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Monumental news from the NFL broke last night when the Jacksonville Jaguars announced that they have hired Urban Meyer as their new head coach. This is Urban’s second time coming out of retirement.
https://twitter.com/Jaguars/status/1349873617824264193
There were rumor’s floating around of the former Florida and Ohio State head coach coming out of retirement to coach the Jaguars, but the news is still surprising.
You would think after a lackluster 1-15 record this season under Doug Marrone that this would be the furthest thing from Urban’s interest. But the Jaguars have a lot more promise than a lot of other organizations. Adam Schefter makes it clear.
Assuming the Jaguars pick Trevor Lawrence out of Clemson with the number one overall pick, the team still has plenty of picks to fill the other needed positions. Jacksonville has 10 draft picks in 2021 and projected to have $76.2 million in salary-cap space this offseason, the most in the NFL. Urban has also started the process of creating a staff that fits his plan for the team. He is already eyeing Scott Linehan, OC for LSU this season and plenty of OC experience in the NFL.
Coaching History
As a 17-year head coach in college football, Meyer’s record 187-32. He won three national championships, Florida (2) and Ohio State (1). His ability to turnaround programs with rapid speed is incredible.
Here are the records of the universities’ football teams one year before Urban and his first year there.
Bowling Green
- Before: 2-9
- After: 8-3
Utah
- Before: 5-6
- After: 10-2
Florida
- Before: 7-5
- After: 9-3
Ohio State
- Before: 6-7
- After: 12-0
So his ability to change a teams’ losing nature to a winning one is clearly there. The biggest question is if Urban can make the transition from head coach in college to the NFL. Some have tried and failed. Some have had success. Others are Jim Harbaugh.
Field Yates alludes to Adam Schefter’s point of “mixed results” with the college to NFL transition.
Urban Meyer becomes the 12th first-time NFL head coach since 2000 hired from the college ranks, spanning the spectrum from Bobby Petrino (very bad) to Jim Harbaugh (very good). pic.twitter.com/jNAK3K1lMz
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 15, 2021
One of the bigger parts of this succeeding has already happened. Jacksonville truly believes Urban can turn this organization around. He is gathering his staff, he has the draft picks, he has the capital. Fill in the positions needed through offseason signings and draft picks and the Jags are in business.
Although two teams in their division made the playoff, both were booted in the first round. And the other is about to lose Deshaun Watson and start a much bigger rebuild than the Jags. If I were a Jaguars fan, I would be very excited about the future of this team.
