Urban Meyer has been accustomed to winning for the entirety of his coaching career. In 17 years coaching in college football, Meyer has a career record of 187-32, with 3 National Championships. Meyer has never had a losing season in his coaching career, he’s never even lost more than 5 games in a season.
But, for the first time in his coaching career, Urban Meyer is facing a hefty amount of adversity.
Meyer making the jump from college football to the pros at this point in his career, is certainly risky. Collegiate coaches like Nick Saban and Chip Kelly have dominated the college game, but failed at the NFL level.
Meyer hasn’t even coached a regular season game in the NFL, but it’s already fair to question how things will shake out for the 57 year old Meyer. This offseason hasn’t gone as planned for Meyer and the Jaguars.
Meyer was quickly put under scrutiny for hiring Chris Doyle to be the team’s director of sports performance. Doyle was the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Iowa from 1999 to 2020, but was fired due to allegations of racism and bulling towards his players. Once Meyer elected to hire Doyle, he was immediately met with a slew of uproar. Less than 48 hours after the hiring became official, Doyle resigned from his position with the Jaguars. Meyer released a statement on the situation:
This situation poorly reflected on Urban Meyer, all this happened on Meyer’s first month on the job. The lack of awareness in this situation is still puzzling.
Things didn’t get any easier for Meyer, as the Jaguars continued to make waves as the offseason progressed.
The Jaguars, a long with two other teams were fined for “OTA violations.” But, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jaguars were fined more than either of the other two teams. The Jaguars were fined $200,000, and additionally Urban Meyer was fined $100,000. It was unclear what exactly the Jaguars did wrong, but the NFL deemed it to be a clear rule break.
The chaos in Jacksonville did not stop here, and only got worse once the Jags officially took the field.
Inexplicitly, Urban Meyer elected to bring in Tim Tebow to play tight end. Tebow had never played tight end in his career, on top of the fact that he’s been out of the NFL since 2015. Once Tebow got an opportunity in the preseason, he simply looked like he didn’t belong.
Tebow was indeed released after this preseason game, but, I can’t imagine how the players in the locker room were feeling about Tebow sticking around this long. It was clear that Urban Meyer wanted to give his friend an opportunity, but at this point it was impossible.
Between Doyle, the league fine, and Tebow, Urban Meyer has made three major poor decisions.
In general, the Jaguars have been a mess this preseason, and have looked completely lost at times. Through two preseason games, they have been a mess on offense, in both the run-game and the pass-game. They’re averaging a mere 2.7 yards per carry through, and in total, the offensive line has allowed 6 sacks. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has been inconsistent, and at times, has struggled to move the ball. Lawrence only led the offense to only 3 points in the second preseason game, and Lawrence was held to 4.9 yards per pass attempt.
The defense has also been inconsistent, getting carved up at times. Jameis Winston most notably shredded the Jags defense.
Again, it’s preseason, which doesn’t amount to much, but they’re even getting hit by the injury bug.
Travis Etienne was selected in the first-round of this past draft, but will miss the entire season, as he will undergo surgery for a lisfranc injury. Etienne looked poised to have a big role this season, creating a big void for the Jaguars' offense.
Wide receiver DJ Chark and tackle Cam Robison have also missed time this preseason and training camp, due to injuries.
Now, the Jaguars are clearly a young, rebuilding team, But, it’s clear that people should temper their expectations on them. They have a long way to go, and there are a plethora of question marks they’ll have going forward.
How will Urban Meyer look after the Jaguars start off to a slow start? Does he know how to work a losing locker room? Can he set Trevor Lawrence up for success? Time will certainly tell, but don’t bank on anything special for the Jaguars in 2021.