Urban Meyer upset some Big Ten coaches by flipping some recruits to Ohio State on National Signing Day. A few notable Big Ten coaches felt Meyer had broken an unspoken agreement within the conference that coaches would not talk to recruits who had made verbal commitments.
As it was, Meyer got 10 commitments after taking the Ohio State job, including eight from players who previously were committed to other schools (four were committed to troubled Penn State). He got Kyle Dodson to switch from Wisconsin to Ohio State, and DE Se’Von Pittman to flip from Michigan State to Ohio State.
Meyer justified his actions by pleading dumb.
“Sometimes they say, ‘How can you go recruit a young guy committed to another school?'” Meyer said. “You ask a question, ‘Are you interested?’ If they say, ‘No,’ you move on. If they say, ‘Yes, very interested,’ then you throw that hook out there. If they’re interested, absolutely [you recruit them], especially from your home state. Is it gratifying to take a guy from another school? Not at all.”
Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said what Meyer did was illegal. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez found no fault in Meyer’s actions.
Meyer addressed the accusations Thursday and said they upset him.
“I was very angry,” Meyer said during an appearance on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland. “Whenever you use those terms, something like ‘illegal,’ that couldn’t be further from the truth. That doesn’t happen here, and if it did, we would make a change with whoever did it.
“I was very angry that would even be brought up, and there were fellow Big Ten coaches who were angry as well. And the commissioner was very angry, so there was a lot of…to have that make the presses, especially when it’s inaccurate, legally you’re not allowed to do that. That’s slander. To use someone’s name in terms like that is very wrong, but we moved on.”
Urb also said once the program brings in a number of top-flight players, we’ll start seeing their offense produce “ridiculous numbers.”
As far as recruiting players who have committed goes, I see both sides. These coaches already work themselves to death, so once they get a commitment from a player, maybe they feel it’s time to relax. But like Urban believes, shouldn’t players be fair game until they’ve actually signed with a school?
Recruiting may be open season, but Meyer and his staff are going to work themselves to death if they keep pushing to flip players. I wish they would put more of a stop to this stuff to keep an already hideous business from getting even more ugly.
