Urban Meyer earned his stripes in college football. No one can deny that he's one of the best head coaches in recent history when it comes to the NCAA, but there were always doubts about his ability to lead an NFL team to success.
It didn't take long before those doubts were justified. The season hadn't even started and people were already questioning his leadership and decision-making by signing Tim Tebow, and that was just the first - and most harmless - of stories that were to come.
Barely competing, skipping travels to party, benching players, not knowing whether a defensive player was on the field or not, failing to develop their first overall pick, calling out his assistant coaches, and even KICKING a player made Meyers' tenure arguably the darkest in Jacksonville Jaguars history.
Jaguars Owner Shad Khan Releases Statement On Urban Meyer
That's why team owner Shad Khan couldn't deal with him anymore and finally decided to pull the plug on this terrible stint, firing Meyer with four games left in the season. On that note, he released a statement explaining his decision:
(via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com)
“After deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team, I am bitterly disappointed to arrive at the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone. I informed Urban of the change this evening. As I stated in October, regaining our trust and respect was essential. Regrettably, it did not happen,” Khan wrote in the statement.
"Trent Baalke continues as our general manager and will work with Darrell to ensure that our team will be inspired and competitive while representing Jacksonville proudly over our final four games of the season. In the spirit of closure and recharging our players, staff and fan base, I will not comment further until some point following the conclusion of the NFL season,” the statement concluded.
Meyer wasn't only a bad coach for the Jaguars. He was also a bad person. He did everything he possibly could to get fired, and it's honestly shocking it took them so long. He held them back for at least one year and hurt Trevor Lawrence's development badly. Hopefully, they'll put this dark chapter of their story in the rearview mirror right away.
