The Jacksonville Jaguars fired head coach Urban Meyer overnight.
Meyer delivered a 2-11 result and provided distracting controversies since training camp.
He never really evolved into how a traditional NFL coach behaves or operates.
For this reason, the firing was not a surprise.
However, many had high expectations for Meyer’s career in the NFL.
Here are three things we learned from the Meyer Jacksonville experiment.
3. Successful College Head Coaches Do Not Automatically Become Successful NFL Coaches
We have seen countless examples of this yet it still seems to come as a shock.
Chip Kelly brought his success from University of Oregon to the Philadelphia Eagles a few years ago and did not succeed.
That is a recent example, but there are more.
College HCs jumping to the NFL haven’t fared overly well… pic.twitter.com/UiOrl8NfER
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 16, 2021
Meyer was definitely successful as a college coach; no one can deny that.
However, he could not make the transition to becoming a successful NFL coach.
The bottom line is that coaching college student athletes requires a different skill set than coaching highly paid young professional football players.
2. Rookie Head Coach And Rookie Quarterback Is Not Always A Recipe For Success
Imagine getting the number one pick, a potential franchise altering quarterback in Trevor Lawrence – and starting off his career with Urban Meyer as coach. Complete and total organizational malpractice.
— Andy Herman (@AndyHermanNFL) December 11, 2021
Pairing Meyer with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft was not a good combination either.
There is a transition that college athletes need to make as they enter the pro ranks, and that is especially true for high profile ones like the No. 1 overall pick and a quarterback like Trevor Lawrence.
They need experienced coaches to help them improve their game and tweak their skills to compete in the NFL.
Look at the partnership between the Patriots and rookie Mac Jones as a perfect example.
Having Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels teaching the ropes to Jones has been extremely beneficial for Jones’ development.
Lawrence is swimming in unfamiliar waters and Meyer did not have the experience to help him make the necessary adjustments to prepare for the NFL.
1. Acting And Living As A Leader Matters
I am out of jokes about Urban Meyer.
Simply, his tenure was a spectacular disaster. Trevor Lawrence and the rest of the players on that roster deserve better.— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) December 16, 2021
Meyer made so many questionable decisions in his brief tenure.
There are too many to list.
Two that stick out are failing to travel home with the team after the Cincinnati Bengals game.
He stayed behind and was photographed attending a party and dancing with a woman other than his wife.
Jacksonville Jaguars clear opportunity to fire Urban Meyer for cause was after Cincinnati Bengals game when he instead of flying home with team decided to party & engage with a woman at his bar. Now, the team will have to assemble a rich fact base to fire him for cause
— R Nage (@armchairqbguy) December 16, 2021
And the other was the serious allegation by former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo that Meyer kicked him back in August.
Former Jaguars kicker @JoshLambo describes what he says #Jaguars head coach #UrbanMeyer said and did to him while he was stretching during an August practice. See more of my interview with #JoshLambo tonight at 11pm on First Coast News. @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/BCABN1JSTu
— Heather Crawford (@HeatherFCN) December 16, 2021
Part of the role of being a head coach in the NFL is to be a steady and confident leader since the team is made up of young athletes who are maturing into adulthood.
Providing these immature and very inappropriate examples to young players is at a minimum counterproductive to their development as athletes.
It also sets a poor example of how adults employed and engaged in professional athletics should behave.
His players seem to have more maturity and better judgement than Meyer did so the Jaguars had absolutely no choice but to fire Meyer and call this experiment a colossal failure.
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