Urban Meyer won 85 percent of his games in stops at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. The secret to his success? Having better players than his opponents.

Recruiting was always an obsession for Meyer, who clearly understood that he could win a lot of games with good players but couldn’t compete for national championships without them. He had elite talent at Florida and Ohio State and won national titles with both programs.

Meyer, now a college football analyst at Fox, spoke to The Athletic last week for the first edition of our monthly Recruiting Q&A. He reminisced about his biggest win on the trail, the one who got away, his best evaluation, how his approach to recruiting changed at Ohio State and offered his thoughts on NIL and the changing landscape in college football.

Note: The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

What made you so good at recruiting?

I treated it like a game. The best recruiters I’ve ever been around — the best players, the best coaches, it doesn’t matter — are the guys that just don’t lose. It becomes a competition, and I tried to create that on our staff. I tried to set the bar, as far as phone calls, as far as work, as far as travel, as far as you know, writing letters, emails, text messages. I learned that from (former offensive line coach) Greg Mattison, a very dear friend. We were at Notre Dame together. Ironically, later, he came to Ohio State. It was a competition on who would sign the most players. That’s what I wanted on our staffs. And we had that.

Can I ask you a blunt question? Did you like calling teenagers? 

Depends who the kid was. If it was Raekwon McMillan, the Bosas, Vonn Bell, Chase Young, absolutely. I loved it. If you got into where people are asking for stuff or it just didn’t seem right, no, I couldn’t stand it.