Ohio State head football coach Urban Meyer doesn’t have a problem getting high school players to play for him. He’s a three-time national championship winner and has become one of the most successful head coaches in college football history. However, there is at least one high school player who doesn’t particularly care for Urban Meyer or the way he talks to people.
Landon Young is a four-star offensive tackle from Lexington, Kentucky, who originally committed to the University of Kentucky but also had visits with Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina, and Ohio State. The Buckeyes originally had little to no interest in Young, but decided to have him in for a visit late in the process. It was an experience that Young, who is also a heavyweight state wrestling champion, says was the most disappointing of his visits.
Congratulations to @Landon_Young_67 ! 2016 Heavyweight Wrestling State Champion! #B16BLUENATION #WeAreUK pic.twitter.com/6JBQmTPrLk
— UK Stoops Troops (@UKStoopsTroops) February 21, 2016
Young was asked in an interview with SEC Country about the funniest thing that any head coach said to him throughout the recruiting process and recounted a private meeting with Urban Meyer.
“It may not be the best thing, but actually, I was at Ohio State having a private meeting with Urban Meyer. I had gone up to camp there, and they had treated me like a piece of meat, just treated me like crap. By that time, I was a four-star tackle. I weighed about 270 [pounds], and I was 6-7.
“I wasn’t even on their radar. I came back up after they offered me. Four straight days, I got (offers from) the University of Cincinnati, Alabama, Auburn and then Ohio State. I went up and said, ‘Coach (Meyer), what was the reason that you all of a sudden offered me?’ He said, ‘We looked at your tape, and it was pretty good and I saw interest in that.’ 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.’”
It was at that point that Young says that Urban Meyer went into more of a tough guy act.
“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.’
“That sort of put me on a bad note because that’s the team I’m committed to. He called me a bad player at that. That doesn’t usually sit well with kids. I may not have been the best, but saying I was an insubstantial player sort of hit me the wrong way.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Young was asked which coach he met with was the nicest and had an answer that may surprise some people.
“I would have to say either coach [Gus] Malzahn or coach [Nick] Saban because both of those guys would personally want me to call them. Both of them I had private meetings with where they would talk to me about their program, me personally and about football. Saban was a little more standoffish because he is a very busy dude and had 150 recruits there, but just the fact that he took that time to sit there and talk with you, that meant a lot. And the same with coach Malzahn. He sat with me for probably 45 minutes about football and what I do outside of football.”
Naturally, the next question Young was asked was which coach was not the nicest and his response was pretty predictable.
“Urban Meyer. No one comes close.”
[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
