Mark Dantonio was once on Jim Tressel’s national championship staff at Ohio State. Since leaving, he turned around a crumbled Cincinnati program and has already excelled during his brief tenure at Michigan State. There’s no question Dantonio’s got Michigan State on the rise. The Spartans hadn’t seen the postseason for four years before Dantonio’s arrival and have since been to five straight bowl games. Dantonio (below) knows his program is at the top of the Big Ten, but that was before a new coach was hired in Columbus. How do you think he feels about Urban Meyer becoming Ohio State’s new coach? The two were once friends, but according to Dantonio’s defensive coordinator, Pat Narduzzi that is no longer the case.
blackheartgoldpants.com
Meyer (below) has long had a reputation for stealing recruits going back past his Florida days and he’s wasted no time carrying out that practice at Ohio State. Meyer has already taken Dantonio’s once committed recruit (last summer), Se’Von Pittman. There are no laws in recruiting wars- all is fair game and you can bet your ass Dantonio is embracing himself for the race.
247sports.com
In the wake of National Signing Day, Narduzzi found himself in the town of Canton where the NFL Hall of Fame is. On the recruiting trip he was hopeful the Spartans could nab Marlington’s Zach Higgins and McKinley’s Jermaine Edmondson to sign with Michigan State. That still seems to be the case, but Narduzzi knows the tactics Meyer is capable of pulling as he did in the case of Pittman.
Narduzzi told a local newspaper, CantonRep.com:
“The agreement has been between the coaches. Jim Tressel and Mark Dantonio would never call or talk to each other’s commitments. People coach Dantonio knows well don’t come in and take players away. When you do, you lose friendships over that.”
cantonrep.com
Narduzzi (left) goes onto say that the Michigan State coaching staff has already learned their lesson in the case of Pittman, asserting, “It sets a tone and starts a recruiting rivalry. I guess it’s fair game. You don’t want it to be that way, but that’s how it is.” Somebody sounds bitter, huh? Sounds that way, considering Dantonio has tacked on a 5th recruiting coach onto the staff for the Ohio territory.
Of course Michigan State is bitter about losing a top recruit like Pittman, but as you’d expect they’re turning it into a positive for the media:
“We don’t worry about a guy we had and didn’t get,” Narduzzi said. “We want guys who want to be with us. Our philosophy is to take our time and recruit the right way.”
Pittman himself was a bit of a flip flopper, having indicated initial interest at Ohio State before the Jim Tressel circus began and ended. He then shifted interest to Michigan State, until Meyer made it a strong point to recruit the 4-star defensive end away from East Lansing.
Narduzzi claims Dantonio’s focus has now shifted towards “blue-collar recruits” because he’s aware they’re going to lose recruits in the national spotlight nine times out of ten to guys like Meyer.
“I think it’s a good thing we don’t get those guys,” Narduzzi said. “They end up being the ones who cause you chest pains for four or five years.”
foxsportsdetroit.com
Say what you will about Meyer’s recruiting ability, but facts are facts and everybody knows he’s dirty when it comes to the recruiting game. While it’s not by any means illegal, it’s certainly not acceptable and the longer he continues to practice it, the more uneven the playing field will be in the Big Ten for the forseeable future. Brett Bielema and Brady Hoke better watch their back too because The Meyer is a ‘comin for you!
Raju Kansagra
There’s nothing dirty about it. The player in question was initially committed to OSU under Jim Tressel. Dantonio swooped in as soon as Tressel was fired. Meyer is just getting back an initial OSU commitment.
When Tressel was fired just about all Big 10 team came in to steal OSU recruits. Michigan took the #1 player in OH (Kalis). It’s all part of recruiting. Dantonio’s just bitching about it…
As I wrote, it’s not illegal, but to say it’s not dirty or to argue that it’s a widely accepted practice is simply incorrect. I would venture to say coaches in the SEC compete hard for players (just look at Landon Collins), but you don’t see them contacting those kids after they commit to try to suede them back. It’s nonsense, but it’s clearly tolerated…Meyer did this at UF repeatedly.
Actually, some SEC coaches do this all the time. Every single year, Saban presses one or two of LSU’s recruits, all the way up to signing day.
In fact, Saban had Landon Collins ( of all people ) come to LSU’s last recruiting weekend before signing day to try to sway an LSU commit AND to get try to get 2013 LSU commit Jeryl Brazil, as well.
Meyer’s biggest dirty trick when he was in the SEC was to have players commit to him silently, and then go to other schools and tell them he was going to commit there, and then at the last minute, on signing day, commit to Florida. So, the other team loses a commit, and its too late to go after someone else. He did that with Andre Dubose and LSU.
Landon Collins situation was different. He was aware of the coaching staff at both schools. OSU had 3 different coaches the past year and most players that flipped were already considering OSU. Here’s a great take on the situation: http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2012/02/02/dont-blame-coach-when-recruits-opt-to-flip.html
That’s a great point Neil. Also you want to know about negative recruiting read what Al Golden was talking about recruits were telling his staff about the direction of Miami’s program. The stuff coming out of other coaches mouths is ridiculous. Negative recruiting is part of the game now. It always has been. We just know about it more now because the kids tweet about it. It’s kind of funny and sick at the same time.
Thanks, I’ll check out the Al Golden’s comments.
With facebook & twitter, things will definitely have to change… hopefully for the better.
Neil, I get it…you’re excited about OSU football next year. I’m happy for you. New coach, New Team, New ERA…let it begin!