Jaguars fire Urban Meyer
The Jacksonville Jaguars have fired head coach Urban Meyer after just 13 disastrous games into a five-year contract.
It was only a matter of time, but the Jacksonville Jaguars have fired Urban Meyer. Meyer’s 13 game stint as the head coach of the Jaguars will go down as one of the worst tenures in NFL history. At 2-11, Jacksonville was not showing any signs of development or promise that would warrant retaining Meyer.
Source: The #Jaguars have fired coach Urban Meyer.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 16, 2021
From the start Urban Meyer got off to a less than ideal start in Jacksonville. Meyer hired Chris Doyle as his strength and conditioning coach despite being fired from the University of Iowa for his treatment of of African-American players. Doyle was hired on a Thursday and resigned on a Friday, not a great sign for the decision making and judgment of Meyer.
Earlier this week a report surfaced about multiple incidents with players and staff. At one point Urban Meyer called his staff losers while touting his own winning past, a past that exists in the world of college football and not the NFL.
What appears to be the final nail in the coffin of the Urban Meyer era in Jacksonville was a story appearing in the Tampa Bay Times. Former Jacksonville kicker Josh Lambo accused Meyer of kicking him while stretching then berating him verbally in front of other players. According to the story, Meyer never referred to Lambo by name and when Lambo comforted Meyer about the kicking incident, it did not go well. Meyer reportedly said “I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f–k I want.”.
There were questions about just how long Urban Meyer would last in the NFL. Nobody expected Meyer to be successful in Jacksonville and it was only a matter of time before a split occurred. Whether due to his desire to return to college football, retiring again, or being dismissed as a result of poor coaching and overall lack of understanding of how the NFL works. It appears that latter is the case and Meyer is deservedly out as the head coach of the Jaguars with Darrell Bevell taking over in an interim capacity.
