Urban Meyer recalls notable recruiting misses he had when coaching

Urban Meyer went through a few intense recruiting battles during his days. Not just at Ohio State but also going back to his time at Florida. Plenty of them resulted in wins for Meyer, consistently having one of the more talented rosters in college football. However, as for any coach, some of the losses sting all these years later.

Somebody Meyer really wanted at Ohio State actually wound up on the other side of The Game. Jabrill Peppers played for Michigan and was an incredible player. If Meyer had his way, Ohio State would have been the school Peppers signed with, though.

“You talk about the Wolverines,” Meyer began. “Jabrill Peppers, I wanted him bad. I think he was a great player.”

Peppers played great against Ohio State during his college career, even if none of the three games resulted in Michigan wins. He hurt the Buckeyes in all three phases. Defensive back was his main position but Peppers had 54 total offensive yards during the 2015 matchup. A season later, he returned a kick for 44 yards.

Two recruiting misses at Florida stand out to Urban Meyer

Meyer then turned back the clock a little, going to his days in Gainesville. Two players stand out above all as guys Meyer wished he was able to bring to Florida. One on each side of the ball, both of whom turned out to have great college and NFL careers.

“The one that I would say is Patrick Peterson at Florida,” Meyer said. “I had him. I think he’s going to be a Hall of Famer… love that player. And then the other one is CJ Spiller. Twenty-five miles from the Swamp… If the Gators would have gotten that cat back in the ’07, ’08 era, it wouldn’t have been fair how much talent we had on that team.”

Peterson turned into somebody Meyer had to face on an annual basis. LSU won out in his recruitment, right as Florida was making runs with Tim Tebow. Flash forward a few years and Peterson was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

As for Spiller, four seasons were spent at Clemson. Meyer believes adding him to the Florida offensive attack would have been “unfair.” When the Gators won the 2008 national championship, Spiller was busy averaging 5.3 yards per carry and getting into the end zone on seven occasions for Clemson.