(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Decisions, decisions. - Wait a minute, are you still looking for cars on Carvana? - Yeah, decisions, decisions. - When I used Carvana, I found the exact car I was looking for in minutes. Bought it on the spot. - Electric or full diesel? Decisions. - Come on, you've been at it for weeks. - Just buy it already. - You're right, crossover it is. Decisions decided. - Whether you know exactly what you want or like to take your time, buy your car the convenient way with Carvana. - Before Gators Open SEC play this weekend against the Texas A&M Aggies Gross, it's crossover Thursday. Andrew Stifaniac joins us now. (upbeat music) - You are locked on Gators. Your daily podcast on the Florida Gators, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Hello and welcome to a crossover edition of Lockdown Gators. I am Brandon Olson. Joining me is Andrew Stifaniac of Lockdown Aggies. And we got a game this week. Obviously it's crossover Thursday. It's great to have crossover Thursday's back to SEC play. Before we get started, now through September 22nd, all fan dual customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube. And YouTubeTVvisafandal.com to get started. And Andrew, I've got to ask, it's your first year with Mike Elko, Connor Regan and a new offense with Colin Klein, who I love, I think he does a fantastic job. We can talk more about that in a minute, but kind of inconsistent so far. Week one, not the best offensive performance for IDO program. And then week two, obviously significantly improved. What's the temperature like right now in the quarterback situation? - You know, with Connor Wigman, it was so funny because all off season, it was, here he comes, here's Connor Wigman. He's looked great during his short time playing. He saw it a little bit as a true freshman last year, plays a few games, gets hurt, done for the year, and it's like, this is his time. He's older, he's better, he's learning, he's in this Colin Klein offense, which like you said, I think it's gonna be great. And then he comes out against Notre Dame and was not good, was very, very not good. And you know, it was frustrating and it was surprising and it's funny because then I'm like, well, maybe Notre Dame is just really, really, really, really good, well, then they lose to NIU, so that we're not gonna get into all that. But-- - We respect the Mac here. I guess we know how I'm at, come on. - I'm pro Mac, I'm just saying, when it, it was painful when you lose, but then you convince yourself it's okay, 'cause they're really good and then they lose and you go, oh man. But, Connor Wigman, here's my hope, and this is what we're gonna find out on Saturday. Right now it's a hope, we need to see it happen. My hope is that this was a, bright lights were too bright, college game day was in town, and Connor Wigman just wasn't big enough for the moment. Now that's not gonna play well for the rest of his career, obviously, but sometimes you can have a one off where you just don't play well. Bad games happen. He, what I love about Connor Wigman is he owned it. Hey, I play it awful. I play it awful. I gotta be better. He went out and he owned it. He comes against Samford. He go, or not Samford, you all played Samford. We played McNeese. He comes out against McNeese, and the stats weren't flashy. Let's pull up the numbers. He was 11 for 14, 1.25, 2 touchdowns. I mean, gets the job done. No 400 yards like Olagwe, but a good day. And he goes from the worst-graded quarterback in college football in week one to the highest-graded quarterback he got to fall in week two. So that's quite a transition. But Brandon, it's pretty simple. It's black and white to me. We're gonna find out what this offense and what Connor Wigman's made out, made of on Saturday against the Gators in his wamp. - Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, especially with the just for your verbiage. - Yeah. - Perhaps the lights were too bright. It's not like it gets any easier from here. Like, we're gonna find out, Olagwe said, this could be a good test. This could be maybe the worst test to go, oh, maybe he is 'cause he's probably gonna have a good day. Quarterbacks tend to do that against the Florida Gators under Billy Napier. They tend to have good days. They tend to have some explosive plays. I mean, Florida, against Miami, allowed 11 plays at 20 plus yards, which was the third worst in the country. And the two teams worse in them had already played two football games. And we're only one explosive play worse than them. So stuff like that can be a little bit of fool's gold, but I'm just curious to see how he comes out and plays in the swamp. And I need to see how Florida's defense is going to handle this Texas A&M offense. And Connor Wigman, like we've seen quarterbacks that can, and I'm not saying he's, you know, Lamar Jackson, but he can move. And I feel like Florida's struggled with quarterbacks. They could do that cam board had a few long runs. So I'm curious to see if Colin Klein's going to get Connor Wigman kind of moving a little bit more and try to exploit that. - Yeah. - Yeah, I'm with you. And I mean, Brandon, on the other side of this, when it comes to quarterback, my question for you, I've said it all week. I've told my listeners over at lockdown, like it's all week long. I'm so excited to talk to Brandon to get to ask him what is going on. Explain to me why, and I know it was Samford, I understand that. Well, how do you let your five-star future of the program go throw for 450 and three, and you're going to go, well, we're going to plan both. Or is it coach speak? Who's going to be out there? Fraggy fans, Brandon, what do you think this quarterback room is going to look like against Texas A&M on Saturday for the Gators? - I think, so just full disclosure, we are recording this shortly before Florida releases their death card every Wednesday. So if you don't know officially at the time of recording this, my assumption is going to be that that death chart is going to say DJ Lagway or Grammerts. And I think it's going to be in that order because Florida puts them numerically. But I think that because of that, people are going to see DJ Lagway's name first and go, oh, DJ starting, I am fully on board starting DJ. I don't think that's going to be the situation though. I think that you're going to see Grammerts go out there first, I think you're going to see Grammerts go out there most often. And I think that DJ Lagway will play, but I'm not sure how much. And people keep talking about the two quarterback system potential and they go, oh, Chris Leake and Tim Tebow. Big difference there. Big difference there. First off, Grammerts is not Chris Leake. DJ Lagway is not Tim Tebow. They're very different players there. But also one of those duos have done Mullen and Urban Meyer as their offensive minds. The other has Danny Nose, Billy Napier. I am not going to insult Russ Callaway. I think he does a great job regardless of whether or not he's actually getting to call the plays or not. But go to the Samford game, for example. Fourth and one early in the game, Florida decides, hey, we're going to go for it, we're going to impose our will. It's Samford. They put DJ Lagway at wide out, brought in Trey on web out of the Wildcat and got stuffed on fourth and one by Samford, by the way. But they came out there on fourth and one around Wildcat. If that was the Chris Leake Tim Tebow days, Tim Tebow is taking that football and running up the middle. Like that's a big difference where we talk about, oh, it worked with Chris and shout out to Bam from the Twitter spaces for bringing that point up initially, where if that's the Tebow days, Tebow is running that. But Billy Napier is putting DJ Lagway at wide out and having him actively block as a wide receiver. It's, there's very different levels to running that two quarterback system. I have no faith in this coaching staff to properly put it together. But I think, I think Gramerich is going to go out there, whether we agree with it or don't, to be clear, I don't. But I think that's where you're going to see a quarterback from the Florida Gators, whether we like it or not. I think that Billy Napier is the kind of guy that's just going to try to go down swinging with his guys. - I get it, I, well, no, you know what, I don't get it. I don't, if you're, and this is my first opportunity to apologize to Florida fans, I have been talking about how awful the schedule is for so long on my show, just kind of like saying, 'cause A&M, in all honesty, has a pretty manageable schedule this year. You're really, really, really tough games are at home. And so my kind of point has been, hey, we're not out Florida. So two Florida fans, I am so sorry for this schedule. I am so, so sorry. It is, I genuinely feel bad because it is a gauntlet. But I don't, I'm not going to sit here and pretend to get it. If you're a Napier and you're coaching for your life right now, and you're five-star, you're a league quarterback, who's supposed to be the guy who saves you, be the guy who maybe gives enough hope to keep you around, which I mean, is that gonna happen or not? We'll see, but he's supposed to be the guy to give you a chance, and you're gonna put Mertz back in there who laid an egg against Miami. I mean, he had 450 yards and three touchdowns. It's Samford, I get it, but the hype is there. I don't get it, I really don't get it. I get the gamesmanship. Now Elco has got to prepare for two quarterbacks, and I don't think that how much that's gonna matter, or how much maybe I'm over playing, how much that matters. But it has a little gamesmanship to it, but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend to understand why DJ Legway is not starting for the Gators on Saturday. - Yeah, as far as your point of, they have to prepare for two quarterbacks, I really don't even know if they have to. I think if you go prepare for DJ Legway, everything Graham Mertz is going to throw at you, DJ Legway can do. And that's not even me trying to hype up DJ Legway. It's not me trying to knock down Graham Mertz. It's that I think both of them make the mistake of staring down receivers. And I think one of them has the arm talent that can overcome that. And one of them has the athleticism and the backyard football skill to extend plays to those legs and create, I don't think you have to prepare for two quarterbacks. I think that you have to prepare for DJ Legway. And if you're my gal, go, you're going, hey, if you don't want to play DJ Legway. - Cool with me. - We prepared for him, but if you don't want to play him, then so be it. I'm not going to fight you to put the guy out there, but I don't know, it's just, I feel like, and again, it's simpered. I understand that you need to kind of temper expectations and temper the hype around going out there and just handling business. Like I got Florida one by 38. The spread was 37 and a half. You did literally what they expected you to do, Vegas is incredible with that. I don't think that you go, oh, he could do this against anybody, but I think he showed enough where you go, he can do what Mertz can do. And he's physically talented enough to get away with some of those things that Mertz probably wouldn't get away with. And for me, I think that raises your floor and your ceiling because if Graham Mertz is going to play against other teams, how he played against Miami, he's going to be bad. And well, even if DJ Legway stinks at that point, I'd rather have bad and young than bad and good, or bad and old. So I think for me, that's just where I stand on. I think that if Graham goes out there, it's a bad decision. And there's that meme going around on Gator's Twitter, at least, of that like the fantasy trade TikTok. And it's like, I receive a win, you receive Billy Nape, you're getting fired. I think that, you know, maybe that's a fair trade-off at this point. It's just tough to buy in on what they're doing over there. And we'll get more into this game. We have a lot to talk about, SCC Play opens. Mike Elko's first SEC game. We'll talk about that next on "Lock on Gators" and "Lock on Aggies." Fuel up with factors, no prep, no mess meals, meet your wellness goals. Thanks to the menu of chef crafted meals with options like calorie smart, protein plus and keto, factors fresh, never frozen meals are dietitian approved and ready to eat in just two minutes. So no matter how busy you are, you'll always have time to enjoy nutritious, great tasting meals. I've been told everybody before, I carb cycle, days I work out, I could eat more carbs, I get to go protein plus, days I don't work out, less carbs, I keto meals. That's been the way I do it. I was stoked in fact, I became a sponsor. I've been using them for years. So I was like, "Oh, this one's gonna be easy for me." Add to factormeals.com/lockdowncollege50, use code "Lockdowncollege50" to get 50% off your first box plus 20% of your next month, that's code "Lockdowncollege50" at factormeals.com/lockdowncollege50 to get 50% of your first box plus 20% of your next month while your subscription is active. And you've heard us talk a lot about "Fandool" to America's number one sports world. We talk about it for a reason. Thank you Francisco Lindor, Brandon M.O. and Chris Bassett for my Tuesday night parlay cash. I'm saying, I appreciate you. I appreciate you and the guardians also for winning. Thank you Pablo Lopez. We got a little something different for you today. Now through September 22nd, all Fandool customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with the YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need to Google account with a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time. And if that's not enough, be sure to check out Fandool's profit boost in the app and use it for Fandool's double your winnings for all of this Sunday pregame money line bets. Profit boost will be live starting Thursday. View your account page now to learn more about your boost visit Fandool.com and download America's number one sports book. Thanks for bringing "Lock on Gators" and/or "Lock on Aggies" your first listen of the day. Brandon Olson from "Lock on Gators" here joined by Andrew Stefaniac and Andrew when we're talking about this Florida Gators game, it's first off, Florida had a home game already and lost it horribly. Then they had a home game and they haven't been tested that much by more power for teams. What are some of the keys for Texas A&M who hasn't won on the road since 2021? What are some of the keys to victory for the Aggies? Well, I think in your right, you got first, the first thing you gotta do is get that off your back. You gotta go win a game on the road. But for this game individually, I've talked about, I think that, so we're gonna get into the offense. The blaring, blaringly, the offense has to be better than it was against Notre Dame. No question there, that's a key. But to me, if your offense doesn't have a great day, well, but it does. If it doesn't have a great day, you need your secondary to hold up against the passing attack of Florida. Florida, looking at the numbers, watching the games, the balance has been okay there. Things have opened up in the passing game. Not great, okay. And to where they keep you on your toes a little bit. And so to me, Texas A&M's front seven, you feel great about it. You feel really good about who you got in the front seven. Where the question marks lie are in the secondary. And they were good against Notre Dame, but that was also a rock fight. You know, I mean, I think that Florida, I think they're gonna be able to get a little bit going in the pass game I do. Some might, some might, you know, Florida fans that are a little frustrated Michael, no, we won't, but you know, I could see them maybe getting it going a little bit through the air. Secondary was atrocious for Texas A&M last season, atrocious. Everybody's new, it's brand new. I mean, this is a, a, you know, everybody you're fired, we're getting new people. They wouldn't got new people, new players in the secondary. And it's supposed to be great, but it hasn't really gotten tested. I think the secondary shutting down the Florida receivers is a key in this game. - Yeah. I mean, I absolutely think that for Florida, you want to lean on the receivers or receivers? - Yeah. - Regardless of the quarterback play, the receivers have been, I think, good for Florida. I mean, Travals and his Travals. And we know what he is. He's one of the most dynamic playmakers in all of college football. They're going to try to get him the ball probably about four yards behind the line of scrimmage from watching this Billy Napier offense for a few years. And that's fine if he's going to make those plays. I think Elijah Badger has really popped from Arizona State, the transfer. Like, I know Travals is the big story. I know True Freshman, Tank Hawkins had a long touchdown against Samford. I know Aiden Maisel had the great touchdown catch from DJ Laidway on a great ball against Samford. But for me, Elijah Badger has been the guy that's stepped up and I'm looking at him and I say, that's the best pure wide receiver on this football team right now. And so I'm looking for him to find some space. I need the Florida Gators offensive line to hold up because even if a secondary struggling for Texas A&M, if there's Coach Bass on Twitter for many people who may know him or may not know him, he's got a saying that's the quarterback can't see with tears in his eyes. And if Grandmerch is constantly getting hit, he got concussed against Miami because of the pass rush was just hitting home so quickly. And for Texas A&M, it's some familiar names for the Florida Gators fans that follow not just the team, but if they follow recruiting in the transfer portal as well, Nick Scorton and Cassius Howell, both guys at Florida, was interested in and brought in for visits and Scooby Williams, Jayden Hill didn't play much. It's never the name, but these are former Gators that are on the roster. I need Florida's offensive line to hold up. I think that Nick Scorton is the scary one for me. I think he's going to be the one that's lined up on the right spot, which again, we're reporting this shortly before the death chart comes out, but right tackle has been a mess for Florida to start the year. And you've got a guy like Nick Scorton who's going to be in the NFL top 40 pick. I think he can be a first rounder, but top 40 conservatively can't wait to zero point zero pass blocking grade against Miami. Nick Scorton could just dominate and take over the game and you can go, well, secondary doesn't matter that much. - Yeah, you know, but ironically, to this point and you talk about familiar faces, there's some familiar faces on the coaching staff as well. And you know, coach Spencer with the defensive line, I'm not going to sit here and say he's done a bad job because we don't have enough proof of concept to say that. What I can say is two games into the season, the defensive line's been good, it's been good, but it hasn't been this elite monster quarterbacks going to bed, you know, I'm shaking because they got to play the text in defensive line the next day. It hasn't been that yet. And I think that, you know, if you're a Texas A&M fan, you want to see this defensive line be there. And like Nick Scorton's been good. He's been, I'd say good to great. I need him to be elite, you know, 'cause that's what he, it was probably didn't be was to be elite him. And yeah, he had double digit sacks last year at Purdue. We're not talking about at, you know, FAU or at McNeese or Stanford. We're talking about a, that was a stray for FAU. I'm sorry for FAU, that was uncalled for. But, you know, I mean, at a, at a, at a power four school, like he is a really, really dominant player. And he's been great. I'd say good to great. He needs to be elite. And it's, it's, you sound bad complaining about someone being great, but he's so key to this defense that he needs to be elite. And I think he's gonna have, have a big game, especially here and now, you know, hey, if he's coming off that edge against a tackle that is putting up a zero pass grade, meaning literally a traffic cone could have done the exact same job. 'Cause that's what a zero tells me. And you've got to think that Nick Scorton's gonna be able to get a little bit of pressure. And if he does, it's great for the Aggies in this game. And it's great for the Aggies down the road as well. - I think one thing that terrifies me from the Florida perspective is handling the Texas A&M offense. We talked about Colin Kline before. And I don't, I could be horribly wrong with this. And if I am, I don't care, I'll stand on it. Colin Kline reminds me of a, as far as building this offensive scheme and building this run game, reminds me of what Chip Kelly's done throughout his career, which is, hey, we're gonna create this really creative, really explosive running game and drawing it up like that. And I mean, and I'm talking about Colin Kline's career work. I'm not talking about just the first two games with Texas A&M. I'm talking 'cause, you know, one of those was Notre Dame and the other FCS, no knock on McNeese, Florida played him last year. But it's not the same thing. We're talking about two different programs here and those two games are enough. But I think Colin Kline, the way he develops his run game and schemes it up scares me. You locked Florida last year and still have granted there were defensive coaching staff changes at defensive line, linebacker and the secondary coach, but still the same defensive coordinator overall. And we all saw what Kentucky did with their gap scheme, with counter and they pummeled you. Ray Davis went from almost 300 yards against you. And if Texas A&M, that run game reminds me of a more creative version, I feel like Kentucky's more Smash Mouth, but I think Texas A&M is designed to create more explosive runs, which is terrifying because Kentucky's designed to pick up a few yards, maybe an explosive and it was just explosives throughout. And so for me, that terrifies me of, if this Florida Gators defense isn't ready to face an offense like that, it's gonna go south quickly 'cause if Texas A&M can just pummel you, it doesn't even matter if Connor Wigman plays good or poorly, they're just gonna pummel you in the ground and pick up these explosive runs. It's a good point. Colin Klein is the guy I've said, Texas A&M fans enjoy him now. I think he is on the fast track to being a head coach. He is really good at this job. Yeah, I think that you got him for a little while, but he's on his way to being a head coach. And the first, I saw some people upset with the way he called the game against Notre Dame. I just think his, sometimes your players just play bad, man. And to me, that's what happened. I'm still all in on Colin Klein. And I mean, his numbers at Kansas State last year when it came to scoring touchdowns, not kicking field goals, third down camera, I mean, his numbers were incredible. And a lot of it's because he puts himself in third manageable a lot, third and short a lot. But, you know, he has so many weapons when it comes to, you've got great running backs. You of course lose Ruben Owens, who was supposed to be kind of the guy or at least one A to one B to live you on a moss. But you still got great backs in that room. You got Connor Brighamman who can get outside the pocket and he's a weapon with his legs. When there's room, he'll take it. I saw him do a spin move the other day. It was awesome. I wouldn't say do it again, but it looked cool in the moment. And then you've got good receivers and Colin Klein's elite when it comes to utilizing his tight ends, more so in the blocking than pass catching, although last year actually Kansas State's leading receiver yards wise was a tight end. But, you know, to me, that's what can be great about this offense is you've got weapons everywhere and things he can coach, Colin could take advantage of everywhere. You didn't see it against Notre Dame. You saw more of it against McNeese, but it's once again, it's like, I don't care until I see it against somebody where it matters more. I need to see that against Florida. The Texas A&M can turn their season around. And once again, I mean, it's one game. You say turn their season around. People were really deflated by this loss. It's not turn your season around. It's bad choice of words. It's more prove that you can overachieve. And the way you do that is show this offense can play well against the SEC teams. I'm really anxious to see how they show out on Saturday. - I would also say to Colin Klein's defense, which again, I'm not pretending to be unbiased about this. I think he's fantastic. As far as calling the game week one against Notre Dame, I get the loss to Northern Illinois. I feel a really good defensive team. Like they lost 14-16. They didn't lose because of that defense. - Yeah. That's still a really good defensive team in Notre Dame. So yeah, it stinks that the team you lost to, then lost to a group of five program. But let's reign in a little bit. We are going to talk about predictions for this game. I'm not looking forward to this bit, but we'll talk about that next year. When you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for their role. And that's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find you right professionals for your team faster and for free. And LinkedIn isn't just another job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals that you can't find anywhere else. And Andrew, I know about you. I am exclusively on LinkedIn. You're not going to find me on any of the competitors. I'm not wasting my time with that. I'm going to stick with the best. That's what we do. We're the SEC here. So we're going to stick with the best. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. We're in that 70%. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. Like hiring an SEC head coach out of the SunDoke, maybe. I'm just saying. On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours, hire professionals like a professional. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/lockdowncollege. That's LinkedIn.com/lockdowncost post your job for free terms and conditions applied. Nah, not quite. What's up? Sell my car and carvana. It's just not quite the right time. Crazy coincidence. I just sold my car to carvana. What? I told you about it two days ago. When you know, you know. You know? I'm even dropping it off at one of those sweet car vending machines and getting paid today. That's a good deal. Oh, great deal. Come on. What's your heart saying? You're right. When you know? You know. Sold. Whether you're looking to sell your car right now or just whenever feels right, go to carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. To wrap up this crossover episode of "Lockdown Gaters" and "Lockdown Aggies," I am Brandon Olson with "Lockdown Gaters." This is Andrew Cifaniac with "Lockdown Aggies." And I have to say, my listeners are probably very confused because I'm usually talking so much trash. I prepared my listeners for that. I'm like, we're going to take some strays, guys. Be ready for it. We're going to fight back. We're not going to just take it. I was ready for it, Brandon. You haven't given me anything here. To be fair, Billy hasn't given me anything. Yeah. What am I going to say? What can I even say about Texas anything? Right. And just go your program the same thing. Like, yeah, there's nothing. And it upsets me because I like to talk trash, but Florida wins, by the way. Mississippi State, I know you don't even have a show for you. I will be talking trash about Mississippi State. I will be back to my winning talking trash ways, but my goodness, man. I can't in good faith talk trash and act like I'm confident that it's going to come to fruition. Andrew, I will give you the floor first. What's your prediction for this game? You can give a score if you want. You don't have to, but what's your prediction for this game? You know, ironically, Brandon, I think that you have less confidence here in the Gators to win this one than I really do the Aggies to come win it. I'm going to predict Texas in the win this football game. But to sit here and say that I would be surprised if they lost would be a not true statement. I would, in no way, shape or form, be surprised. I mean, this line is four points in favor of the Aggies right now, I think. I mean, it's, let's see, it is, yeah. Four points in favor of the Aggies. I mean, the Monday lines at minus 185, like there's a reason this stuff is so tight. It's they're on the road. How's Coach Ocho going to play? How's his team going to show up on the road? Connor Rigman has not played in a, you know, a ton of, you know, I mean, he's still new. And will the swamp be the swamp? That's what I'm anxious to see, you know, in a game like this. But my prediction is I think Texas A&M's defensive line gets going. I think that they're given whoever it is, whether it's Murch, whether it's like, way problems all day. And then I think that Texas A&M's offense gets fine tuned. I think the Aggies, well, I mixed here. If you think it's going to be a rock fighter, you think it's going to be more of a high scoring game. I think it's going to be in the middle of those two things. I think Texas A&M wins a game closer than maybe some might think right around that line. I think Texas A&M wins like a 31-28 type of football game. I guess you call it high scoring, but, you know, in that range, but I think it's going to be back and forth tight. I think the Aggies barely, barely pull one out. Yeah, I was going to say 31-27. Yeah, there you go. In favor of Texas A&M, that's just where I was going to go. And here's the thing. I'm not high on Texas A&M at all. I really like Colin Klein, but I don't know. Something about Texas A&M, I'll be honest with you. I think it was the Jimbo time where it was just so much hype every year, and Texas A&M kind of became one of those, like, Texas is back kind of things. Yeah, it's Notre Dame's year. Like, I'll believe it when I see it kind of thing. And so I'm not super high on Texas A&M. Hiring some of the defensive coaches from the Florida Gators last season, when I know how poorly they were coached, adds into that. Which again, maybe in a new environment, they can thrive maybe with-- and this isn't an knock on Austin Armstrong, but it is entirely possible that they were like, hey, I'm not listening to a 29-year-old as my boss. So it's like the dude's one year older than me, and he's an SEC defensive coordinator. So I will say that, but it's more so an indictment of-- until Billy Napier and his coaching staff prove something to this fan base for something to me. And give-- like, I know Florida's fan base can be really toxic. Like, they deserve better than the piece of crap that Florida put out there in week one. And so until they prove to me that they can put out better against a powerful program, I just can't-- I can't see it happening. I understand being at home, the swamps, the swamp, sure, but Billy Napier is known for breaking all of the worst streaks possible. He lost to Vanderbilt in his first year. Earlier this year, he lost the first home opener in about 35 years for the Florida Gators. Texas A&M hasn't won a road game since 2021. They are 0 and 10 in their last 10. And Billy Napier has a tendency to break bad streaks. And until I'm proven otherwise, I think this might be one of the streaks that gets broken. What's the sad reality is this is one of the better games of the week this week. It probably shouldn't be. You know what I mean? Just knowing like it really shouldn't be. But looking at this week as a whole, I mean, it's going to be one of the better games. There'll be eyes on this football game. I'm excited for this one, because I think we're going to learn, at least for the Texas A&M side, we're going to learn, do we have real problems, or was it a one off? That's what we're going to learn on Saturday. And when it comes to how this is going to go the rest of the year, the rest of year one under Coach Elko, we're going to learn a lot on Saturday. So I'm really excited to see how Connor Wigman shows up. The offense has a whole defensive line. Excited to see how this team shows up. But it's always fun watching the football game in the swamp. So I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, looking forward to that for Florida, it's also interesting because-- and this isn't a jab at Texas A&M. But Texas A&M is not one of the toughest games on Florida's schedule. Yes. It is toward the bottom. And again, that's not even an indictment on Texas A&M. Florida's got an incredibly tough schedule this year. If you lose-- and this was my take with the Miami game. If you lose the Miami game, it's going to be a rough year. Because Miami, I don't think, is a top four or five toughest team on the schedule preseason. They look a lot better than I anticipated. But still, if you lose that game, you're probably not going to stack up well with the Texas and Ole Miss and then Georgia. So that stuff was worrisome. But I am ready to get hurt. Again, Andrew. I am Brandon Olson. This is Andrew Stepaniac. This is lockdown gate. It was lockdown Aggies crossover Thursday for, I believe. I believe the first time. I don't think you were here in 2022. Yeah, it's our first time doing it, yeah. Our first crossover Thursday, hopefully the first of many. And make it locked on SEC. Your second listen of the day. Request score to give you the best coverage on the SEC as a whole, including a great program like the University of Florida, which deserves better than they're getting from their coaching staff and administration right now. But thanks for being locked on Gators. We're locked on Aggies, your first listen of the day. And we'll see you all next time. A Prime members, you can listen to this lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
