The Jacksonville Jaguars will be meeting with the most popular coaching candidate that has been tied to them Friday, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. That coach, of course, is former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer.
Afterward, the Jags will continue their search and see the whole process through as there is at least one known interview that remains — and that’s with former Jags assistant Robert Saleh on Saturday.
The #Jaguars plan to meet with Urban Meyer today to continue discussing the team’s head coaching vacancy, sources tell me and @RapSheet.
No deal is imminent and the team has at least one other interview scheduled. But an important step in the process.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 8, 2021
The #Jaguars have interviewed Eric Bienemy and Raheem Morris, with Robert Saleh set for Saturday and perhaps more after. One source stressed there’s no deal in place, with Urban Meyer or anyone else. Owner Shad Khan intends to run a thorough process and consider all options.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 8, 2021
Meyer, 56, is a coach who fans of the Jacksonville area are quite familiar with due to the time he spent with the Florida Gators football program from 2005-10. During his tenure in Gainesville, he was able to win two national titles in 2006 and 2008 before stepping down for health and family reasons.
Meyer returned to the college realm two years later as the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes and was able to win another national title in 2014. He spent six seasons there but ended up retiring in 2018 after a tumultuous season in which he was suspended and dealt with health issues due to a brain cyst.
His time in Gainesville aside, the interest in Meyer, a proven winner in the college realm (187-32 record, 12-3 bowl record), makes a lot of sense for the Jags. The team hasn’t done a lot of winning under owner Shad Khan, who currently has a 39-105 regular season record over the span of nine years. The only playoff berth the team has had since he became owner was in 2017 where the team made it to the AFC Championship.
Additionally, Khan has stressed the importance of wanting to acquire a franchise quarterback, which has been an issue for the franchise for a long time. Meyer is someone the football realm has praise when it comes to coaching quarterbacks as he worked with players like Alex Smith, Tim Tebow, and JT Barrett to name a few.
“I think obviously developing a young quarterback, we’ve been very unsuccessful at that. [The] last eight years, we haven’t had a franchise quarterback, so I think that is very, very important,” Khan said Monday.
With the Jags having the first overall pick in April’s draft, signs point to them drafting Trevor Lawrence, who has been regarded as the best college prospect since Andrew Luck. The staff Khan puts in place to coach him will be a huge deal and the argument could be made that there aren’t better options than Meyer for the job.
According to our head coaching tracker, Meyer is one of six coaches the Jags have shown interest in. Once he interviews, he’ll be the fourth coach who is known to have interviewed with the Jags.