Big personalities are a big part of recruiting. Two of the biggest – Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer – meet for the first time Saturday.

Their tactics are different, but both are wildly successful.

For these two, it starts with being front and center.

“A lot of places you don’t really know the head coach, but you know the area recruiter. You might see the coach three or four times in your recruitment, but with (Meyer), the big thing is that he’s very visible in recruiting,” C.D. Hylton (Dale City, Virginia) coach John Harris said. “Coach Meyer isn’t above calling an assistant or head high school coach himself just to check on the kid. He’s a guy that if your son is being recruited by Ohio State, you’ll know who Urban Meyer is and not every place is like that.”

Meyer has used the strategy since his time at Florida.

Under Meyer, the Gators recruiting classes ranked No. 2 in 2007, No. 4 in 2008, 5 in 2009 and No. 1 in 2010.

“The best recruiters are the hardest workers and he was driving recruiting. He was right in the middle of all of it and he was doing the work,” said Marshall defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, who was Meyer’s recruiting coordinator at Florida.

Being visible is also a strategy that Harbaugh believes in and something he has shown both publicly at his summer swarm tour of high school camps and privately with prospects and their families.

When Jennifer Coney accompanied her son, No. 1 ranked prospect Rashan Gary, on a visit to Michigan, she was blown away by how much time she spent with Harbaugh.

Not just in the football buildings, but outside on campus, the two were escorted by Harbaugh himself.

“At Michigan we were recruited by the head coach. At other places you are recruited by the line coach or the area coach,” Coney said. “I don’t know that we’ve been recruited by another head coach before like that. I think Harbaugh is more interactive in the recruiting process.”

Heater says that’s also a big reason why Meyer is an outstanding closer when it comes to landing big name prospects around signing day. Meyer was the one making phone calls to recruits, driving the conversation and making sure those prospects knew they were wanted.

While Harbaugh hasn’t had the closing opportunities that Meyer has, the personal attention is still there. And he lets his gregariousness lead the way.

During their visit, Harbaugh took Coney and Gary to get milkshakes on campus then to a building that housed a new food court that had just opened. Harbaugh had never been to this particular food court before and showed off one of his other traits that has seemed to attract prospects, and also caught the attention of Coney.

“He’s a little quirky and I say that in a good way. You can tell he’s really smart and passionate about the program and I can’t pinpoint what exactly it is, but he’s a little quirky,” Coney said.

“He got so wrapped up in the excitement of all the different food and the grand opening that he left us and went to the head chef and asked him to show him around. I was like, wait for us and he got wrapped up in how great this food court was and then after a few minutes he said ‘oh’ and came back and got us and remembered why we came down there.”

Jon Haskins is the current director of player personnel at USF and has seen those examples of Harbaugh’s quirkiness up close. Haskins held a similar role at Stanford under Harbaugh and worked closely with the coach in recruiting.

Haskins says that personality and some of what seems goofy on the outside is just who Harbaugh is and a big part of why kids are drawn to him. He believes that Harbaugh’s recruiting style is just being genuinely who he is.

His style is about enthusiasm, creating a competitive environment and being honest with the recruits and players.

“We had luaus at Stanford and we did a sock hop one year. Even the term, calling it a sock hop, is weird but he was able to pull it off,” Haskins said. “We brought in 36 recruits one weekend and it was unbelievable to manage that many people. It was Armageddon and he was able to do it.”

The sock hop did, however, allow Harbaugh to have recruits and parents spend time with each other on campus. Playing music, video games and eating instead of spending the time out on campus at night.

Haskins admits that it sounded like the “worst idea ever,” but concedes that it was a total success once it was executed.

Recruits have noticed that Meyer might seem more polished where Harbaugh is loose.

Chris Daniels posted a vine video of Harbaugh and himself in the coach’s office that got a few laughs from Daniels and his family. It wasn’t every day that a head coach would allow him to shoot a video and blast it out to social media.

Meyer isn’t posting anything funny or quirky on twitter, but the prospects he recruits say he too can be funny and has a big personality, it just isn’t shown as much as Harbaugh.

Some, like Heater, think Meyer’s a natural.

“I’ve been around hall of fame coaches and there are only two that I would describe as five-tool-players who can do it all. Urban Meyer is one because he does it all and [former Colorado coach] Bill McCartney is the other.”