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Urban Meyer will probably go down as the worst coaching hire in NFL history after he lasted only 13 games as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 before the team had no other choice but to fire him.
Jags safety Andrew Wingard nearly saw his career turn upside down at the hands of Meyer for a ridiculous reason.
While discussing what it was like playing for Meyer during that tumultuous season, Wingard told Ty Dunne of Go Long as he spoke on a defensive meeting following a loss to the Seattle Seahawks that dropped the team to 1-6.
Several players spoke up, including Wingard, who brought up the fact that they had a rookie quarterback in Trevor Lawrence and a rookie coach in Meyer and it was up to the defense to help them out.
Meyer wasn’t happy about that.
Later that night, he got a phone call that said it was safeties coach Chris Ash. When he picked up the phone, it was Meyer, who had heard what he said through the grapevine.
“He says, ‘Dewey, why the hell did you call me a rookie head coach? Tell me why. If it was anybody else right now, you’d already be cut,’”Wingard recalled Meyer saying. “Explain yourself to me is essentially what he said. So I had to freaking save face and tell him how much I love him and how he’s the greatest coach ever. … You’re sitting there on your off-night chilling and you get a call from your head coach: ‘Hey, I’m going to cut you if you don’t apologize for calling me a rookie head coach.’”
Wingard said Meyer proceeded to list off his college accomplishments and was apparently taken aback by being called a rookie coach.
Meyer is one of the best coaches in college football history, but his coaching style did not translate well in the NFL.
His Jaguars team went 2-11 before he was fired, but it was more than just the bad record that got him ousted.
Following a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Meyer chose to remain in Ohio instead of flying back with the team and that decision resulted in a video of him touching a woman in a way that raised red flags, because it was not his wife.
Shortly before Meyer’s dismissal, former kicker Josh Lambo told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times that the head coach kicked him during warm-ups.
Without Meyer, Jacksonville won the AFC South last season and overcame a 27-0 deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card Round before losing by seven to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
