Forgive me, Lord, for what I am about to say:
My favorite football team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, should do everything in their power to hire Urban Meyer.
As much as it would hurt me deep in my heart to root for the arrogant, aloof and dishonest coach whom former Jacksonville columnist Mike Freeman derisively nicknamed “Urban Liar” 15 years ago, Jaguars owner Shad Khan should immediately offer Meyer as much money as he wants to come to Jacksonville and rescue the perennially pathetic franchise.
In fact, if former Jaguars owner Wayne Weave had just listened to me 10 years ago, the franchise could have saved themselves a decade’s worth of embarrassment and ridicule. I wrote a column on Jan. 13, 2010, with the headline: “Meyer, Tebow would be Jags’ salvation.”
It was right after Tim Tebow’s final season with the Gators when Meyer was obviously having second thoughts about staying at the University of Florida. He resigned and then un-resigned and ended up staying for one more forgettable season before taking a few months off to work as an ESPN analyst before accepting the Ohio State job.
My idea a decade ago was that Weaver should have offered Meyer a mega-contract and told him he would have every opportunity to bring Tebow and his spread offense to the NFL. As I wrote then, “Meyer has often said he looks at Tebow like a son, and Tebow has often said he looks at Meyer like a father. What better place for a family reunion than Jacksonville — Tebow’s hometown and a Gators hotbed where Meyer’s arrival to coach ‘The Chosen One’ would be the most highly anticipated personnel move since Skynyrd added a third lead guitarist.”
But, alas, the Jaguars have either signed or drafted and then ruined a plethora of ill-fated quarterbacks since then — Blaine Gabbert, Blake Bortles, Chad Henne, Nick Foles, Gardner Minshew, et al. They’ve also hired and fired an overabundance of lackluster coaches such as Jack Del Rio, Gus Bradley, Mike Mularkey and, most recently, Doug Marrone.
Now, here we are a decade later, and the Jaguars are reportedly interested in hiring the enigmatic Meyer, who, according to Pro Football Talk, is seeking $12 million a year from Jacksonville to come out of retirement. Memo to the Jags: Pay the man whatever he wants.
Meyer may not be one of the most beloved college head coaches of all-time, but he is one of the most dynamic. Whether you love or hate him, you cannot deny the Urbanator’s greatness. He won two national championships at Florida and added another one at Ohio State. He might have won yet another one at undefeated Utah back in 2004 if college football actually had a fair and equitable playoff system.
And spare me the rhetoric about how Meyer’s style wouldn’t work in the NFL. Puh-leeze! I remember when he left Utah to accept the Florida job and the Southeastern Conference snobs said his gimmicky, rinky-dink Utah spread offense wouldn’t work in the big, bad SEC. The offense Meyer and then-offensive coordinator Dan Mullen brought to Florida not only worked in the SEC; it dominated the SEC and now has made its way to the NFL with dual-threat QBs like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray and, of course, Cam Newton back in his heyday.
Granted, Meyer is not an X’s and O’s guru and has never been a coordinator at any level of coaching, but he is a master organizer and motivator. He has an uncanny knack for connecting with players and a mystical aura about him when he walks onto the practice field or into a locker room.
I will agree that the big question mark about Meyer is that the NFL nullifies one of his major strengths — recruiting. In college, Meyer relentlessly acquired talent, filled his roster with four- and five-star prospects and most of the time simply out-skilled the opposition. Obviously, that wouldn’t be the case in the NFL.
The other knock on Meyer is that he burned out and bailed out on two college jobs at Florida and Ohio State, ostensibly quitting because of health concerns. So what? The fact is, he won championships at both places before he burned out. If he can win a championship in Jacksonville in the next three or four years and then quits — who the hell cares? The Jaguars will have a championship and his hiring will have been well worth it.
At the very least, hiring a college legend like Meyer and drafting a quarterback like Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence with the No. 1 overall pick will make the Jaguars interesting and relevant, which, for the most part, is something they haven’t been in 20 years.
As a Jaguars fan, I’ll admit that rooting for Urban Meyer is like rooting for the shark in “Jaws,” but guess what? The shark was dominant and dynamic and won just about every time he strapped it on.
As that great NFL analyst Bob Dylan once told us, “When you ain’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars, my favorite team, have absolutely nothing to lose by employing one of the greatest winners in modern football history.
They should have done it 10 years ago.
Hire Meyer.
Forgive me, Lord.
