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Teams Jacksonville Jaguars - Touchdown Town
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Inside Urban Meyer's disastrous tenure as Jacksonville Jaguars coach
Meyer's visceral distaste for losing and difficulty transitioning to leadership of professional athletes marked a painful chapter for the long-struggling franchise.
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Shad Khan’s spokesman insists Josh Lambo allegations didn’t prompt firing of Urban Meyer
Posted by Mike Florio on December 18, 2021, 12:56 AM EST
When Jaguars owner Shad Khan issued a late-night statement announcing the termination of coach Urban Meyer, Khan said that he would have nothing more to say until after the season ended. His personal spokesman had something to say on Friday night.
“The decision by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan to dismiss Urban Meyer was made the evening of Sunday, December 12,” Jim Woodcock said, via Gene Frenette of Jacksonville.com. “It was determined to wait until the conclusion of previously scheduled appointments that week to make the announcement. Those appointments included an employee staff luncheon and meeting with Jacksonville media, both to recognize the 10th anniversary of Shad’s purchase of the Jaguars, on Monday, December 13, as well as NFL meetings in Dallas on December 14 and 15.
“The announcement was made at 12:35 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, December 16, to provide coaches and staff alike a fresh start upon reporting to the stadium that morning. Contrary to incorrect assumptions and widespread egregious reporting the dismissal was not triggered by a single newspaper report late Wednesday afternoon related to a claim made by a former player. To repeat from Shad’s official statement, the decision was reached after deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team.”
Even if Woodcock’s too little, too late effort to reverse the perception that Lambo’s allegations were the final straw for Khan is true and accurate (reasonable minds may differ on that), the timing underscores the chronic dysfunction engulfing the team. If Khan decided on Sunday night to fire Meyer, that’s when the decision should have been implemented. Who cares about Monday’s events commemorate a decade of less-than-mediocrity? The team needed to get itself pointed in the right direction, and Khan’s vanity (frankly, and with all due respect) forced the team to spend three full days preparing for a winnable game under Meyer, at a time when Khan knew that, in the wee hours of Wednesday evening/Thursday morning, he’d announce the move.
It makes no sense. Why not fire Meyer on Sunday night and make the fresh start the next day? Instead of dealing with questions on Monday about Meyer’s status (and technically not being truthful with reporters, because his comments created the impression that no decision had been made), Khan could have treated it as a fresh start. A new beginning. An ability to admit a mistake and move on, in lieu of doubling down.
Beyond Monday, the excuse for not doing it on Tuesday and Wednesday seems bizarre. Who cares if there were NFL meetings? Once a decision of this magnitude is made, every day that the implementation of it is delayed becomes a wasted day.
Then there’s the fact that Khan and company proceeded with the announcement despite the obvious connotation that Lambo’s claims, which surfaced hours before the announcement, sparked the termination. With Khan’s statement issued on Wednesday night not explaining that the decision had already been made, it was fair and reasonable to assume that A led to B.
But instead of recognizing their own role in the clusterfudge created by the ill-advised delay and the intervening comments from Lambo, the Jaguars now (through Woodcock) have clumsily gone on the offensive, chastising those who reached logical conclusions as making “incorrect assumptions” and engaging in “widespread egregious reporting.”
Sorry, Jim, but you don’t get to wag a finger on this one. The entire P.R. effort of the past week, which for some reason was removed from team P.R. professionals and snatched away by Woodcock, has been a debacle. Friday night’s statement makes it the situation worse, not better.
Posted by Mike Florio on December 18, 2021, 12:56 AM EST
When Jaguars owner Shad Khan issued a late-night statement announcing the termination of coach Urban Meyer, Khan said that he would have nothing more to say until after the season ended. His personal spokesman had something to say on Friday night.
“The decision by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan to dismiss Urban Meyer was made the evening of Sunday, December 12,” Jim Woodcock said, via Gene Frenette of Jacksonville.com. “It was determined to wait until the conclusion of previously scheduled appointments that week to make the announcement. Those appointments included an employee staff luncheon and meeting with Jacksonville media, both to recognize the 10th anniversary of Shad’s purchase of the Jaguars, on Monday, December 13, as well as NFL meetings in Dallas on December 14 and 15.
“The announcement was made at 12:35 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, December 16, to provide coaches and staff alike a fresh start upon reporting to the stadium that morning. Contrary to incorrect assumptions and widespread egregious reporting the dismissal was not triggered by a single newspaper report late Wednesday afternoon related to a claim made by a former player. To repeat from Shad’s official statement, the decision was reached after deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team.”
Even if Woodcock’s too little, too late effort to reverse the perception that Lambo’s allegations were the final straw for Khan is true and accurate (reasonable minds may differ on that), the timing underscores the chronic dysfunction engulfing the team. If Khan decided on Sunday night to fire Meyer, that’s when the decision should have been implemented. Who cares about Monday’s events commemorate a decade of less-than-mediocrity? The team needed to get itself pointed in the right direction, and Khan’s vanity (frankly, and with all due respect) forced the team to spend three full days preparing for a winnable game under Meyer, at a time when Khan knew that, in the wee hours of Wednesday evening/Thursday morning, he’d announce the move.
It makes no sense. Why not fire Meyer on Sunday night and make the fresh start the next day? Instead of dealing with questions on Monday about Meyer’s status (and technically not being truthful with reporters, because his comments created the impression that no decision had been made), Khan could have treated it as a fresh start. A new beginning. An ability to admit a mistake and move on, in lieu of doubling down.
Beyond Monday, the excuse for not doing it on Tuesday and Wednesday seems bizarre. Who cares if there were NFL meetings? Once a decision of this magnitude is made, every day that the implementation of it is delayed becomes a wasted day.
Then there’s the fact that Khan and company proceeded with the announcement despite the obvious connotation that Lambo’s claims, which surfaced hours before the announcement, sparked the termination. With Khan’s statement issued on Wednesday night not explaining that the decision had already been made, it was fair and reasonable to assume that A led to B.
But instead of recognizing their own role in the clusterfudge created by the ill-advised delay and the intervening comments from Lambo, the Jaguars now (through Woodcock) have clumsily gone on the offensive, chastising those who reached logical conclusions as making “incorrect assumptions” and engaging in “widespread egregious reporting.”
Sorry, Jim, but you don’t get to wag a finger on this one. The entire P.R. effort of the past week, which for some reason was removed from team P.R. professionals and snatched away by Woodcock, has been a debacle. Friday night’s statement makes it the situation worse, not better.
Constantgin
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ESPN's Jeff Darlington reports the Jaguars fired former coach Urban Meyer with the intention of not paying him the remaining four years of his contract.
Meyer was fired for "cause," with the team withholding the remaining guarantees in his contract. This doesn't look related to kicker Josh Lambo's accusation that Meyer kicked him during an August practice, with Jaguars officials instead citing "a cumulation of instances." Meyer had no shortage of controversy in his 11-month tenure in Jacksonville, from viral videos to berating his team and coaching staff, though these types of situations typically end in settlements. Meyer's five-year deal was estimated between $10-12 million annually. Any savings would be a win for Jacksonville.
SOURCE: ESPN
Dec 18, 2021, 10:25 AM ET
Meyer was fired for "cause," with the team withholding the remaining guarantees in his contract. This doesn't look related to kicker Josh Lambo's accusation that Meyer kicked him during an August practice, with Jaguars officials instead citing "a cumulation of instances." Meyer had no shortage of controversy in his 11-month tenure in Jacksonville, from viral videos to berating his team and coaching staff, though these types of situations typically end in settlements. Meyer's five-year deal was estimated between $10-12 million annually. Any savings would be a win for Jacksonville.
SOURCE: ESPN
Dec 18, 2021, 10:25 AM ET
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“For cause” firing of Urban Meyer makes effort to downplay Josh Lambo claims more understandable
Posted by Mike Florio on December 18, 2021, 12:49 PM EST
The Jaguars want everyone to believe that the allegation that former coach Urban Meyer kicked kicker Josh Lambo didn’t spark Meyer’s firing only a few hours later, and that the decision was made last Sunday night. As of Saturday morning, the reason for the “revisionist history” (as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times calls it) became clear.
The Jaguars have fired Meyer “for cause,” in an effort to not pay him the balance of his contract. The “cause” can’t be Lambo’s claim, because Lambo’s agent told the Jaguars about the kicking of the kicker the day after it happened in late August. The decision to keep Meyer around for nearly four months after finding out that he allegedly kicked the kicker makes it much harder to pin “cause” on that event.
Stroud, who reported the quotes from Lambo, expresses skepticism about the effort by owner Shad Khan’s spokesman to deflect attention from the obvious logical connection between Lambo’s claim and Meyer’s firing. Per Stroud, the team was told about the looming report at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. The team asked Stroud to delay publication of the story until 4:00 p.m. ET. A rebuttal was provided by the team’s lawyer at 3:00 p.m. ET. Meyer’s representatives sent a letter, too.
Stroud, who was in the middle of these events, explains that Lambo’s claim forced the franchise into “crisis mode,” and that a team executive told Stroud, “This is going to be really bad” for Meyer.
Asks Stroud, “Does that sound like an organization that made the decision to fire Meyer Sunday?”
Regardless of the truth (and some indeed believe that Khan made the decision to fire Meyer on Sunday night), the inevitable fight over Meyer’s money will entail the creation of a new reality, one in which pointed questions are posed to witnesses under oath regarding the straw that broke the camel’s back and whether that specific thing constitutes “cause” under Meyer’s contract.
It will be difficult for the Jaguars to say, “Well, he did some things we didn’t like and maybe those things would have been ’cause’ but we looked the other way until we decided to fire him.” The precise factor that caused Khan to go from thumb up to thumb down will be highly relevant to whether that reason amounts to “cause” under the contract.
That’s why Khan’s spokesman issued a Friday night statement disputing the obvious link between Lambo going on the record and Meyer being told to go on the lam. The Jaguars KNEW about Lambo’s claims in August. Lambo’s claim doesn’t suddenly become “cause” simply because Lambo decided to talk about it publicly now. They didn’t care when they found out about it. Now that everyone knows, they can’t credibly claim it’s a big deal.
So they’re trying to claim it had nothing to do with the firing. Whether anyone believes that is a different issue. Stroud doesn’t. I don’t. But our opinion doesn’t matter. It all comes down to who decides the grievance that Meyer will file.
Other facts will be highly relevant to the situation, including the extent to which the Jaguars papered Meyer’s file with warnings and other evidence that makes it clear he was on notice that one more false move would be regarded as “cause” for termination. To persuade an objective factfinder that this isn’t simply an effort to whip up “cause” after the fact like a batch of Christmas cookies, the Jaguars will need to provide clear, extemporaneous documentation of violations, warnings, and clear explanations of the consequences for the next screwup.
None of that may matter, because Khan’s contract with Meyer surely stacks the legal deck in the team’s favor, delegating the decision-making process to Commissioner Roger Goodell or his designee. (One of these days, a coach with real leverage will insist that this provision be removed from his contract.)
On that note, this fight has relevance to the Jaguars going forward. Although it’s clear that Meyer never belonged in the NFL, it will make plenty of sense for the next person offered the head-coaching job in Jacksonville to do due diligence on this specific aspect of the uncoupling of coach and team. If Meyer is in any way getting screwed, it’s important to know that before signing up to be the next person to land in a similar position.
Posted by Mike Florio on December 18, 2021, 12:49 PM EST
The Jaguars want everyone to believe that the allegation that former coach Urban Meyer kicked kicker Josh Lambo didn’t spark Meyer’s firing only a few hours later, and that the decision was made last Sunday night. As of Saturday morning, the reason for the “revisionist history” (as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times calls it) became clear.
The Jaguars have fired Meyer “for cause,” in an effort to not pay him the balance of his contract. The “cause” can’t be Lambo’s claim, because Lambo’s agent told the Jaguars about the kicking of the kicker the day after it happened in late August. The decision to keep Meyer around for nearly four months after finding out that he allegedly kicked the kicker makes it much harder to pin “cause” on that event.
Stroud, who reported the quotes from Lambo, expresses skepticism about the effort by owner Shad Khan’s spokesman to deflect attention from the obvious logical connection between Lambo’s claim and Meyer’s firing. Per Stroud, the team was told about the looming report at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. The team asked Stroud to delay publication of the story until 4:00 p.m. ET. A rebuttal was provided by the team’s lawyer at 3:00 p.m. ET. Meyer’s representatives sent a letter, too.
Stroud, who was in the middle of these events, explains that Lambo’s claim forced the franchise into “crisis mode,” and that a team executive told Stroud, “This is going to be really bad” for Meyer.
Asks Stroud, “Does that sound like an organization that made the decision to fire Meyer Sunday?”
Regardless of the truth (and some indeed believe that Khan made the decision to fire Meyer on Sunday night), the inevitable fight over Meyer’s money will entail the creation of a new reality, one in which pointed questions are posed to witnesses under oath regarding the straw that broke the camel’s back and whether that specific thing constitutes “cause” under Meyer’s contract.
It will be difficult for the Jaguars to say, “Well, he did some things we didn’t like and maybe those things would have been ’cause’ but we looked the other way until we decided to fire him.” The precise factor that caused Khan to go from thumb up to thumb down will be highly relevant to whether that reason amounts to “cause” under the contract.
That’s why Khan’s spokesman issued a Friday night statement disputing the obvious link between Lambo going on the record and Meyer being told to go on the lam. The Jaguars KNEW about Lambo’s claims in August. Lambo’s claim doesn’t suddenly become “cause” simply because Lambo decided to talk about it publicly now. They didn’t care when they found out about it. Now that everyone knows, they can’t credibly claim it’s a big deal.
So they’re trying to claim it had nothing to do with the firing. Whether anyone believes that is a different issue. Stroud doesn’t. I don’t. But our opinion doesn’t matter. It all comes down to who decides the grievance that Meyer will file.
Other facts will be highly relevant to the situation, including the extent to which the Jaguars papered Meyer’s file with warnings and other evidence that makes it clear he was on notice that one more false move would be regarded as “cause” for termination. To persuade an objective factfinder that this isn’t simply an effort to whip up “cause” after the fact like a batch of Christmas cookies, the Jaguars will need to provide clear, extemporaneous documentation of violations, warnings, and clear explanations of the consequences for the next screwup.
None of that may matter, because Khan’s contract with Meyer surely stacks the legal deck in the team’s favor, delegating the decision-making process to Commissioner Roger Goodell or his designee. (One of these days, a coach with real leverage will insist that this provision be removed from his contract.)
On that note, this fight has relevance to the Jaguars going forward. Although it’s clear that Meyer never belonged in the NFL, it will make plenty of sense for the next person offered the head-coaching job in Jacksonville to do due diligence on this specific aspect of the uncoupling of coach and team. If Meyer is in any way getting screwed, it’s important to know that before signing up to be the next person to land in a similar position.
Constantgin
Norm Smith Medallist
Love how people are saying Eric Bieniemy is a possible hire as their new coach. No way khan hires another coach with questionable behaviour in their past after urban.
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What is his questionable behaviour? havent heard that other than when GG posted about another Eric Bieniemy being a pornstar.
I think it should be a proven NFL coach. Id be hitting up Jim Caldwell for one. He did great things with the Lions in reality. Good record with QBs too, has made Tua actually look half decent this year.
Constantgin
Norm Smith Medallist
What is his questionable behaviour? havent heard that other than when GG posted about another Eric Bieniemy being a pornstar.
I think it should be a proven NFL coach. Id be hitting up Jim Caldwell for one. He did great things with the Lions in reality. Good record with QBs too, has made Tua actually look half decent this year.
I know all this is in distant past but i think it would be enough to take him out of contention for the job no 4 is the worrying one especially after urbans drama with women.
1. As a player at Colorado, Bieniemy was arrested along with a teammate following a February 1988 bar fight.
2. On July 4, 1990, Bieniemy pleaded no contest to interfering with a firefighter who had been performing his duties to extinguish a fire in Bieniemy's mother's garage.
3. In 1989, Bieniemy was ticketed in Westminster, Colorado for driving a defective vehicle, and in Aurora, Colorado for speeding. In October 1990, Bieniemy's license was suspended for a year after another traffic violation. On March 21, 1991, Bieniemy was caught speeding and driving with suspended license on I-70 near Rifle, Colorado, going 92 mph in a 65 mph zone. On April 17, 1991, Bieniemy failed to appear in court on charges relating to the March 21 incident. A bench warrant was issued in Colorado for his arrest on April 23, 1991, two days after he was drafted in the 1991 NFL Draft.
4. On September 27, 1993, Bieniemy was arrested in Boulder, Colorado, for allegedly harassing a female parking attendant. According to the police report, while with his friends, Bieniemy put his hand on the attendant's neck, startling her. She told police he also made a comment about "a bunch of black males all at once being her worst nightmare," and that Bieniemy and his friends took off their pants and began urinating nearby. Bieniemy was also named in an outstanding warrant on a charge of driving with a suspended license. As a result of this incident, Bieniemy was banned from the University of Colorado Boulder campus for one year.
5. In April 2001, Bieniemy was arrested for driving under the influence and was docked a month's pay.
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Yea, that is pretty disturbing.
Hes a fraud anyway imo. Much like Nagy. Was given play calling duties in last years superbowl and face planted hard.
Constantgin
Norm Smith Medallist
What is his questionable behaviour? havent heard that other than when GG posted about another Eric Bieniemy being a pornstar.
I think it should be a proven NFL coach. Id be hitting up Jim Caldwell for one. He did great things with the Lions in reality. Good record with QBs too, has made Tua actually look half decent this year.
Caldwell would be a great hire he did a great job at the lions. And if he can make tua look half decent imagine what he can do with a talent like TLaw
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Trevor Lawrence wants, and will get, say in next coach of Jaguars
Posted by Mike Florio on December 19, 2021, 4:09 PM EST
The Jaguars are looking for a new coach. They have a potential franchise quarterback. And that potential franchise quarterback will have a voice in the identity of his next coach.
During the broadcast of Sunday’s Texans-Jaguars game, the broadcast crew said that Lawrence admitted during a production meeting that he wants say in the hiring of the next coach, and that owner Shad Khan agrees.
Lawrence acknowledged that he’s not qualified to make the hire, but that he welcomes “some role” in the process.
It makes sense for Lawrence to be interested. With one year of his NFL career already arguably wasted, it’s critical that the next coach develop him. He also may be inclined to lobby for an offensive coach; if the Jaguars hire a defensive expert and the team does well, the offensive coordinator will possibly leave for a new head-coaching job elsewhere.
Posted by Mike Florio on December 19, 2021, 4:09 PM EST
The Jaguars are looking for a new coach. They have a potential franchise quarterback. And that potential franchise quarterback will have a voice in the identity of his next coach.
During the broadcast of Sunday’s Texans-Jaguars game, the broadcast crew said that Lawrence admitted during a production meeting that he wants say in the hiring of the next coach, and that owner Shad Khan agrees.
Lawrence acknowledged that he’s not qualified to make the hire, but that he welcomes “some role” in the process.
It makes sense for Lawrence to be interested. With one year of his NFL career already arguably wasted, it’s critical that the next coach develop him. He also may be inclined to lobby for an offensive coach; if the Jaguars hire a defensive expert and the team does well, the offensive coordinator will possibly leave for a new head-coaching job elsewhere.
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Urban Meyer is so out of touch.....
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In discussing his firing, Urban Meyer points to “fragile” players, coaching staffs
Posted by Mike Florio on December 19, 2021, 8:12 AM EST
In post-truth America, anything can be spun in any direction that the spinner wants it to go. Former Jaguars coach Urban Meyer has become the latest high-profile figure to craft a self-serving word salad in the aftermath of a bad outcome, placing the blame for failure not on his own behavior but on the reaction to it.
Speaking to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the same media outlet that had a significant role in bringing Meyer down, the guy who lasted 13 games in the NFL shared a conversation with Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson regarding the question of whether Meyer’s “style of coaching can work in the NFL and then in the modern world.”
“I think college has changed quite a bit, too,” Meyer said. “Just society has changed. You think how hard you pushed. . . . I believe there is greatness in everybody and it’s the coach’s job to find that greatness however you do that. Positive encouragement. Pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws and trying to fix [them].
“I think everything is so fragile right now. And that includes coaching staffs. When I got into coaching, coaches weren’t making this kind of money and they didn’t have agents. Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team. I remember talking about it in a staff meeting three days ago. I got into this profession because I had the greatest high school coach and it was all about team. All about the huddle.”
Putting it another way (a more accurate way), everyone else has changed, grown, and evolved while Meyer hasn’t. Dressing down players and assistants, arguing loudly with others, allegedly kicking kickers. Those things don’t work anymore, if they ever even did.
Apparently, they did. Not all that long ago. At Ohio State and at Florida before that, along with every other step on Meyer’s coaching ladder. That’s the most significant unwitting admission embedded in his comments. To the extent that being an over-the-top arsehole brought him down, well, he’s always been one.
The difference is that, everywhere else, he won right away. Everywhere else, there was no way for those affected by his words and actions to push back, since Meyer was basically the emperor of whichever college town he occupied. When his hubris led him to the NFL, Meyer landed in a spot where: (1) he lost more games in 76.4 percent of one season than he did in his entire time at Ohio State; and (2) the players and assistant coaches weren’t going to take verbal or alleged physical abuse.
To the extent that Meyer believes he used his words and his foot (allegedly) to coax “greatness” from those around him, his failure to exude greatness made him nothing more than a hypocrite. Questions swirled from training camp regarding his work ethic, or lack thereof. Then, he abandoned his post after a Thursday night game in Ohio, sending the team home to Florida without him while he hung around in Columbus, which is roughly as far from Cincinnati by car as Jacksonville is by jet. It doesn’t matter what he did during a break that he explained as both long planned and spontaneous. What matters is that he didn’t get on the plane with his team and shepherd them home.
Indeed, if he was so concerned about “positive encouragement” and “pushing them to be greater,” he would have used that flight and the days immediately after it to help his players and staff through the inherently fragile hours after blowing a 14-0 lead on national television.
Who’s fragile? The ones who got on the plane and went home (as if they had a choice) or the guy who decided he needed to “get out of Dodge” and “clear his head”? Who’s fragile? The players and assistants who kept busting their asses day after day and week after week in search of elusive wins against more talented opponents or the guy who handled losing a football game the same way a two-year-old processes the realization that he has misplaced his binkie?
He thought he could just show up and flip a switch and be Urban Meyer, and that would turn the 2021 Jaguars into the 1985 Bears. When it didn’t happen, he didn’t get mad at himself for not adapting to his new reality (like Jimmy Johnson successfully did, after going 1-15 in his first year with the Cowboys). Urban Meyer got mad at everyone else for not adapting to him. For not reacting to his mere presence by becoming dramatically better players and coaches than they had ever been.
There’s more in the interview, obviously. Meyer offers a perfunctory apology to Jacksonville. He says he’s “heartbroken” that he wasn’t able to turn the town into a “destination place” with “standing room only” capacity at the local football stadium. He said he’s “devastated” by what happened.
He also denied all accusations made against him in the final days of his baker’s dozen of games at the NFL level. His persistence in his position on those various contentions makes his decision to speak to NFL Network confusing. It was, after all, NFL Network — an entity partially owned by Jaguars owner Shad Khan — that lit the final fuse on Meyer’s firing by reporting that he’d gotten into a heated exchange with receiver Marvin Jones, that Meyer had called his assistant coaches “losers,” and that Meyer had benched running back James Robinson and lied about it. (Actually, Meyer now admits benching Robinson. Meyer claims there was a miscommunication as to when he’d be unbenched.)
Maybe, in reaching his hand into the media fire that burned him, Meyer is simply trying to prove he’s not fragile. Unfortunately for him, it’s way too late for that.
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In discussing his firing, Urban Meyer points to “fragile” players, coaching staffs
Posted by Mike Florio on December 19, 2021, 8:12 AM EST
In post-truth America, anything can be spun in any direction that the spinner wants it to go. Former Jaguars coach Urban Meyer has become the latest high-profile figure to craft a self-serving word salad in the aftermath of a bad outcome, placing the blame for failure not on his own behavior but on the reaction to it.
Speaking to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the same media outlet that had a significant role in bringing Meyer down, the guy who lasted 13 games in the NFL shared a conversation with Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson regarding the question of whether Meyer’s “style of coaching can work in the NFL and then in the modern world.”
“I think college has changed quite a bit, too,” Meyer said. “Just society has changed. You think how hard you pushed. . . . I believe there is greatness in everybody and it’s the coach’s job to find that greatness however you do that. Positive encouragement. Pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws and trying to fix [them].
“I think everything is so fragile right now. And that includes coaching staffs. When I got into coaching, coaches weren’t making this kind of money and they didn’t have agents. Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team. I remember talking about it in a staff meeting three days ago. I got into this profession because I had the greatest high school coach and it was all about team. All about the huddle.”
Putting it another way (a more accurate way), everyone else has changed, grown, and evolved while Meyer hasn’t. Dressing down players and assistants, arguing loudly with others, allegedly kicking kickers. Those things don’t work anymore, if they ever even did.
Apparently, they did. Not all that long ago. At Ohio State and at Florida before that, along with every other step on Meyer’s coaching ladder. That’s the most significant unwitting admission embedded in his comments. To the extent that being an over-the-top arsehole brought him down, well, he’s always been one.
The difference is that, everywhere else, he won right away. Everywhere else, there was no way for those affected by his words and actions to push back, since Meyer was basically the emperor of whichever college town he occupied. When his hubris led him to the NFL, Meyer landed in a spot where: (1) he lost more games in 76.4 percent of one season than he did in his entire time at Ohio State; and (2) the players and assistant coaches weren’t going to take verbal or alleged physical abuse.
To the extent that Meyer believes he used his words and his foot (allegedly) to coax “greatness” from those around him, his failure to exude greatness made him nothing more than a hypocrite. Questions swirled from training camp regarding his work ethic, or lack thereof. Then, he abandoned his post after a Thursday night game in Ohio, sending the team home to Florida without him while he hung around in Columbus, which is roughly as far from Cincinnati by car as Jacksonville is by jet. It doesn’t matter what he did during a break that he explained as both long planned and spontaneous. What matters is that he didn’t get on the plane with his team and shepherd them home.
Indeed, if he was so concerned about “positive encouragement” and “pushing them to be greater,” he would have used that flight and the days immediately after it to help his players and staff through the inherently fragile hours after blowing a 14-0 lead on national television.
Who’s fragile? The ones who got on the plane and went home (as if they had a choice) or the guy who decided he needed to “get out of Dodge” and “clear his head”? Who’s fragile? The players and assistants who kept busting their asses day after day and week after week in search of elusive wins against more talented opponents or the guy who handled losing a football game the same way a two-year-old processes the realization that he has misplaced his binkie?
He thought he could just show up and flip a switch and be Urban Meyer, and that would turn the 2021 Jaguars into the 1985 Bears. When it didn’t happen, he didn’t get mad at himself for not adapting to his new reality (like Jimmy Johnson successfully did, after going 1-15 in his first year with the Cowboys). Urban Meyer got mad at everyone else for not adapting to him. For not reacting to his mere presence by becoming dramatically better players and coaches than they had ever been.
There’s more in the interview, obviously. Meyer offers a perfunctory apology to Jacksonville. He says he’s “heartbroken” that he wasn’t able to turn the town into a “destination place” with “standing room only” capacity at the local football stadium. He said he’s “devastated” by what happened.
He also denied all accusations made against him in the final days of his baker’s dozen of games at the NFL level. His persistence in his position on those various contentions makes his decision to speak to NFL Network confusing. It was, after all, NFL Network — an entity partially owned by Jaguars owner Shad Khan — that lit the final fuse on Meyer’s firing by reporting that he’d gotten into a heated exchange with receiver Marvin Jones, that Meyer had called his assistant coaches “losers,” and that Meyer had benched running back James Robinson and lied about it. (Actually, Meyer now admits benching Robinson. Meyer claims there was a miscommunication as to when he’d be unbenched.)
Maybe, in reaching his hand into the media fire that burned him, Meyer is simply trying to prove he’s not fragile. Unfortunately for him, it’s way too late for that.
arakaan
Premiership Player
Pick 1 back to back years. Well done Jags.
- Sep 6, 2005
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A real piece of work, Urban Meyer.....
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After decrying “sources,” Urban Meyer tried to use some of them last Wednesday
Posted by Mike Florio on December 21, 2021, 10:57 AM EST
Three days before the Jaguars fired coach Urban Meyer, Meyer vowed to terminate the employment of unnamed sources who were saying bad things about him. During his final day on the job in Jacksonville, Meyer tried to use unnamed sources to say good things about him.
Appearing Monday on The Rich Eisen Show on Peacock, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times peeled back the curtain on the events of last Wednesday preceding the publication of his story with on-the-record quotes from former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo regarding the allegation that Meyer kicked Lambo prior to an August 26 practice.
“They wanted to offer up a couple of players but only off the record . . . to corroborate not that he didn’t kick him, but to the degree of which he kicked him,” Stroud said.
Meyer’s eventual statement to Stroud cited witnesses who would back Meyer’s story, but Stroud ultimately decided not to speak to those persons unless they (like Lambo) would go on the record.
Stroud provides the right example for handling situations like this. When teams or players or coaches or whoever want a self-serving nugget to be published in response to someone who is on the record without also going on the record, the reporter’s best play is to politely decline. Although off-the-record reporting makes the reporting world go ’round, there’s a limit to using it. One of those limits should apply when someone makes a claim on the record, and the party on the other side of that claim wants to refute it without an on-the-record reply.
For Meyer, the situation oozes with irony and hypocrisy. He wanted no unnamed sources to say anything about him that he didn’t like, but he instantly embraced the opportunity to have unnamed sources say good things about him in response to Lambo putting his name to the claim that the head coach had kicked him.
And the information wouldn’t have been that Meyer didn’t kick Lambo. It would have been that Meyer didn’t kick Lambo as hard as Lambo said Meyer had kicked him. If that’s the hair that Meyer wants to split, it’s no surprise that he’s currently not preparing to coach his former team’s next game.
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After decrying “sources,” Urban Meyer tried to use some of them last Wednesday
Posted by Mike Florio on December 21, 2021, 10:57 AM EST
Three days before the Jaguars fired coach Urban Meyer, Meyer vowed to terminate the employment of unnamed sources who were saying bad things about him. During his final day on the job in Jacksonville, Meyer tried to use unnamed sources to say good things about him.
Appearing Monday on The Rich Eisen Show on Peacock, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times peeled back the curtain on the events of last Wednesday preceding the publication of his story with on-the-record quotes from former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo regarding the allegation that Meyer kicked Lambo prior to an August 26 practice.
“They wanted to offer up a couple of players but only off the record . . . to corroborate not that he didn’t kick him, but to the degree of which he kicked him,” Stroud said.
Meyer’s eventual statement to Stroud cited witnesses who would back Meyer’s story, but Stroud ultimately decided not to speak to those persons unless they (like Lambo) would go on the record.
Stroud provides the right example for handling situations like this. When teams or players or coaches or whoever want a self-serving nugget to be published in response to someone who is on the record without also going on the record, the reporter’s best play is to politely decline. Although off-the-record reporting makes the reporting world go ’round, there’s a limit to using it. One of those limits should apply when someone makes a claim on the record, and the party on the other side of that claim wants to refute it without an on-the-record reply.
For Meyer, the situation oozes with irony and hypocrisy. He wanted no unnamed sources to say anything about him that he didn’t like, but he instantly embraced the opportunity to have unnamed sources say good things about him in response to Lambo putting his name to the claim that the head coach had kicked him.
And the information wouldn’t have been that Meyer didn’t kick Lambo. It would have been that Meyer didn’t kick Lambo as hard as Lambo said Meyer had kicked him. If that’s the hair that Meyer wants to split, it’s no surprise that he’s currently not preparing to coach his former team’s next game.
- Sep 6, 2005
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Report: Jaguars will retain Trent Baalke as G.M.
Posted by Mike Florio on December 27, 2021, 9:30 PM EST
The Jaguars have unofficially limited the potential universe of head coaches to succeed Urban Meyer.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that G.M. Trent Baalke will participate in the search for a new coach, and that he will be retained moving forward. Both Baalke and the next coach will report directly to owner Shad Khan.
This decision means that any coach who would want to hire his own personnel specialist will be less likely to be interested in the job. The price of getting the gig now includes accepting that Baalke will be the G.M.
A holdover from the Dave Caldwell regime, Baalke was essentially hired by Meyer. The new coach won’t have that luxury.
Khan presumably realizes the practical impact of making such a decision. He’s basically delegating much of the authority over the hire to Baalke, and he’s ensuring that whoever takes the job will be fine working with the former 49ers G.M.
Once the hire is made, the fact that both coach and G.M. will report to Khan sets the stage for potential dysfunction, with the coach blaming failure on a lack of talent and the G.M. blaming struggles on the coach’s failure to get the most out of the talent that has been acquired.
The best approach for any NFL team continues to be shared accountability of the coach and the head of personnel. Both succeed or both fail. Both stay or both go. In Jacksonville, that may not be the case once a new coach is hired.
Posted by Mike Florio on December 27, 2021, 9:30 PM EST
The Jaguars have unofficially limited the potential universe of head coaches to succeed Urban Meyer.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that G.M. Trent Baalke will participate in the search for a new coach, and that he will be retained moving forward. Both Baalke and the next coach will report directly to owner Shad Khan.
This decision means that any coach who would want to hire his own personnel specialist will be less likely to be interested in the job. The price of getting the gig now includes accepting that Baalke will be the G.M.
A holdover from the Dave Caldwell regime, Baalke was essentially hired by Meyer. The new coach won’t have that luxury.
Khan presumably realizes the practical impact of making such a decision. He’s basically delegating much of the authority over the hire to Baalke, and he’s ensuring that whoever takes the job will be fine working with the former 49ers G.M.
Once the hire is made, the fact that both coach and G.M. will report to Khan sets the stage for potential dysfunction, with the coach blaming failure on a lack of talent and the G.M. blaming struggles on the coach’s failure to get the most out of the talent that has been acquired.
The best approach for any NFL team continues to be shared accountability of the coach and the head of personnel. Both succeed or both fail. Both stay or both go. In Jacksonville, that may not be the case once a new coach is hired.
A11dAtP0w3R
Dumpster Fire Diver
- Oct 18, 2013
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A11dAtP0w3R
Dumpster Fire Diver
- Oct 18, 2013
- 89,268
- 125,673
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Carolina Panthers
- Sep 6, 2005
- 145,049
- 94,894
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
Whats that text flashing on the screen?
A11dAtP0w3R
Dumpster Fire Diver
- Oct 18, 2013
- 89,268
- 125,673
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- Melbourne
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- Carolina Panthers
I dont see any text flashing... is it under my last post about Simms? If so that's just a link to wikipedia that shows Baalke was the niners GM from 2011 to 2016
- Sep 6, 2005
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Every 2-3 seconds a series of lines flashes on the screen thru out the video, same with the one you posted in the Giants thread. Annoying thing too is every time i try to time a pause i miss it
A11dAtP0w3R
Dumpster Fire Diver
- Oct 18, 2013
- 89,268
- 125,673
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Carolina Panthers
Not flashing when I play the video bro, I think you may need to empty your cache and clear cookies.
