The Jacksonville/Urban Meyer Experiment Did Not End Well

Well, I think I called it, but I also did not think it would happen this quickly. Urban Meyer has been let go as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. I have to admit, the cynical, hater side of me absolutely loves this. I knew he was going to be a disaster. I called it around this time last year when he was hired. I knew he was going to rub the franchise the wrong way and I knew his style was not going to work with professionals. But this was even worse than I ever imagined. Let’s discuss.

From the start this was a total nightmare. It seemed every move he made was the wrong move. I have even read some other, more notable journalists, saying this may be the worst hire in pro football history. I thought, when Meyer was hired last January, that it would be his style that would be the problem. Well, that was just one of the many problems. After he was hired, and fully took over, he started off by hiring Jack Doyle. Now those of you that do not know who that is, he was fired from the University of Iowa a few months prior to Meyer hiring him. He was let go at Iowa due to allegations of racist talk towards players. He was also, by all accounts, a total asshole. When this was brought up to Meyer he claimed that he knew Doyle, and that was an isolated incident.

Well, Doyle resigned a few days after all this news broke. Meyer made up some phony apology and went to his next debacle, signing Tim Tebow as a tight end. Tebow had never played the position, was out of football for nearly a decade and, of course, did not work out. This was clearly a publicity stunt, and it failed masterfully.

In his first NFL draft he wanted former players he coached. When that didn't work his way, he went out and got the front office to sign players he used to coach. Most, if not all of them are washed up. I didn't even know that Carlos Hyde was still in the league.

Next Meyer told national media that vaccination status was put in play as to who the team would cut. I am all for players getting vaxxed, I think it should be required, but a head coach cannot say something like that out loud. Even I know that, and I am as liberal and democratic as they come.

Once the season started, oh boy did the Jags look bad. I thought the Texans were going to be the worst team, but they destroyed the Jags in week one. Meyer looked lost. He did not know how to coach up Trevor Lawrence. The offense was simply abysmal and the defense was not much better. And the Jags did not get any better from there. Teams were basically licking their chops to play them. I do not know how they won two games.

I think the straw that finally broke the camel's back was after the Bengals game. We have the new Josh Lambo story, Meyer kicking and belittling him, and this whole thing with him lashing out at the assistants he hired, but the incident after the Bengals game was a hilarious mess. The Bengals smoked the Jags, and instead of going back on the team plane, Meyer decided to stick around Cincinnati for the night. He even decided to go out and maybe blow off some steam. But then the dancing happened. He was clearly wasted, didn't know what was going on and decided he needed to grind with a woman that was not his wife. The video that ensued was one of the most cringeworthy things I have ever watched. It was brutal. Imagine your dad doing that, that was how I felt watching him dance with this young lady. He lost all respect and trust, little of which he had, from his team right after that. Then he put out that bull shit apology, which was awful. And then the owner and team openly mocked him towards the media. At that moment I have to imagine everyone saw the writing on the wall. They had to know that this wasn't going to work out. I just cannot believe it took until week 15. And, even though they got beat again yesterday, I loved seeing James Robinson, who Meyer benched in favor of Carlos Hyde, have a solid game.

This hire was an unmitigated disaster. This was one of the worst hires in all of professional sports.This tarnishes whatever kind of "legacy" Meyer has as a coach. This proved he cannot cut it with the big boys. He doesn't have that pull with professionals. They do not take him seriously. I also really hope the Jags do not have to payout the rest of his contract. I see they are saying they fired him for cause, of which there are plenty that make sense, and if that works, they do not owe Meyer another cent. That would be the cherry on the top. Again, I am not right on many sports things, but even I saw this being a horrible hire from the start. Meyer just does not have what it takes to coach at the highest level, especially with an even playing field. The schadenfreude in me is ecstatic to see Meyer getting all the hate he so justly deserves. And the football fan in me is happy to see that the Jags didn't even let him finish the season, and they are going to try and pay him as little as possible because he was so awful at his job. I do not see Meyer coaching again, at any level. This was that bad of a job.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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