Tag: fire urban meyer

Twitter reacts to the Jaguars firing Urban Meyer as coach

The Jacksonville Jaguars fired Urban Meyer after a 2-11 record. Here is how Twitter reacted to the news.

The Jacksonville Jaguars got a fresh start Thursday morning with the firing of coach Urban Meyer.

The move happened in the middle of the night, and comes after a string of embarrassments that range from his 2-11 record to getting shutout 20-0 at the hands of the Tennessee Titans in Week 14 to a story about how he allegedly kicked kicker Josh Lambo.

Like Jaguars owner Shad Khan when firing a coach, Twitter never sleeps, and the coaching change by Jacksonville was just what football fans needed as one jolt of excitement before bedtime. Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter.

4-Down Territory: Tackling the NFL’s most pressing topics

In 4-Down Territory, Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling tackle the NFL’s most pressing topics on a weekly basis.

Every week, in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire discuss the NFL’s most pressing topics. On this week’s video, Doug and Luke talk about (and occasionally disagree about) the following:

  1. The list of reasons for the Jaguars to move on from Urban Meyer seems to grow every week. Last week, there was the report from Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network in which it was revealed that Meyer calls his coaches “losers.” that he lied about the reasons for benching running back James Robinson (probably the team’s best player), and players are apparently close to open revolt. Why is it that college coaches struggle so consistently with the rigors of the NFL?
  2. Alabama quarterback Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy last Saturday, and there’s no doubt he’s had a great season. But should he have taken the trophy home, or was this the year it should have gone to a more deserving defensive player?
  3. Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas is on his sixth NFL team, and he’s never been successful before Green Bay signed him off the Cardinals’ practice squad in October. Douglas recently said that he didn’t learn to watch tape the right way until last season, which is a pretty remarkable thing to admit – and a rather damning indictment of his former coaches. Now, Douglas has pick-sixes in two straight games, the first Packers player since Herb Adderley in 1965 to achieve that. Which other players around the NFL deserve a better opportunity in a new home?
  4. The Chiefs started the season 3-4 with what may have been the NFL’s worst defense. Since then, they’ve rolled up six straight wins, they haven’t allowed more than 17 points in a game, they’ve allowed less than 10 points in four of their last five games, and they absolutely demolished the Raiders, 48-9, last Sunday. How does a team go from having the NFL’s worst defense to perhaps having the NFL’s best defense in such short order?

Watch this week’s episode of “4-Down Territory” right here!

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Trevor Lawrence throws four picks as Jaguars look more lost than ever

The Jaguars should have already fired Urban Meyer, in part because the Jaguars are also about to ruin Trevor Lawrence.

This isn’t all Trevor Lawrence’s fault.

The 2021 first overall draft pick out of Clemson has run headlong into a complete clown show with the Jaguars. Head coach Urban Meyer shouldn’t even have a job at this point. The decisions to pull running back James Robinson, the offense’s best player (and possibly the team’s best player) at weird times and for weird reasons continues to confuse. Offensive “masterminds” Brian Schottenheimer and Darrell Bevell are, between them, incapable of putting together route concepts that can test NFL defenses. And though the Jaguars’ defense is sneaky good at times, there isn’t enough good, and too much sneaky, to make a real impact.

Meyer’s latest series of self-made disasters were first reported by Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network on Saturday, which put Meyer’s team in a tough spot against the Titans. Tennessee had the NFL’s worst defense by DVOA in the second half of the season, but that wasn’t going to matter against a Jaguars offense that literally ripe for the picking. As in, Lawrence threw four interceptions and (obviously) no touchdowns in a 20-0 disaster. Lawrence has now thrown nine touchdowns and 14 interceptions on the season, and there’s no accurate way to evaluate where he is in his own process given the forces arrayed against him.

The Jaguars had four drives in the first half. The first three ended in punts, and the fourth ended the half. Lawrence’s series of disasters started in Jacksonville’s first drive of the second half, when he tried to hit Laviska Shenault Jr. on a quick crosser, Shenault couldn’t hold on, and linebacker Rashaan Evans was in the right place at the right time.

Then, with 34 seconds left in the third quarter, Lawrence decided to share again. This time, he tried to connect with Tavon Austin, but this was doomed from the start. The Titans had a six-on-five rush on a blitz, the Jaguars were in empty, and though the Jaguars were in trips left, not one of those three receivers in trips ran anything short to help Lawrence out. Lawrence had the one option under pressure, the Titans knew it, and linebacker Javon Brown read it all the way.

Lawrence’s next pick came on the Jaguars’ next drive. This one, I have to put on Lawrence. He’s got third-and-8 from his own 31-yard line, and if he keeps the ball after getting flushed out of the pocket, he’s likely to run for a first down. Instead, a highly suspect decision to throw downfield to Jaydon Mickens, and defensive back Kristian Fulton was all over it.

The fourth Lawrence pick came with 3:44 left in the game. and this was just Lawrence throwing over the middle to Laquon Treadwell with Titans defenders converging from everywhere, and Buster Skrine winning the lottery. It was quite evident that the Jaguars’ rookie quarterback was out of answers based on his own experience, and it was even more evident that his coaches were not going to provide them.

A couple things are alarmingly evident at this point. If Jaguars owner Shad Khan retains Meyer beyond this season, it amounts to professional malpractice. And the Jaguars are pretty close to ruining one of the most talented quarterback prospects we’ve seen in quite some time.

What a complete, embarrassing, completely avoidable mess on all counts.

Urban Meyer calls his assistants ‘losers,’ alienates players and coaches

Urban Meyer’s disastrous tenure with the Jaguars has created a horrible culture in the building, with Meyer humiliating players and assistants.

The list of reasons it was a massive mistake for the Jacksonville Jaguars to hire head coach Urban Meyer seems to grow by the day. A highly successful coach at the college level, Meyer turned his first NFL preseason into a clown show with the proposed addition of tight end Tim Tebow. He was widely criticized for the hire of former Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle in February, despite Doyle’s long and well-documented history of racist behavior. The hire was quickly reversed.

Meyer had been cavalier about COVID vaccination comments in ways that had the organization moving hastily to clarify things. In July, the Jaguars were fined $200,000 and Meyer fined $100,000 for violating OTA rules, and in September, the NFLPA began an investigation into the team after Meyer admitted that he took a player’s vaccination status into consideration when making roster decisions. And in late September, he was caught on video in an Ohio bar interacting suggestively with a woman who was not his wife. This happened after Meyer decided to stay in the state as the rest of the team flew home after a loss to the Bengals.

That, and the Jaguars’ 2-10 record, might be enough for team owner Shad Khan to admit that he had hired Meyer in error. Per a report from Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, there’s a lot more meat on the bone when it comes to Meyer’s disastrous tenure.

Sources in the organization told Pelissero that Meyer’s constant shifting of blame to players and coaches have created an adverse culture across the board.

Running back James Robinson, who’s probably the team’s most effective player, was benched last Sunday during a 37-7 loss to the Rams after fumbling the ball. Carlos Hyde, who played for Meyer at Ohio State, replaced Robinson, and Meyer told running backs coach Bernie Parmalee that Robinson was not to re-enter the game. Only after quarterback Trevor Lawrence queried Meyer about the move was Robinson allowed to re-enter the game.

This was the entire postgame exchange between Meyer and reporters.

James’ (RB James Robinson) fumble again, and I think he was out for 20 plays. Did you bench him after the second fumble?

URBAN MEYER: He’s still not 100 percent. He’s not practicing during the week. James is as good a guy, a tough a guy, team player as you’ve got, that I’ve ever been around. Your heart bleeds for the guy just because he’s not able to do what he does well. He hasn’t been that way since Seattle. He’s not able to practice, but he wants to play, and he’s still a very good player. You’ve just got to take care of the ball.

Do you think you’re better off sitting him?

MEYER: We had that conversation as a staff, and everybody felt that he was the best option right now, even not 100 percent.

So he wasn’t hurt after the fumble, he’d still be back in?

MEYER: Oh, sure.

He came right back in afterwards? It was three possessions before he got back on the field.

MEYER: Yeah, we were just giving Carlos (RB Carlos Hyde)  an opportunity, and then obviously we failed there, as well, or the ball went on the ground.

Carlos also had the fumble late in the game, too, back on the field the next drive. I’m just wondering if there was — if it wasn’t a benching, it was just all health with Robinson?

MEYER: You’d have to ask (Running Backs Coach Bernie Parmalee) Coach Parmalee. I don’t get too involved. I don’t micromanage that. I know he’s been dinged up, so I don’t know if he’s back with the tent or what’s going on, but I know there’s injury involved.

Is that (Running Backs Coach Bernie Parmalee) Parmalee’s call or (Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell) Bev’s call, putting him back in based on injury?

MEYER: Well, James is unique because he is fighting injury. If someone is not producing and you sit him down, that’s a whole different conversation, but this is really injury based.

According to Pelissero’s report, it was absolutely Meyer’s decision, and it was not injury-related.

This week, Lawrence came out and said that he wanted Robinson on the field more, full stop.

“In my eyes, obviously I’m the one that’s out there, see all the pieces moving, I see the whole picture, bottom line is James [Robinson] is one of our best players and he has to be on the field,” the quarterback said Wednesday. “We addressed it and I feel like we’re in a good spot. The whole team, we’re good. Whatever may have happened, I honestly don’t know everything that went into it. I’m playing the game and stuff happens on the sideline with coaching decisions. I don’t really get into that.

“But I know, and I’ve voiced my opinion, James is one of our best players and he has to be in the game. I think we’re all on the same page, so there’s no confusion there. We’re going to move forward but I know James is a hell of a player, so I want him out there.”

As many egregious things as Meyer has done, this piece of the action from Pelissero’s report might be the most obnoxious:

During a staff meeting, Meyer delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers, according to several people informed of the contents of the meeting, challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their résumés.

More than one Meyer assistant has left in-season. In the preseason, Meyer told his assistants that he was tired of being embarrassed, and if things didn’t turn around quickly, some of them wouldn’t be on staff for another year.

In the preseason. 

The only question at this point is how long it will take for Khan, who desperately wanted Meyer as his head coach for a very long time, to understand how this has gone, and make the right call.