Landon Young, a four-star 2016 OL, committed to Kentucky in 2013 and would become the highest-ranked member of his recruiting class.
Though other programs like Auburn and Alabama eventually offered, Young took an unofficial visit to Ohio State in May. The OT sat down privately with Urban Meyer, and he did not leave impressed, telling seccountry.com last week:
"I was at Ohio State having a private meeting with Urban Meyer. I had gone up to camp there, and they had treated me like a piece of meat, just treated me like crap. By that time, I was a four-star tackle. I weighed about 270 [pounds], and I was 6-7.
I wasn’t even on their radar. I came back up after they offered me. Four straight days, I got (offers from) the University of Cincinnati, Alabama, Auburn and then Ohio State. I went up and said, ‘Coach (Meyer), what was the reason that you all of a sudden offered me?’ He said, ‘We looked at your tape, and it was pretty good and I saw interest in that.’ I said, ‘Well coach, back when I was just committing to Kentucky and keeping my options open, I came up to a camp and sent you my film and everything, and you didn’t even reply. It seemed like y’all just deleted it.’
He said, ‘Well, if you look back at that time, you were how big?’ I said, ‘6-7, 270, just like I am now.’ He said, ‘Well, you were an insubstantial tackle, an insubstantial player,’ so he was saying I (didn’t) even amount to being able to be recruited by Ohio State as a four-star tackle. He said, ‘Now what offers did you have?’ I said, ‘I had my one from Kentucky,’ and he said, ‘Well, you were an insubstantial player with insubstantial offers from an insubstantial school.’"
Urban Meyer, speaking at Tuesday's press conference, took the high road. He even admitted he admonished his staff for not seeing the talent in Young sooner.
"I did read it, and we have a lot of respect for him as a player. A lot. I was very disappointed in our staff that we didn't offer him earlier. Then, about the treating him bad, we don't do that on purpose, but if that's his feelings ... and I went back and talked to our staff about that because we don't want that to be out there."
The US Army All-American took to Twitter on Wednesday to apologize for the three paragraphs-worth of quotes he said were "mistaken." Whereas last week Meyer treated him "like a piece of meat," on Wednesday Young said he admired the honesty.
— Landon Young (@Landon_Young_67) April 6, 2016
And so, that is how the feud of Urban Meyer and a random Kentucky offensive tackle will conclude.
