Podcast: Talking recruiting visits, plus baseball regional

GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk recruiting visits for the Florida Gators as they hosted prospects on campus on Tuesday, plus they will host official visitors this weekend.

Andrew Spivey and Ethan Hughes recap how Tuesday’s cookout went for the Gators, plus we preview official visits for the Gators.

Andrew and Ethan preview the Gainesville regional for the Florida Gators baseball team as they received the 15 seed in the tournament.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, back with Ethan. Ethan, we’re back, man. Things have changed a little bit over the last few days. We got visitors back on campus for the cookout on Tuesday. Baseball is about to play for a Regional. My Jaguars are coming to town, and we’re going to talk about that in a minute. Softball had a not so good finish, and official visitors this weekend. A lot to talk about. A lot to get to.

First off, you were on campus Tuesday. Was it nice to see kids for a change?

Ethan:                     It was. Anything is better than just Zoom and phone interviews at this point. You combine that with the fact that we’re going to see full capacity potentially in baseball. It’s just nice to feel like things are what they used to be at this point.

Andrew:                 Let me ask you. You’re a tad younger than me, so you’ve been through this process a little later than have. How difficult would it have been for you to never see a campus and make a decision?

Ethan:                     For it would have been easy, because I went to college 30 minutes from home.

Andrew:                 Yeah.

Ethan:                     I can’t really relate to these kids.

Andrew:                 Okay. Let me ask you this. How had would it have been for you to go out of state without seeing a campus?

Ethan:                     Oh, impossible. That would not have happened.

Andrew:                 Right. Exactly. It’s good to see. Florida had about 50 or so prospects on campus on Tuesday for the cookout. Overall, I thought it was a really good event. Some people kind of were upset that different things were going on. They said it kind of looked cheesy at times and different things like that. Overall, I thought it was a really good event. I thought they got a lot of quality players, prospects, on campus. I thought they were able to spend a lot of time with them. They took them on the bus tour around campus. They had the photo shoot. They had the barbeque from former Gator great Shannon Snell. A lot of things overall.

First off, Ethan, when you were able to kind of see them get on campus and that kind of stuff, what was your just overall take of the event in general?

Ethan:                     What we got to see from sitting on a bench in the parking lot, it sounded like it was pretty loud. They had the stadium music and everything blaring. Sounded like it was a party in there, which I guess is what you’re aiming for on the first day after a lengthy dead period. Kind of grab these kids’ attention. It grabbed everybody that walked by’s attention, so I would think it was effective for the guys that were participating as well.

Andrew:                 Again, it’s always one of those things where how much can you see, how much can you do as far as atmosphere goes when you’re not in school, not in session, as far as for games and that kind of stuff. So, you have to kind of create that atmosphere in the Swamp and that kind of stuff. I thought they did. Again, for what they can, I thought they did a good job of it. I think the biggest thing, and you can correct me if you think differently here, I think the biggest thing in general was just getting them on campus to see coaches in person, to meet coaches in person, and to put face to the voice. I know they see them on Zoom and everything else, but seeing somebody on Zoom and then meeting them in...