On Monday we shared data that showed just how short the average NFL career truly is. Just a fraction of players are talented enough to be drafted, and even those players don't last long in the league: The average player starts less than one season's worth of games for the team who drafts him.
Yet coaches continue to pitch their ability to turn high school recruits into NFL studs, and for obvious reasons. Every player who strapped on a chin strap has, at one point or another, dreamed of making millions of dollars to play the game. The number of players who would turn down an opportunity to play professional football is so small you can probably count it one one hand.
And if the NFL is one of the most effective recruiting clubs in the bag, few can swing it as well as Urban Meyer. Meyer (and his longtime strength coach Mickey Marotti) has put enough players in the league to field an entire roster of his own recruits, and those recruits have earned enough money to buy an ownership stake in a team.
The list of coaches who can match this pitch is exactly one name long: Nick Saban.