Landon Young is that football player who went from being nerdy to popular, and he says the treatment he received from some programs reflected that. Specifically, Young says Urban Meyer treated him “like crap” before he became a five-star recruit.
Young, who is a five-star offensive tackle signed to Kentucky’s 2016 recruiting class, says that before he developed into a top recruit, he had a bad experience at an Ohio State camp. Young made his comments in a Q&A interview with SEC Country published Thursday.
“It may not be the best thing, but actually, I was at Ohio State having a private meeting with Urban Meyer. I had gone up to camp there, and they had treated me like a piece of meat, just treated me like crap. By that time, I was a four-star tackle. I weighed about 270 [pounds], and I was 6-7.
“I wasn’t even on their radar. I came back up after they offered me. Four straight days, I got (offers from) the University of Cincinnati, Alabama, Auburn and then Ohio State. I went up and said, ‘Coach (Meyer), what was the reason that you all of a sudden offered me?’ He said, ‘We looked at your tape, and it was pretty good and I saw interest in that.’ I said, ‘Well coach, back when I was just committing to Kentucky and keeping my options open, I came up to a camp and sent you my film and everything, and you didn’t even reply. It seemed like y’all just deleted it.’
“He said, ‘Well, if you look back at that time, you were how big?’ I said, ‘6-7, 270, just like I am now.’ He said, ‘Well, you were an insubstantial tackle, an insubstantial player,’ so he was saying I (didn’t) even amount to being able to be recruited by Ohio State as a four-star tackle. He said, ‘Now what offers did you have?’ I said, ‘I had my one from Kentucky,’ and he said, ‘Well, you were an insubstantial player with insubstantial offers from an insubstantial school.’”
Young says that even though Ohio State later offered him, just hearing Meyer say he was “insubstantial” at one point in time did not sit well with him. Even though Meyer was just being honest, it’s easy to see why that would bother a player. Meyer didn’t exactly present things in the most diplomatic way.
Young was committed to Kentucky all along, but he did check out some other schools after interest in him exploded. He told SEC Country that Auburn came in second in his recruiting and that Auburn and Kentucky were the only schools that didn’t use negative recruiting.
But Young’s dislike of Ohio State because of the process is apparent. Check out these two answers he gave SEC Country:
Q: Which school disappointed you the most during recruiting?
A hundred percent Ohio State.
Q: Which coach was not the nicest?
A: Urban Meyer. No one comes close.
Meyer has reestablished Ohio State as a powerhouse program, so he’s probably not losing much sleep over these quotes from Young. Will he change his recruiting approach in the future? That remains to be seen. While the comments reflect poorly on Meyer, even Nick Saban seems to be disliked by recruits, and he’s doing quite well at Alabama. Meyer may have to realize his mistake and brush this one aside. And good for Young for sticking to his original commitment to Kentucky.
