Big opinions about Jaguars Head Coach Urban Meyer

By Olivia Lawrence
RP Show Intern

The Jacksonville Jaguars have had a rough season in the NFL so far, sitting at 0-4 going into Week Five. Not only has the team been an upset on the field,  after a video surfaced over the weekend of Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer—NFL fans are left feeling even more disappointed about this team. The video shows Meyer dancing close to a young woman in a Columbus bar. 

Meyer has since apologized to his family, his team and Shad Khan (owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars) for being a distraction—vowing to ‘own his actions’. Both guests on Monday’s episode of The Rod Pedersen Show shared their opinions about Meyer and revealed their predictions about how long he will last as head coach of the Jaguars. 

“I feel like he is trying to get an easy way out to resign as the Jaguars head coach before the season ends,” said Barry Long Host from BellyUp Sports Network Podcast. “He was clearly drunk, that’s not Urban Meyer, that’s Bourbon Meyer.”

Long believes Meyer’s mentality is still with college football. Meyer coached college football from 2001-2019 and had a lot of success with various college teams he coached for. In 2019 Meyer decided to retire, but quickly came out of retirement to coach the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021. 

Two weeks ago Meyer compared the Jaguars struggle to playing against the Alabama Crimson Tide every week—a dominant football team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). And after their most recent loss against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday (Sep. 30), Long said Meyer looked “like his dog just died.” 

“We should definitely be surprised because Urban Meyer has such a great reputation,” said Long. “He’s been lauded as one of the greatest coaches of all time in college.”

Long predicts however that Meyers will not make it as coach past the Jaguars bye-week (Oct. 24). 

Canada’s NFL expert Jim Lang also weighed in on the situation. He predicts Meyer will finish the year, but will certainly not complete his contract with the Jaguars. 

“Urban Meyer was probably acting like he had done before, go to these college bars in Ohio and Columbus and hang out with his fans as people—you can’t tell me he hasn’t done that before in some of his college towns he’s coached because he owned those towns.”

Lang stresses how the National Football League (NFL) is much different than the NCAA. Not only is there different media and fans, the NFL does not have the same support from alumni that college teams do. NFL owners like Shan Khan are the individuals putting a lot of money into their teams and there is an expectation that everyone within their franchise needs to act professionally. 

“You’re asking your players to be held to a certain standard when they’re off the field representing the team,” said Lang. “Well the coach has got to be held to that same standard.” 

Lang ends the discussion stating how Meyers should be more concerned about what he is going to do against the Tennessee Titans and Derrick Henry on Sunday (Oct. 10) instead of gallivanting in a Columbus bar.