Urban Meyer gonzo

This guy had like an 85% winning-percentage as HC and had won-at and turned-around every program he HCed - I thought he was gonna do well in the NFL.

I kinda wonder if he wanted out to get a coveted college HC position especially how college HCs are currently getting paid.

Yeah in hindsight it's easy to see how he's a college coach. Needs to be a God, which doesn't really fly in the NFL where 1-2 bad seasons and you're gone.

I thought it was a bad idea when the hire was announced in the first place. I was wrong. It was worse.

College coaches have a long history of failure in the N F L
Anyone remember Lou Holz ?

Fuck Urban Myer, and Nick Saban. There's been some successful coaches who went from NCAA to NFL. Jimmy Johnson and sorta Barry Switzer, Pete Carroll, even to some extent Jim Harbaugh although pretty short lived. Going further back, you got guys like Paul Brown and Lou Saban. It's a crap shoot for sure, just like it is with players; plenty of highly touted college players tank in the pros.

I can't see him intentionally getting fired, though I could totally see him pulling a Nick Saban and lining up a return to NCAA while adamantly denying it and running his current team into the ground, then ultimately leaving. I'm glad the U didn't try to lure him back to the NCAA. I never liked him, although I can't dispute his success.

I do feel bad for Trevor Laurence though. His odds of success took a major hit with all this turmoil, while I don't know a whole lot about the kid he did sure seem to have a whole hell of a lot of potential. For his sake, I hope the new coach wants to bring in his own guy and they trade him away to someone like the Rams or Bucs with an aging QB he could sit behind for a season or two to recover and develop.

Very few outstanding college coaches make it in the NFL. John McCay, Steve Spurrier, Lou Holz, and now, Urban Meyer have all failed miserably in the pros.

Expanding a bit on JamesSD's the position of a college coach where the HC can recruit his own players, basically lock them in for 4 to 5 years, and basically sentence them to obscurity if they don't do what he demands (a real threat for kids with NFL aspirations!). A pro coach, on the other hand doe not generally have the last word on whom they will hire, has to deal with free agency, and deals with men who have made to to the NFL and won't deal with bullshit, whether real or imagined.

That takes a very different kind of leadership.

The god complex and bullying doesn't work well when you are the 6th highest paid guy in the room.

@ATACDawg and @25 nail it. It seems like being a good college coach, a good NFL coordinator, and a good NFL head coach do not significantly overlap.

College, you recruit your own guys, and if you have a big enough name (Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma among others) the name recruits itself. You play 5 real games a year, and 5 against scrubs who pay you to annihilate them.

Pros, anything can happen any given Sunday. You can be the world's best X's and O's guy and if you aren't people smart, you will languish.

It isn't impossible for a college coach to succeed in the pros, but it's a much tougher job.

In the case of Urban Meyer, it's a "style" thing. Urban Meyer was super successful because he could motivate his players to play harder and more physical than others. Starts in his practices. They are harder and more physical than others. He convinces young men to dive on the grenade for their teammates. This style works in college. You are dealing with 18-22 year olds. That style does not work in the Pros. Players are worried about their livelihood. And they aren't going to put up with the abuse that is doled out.

Urban was well paid for his time in Jacksonville. He may choose to just retire. But I'm sure he will get many college offers over the next few months if he wants to get back in that game. The NFL was just not for him.

Another big difference is the salary cap. If a college coach can convince 5 of the top 10 recruits to sign an LOI with his program, then that's great for him. Nick Saban's recruiting at this point is akin to ordering off a menu. I'll take this OL, this RB, this OLB etc...

No NFL team can sign 5 of the top 10 free agents because there's no way to pay them all and fit it under the cap. It makes is much harder to build an NFL roster than a college roster and much different.

I agree with many of the assessments posted above. Successful college coaches are far from becoming successful NFL coaches. There are many more factors and much more awareness on the part of pro players.

As others have mentioned, college coaches are like gods. What they say - is the truth - and their players are basically their disciples. In the NFL - the players seem to be above the coach - and the only thing above the players appears to be the owner.

I won’t shed any tears for Meyer. I’m sure he’s backing a Brinks truck up to the Jaguars stadium - to get his payout for his efforts!

It would be smart to just retire. But, I think these guys find it almost addictive to feel like a god, and he will likely bounce to another college program. If he has a good PR person, it will be framed as a great college coach lowering himself to a program that needs rebuilding - an phoenix rising from the ashes…

Just sayin, but with the transfer portal being what it is, the idea of "locking down" NCAA players may be a thing of the past.

I'm sure a onetime good program like Nebraska would hire Meyer in a heartbeat to return them back to glory.

I agree! I'm just not sure that the transfer portal will last past the end of COVID, whenever that finally happens.

The above was replying to Dolfan.

The transfer portal started before Covid and likely here to stay - what was instituted during Covid was being able to extend your eligibility by one year

I thought Urban would make it in the NFL given his track-record - perhaps he wasn't a good-fit for the NFL - I didn't see much of the Jaguars but in hindsight it didn't seem he was that into it.

A lot of people are now coming out of the woodwork saying they never thought he was a good fit but I don't recall much pushback when he wss hired and rumors of him coaching in the NFL had been around since he left Florida.

Good/successful NFL coaches are the exception - I don't think being a college coach means you can't coach in the NFL although one would assume having NFL experience as an assistant would help.

My main concern with Urban was that his gimmicky spread-style offense that worked well in college may not transfer to the NFL.

In the end it seems it wasn't a good-fit and he seemed to have lost the lockeroom and he also came across as not wanting to be there.

^ Why would anyone who's not a Jaguar fan care who their head coach is, Papi, I only commented on it because yo put it out there, I don't remember anyone posting about him when he was hired and if you did good, but not really in my scope of consciousness

My comment was a general comment not meant for anyone specific - e.g. it seems that half of talk-radio is now saying how he was a terrible fit etc and I don't recall the same pushback in talk-radio when he was hired - if anything I recall Urban being considered as a desirable NFL coah o/w he would have not been given a salary making him the 2nd highest paid NFL coach

The blonde that started this train wreck was fine af.

Papi- I heard and read plenty of criticism when he was hired. All those money and years for a guy with no NFL experience. Comparisons to Nick Saban with the Dolphins and Bobby Petrino with the Falcons, which were both disasters. Etc. etc.

Maybe he should cash in - and become an insurance company mascot like Nick AFLAC Saban?

Even Deion Sanders is getting a piece of the insurance action!

Similar thing here in North Carolina. The team has a hedge fund guy for an owner and a former college coach at....Baylor and Temple...programs not quite up there with Alabama and Ohio State. Seems every player and coach her brings in worked or played for him in college. Plus he got Sam Darnold! Oh and I think a 7 year contract.

The large majority of NFL coaches don't pan out within three years. Urban Meyer's situation was more political than anything else. Cancel culture at it's worse. How many current NFL players have arrest records? Yet, Meyer was canned chiefly because of a lap dance?

Great article.

"There was problematic decision-making: the offseason hiring of strength coach Chris Doyle, who had just left the University of Iowa after two decades because of accusations of mistreatment of Black players. There was problematic behavior: a leaked video of Meyer touching a young woman's backside. There was tension among coaches: assistants unhappy with everything from how Meyer treated them, to having to stay late to game-plan for preseason games, to Meyer's aforementioned calling out of Parmalee. There was discord among players: Sources confirm Marvin Jones Jr. had to be convinced to come back to the team facility after frustration with Meyer's criticism of the wide receiver group, and Josh Lambo publicly accused Meyer of kicking him in warmups before practice, an allegation that, when made public, would culminate in Meyer's undoing."

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/3288…

Yeah, there's a long history of successful college coaches failing in the NFL, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see Dabo Swinney coaching Jacksonville or Las Vegas next year.