Urban Meyer confused by Michigan’s recruiting strategy

It’s safe to say Urban Meyer doesn’t get Michigan’s recruiting strategy these days.

The former Ohio State coach is surprised that the Wolverines are no longer major competitors for the top talent in Ohio, where coach Jim Harbaugh has struggled to beat the Buckeyes to top recruits.

“If you look a their history, and I know their history very well, two Heisman Trophy winners from Ohio, great players from Ohio,” Meyer told David Briggs of the Toledo Blade. “Coach [Ryan] Day and myself and our recruiting guy, we monitor them. Even to this day, I’ll ask, ‘what’s going on [at Michigan]?’ That usually was a street fight when we first got there, with Brady Hoke and even coach Harbaugh. It was a street fight, because they were into Ohio everywhere.”

Now, Meyer doesn’t feel the same about the competition.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I don’t feel the street fight at all.”

For the third time in five years, Michigan didn’t sign a single player from Ohio as part of their 2020 recruiting class. That’s hard to fathom, and goes against what has historically been successful for them.

We know Meyer likes to take shots at Michigan, but this doesn’t seem like one of them. It genuinely surprises him that the Wolverines aren’t playing in Ohio, and it puzzles him too.