After just 13 games into his NFL coaching career, the Jacksonville Jaguars have fired Urban Meyer. Jaguars owner Shad Khan has now fired his 4th head coach since buying the team in 2011. Shad has fired Mike Mularkey, Gus Bradley, Doug Marrone, and now Urban Meyer. Khan has only had one winning season since owning the team which came in 2017. Darrell Bevell, the Jaguars Offensive Coordinator, will serve as the interim coach for the remaining four games of this season.
There were many mixed feelings and emotions when Urban Meyer was hired to be the next head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Urban, who had won three national championships in college, was already a very controversial head coach. Urban had received backlash because of the way he left the University of Florida, as well as him taking a step down from the Ohio State University before Ryan Day took over the program. The Jaguars were expected to hire a veteran NFL coach to help the development of Trevor Lawrence when the Jaguars held the number one overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Shad Khan went a different route and hired one of the most accomplished college football coaches ever. But the NFL proved to be too much for Urban Meyer and he did not help himself off of the football field.
There were continuously bad moves and actions by Urban Meyer from the time he got hired, leading up to him being fired. Starting with Urban hiring Chris Doyle, a former Iowa University coach who had allegations of racist remarks directed towards players at the university. Urban Meyer had other notable issues such as the video of him at the bar in Ohio after the Jaguars Week 4 loss to the Bengals. He was scrutinized for benching the Jaguars best running back, James Robinson. But now the latest bit of news came out from former Jaguars Kicker Josh Lambo, who told the Tampa Bay Times that Urban Meyer kicked him in the leg.
The entire Urban Meyer tenure in Jacksonville went horrible and he did not even get to have one full season coaching before he was fired. The Jaguars organization and Shad Khan will now have to make sure they get the right Head Coach this time around to help develop Trevor Lawrence. Trevor is the most important player in that organization and the front office cannot afford to get the wrong head coach this time. Popular names for the Jaguars next head coach are Byron Leftwich, Kellen Moore, Josh McDaniels, and Eric Bieniemy. All four are great offensive coordinators that can help develop Trevor Lawrence and this young team.
The Jaguars are currently sitting at 2-11, but this team has a very bright future with lots of talent on this roster, but it all comes down to having a great head coach now.
(Featured image by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
FL Teams has partnered with Brett James and the JagRoar Podcast, two fantastic YouTubers! Check out their video and rant of this impactful firing: