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Urban Meyer Takes Subtle Dig at Michigan as He Reflects on Recruiting Battles With Wolverines

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dean Koutouratsas | Last updated Jun 19, 2025 5:23 PM ET

The Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes have one of the most famous rivalries in college football, dating back to their first meeting in 1897.

The teams have won countless games against one another and have stolen top recruits from each other. And no one knows that better than former Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer, who led Ohio State from 2012-18. He never lost more than two games and holds a 7-0 record against the Wolverines.

Furthermore, when it came to recruiting talent interested in his team and Michigan, Meyer made sure to take it very seriously.

“I told you we had a Wolverine board in the room on a separate board in our recruiting war room,” Meyer said during a recent episode of “The Triple Option” podcast when asked about how the Buckeyes would look into what prospects their rivals were targeting.

.@CoachUrbanMeyer wasn't taking ANY losses to TTUN pic.twitter.com/AaAOzl7nAA
— The Triple Option (@3xOptionShow) June 19, 2025

“We used to update it daily, and I wanted to see who they were recruiting and why they beat us on that player,” he continued. “And that was a bad day for that assistant coach if we didn’t know about that player, and good thing that didn’t happen that often.”

Meyer later claimed that he would have liked to have recruited safety Jabrill Peppers, who picked the Wolverines over Ohio State. He also noted that he would look into recruiting “every morning” by checking in with analysts that worked with the team.

“Like my father once told me, as long as you're keeping score we're going to try to win,” he added. “To the coaches that say they don’t pay attention, I think they do.”

As of last season, the Wolverines have had the upper hand in the rivalry by defeating the Buckeyes 13-10 in November 2024, heading into their next game scheduled for Nov. 29, 2025, at Michigan Stadium.

However, current projections favor Ohio State following their 34-23 national title game victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in January. Meanwhile, Michigan is expected to finish in the middle of the Big Ten as head coach Sherrone Moore is rebuilding the Wolverines to ensure long-term stability and success.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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