Ethan Nation visited Tennessee for the first time in October to attend the Vols’ home game against Ole Miss. Tennessee defensive backs coach
Willie Martinez recently convinced Nation to make the trip to Knoxville again this weekend, and Nation said he’s glad he decided to take Martinez’s advice.
The four-star Class of 2023 cornerback from Roswell (Ga.) High School said his visit Saturday for the Vols’ first junior day of the year “really opened my eyes.” He said “the family environment” throughout Tennessee’s program caught his attention, and his second trip to Tennessee in a little more than three months “100 percent” made the Vols more of a contender for him.
“Really, what brought me back was Coach Martinez just really pushing me to come back,” said Nation, who’s ranked the No. 173 overall prospect and No. 21 cornerback in the 2023 class, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.
“He came up to the school and visited. … I talked to him on the phone, and he just really told me I have to get up here to spend some time with him. So it really just convinced me, and I’m glad I came up here.
“It really opened my eyes, definitely helped them in the recruiting process, for sure.”
The 5-foot-10, 155-pound Nation, who has received scholarship offers from nearly 50 schools, said he was impressed by ““being around the staff, just seeing the fans, seeing the environment” at Tennessee.
Many of the prospects on hand were able to attend a portion of the Vols’ home basketball game Saturday night against LSU. He said he enjoyed “even seeing, like, the basketball (game), how people interacted there, how everyone’s just a family at Tennessee, for real.”
Now that he has been to Tennessee twice, he said he’s mainly interested in the Vols because of “the coaching staff — like, just the family environment of Tennessee.”
“You just come in here and it’s welcoming. It’s warm,” Nation said. “There’s no hostile environment. And even when you step foot on campus, it really just feels like home, so it’s pretty good.”
Nation said he spent the most time with Martinez during Saturday’s visit.
“We talked ball a lot,” Nation said. “He just really liked how my ball skills were and how I play cornerback. That was probably the thing he talked about the most, was just my ball skills and just how I can recognize the game.”
He expects to visit the Vols again, perhaps within the next few months for one of their spring practices.
“I’m definitely coming back here, for sure,” Nation said. “I’m definitely coming back for a practice, just to see how all the coaching staff, how the energy is, really.”
