Category: Urban Meyer

Paul Finebaum doesn’t see Jags’ time with Urban Meyer lasting long

Paul Finebaum might be one of Urban Meyer’s biggest critics and he believes his constant run-ins with the NFL are reasons he’ll flame out.

Urban Meyer’s first few months in the NFL have been productive, but at the same time, they’ve come with some controversy. The latest incident by the first-year head coach involved both him and the Jacksonville Jaguars getting hit with a combined total of $300K in fines by the NFL, which came as the result of organized team activity violations.

Of course, as a result of the fines and other incidents that have occurred over the last few months Meyer has accumulated many critics, and ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is among them. In the most recent episode of “Get Up,” Finebaum expressed that he doesn’t think Meyer’s time in the NFL will last long due to the controversy he came into the league with and the incidents he’s already had in it.

“I’ll try not to sound like a broken record, but this is not going to work,” Finebaum said on Friday’s episode of “Get Up.” “It may work short-term because he has Trevor Lawrence and you can build a team, but ultimately, Urban Meyer is going to flame out.

“You laid it out very eloquently there. It’s already happening. This guy does not get along with rules. He does not like to be told what to do. It didn’t work at Florida when he fled, it didn’t work at Ohio State when he battled the administration and finally walked off, or was pushed out, and it’s not going to work here.”

https://youtu.be/6V7izcE6hSU

When processing Finebaum’s statements, he’s not the first to question how long Meyer will last in the NFL. However, NFL fans have witnessed Bill Belichick, and the New England Patriots overcome instances where rules were broken, and yet they still have six championships under him. So, in other words, there have been instances where the “rule breakers” of the league haven’t necessarily flamed out, although Finebaum may be basing this off Meyer’s collegiate track record.

As for Meyer’s controversial situations in the NFL, the Chris Doyle hiring was one Meyer should’ve undoubtedly avoided, however, the other incidents he’s had in the league aren’t as controversial as some have made them out to be.

While the Tim Tebow signing does look like a favor, many local reporters don’t believe he looks that out of place for someone on a 90-man roster, although he probably doesn’t need to be on the final roster. As for the fines, many players have praised Meyer for the type of coach he’s been since signing with the Jags like team leaders Josh Allen, Myles Jack, and Shaq Griffin. That said, it appears a majority (if not all) of the players haven’t been upset with the team’s practice habits under Meyer.

It’s anyone’s guess on if Meyer will work out in the NFL and how long he will be a part of it, but it’s worth noting that he studied the league well before entering it despite the incidents he’s had. He has several veteran NFL assistants on his staff who he trusts tremendously like Joe Cullen, Darrell Bevell, and Brian Schottenheimer, and if Meyer has success in the NFL, it’s going to be because he leaned on them heavily as he tries his hand in the league.

Reports: Jags, Urban Meyer fined by NFL for violating non-contact rules in OTAs

The Jags and Urban Meyer we’re hit with fines that combined for $100K due to violating some contact rules in OTAs.

The NFL hasn’t been hesitant to hand out fines over the course of the years, and on Thursday, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Urban Meyer found out the hard way. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the team was fined $200K for violating the league’s non-contact rule in organized team activities, while the first-year head coach was fined $100K.

The Jags weren’t alone in this wave of fines as the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers were fined, too. However, the Jags’ fines combined to be the most expensive.

Per Mark Long of the Associated Press the fines stemmed from a practice that took place on June 1. During 11-on-11 drills, the NFL evidently saw some rules being violated and stepped in to give the team a warning.

Not only will the Jags and Meyer have to pay the fines, but they will also be penalized next season and will have to forfeit two first-week OTA practices in 2022.

Meyer vs. Carroll makes list of top-10 NFL coaching matchups to watch in 2021

Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll will face off for the first time in 2021, and surprisingly, it won’t be in the NCAA.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2021 schedule will have an interesting mix of opposing coaches on it, which should make Urban Meyer’s first year in the NFL an interesting one. It includes notables like Mike Vrabel (a former assistant to Meyer), six-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick, and Kyle Shanahan to name a few.

However, with Meyer and Pete Carroll being college legends, none of those matchups may be more interesting than Week 8’s game against Seattle. Oddly enough, the matchup will mark their first-ever against each other as they didn’t face each other in college. For that reason, CBS Sports listed it tenth on their list of the best coaching matchups for the upcoming season.

When it comes to making the jump from college football to the NFL, no one has had more success than Pete Carroll. After spending nine seasons at USC, Carroll made the move to Seattle in 2010. In his first season with the Seahawks, Carroll took the team to the playoffs, which was impressive, because Seattle was coming off a 5-11 season in 2009 the year before Carroll arrived. Meyer will certainly be hoping to emulate the success that Carroll has had at the NFL level. Basically, this game matches up two of the best college coaches of the past 20 years, except we’re getting it in the NFL, and it’s going to be exciting to see how things play out. The best part of this is that it will mark the first time that Carroll and Meyer have faced off because they didn’t coach against each other at the college level.

Both Carroll and Meyer combine for four College Football National Championship titles. Carroll was the first to get one at USC in 2004, then Meyer was able to win two with Florida (2006 and 2008) and one with Ohio State (2014).

Clearly, Carroll and the Seahawks organization are a group Meyer respects. He’s hired many of Carroll’s former assistants in Darrell Bevell, Brian Schottenheimer, Nick Sorensen, and Sanjay Lal, which also adds intrigue to this matchup.

In terms of the rosters on the field, this game could provide the Jags with an excellent test as they should be clicking by Week 8. They will be up against a roster with plenty of veteran talent (like Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner) and an organization that has made the postseason the last three years.

Urban Meyer on Jags’ fanbase: ‘This city is ready to explode’

Urban Meyer was familiar with Jacksonville before joining the Jags and understands how supportive they are and can be for the Jags.

One reason Urban Meyer took the Jacksonville Jaguars’ head coaching vacancy was because he is familiar with the North Florida area and has love for it. After many years with the Florida Gators, he recruited in the area, building a bond with the 904, and it made his decision to try out the NFL easier.

However, with the Jags only winning one game last season Meyer has a tall task on his hands. Even before that, there wasn’t much success under owner Shad Khan aside from the 2017 season. For those reasons, the fan base is in desperate need to see a winning product on the field, and if that happens, Meyer believes the city will establish itself as a top-tier NFL market.

“I know the 904, and I’ve been here many times [before taking the job],” Meyer said to USA TODAY. “I love the people here. When I used to recruit here I just loved the high school coaches and enjoyed my time here. [The reception] has been even better than I thought.

“This city is ready to explode. I don’t want to hear about how great these other stadiums are and ours is bad. That’s why I use the term “own it,” Jacksonville has to own it and so do our players. If we put this thing together the right way, I expect us to have a great home-field advantage, a great environment to play a home game in, and our players to do their part.”

Despite the feelings towards Meyer’s departure from Florida, fans were happy to see Meyer return, too, and responded well to his jump to the NFL. Additionally, there was excitement for Trevor Lawrence as well, and when combining the two additions, it reflected in the ticket office.

Dating back to his time in college, Meyer has always believed in his coaching staff’s ability to elevate whatever talent is on the roster. After the Jags had a good (but certainly not perfect) offseason, the fans seem excited about his ability to elevate the Jags, though the NFL is foreign territory to Meyer.

Urban Meyer on Tim Tebow’s odds of making the team: ‘He’s one of 90’

Tebow will have to prove a lot if he’s going to end his nine-year hiatus from a 53-man roster.

Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Tim Tebow, a former NFL quarterback and professional baseball player who was brought in this offseason to compete for a roster spot, has an uphill battle to make the team. But many expect he may be able to do it, owing to his relationship with Jacksonville coach Urban Meyer, who coached him in college at Florida.

In an interview with USA TODAY, the first-time head coach was candid about the 33-year-old’s chances of making the final roster. He said the concept of having to cut players has been an adjustment to what he’s been used to.

“That’s new to me. That’s the reality to the NFL, that you have 90 players,” Meyer said. “So to me, he’s one of 90. What’s the difference between him and the other 40 guys trying to make the team? To me, it’s all the same.”

Meyer wouldn’t go into detail about how Tebow’s grasping the position or where he stands among the current group, but he did elaborate about the difficulty of having to make permanent personnel decisions during the offseason.

“The reality is that a good percentage of your roster is going to get cut or transitioned out, which to me, that’s completely new. In college, you’d have your 85, 95 guys and you fit them in and you put the puzzle together. It’s much different here.”

The Jaguars certainly need tight end help, as returning No. 2 tight end James O’Shaughnessy is the most experienced of the bunch. That opens a door for Tebow to compete for a roster spot, but he’ll have to demonstrate an aptitude for his new position on the field first. Tebow will have to prove a lot if he’s going to end his nine-year hiatus from a 53-man roster.

Deion Sanders on Urban Meyer: ‘He’s a winner’

The Hall of Fame cornerback is a fan of the Jaguars’ new coaching hire, as well as their new franchise quarterback.

Jacksonville head coach Urban Meyer has never coached at the professional level before. Naturally, he has a fair number of doubters. But Hall of Fame cornerback and current Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders is not among them. In a recent appearance on NFL Total Access, the former NFL Network analyst said that Meyer has what it takes to be successful in the league.

“Urban Meyer’s a winner. He’s a winner,” Sanders said, according to 247Sports’ Garrett Stepien. “I feel like he has a good staff, has a pretty darn good quarterback. He’s going to have some hiccups. … But he has the opportunity.”

“Urban Meyer’s a winner, man. I like his staff that he assembled. I know the type of ball that he’s going to play. They did really well in the draft. We’re going to see if that pays dividends.

There’s no denying Meyer’s coaching acumen at the college level. In his four stops as a head coach, he won three national championships: two at Florida and then one at Ohio State. He’s one of the architects of the modern spread offense, which completely enveloped the college game and has slowly taken hold in the NFL, too.

Jumping to the NFL will certainly present some challenges to Meyer, and the recent history of coaches making that leap is a bit disconcerting, to say the least. But one thing he has that many of those coaches didn’t is a franchise quarterback right off the bat. The Jaguars’ 1-15 season in 2020 netted the first overall pick, which was used to select star Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who is likely already the most talented passer the team has ever had.

Sanders thinks Lawrence will be successful, but that he will face a level of adversity he hasn’t yet in his career.

“But I like the young kid (Lawrence). I just want to see how the young kid handles adversity,” he said. “I don’t think he’s ever been up against adversity. And I guarantee you in Jacksonville he’s going to have some adversity.”

As the No. 1 recruit in the country coming out of high school who took the Tigers to a national title as a true freshman starter in 2018, he certainly has made it look easy at times. But as the quarterback of the Jags and the top pick in the draft, he has more to prove now than ever before.

There’s still a good deal of uncertainty surrounding Jacksonville’s new pieces, but there’s more excitement around the franchise than there has been in years, despite coming off its worst finish ever. And it seems that their list of believers includes Sanders.

Titans coach Mike Vrabel has this advice for Urban Meyer

Vrabel worked with Meyer at Ohio State, and he had high praise for his former boss. The two now compete within the AFC South.

Urban Meyer may have a lot of experience coaching football at a high level, but the NFL is an entirely new beast for him. He has never coached in professional football, even as an assistant. But the head coach of one of his division rivals has some advice for him in an appearance on the “Rich Eisen Show” on Thursday.

Titans head man Mike Vrabel knows Meyer well. The two worked together when Vrabel was the defensive line coach at Ohio State from 2012-13.

“I mean, Urban’s a great coach,” Vrabel said. “He’s proven he’ll figure out what he wants to do with his football team. I mean, I learned a lot from Urban and worked for him and with him for two years. And we talked, we had conversations. But that’s the thing — when you’re a head coach, you figure it out. There’s certain ways you want to do things that are going to be different than how other people do it and a different team’s a team. So that’s like parenting — you’ve got to figure it out as you go along and make mistakes and what would you do better, what would you do differently the next time.

“So Urban’s going to figure it out. He’s been a great coach for a long time.”

Meyer certainly has a bit of a difficult adjustment to make. Managing a team of highly paid professionals is a lot different than running a program full of players you recruited out of high school.

Jacksonville will hope that he can make that adjustment fast enough to compete with his former assistant in Vrabel, whose team is coming off back-to-back playoff appearances and are the defending AFC South champions.

Jags’ Charlie Strong discusses what he’s seen from former Gators Lerentee McCray, Tim Tebow

Once upon a time Charlie Strong was working alongside McCray and Tebow when they were collegiate players and now he’s doing so in the NFL.

Alongside Urban Meyer, Charlie Strong and the Florida Gators’ staff was able to build one of collegiate football’s best teams over a decade ago and the legacy that was built at the time is still strong. Now, both Meyer and Strong have found themselves working together again on the NFL level with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and two of the key players from their Gators run are once again being coached by the duo.

One of those players is pass rusher Lerenetee McCray, who was a part of Florida’s defense from 2008-12. With eight years of NFL experience to his name as a special teamer and edge rusher, Strong said he feels the former Gator is a valuable asset to the team, especially with him understanding the current staff almost better than anyone.

“We always felt like when we recruited him at Florida that he had some talent, very talented then, a guy who’s big and athletic, a guy who can run,” Strong said. “But then, just being in the league the number of years that he’s been in there has been really very impressive. You look at the things that he’s done when he was at Denver being on the special teams.

“When we first got the job here, he comes walking in my office and I just forgot that he was here and was just kind of shocked. But just seeing him work here the last few weeks, he’s been very good. I think Lerentee [McCray]’s one of those guys who’s going to give you everything he’s got, and he understands what we’re looking for because he had played for us before.”

Earlier in the week, Meyer shared some interesting insight on McCray, stating that he’s been working out at the SAM linebacker position with a few others like Leon Jacobs and K’Lavon Chaisson. That means he’s a part of a group where he’s the most experienced player by a long shot, which could bode well for him during final cuts as the Jags young team needs experience and locker room leaders.

After the Jags’ last minicamp practice, Strong was also asked about another player he knew from his time with the Gators in Tim Tebow. And while his focus has been to coach the interior linebackers as a positional assistant, Strong said that Tebow is handling himself well by his eyes.

“When you look at Teebs [Tim Tebow] and you look at just the following, you know whenever you say Tim Tebow, you know that you’re going to have just truly a mass following him, from the media to even just fans out there who want to know how he’s doing,” Strong said. “I think he’s done a very good job of just handling himself and just embracing it.

“What you wonder a lot of times when you get a player like that who’s been away from it is how is he going to be accepted in the locker room, and I think the players have done an unbelievable job at just taking him in. But he’s handled himself the right way too and he wasn’t one of those guys who tried to push himself on them. He just let everything happen and he’s done a very good job at that.”

This is certainly good to hear from a coach who knows Tebow personally and further makes the case that things probably aren’t as chaotic at the Jags facility as some have been led to believe. That’s a good thing that should allow Strong, Meyer, Tebow, and McCray to focus on bettering the Jags as the team looks to rebound from a one-win 2020 campaign. 

Should Urban Meyer’s lack of NFL experience be a red flag?

Should Jaguars fans be concerned about the fact that Urban Meyer had no prior NFL coaching experience.

Since the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Urban Meyer to lead the team into this new era with Trevor Lawrence as the franchise quarterback, the No. 1 question surrounding the decision has been how Meyer would handle the move to the NFL. He’s one of the most accomplished coaches in college football history, winning three national championships (two at Florida, one at Ohio State), but he has never coached at the professional level, even as an assistant.

And frankly, the recent track record for NFL teams hiring first-time professional coaches out of college is disconcerting, to say the least. To find examples of it working out well, you have to go back to Jimmy Johnson. More contemporary examples, such as Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Greg Schiano, and Chip Kelly, all couldn’t cut it in the NFL.

Jim Harbaugh, who took the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII, is the most successful case study in recent memory, but his already rocky relationship with the front office deteriorated completely when the team’s play dropped off, and he eventually retreated to the college ranks.

It shouldn’t come as a major surprise, given the history of first-time NFL coaches, that Meyer’s inexperience is the team’s biggest red flag in 2021, per Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have their new franchise quarterback in Trevor Lawrence. The biggest concern for Jacksonville now should be whether Urban Meyer is the right head coach to lead Lawrence and the franchise into the future.

The Jaguars obviously believe so, or they wouldn’t have hired him. However, Meyer has zero experience coaching in the NFL. He’s also made one baffling decision, bringing in friend and former Florida protege Tim Tebow as a tight end.

Tebow last played in the NFL in 2012…as a quarterback. While the move was Meyer’s call to make, not everyone is happy about it.

“Not everybody in the Jaguars building is thrilled,” ESPN’s Jeff Darlington said last month (h/t B/R Gridiron).

While plenty of coaches have successfully made the leap from college to the pros, the NFL is a different game and requires a different management style. We’ll find out how it pans out for Meyer before long, but his lack of NFL experience is a red flag.

Fair or not, it seems the decision to bring on Tebow as a tight end during minicamp has negatively impacted the perception of Meyer. It certainly plays into preconceived notions about his lack of understanding of how to manage a team of professionals.

However, it seems this issue has been overblown a bit. The Tebow frenzy has died down in recent weeks as the 33-year-old goes about his business trying to make the final roster, and no Jags players have commented negatively about the signing so far, at least publicly. Was it the best first impression for Meyer to make? Probably not.

Will it have a detrimental impact on the team in any meaningful way? It’s highly unlikely.

It’s undoubtedly possible that it could be indicative of a larger issue, and that this is just the first of many decisions that confirm the belief that Meyer is in over his head. But there’s also reason to believe that’s not the case.

There are currently two other active coaches who were hired from the college level: Carolina’s Matt Rhule and Arizona’s Kliff Kingsbury. The former spent just one season of his career as an NFL assistant before he was hired by the Carolina Panthers, and the latter, like Meyer, had no NFL experience, whatsoever.

It’s too early to judge Rhule, who went just 5-11 in his first season and is yet to land a potential franchise quarterback. But Kingsbury, who many expected to flounder after being fired at Texas Tech, seems to have the Cardinals on the right track with third-year quarterback Kyler Murray. The team just barely missed the playoffs last season and is expected to contend for a spot again this year.

The NFL game has changed tremendously, even in just the last five years. Concepts and styles from the college game translate to the professional level like never before, and it could be a sign that college-turned-NFL coaches are entering into a new era of prosperity. Jaguars fans will hope that’s the case as Meyer tries to guide the team out of a hole that resulted in the franchise hitting rock bottom in 2020.

Trevor Lawrence sits out of team drills during start of Jags minicamp

Trevor Lawrence was a partial participant in his first minicamp in the NFL as he continues to nurse a hamstring injury from last week.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ first minicamp practice marked a productive session although quarterback Trevor Lawrence was held out of team drills out of precaution. With the No. 1 overall pick dealing with a minor hamstring injury from last week, Jags coach Urban Meyer told the media that the team simply wanted to play it safe to prevent the issue from getting worse and holding him out longer as soft tissue injuries have a tendency to do.

“Our trainers and Schotty [passing gam assistant Brian Schottenheimer] are being a little cautious because right now when you’re a month out, you yank a hamstring now you’re going to miss the early part of the training camp,” Meyer on Monday. “That’s that one muscle that, you guys have all seen it like I have, you pull a hamstring at this point you’re going to miss all your summer conditioning so we’re being somewhat conservative on it.

“But he actually could play a game if he had to.”

Ultimately, Lawrence did participate in 7-on-7 drills, but not 11-on-11s. Most fans who are familiar with hamstring injuries certainly won’t hold that against Meyer or Lawrence as they play it safe because ultimately training camp will be the most crucial part of the rookie’s preparation.

As most competitive quarterbacks would be, Lawrence said he was frustrated about missing time, but understood the doctor’s approach.

“It’s been about a week and trying to work it back to full capacity and yeah, it’s a little frustrating just not being able to go full speed, but I’m feeling good,” Lawrence said. “I’m just trying to not have any more setbacks, so taking it slow. Got some good reps today. So start getting more and more each day this week and kind of work back into it.”

Lawrence will be able to rest his hamstring for an extensive time as the Jags have just one more minicamp practice on Tuesday, then training camp will arrive late next month.  With that being the case, fans should expect the Jags to rest Lawrence for the whole day on Tuesday, or keep the same approach where he’s just a partial participant.