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| Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting | 
 enlarge | Author: Bruce Feldman
Publisher: ESPN
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.03
You Save: $12.92 (52%)
New (35) Used (15) from $11.26
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 10913
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 1933060395
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.33263
EAN: 9781933060392
ASIN: 1933060395
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"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.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 One of the better sports books I've ever read. October 1, 2007
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Bruce Feldman, in his study of big-time college recruiting, could have chosen to follow the coaching staffs at, say, USC, or the University of Florida, or Notre Dame -- one of those programs whose name alone sways your average high school recruit. In choosing, instead, to follow the staff at Ole Miss, Feldman locates the reader where the real struggle is: at the bottom rung of a big-time conference, in the shadow of traditional SEC powers LSU and Alabama, in the hands of an energetic and unorthodox coach who, quite frankly, wouldn't have this job at any other SEC school.
The frank and evenhanded account that follows is worthy of the best sports books I've ever read, among them John McPhee's Levels of the Game, Kevin Kerrane's Dollar Sign on the Muscle, and Ron Luciano's The Umpire Strikes Back. It's entertaining as hell, and informative to boot. If you want to know what it's like to sit in the war room alongside the hungriest recruiting staff in America, this is the book for you. Feldman delivers and delivers.
Excellent October 1, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. Number one, it's well written. Often books by sportswriters feature slapshod writing, with very little literary quality. Feldman's writing is very crisp. Second, I think the book was made better by profiling a program that is on it's way back, rather than one of the top programs. I say this because it adds to the story, you find yourself rooting for Ole Miss by the end of the book. The book is also written in a way that can be enjoyed by a broad spectrum of college football fans. Terms are well explained, but not dwelled upon.
College football is one of the more under written areas of sports books and this book is towards the top of college football books.
 Have the other reviewers actually read this book? December 29, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I question whether any of the other reviewers have actually read this book. It is as though Feldman took his notes from trailing Orgeron and his staff and had them transcribed into book form them without adding any real insight or conclusions.
I went to school at Ole Miss and am a fan of Ole Miss football, as well as SEC football in general. While this book enumerates the minutiae of Ole Miss recruiting in excruciating detail (wanna know how many Red Bulls Coach Orgeron drinks per day?), it offers no real insight into SEC recruiting, or college football on a larger scale. In one funny anecdote that does stand out, University of Florida Coach Urban Meyer tells a top QB recruit that Tim Tebow (this year's Heisman Trophy winner) is coming to Florida to "be a linebacker", but that is one of the few memorable passages.
The sad truth is, this book appears to be nothing more than a shameless attempt to ride the coattails of Michael Lewis excellent book, "The Blind Side." Lewis followed the progress of left tackle Michael Oher from inner-city Memphis to his eventual enrollment at Ole Miss, offering illuminating and hysterical profiles of Orgeron, Nick Saban, Philip Fullmer, and others in the process. I learned far more from "The Blind Side" than "Meat Market", and if you are looking to learn about recruiting in college football, it would be a better place to start.
The rest of the Story November 30, 2007
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
On November 18,2007, the University of Mississippi announced that 20 players were on probation for stealing from hotels while on game trips.
On November 24, 2007, Coach Ed Orgeron was fired by Ole miss after going 3 and 9 in 2007 and winless in the Southeastern Conference. His great recruiting did not translate into on field success.
On November 26, 2007 US Senator Trent Lott(Miss) announces his resignation from the Senate.
On November 27, 2007 the Oxford office of Attorney Dickie Scruggs (brother-in-law of Lott) are raided by the FBI. Many records are taken including some reportedly detailing illegal payments to athletes. Scruggs is the leading financial supporter of Ole Miss football.
On November 28, 2007 new coach Houston Nutt is flown into Oxford by Scruggs private jet. During the day Scruggs is arrested by the FBI for attempting to bribe a judge. The plane is impounded and another is arranged to return Nutt to Arkansas.
Perhaps Feldman and John Grisham should get together to write the sequel to this stranger than fiction tale.
Awesome! September 27, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is by far one of the best sport's books I have ever read! Once you start reading you will not be able to put this book down. It's shocking to see what goes on in the world of college football recruitting!
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