Ohio State Football: Why Urban Meyer Must Excel Past Brady Hoke in Recruiting

Anyone who's been around college football in the past few years knows that new Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer is one of the best recruiters in the game.

He's already had a tremendous amount of success when it comes to recruiting at OSU, bringing in all sorts of big names in the last two classes, including pulling together a spectacular 2012 class from what was a mostly mediocre crop before his arrival.

His recruiting skills will be put to the test during his time at Ohio State because of the start in recruiting Brady Hoke has gotten off to at Michigan.

In the past two seasons, Hoke has gotten at least 20 recruits before the start of the season, and done a good job of restocking the cupboards after the Rich Rodriguez experiment failed.

Both coaches are working to try and alter the rosters to fit their styles. Hoke is trying to bolster the offensive line and retool the defense, while Meyer is looking for speed, speed and more speed.

When you look at the players both teams have tried to recruit, more times than not, more players Meyer has landed have Michigan offers than Hoke landing players with Ohio State offers at the same time.

The recruiting strategies are very different as well. Hoke has made a tremendous splash at the start of the cycle, while Meyer is great at closing the deal towards signing day.

Meyer will need to come out on top more times than not over Hoke on the trail because those two will have all sorts of recruiting battles in the next few years.

Ohio State is still working with limited scholarships for another year after the 2013 class is done.

Hoke has 48 commits—25 in 2012 and 23 already this year—which means the classes he brings in for 2014 and 2015 will have to be small as well.

These two have not yet had a chance to go head-to-head on the field, but have already waged some big recruiting battles.

Urban Meyer needs to be able to out recruit Hoke though if Meyer plans on winning a national championship or two at Ohio State. That's not to say that Michigan isn't playing for one either, and they will need to step it up as well because of how tough the Legends Division is.

There is a reason the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is considered the best in North America, and Hoke and Meyer both get it.

Meyer has the potential to recruit better than anyone in the country, and he needs to continue that at Ohio State if he hopes to replicate the success he had at Florida.

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