The Urban Meyer soap opera will go down as one of the darkest times in Jacksonville Jaguars history, and the hiring itself will also go down as one of the worst hirings in NFL history.
Meyer did not even last a full calendar year with the Jaguars, having been hired on January 14th, 2021, and fired on December 16th, 2021.
His 13-game tenure is tied with Lou Holtz and Bobby Petrino for the 4th-shortest coaching tenure in NFL history. He leaves the Jaguars with a 2-11 record—a .154 winning percentage, the worst of any non-interim head coach since Cam Cameron’s .063 winning percentage with the Dolphins in 2007.
The firing doesn’t stem from just one incident. It stems from multiple incidents that, as a result, the Jags do not intend to pay Meyer for the remainder of his five-year contract.
Meyer was originally hired to replace previous Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone. On the day Meyer was hired by the Jags, team owner Shad Khan was excited about it, as told in his statement.
“This is a great day for Jacksonville and Jaguars fans everywhere,” said Khan. “Urban Meyer is who we want and need, a leader, winner, and champion who demands excellence and produces results. While Urban already enjoys a legacy in the game of football that few will ever match, his passion for the opportunity in front of him here in Jacksonville is powerful and unmistakable. I’m proud to name Urban the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.”
The reality pointed towards something different: The hiring of Meyer itself screamed trouble for the Jags.
This is a coach who built a toxic culture with the Florida Gators. He built a “Circle of Trust” that consisted of only star players, and those star players received favorable treatment. This treatment included not having to complete workouts, lenient punishment, and hiding positive drug tests from the public. That led to his resignation from his post at Florida because of “health reasons.”
He also committed spousal abuse on former assistant coach Zach Smith in 2015, during his time with the Ohio State Buckeyes, and tried to cover it up too. He was suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season as a result and briefly retired from coaching in the wake of the cover-up.
Meyer allowed the hiring of Chris Doyle to help with the Jags’ strength and conditioning program on February 11th. Doyle previously held the title of strength and conditioning coach with the Iowa Hawkeyes, where he was placed on administrative leave because of accusations of using racist language.
Those accusations were part of a larger complaint from ex-players, including those who transitioned to the NFL, that the program’s culture shows self-expression and made Black players feel unequal.
Players were saying that Doyle used racist stereotypes to mock them and, in one case, forced a player to reach into a trash bin to retrieve a water bottle. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, who has been with Iowa since 1999, called the accusations “troubling” and said they “have created a lasting impact on these players.”
Doyle denied the accusations on Twitter.
“At no time have I ever crossed the line of unethical behavior or bias based upon race. I do not make racist comments and I do not tolerate people who do,” he wrote.
No matter how many times Doyle wants to deny the accusations of his racist behavior, he can’t hide from the truth. Ferentz added that he was grateful that his ex-players spoke up on this.
“I am saddened to hear these comments from some of our former players,” he said. “While I wish they had reached out to us directly, I am thankful that these players decided to share their experiences now.”
And even though Ferentz created an advisory committee to “examine where we are today and how we can have a better environment tomorrow,” Meyer defended the decision for the team to hire Doyle.
“I vet everyone on our staff and, like I said, the relationship goes back close to 20 years and a lot of hard questions asked, a lot of vetting involved with all our staff,” he told ESPN. “We did a very good job vetting that one.”
Yeah, he did a good job alright. At getting slammed for the decision to hire Doyle, that is.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance, a foundation that promotes diversity within the NFL, slammed Meyer for his decision to hire Doyle.
“At a time when the NFL has failed to solve its problem with racial hiring practices, it is simply unacceptable to welcome Chris Doyle into the ranks of NFL coaches,” Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director Rod Graves wrote in the statement. “Doyle’s departure from the University of Iowa reflected a tenure riddled with poor judgment and mistreatment of Black players. His conduct should be as disqualifying for the NFL as it was for University of Iowa. Urban Meyer’s statement, ‘I’ve known Chris for close to 20 years,’ reflects the good ol’boy network that is precisely the reason there is such a disparity in employment opportunities for Black coaches.”
To no surprise, Doyle resigned from his position with the Jags just one day after the hiring. Although he said he had become “a distraction” to the team, this was more to do with the accusations of racism surrounding him.
If Meyer allowed the hiring of Doyle to happen, doesn’t this show some shadiness behind him?
This shadiness was shown on March 29th, when he discussed the departure of Doyle with NBC Sports’ Peter King.
“I did our due diligence on that,” said Meyer. “But one thing I made a self-promise—if it’s a distraction ... it was the right thing for Chris to move on because it became a distraction to our team. Anything that’s a distraction to our team, I want to make sure we avoid.”
It didn’t help that Doyle’s workouts put 13 players in the hospital. Even worse, he wasn’t fired for that.
Instead, he got an award and became college football’s highest-paid strength and conditioning coach.
When he was accused of racial bias by multiple Black players, he got a $1.1 million separation package, and it only took him eight months for him to get a new job.
Considering that Khan was part of the hiring process when Doyle was brought in, it would seem that this incident may not be the one the Jags would use against Meyer.
If at all.
Meyer and the Jags would later try out Tim Tebow on April 29th, six years after Tebow last played football and three months after Tebow’s retirement from minor league baseball. And this was not to play quarterback—the Jags at that time recently drafted Trevor Lawrence. Tebow planned to play at the tight end position.
Tebow was even signed to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract of $920k on May 10th, only for him to not catch any passes and not play on special teams, and even made one of the worst block attempts in professional football. He would not make it through the final roster cuts, being released on August 17th.
Meyer didn’t even look to ease his way to the NFL offseason schedules as the NFL fined the Jaguars $200k, plus a $100k fine for Meyer, for organized team activities violations. In comparison to the Cowboys and 49ers, those two organizations were fined $100k each and their respective coaches were fined $50k each.
The fines stemmed from a practice that took place on June 1st, per Mark Long of the Associated Press. During 11-on-11 contact drills between wide receivers and defensive backs, the NFL evidently saw rules being violated and they intervened.
The Jags responded: “The Jaguars are vigilant about practicing within the CBA rules and will re-emphasize offseason training rules as they relate to contact.”
Not only were they fined $200k and Meyer $100k, but they had to forfeit two OTA practices during the first week of the 2022 offseason.
Nine days after the release of Tebow, Pete Prisco of CBS Sports told Damon Amendolara that several Jaguars players were not thrilled with Meyer’s coaching style.
“He brought a bunch of college-like things to the program, which I don’t necessarily agree with,” said Prisco. “And I’ve heard some of the players aren’t thrilled with him either, including having a microphone on the field, one of his assistants on the field during practice with a boom mic, telling everybody to hydrate and hustle and get to the next period.”
The Jags were a mess in the preseason, especially on offense, losing their first two games against the Browns and Saints. In those games, they had as many three-and-outs as they had points in Lawrence’s eight drives: three. Plus, Travis Etienne, the former 25th overall pick of the 2021 Draft, was set to miss the entire 2021 season with a Lisfranc injury.
“From everything he’s changed inside the building—they’ve added a bunch of new things, cryotherapy, all kinds of stuff has been added in that building at his request,” added Prisco. “He has the biggest coaching staff in the NFL. It’s enormous, so he got everything he wanted there. There’s a trainer, a stretching coach, for every position when they stretch so that they all get the proper stretching. ... And the problem is he said he had the best of the best on his coaching staff. It’s clear that the offense is a disaster right now. They have no idea that they’re doing.”
Not only this, but there was originally going to be a quarterback competition for who will get the starting QB job in Jacksonville, but that fell apart. Lawrence was eventually named the starting QB, while Gardner Minshew was traded to the Eagles as a result of the failed QB competition.
Meyer even said on August 31st that vaccination status was “certainly in consideration” when the Jags were making their final roster cuts. Specifically, he said that weighed on his and general manager Trent Baalke’s decision because of the COVID protocols on unvaccinated players.
“Everyone was considered,” Meyer said via ESPN. “That was part of the [considerations such as] production, let’s start talking about this, and also is he vaccinated or not? Can I say that that was a decision-maker? It was certainly in consideration.”
There were questions regarding Meyer’s comments, as the NFL does not require players to be vaccinated.
However, unvaccinated players have to follow stricter protocols than vaccinated players, including mandated masks in weight rooms and practice sessions, daily testing, and a 10-day period of absence if one tests positive.
The league also informed their teams that if a game cannot be rescheduled during the regular season because of a COVID outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team that had the outbreak will be forced to forfeit the game.
After Meyer discussed the final roster, the NFLPA told ProFootballTalk that they would investigate his comments.
One of the surprise cuts was Jarrod Wilson, who consistently wore a mask inside the team facility, per ProFootballTalk.
“It’s a little bit like the free agency thing for the vested vet you’re going to see,” said Meyer. “Because they’re not the waiver guys—it’s almost free agency again. But then the young players, that’s going on right now as we speak.”
Per ESPN, Meyer tried to educate his players about the vaccine and encouraged them to get it, but each individual was allowed to decide for himself on whether or not to get it. He appeared to indicate that the team’s chances to win, however, would be affected by the league’s policies, which kept Josh Allen out of the team’s final two preseason games, even though he did not have COVID.
The Jags later did some damage control and denied Meyer’s claim, explaining that vaccination status, in fact, did not play a role in the roster cuts, focusing on how their players can help the team win:
Availability is one of the many factors taken into account when making roster decisions. We have vaccinated and unvaccinated players on our roster, and no player was released because of their vaccination status. Ultimately, decisions are based on a player’s ability to help the Jaguars win. We educate our players and respect personal decisions as it pertains to the vaccine. We want to keep our players, staff and families safe as we comply with protocols related to both health and safety and competition on game days.
This statement did nothing to stop the NFLPA from investigating Meyer for his comments.
Remember when the Jags players were not thrilled with Meyer’s coaching style? It’s not just the players disproving of his demeanor during the preseason.
Coaches were not happy with it too, as reported by CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. That sparked red flags within the organization, with some even questioning if he would last the entire season in Jacksonville.
“There is a disconnect at times between the members of the staff with extensive pro experience and those who lack it, and morale has suffered as the outbursts have continued,” reported La Canfora. “His fiery remarks to players and coaches after games have already struck many as bizarre.”
La Canfora also reported that Meyer threatened the job security of his own coaching staff following preseason losses, even belittling them. He continuously had trouble with the timing of installation and other NFL scheduling items, which caused delays and gave the coaching staff a hard time.
His coaching staff was also bothered by his control-freak attitude, taking over practice drills when they are not run to his specifications and expectations. Reports also said that he had too much power and influence around the team.
“He has everyone looking over their shoulders already,” a source told CBS. “He becomes unhinged way too easily, and he doesn’t know how to handle losing, even in the preseason. He loses it and wants to take over the drills himself. Not good.”
While he found success at the college level, finding success in the NFL level is harder. And that source telling CBS is right: Meyer does not know how to handle losing.
After the Jags’ 23-13 loss to the Broncos, Meyer told Broncos head coach Vic Fangio that the NFL is “like playing Alabama” every week.
“I don’t know Urban Meyer at all really, I met him the other day, shook his hand before the game and after the game and his comment to me was, ‘Every week is like playing Alabama in the NFL,’” Fangio told reporters. “And that’s it. Everybody’s capable of beating everybody in this league.”
This is not what the Jags Faithful wanted to hear from their own head coach, especially someone who was successful in Bowling Green, Florida, and Ohio State. But one can tell that Meyer has struggled to adapt from college to the NFL.
In college, he can out-recruit opponents and beat them with his team’s advantage in size, speed, and talent. In college, he enjoyed coaching several NFL-caliber players, whereas most of his opponents had fewer.
In the NFL, everyone is an NFL-caliber player, and his coaching has yet to make up for the difference. The level of parity is higher in the NFL, where, as Fangio said, “everybody’s capable of beating everybody.” This didn’t fit well with Meyer, even with Lawrence running the offense.
By this point, the Jags not only looked dysfunctional off the field, but on the field too, having struggled to get scoring drives during the preseason and in the regular season. It was just a taste of what was to come in the season.
But even so, Meyer insisted the Jags were going to get better.
“Hang in there with us. We’re going to get better,” said Meyer in a statement via the Jaguars’ official Twitter. “The one thing about Jacksonville and the 904, go to sleep knowing there’s not going to be any group working harder to get this thing flipped.”
This is all hard to believe considering the way Meyer has been doing his antics with the team and with offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell calling the plays.
The Jags would later blow a 14-0 1st half lead against the Bengals at Cincinnati and lose 24-21 on an Evan McPherson game-winning field goal in Week 4.
Meyer didn’t fly home with his team after the Thursday Night match; he stays in Ohio and travels to Columbus to visit his family.
Then comes the bar incident.
Meyer was caught with a 24-year-old woman dancing on him that was not his wife while touching her below the waist in his restaurant, Urban Meyer’s Pint House, and that people at the event asked to take photos with him on the night of October 2nd.
The nine-second video showed him sitting with his back to the bar while the woman danced close to his lap. One hour after this video was posted, a second video emerged that showed Meyer touching the woman’s bottom.
The woman’s mother was even worried about her daughter’s wellbeing because of this.
“[She] can’t even go anywhere,” the mother told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s ruining her life is what it’s doing. I’m worried for her emotional status right now.”
New Horizon Media Group, a marketing company where the woman works, said they conducted an internal investigation in the incident that took place.
Meyer later apologized to the team, including team owner Shad Khan, the players, and others for being a distraction to his team. But his explanation was very weird:
I just apologized to the team and the staff for being a distraction. Just stupid. So I explained everything that happened and owned it. Just stupid. I should not have myself in that kind of position.
I stayed to see the grandkids, and we all went to dinner that night at the restaurant. There was a big group next to our restaurant and they wanted me to come over and take pictures, and I did. They were trying to pull me out on the dance floor, screwing around and I should have left. ... I apologized again for being a distraction. A coach should not be a distraction. Of course I did [apologize to my family]. That’s not me. They were upset.
Whether or not that party was a planned event or just a visit with fans is unclear, but he later pledged to regain the trust and respect back from everyone in the organization after Khan reprimanded him for his behavior.
“I have addressed this matter with Urban. Specifics of our conversation will be held in confidence,” said Khan in a statement on the Tuesday after the bar incident. “What I will say is his conduct last weekend was inexcusable. I appreciate Urban’s remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now, he must regain our trust and respect. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver.”
“I made a comment when I got here about the logo, about an owner who wants to win in the worst way,” Meyer said on his radio show on 1010 XL in Jacksonville. “That’s one of the reasons I came here. I just, I admire that guy so much. ... And so, that’s what makes me so angry at myself that I lived that, I believe that and I failed. And I’ve got to get [the trust and respect] back, and I will.”
One piece of evidence pointing to the contrary is that the bar incident prompted “closed-door meetings” in the Jaguars’ front office, as reported by former NFL scout Michael Lombardi.
While Lombardi didn’t explicitly confirm Meyer’s actions being under scrutiny, he revealed that a “morals clause” was among those being discussed in the meetings. Said “morals clause” may have pointed towards Meyer’s actions.
Michael Silver further reported that Meyer cancelled a Jags team meeting on the Monday following the incident and even though he apologized to the team, he chose to address the matter with every individual position group.
It was also implied that he lost the locker room in the wake of the incident, as one player said, “It’s bad. I don’t know how he’s gonna function.”
During the Jaguars’ 37-19 loss to the Titans in Week 5, one baffling decision was Meyer’s decision to call for a handoff to Carlos Hyde instead of a QB Sneak from Lawrence. Hyde was tackled for a 3-yard loss. Meyer drew a lot of criticism for the play, reasonably so, and was asked why he didn’t trust Lawrence in the situation.
“He’s not quite comfortable with that yet,” said Meyer. “I know that might sound silly, but if you’ve never done it, it’s something that we need to keep [working on] so that we can make that call in that situation.”
Lawrence did not agree with Meyer’s reasoning.
“No, I feel comfortable,” said Lawrence. “Obviously I haven’t run it in a game, but I feel comfortable. ... QB Sneak is something we can always get to and I feel comfortable with.”
Keep in mind that Lawrence operated mostly from the shotgun at Clemson and didn’t run a lot of sneaks, but was still a plus runner there, rushing for 943 yards and 18 touchdowns in three seasons with them. In the Week 5 game against the Titans, Lawrence rushed for 28 yards on four carries and a touchdown.
This didn’t look good for Meyer.
What’s even worse for him is that by that point he was still having a hard time getting used to the difference between college football and the NFL. This was evidenced with him setting a goal that is close to unattainable in the NFL: 250 passing yards and 250 rushing yards.
“If you say, ‘What’s the identity of the Jacksonville Jaguar offense?’, it’s a physical offense that runs the ball and is balanced,” said Meyer. “Our goal is always 250/250 [rushing yards/passing yards]. I want to say we were 250/200 [on Sunday].”
Unattainable indeed it is, especially given the current state of the Jaguars. It doesn’t look all that promising for an NFL team to pass and run for 250 yards each.
This was the same exact goal he set for Ohio State. He talks about it often as the key to maintaining a balanced offense that defenses would have trouble figuring out.
He was able to run that offense about as well as anyone: Ohio State tallied 20 games with 250 rushing yards and 250 passing yards, the 4th-most of any team from 2012 to 2018.
In the NFL, it’s a very different story.
The record for the most times a team rushed for 250 yards and passed for 250 yards in a season is... one.
There have only been 52 instances where a team reached the 250/250 plateau in rushing and passing yards. In the years when Meyer coached Ohio State, it happened just seven times. Plus, no team has done it twice in the same season.
While Meyer got his first win as the Jaguars’ head coach in Week 6 by beating the Dolphins, 23-20, in London, it was not without errors, especially in the 4th quarter.
First, with the Jags leading 17-13 early in the 4th quarter, they were in the red zone when their drive stalled out after Lawrence threw an incomplete pass on 3rd & 1. The ball was at the Dolphins’ 9-yard line, so most were going to assume the Jags were going to kick a field goal to extend the lead to seven.
Instead, Meyer opted to go for it, calling a handoff to James Robinson. He was stopped for no gain, and the turnover on downs reduced the Jags’ win probability from 67% to 60.1%. By the end of the ensuing Dolphins touchdown drive, it dropped all the way down to 34.6%.
Second, the decision to attempt a 54-yard field goal panned out, but it was not without controversy.
It was 4th & 5 at the Fins’ 36-yard line with just under four minutes left when Meyer let Matthew Wright attempt the kick.
Wright attempted just one field goal longer than 50 yards in his NFL career: In Week 5 against the Titans. That ended in a miss.
At first, the kick didn’t look like it was going to go through, but it hooked at the last second to tie the game. This call was baffling considering that Meyer chose to call a handoff to Robinson from the Fins’ 9-yard line instead of calling for a field goal.
Things quieted down in the month of November regarding Meyer’s future with the Jags as they got their second win of the season in Week 9, beating the Bills 9-6 in one of the season’s biggest upsets in which neither team could score a touchdown.
Then things started to heat up again on the first day of December as Brian Kelly left his position as the head coach of Notre Dame to have the same position at LSU. Meyer was rumored to be in the running for Notre Dame’s vacancy at head coach, saying that it would be his “dream job” to coach Notre Dame when he was Florida’s head coach in 2008.
While he was one of the betting favorites to be Notre Dame’s head coach immediately after Kelly departure, given his connections to the program, he turned the speculation down about his immediate future.
“I’m not a candidate,” said Meyer in a conference call with beat writers for the Rams. “Obviously I spent six years of my life there, so great respect for Notre Dame, and as I do USC, UCLA, like we talked about [earlier in the call]. But I’m committed to the Jaguars and doing the best we can to turn this thing around.”
He didn’t seem likely to leave the Jags, although it’s worth noting that he didn’t deny interest in the job. Simply put, he wasn’t a candidate. After the controversies surrounding him with Florida, Ohio State, and now, the Jags, Notre Dame would have likely been hesitant to approach Meyer.
And even he has denied rumors of him joining USC to replace Clay Helton, even if USC was looking for a “change in leadership.”
“There’s no chance,” said Meyer on if he will take the USC head coaching job. “I’m here and committed to try and build an organization.”
The coaching hirings for Notre Dame and USC were taken by Marcus Freeman and Lincoln Riley, respectively. There was no indication Meyer was considered for the coaching job in Notre Dame.
Later, the Jags would lose 37-7 to the Rams in Week 13 to fall to 2-10 on the season, and much of the talk was about Meyer’s utilization of James Robinson. While Robinson was dealing with heel and ankle injuries, he said he was benched for fumbling the ball on the Jags’ first drive of the game and had just eight carries and 26 offensive snaps throughout the game in total.
His injuries make the decision even more baffling. He suffered the injury in Week 8, then missed Week 9 before returning in Week 10, when he suffered the knee injury. He was questionable heading into the game after not practicing the week before. The decision to have him run the ball three out of the four plays on the final drive was confusing to both him and Jags fans.
“I’m not sure what the point of that was,” said Robinson.
When Meyer was asked about the decision, he deflected the blame to running backs coach Bernie Parmalee. This caused people to doubt the stability of the Jags organization.
“That’s a good question,” said Meyer. “I know that there’s a running back rotation. We’re worried about his load and how many carries—and they track that. Obviously, at that point in the game, they must’ve wanted to get him a few more carries, Bernie [Parmalee] did. I’m aware of it, I’m not in charge of it but I’ll watch and say, ‘What are out thoughts here? What are our thoughts here?’ Obviously, I didn’t do it there, with James.”
While Robinson said that fumbles shouldn’t happen, he felt like there was a disconnect between him and the coaches. This upset Jags fans since he is the team’s leading rusher. The fact that the coaching staff was benching him is making that disconnect worse.
Meyer didn’t seem to be high on Robinson, even with Trevor Lawrence under center—Robinson’s usage has been questionable. His best game was against the Titans in Week 5, when he rushed for 149 yards and one touchdown.
The Jags didn’t fully commit to the run—Robinson hasn’t carried the ball more than 18 times in a game. This can also be in part because the Jags are often playing from behind. While their chances of beating the Rams were slim, benching Robinson essentially made those chances slimmer.
Many people took notice of the reduction of his utilization, including Lawrence, who put Meyer and the coaching staff on blast in a press conference.
“I’m the one that’s out there,” said Lawrence. “I see all the pieces moving, see the whole picture. The bottom line is James is one of our best players, and he’s got to be on the field. We addressed it, and I feel like we’re in a good spot.”
Not only did Robinson not know why he was benched, but Lawrence also didn’t know the reason why Robinson was on the sidelines.
“I honestly don’t even know everything that went into it,” said Lawrence. “The coaching decisions, I don’t really get into that. But I voiced my opinion. James is one of our best players, and he’s got to be in the game. I think we’re all on the same page, so there’s no confusion there.”
Lawrence publicly calling out the Jags’ coaching staff is not a good look on Meyer and the coaches. He obviously didn’t like what he was seeing. He wants to win games. Yet Meyer doesn’t appear to be on the same page as the former 1st overall pick.
When you have a young QB under center, the team’s job is to make his life easier by putting him in the best possible position to succeed. That’s exactly what Bill Belichick is doing with Mac Jones up with the Patriots. With Meyer and the Jags, it’s the exact opposite, especially since he and the coaching staff benched their best running back.
Lawrence calling out Meyer speaks volumes. You don’t see players questioning good coaches like Belichick, Andy Reid, or Sean Payton. Meyer didn’t seem to have a good hold of the Jags locker room.
In the NFL, the head coach has to command respect with leadership and coaching decisions. Meyer has done little to inspire confidence at the NFL level. And the issue is not just with Robinson. It’s more with Meyer not having a clue what he is doing in the NFL level.
And, as it turns out, Lawrence was right in calling out his own head coach as Meyer did, in fact, order the benching of Robinson and had Parmalee stop Robinson from re-entering the game, with the running back only returning after Lawrence reportedly asked Meyer about Robinson’s status, per a report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero the day before the Jags were set to play the Titans in Week 14.
That same report from Pelissero even showed the tension between players, coaches, and Meyer has “boiled over,” and that Meyer has constantly deflected the blame to everyone else in the organization. One part of Pelissero’s report stands out from all the dysfunctionality:
During a staff meeting, Meyer delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers, according to several people informed of the contents of the meeting, challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their resumes.
Here’s the hypocrisy: If Meyer says that he is surrounded by losers, why is he keeping his assistants in his coaching staff? Should you have gone through their resumes in the interview process? And why is he considering himself a winner if he was one of the worst head coaches in the league?
After the Titans shut out the Jags 20-0, Meyer gave Titans head coach Mike Vrabel the cold shoulder after the postgame handshake. But what stood out after the game is that Meyer denied Pelissero’s report.
While he admitted he doesn’t know the answer to fixing the Jags, he expressed his disdain for leaks that came out of the organization in recent days.
“What’s the answer? Starting leaking some information or nonsense? That’s garbage,” Meyer said, per Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. “If there is a source, then that source is unemployed. I mean, within seconds.”
That sounds like a coach who knows he is in the chopping block. No matter how much he wants to deny the report, he cannot escape reality.
“Calling someone a loser, that is inaccurate,” said Meyer. “I have high expectations of our coaches.”
Yeah no.
When an NFL head coach is hired, they have complete say on hiring their coaching staff. There is little oversight from ownership and the head coach gets to pick exactly who they want on their staff. Meyer is the one who hired these “losers” on his coaching staff, so why is he throwing them under the bus?
And it’s not like he has assistants who previously won Super Bowls, either as a player or coach.
Charlie Strong, Assistant Coach & Inside Linebackers Coach
Meyer must have forgotten that Strong was part of his coaching staff in Florida that won the 2006 and 2008 BCS National Championship Games.
Strong even landed a head coaching job in Louisville, where they beat Florida in the 2013 Sugar Bowl, 33-23, in the biggest upset win the BCS has ever seen (Louisville entered the game as 14.5-point underdogs).
Strong even won two Big East Championships in 2011 and 2012, and was named the Big East Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2012.
His job before coming into Jacksonville was a defensive analyst in Alabama. That team won the CFP National Championship.
Darrell Bevell, Offensive Coordinator & Interim Head Coach
Before the infamous decision to call the passing play that led to Malcolm Butler’s heroic interception, Bevell won Super Bowl XLVIII as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator.
Bevell even won his first game as the Lions’ interim head coach after the firing of Matt Patricia. That team was in very bad shape.
Also, Bevell led Wisconsin to a win over UCLA in the 1994 Rose Bowl, Wisconsin’s first-ever Rose Bowl win.
Brian Schottenheimer, Passing Game Coordinator
While Schottenheimer hasn’t won in the NFL, he did win the 1996 National Championship while being the backup to Heisman-winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel at Florida.
Schottenheimer also won the 1991 Kansas 5A football state championship, and was also named all-state first-team and All-America honorable mention.
Quinton Gaither, Offensive Quality Control
Gaither was a running back for Meyer’s 2004 Utah team that went undefeated and went on to win the Fiesta Bowl. Something that Meyer forgot about, too.
Sanjay Lal, Wide Receivers Coach
Lal was a wide receiver on Washington’s 1992 National Championship team and played in two Rose Bowl-winning games.
Bernie Parmalee, Running Backs Coach
Parmalee was named MAC Freshman of the Year in 1987, finishing his college career as the all-time leading rusher in Ball State history with 3,483 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns.
Todd Washington, Assistant Offensive Line Coach
Washington was the assistant O-line coach for the Super Bowl XLVII-winning Ravens, and also played for the Super Bowl XXXVII-winning Buccaneers. That’s two Super Bowl titles, one as a player and one as a coach.
Patrick Reilly, Defensive Quality Control
Reilly came to the Jaguars fresh off a national title as one of Alabama’s defensive analysts along with Strong.
Chris Ash, Safeties Coach
Ash was Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator when they won the 2014 National Championship. Meyer doesn’t seem to remember that.
Tosh Lupoi, Defensive Line Coach
Lupoi won two national titles with Alabama as their outside linebackers coach and then co-defensive coordinator.
Tim Walton, Cornerbacks Coach
Walton won the 2003 national championship as LSU’s defensive backs coach and was co-captain for the 1993 Big Ten champion Ohio State team.
Joe Danna, Nickel Coach
When Danna was a wide receiver for Central Michigan, he was named Scholar Athlete of the Year, Special Teams Player of the Year, First-Team Mid-American Academic recognition, and won the team’s Leadership and Motivation Award.
He was also the assistant defensive backs coach for the last successful Jaguars team: The 2017 Jaguars who won the AFC South and went to the AFC Championship Game that season.
Nick Sorensen, Special Teams Coordinator
Sorensen was with Bevell in the Super Bowl XLVIII-winning Seahawks as their assistant special teams coach.
Carlos Polk, Assistant Special Teams Coach
Polk was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2010
If Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z was asked about Meyer’s hypocrisy level on his “winners and losers” statement, Vegeta’s answer would be “OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND!”
Meyer’s statement also shows the lack of professionalism from him when he asked to defend his assistants’ resumes in an arrogant manner.
It didn’t help that several Jags players vented their frustrations after the game, per sources, reiterating a common complaint that Meyer doesn’t treat them like adults.
The staff meeting followed a pattern of the series of tense interactions between Meyer and his assistants dating back to the offseason.
It dates back to the preseason, where Meyer told his assistants that he was sick of losing and if the team didn’t start winning immediately, some of them won’t be around for his second year with the team.
Even one of his postgame answers in the shutout loss to the Titans summed up the state of the Jaguars franchise. When he was asked on if his offensive line was not playing up to how much they’re getting paid, he just nodded his head and said, “Yeah.”
But there’s more.
In that same report from Pelissero, Marvin Jones was specifically mentioned, where it was said that he got into an argument with Meyer to where the veteran wide receiver stormed out of the Jags’ team facility and only came back when staff members convinced him to.
Jones, however, didn’t really deny the argument with Meyer, but didn’t completely confirm it, either.
“I’ll just say this: There was something that was brought to my attention that I didn’t like too well,” said Jones. “I approached him about it and we talked, and we handled it like grown men. That’s all I have to say about it. That was now two and a half weeks ago.”
Meyer denied any argument between him and Jones, saying that the two had a discussion, but not one that would be classified as an argument:
Marvin Jones had a conversation because he came to me and said that there was something in the media, and I said, what’s that, and I didn’t read it, and he said that people were blaming the receivers for all the issues on offense. And I went back and I looked at it, and it was about—I think I said something like we have some injury issues and some lack of consistency. We talked about that, and he’s great. We moved on, and he just—one thing about Marvin [Jones], and there’s a lot of players, especially these professional veterans, there’s a lot of pride. Some guys aren’t used to this, and he’s one of them. But he’s fantastic and we have a fantastic relationship, and I started hearing that, and Marvin looked at me—he walked by yesterday when I saw something on TV, like a heated argument, and he goes, I guess we’re not allowed to talk anymore, are we, and started laughing about it. So there’s nothing.
Jones was asked if he left practice at any point in the wake of the reported argument with Meyer, which he denied.
“Did I threaten to leave practice? I did not. I practiced. You guys see me out there,” said Jones.
It also didn’t help that Meyer was unaware of the usage of rookie safety Andre Cisco. Although he was recovering from a knee injury from this offseason, and that he was drafted in the 3rd round because of health concerns, he hasn’t seen much on the field.
However, Meyer botched a simple question about the team starting to get more usage, specifically with Cisco. When he was asked about him getting more playing time, he said that Cisco was “playing a bit more.”
But as it turns out, Cisco wasn’t even part of the Jaguars’ defensive plans as he recorded zero defensive snaps.
If he didn’t have Cisco’s numbers in front of him, he would know that he is actually playing LESS. Cisco played 17 snaps on special teams, but didn’t even see the field on defense.
That’s after playing eight snaps in Week 13, two in Week 12, and 11 in Week 11. Week 14 was the 6th time this season Cisco didn’t even see the field defensively.
How hard is it for coaches to keep track of players who aren’t getting playing time at their usual positions? Only five defensive backs saw significant action defensively for the Jags against the Titans in Week 14. Shouldn’t the head coach be aware of if any of those guys actually see the field so he can decide who gives him the best chance to win if someone goes down?
Then more news came out: From a report from Tampa Bay Times reporter Rick Stroud, Josh Lambo, the 4th-most accurate kicker in NFL history, alleged that Meyer kicked him in the leg at practice on August before the preseason finale against the Cowboys. Meyer didn’t even call the special teamers by their names.
“It was ‘Kicker, Punter, Long snapper,’” said Lambo. “Or S***bag, Dips***, or whatever the hell it was.”
Those names didn’t bother Lambo, but what Meyer did, according to Lambo, was among the unspeakable.
“I’m in a lunge position. Left leg forward, right leg back,” added Lambo. “Urban Meyer, while I’m in that stretch position, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Dipshit, make your f****** kicks!’ And kicks me in the leg.”
Lambo said that he immediately told Meyer to never do it again, but Meyer instantly dismissed his request, supposedly saying, “I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f*** I want.”
Lambo added that other players saw and heard the incident, but he did not disclose names because he did not want to involve them.
Meyer, however, denied the incident happened the way Lambo described it.
“Josh’s characterization of me and this incident is completely inaccurate, and there are eyewitnesses to refute his account,” said Meyer. “[General manager] Trent [Baalke] and I met with him on multiple occasions to encourage his performance, and this was never brought up. I was fully supportive of Josh during his time with the team and wish him nothing but the best.”
The morning after Lambo said he was kicked, he said he was in a nutritional aisle at the team’s training facility making a smoothie when Meyer approached him.
“He sees me and I’m by myself and he kind of cornered me and comes up to me and says, ‘Are you going to put a smile on that face?’” said Lambo. “I said, ‘I’ll smile if you stop kicking me.’”
The conversation was only between him and Meyer, as Lambo said.
“The details of the conversation I do remember, I was having issues with how he was coaching me throughout spring, throughout camp that I had kept to myself and I expressed a couple of those issues with the special teams coordinator, who related them to Urban, who seemingly halfway understood,” said Lambo. “His response was, ‘Okay, you don’t like me doing this, okay. If you don’t like me doing that, fine. But if you ever speak to me like that again, you’ll be out of here. You’re the first player I’ve ever let speak to me that way in my career, and if you do it again, you’re gone.’”
Lambo said he was stunned by what Meyer said.
“I said, ‘I’m genuinely not trying to be sarcastic here, Urban, but what did I say that offended you?’ He said, ‘When you responded to me out there on the practice field in front of everybody. If you have an issue and don’t like me kicking you, well, then, you keep that to yourself and you wait until after practice and after meetings and you come find me in the office and tell me privately.’”
Lambo reported this to his agent, Richard Irvin, who contacted the Jaguars’ legal counsel the day after Meyer kicked him. Lambo said that he has “no recollection of being able to speak with the Jags’ legal team.”
“Jaguars legal counsel indeed acknowledged and responded immediately to the query made by Josh Lambo’s agent Friday, August 27, 2021,” the Jaguars said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “Counsel offered to speak with Josh, or to assist in speaking with coaching or any other football personnel, if he was comfortable with her sharing the information. Any suggestion otherwise is blatantly false.”
Lambo was cut after missing his first three field goal attempts of the season, but felt that it was his obligation to come forward with the story after seeing Meyer’s antics with players and coaches.
That is especially true with Meyer’s comment on demanding that writers who reported on him saying that he’s a winner and his assistants were losers be fired.
“That’s the reason I wanted to talk about this,” said Lambo. “There’s been a lot of turnover, but those are still my people. Some of those dudes are my dudes, and the staff members I have grown into amazing relationships with over the last five seasons. [Meyer] threatened all of them for speaking the truth. And that’s a bully, and people need to speak up against bullies.
“A 50-something-year-old man can kick a 30-something-year-old man, both working doing their jobs, and he can do that in front of everybody else and that’s okay? But I can’t defend myself? Again, an adult, in the line, doing what I’m supposed to be doing for this team, and I can’t stand up for myself, and when I do, I get fired?”
Lambo was right in saying that Meyer’s actions have no place in any sort of work environment. Because it’s confusing on why Meyer was still employed when he kicked Lambo.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s football or not, and I know football has this perceived notion about it,” said Lambo. “But at the end of the day, that’s my job. I’m not there as a football player, I’m there as Josh Lambo doing his job. What [Meyer] did was unfathomable.”
Stroud also reported that Meyer’s lawyers acknowledged that the ex-Jaguars head coach did, in fact, kick Lambo. They were disputing on how hard Lambo was kicked, as Stroud revealed on The Rich Eisen Show.
Stroud told Eisen that every witness he spoke to said that Meyer kicked Lambo. Just like Meyer’s lawyers, the question was how hard Meyer kicked him.
“Urban’s statement which was included in our report said there were witnesses who would back his story,” said Stroud. “But again, the ones I talked to—all we were talking about was to the degree with which he kicked him, not that he didn’t kick him. ... No one said that he didn’t kick him.”
Meyer’s legal team even sent a “threatening letter” to Stroud to withhold the publishing of the story, even trying to deflect Lambo’s claims.
“When I did the story, they were in crisis mode,” Stroud told The Rich Eisen Show. “I had a lot of conversations with them. They begged me to hold the story until 4 o’clock [Wednesday]. I got a statement from the legal counsel first. I got a threatening letter from [Meyer’s] attorney about publishing the story without certain information.
“They wanted to offer up a couple of players, but only off the record, to corroborate not that he didn’t kick him, but to the degree that he kicked them. I was willing to speak to them. But during this whole process, everyone was using sources, and Urban is going, ‘Who are these people? Well if I catch this source, he’s gone tomorrow.’ Then when their guy is under fire, they want to offer up unnamed players who will back the coach. Which is fine, except that this was a guy who showed enough courage to put his name on the incident and was willing to speak on the record. Urban’s statement said that there were witnesses who would back his story, but all we were talking about was the degree of which he kicked him, not that he didn’t kick him.”
Upon the publishing of the story, Meyer was fired hours later, as Khan announced in a press release at 1 AM on the Thursday of the firing.
“Josh Lambo contemporaneously reported that to the Jaguars back in August, so it wasn’t a situation where he just decided, ‘Let me jump on the pile here while Urban is taking on water,’” said Stroud. “He spent five years in Jacksonville. He’s a successful kicker in his own right. And the thing about it is, what Urban Meyer, in his statement that he gave us, that I read with Ian, no one is saying the event didn’t happen, it’s just to what degree. If we’re talking about how hard he kicked a guy, that’s not a great argument, on his behalf in my opinion. When you hear the language, the bullying that goes on. Not calling specialists by their name... I can only imagine what 18 to 21-year-olds reacted to it at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida or Ohio State, but it doesn’t work at this level with professionals. He was his own worst enemy from the get-go. It’s ironic that a specialist may have the last straw.
“And in the end, Shad Khan, decided last Sunday or the Sunday before that, but I don’t know why you fire a guy on a Wednesday after you let him game plan, go through a practice, and then disappear from the meetings. None of this adds up to me. The organization is totally dysfunctional. They turned it over to a guy who wasn’t capable of making the transition to the NFL and in the end, he got what he deserved.”
Remember when Meyer signed a five-year deal with the franchise in January 2021? He didn’t even last through his first year.
In fact, his tenure with the Jaguars lasted a grand total of 336 days—from January 14th, 2021, to December 16th, 2021. That’s not even a full calendar year.
And although Shad Khan intended to “stay the course” with Meyer, the firing showed that he had enough.
“After deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team, I am bitterly disappointed to arrive at the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone,” said Khan. “In the spirit of disclosure and recharging our players, staff and fan base, I will not comment further until some point following the conclusion of the NFL season.”
Also, remember when Meyer pledged to regain the trust and respect of the Jaguars front office, players, coaches and staff? That did not happen because of his antics both on and off the field.
“As I stated in October, regaining our trust and respect was essential. Regrettably, it did not happen,” added Khan.
There were guys across levels of football who would willingly run through a brick wall to spend one Sunday as a head coach in the NFL. Raiders interim head coach Rich Bisaccia cried at his opening press conference because he knew his head coaching tenure would be temporary. Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who saw so many coaching cycles pass by him and thought he may never get the opportunity, cried after weekly losses in a bleak season for the Lions.
To say that the situation in Jacksonville is bizarre and effortless is creating a great deal of cynicism around the league.
The moment Meyer berated his assistants by calling them losers showed that people are disgusted enough by Meyer that they are willingly going to risk their careers to leak his lowest moments.
At the worst, it’s the surface of a dysfunctional franchise wasting the developmental years of promising young players like Trevor Lawrence, James Robinson, DJ Chark and Josh Allen.
Lawrence, who was one of the most highly touted quarterbacks coming out of college, threw four interceptions during the Week 14 loss to the Titans. Robinson followed up his mysterious benching with six carries for four yards.
The only memorable play for the Jags was when linebacker Damien Wilson shot a gap and tackled Titans running back D’Onta Foreman a few yards in the backfield, finishing with an air guitar celebration. But because he plays for Meyer, the team around him is only putting up acoustic performances.
When Meyer suggested that the people leaking all his wrongdoings be fired, who are they going to be replaced by if they are fired? Who, without NFL experience, is going to work for Meyer?
That’s a shame, given how hard Khan’s previous head coaches and general managers put into making the Jaguars a respectable franchise. Good enough to draw top free agents and good enough to reach an AFC Championship Game.
But that was all in jeopardy thanks to Meyer.
He benefitted unintentionally from the email scandal with the Washington Football Team that resulted in the firing of Jon Gruden. The league and the news cycle turned their attention to the Football Team, which gave Meyer the opportunity to take back a team that was laughing behind his back.
That led up with the Jags’ unimpressive upset win over the Bills.
And when Meyer was interviewed by NFL.com, in his first time speaking publicly since his firing, he issued an “apology” to the Jaguars.
“I just apologize to Jacksonville,” Meyer said over the phone. “I love Jacksonville. It’s one of the reasons I took the job. I still think Shad’s a great owner. It’s heart-breaking. I just had a dream of it becoming a destination place with a new facility he agreed to build and some day to walk into that stadium where it’s standing room only. Because I knew how bad the people of Jacksonville want it. So, I’m just heartbroken that we weren’t able to do that. I still believe it’s going to be done. It’s too good of a place.”
Don’t think people are going to fall for that, Meyer. Because despite saying he was “devastated,” this is a guy who denied any sort of accusations against him when they were all true.
“I tell people, losing eats away at your soul,” Meyer continued. “Once you start losing, it’s hard on everybody. I thought at one point, when we won two out of three, there was some momentum, great energy, the defense was really playing well. We were running the ball and then when that dried up on us, then we started turning the ball over. We had that bye week and then James Robinson gets hurt.”
His frustration was perfectly shown in his postgame handshake with Mike Vrabel, who was one of Meyer’s former assistants, as it appeared Meyer wanted to be anywhere but there.
“Someone asked me about Vrabel’s [handshake], we’re really close,” said Meyer. “That had nothing to do with him. That’s probably one of my issues why I’ve thought some of the things I said: I can’t take losing. I try to accept it, it just eats away at my soul. And I believe our players deserve better.”
And Khan was even prepared to fire Meyer when he returned to Jacksonville after the shutout loss in Week 14, where Meyer was not truthful with the team about coaching decisions and if Lawrence felt the need to get Meyer to keep Robinson on the field with him.
Meyer handling the Robinson benching, which the coach ordered after Robinson fumbled on the first drive of the game, and the aftermath of the controversy with Lambo, coupled with Khan’s discussions with people within the organization relating to Meyer’s character and leadership, drawing the conclusion that he could not keep the coach entering Week 15.
While the team was tough to watch, sources were saying that Khan was prepared to go through another long season as part of the rebuilding process, showing that he has a willingness to give struggling teams more than enough time to show what they can do.
But it was Meyer’s failures and the toxic culture he generated in the locker room that led to the team owner to fire him.
“It was almost like there became a moral obligation to fire him after the way he handled Robinson’s benching and with the way he treated people,” one source of knowledge told CBS Sports. “It was the right thing to do. Nothing was changing. He wasn’t getting any better. It kept getting worse.”
It was clear that Lawrence, as humble of a rookie as he is, lost faith in Meyer’s ability to build the team and connect with players or coaches, which heavily reverberated with ownership, per the sources. That Lawrence wanted Robinson to be on the field with him, and to be as dejected as he was with the state of the team, while Meyer misled the media about the situation with the Jaguars, was basically the last straw with Khan.
In the NFL, a coach cannot hide from their own shortcomings, no matter how many times they deny or ignore them. As Thanos would say, “Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same.”
That’s what Lou Holtz learned in his painful tenure with the Jets in 1976, when he was 3-10 as their head coach. In that tenure, he also learned that you can’t carry over the college routines to the NFL. One saying that was commonly said at that time was, “God did not put Lou Holtz on this Earth to coach pro football.”
Another statement was far less repeated, this one from Holtz. Although it was long ago, it shows that elite college coaches haven’t changed that much over the years at the pros: “Winning and losing means more in college. When you lose in the pros, the professional athlete still has his salary and his outside endorsements.”
That shows the message of the responsibility of failure.
While Meyer told NFL Network one time, “I can’t take losing. I try to accept it, it just eats away at my soul,” he sang a very different tune in another statement when he blamed his firing on what he views as the “fragile” state of the world—basically a lack of toughness:
Just society has changed. You think how hard you pushed. ... I believe there is greatness in everybody and it’s the coach’s job to find that greatness however you do that. Positive encouragement. Pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws and trying to fix [them]. I think everything is so fragile right now. And that includes coaching staffs. When I got into coaching, coaches weren’t making this kind of money and they didn’t have agents. Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team. I remember talking about it in a staff meeting three days ago. I got into this profession because I had the greatest high school coach and it was all about team. All about the huddle.
That sounded a lot like Meyer was saying he cares a lot about winning and winning only. But it’s not subtle messaging. It seemed like he was also throwing his own guys under the bus. There’s no message about the need to adapt to the NFL. There’s no suggestion that he needs to seriously update his blueprint.
It would have been notable if, at any point, Meyer said that the Jags’ failure this season was on him, and he is the one responsible for it. Instead, it was all sad violins on how hard it was for him to see his team lose.
The whole thing about “everything is so fragile” is a lie-by-suggestion. Like some of his assistants in the NFL, he made a lot of money and also had an agent, which didn’t really undermine his ability to be successful.
Losing sucks for highly-paid coaches in the NFL, too, but that didn’t stop other “culture creator” head coaches from getting things done at the highest level.
Meyer disconnecting himself with the benching of Robinson put the onus on the offensive assistants, not to mention the lack of confronting a reporter in the news conference who openly said the O-line was getting “its a** kicked.”
Meyer upset at his defensive assistants would make no sense, since that side of the ball was gutting out the majority of the 2021 season. So it was not surprising that, when he spoke to NFL Network, he praised the defensive unit and said nothing about the offensive assistants.
The report said that Meyer described the defense, led by defensive coordinator Joe Cullen, as “really good,” but Meyer gave the cold shoulder to his offense:
But we were really struggling on offense. If we just find a way to play a little better on offense, I think we could win some games. ... We won that sucker in London, it was like we won the Super Bowl for those guys. Then we come back [after a 31-7 loss to the Seahawks] and beat the Bills [9-6] and it was like “Okay, here we go.” The defense was hanging in there and [the] offense was making strides. And then after that, we couldn’t score. I mean, couldn’t score.
Unsurprisingly, the CBS team working the Jaguars’ Week 15 game against the Texans said that while Lawrence got a call from Meyer since the firing, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell didn’t get any communication.
This is the same Bevell that, despite running the offense that Meyer was not happy with, was kept on the team after Meyer’s firing and named interim head coach.
Meyer, however, doesn’t sound like one who would just take it and walk away. It’s interesting that he didn’t comment about the financial end of his firing, which shows that despite being fired for cause, he’s not going to talk about contract settlement for the remaining four years of the contract, although league sources are saying they expect lawyers for Meyer and his legal team to work out a settlement as part of the firing, with the expectation that it will end up being for less than what he is owed.
He doesn’t look like one to leave this as the final bullet point to his resume, not with denying and ignoring his failures. He is the only one who can rewrite his coaching epitaph now.
But in the end, he was not fit to coach in the NFL. Rex Ryan pointed that out on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.”
“This is the best of the best. It’s not just the best players in the country. It’s the best coaches,” said Ryan. “There’s only 32 of these jobs. Don’t come into this league—you’re gonna get crushed. That’s what happens to these college guys. It’s funny. I talked with Urban Meyer when he got the job. He was like ‘Why [is it so hard]?’ I told him it’s the grind. It’s the work you gotta put in. That’s what they’re putting in on the other side. It’s not just that you’re playing Alabama every week, which is the case. He didn’t listen. I knew he wouldn’t listen.”
Ryan has a point. He also added that he did not buy into Meyer’s explanation of the work of recruiting compared to the work of building an NFL team.
“He told me about recruiting,” Ryan added. “I told him, ‘Recruiting? That’s a picnic. You’re gonna go and talk to a kid and their families and have a meal, great.’ I’m talking about the grind. Your job as an NFL coach is to put your players in the best position possible to be successful. That’s your job. You want to see what a players coach is? That’s a players coach. They respect your work ethic. You’re there in the office 3-4 times a week, not taking a phone call from some kid and thinking that’s work. I knew he’d get outcoached. He did.”
And the argument Meyer made about “everything is so fragile” can be spun right back at him. While his job was to make his guys better by pushing them, he didn’t grow as a coach.
Society is always about getting better and pushing people in their unique ways. He didn’t change his hard-nosed coaching style, and he is paying the price for it.
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