You had to see this coming a mile away.
Word broke late on Wednesday that the Jacksonville Jaguars have finally parted ways with their embattled head coach, Urban Meyer. (And by “parted ways” I mean they kicked his ass to the curb).
In a statement, Jaguars owner Shad Khan announced the coaching change, saying that he made clear to Urban that he had to regain the trust and respect of ownership after the embarrassing October nightclub incident, and that “regrettably, it did not happen.”
“Darrell Bevell will serve as interim head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars for the balance of the 2021 season. Darrell succeeds Urban Meyer.
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.
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.”
It’s a marriage that seemed to be doomed from the start.
Despite landing the #1 overall draft pick in Trevor Lawrence, along with Lawrence’s teammate from Clemson in star running back Travis Etienne, the wheels quickly began to fall of the Jaguars train before the season even got started when Etienne suffered a season-ending injury back in August.
It only got worse from there as the Jags quickly got off to an 0-5 start under Urban, but the biggest bombshell came back during the nightclub incident in October when the coach stayed behind after his team lost in Cincinnati and was promptly caught on video being grinded on by a much younger woman (who was not his wife) at a bar in Ohio.
Despite all this, Khan publicly expressed support for his coach, and it looked like Meyer might have still had a fighting chance at keeping his job.
But it quickly became clear that the former Ohio State coach had lost the respect of his players in the locker room after a series of embarrassing stories began to surface.
There was the time Urban claimed that Trevor Lawrence wasn’t comfortable running QB sneak plays – but his quarterback publicly and directly contradicted him in an embarrassment to the coach.
There were also rumors that his players and assistant coaches were calling Urban “gutless” and a “con man” behind his back, as well as the reports that his team laughed their asses off as soon as Urban left the room after apologizing for the October nightclub incident.
And honestly, that’s not even all of the problems that have been reported out of the Jags locker room.
But things really seemed to come to a head over the last few days when reports began to surface that the coach (who’s never really been one to take responsibility for…well, anything) was throwing his assistant coaches under the bus in team meetings, calling them “losers” while saying that he’s a “winner,” and making them go around the room and give examples of times that they’ve been winners.
Urban didn’t deny being “hard” on his assistant coaches, but claimed that he believed he still had the support of the Jaguars ownership.
Well apparently that support evaporated after yet another damning report surfaced claiming that the coach had actually kicked his former kicker Josh Lambo in the leg during practice earlier in the year.
And it seems that may have been the final straw for Khan – although we may never know what was actually the dealbreaker for the Jaguars.
Urban leaves the NFL with a 2-11 record, and one of the more embarrassing coaching tenures in the league that I can remember.
And while Urban was no doubt a great college coach, it seems like his time on the sideline might finally be over for good – because I’m not sure who’s going to be dumb enough to hire him again after this absolute dumpster fire…
