More than a year ago, I jokingly announced the formation of the ClayNation book club when I reviewed Terrell Owens' masterpiece Little T Learns to Share. Then for the next year I didn't review any books. This is what we call commitment. But all of that is changing today because I return, one year after heralding its arrival to offer a new book review and bonus interview. This time a serious offering: Bruce Feldman's Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting.
Feldman has covered college football for 10 years. His most recent book, Meat Market, focuses on a season inside Ole Miss's recruiting machine, profiles the coaches and administrators involved in the recruiting process, introduces us to the high school athletes being recruited and features a deft and compelling portrait of the South's most famous crazy man since Huey Long, Ed Orgeron.
Feldman's book is gripping, the characters are well-defined, and I dare you to not keep turning the pages. If you're anything like me you're a bona fide recruiting junkie who lies to friends and family about how much time you spend on the Internet waiting to hear whether a 17- or 18-year-old boy is going to be playing for your college. Guess what? This book offers you a way to impress your wife or girlfriend by reading and you get to learn more about recruiting. See, everybody wins.
Meat Market also offers a better behind the scenes view of what actually happens in the recruiting universe than exists anywhere else I've seen. So if you trust my opinion on books and you're a college football fan, you need to read this -- if for no other reason than to read about Orgeron attending a cockfight and to hear how Urban Meyer told Jevan Snead that he was recruiting Tim Tebow as a linebacker. Seriously, a linebacker.
After I finished the book, I contacted Bruce Feldman. He told me he was thrilled to be the inaugural ClayNation book club author (not counting T.O.) His exact words were, "Does it come with some honorary jean shorts?"
On to the interview:
1. How well do you think the average fan understands the hours, commitment, focus and time that college coaches put into recruiting?
"I don't think most fans have any idea about the time and energy that goes into coaching a big-time college football program. I know until I spent the year inside a program I had no idea just how rigorous the whole deal can be. You have 100 players to handle, not just on the field but also making sure they are doing well in school and not getting in trouble. You have daily practices to run and opponents to prepare for as well as recruiting boards to tend to; staff meetings and assistants to manage, you also have to deal with the media and boosters too. As a college writer, I never really thought about that after a post-practice interview session at say 6:45 p.m. that many staffs then sit down together -- offensive coaches in their room and defensive coaches in theirs -- and review the tape of the entire afternoon practice, which usually takes another three hours."
2. In your experience what makes a truly great college recruiter?
"I think the key to being a great recruiter is really three-fold: You have to be able to connect with kids and their parents and get their trust, you have to be a shrewd evaluator of what makes a prospect good or not good, and you have to be persistent. Many recruits are drawn to the coaches they feel want them the most. Ego plays a huge role in all of this.
"The thing that makes Orgeron a great recruiter is the same thing that I think works for Zook. As rough around the edges as those guys might seem -- and if you were to round up all 120 head coaches for a battle royale, you know these are the last two in the cage -- they don't try to be something they're not. Many other head coaches seem to turn it on and turn it off depending on their situation. A lot of recruits I spoke to can see through the phoniness, and with Orgeron and Zook, those guys don't have that. And I think kids, especially ones from rough backgrounds, connect with them. Plus it helps when you can say you coached Warren Sapp and recruited Reggie Bush and a bunch of other All-Americans."
3. You've covered college football for quite a few years so you weren't coming to this business completely anew, even with the knowledge you already had, what surprised you the most about the recruiting business?
"The two things that surprised me the most were how murky the information is about the recruits. Meaning what you might see online is not what the coaches actually are dealing with, so that kid you've read as 6-4, 225 and runs a 4.6 40 and says he has a 2.6 GPA actually is 6-2, 208 and runs a 4.91 at your summer camp, and when his transcript shows up, you find out he actually has a 1.8 GPA in his core classes and he might not have much shot of qualifying.
"The other thing that I never really grasped till now is you can have a player with all of the supposed "measureables," yet if he's not sharp enough to learn your system or isn't tough or can't change direction, he probably won't get off your bench."
4. How many actual days did you spend in Oxford observing the recruiting chase? We know the coaches' hours were insane, what were your own like?
"I'd say I spent a third of the year in Oxford and leading up to signing day I spent 17 days straight at the Hampton Inn in Oxford. As for the hours, he'd (Orgeron) be in the war room watching film usually by 5:30 a.m., so I tried to be there at the same time and he wouldn't leave the complex till 10 p.m. most nights. It was pretty mind-numbing for me because you're trying to absorb everything. Even though a big portion of his day was not specifically on recruiting (maybe it was getting ready for the day's practice or scouting tendencies for the upcoming week's opponent) I wanted to stay up with them because I figured it all related to their efforts to putting together a recruiting class because it would still be part of what goes into a coach's job."
5. Did you ever in your wildest dreams think you'd be watching a cock fight in a recruit's back yard with Coach O?
"Nope. Can't say that I would've."
