Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is now unemployed, having been fired just 13 games into his first season as an NFL head coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and we’ve finally heard from the three-time national champion.
There were early questions on whether Meyer would be able to translate the success he had at the college level to the professional ranks where he would have to go from directing young men, to grown men that have a different set of expectations and independence with how things are done.
In the end, the missteps were plentiful, and there wasn’t enough winning or signs of progress on the field either. Meyer has denied all allegations against players and coaches and says that winning will come to Jacksonville at some point.
Meyer spoke out and issued an apology to the Jaguars faithful on Friday in an interview with NFL.com.
“I just apologize to Jacksonville,” Meyer told NFL.com over the phone Friday. “I love Jacksonville. It’s one of the reasons I took the job. I still think Shad’s a great owner. It’s heart-breaking. I just had a dream of it becoming a destination place with a new facility he agreed to build and some day to walk into that stadium where it’s standing room only. Because I know how bad the people of Jacksonville want it. So, I’m just heartbroken that we weren’t able to do that. I still believe it’s going to be done. It’s too good of a place.”
After so many reports surfaced about Meyer’s coaching style and how he interacted with his coaching staff, he was also asked about how his way of doing things could work well in the NFL.
“I think college has changed quite a bit, too,” Meyer said. “Just society has changed. You think how hard you pushed. … I believe there is greatness in everybody and it’s the coach’s job to find that greatness however you do that. Positive encouragement. Pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws and trying to fix [them]. I think everything is so fragile right now. And that includes coaching staffs. When I got into coaching, coaches weren’t making this kind of money and they didn’t have agents. Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team. I remember talking about it in a staff meeting three days ago. I got into this profession because I had the greatest high school coach and it was all about team. All about the huddle.
There is more to what Meyer told NFL.com, and it’s worth your time to give the story a read if you want to check out all of the former Buckeye coaches’ comments.
For now, you have to think that Meyere will take some time off before jumping head first into anything in the game of football, but as time progresses, we’ll see if he gets an opportunity to either coach again or resume a television career.
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