Recruiting: Urban Meyer vs Bobby Bowden

[Irish Envy]

"Meyer is always so positive, so upbeat and he'll do things like go down to the weight room and lift weights with you," said Maurkice. "He knows you and he lets you know he wants to know you more."

The fact that Meyer went out of his way to spend time with them wasn't lost on Michael.

"In all the time we've been going to games and stuff up at FSU, and we've been big Seminole fans, we met Bobby Bowden only once," said Michael. "We went by his office and he was in there so we said 'Hi Coach Bowden' and he said something like 'Hey, how ya doing? Nice having you here' or something like that. It wasn't very personal.

"We went to the University of Florida and it was like a totally different lifestyle. The coaches know you by your name and they speak to you and talk about stuff with you. They take the time to get to know you. The coaches sit down and eat with you and talk about what you want to do in the future and you know they really are interested. Coach Meyer is the one that made the decision easy for us. He likes hanging out with us … me, my brother, Chris, Ahmad … all the guys. You wouldn't catch Bobby Bowden hanging around with us. Can you imagine Bobby Bowden walking around campus with us? Coach Meyer did. He spent the time with us and made us feel like we were coming into a family."

Don't know if you guys follow recruiting outside of Notre Dame, but there were a pair of twins (Pounceys of Lakeland) and they grew up FSU fans and were FSU verbals until meeting up with Coach Meyer.

 

[Óglaigh_na_hÉireann]

FSU won't be able to really battle Florida for recruits until they get a new, younger coach. If they grew up FSU fans, this is the way it reads: it's not so much that there was a reason they picked Florida as there was a reason they didn't pick Florida State.

 

[Irish Envy]

Well, I can see it that way. Then again, they said the same thing about JoePa and he has been recruiting solidly all along. However, I do think it will get worse for Bowden.

 

[jiggafini19]

Say what you will about Urban Meyer, the guy wins and can recruit. He's got something that kids seem to like and I don't consider him to be like the staff at USC.

He'll succeed there, but the schedule is murder. I'm not sure that he can win an NC down there with the schedule they play on a year in and year out basis.

Miami will get their share, as will Florida State but I think Florida will get the better students and won't have as much trouble off of the field. Urban will be in the mix for every guy he wants that lives down in Florida.

 

[punishment]

I'll admit that I dislike Urban Meyer. Not so much for turning us down for Florida, but for the fact that he played the game for a while and was not up front with White that he already had the Florida job in hand, and instead made us waste our time pursuing him.

But anyways, I think Meyer is a lot like Pete Carroll. There is something about younger coaches, that aren't to bad looking. They are both kind of young and hip (by young I mean young for coaches). I think they might almost make the players feel like they are friends, and maybe even make them feel like they can relate to the kids.

But yea, I can't really see Meyer winning it all in Florida. What Auburn did in 2003 was something really special, and its unfortunate that they did not at least win a share of the NC. But the media had crowned USC #1 from the begining, and were not willing to give it up. It's odd that they didn't mind splitting the title the year before in 2002, when it benefited USC, but they were completely against splitting the title in 2003. Undefeated seasons in the SEC are just too hard to come by.