Urban Meyer should not be allowed to coach the chain in Jacksonville

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The Jacksonville Jaguars owner released a statement on Tuesday suggesting he no longer trusted the head coach of his football team and that the coach had to make an effort in the days and weeks to come to get him back. .

While much of the Urban Meyer saga has been weird and uncomfortable (at best!), The latest development was perhaps the most difficult to understand. Put Meyer’s transgressions aside for a moment. His ultimate problem in the context of being a football coach was that he was caught in the action and then, subsequently, caught up in a lie about the action. His problem was that over the course of two decades as a head coach, he had made a career out of posing as impeccable. It’s easier to do in college, where all dissent is crushed by the almighty hand and any whisper to the contrary about the coach’s image or inclinations is buried under the floor.

We cannot take away Meyer’s victories. You can’t take away his national championship banners or the number of draft picks he passed on to the NFL. But Meyer’s image is no longer his and depends on the uninhibited interpretation of his players, staff and fans. The facade that provided him with so much access and power has clearly diminished.

Bob Sell / USA Today Network

Before a statement was released, a report suggested that his first attempts to resolve this crisis produced only a few laughs. Another report suggested that there had not been much actual coaching at all, simply an effort to quell a wildfire one cup of water at a time.

So why not unplug the plug before it’s too late? Why enter a nebulous period of evaluation that will only serve to make players and staff uncomfortable, especially when the most central pieces to Trevor Lawrence’s development can be kept intact?

What, in the absolute best case, does Meyer add to the equation at this point?

To be clear, this is not a call to fire and pitchforks. This is not the building of a moral army seeking to fire a trainer for everything he does on a long weekend with free time. Are we going to sit here and confidently state that his sins among his peers, and your peers, are unique? It’s a realistic question-and-answer call about a coach that we learn more about at each subsequent press conference, mumbling, without eye contact.

At his first apology press conference, for example, when asked how the team interpreted his words, Meyer referred to quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s bachelor party in Las Vegas.

“I’ve always been so defensive them. I remember when Trevor told me he was going to Las Vegas for his bachelor party, I said, “My God, be careful and surround yourself. Because I saw it happen, ”he said.

Notice how he tries to both shift the narrative and the blame for what happened. What was the point of mentioning that Lawrence was out in Vegas? What did he mean by Did I see this happen? Was he suggesting at the time that it was a plot to trap, tempt or extort him? The following video, of course, made that hard to believe.

At his second apology press conference, Meyer said he was preparing the team to play a game after that: “I don’t believe it’s in my court. … The team leaders are going to make this decision. It depends on how much trust you have built with them, how we structure everything this week and how we focus on winning this game… ”

Notice, again, a shift and a deviation. If the Jaguars get their doors blown up by an already nasty team of Titans, it’s not the fault of my actions. It’s the inability of players and staff to ignore videos of me posted on social media.

These words, about the importance of preparation, were spoken very seriously by a coach who, after starting his career 0-4, skipped a team flight home and continued to spend his time as he did it. We’re not saying he shouldn’t have been visiting family or spending all of his time locked up studying cinema until the Jaguars come out undefeated, but that’s the expectation that he’s had it for so many others throughout his career. It was the idea de Meyer that Jacksonville had purchased, further complicating the look.

Keeping Meyer is to put hope in the idea that he can win back a locker room. Which coaches have achieved this? To keep Meyer is to put hope in the idea that he can change. How many successful 57 year old men do you remember doing that? Keeping Meyer is hoping he can clean up his own image and perception of a burning franchise before it’s time to spend a treasure trove of space and (quite possibly) a top three draft pick. . How is he doing so far?

By delaying a decision, the Jaguars are ignoring the disturbing playbook Meyer has already provided for weeks to come. By delaying this decision, the Jaguars are putting additional stress on players who will be continually called upon to answer for his behavior, both on and off the record. They put additional stress on their support staff, who will be tasked with helping the coach repair their reputation and somehow become presentable again in a public role. They are placing additional stress on their coaches, who have been faced with difficult realities regarding their own longevity in Jacksonville in the wake of this week’s news.

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