Urban Meyer is recognized as perhaps the greatest recruiter in all of college football, but in just a short amount of time, his reputation has taken a bit of a hit.
The latest story comes from a once-committed recruit who says he decommitted from Ohio State after realizing Meyer didn’t know who he was.
Bruce Judson, a four-star speedster from Florida, revealed to SECCountry.com that he decommitted from Ohio State following an encounter with Meyer in which the head coach did not recognize him.
Judson first committed to Ohio State in Jan. 2015, but he continued to visit and receive offers from competing programs. He says Meyer talked to him enough to get his commitment, but then the head coach’s contact with him dwindled. The lack of interest from Meyer in Judson became apparent to the teenager during a visit to Ohio State’s “Friday Night Lights” camp last July.
Judson told SEC Country that he was walking with another recruit — four-star safety Richard LeCounte — when they encountered Meyer.
“Long story short, I was walking in the hallway about to go to the indoor field and work out. He was like, ‘Hey.’ I looked around. ‘Come here.’ He was like, ‘How you doing, you like your visit?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ Then he’s like, ‘What up Richard LeCounte? Are you showing this guy (Judson) around?’ I was like, ‘Coach, I’m showing him around.’ He asked me, ‘Who are you?’ I told him Bruce. He said, ‘Oh, Bruce Judson from Florida. The speedy guy.’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘I’m glad that you’re on board and glad you got up here.’ After that, I knew I was de-committing.”
There’s two possible takeaways here: One is that Meyer is so overworked and overwhelmed that he just has a hard time keeping everything straight regarding recruiting, so it was an honest mistake. The other more cynical view is that sometimes programs feel they made a mistake in offering a player a scholarship and try to send signals that will get that player to drop, which would make the snub intentional.
My guess is the mistake from Meyer was an honest one, but the larger point remains: Meyer would not forget a player’s identity if he felt that player were a very critical member of a recruiting class. If Judson got the sense that Meyer was not as interested in him, then he probably did the right thing in decommitting. Florida and South Carolina are now believed to be his two top choices, according to his 247 Sports profile.
The other recent recruiting story that damaged Meyer’s reputation was this one from Kentucky pledge Landon Young.
