The new USC?

[furls]

When Pete Carroll was running the show in LA, I couldn't help but marvel at their recruiting classes. It wasn't just the talent that they brought in, but the inherent recruiting advantages that Carroll had.

Carroll ran basically the only premier NCAAF program west of Austin (remember this was before the emergence of Stanford and Oregon), so he had a built in advantage on all west coast kids, and his charisma and fame made him able to compete for kids from FL, Illinois, NJ etc.

Fast-forward to today and Urban Meyer is in a similar situation. In recruiting we used to always talk about the big 4 in the midwest, referring to tOSU, scUM, ND and PSU, but now things have changed. For all its recent "suckiness," ND had been recruiting very well and still turning out some nice pros. I think the ineptitude (and Brian Kelly's abrasive demeanor) is finally starting to catch up with the Irish. The Bucks were able to snag Kelly's two best assistants for what amounts to lateral moves at tOSU. This further confirms that Brian Kelly is a real SOB to work for (same thing is happening at Wisco with Bielema).

PSU's struggles are well publicized and now it is open season across the entire state of PA. Tressel had made strong in roads in western PA, but PSU had still done very well in the Eastern part of the state, Maryland, northern VA and NE. All those areas are now up for grabs.

scUM is clearly on the rise, but is this year enough to drive them into a great 2013 to follow a strong 2012 class? I can tell you that Hoke will not enjoy the same success in OH in 2013, and that has long been a scUM key to success. As nice as scUM's season was for them this year, tOSU's HC hire stole much of the publicity and the national electricity around the program is obvious.

I think it is one of those perfect storms, tOSU jumps in with a very strong HC hire at a time when their regional rivals are struggling. If Meyer fails to dominate the B1G in the near future it will not be due to limited talent. The midwest may not put out as many elite D1 athletes as the southeast, but there is definitely enough talent in the Midwest to push tOSU to national prominence.

[JCoz]

Well, Tressel IMO was starting to already do this the last several years as we started to get solid footing in PA. Its also part of why I think the B10 only got worse as Tressels tenure continued, we started pulling some of the best from Minny, Indiana, Ill, Michigan, and PA to go with our pick of the litter at home.

Meyer will take that to the next level but he'll go national and leave some of those kids back home, hopefully in the B10. Ohio football is great, but its obviously not Cali, but I expect Meyer to look something like Carrol without all the recruiting "titles".

We can't bring 25 every single year like bama can, so I dont expect Meyer to beat bama's recruiting consistently, and even if it did on paper I doubt it would show through in the end.

You just cant beat 100 with 80.

[e0y2e3]

IMO, the battle for Isaac will be an intersting look into where OSU, scUM and ND all stand together.

And Isaac has, thus far, outproduced Green in high school fairly easily.

[e0y2e3]

Yeah, Hoke just doesn't seem to be going away: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/short-logan ... man-update

[furls]

I like Derrick Green.... alot, but I love Ty Isaac.

This is the classic case about a bird in the hand. Green (and Woodard)is about as close to committed as an out of state kid can be without actually committing.

Isaac is the better player, but Green is definitely "serviceable."