While Urban Meyer’s staff is coming along a little slower than others, he’s done a good job getting a mix of personnel with knowledge on the college and NFL side of things. His latest hire involved a former player of his from Utah in Quinton Ganther, who revealed he will be an offensive assistant for the Jags this weekend to KSL Sports.
“My position will be as an offensive assistant, so with my position, it comes with and it entails a lot of detail. I have to know the offense inside and out at all positions, and I also have to know the opponent’s defense inside and out because I will be presenting it to the staff every week.”
Many fans are well aware that Meyer does a good job of keeping tabs with some of his former players, which was the case with Ganther. Even while he was retired, Meyer told Ganther a while ago that he would like his former running back to join him as an assistant one day — that is, if he ever got back into the coaching realm.
“The funny thing is that me and Urban have talked a lot over the last two years. We’ve communicated a lot. He’s a guy that I have so much respect for, and anything he says to me is golden,” Ganther said.
“[Over the last two years] he wasn’t even coaching and I wasn’t looking for a job or a favor. I was just looking to let him know I appreciate him and he would hit me up sometime. We would just talk about former players, we would talk about days at Utah, and he was like ‘Dang, you keep in touch with everyone.’ I had contact with all the former guys and we just kept it going. Then he said ‘Hey, if I come out of retirement one day let’s talk.’
“That’s pretty much how it was. Then he came out of retirement and we talked.”
Meyer’s conversations with Ganther further proves that the Jags may have the right guy when it comes to getting players to buy in to the ultimate goal. That also could be the case with his staff, as he has close relationships with others like Charlie Strong and Chris Ash, amongst notables. His assistants who don’t quite have the same familiarity could end up growing closer to Meyer, too, as Ganther’s praise of him is an indication.
It’s unknown when Meyer’s process of putting a staff together will be complete, but it should be soon as the 2020 season is officially over with the Super Bowl concluding Sunday. Regardless of the timeline, it appears the new staff could have a strong bond because of Meyer, and as we’ve seen with staffs like the Tampa Bay Bucs, that can lead to a lot of success.
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