Landen Livingston enjoys Iowa visit
Offensive lineman Landen Livingston was able to finally make his official visit with the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend. We caught up with the 6-foot-5, 285-pound Indiana native to talk about the trip, which was his fifth and final official visit of the recruiting process, when he plans to make a decision, and much more.
Q: First, can you just tell us a little bit about the Iowa visit and what stood out to you?
LIVINGSTON: The visit went really well. Obviously Iowa has been a school that's been in contact with me for a long time, so to finally go out there and meet the coaching staff and to have meaningful conversations in person with them was unbelievable. I really enjoyed getting to see the campus because I haven't been out there ever in my life, so getting to experience campus and check out the facilities and the stadium was unbelievable. It was all very nice and I was very impressed. Also, meeting with the academic people for breakfast was great because obviously education is very important to me. Just to get a deeper understanding on those things really made it a great visit.
Q: Coaching wise, when they initially offered you Coach Polasek was there and since then Coach Barnett came on board as the new offensive line coach. What was it like getting to see him in person this weekend?
LIVINGSTON: It was great. I actually met him all the way back in 2019 when he was at Miami of Ohio. I went to one of their prospect camps at the time before I had any offers and we talked to each other there. Then from there he went to Tulane and he offered me at Tulane and then of course he went from Tulane to Iowa. So we've met each other in the past, but obviously we haven't seen each other for a long time. I went early on Friday to meet with him and probably talked to him for about 45 minutes just about what he looks for in a lineman and kind of his background and what I'm looking for in a school as well.
Q: What kind of impression did you take away from that conversation?
LIVINGSTON: I really liked it. He kind of went through the concept of what Iowa football means. He basically said they won't always get the highest rated recruits in the world, but they want kids with hard work ethics and people with a chip on their shoulder. It was good to go over there and to hear him say what he looks for in a lineman really cleared up some things for me because if I would go there, that's probably a thing that I should know going into it.
Q: Player wise, who was your host and who all did you get to meet?
LIVINGSTON: My player host was Nick DeJong. I really enjoyed getting to know him. I met some of his friends and Tyler Linderbaum and some of the other prospects that we were all in a group with. We got to know each other pretty well and it was a great conversation with the commits and the people who have not committed yet. It was a really fun time just getting to know everyone and I think we all had a lot of fun.
Q: Which other recruits did you spend the most time with?
LIVINGSTON: I met everyone like Aaron Graves, Kale Krogh, Caden Crawford, and Carson Hinzman. We hung out in a group and went putt putt golfing and bowling. We had some great conversations and really got to know each other. It was fun sharing our thoughts on the whole recruitment and stuff.
Q: You have a unique perspective at Iowa with your aunt being a professor at the university. Did you get a chance to visit her as well this weekend?
LIVINGSTON: Yes, I did. She was actually at the academic breakfast yesterday morning, so we got to see her then for a little bit, but then we had a break period on Saturday so we went over to her house to see her family. It was nice to see them again and how much their kids have grown. It added a lot to my experience and my fun on the trip.
Q: Looking back at recruiting, where are you at right now with the whole process?
LIVINGSTON: I will be deciding sometime in early to mid July. I'm going to do a commitment video, so my day of actually committing publicly could vary so I can't really give you a specific date yet. It will be sometime early to mid July range, but I'm ready to move things forward.
Q: Which schools were you able to make official visits to this month?
LIVINGSTON: I made visits to Purdue, Cincinnati, West Virginia, IU, and Iowa.
Q: Are those your five finalists going into the decision?
LIVINGSTON: Yeah, I would probably say so just because I've gotten to know all the campuses well and those coaching staffs over the official visits.
Q: Have you already made up your mind at this point?
LIVINGSTON: I have not. We actually have a big whiteboard where we write out all of the schools and we have about 12 categories that we write down and go over for each school. I'll probably make a decision from that.
Q: What are some of those 12 categories?
LIVINGSTON: I can't name them all off the top of my head, but they include culture, relationship with coaching staff, location, and campus life. That's some of them.