Urban Meyer’s move from Ohio State to the Jacksonville Jaguars was a main topic of discussion this past NFL offseason. A lot of people thought he would be able to seamlessly transition from college to the NFL given his experience, his use of pro-style-leaning offenses and the fact he would have the #1 overall pick, Trevor Lawrence, under center for him after just having Justin Fields running the show in Columbus. He’s a guy who knows where the holes will open in order to attack with a strong hand, or perhaps utilize a change of pace and just slide right into that void real stealth-like. He’s a man with his fingers and thumb on the pulse, he should know how to lead this franchise on an upswing, right?
The first thing we have learned about Urban Meyer is that he apparently has less of a grasp on the Trevor Lawrence-type than we originally assumed.
The thing is, Trevor has put up decent stats but the turnovers are doing them no favors. He has very good targets to throw to, and James Robinson has done a fine job as the lead back after Travis Etienne, the 25th overall pick in the 2021 draft, was placed on IR in the preseason.
But sitting at 0-4, something clearly needs to change in Duval County.
My question is: at this point, as things stand right now, could I do just as good a job as Urban Meyer? Could I at least go oh-fer and completely lose the locker room before getting a healthy severance package before our bye week even hits? Let’s break it down a bit, ask a few questions, and see where Urban and myself are similar and where we differentiate.
First, my credentials. Coaching experience? Well, I’ve referred to myself as the “Bill Belichick of Kinneret Maccabiah” on multiple occasions, so yeah I’d say I have some coaching experience. Is three titles in five years good? Is four out five after absorbing another team and technically winning three straight Boats considered decent? So uhh, I think I know a thing or two about coaching teams to championships. For football-specific experience, I was a volunteer assistant at my old high school for a year and half where I only wore the headset in the booth and told the head coach what I saw maybe two or three times a game. I know all about the headsets and how they work on a very basic level, so we have that ground covered as well. I promise those headset cases will be packed at an elite level if I have my hands on them.
My football philosophy is very simple: Build from the defense, establish the run, go back to basics, and no quarter. As we saw with the Super Bowl 50 Champion Denver Broncos, you can win with an elite defense even if your quarterback has a used tube of toothpaste for an arm and a county fair-winning watermelon for a head.
You need to control the line of scrimmage and setting the tone with the run game is a great way to get that done. If things aren’t going well, don’t overcomplicate if you don;t have to. Break out a trick play if you feel it’s necessary, but otherwise keep it simple and build yourself back up. And finally, do not let up. No quarter, no mercy.
So where has Urban maybe got it wrong and how would I do it differently?
Is Urban moving away from film?
For almost his whole career, I have never heard anyone have to talk about how Urban Meyer does film. Based on his college results, his teams always seemed very well prepared and I bet film had a lot to do with that. But in recent days it’s seemed that Urban has wanted to stay away from any and all types of film if he can help it. There’s scuttlebutt that he might be trying to scrub any and all footage from Week 4 off of the Internet if possible, which is odd because at this point I think we’ve all seen enough film on Urban to determine how he wants to play.
Does Urban utilize the Shotgun too much?
There was a moment that stood out in the Jags’ loss to the Bengals in Week 4. At the end of the first half the ball was at Cincy’s one-yard-line; rather than run a conventional QB sneak, Lawrence lined up in the shotgun and ran a QB option play that had worked well before this moment. On this iteration, the Clemson product was stopped short of the goal line. Shotgun might be more comfortable for him, which is understandable given the system he played in at Clemson under Dabo Swinney, but Urban needs to get back to the basics and have his guy run the old fashioned sneak. As the head coach, it’s on Urban to show Trevor exactly how to get his hand right in his centers’ backside and confidently take the snap. It won’t always be pretty; there’s poor weather to worry about and centers aren’t always the driest guys. Sometimes it’ll get slippery, like a packed bar when the drinks are flowing, but I think Urban Meyer has what it takes to expertly model how to get that hand placement just right to make sure a mark is left at the end of the day. If Trevor goes under center and completes that sneak, that’s making a mark.
Is Urban forcing it in there?
Urban Meyer is a guy who is probably used to things breaking his way in all aspects of life, and when it doesn’t he fakes a heart attack. Some of the college teams he’s led have been absolute wagons, and he’s considered one of the top college coaches of his era, so its not a surprise he might try and force things a little when the seat starts getting hot in the pros. Perhaps he’s telling Trevor to try and squeeze a ball into a tight window to hit a receiver down the field in a crucial moment of the game, leading to the uptick in INTs. No more throwing it away, ya know? Get the ball into your receivers’ hands. The thing is, sometimes the coverage is just too good and you need to work through those progressions and eventually throw it away or scramble. Allow me to phrase it this way: imagine there’s some sort of material, like denim, in front of the receiver. No matter how hard you throw it, no matter how sneaky you think you might be, you cant force your way past that denim without drawing attention to yourself. Trevor can’t be trying to thread a needle to DJ Chark when he’s triple covered. But Urban isn’t so used to this resistance, so he’s really trying to get himself through that denim. In his mind, all he needs is a finger to breach that fabric and the whole field will open up.
Urban Got Caught on Camera Trying to Put a Finger in Not His Wife’s Bum in a Bar After a Fourth Straight Loss to Open the Season
I probably would have opted against doing that.
Now for my part? What I would do to turn the ship around? Well, it’s real simple. I would just have my team play better football and win the games rather than lose them. It’s one of the first things they teach you at coaching school.
Closing time could be coming for Urban Meyer, but will he be going home alone? The only person who may know for sure is Shelley Meyer.
