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Urban Meyer will probably just end up using Bret Bielema's comments as really good recruiting material anyway.
Ohio State president Gordon Gee comments on the fuss between Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema over Meyer being too good at recruiting, and now that Gee has taken a stance I suddenly feel like I'm on Wisconsin's side.
Despite Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema criticizing Meyer's recruiting methods, Gee stands behind him.
"We hired the best coach and we went out and got the best kids so get a life," Gee said of Bielema's criticisms.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith released a statement Friday regarding Wisconsin Badgers head coach Bret Bielema's public kerfuffle with Urban Meyer. Bielema accused the Buckeyes' new head coach of breaking the Big Ten's gentleman agreement forbidding the pursuit of committed prospects at other conference institutions. Meyer responded by calling the agreement "nonsense," and Smith backed his head coach.
"I am disappointed that negative references have been made about our football coaches and particularly head coach Urban Meyer regarding recruiting," Smith said. "In our league appropriate protocol, if you have concerns, is to share those concerns with your athletic director. Then your athletic director will make the determination on the appropriate communications from that point forward. The athletic directors in our league are professionals and communicate with each other extremely well. Urban Meyer and his staff have had a compliance conscience since they've arrived."
Of course compliance isn't really the issue here, since outside of the so-called "gentleman's" agreement, Bielema did not detail anything approaching an NCAA violation. Ohio State pulled a fast one on Wisconsin on National Signing Day this past Wednesday, flipping Ohio offensive lineman Kyle Dodson back to the Buckeyes. Dodson had previously decommitted from Ohio State during the tatoo-gate scandal.
For more on this recruiting spat, check out Wisconsin blog Bucky's 5th Quarter and OSU blog Along The Olentangy.
Urban Meyer has had trouble making friends in the Big Ten conference ever since being named the new head coach of the Ohio St. Buckeyes, but things boiled over a bit earlier this week following National Signing Day. In particular, Wisconsin Badgers coach Bret Bielema wasn't happy with Meyer's way of recruiting.
It wasn't that Meyer was doing anything technically illegal in the way he recruited his players, but it seems the majority of his Big Ten brethren had an unwritten rule that said "once a player commits to one school, the rest of the schools are forbidden to continue recruiting said player."
Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin's athletic director, has went on record to say that he has no qualms about the way Meyer recruited. In an interview with ESPN's Joe Schad, Alvarez he has not had any discussions about any potential NCAA violations by other schools and that what Meyer did was okay by him.
UW AD Barry Alvarez: "Recruiting is recruiting until they sign. If we had somebody who changed their mind and came to us, that's OK."
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) February 3, 2012
Alvarez: "Urban was very aggressive but there is no pact within the conference not to continue to recruit. Open season until they sign."
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) February 3, 2012
It'll be interesting to see if there's any further fallout regarding Meyer's recruiting tactics as he continues to embed himself in the Big Ten culture.
For more on the parties involved, visit Ohio State blog Along the Olentangy, Wisconsin blog Bucky's 5th Quarter and Big Ten blog Off Tackle Empire.
Wisconsin Badgers coach Bret Bielema has twice publicly bemoaned new Ohio St. Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer's aggressive recruiting methods, which basically amount to recruiting players who are already verbally committed elsewhere. Meyer has called the idea that verbal'd players are off-limits "nonsense," and according to The-Ozone.net's Brandon Castel, took it up a notch at a coaches' clinic Friday:
@BCastOZone "You're pissed because we went after a committed guy? Guess what, we got 9 guys who better go do it again. Do it a little harder next time."
Enhanced recruiting competition will continue as long as it has to, if that's an actual Meyer quote. If we're expecting Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to step in and tell the coach of one of his two largest fan bases to start recruiting more poorly, we may find ourselves waiting quite a while.
For more on the parties involved, visit Ohio State blog Along the Olentangy, Wisconsin blog Bucky's 5th Quarter and Big Ten blog Off Tackle Empire.
Consider this Urban Meyer's "Welcome to the Big Ten" moment.
Wisconsin Badgers coach Bret Bielema hinted that Meyer was using "illegal" recruiting practices during his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday. The specific practice in question would be Meyer’s recruitment of players who already had given verbal commitments to other Big Ten schools, which is said to be considered a no-no under a "gentleman's agreement" between Big Ten schools.
It's about that time of the day where coaches begin to unwind, talk about their signing class and, of course, fire shots at rivals. Being from the Pac-12 neck of the woods, I've seen plenty of fun recruiting misadventures the past few weeks -- from the Washington-Cal coaching shakeup to recruits changing their minds, then doing it again. But I'm not sure it compares to the short war of words that went down in Big Ten country on Wednesday.
We're going to put Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema down in the "not a fan" category when it comes to new Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who plucked Kyle Dodson from the Badgers.
Bret Bielema just said he had some issues with Urban Meyer's recruiting and used word "illegal". Said he called Urban and worked it out.
— Adam Hoge (@B5Q) February 1, 2012
Oh, but Meyer had a response!
Urban Meyer On Bret Bielema, USC's Probation And Jimmy Buffet
by Jason Kirk
New Ohio State coach Urban Meyer's just letting all that stuff Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio said about him go under the bridge, right? All a big haw haw haw? Remember, we're talking about the coach who once recorded in his autobiography that Georgia would be eternally punished for celebrating a touchdown, so, no. The answer is no. However, Meyer does have nice things to say about Lane Kiffin (!!!!).
Via Sports Radio Interviews:
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Feb 10 2:29p