Urban Meyer Responds to Recruit's Criticism over His OSU Visit

Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer is widely seen as one of the best recruiters in all of college football, but Kentucky signee Landon Young did not like the way the three-time national champion and his school pursued him as a prospect.  

Young, who is a 4-star offensive tackle and part of Kentucky’s 2016 recruiting class, per 247Sports’ composite rankings, criticized Meyer’s treatment of him as a recruit to David Collier of SECCountry.com. Meyer took note and responded Tuesday to the criticism, per Austin Ward of ESPN.com.

Meyer said he read the comments and discussed them with his staff: “We have a lot of respect for him as a player, a lot. I was very disappointed in our staff that we didn't offer him earlier. Then about the treatment thing, we don't do that on purpose, if that's his feelings. I went back and talked to our staff about it.”

Meyer did make sure to point out “that was one [recruit] out of 650 saying ‘Someone has treated me bad,’” per Ward.

Young made visits to Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn and South Carolina as a prospect before ultimately choosing the hometown Wildcats. However, the Lexington native made news as he recalled his negative interactions with Meyer when he asked the Ohio State coach why he wasn’t on the Buckeyes’ radar earlier in the process, per Collier:

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I had gone up to camp there, and they had treated me like a piece of meat, just treated me like crap… 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.’

"

However, Young apologized via Twitter on Wednesday:

If anything, Kentucky fans probably won’t enjoy hearing one of the most prominent names in all of college football calling their program insubstantial, but Young was clearly affected by Meyer’s approach and spurned the Buckeyes for the Wildcats. 

Jeremy Birmingham of Eleven Warriors thought of another way Young could have interpreted the entire thing:

Alas, Ward noted Meyer did disagree with the idea Young was not a good enough player for Ohio State in his response to the offensive tackle’s comments.

Meyer instead realized it probably took his staff too long to recognize how valuable of a recruit Young could be up front for the Buckeyes offense and said as much, per Ward: “When we did want to offer him afterwards and felt like he was a great player, I think we missed on him early on and I was very upset with our coaching staff and the recruiter in that area and the position coach.”

Kentucky hopes Young proves himself on the field enough during his college career that Meyer and the rest of the Ohio State coaching staff regret missing out on him. He is 6’7” and 270 pounds, but 247Sports lists his 40-yard-dash time as 4.80, which is a testament to his athletic ability at that size. He can move laterally to protect the passer or maul defensive linemen up front to create holes for the rushing attack.

MaxPreps shared a highlight reel of the prospect:

The fact Young chose Kentucky over Ohio State and Alabama, among others, is newsworthy in itself. The Buckeyes won the national title during the 2014 season and are coming off a 12-1 campaign and a Fiesta Bowl victory in 2015. They have also won at least 10 contests in 12 of the last 14 years and have Meyer as a three-time national champion leading the way.

Ohio State is one of the pillar programs of the sport, and its reputation on the recruiting trail will probably only grow when a number of Buckeyes are selected in the upcoming NFL draft.

Historically, Ohio State is usually not battling with the likes of Kentucky for some of the top players in the Midwest and some of the northern states in SEC country like the Wildcats. Rather, it frequently competes with the likes of Michigan, Notre Dame and Michigan State, as well as national powerhouses such as Alabama.

However, Young's choosing Kentucky is no fluke. The Wildcats have some momentum under head coach Mark Stoops and check in with the No. 10 class for 2017, per 247Sports' composite team rankings. While 247Sports lists the Buckeyes as the No. 1 group for 2017, the Wildcats are among some of the sport’s top classes and will look to continue that upward trajectory on the recruiting trail.

Ohio State was the No. 4 class in 2016, while Kentucky was No. 34, per 247Sports. 

If Kentucky is able to consistently land players like Young, Meyer will have to worry about another program near his home state of Ohio.