Category: Urban Meyer

Twitter reacts to Shad Khan’s statement on Urban Meyer bar video

Twitter had a lot to say about Khan’s statement on the Meyer controversy.

Things just seem to get worse and worse for the 0-4 Jaguars. Following a heartbreaking loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Thursday Night Football, head coach Urban Meyer opted not to fly back on the team plane to, according to him, spend time with his grandkids and friends (who he had dinner with).

However, video from the night emerged showing a woman dancing on Meyer at a bar, and a second video later released shows him appearing to touch her below the waist.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Meyer said he spoke with both the team and owner Shad Khan (as well as his family) to apologize. However, on Tuesday, Khan released a statement outlining the expectations for Meyer from here on out.

I have addressed this matter with Urban. Specifics of our conversation will be held in confidence. What I will say is his conduct last weekend was inexcusable. I appreciate Urban’s remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now, he must regain our trust and respect. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver.

Let’s just say that Twitter didn’t exactly hold back in response to the statement. Here’s what some folks had to say about it.

 

Shad Khan issues a statement on recent videos of Urban Meyer

“He must regain our trust and respect,” Khan said of Meyer in a recent statement.

In a week where the Jacksonville Jaguars need to be focusing on their biggest rivals in the Tennessee Titans, off-the-field issues seem to be getting in the way of that. Even more specifically, the off-the-field actions of Jags coach Urban Meyer.

With a video surfacing of Meyer being danced on by an unknown woman and him appearing to touch her below the waist in a second video, many have started to question how Jags ownership would react. That’s especially the case after Meyer told the media that the situation was a simple matter of some people trying to get him on the dance floor, which doesn’t perfectly add up with the videos.

Now, with many eyes on the organization, owner Shad Khan has released a statement, and for now, it appears he will continue forward with Meyer though the Jags head man did say that the first-year coach would have to regain his trust and respect.

I have addressed this matter with Urban. Specifics of our conversation will be held in confidence. What I will say is his conduct last weekend was inexcusable. I appreciate Urban’s remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now, he must regain our trust and respect. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver.

The Jags’ game against the Titans will take place at TIAA Bank Field at 1 pm EST on Sunday, and the following statement makes it sound as though a lot is hinging on it. Simply put, if the Jags can win they wouldn’t be out of postseason contention when looking at the play of the division, which would make it easier for Khan to move on with Meyer despite him not being truthful to the public.

Regardless of what happens after Sunday’s game, though, it’s clear that the thing many fans feared, which is Meyer being a distraction, is unfolding before our eyes. And now, Khan’s questionable decision to hire a questionable fit for the NFL and his organization is turning out to be an issue on a month-to-month basis.

Urban Meyer: Loss to Bengals is ‘devastating, heartbreaking’

Meyer said the team is hurting after the loss against the Bengals but will bounce back against Tennessee next week.

The Jaguars had a very good opportunity in Thursday Night Football to earn the first win of the Urban Meyer and Trevor Lawrence era, but they couldn’t stop a second-half Cincinnati comeback as rookie Bengals kicker Evan McPherson drilled a game-winner as time expired.

To be so close to an emotional win on national television and come up short was difficult, Meyer said after the game.

“That’s devastating, heartbreaking,” he said. “These guys—usually I’m not wrong about stuff like that. I just see a good team in there. I see good guys. I see good hearts. I see guys that work. I told them: ‘I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong about that stuff.’

“We are getting better each week. It’s just sickening that you didn’t win that thing. But like I told you, I’m not wrong about that. I’m not wrong about those guys in that room. They’re going to keep swinging as hard as they possibly can.”

Meyer and Lawrence aren’t a pair that’s very accustomed to losing. Lawrence only lost twice as a starter at Clemson (and never in the regular season), while Meyer compiled a ridiculous 83-9 record during his seven seasons at Ohio State.

With a long week ahead to prepare for Oct. 10’s crucial division matchup at home against the Tennessee Titans. Meyer said the loss against Cincinnati was hard on the team, but that it will bounce back.

“That’s a heartbroken locker room,” he said. “We’ll take a few days off and get ready for Tennessee. There are good people in that locker room.”

The Jags will attempt to lick their wounds and get into the win column for the first time this season against a Tennessee team they haven’t beaten since Week 3 of the 2019 season.

Urban Meyer discusses his relationship and experience with Joe Burrow

Burrow played for Meyer at Ohio State from 2015-17.

When the Jaguars take on the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night, there will be a familiar face on the opposite sideline for coach Urban Meyer. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who the team took with the first overall pick in 2020, was most known for his legendary final season at LSU. But before transferring to the Bayou, Burrow started his career under Meyer at Ohio State.

Burrow wasn’t exactly a high-profile recruit. He was a four-star prospect, according to the 247Sports Composite, but a relatively low-rated one. Meyer discussed Burrow’s development, both at Ohio State and after.

“He has arguably one of the best mindsets I’ve ever seen in an athlete, his toughness,” Meyer said. “He’ll tell you he was highly recruited, he wasn’t. He comes from an incredible family. It’s just a very, very close family, a football family. But his mindset, even when he struggled early in his career, the thing you can count on is that guy’s tough as nails, [is a] competitor, refused to lose at anything in the offseason. Then you started seeing this younger body start to develop. Even he was shocked by it. I remember talking to him. I mean all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Woah.'”

Burrow was in the running to be the Buckeyes’ starter heading into Meyer’s final season in 2018, but that job was eventually lost to another future first-round pick in Dwayne Haskins.

“When [former Ohio State QB] Dwayne [Haskins] came in, he was going to play and then he broke his hand about a week before the season,” Meyer said. “That was his throwing hand I believe too, and he was out for quite a while. Then Dwayne came in and started doing well and then went into that rivalry game and won the game for us. We had open competition his, whatever year it was, and it was close. Obviously, Dwayne beat him out. Dwayne threw for 50 touchdowns and then the second year had one of the best years in college football history. But we’ve stayed in touch. I’ve talked to him a couple of times about Trevor [Lawrence]. Our relationship is fantastic and he’s fantastic.”

He missed a good portion of his rookie season with a torn ACL, but Burrow is off to a solid start in Year 2. He has 640 yards with seven touchdowns and four picks, and he’s completing over 70% of his passes. More importantly, he has guided the Bengals to a 2-1 start, and they’ll look to make that start even better on Thursday night against a Jags defense that looked better last week but struggled mightily in the first two games.

Limiting Burrow through the air will be a major priority for Jaguars defensive coordinator Joe Cullen, but at least the man in charge in Jacksonville has quite a bit of familiarity with the opposing quarterback.

Here’s what Jaguars coach Urban Meyer said about the controversial flea-flicker call

Meyer said he instructs his coordinators to be aggressive in their play-calling.

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Jacksonville had a big opportunity to earn a season-defining win on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, but it came up short despite leading by nine points in the second half Byron Murphy Jr.

The major turning point in the game was when the Jaguars called a flea-flicker while leading 19-17, which resulted in a bombarded Trevor Lawrence short-arming a throw off his back foot, resulting in a pick-six.

After the game, Meyer said he signed off on the call and generally supports aggressive play-calling

“I always tell [offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell] to be aggressive,” he said. “As I’ve always told my coordinators all along the years, let me be the overruler. Be the aggressive guy. I heard it come over the headset and obviously, I didn’t stop it. Then I looked up and saw [D.J. Chark Jr.] behind the defense, we were behind them. It was a big one. And then I look up and the ball is picked.

“The decision I made a long time ago was to be aggressive. You’ve got to be smart, but be aggressive.”

The play gave the Cardinals the lead, and it proved to be the deciding factor, as Jacksonville didn’t score again after that. It was the sixth interception of the season for quarterback Lawrence, whose decision-making has left a bit to be desired through three games.

Bevell and Meyer are certainly not doing much to inhibit Lawrence’s aggressive tendencies, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But with that being said, the rookie does need to be more judicious in the shots he takes moving forward.

Broncos’ Vic Fangio: Urban Meyer says ‘every week’s like playing Alabama’ in the NFL

Jaguars coach Urban Meyer voiced his exasperation to Denver coach Vic Fangio after Sunday’s game.

Urban Meyer is one of the most successful college coaches in recent memory, but the adjustment from coaching at the college level to coaching at the professional level has challenged all who’ve made the jump. With Jacksonville, Meyer has had a learning curve. His team has lost its first two games in a mostly uncompetitive fashion.

After Sunday’s loss to the Broncos, Meyer made his frustrations known to Denver coach Vic Fangio.

“His comment to me was every week’s like playing Alabama in the NFL,” Fangio said on Wednesday. “That’s it. Everybody’s capable of beating everybody in this league.”

While Meyer still has time to figure things out and it would be foolish to come to any wild conclusions after just two weeks, it is becoming very clear that Meyer’s growing pains are a bit more pronounced in Year 1 than hoped.

Fangio is a defensive mastermind, and the Jags likely won’t face many tougher defensive challenges this season than that one, but based on what Meyer said, he feels like the team is a bit overmatched at the moment.

If the Jags are going to avoid yet another top-10 pick, they will need to improve quite a bit as the season progresses, and Meyer will need to do a better job of adjusting to the professional game on the fly.

Urban Meyer praises Jaguars tackles for play against ferocious Denver pass rush

Meyer said both Cam Robinson and Jawaan Taylor played well against Denver’s talented edge-rushing duo.

There wasn’t much praiseworthy about Jacksonville’s offensive performance on Sunday, but one thing the unit actually did fairly well was protecting quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The Broncos’ edge rushing duo of Von Miller and Bradley Chubb is one of the NFL’s best, and while Cam Robinson and Jawaan Taylor didn’t do a bad job holding their own Week 1, fans still had concerns about how they would fare Week 2 due to the duo’s penalty issues.

In Week 2, they were much better. Lawrence was only sacked once, by Miller, and he had plenty of time to make throws (though that didn’t necessarily correlate with success).

On Monday, coach Urban Meyer said he was pleased with the play of the offensive line, particularly with Robinson and Taylor.

“Our offensive line was very much a positive,” he said. “They kept a nice, solid pocket for him [QB Trevor Lawrence] for the most part. Obviously, against two elite pass rushers, Jawaan Taylor really hung in there. I know we chipped a little bit and helped him, but for the most part, he hung in there. They had one sack and it was on a twist. But straight pass rush, we hung in there really well.

“I was really proud of the offensive line. They put us in position to win the game if we didn’t have a couple other areas where – in the first half, we left two of the touchdowns right there on the field and it’s a whole different ball game if you don’t do that.”

Though Chubb missed a large portion of the game when he exited with an injury, the tackles still held their own against the pass rush for most of the contest.

As fans are aware, both players need big years to solidify their roles moving forward. Robinson was franchise tagged last offseason, and he’s currently making his case for a long-term contract. Taylor, meanwhile, is under contract through 2022, but his play has been inconsistent, and Jacksonville drafted another tackle in the second round this year in Walker Little.

But Robinson and Taylor have been solid through two games, and while it hasn’t correlated with offensive success, it’s definitely a positive sign moving forward.

Jaguars plead with fans to ‘hang in there with us’

After Sunday’s loss, Urban Meyer encouraged Jags fans to ‘hang in there’ with the team, but the fact of the matter is that the elite support system he wants will have to be earned (which is achievable).

While Urban Meyer may have come into the 2021 season with expectations to make the playoffs, he’s quickly learned that the NFL is a weekly grind. So far, his Jacksonville Jaguars have gotten off to a 0-2 start, which is unfamiliar territory for him as one of the winningest college coaches ever, and it’s been evident.

During the Jags’ postgame press conference that followed their loss to the Denver Broncos, Meyer made it a priority to start by thanking the fans and asking them to be patient with what they are trying to build.

“I just want to thank our Jaguar fans,” Meyer said. “It’s been a long haul in Jacksonville. But we appreciate them being here, and we have a saying around here, we’re going to own it, and we are going to own it, but I speak on behalf of our players that that was good. We go up 7-3 or 7-0 and they’re standing behind our defense, helped our defense, and from myself, our staff and our players, thanks for being there. Don’t give up on us. Hang in there with us. We’re going to get better. The one thing about Jacksonville and the 904, go to sleep knowing there’s not going to be any group work harder to get this thing flipped.”

Meyer’s opening statements come after he spent part of training camp rallying the Jags’ fanbase and declaring that he wanted to see a stadium full of Jags fans. However, after losing a game they were favored to win Week 1 against the Houston Texans and giving up a Week 2 lead against Denver where the Jags struck first, it appears Meyer, and most certainly the Jags, are aware of the fanbase’s morale. Additionally, Meyer genuinely feels he has a connection with the North Florida fanbase after his success with the Gators and the standard he set in Gainesville.

When looking at how the NFL works, though, support systems like the ones the Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, and Baltimore Ravens all have, simply put, are earned through winning. For that reason, Meyer’s best method heading forward has to be to focus on building the team instead of the public relations stuff, which will give them a chance to win eventually. Once that happens, the strongest following and support for the Jags will undoubtedly come as the nation witnessed in 2017.

Most who were real about the Jags’ situation understood that it would be a rebuild in all likelihood. That said, the burden of rallying a fanbase through a rebuild after Shad Khan’s 41-108 record shouldn’t fall on Meyer, because if it is, it’s just another issue to drift his focus from the team-building aspect of his job.

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Broncos DE Dre’Mont Jones says he’s not surprised by Jags’ start under Urban Meyer

The former Ohio State player under Meyer said his college coach needs to change his style in the NFL.

Entering the 2021 season, many in the NFL media expected Jaguars coach Urban Meyer to struggle with the adjustment from college to the pros. Jacksonville’s 37-21 loss to Houston in Week 1 seemed to confirm those priors, as many of the team’s struggles, such as illegal formation penalties and multiple instances of too many men in the huddle, can be blamed on coaching.

Denver Broncos defensive end Dre’Mont Jones, a third-round pick in 2019 who played under Meyer for five years at Ohio State, said that he isn’t surprised to see the Jaguars struggling under his former coach when speaking to the media this week.

“Going from college to pros is always difficult no matter what the level is, whether coaching or playing,” Jones said, according to Pro Football Talk. “Especially because a lot of his philosophies are college-based, and you can’t do that with 30-plus men or even 25-plus men who have been around the league and know what they’re doing now and are well established. You got to shake things up in how you coach.

“Am I surprised by it? No. I just know how he is. I’m not going to go into great detail about it, but no, it doesn’t surprise me.”

While Jones declined to go into detail here, he did elaborate on some of the issues he’s talking about back in June on an appearance on Shelby Harris’ (all of the Broncos) “Shel-Shocked” podcast.

This excerpt from that conversation is especially telling.

On their face, these comments appear pretty damning of Meyer, and many expected that one of the biggest hurdles he would face is connecting with millionaire athletes who aren’t in the 18-22 age range. Based on the comments from Jones, it seems that was far from a strength of Meyer’s as a college coach.

Still, an approach like that may garner respect from young athletes. Among highly paid professionals, however, those antics would be much less welcome.

Jones isn’t in the Jaguars’ locker room, and it’s hard to tell if the issues he discussed played any role in Houston’s dismantling of Jacksonville in Week 1. But if what he says is true, Meyer definitely has some work to do in terms of earning buy-in from his team.

Urban Meyer says there’s ‘no chance’ he leaves Jaguars for USC

The Jags’ coach said he’s not going anywhere despite unfounded USC rumors.

On Monday, one of the best college football jobs in the country opened up when Southern California University finally ended the tenure of long-embattled coach Clay Helton. With one of the premier jobs in college football open, the rumor mill has been spinning for Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer, who hasn’t exactly been known for sticking around for the long haul in the past.

After the Jags’ Week 1 loss to Houston, social media erupted with (half-serious) speculation that Meyer would be a candidate at USC. Certainly, the Trojans would look at the three-time national champion if he expressed interest.

But on Wednesday, Meyer shot down those rumors rather abruptly.

“No chance. I’m here committed to try to build an organization,” he said via NFL.com.

Meyer retired from both Florida and Ohio State on his own terms before deciding to return from coaching both times, and with the Jaguars appearing to be in for a rough season, some thought Meyer could bolt for greener pastures once more.

But according to the coach, that’s not happening, and he’s focused on the Jaguars’ Week 2 matchup against Denver at home.