OT- Meat Market By ESPN's Bruce Feldman
Just picked up a copy of Meat Market, the "inside look at college recruiting" by Bruce Feldman. It's a few years old now but is a must read for us recruiting junkies. I wondered what everyone here thinks/thought of it if they read it.
It's fascinating to me seeing into what goes into recruiting. The film evaluation in particular was enlightening because of what Orgeron and staff were looking for, the fluid hips, change of direction, quick fibers, etc, all stuff I recognize from RichRod and co.
I'll admit I look at film sometimes and don't know what I should be seeing, or if what I'm seeing is that impressive.
That said, I watched a complete highlight reel of Devin Gardner's takeoffs tonight (yeah, I know, it took me forever) and could see what the recruitniks mean by the gaming intangible. The kid is a winner with a nose for the endzone and almost no fear, and he takes some hard hits, boy.
Anyhow, what parts of MM were your favorites, etc?
January 28th, 2010 at 7:12 AM ^
I don't know about favorites, but the whole Robert Elliot situation drove me nuts, and I don't even like Ole Miss. Picking a college because of numbers? That's absolutely ridiculous. I also didn't know how close they were to getting Joe McKnight. Did you know that Jerry Franklin, that "speedy Arkansas linebacker" is now an all-american linebacker? Orgeron really had an eye for talent.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:51 AM ^
I thought "Meat Market" was a pretty fantastic read. I don't think it's 100% accurate, though. There are shady dealings going on at every school, particularly at places like Ole Miss, in my opinion, and none of those things were revealed. But I guess if the school/coaches allowed Feldman to embed himself with them, it would be a dick move to rat them out.
Anyway, I thought that it was kind of crazy how some of the coaches basically stalk players when it gets close to national signing day. Also, I enjoyed some of Orgeron's insights into recruiting. One big thing I took away from it is that he cares more about athleticism and raw talent than if a kid is fundamentally sound or not. He said something like, "As a coach, you have to believe you can fix technique."
January 28th, 2010 at 8:41 AM ^
I got this for Christmas but have only read the first 10 pages so far. I really should make an effort to read the damn thing, instead of spending nearly every moment I'm not sleeping or working in front of my PS3 playing Modern Warfare 2.
Thusly, all my favorite parts exist within the first chapter.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:30 AM ^
This is what I took away from the book:
1. Orgeron is a great recruiter, and was helping to stack the cabinets before he was fired.
2. He loves Red Bull and beef jerky.
3. He'll fight anyone, and is not above ripping off his shirt to prove a point.
4. He loves to yell over the phone and make some guttural squeal/yell.
5. Ole Miss has some hot girls and that didn't hurt in recruiting at all.
6. His in-game coaching ability was quite lacking, and he relied quite heavily on his assistants to do the standard Xs and Os.
7. Recruiting in the South is about as cut-throat as you can imagine, and the academic side of a player is almost never considered provided he can pass the NCAA Clearinghouse.
A good read, but I was bothered that the book kind of glossed over #7 while focusing so heavily on #1-#5. I understand it was a book about recruiting, but you could tell that there were stories Feldman wished he could share but they would undoubtedly paint a darker picture of Easy Ed.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
Completely agree. For a book about recruiting, I wanted much more about the cut-throat recruiting world of the South, and less about the Red Bull-fueled ragings ("Let's do some work!") of Orgeron. It was a quick read, and somewhat entertaining, but fell short, I thought.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^
I agree. I kept hoping for a real expose on what happens in recruiting, the jockeying for position, the visits, the gifts, etc. Not necessarily a tawdry gossip book, but it was a bit insulting that Feldman just glossed over some of the recruiting of McKnight and some of the academic "cases" considering what people now know about some of these guys. It was interesting, though, to see just how bad Oregeron was as a play-calling coach, but how amazing he was as a recruiter. Some people are just supposed to be motivators, and I think Oregeron will be a beast at USC in that respect.