Last weekend, the Florida Gators hosted several prospects on campus for spring practice as they continue to expand their recruiting board.
Offensive lineman Blaise Thomassie (6-5, 265, Baton Rouge, LA. Catholic) was on campus for the first time and enjoying getting to see all the facilites and coaches.
“I thought it went amazing,” Thomassie said of his visit to Florida on Saturday. “I really loved Coach [Rob] Sale and Coach [John] Decoster. I loved talking to Coach [Billy] Napier and I loved the facilities. I got to see the facilities, sat in the meetings and watch practice. I loved everything about the visit.”
Thomassie really liked the Gators’ practice on Saturday and he likes the way the offensive line coaches were coaching up their position.
“I thought it was great,” he said of Florida’s practice. “I love the way they coach you know they run practice similar to how we run practice. A lot of the schemes are the same, you know fast pace get drill to drill and get a lot of reps in which I really like. I feel like they’re really good coaches and mentors, you can see that connection between them and the players just how they communicate during practice. The connection between them is good.”
Decoster and Sale have started to recruit Thomassie over the last few months and last weekend was a chance for the two sides to get to know each other.
“They really just wanted to see me in person,” Thomassie said of the message from Florida’s coaches. “You know being a Louisiana guy, Florida is a little out of the way but being able to come down spend the day and visit them and give them attention is what they wanted. They wanted to get eyes on me, my size and all of that. They’re going to continue to recruit me, maybe dig in a little deeper with me and they’re going to get back with me soon.”
Thomassie also had the chance to sit down with head coach Billy Napier and it was the first time for the two sides to meet.
“It went very well, I met with him after practice,” he said of meeting with Napier. “He coached in Louisiana, so we talked about the food, he wished they had a little crawfish down here so just getting that connection. Meeting him for the first time and introducing myself went really well.”
After the visit, Thomassie belives that the Gators are going to start to recruit him more as he says several others will get visits this spring and summer.
“Tulane and Houston are two big ones that are coming really hard,” Thomassie said of teams recruiting him hard. “I’m going up to TCU, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Stanford during the summer. I’m going to take an official visit to Arkansas too.”