Urban Meyer on changing world of football, if his coaching style is still effective
Urban Meyer was shown the door by the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this week, bringing his NFL coaching career to a screeching halt. After one of the ugliest coaching tenures in history, many are wondering what the future holds for the disgraced coach.
After the tumultuous week, Meyer sat down for an exclusive interview on NFL.com with Ian Rapoport. In the interview, Meyer was asked whether his style of coaching could work in the NFL — or in today’s modern world.
“I think college has changed quite a bit, too,” Meyer stated. “Just society has changed. You think how hard you pushed. … I believe there is greatness in everybody and it’s the coach’s job to find that greatness however you do that. Positive encouragement. Pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws and trying to fix [them]. I think everything is so fragile right now. And that includes coaching staffs.
“When I got into coaching, coaches weren’t making this kind of money and they didn’t have agents. Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team. I remember talking about it in a staff meeting three days ago. I got into this profession because I had the greatest high school coach and it was all about team. All about the huddle.”
As you can see, Meyer believes the art of coaching has changed so much over his career. While he’s proven to be able to change with it in the past, perhaps the NFL was simply too big of a challenge for him to take on.
Meyer: ‘I always thought there is greatness in people. It’s our job to find it.’
Furthermore, Urban Meyer wasn’t exactly well-liked by his players in Jacksonville. However, many of his players in college found him to be the coach that was able to get the most out of them.
Although Meyer’s tactics didn’t translate from college to the pros, the former Jaguars coach revealed the players are his favorite part of the job. Watching them grow in skill, maturity and realizing their dreams was the best part of the job for Meyer.
“And then I found I loved the players,” he continued. “I loved seeing players develop. Seeing Michael Thomas go from Michael Thomas to being the highest-paid WR in the NFL. And my gosh. Rudy Ford, who everyone told us he couldn’t play, he’s a great player. Dawuane Smoot, Cam Robinson. There was a narrative about those two players. [They are] as good [of] people and as good [of] players as I’ve ever coached.
“I always thought there is greatness in people, it’s our job to find it.”
The past success of Urban Meyer is undeniable. However, his time in the NFL will always be remembered for how disappointingly terrible it was.