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

Bruce Feldman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 14, 2008

"One of the most insightful books ever written about college football."
- The New York Times

"Easily among the best sports books of the new millennium."
- Paul Finebaum, columnist and radio host



In this unprecedented look at college football’s secret season, Bruce Feldman rips the cover off the game’s frenzied pursuit of raw talent, taking you deep inside the SEC war room of recruiting legend Ed Orgeron,the combustible Cajun who helped build national championship teams at the University of Miami and at USC. In a stunning, blow-by-blow account of the year leading up to National Signing Day 2007, the award-winning journalist shadows Orgeron and his Ole Miss assistants as they set about hunting high school students, pleading, plotting, and inventing ways to lure them to their sleepy Oxford campus. Packed with candid confessions and outrageous off-the-field action, Meat Market makes what happens on the field seem almost tame by comparison.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: ESPN (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933060689
• ISBN-13: 978-1933060682
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #273,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For fans of college football; an enjoyable read. February 15, 2009

By bill1914

Format:Paperback

A year of the college recruiting process at the University of Mississippi, ending with the signing of high school seniors in February 2007.

We see a little bit of the kids who did not sign with Ole Miss, and some of the coaches at different schools. But this is mostly the story of Ed Orgeron and his experience as a head coach and recruiter in a SouthEastern Conference school, arguably the hotbed of college football.

A good read and recommended if you are interested in the inner workings of college football recruiting.

I deducted one star only because I saw this book as a bit too much of an "airplane book" -- easy/casual reading and a limited treatment of the subject (even if it is a rather arcane subject).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars pleased! January 29, 2009

By David L. Mcbride

Format:Paperback

it had all the recruits that i've heard of and it gets really indepth about how the recruiting process is for universities and the players.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent View of College Recruiting August 23, 2009

By Nelson Chen

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book delves deep into the world of college football recruiting. It gives insight on the pressures coaches face while recruiting. It also gives a good preview of the world of Ole Miss football, and the SEC in general.

If you've read The Blind Side, it also gives you a further look at how Coach O managed to recruit Michael Oher, shady dealings or not.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at the uglier, less publicized side of college football: Recruiting November 2, 2008

By Joseph C. Sweeney

Format:Paperback

As a huge sports fan, but as someone who does not spend any time on the thousands of recruiting websites, I thought this book by Bruce Feldman was terrific! An honest and insightful look at one season's worth of recruiting by former Mississippi Coach Ed Orgeron. The year covered is 2006, the second of Coach O's three years at Oxford. Great job by Feldman in trying to show how both the coaches and recruits have their own motivations during some trying times, as high school players try to decide where they will spend their four year playing career.

I read this work in just a couple of hours, as it is a page turner and well written as sports books go. For an even better book written by an ex player on what it is like to actually compete on the national stage for a leading college team, I can't recommend John Ed Bradley's "It Never Rains In Tiger Stadium" highly enough. Brilliant writing by a guy who actually lived the life, playing center for some decent LSU teams in the late 1970's, then dealing with the aftermath of his playing career over the next three decades. Also by ESPN books, which has been on quite the roll lately.

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay book June 11, 2013

By J Drenn

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Provides good insight into the world of college football recruiting. Rather short book and choppy writing style that only gives you a partial picture of the story.

4.0 out of 5 stars Husband loves it January 13, 2013

By MrsDankleBiter

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

My husband was DEVASTATED when this book was lost while moving and I quickly ordered this to replace it. He is a major football fan and he just raves about this book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Must-Read for college football fans August 23, 2012

By Cheryl C.

Format:Paperback

As a big college football fan, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is filled with the inside story of recruiting, which makes or breaks a football program.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Season of College Football Recruiting April 20, 2012

By Hank Peace

Format:Paperback

Meat Market, as the somewhat unseemly title suggests, is a book about the somewhat unseemly business of recruiting potentially great athletes to play college football. Specifically, it follows a Red Bull-fueled recruiting season with then Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron. The fact that an entire book can be written about a single team's recruiting tells you something about what college recruiting has become. Dave Cutcliffe was ignominiously ushered out of Oxford largely for recruiting failures. A few years later Ed Orgeron was ushered out for failures on the field. It appears that recruits are not enough (Houston Nutt was brought in to coach Orgeron's recruits; he had a couple seasons of success and was fired after four).

There is nothing more groundbreaking or sordid here, other than an overreliance on Red Bull when coffee is so readily and cheaply available. If not properly salacious, something of the twists and turns of a recruiting is captured. Efforts are stymied by the administration's insistence recruits have demonstrated some limited academic aptitude. Elsewhere they are stymied by Mississippi State coaches keeping the Ole Miss coaches from so much as speaking with a recruit (with help from his friends and family).

Groundbreaking? No. Entertaining? Yes. If you've ever wanted to know more about college football recruiting, whether you're a novice or have a Scout premium pass, here is your opportunity.