How Urban Meyer took NFL’s Titanic and sunk it even lower

How football genius took NFL’s Titanic and somehow sunk it even lower

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It’s virtually unprecedented for a rookie NFL head coach to be a household name before the season has begun. It made sense. He was an all-time winner. He carried himself with a presence. His players revered him as God-like. So, what went wrong? But in the States, Urban Meyer had already reached cult-like celebrity status. Meyer, 57, was hired to turn around the NFL’s most disastrous franchise, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

In early October, Meyer was caught on film dancing with a woman at an Ohio bar, after the Jaguars’ fourth straight loss.

Source: Twitter/@ChrisSVP

That posed a problem for Meyer.

The context to Meyer’s NFL transition is a long history of college coaches failing to make the switch to the professional league. Colleges can recruit anyone they like. There‘s no equity. The best college with the best program gets the best players. But the NFL is far more democratic, with a salary cap and a draft system. No coach can just put together a powerhouse roster purely on name strength.

What Meyer had in his favour was access to a once-in-a-generation quarterback, Trevor Lawrence. But again, the NFL is far more democratic. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing, making it nigh on impossible to keep an innovative scheme under wraps. That’s why the best NFL coaches are constantly evolving. He was also renowned for designing new play schemes and recruiting the best players for them.

Meyer’s problems started long before the bar incident. It took the Jaguars and Meyer just 35 hours to realise their mistake. The latter proved disastrous, with Doyle forced out of Iowa over allegations of racism and bullying. He made two questionable early recruitment decisions, signing a withered Tim Tebow and conditioning coach Chris Doyle.

“We are responsible for all aspects of our program and, in retrospect, should have given greater consideration to how his appointment may have affected all involved." Urban Meyer

It was the latest in a string of Meyer’s questionable decisions. After the Jaguars’ Week 1 loss Houston, CBS Sports reported he had “repeated issues” with people in the building, raising "no shortage of red flags”. The biggest issue of all? Urban Meyer does not know how to handle losing. He erred with his team’s vaccine mandate, putting him at odds with the players association. He publicly admitted he wanted Kadarius Toney over first-round pick Travis Etienne in the 2021 draft.

The coach’s family continues to publicly defend him. The NFL Network’s Michael Silver said Meyer’s apologies only went to “position groups individually” and did not go over well to a “highly sceptical” audience. Despite this, Shahid Khan has reportedly given Meyer his backing. But it seems his own players are already losing faith in the Urban Meyer experience.

But unless Meyer can turn the ship around, right now, Khan may have no choice but to let his captain go down with the Titanic.

Author: Chris Paine Producer: Stefan Centofanti In partnership with Learn more

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How football genius took NFL’s Titanic and somehow sunk it even lower

In early October, Meyer was caught on film dancing with a woman at an Ohio bar, after the Jaguars’ fourth straight loss.

Not because the woman was not his wife.

No - it was because Meyer, the king of college football, has been slowly planting them himself.

Not because he was partying just hours after being beaten on national television.

Now, the red flags could no longer be ignored.

That posed a problem for Meyer.