On Thursday, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced the full staff for new head coach Urban Meyer. The list featured a few head-scratchers, but many of the hires also made a lot of sense, including the hire of Charlie Strong assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach.
Strong spent the last season as a defensive assistant at Alabama following head coaching stints at South Florida (2017-19), Texas (2014-16) and Louisville (2010-13). Before that, Strong served as the longtime defensive coordinator for the Gators from 2003-09. He had previously coached as an assistant in Gainesville at various times during the 1980s and ’90s, as well.
Initially hired by coach Ron Zook, Strong served as the interim when Zook was fired in 2004. Meyer, who was hired as the replacement, elected to keep strong on his staff as defensive coordinator. The two had previously worked together at Notre Dame, where they were both assistants from 1996-98. The decision to retain him paid dividends, as Strong’s defenses were vital during Florida’s national championship runs in 2006 and 2008.
That’s why it shouldn’t be a surprise that upon accepting the Jags job, Strong was the first call Meyer made, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“He was my first hire,” Meyer said. “He’s going to be the No. 2. That means the assistant head coach, and he’ll be in front of the team. He’ll be my right-hand man as he’s been many, many times over my time at Florida. I always tell people that the chance of us winning those two national championships without Charlie Strong would not have happened.”
Strong said the two talked about the possibility of reuniting last summer, though he was more enthusiastic than Meyer at the time.
“We were just sitting around talking and I said, ‘We’ve got one more run in us, now. We’ve got to make one more run,’” Strong said. “He’s like, ‘Don’t ask me to do that.’ And I said, ‘I know you want to do it, because it’s still in you.’”
The Jaguars will hope Meyer and Strong can resurrect some of their mid-2000s magic in Duval led by presumed first-overall pick Trevor Lawrence.
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