Urban Negative Recruiting Michigan...

Let the idiot have his recruits with the pretty stars next to their names. 

You don't need to have high ranked players to win.

Good Lord, I never thought anyone could make Tressel look good. For all his two-facedness, Tressel never badmouthed Carr/Rodriguez on the recruiting trail.

Hell I can recall Woody being caught on candid camera more than a few times in that glorious decade that was the '70s.  Bo didn't buy into his attempts to get him to act in the same manner. Instead he did what any great coach does.  He sold the players on UM, the value of a degree from same and the "reality" of once they earned the right to be termed a UM Man, they would be a member of that very large family for life. These kids might buy into it while he speaks and this is simply based on my assumption that he is, indeed, a persuasive recruiter as evidenced by the talent he's assembled at both FL and in Columbus.  But when the memory of any given speech begins to wane the players will conclude, rightfully so, that coaches at this level should not lower themselves to adolescent behavior and he should be espousing the virtues of OSU, not the temporary stalemate that the program is in at the present.  It's also a good way to wake up a sleeping giant where even the poorest coach will put forth all his effort at proving him wrong and not just for a season.  Bad, bad move on his part.                            ^Here is the correct way to recruit and it happened roughly thirty to thirty five years ago.  With the exception of Miami, the other two FL schools were just beginning to approach elite status so manyt of that state's top athletes were fair game for all schools, especially those of the caliber of UM and ND at that respective time.  There was a very good OLman by the name of Stephen Humpreys, now Dr. Steven Humpreys who was attending one of the Jesuit schools in one of many of Florida's hot beds for talent. It was a given he was going to ND, to the point that many sports writers of that day were on hand already knowing he was going to announce he would be playing for the Irish. You can enter a Lee Corso here because Bo wanted this kid badly and for all the right reasons. As he entered the school the Mother Superior or whatever they call females running catholics schools approached him and asked, "Now Bo you aren't going to begin coming down here and trying to persuade my boys from attending ND are you, the school she really loved.  Bo was perfectly honest with her.  He told her, and I'm sure he used the correct title," ___________ you have to understand that Stephen is a special young man. He has the grades, the intelligence and the work ethic to be accepted at UM and study(his field of interest that I cannot recall right now."  Fully aware that ND did not offer such a program, and without mentioning their name once he continued, "It's not often that a special athlete and special student is given such an opportunity. Do you really want to deny him this once in a life-time opportunity?"  As he was leaving, this special lady, as Bo referred to her said, "Now Bo if he does decide to attend your school, you will send me tickets, won't you?"  Now this was long before the days of tweets, facebook, hell even PCs. So it was a very stunned group of sports reporters on hand, many of whom had already started their articles with  headlines in the manner "Humpreys chooses ND," a few nights later when Stephen informed America that he would be attending and playing football at the University of Michigan.  I am fully aware of the legendary status of this man and the places he walked are considered every bit as hallowed as the paths once walked by Crisler and Yost before him. But Bo recruited in this manner before he gained legendary status and continued to do so throughout his entire career.  That type of recruiting, gentlemen, has one hell of a longer shelf life than the type portrayed by Urban in the referenced article.  And aside from that, as he begins to experience more losses of the type MSU handed him when he was on the cusp of being in the NC game, especially those doled out by UM, he will experience another imaginary, albeit convenient medical problem that will force him to return to the broadcasting booth.  This man, mi amigos, despite his accomplishments and inclusing among a very small group of "great coaches" simply cannot handle the realization that there is a better coach in the same conference as him. I don't know who that coach will be, but when it became clear to him that he was not the equal of Saban, and quite possibly even Les Miles, continuing and attempt to acquire what these two had was not even an option. The entire nation knew he was simply biding time until a ND or OSU job became available so that again he would instantly be a level above the coaches that he would face on an annual basis.