They’ve won national championships. They’ve put numerous players in the NFL.
And in the dog-eat-dog world of recruiting, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are two of the best, landing five-stars almost every recruiting cycle and paving the way to success with some of the most elite players in recent memory.
Saban has corralled 40 five-star prospects through his time at LSU and now Alabama, where he has loaded up in a significant way especially in recent recruiting classes and those players have aided the Crimson Tide’s run to multiple national championships.
Alabama has won four of the last seven national titles. The Crimson Tide have also earned seven of the last nine Rivals.com recruiting rankings honors, finishing atop the team rankings that speaks to the phenomenal job Saban and his coaching staff do on the trail, not only on the field.
“Alabama is interesting because that was a disaster before Saban,” Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell said. “Saban came along right at the time, the perfect time, for a resurgence of talent in that state. You look at his first full class, which was headlined by Julio Jones, and there were other five-star prospects in the state that year.
“After that, every other year it seems to be three or four Alabama five-stars. That’s not Nick Saban. That’s the fact he arrived at the right time and he was able to keep all those kids in-state. That was the perfect storm for him at Alabama when it came to recruiting five-stars because under (Mike) Shula and the previous regimes, there wasn’t nearly as much talent there.”
That’s not to say Saban just got lucky. He has landed five-stars from a lot of locales – including top-rated recruit Najee Harris out of Antioch, Calif., this recruiting cycle. Northern California has been particularly fruitful for Alabama recently as it landed five-star offensive lineman Jonah Williams from Folsom, Calif., last recruiting cycle and JUCO five-star offensive lineman Elliot Baker in the 2017 class as well.
Saban landed a few five-stars during his time at LSU, but he’s really loaded up with the Crimson Tide. In 2008 it was Jones. The next recruiting cycle he signed D.J. Fluker and others. On and on, every single year, Saban landed five-star after five-star, many of them keys to all the national titles.
Meyer is not far behind. He was an almost instantaneous superstar when he arrived at Florida and in the 2006 class Meyer landed the No. 1 prospect Percy Harvin out of Virginia along with getting Tim Tebow (who was close to signing with Alabama) and five-star linebacker Brandon Spikes. It could easily be argued without those players, the Gators would have never sniffed the level of success they had in the following years.
Five-star defensive end Carlos Dunlap followed the next recruiting cycle along with five-star quarterback Cam Newton, although Newton’s Florida career is forgettable compared to what he accomplished at Auburn and now in the NFL.
Florida struck out on some five-star talent as well, guys that never reached their expected potential – as did Alabama – but Meyer’s 2010 class was off the charts led by another No. 1 prospect in defensive end Ronald Powell along with Sharrif Floyd and Dominique Easley on the defensive line and Matt Elam in the secondary.
Throughout his time at Florida and now Ohio State, Meyer has proven he can recruit anyone, anywhere at any time – going to Virginia for Harvin, Pennsylvania for Floyd, New York for Easley and the list goes on.
The same holds true for Meyer with Ohio State as he dipped back into the South for Raekwon McMillan or Vonn Bell out of Georgia, Trevon Grimes and Shaun Wade out of Florida or going to California for five-star offensive lineman Wyatt Davis, all three in the 2017 recruiting class.
In all, Meyer has landed 31 five-stars during his career.
“What he did such a good job of at Florida and what he does such a good job of at Ohio State is recruiting nationally,” Farrell said. “He went to California and got Ronald Powell and some other guys. He went to Pennsylvania and stole away Sharrif Floyd. He went to Virginia and North Carolina. He wasn’t a one-trick pony. He was going everywhere.
“When he got to Ohio State he knew what he needed to do so he used all his ties and his recruiting mojo to go down and win battles for Florida speed and Raekwon McMillan and Vonn Bell.
“Urban got it more than anybody that you need to balance in-state success with national recruiting and that’s what made him and guys like Pete Carroll successful. The two that have done that the best over the last 20 years are Pete Carroll and Urban Meyer when you’re talking about national recruiting from multiple states all across the country.”
Saban and Meyer have done it every way possible. Both have done incredibly well with local recruits. Both have had success reaching out nationally to land top talent.
That’s why they’re so good. That’s why their teams are so good. And that’s why recruiting continues to be such a success for both of them. Winning on the field immeasurably helps recruiting and both Saban and Meyer have done a whole lot of that, too.
“Urban has been more creative in his recruiting approach where Saban is very direct, ‘Hey you want to come here and win national championships and go to the NFL? Great.’” Farrell said. “Meyer is super creative. They are both just rock stars.”
OVER THE YEARS
NICK SABAN - 40 FIVE-STARS
LSU
2003 - Justin Vincent
2004 - Xavier Carter, Early Doucet
Alabama
2007 – None
2008 – Julio Jones, Burton Scott, Tyler Love
2009 – Dre Kirkpatrick, Nico Johnson, Trent Richardson, D.J. Fluker
2010 - DeMarcus Milliner
2011 – Cyrus Kouandjio, Dee Hart, Hasean Clinton-Dix
2012 – Landon Collins, T.J. Yeldon, Eddie Williams
2013 – A’Shawn Robinson, Reuben Foster, Jonathan Allen, O.J. Howard
2014 – Rashaan Evans, Marlon Humphrey, Tony Brown, Da’Shawn Hand, Cameron Robinson, Bo Scarbrough
2015 – Damien Harris, Daron Payne, Calvin Ridley, Minkah Fitzpatrick
2016 – Terrell Hall, Lyndell Wilson, Ben Davis, Charles Baldwin, Jonah Williams
2017 – Jerry Jeudy, Elliott Baker, Najee Harris, Alex Leatherwood
2018 - None
URBAN MEYER - 31 FIVE-STARS
Florida
2005 - None
2006 – Brandon Spikes, Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow, Carl Johnson
2007 – Carlos Dunlap, James Wilson, Cam Newton, Torrey Davis
2008 – Omar Hunter, Matt Patchan, Will Hill, Carl Moore
2009 – Jelani Jenkins, Andre Debose, Gary Brown
2010 – Ronald Powell, Matt Elam, Sharrif Floyd, Dominique Easley
Ohio State
2012 - Noah Spence, Adolphus Washington
2013 – Mike Mitchell, Vonn Bell
2014 – Raekwon McMillan
2015 – None
2016 – Keandre Jones, Nick Bosa
2017 – Trevon Grimes, Wyatt Davis, Josh Myers, Shaun Wade
2018 – Emory Jones
