Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting

Despite not being the world's biggest Ed Orgeron fan (he's a bit too much Ryan brothers in my opinion) I really liked this inside look at his Ole Miss tenure. I had a dead tree copy some years ago that I somehow never ended up reading a few years back but this book was almost made more interesting with the hindsight of some of his "can't miss" players. While the death of TOny Fein was of course heartbreaking a few years ago, there have been some nice stories to come out of the kids he recruited including Peria Jerry, Michael Oher & Mike Wallace.A nice inside view of the recruiting "game" and how much the mentality of 17 year old kids plays into it. Overall a very good read.

Bruce Feldman does an awesome job chronicling the year of Ole Miss Football recruiting, giving an intimate look into the "war room" of a SEC program and the sports' most dynamic recruiter. It's easy now to understand why Coach O is so caught up in recruiting. It's truly his passion. But it's not as if he just recruits. It's clear he'd be an incredible scout if he were working in that field.

This book is easily read on a beach, but doesn't contain the insights into the process I would have liked. You do get some glimpses into the enormous amount of uncertainty that plagues the recruiting process, but less so the precise nature of each recruiting relationship. This is NOT a book that's going to shed much light on the corruption that's undoubtedly involved in the process. This book instead just gives a sunny view of Coach O and his peers in the business. In that sense, alone, the book gets a 2-star deduction b/c you can't claim to cover the recruiting cycle if you ignore its ugly side the way Feldman does.

lots of research, lots of detail, interesting behind the scenes of college recruiting

My grandson went through this meat market as a recruit last year so this book brought back memories. It’s fascinating for any college football fan

Shared with grandkids for summer reading

Recruiting is where a team is made. You can only take a team so far if you don't have top flight athletes, especially in the SEC. Meat Market is a great look into the recruiting process, and how far teams have to go in order to get the top tier players. Coach O is an amazing character, and fits perfectly into this story.Also, this books works because it shows a team that is trying to get back to the top. If it would have been about USC or Florida, it wouldn't have gotten the point across, as they get some recruits on name alone. This book does a great job of show the ins and outs of recruiting, and how much work actually goes into it, even during the season.A great ready for anyone who is a college football fan, fan of the SEC, or wants to know more about the game.

Great information about the intensity of college football recruiting while Coach O was at Ole Miss. You kind of wonder if they pulled the plug too fast on him. Yes, they were losing. But his recruiting class had not started playing yet. His successor was successful until the talent Bebe recruited depleted itself. Hope they give him time at LSU. It certainly won't be as tough to recruit at LSU unless they string out the job search too long.,

The first book I have read by the author and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Good look inside the college game with first hand knowledge and understanding of the characters within it. I will look out for his other titles.

Feldman é um editor da ESPN que teve a oportunidade de acompanhar de perto um ano do trabalho do então técnico da Universidade do Mississipi, também conhecida com Ole Miss, no recrutamento dos jogadores de futebol americano que receberiam bolsas dessa universidade.O livro demonstra o insano ritmo de trabalho de Orgeron e sua comissão técnica no intuito de garimpar os talentos, procura-los e de vender o programa de sua universidade para os alunos, ao mesmo tempo que outras universidades fazem o mesmo através de um processo cheio de regras bizantinas.É muito interessante ver a complexidade do processo e da importância do futebol americano para aquela sociedade. Ao mesmo tempo que a brutalidade do esporte inutiliza diversos jovens em idade muito precoce, ele traz inúmeras oportunidade a quem não tem nenhuma.Como o livro fala sobre a temporada de 2006 para 2007, é interessante ver que a grande maioria dos jogadores citados, recrutados para Ole Mis ou não, tidos quase todos como atletas promissores, praticamente nenhum deles chegou a NFL e apenas um deles é um titular atualmente (Nick Foles).Li o livro de uma vez só e ele é razoavelmente bem escrito, embora as vezes se perca demais nos detalhes. Os dois últimos capítulos são estranhos, parece que foram feitos dois epílogos e um deles foi adicionado na segunda edição do livro. Isso custou uma estrela.Se você gosta de futebol americano e também de entender como montar equipes, vai gostar de ler o livro.

Terrific book if you like college sports. Especially recruiting and or the Ole Miss/USC programs, SEC football and or Coach Ed Orgeron