Hand says Florida exceeded expectations

Florida might not have played such a great game on the field Saturday but off the field the Gators did quite well while playing host to one of the top prospects in the country on an official visit to Gainesville.

Defensive end Da’Shawn Hand (6-4, 248, Woodbridge, VA Senior), rated the number one prospect in the country by most experts, took his first visit to Florida this weekend and was blown away by what the university had to offer both on and off the field.

“It was great;  it exceeded my expectations that I had set,” Hand said Monday. “The highlight of the trip for me was when I went to the see the hurricane simulator in the engineering department.”

Hand was in attendance in one of the Gators worst losses in years but after the game the coaches talked to him about what was happening in the Florida program.

“Coach (Will) Muschamp told me they lost a lot of starters and it’s time to rebuild and they are going through the rebuilding stage and they need me there,” Hand said. “I don’t worry about this season at all because that is this season. Anything can happen in a course of a college football season so I’m not worried about that.”

The coaches are always well prepared for official visitors and this weekend the Gators set Hand up with another Virginia native as his player host for the weekend.

“I was hosted by Matt Rolin,” Hand said. “He told me everything I needed to know about Florida and the transition. We had a long conversation and I’m going to keep that to myself. He was a great host.”

The talented defensive end is set to announce his college decision on Thursday between 12-1 and the Gators are still in the mix despite hosting Hand on one single visit.

“I saw everything I needed to see from Florida this time and it was a great visit,” Hand said. “Now I have to go to the drawing board and sit down with my parents and make my decision between Florida, Alabama, and Michigan.”

SpiveySays: While I think Florida sits behind Alabama and Michigan, the Florida staff did an incredible job recruiting Hand but was just unfortunate in that it got only one visit. The one thing that has to be said about Hand is that he is very mature and he’s going to make a decision that will help him both on and off the field.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.