Early Thursday morning, the Jacksonville Jaguars parted ways with head coach Urban Meyer amid a tumultuous first season with the franchise.
On Thursday afternoon, former Clemson star and Jaguars rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence met with the media and commented on Meyer being fired.
“The first thing I’ll say about all this is I respect Coach Meyer and I really appreciate everything he’s done for me,” said Lawrence, who was drafted 1st overall by the Jaguars in April’s 2021 NFL Draft. “He’s one of the main reasons I’m here. He drafted me. So, that’ll always be there, and I wish him nothing but the best. Obviously, it didn’t work out here. Some changes had to be made. But as far as Coach and his future, I wish him nothing but the best.”
There has been plenty of drama surrounding Meyer and the Jaguars of late. Reports surfaced Sunday claiming that Meyer allegedly went after his coaching staff in a meeting. NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reported that Meyer referred to himself as a “winner,” while calling his assistant coaches “losers.”
Additionally, Pelissero reported veteran wide receiver Marvin Jones got so fed up with Meyer’s criticism of the receiver room that he left the facility. He only returned after other members of Jacksonville’s coaching staff were able to calm him down and convince him to stay.
Then, on Wednesday afternoon, former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo alleged he was kicked by Meyer during a practice. Hours later, Jaguars owner Shad Khan made the move to oust Meyer.
Lawrence was asked what the mood was like in the Jaguars locker room Thursday and went on to say he’s glad the team now has “clarity and a sense of direction” as it moves forward over the final four weeks of the 2021 NFL regular season.
“Obviously, it’s weird. It’s a different deal – something I’ve never experienced,” Lawrence said of the head coaching change. “For me, I think it brings a little bit of clarity to the guys in the locker room. I wouldn’t say relief, but I would say just brings some clarity and some direction moving forward. We really want to go and finish this season strong, and to be honest, it’s been hard the last week with everything going on. There’s a lot of things being stirred up, I think, by the outside, too, that didn’t help. Made things a lot worse.
“But also, with everything that’s going on, it’s hard to be focused and have all your attention and efforts going towards winning the game when there’s so many things going on. So, I think I’m happy for the team that we have clarity and a sense of direction, and we can just go be our best moving forward for the next four weeks, and then we’ll go from there and see what the next step is. But right now, I definitely think that we had a great day of practice today and we’re ready to move forward.”
Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will serve as Jacksonville’s interim head coach for the rest of the season.
The 2-11 Jags play the Houston Texans on Sunday in Jacksonville.
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