Of the 42 recruiting violations Ohio State self-reported to the NCAA in 2013, most are so innocuous as to not even warrant mentioning.
This one probably wouldn’t, either, had it not involved the lightning rod for news that is Tim Tebow.
According to documents obtained by Cleveland.com, Tebow was eating lunch with Buckeyes coach Urban Meyer, Tebow’s former coach at the University of Florida, when Meyer got a call from a recruit named Clifton Garrett.
Here’s how the call went down, according to the report:
“Garrett asked Coach Meyer if he could wish Tebow good luck on the upcoming season. Coach Meyer handed the phone to Tebow, and Garrett conversed with Tebow for approximately eight seconds. Coach Meyer stated that no recruiting conversation occurred, there was no intent to have Tebow recruit on behalf of Ohio State, and he, in fact, did not recruit on behalf of Ohio State.
Coach Meyer reported that Garrett was not instructed to call by anyone from the Ohio State football staff and that neither he nor Tebow had any other communication with any other prospects during the lunch.”
Meyer taking a call from a recruit does not violate any rules, but enlisting a former player to sway a recruit’s decision could be seen as a violation in the eyes of the NCAA.
Ohio State voluntarily ceased communication with Garrett for two weeks, and the linebacker ultimately ended up committing to LSU. It was Garrett’s tweet about the call, which took place last March, that prompted the school’s compliance office to self-report it.
[tweet https://twitter.com/CG340/statuses/310462672938340352 align=’center’]
