower paced you know football game or or baseball game where you do have to fill that that dead time once I get into the game itself it kind of takes care of itself you know I was blessed to be able to Dabble and all

Three kind of coming up younger in my career and then when I went to the NBA full-time there really wasn’t a chance to do a whole lot of other sports because the way that calendar works so when I one of the reasons why I went to ESPN fulltime was to start doing

Multiple Sports again because I missed that I loved you know even growing up everybody asked me you know what’s your favorite sport you know and growing up in St Louis in the Midwest and all that baseball was probably the the favorite the Cardinals I played more baseball

Than anything else but I was one of those kids that when it was football season that was my favorite sport and then when it was winter time it was basketball and hockey and then you know I loveed the change of seasons and cycling through that so I guess my brain

Kind of works that way as well the prep is a little tricky and I’ve gotten better at it over the years of of being more in the moment um you know that old phrase how do you how do you eat an elephant you know one bite at a time so

Um sometimes it makes for tight prep windows but I’m not the kind of guy that like can sit down like I’m looking at like the weekend of March 2nd and third that’s a good example so I’ve got men’s basketball at South Carolina on Saturday and I’ve got Sixers at

Mavericks on Sunday afternoon um and those two games are less than 24 hours apart so I will do my best to try and just lay down a little bit of prep for that NBA game but then I have to this just the way my brain works I have to

Focus on what’s right in front of me so I’ve got to take care of and be pretty dialed in on Florida versus South Carolina that weekend first and then as soon as that game is done it’s immediately flush it and then turn all my attention toward Sixers and mths it

Was it was the same when I was at ESPN Radio you know non well even during Co there was a lot of weekends I’d have a a big college football game on Saturday and then an NFL game on Sunday some guys can bounce back and forth between that

Prep I I would have to kind of Hit the foundation laate early in the week and then focus in on one and then I could do the other I’m just I’m not that talented so um one at a time basically Kevin Durant throws a pass to Russell West

That’s a oh wait hold on that’s a twoo yeah know I always I give credit to people like you I know Kirk herb Street’s been doing the Amazon Thursday night game and then he’s doing game day and then he’s doing the usually the nightly game or the afternoon game for

For ESPN there so I know that there’s probably a lot of juggling around there but uh but Sean when I was um when I was looking this up I know that Mick Huber was obviously at UF for the better part of 30 plus years now um and then when

You took over but the Gators have only ever had four voices of the Gator since I believe the 1940s so kind of the Pittsburgh Steelers of uh of Team announcing uh here but what was it like to uh to replace Mick Hubert and do you and him I mean obviously you probably

Chatted but do do you and him still communicate or or catch up or or how did that transition go for you yeah it you know it went well for me because again kind of what I said earlier about maybe my age or or things that I’ve career I

Don’t know if I could have done this maybe even 10 years ago um just you know one of those deals that’s I I knew that I wasn’t gonna be no one’s ever gonna be Mick Hubert right so there was no like I’m gonna replace him or um I’m going to

Be regarded in the same way as Mick it was basically being secure with my own style um and that kind of a thing and and Mick and I will talk every so often actually we just talked a couple weeks ago uh for good 40 minutes or whatever

It seems we we time it out right that we have plenty to talk about when we do catch up and I didn’t know MC Hubert before I I got the job I knew of him I knew his work but I didn’t know him personally and it’s an interesting

Choice that he made that basically there was no rocking chair tour uh he doesn’t even live in game anymore so there was no kind of like you know voice of the Gator am Meritus it was a clean I’m out uh you know and and I’ll follow when

I want otherwise I’m playing golf and working at the church and and spending time with my wife and that’s exactly what Mick has done and I I think he’s very happy in that sense and For Me Maybe in some small way that’s helped a little bit you know but I always want to

Acknowledge like you know his 70th birthday was this past Friday so I wanted to make sure on Saturday that we acknowledge that on the air there’s no denying you know who he is and his tenure and and you’re right I’m I’m one of four with three of us living it’s

Interesting there’s a local commercial spot now running that has all three of our voices on it oh wow and that’s going to be truly unique you know so Quality Plumbing in Gainesville is celebrating their 40th anniversary so we found a way to like so what you know what what’s

Transpired in that 40 years and one is you know David steel then M Mick Hubert and and now me so that was a very interesting project to have the three of us collaborate on that but you know kind of back to what I was saying is I knew

What my style would be I’m now kind of set in my ways in that sense and it was great because I was nervous before the very first football game I did here for the Gators I’d done other Florida games but you know being the voice of the

Gators it felt good to be nervous again like don’t you want to have kind of that that chill a little bit not scared but just nervous I think it’s a healthy thing and so that felt right and felt good and and and here we are and so I’m

Sure there are some that you know will say well you know you’re no Mig cubert you’re right I don’t want to be Mig cubert yeah but I think that most of the fans and certainly the people I work with have been very very gracious and very supportive and and i’ I felt

Welcomed and you know um that big moment will come at some point where you know may maybe uh you know Gator fans would love it but I would get a chance to call some of the big moments like like Mick did yeah um young Shan Kelly want to

Grow up and be a play-by-play caller like what was your childhood Dreams yeah you know there’s a comes an age for all of us right that you figure out that um guess what you’re not going to be in the major leagues um you’re not going to

Play pro basketball so I love sports so much that I wanted to find a way to to stay in it um and in high school you I grew up in a house where the game was always on you know whether it was actively being listened to or it was just kind of

Background noise and when you grew up in St Louis you’re around these voices right jack buck and Mike Shannon um Dan Kelly was the voice of Blues hockey uh Bill Wilkerson was the legendary voice he did um Missouri football and some big red football so the one thing that

Really stood out was they were not only ambassadors of the team but they were ambassadors of of the city too and then when I kind of locked in on that in high school and then off into college then you start to see what these division one announcers are like for their schools

And their towns and it’s very similar just on a smaller scale and that that that intrigued me as much as anything else and then you know you’re going to pay me to go to all the games and travel with the team and and well I was in so I

Was hooked so thankfully I found a way to to work my way into some pretty good spots what was your first game you do a pop warner game a high school game like were you nervous what was that like what are the minor leagues for an upand Comer

Yeah it’s funny that you say minor leagues and whatnot because I’m sure it chaps some people’s butts that I’ve done Major League Baseball but I didn’t come up through minor league baseball and we’re seeing more of that today um the all the the paths or the ways that I

Came up through don’t seem to matter anymore and so a lot of times when young people come to me and say hey you know what should I do next or you know what was your path and how do I follow that I’m like I’m sorry I can’t help you

Because those those things are gone I mean it used to be the old Kevin Bacon Six Degrees of Separation right that’s how you this thing that’s how you’d get your next your next gig all those things the first thing I did though was was Southern Illinois University women’s basketball that was my first

Play-by-play job gois go Salukis and so you know you ride the bus I learned real quick how you should conduct yourself around a team how you should travel all those things and then you just you you just never say no right then the next thing you know it’s hey let’s do some

High school football or high school basketball or you know HST pregame halftime postgame for the big Network and you just start kind of just stacking these chips on top of each other and that’s that’s kind of how it progresses but that first that first play byplay

Some there’s a tape somewhere and I hope it never surfaces we’re on it yeah I hope it never surfaces some would say that I’m so old that it’s probably on some real to real somewhere but I’m sure it wasn’t very good um but I just I kept at it so lucky for you

Sean I don’t think we have the machine that plays that kind of tape anymore yeah yeah no there like if you’re old enough you know what a cart machine is too that’s another old radio thing too so um it is interesting that you mentioned that because I get asked a lot

How didd you get into your job and when I was in journalism school it was you know you’re a fly on the wall you do this and at the time I was in college Bill Simmons was just becoming popular and he was an unabashed uh Celtics fan

And it’s like hey he’s a national writer who is openly cheering for the Celtics and this is like what is this and now there’s so many different ways before it was like you go to college you write for the paper and then you hopefully get to cover traffic or hopefully get to cover

High School somewhere and you pay your dues and now there’s just so many different Avenues um Ethan iy is at uh the game on Friday and they have a student Radio Network and and that’s a way to do it or you can just start a YouTube channel so there’s so many

Different ways uh kind of get into our business now that you don’t have to go these traditional routes you know that shoot I didn’t even do a traditional rout I’ve never worked for for a paper I’ve always worked for uh online Internet essay blogs right right must

Been a good guy that got that good job Nick shout out to Dan for giving me my first job no in that sense the digital world uh has made this a more welcoming place and I think it’s actually helped to diversify our business in a better way

Because you know when I was coming up kind of like you were talking about with regard to a traditional media Outlet your opportunity to call a game was based solely on would some local radio station whatever give you the chance to do it let alone the equipment to do it

You know the the old stories about Bob cus and you know and I probably did it too you you get the little tape recorder and youd go up in the stands You’ kind of call the game from the stands that was really the only organic way to do

This and so now with regards to streaming and podcasting and and and online platforms with regards to just even writing as you guys mentioned there’s so many more ways for you to get a tape and tape’s the Antiquated word right do you call I mean a

File it’s it’s like when we talk about like football highlights like oh we’re watching the film you’re like hey man nothing is on film yeah right film there’s no tape you know you said you know here’s my here’s my link that’s I mean yeah you know that’s that’s kind of

What this is now like it’s interesting frankly guys I hope that I’ve made my last demo real ever you know God willing I I don’t do that ever again but even just kind of that having that last one my agent thank God had you know had my my my demo reer link for

Them to listen to here at Florida so um yeah the the days of trying to put those things together or clip file or whatever just different than what I came up with it’s crazy crazy times Well Sean I know that you’re you’re busy I know that

You’ve got a busy week ahead of you we appreciate your your time coming on uh today I know that the the gator Faithful is excited to listen to this interview as well and it’s been uh fun watching you uh continue to grow and uh and um

And be the voice of the Gators so um thank you so much for your time today and we will hopefully chat with you soon and uh best of luck on what I would imagine is quite a busy uh next couple of months for you yeah I call this the

Crazy Eight okay so last past week is the start of the busiest eight weeks of the Gator athletic calendar when you look at how that so we’re one week into the Crazy Eight and then when the crazy8 is done that’s when I start NBA playoff stuff too so glad you me now because

It’s we’ll send you a couple Starbucks gift cards in the next couple weeks I appreciate hey big one for Florida on Tuesday we’ll see how this goes against Alabama we’re gonna learn a lot absolutely hopefully you get your big your big uh your big Gator moment this tournament with the basketball team

Maybe so maybe you meant baseball’s second game of the year at UNF thought that was what the big one is uh I’ll be driving up there cuz their uh TV situation at UNF is not great so I’ll be driving up to Jacksonville for that one enjoy that hopefully it won’t be raining

Because that was a real bummer this past weekend that’s for sure yeah yeah well I hope to see you back at condrin Sean but not anytime soon I hope basketball uh keeps you away from baseball for a little bit I I’ll see you Friday night Friday night

Mind Friday night Friday night much and we will talk with you soon my friend all right guys take care thank a good one man Sean Kelly voice of the Gators appreciate him coming on the program today uh we gotta we gotta think of because this happened we had uh Jeff

Cardoo on another podcast for the people who aren’t watching like we are we’re like picking voices that are way better than ours for an audio only platform so Sean for coming on but like don’t bring in your replacement guys yeah phenomenal voice glad is the new voice of the Gator

Have not ever been complimented on my voice people say I have a voice for uh for miming that’s what people say about my voice you have a voice for print a face podcast and a voice for print face for podcast voice for print and uh and

Opinions that don’t need to be heard so uh with that being said I know we have Neil Blackman that’s going to be joining the show so we will pause uh for a little bit on talking about basketball uh but the Gators did grab a commitment over the weekend uh I believe if memory

Serves me correct in basic research uh this is the highest ranked offensive lineman that the gator have gotten uh in about a decade or so so the Gators grabbed Payton Joseph 6 foot4 305 pounds interior offensive lineman from Houston County or maybe it’s HST County I think

I mispronounced that last time uh from Warner pardon me Houston County High School uh from Warner Robbins Georgia uh four stars ranked as the 106th overall player in the country Gator grab him over the likes of Florida state Georgia Tech LSU Oregon Texas Alabama uh Georgia Georgia

Tech Kentucky and a number of other schools so gentlemen your thoughts on Payton Joseph’s commitment to the Florida Gators Rob S said you know hold my beard bro yall said I’m the worst of the two uh no very good get uh interior lineman uh we

Need we we need guys to be able to protect our quarterbacks we’re doing a good job of getting top tier guys to come in and and he looks like a recruiter himself he’s reaching out to Antoine Hill on the quarterback who I have is QB qb1 this cycle on on the

Twitter and Antoine Hill reached back out to him so it seems there’s a lot of Chemistry Between these guys but incredible get early on in the cycle um I like what we have in the fold so far it’s all about at this point we seen us

Get off to a good offseason last year with recruiting then we lost some after a bad season and and and how the season played out so um I think we’re going to recruit well this offseason you know it’s good to see our offensive line or recruiting do step it up early but I

Think we’re going to recruit well it’s going to all be about be about us winning games to keep this this class in the fold so very good get yeah I know I know uh Cornelius kardi said man it’s too early to be hyped about 25 kids I I get it right and

And we know we’ve talked a lot about on the show that there’s a lot that can happen between now and December uh but we want to give these kids uh their light now um Florida obviously had a run of decommitments there at the end but

For the most part most of these guys did stay in the class uh offensive linemen while they can be S there can be some drama with some of them for the most part it does seem like a lot of them uh usually lock in and lock in pretty early

Uh they’re looking for opportunity looking for opportunity for development so we will see obviously there’s a lot that can happen between now and December or February when he signs next year but definitely want to give uh Credence to uh to his commitment now so um pton

Joseph a good get for the Gator uh like I said highest ranked offensive line commit in about a decade or so so uh kind of crazy to think about that it’s been that long since the G hundreds but a huge pick for the Gator big pick up for Billy robale and this

Offense so uh a guy that I think can grow and develop uh plays uh some elite football uh there in Georgia plays at the the highest caliber of football in Georgia so being able to go into the backyard of Georgia Georgia Tech a few other schools uh to be able to grab him

Is definitely a big plus for the Gators so the Gators start off their recruiting class uh in a good spot uh for 2025 let me just pull up that list I know that they uh obviously if you have him uh in that mix and in the fold there uh Jaylen

Wiggins a guy that committed to the Gators about a month ago uh from uh Rickards High School there in Tallahassee he’s the number 56 overall player in the country as a defensive lineman walz Clark the running back uh ranked 209th and then Joseph Abdullah the wide receiver uh who committed uh

Back in January as well uh so a good start with you know those four and then just continue to to to add more and add talent and and then do your best to to have a great season and you know keep these guys in the fold because that’s

How you’re going to be able to build uh to a program that is um you know sustainable for the uh for the future that f look good I ain’t gonna lie yeah get gets to the second level well athletic kid big scrome merer that’s how you want to drop an

Interior offensive lineman man shout out to S we’ll see could hold on to him it’s going to come down to winning games I do you you did make a good point offensive lineman tend to stick they don’t tend to flip and play the games uh quarterback is similar the skill position is usually

The guys that you know with the shenanigans and the pass rushers and whatnot but offensive lineman tend to stick all right perfect um Nick any update I know the Gators are still without a head strength and conditioning um head right now uh but uh what’s the uh the path that

Florida’s taking as they enter a very integral time of the offseason yeah Tyler miles um who came in right before the 2022 uh not right before the season but came in and was here in the offseason before the 20 uh three schedule um he’s working uh

Leading the group um and I wouldn’t be surprised if if he ends up being getting the the the job um okay Billy will I mean he just did a search for uh strength coaches so that that list of guys that have already been vetted is right there probably still on

His desk but there’s a lot of support in the locker room um for Tyler miles the the team the guys really like him um he spent time kind of all over the place I think he was at Duke before coming to yeah let me run let me run through uh

That just because that’s a name that we’ve not really talked about so uh he’s currently Florida’s director of player athletic development like you said uh Nick in the 2022 season he was at Duke where he was the assistant director of sports performance prior to Duke he was the assistant strength and conditioning

Coach at the University of Miami uh prior to that he was at Boost performance in Nashville which does combined training uh in NFL and college offseason workout so he was there uh for two years uh he also worked at Tennessee State as their head strength coach uh

For football and volleyball uh he was an intern uh at the University of Tennessee University of South Carolina uh Northwestern State which I believe is in Arkansas uh and then he was with the Salt Lake City stallions uh in 2019 and 2018 so definitely a young guy looks to

Be maybe in his late 20s early 30s uh but certainly has risen the ranks pretty quickly and I would imagine that him working closely with Craig Fitzgerald for the five weeks said he was there uh as well as Mark hockey before that has a good plan in place for what these next

Few weeks look like Northwestern State is in Nach Tois Louisiana ah one state off what he was at Northwestern State for a little while Dan said Arkansas so I Googled it to fact check wrong missed that the only reason I’m here Dan I’ll get it fixed and I probably said nachos

Another fact check error by Dan the man so so Tyler miles taking over uh spring practice starts in two and a half weeks March 7th okay so yeah right around two and a half weeks or so so uh Tyler miles will have that role I would

Imagine like you said Nick we will not see a replacement hired before uh the end of spring practice it just doesn’t make a ton of sense right now yeah a lot of things not making sense right now yeah yeah yeah but uh we got criticized a little bit

Last week especially me saying I was a little too negative so trying to scale it back and bring the positive hopium that that this fan base wants right now no one can be as positive as me Dan but you should you should strive you should strive to reach my levels of positivity

It’s like one of those you know shoot for the moon you’ll land Stars I like yeah dark dark came out uh last week so um nothing’s changed just how I’ll deliver that to you guys uh Nick while we wait for Neil um let’s talk a little baseball before

We do that let’s give a quick shout out to our friends at HomeField apparel HomeField apparel.com promo code stadium and Gala checkout will give you 15% off of your order again go check it out uh incredible products for the University of Florida as well as Trevor sikma was

Wearing one when he went to the uh the com combine they have one of those cool starter jacket looking uh jackets that they released last year really cool products over there again not just University of Florida about a 100 different colleges and universities all over the country so any family uh friend

Or uh loved one as well as the Indianapolis Colts so Harrison can buy a few things from HomeField apparel so uh again HomeField apparel.com stadium and Gail at checkout all one word uh will get you 15% off of your first order nick uh the gator plan to play three games

Against St Joseph’s University this St John’s University sorry uh St John’s University loses the first game and then Saturday and Sunday both get canceled due to rain I did notice that golf held an entire tournament on Saturday uh and they were still able to play but Nick

Give us the background of what happened with with baseball on Friday and then uh ultimately the scheduling snafus uh that led to two canceled games um well we’ll do scheduling first so Saturday the rain I mean it rains all day Saturday from around 2 pm and not torrential but just

Constant rain from 2 pm um really until like 800 PM last night Sunday um so just an entire wash out for the weekend I was surprised um I enjoyed it but surprised typically baseball will will wait and wait and wait until uh the last minute to cancel a game um I was at

Uh a Coffee Spot no free no free spots no free ads uh so I was at a random Coffee Spot um when I got a text message saying like Hey we’re we’re we’re banging the game today game’s off and I was like oh man that’s early normally

I’d be sitting at the park for four hours uh with the tarp on the field before they decided to to cancel the game they already moved the game from 400 pm to noon to 10:00 a.m. um so they were trying to get it in but it it was

Unlikely that they were going to be able to get in a game on Sunday so I think they were really trying Saturday um and and then obviously getting washed out two your first three is not great I’ll be interested to see what they do I think Jack kagon needed um a little bit

Of a rest um with his arm dealing with some tendonitis uh but Liam Peters The Freshman I I will be interested to see if he throws two three Innings on Tuesday uh before his Saturday start uh because he hasn’t thrown in a game uh if you get to this weekend against Columbia

It’ll be over two weeks that he’s thrown in a game um so it interested to see how you handle those things um I I mean the big like you’re gonna No One’s Gonna go undefeated in the college baseball season um I don’t like that energy it’s never happened negative Nick is back

Negative Nick damn it I’m back um I think the biggest thing with baseball is like when you lose game you’re like oh there’s always tomorrow and then you now you’re sitting with an upset loss to St John’s uh you’re sitting with that for five days before you get a chance to go

Back out which is a long time for baseball um and then that Friday game like you just didn’t have it uh Kate fiser goes out there did not have his stuff um struggled to find the The Zone and then when he was in the zone uh they

Were kind of jumping on Fast balls um he really needs to develop that third pitch he’s fastball slider change up really needs to develop that change up and he’s worked all off season on doing it um but it’s it’s it will be tough to be a

Friday night guy or a weekend guy when you start the SEC season if you don’t have that third pitch if you’re just fastball slider um guys at this level will jump on it especially if you’re throwing 91 94 he needs to be able to throw all three pitches to both sides of

The plate and into any counts so that’s something he’s working on uh he spoke to us after the game which I thought was impressive there’s sometimes these baseball kids come through and you only talk to them when they win games so it was nice to see him stand there and and

Talk about talk us through uh what he was feeling and what went wrong but floors down quick seven nothing and now you have to start pressing offensively so I think they had some good at bats um I wasn’t nervous down 70o though the last sh I was like man that ain’t

Nothing we go get that yeah I mean this team’s going to be able to hit home runs uh KOB Shelton hit one 400 feet uh said some words to the pitcher which uh when I was able to watch it back was able to uh lip read you say I

Won’t won’t repeat them say it bro this is a rated our show we gonna get don’t know don’t know where where St John’s in Queens right Queens probably not the school to want to square up to in a verbal altercation but you know it’s interesting like you never know I don’t know they’re

Not from the Bronx Dan I think kids playing baseball in New York are probably not from the Bronx these boys think I ain’t watching baseball that’s crazy man see they don’t they don’t believe in me in in the comments man yeah Cornelius kardi says on cappen he ain’t watching no baseball probably not

Watching the game live but definitely seeing the score on the timeline and then Harrison Sanchez uh hit us with a uh what does the word rhyme with Nick Nick can’t R uh Puck you wussy would be a good okay okay okay Goode they say in hockey to each other

Fck you wussy yeah yeah yeah it uh a nice point at the pitcher Puck you wussy uh and immediately the Umpire runs after him that’s a warning that’s a warning uh you’re going to get you’re going to get these smaller schools like um St John’s came down got up early and then they

Were talking like and good you should Hard Rock bets didn’t even have a line for the game uh which would be which would make sense like Miami was a 1300 betting favorite uh on Friday and they needed to walk off on Friday it’s baseball you’re going to get small teams

That that beat uh you know the number one two three four five teams in the country so for back at it Tuesday afternoon any given Wednesday you know every given Thursday speaking of yeah yeah Florida will have UNF twice this week uh at Jacksonville I’ll be up there

For that uh bless your heart don’t do it Dan don’t do it bro said bless his heart Nick we have Neil black waiting for us so we the gator GNA win this week who do who do they have this weekend UNF on Tuesday Wednesday and then the boys from Colombia not South North

Colombia New York yep yeah well it’s uh 30 degrees in New York right now not really baseball weather they’re trying to get out of that and uh come down to the sunshine state I love it typical snowbirds up in New York so the ivy league coming down to the Harvard of the

South when Columbia joins well we’ve got Neil Blackman from Saturday down south Florida basketball as well joining the program NE what it do baby good to have you back brother I think the first time on video I think the last time was just uh when we were

Just in audio media yeah you know you guys you guys moved up in the world real fast yeah I mean yeah we’re somewhere shout out to our sponsors for yeah shout out out to Lucy nothing nothing to do with you guys being being awesome no not at all man all your sponsors

Yeah buy stuff from our sponsor so we can keep leveling hit a just hit a pump Sunshine baby not last week man I didn’t I got a lot of anyway so uh Neil you are one of the uh the foremost experts on Florida Gator basketball let’s talk a little bit

About them right now 18- seven eight- four in the conference portal God Todd is now 4-0 against Mike White um but talk to us a little bit about the gator seven to the last eight a couple of big wins in there Kentucky Auburn uh but uh

Talk to us a little bit about the Gator basketball program yeah man they’re good um you know the short short version is this is a good team um it’s a good team and they’ve got the best yards in the SEC um and I think that’s they don’t

Have the best guard in the SEC Alabama does the team they’ll play this week but they have the best group of guards um and you know Elite guard play as the season goes on League guard play wins college basketball games and so you know what you’re seeing is is that uh but

You’re also seeing Florida has enough in the front court right it’s not if something happens to Colin Castleton he gets in foul trouble he gets injured you know they’re they’re in deep trouble it’s not uh the latee Mike White teams where there was one big man and really

You know some guy that they took a flyer on coming off the bench to provide no um really uh so I think you have a deep front court and you know obvious tyres Samuel is a big time player he’s played in the Big East uh which is a great

League for multiple years and he’s been real good uh but they’re getting contributions now from the younger guys in the front court whether it’s Micah hand locked in who came over from the Sun Belt and and he came from Marshall so at Marshall they play real fast and

He was kind of just a rim Runner um and they don’t play much defense at Marshall it’s Mike danton’s brother coaches there they they just want to get up and down and I think adjusting to playing defense and physicality is huge for it’s just like football I mean if you go to the

SEC and you’re a high level transfer uh from a a smaller League there’s an adjustment period usually unless you’re just a freak like Osiris Torrance right so football translate to basketball I think Mike a Handlock in learning how physical he has to be to contribute and

Then uh this staff I mean that look the valuations that they made on these two young bigs Thomas Hawk and uh Alex Conan um I mean the list of people who offered them is it’s interesting I sent out a tweet the other day where you know I

Kind of put up the list that Tommy Hawk had uh and his best offer Was northwestern other than Florida but Florida trusted their evaluations right they put in the work and said here’s what we see um and some of that is torian green which is what um Todd told

Me on Saturday after Florida 1 was you know hey we got this guy we brought in Toran to to run our player development program and to help with evaluations and Tommy ha coach’s kid uh played at a good program and they were just you know torian Green said oh you know coach’s

Kids have worked out pretty well here in Florida and uh you they I I like the way this guy plays and it’s worked man I mean Tommy’s playing his best ball and then Conan goes to this NBA Academy in Australia and uh you know a lot mid

Major programs that are good like St Mary’s and Gonzaga have been raiding that place for years you know Gonzaga rated it so much they’re not really considered a mid major anymore and Florida said uh we’re gonna go get this guy that has offers from St Mary’s Gonzaga and Utah and nobody else offered

Him in the entire country we’re going to offer him and see what happens and he is so far ahead from an offensive standpoint than any freshman big that’s been at Florida in you know probably 10 years and Pat young was joking yeah Pat young was joking that he

If I had his offensive skill set as a freshman I wouldn’t have played four years in Florida so you said it’s Hawk so Tommy Hawk is the forward that that is from Pennsylvania and then Alex Conan is the other young fresh so the point is Florida has Elite guards I think they

Have the best point guard in the SEC and Zion Poland and then they have a front Court that’s getting better and better so what they have is a chance to get better as the season goes on even from where they are now which is a team

That’s you know they lost one game by one point that’s their only loss in the last month plus that’s crazy yeah Tommy Hawk uh goes off for 17 points obviously a season High uh for him I guess a career high too for playing that game uh but uh zero points against Kentucky

Three points against Texas A&M two points against Auburn two points against LSU and then goes off for 17 points seven rebounds a block shot a steel uh just a a great game uh for him uh Gator obviously tough matchup ahead at home or at Alabama pardon me this uh this

Tuesday uh Alabama I believe has won every game but maybe one at home over the last two seasons or or maybe have lost two uh but what can the gator expect going against Alabama uh tomorrow yeah great question look I I think Florida will play pretty free and

Loose given the the streak that they’ve been on um they didn’t lose the game at Georgia obviously they they had to come from behind win I think that was huge you know golden said it pretty well he said if we’re going up to Alabama coming off really what would have been our

First bad loss of the year uh maybe we’re tighter maybe we’re desperate we’re afraid to make a mistake I want to go up there and not be that um and you know their one loss was to a team Alabama’s one loss at home was to a team

Sort of similar to Florida in that they have a dominant player PJ Hall their big man uh and a really good offensive team that doesn’t play great defense and that’s kind of how I would characterize Florida a team that that is very good offensively um but not great defensively

And that’s how I’d characterize Alabama right like Alabama doesn’t guard anyone um it’s not last year’s Alabama where they had Brandon Miller and Charles pako and they could just rough you up inside and really guard you and they were physical and that’s how they got the

Number one overall seed this team is a lot different I mean it’s sort of a mid- major All-Star team Mark Sears I think is the best player in the SEC he’s he’s a a guard that they use a ton um he’s got a chance to be the first guard in

The SEC since Scotty wilin to have an offensive rating over 120 with a usage rate of 30 so that means that 30% of Alabama’s possessions in with Sears taking a shot committing a turnover or drawing a foul like they’re not like it’s it’s uh what what silk say it’s

Like novakaine right it’s uh you know what’s coming and it’s still it’s gonna work anyway um they aren’t they aren’t out there to confuse you shout out to coach Boon uh yeah we’ve got plays give them time they work like Nova cane yeah that’s Alabama’s philosophy they’re

Going to shoot the three and they’re going to drive you and attack the basket they don’t take mid-range jumpers um you know they take what what uh my guy Eric Foss would call you know either high quality high percentage shots or or at The Rim or they take High reward shots

Outside the arkc and Florida like Florida’s going to give up 80 85 points points is Florida going to be able to score with them probably uh but I I would expect it to be a pretty competitive basketball game it’s interesting like to me having done Florida basketball hour for this our six

Season of that and you know fet and I were talking about it and this is the first time in late February where there’s a path to the SEC Championship and if Florida wins this week then that path is actually a lot more wide open than than people realize

Yeah I think I think I was reading that Florida is a Tennessee loss away from being able to control their own destiny uh and I know the schedule is not super super easy uh from here on out uh Neil before I forget wanted to ask I know

That there was certainly a lot of excitement uh about Riley cougal coming back this year I know towards the end of last season he you know was really lightting the the basketball world on fire and I know a lot of people thought that he you know could potentially go to

The NBA last season and was definitely a player to watch this season it seems to me like we’ve gotten a lot of hot and cold from Riley cougal this season averaging 10 and a half points uh 3.8 rebounds um this season but what’s what’s kind of been

Going on with with Riley cougal did is it yeah I mean mental is it the way that play it’s a great question I think early in the year I saw a lot of people saying oh they’re not really running stuff for Riley and that was nothing could be

Further from the truth um they were trying to get Riley around screens trying to get him to attack the basket they were trying to run plays where he could come off a screen and catch and shoot and Riley was catching the ball and playing tentative he was rejecting

Screens which if you’re 65 and built like a sec linebacker you should not be rejecting screen set to get you downhill um so he’s been tentative um he he does not finish well at The Rim I’m not breaking any new news on Stadium and Gale you guys know what you see with

Your eyes you don’t have to coach basketball or follow it like I do to to know that um and so that finishing problem has continued but I think the early shooting slump kind of affected his confidence uh he’s he’s been shooting better lately although um the

Last two games it’s kind of been iffy again the one thing he’s done that I did want to you know I have been pointing out is and I will say and I think y’all know this you know because you guys cover a lot of different sports and and

Football players in particular like he’s finding ways to impact winning he is Florida’s best defender uh and has been all year um especially on the ball and you know so all of that is great like this body language stuff I don’t I don’t put much into that he was leading a team

Huddle uh multiple times in the Georgia game I was in Athens for that like I mean I think he’s he’s a leader he wants to win but yeah I mean the offensive struggles St are are real um and for a guy that’s one of the highest paid nil

Dudes in the league um you know I think it’s safe to say it hasn’t been the year that anybody hoped for and if if Florida wants to make a Deep Run like second weekend they need good Riley they can’t have you know the Riley of Georgia that

They can’t even put on the floor the last six minutes we’re hot right now uh doing pretty well is is De blowing of leads still a concern for you yes yeah no it definitely is I mean look um they’ve had they’ve had seven leads this year of double digits in the second

Half and six of those games they’ve either lost or won by five points or less that’s not you know and I think so Todd said some of its mentality like they they haven’t learned culturally how to keep their foot on the pedal yet um and he said that’s that’s

On me that’s on our staff you know we have to continue to impress upon them the need to do that some of that is that this team is disinterested defensively at times saw we saw that in the first half against Georgia and I point that

One out because everyone can see it in a comeback right well what’s defense if nothing that’s just getting in the way of my next shot Neil we just don’t play it my next shot comes quicker so when Georgia is getting into the pain at will with mediocre

Guards like that’s about want to and that was the big challenge that they got from from coach Hartman and coach Golden in the locker room at halftime against georget was like what do you guys want your identity be because right now it could be Walt Clayton and Zion Poland are really damn

Good and the rest of you don’t seem to want to help us win and they don’t they’re not normally calling out individual players like that but I think that makes some sense so Florida gets in front of Georgia and Georgia in classic Blanco fashion goes eight minutes

Without a bucket right sh out to Blanco man but some of it was some of it’s Blanco and their offense being like my offens is at Westminster Academy were more threatening than Blancos all right um and some of it is also like Florida just guarded them right they’re like you know what we’re

Not going to let you get in the paint every damn drive now and I think shout out to Mike White the gift that keeps univen yeah well no doubt but but you look at this higher right and now you look at the way he’s worked the portal I like Todd the portal

Guy God that’s good yeah um you know he is I think he’s 12 or 13 and one against people hired contemporaneously with him the one loss was without Castleton to miss state in the SEC tournament by a point um so he’s beaten the guys that were hired with him um and I think

Because people keep asking me about it I think the recruiting on the high school level which is the next big piece from a program standpoint is going to pick up soon um but their evaluations have been too really good too right like they signed what was supposed to be the worst

Class in the SEC and they have two of the best five freshman in the league that’s crazy what um what does this roster look like I mean obviously I know that the you know the last two seasons have been a transfer portal Patchwork and we’re seeing it all over college

Basketball it’s not just at the University of Florida uh what does this roster look like next year are they gonna keep Clayton and Pullen and Samuel and Richard and cougal and obviously Condon will will still be here Hawk will still be here what does this roster look

Like next season so the two big challenges are they lose Z pulling he’s out of Eligibility so he he’s gonna play I think he’s gonna play in the NBA or the g-league and be pretty good um I’ve had five different SEC coaching staffs now tell me man we watched Z Pullin in the

On film in the portal and we knew he was pretty good but he’s the best guard in our he’s the best point guard in our league wow um you know I had a Kentucky assistant text me yesterday and said it’s not even close either he said it’s

Not even close how much better he makes so that is the biggest challenge for Florida will be how do you replace Zan Pullen um I think Riley cougal will come back uh his nil package beats what a g-league deal would be it’s really that simple um and he has things

To work on and like again with Toran here Florida cares about development again which my biggest other than offense the biggest problem under Blanco was players did not get better it wasn’t competitiveness it wasn’t defense it wasn’t they won a lot of games right but the ceiling was so

Close to the floor because they weren’t developing they recruited pretty well but they didn’t develop them um not the case with this staff and then you know so so I think they’ll get cougle back Clayton is an interesting one to me because you you talk to five NBA Scouts you get five different

Answers get like you know to me like I try to look at it okay step back if it’s my son and he can score like a pro already and he just had a baby you know so either your nil package for him is really good and Florida’s in

A really good place from an nil standpoint in basketball and I don’t think people understand because there’s so much talk about like H Florida needs to they need to Buck Up on nil and football and that’s probably true but like from an nil space in hoops it’s a

Little easier like you get one or two or three big donors shout out to Chandy Parkson yeah you’re good to go right so Florida’s War chest is fine they could put together something for Walt does he want to be a college basketball player for another year

Um so I think that yeah I mean we saw Todd recruit Colin Castleton back but Colin’s situation was a little different yeah yeah no uh obviously you know we’ve seen a lot of talent out of the transfer portal and I would imagine you continue to see this development out of these

Guys you’re going to continue to see Florida being able to attract you know better and better Talent out of that the transfer portal but uh you know it’s it’s been miraculous work so far obviously the job’s not done with with portal God Todd over there but but so

Far the results are strong it know was funny he um he spoke to the pelis county Gator Club a few months ago uh and he didn’t want to allude to the nickname and then Paul sammon’s friend of the program a really good buddy of mine screamed out portal God Todd and he just

Smiled he’s like yeah I’ve heard it uh he’s like if that’s what you want to call me that’s what we’re gonna call him from uh from now on here um so Gator right now I privately texted our Stadium G group text and I think I text Neil too during one of

Those long um offensive droughts I said he might just be Mike White with spreadsheets no since then just ripped off a string of wins so yeah yeah High proficiency with the spreadsheets so uh so Neil uh I guess final couple questions here Gator right now sitting uh in a decent position

Right now to compete you know for the SEC regular season Title Here obviously they they’ll make it into the tournament uh the SEC tournament obviously looks like they’re going to make it into the uh NCAA tournament for the first time in in a number of years now what where do

You kind of forecast you know this Gator team likely finishing up this uh this season yeah I mean I think that they’ll go either four- two or five- one down the stretch I I think that the the coin flip game is the Bama game in the Odom

Um and you know if they’re 5- one on the stretch fet and I were joking about it like if they’re 13 and five you mentioned yeah one game away from controlling your own destiny if they finish 13 to5 in the SEC there’s a there’s there’s still a not terrible

Chance they’re SEC co-champions it just kind of depends on what happens with Tennessee and like does Tennessee have two losses in them that’s that could be tough but um in any event I think they’ll get to 12- six in the league and then that should get them a five or a

Six seed I think they’re being undervalued a little bit by some of the bracketologists right now because their strength of record is 17th um so that would be like the first five seed that’s one of the things that they use they don’t just use kenpom that’s the one all the announcers talk

About but the committee uses BART torvi to Florida’s uh top 16 in torvic which would be a four seed um you know and then I like I said Elite guard play wins in March it just it has forever that is a truism so you know if Florida

Plays a team that doesn’t have guards that are as good as theirs which is most everybody um they will have at least somewhat of an advantage in the NCA tournament now the holding leads thing like could I see a scenario where Florida is in the second round and

Playing a three seed and they’re up 15 points and say they’re the six and they they get a three they’re up 15 and then they collapse absolutely I could see that scenario playing out I could also see a scenario where Florida’s guards carry them to the second weekend and

Then depending on which one seed you get or which two seed you get like there’s no reason that they couldn’t make an Elite 8 run um what I don’t want to see from anybody this is my my PSA use this few moments on Stadium Gale to PSA folks

Please don’t send me any [ __ ] in my d m about how Mike White made the Elite 8 and if Todd loses in the second round or the sweet 16 that Pro like no like this Florida team is the best Florida team just pay attention to what you’re

Watching that’s all I’m asking you to do that they definitely turn corner I don’t know if you know this I don’t know you watch basketball closely enough but Mike White took a Florida team to the Elite 8 that’s who who was it um I think I think

You guys shouted him out on the uh the Florida basketball hour uh there was somebody that was pumping Mike White’s tires this uh this off season oh John rothy John rothy yeah he said that uh Georgia was one of the better programs in the SEC and that Mike White deserved

Credit for their start to the season uh they are playing like a traditional Mike White team now so um I’m sure definitely are they definitely are playing like a Trad I looked through his timeline a lot of comments on basketball none on Mike White or the Florida Gators uh during

That time uh Neil I do have a question for you right now you mentioned Gator strength of of record is 17th in the country right now still Florida is not ranked I mean maybe they will be this uh this week but uh why do you think Florida’s not been uh been ranked

Yet yeah so I mean that’s one of the that’s an that’s a great one and I think look I think the biggest reason is just the last couple of seasons of and public perception of the program right like Florida went from having the longest NCA tournament appearance streak in the SEC

To not being really a bubble team at all last year right they went to the NIT got blown out on their home floor by UCF um they the year before they were barely on the bubble when they got to the SEC tournament lost Blanco quit the next day

Went to Georgia um so yeah no good I mean it’s can’t believe the University of Georgia paid the University of Florida Real American dollars for Mike White it’s astonishing it’s astonishing and like it actually like that is encouraging to me like as an American just grinding like you just never know

Like you never know like what opportunity could befall you even if you’re mediocre yeah the athletic director somewhere you uh you’re good for the rest of your career I mean good God uh but but so I think I think there’s a perception issue like it’s still and that’s the thing that’s the

Attention and the eyeballs matter man they matter to recruits they matter to you know I think this is as energized as the fan base has been about basketball in a long time Florida started a year in the beginning of this decade the co year they start the year in the top five now

They were in the top 25 sum that year on and off but they could never really get any consistency from a team that had a bunch of NBA players on it um and so look I mean yeah I mean I think they should they should probably be getting

More respect than they’re getting based on their strength record based on their efficiency numbers I did see Gary Parish who I think is great um put him in his top 25 but then uh Tom Fletcher who I think is great at on three didn’t have

Him in his ballot this week um so you know it’ll be interesting like I’d hate for them to get ranked this week and get boat race by Bama uh but I don’t think that’s gonna happen I think I think it’ll be a competitive game no what we’ve seen the team kind of

Turning the corner uh this year and showing some improvement what are you seeing differently from from Todd golden like how how has he become like he’s coming to his own a little bit what are you seeing differently from him no that’s a good question look I think

Uh I think that they they don’t run a lot of stuff on offense but what they run they run really well um and then it’s a roster construction thing like they’re this was a a huge development and roster construction were a problem under the prior regime um this team has built a

Roster Todd said you know what I want to do I want to go get really good guards that can can run my ball screen offense but then uh when we miss shots we have got to compete on the glass because it’s the SEC and everybody’s super physical well Florida’s second in

The country in rebounding percentage offensive rebounding percentage so when they miss shots they get second shots well that’s how you offset like if you don’t run Elite offense which I’d say Florida’s offense is good but again it’s not terribly multiple what they do but it doesn’t matter if you’re getting

Multiple possessions every time right like that’s how you you what do you do to correct the things you’re not as strong at at a CO as a coach yet well you go out and build a roster that can handle some of your deficiencies so Todd has done that really wisely I think um

And Florida doesn’t have a lot of wings which has been a problem in a couple of their losses they don’t have those you know kind of 6566 six7 dudes that are real switchable can guard five spots um I they would have had W with Edge Jarvis

The kid from Yale he had to quit basketball um had a medical thing I think but um yeah I mean like look it’s still one of the most well- constructed rosters in the league and again getting his evaluations right with with Hal and Conan is also is also key the one thing

I will say too Sil is like Todd is definitely a smart defensive dude like he understands defense so I think that’s a point of Pride for him right now is like why is my team looking disinterested defensively because it isn’t my scheme like it’s not what

Florida does from an X and O standpoint that’s that’s hurting them on defense it’s you know just will will to guard well Neil we appreciate your time today my friend I know that you’re a busy guy and I appreciate you carving out a uh probably longer than a lot of

Time during your day to talk a little bit about Florida Gaters basketball but it’s exciting uh to talk about uh the Improvement that uh that the Gator basketball program is making and we appreciate your time before you leave let everybody know where they can follow you I know you do some writing obviously

I know you have your podcast as well so let everybody know where they can follow you along yeah I appreciate you guys having me uh I Twitter at NW Blackman um or you can follow the Florida basketball hour Twitter at Florida BB hour uh and

Then yeah I mean check out check out our podcast or I can tell people are excited because we’ve got ridiculously you know are for us ridiculously good numbers right now um and that that’s exciting because like we’ve we’ve been plotting along for six years wondering when we’d have a really good team to

Cover you know not everybody gets to De laor the the Sully era that’s right well I also have to cover uh four different football coaches yeah so have I [Laughter] so it yeah so Neil again thank you so much for your uh your time today let’s

Get back on in a couple weeks in the Gators hopefully make that deep March run we appreciate your time my friend we’ll talk to you soon see you all right boys any final thoughts before we uh wrap up today’s episode with a whole show with no no damn face comments so hey

Y uh silk you have song of the week let’s give a quick shout out to our friends over at Alumni Hall visit alumni hall.com or go visit them on Archer Road in beautiful Gainesville Florida anything that you would want accessories apparel golf men’s women’s children anybody in between grilling accessories

Tailgate accessories whatever it might be go visit Alumni Hall tell them that stadium and Gail sent you but again alumni hall.com or alumni hall right off of 75 on Archer Road so been listening to a lot of Deontay Hitchcock lately let me get uh deante Hitchcock how the [ __ ] it’s TF so it

Don’t spell it how the [ __ ] but how TF how TF outf so uh perfect we appreciate everybody that uh watched Us on YouTube watch us on Twitter or X formerly known as Twitter whatever the name is now um please make sure you hit that like button hit the Subscribe button Button

As well we appreciate you guys and Nick I hope you have a great baseball field week silk we will see you next week and we hope you guys have a fantastic week gogators and we’ll see you next week