First Posted: 12/26/2014
COLUMBUS – Recruiting is viewed as a chore, a necessary part of the job but definitely no fun by some college football coaches.
It’s cited as a reason why some coaches leave college to coach in the NFL. Or why some coaches stay in the pros and don’t take jobs at the college level.
Former Oregon coach Chip Kelly, for one, says his life was busier and more hectic as a college coach than it is now as the Philadelphia Eagles coach.
But Ohio State coach Urban Meyer doesn’t look at recruiting that way. Of course, if everybody could recruit players like Meyer gets, more coaches might think like he does.
“I love recruiting. I love recruiting good players, good guys, I love it. I can’t get enough of it when they’re good guys and you’re selling something you love,” Meyer said, as he talked about Ohio State’s upcoming Sugar Bowl match-up with Alabama (8:30 p.m. Friday, ESPN).
“I had chances to go into the pros years back and all of that. Some guys say, ‘I can’t wait to get away from recruiting.’ I never looked at that way.”
One of Meyer’s best recruiting efforts might have come in 2013 when Ohio State signed several players who have made major contributions to its success this season early in their careers.
Defensive end Joey Bosa (13.5 sacks) became a first-team All-American this year as a sophomore. Redshirt freshman linebacker Darron Lee has provided big plays consistently from a position that didn’t produce a lot of them last year.
Safety Vonn Bell is tied for the team lead in interceptions with five and Eli Apple has started at one of the cornerback positions all year.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett broke the Ohio State season record for touchdown passes, was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and was a Heisman Trophy contender before a broken ankle ended his season.
Ezekiel Elliott has rushed for 1,402 yards and Jalin Marshall and Dontre Wilson have shared the H-back position.
Barrett, Lee and Marshall all redshirted last year while the others played as freshmen.
Meyer thought he knew what he had when he signed those players. He wasn’t sure he would know it quite this soon, though.
“We’re a young program, a team where if you had told me this in August, I would have said, ‘Not yet,’ ” Meyer said after Ohio State made it into the College Football Playoff. “Maybe next year, but not this year because we were so young,” he said. “We felt really, really good about that class.”
Co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash said, “They’re all talented players. Once those guys really learned our system and what we were asking them to do, the game really slowed down for them. The sky is the limit for those guys.”
