Michael Conroy / Associated Press
Former college football coach Urban Meyer, who won two national championships in Florida and one in Ohio, reportedly hopes to be named the next coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network said on Saturday that the Jags should replace current coach Doug Marrone shortly after the team’s season ended on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
He then provided this note on Meyer: “The team showed an interest in former Florida and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who has formed a team and told people close to the football community that he hopes to land in Jacksonville, by sources. . “
Meyer went 187-32 for 17 seasons as the head coach for Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. Ten of his teams finished in the top six in the Associated Press poll.
Meyer stepped down after the 2018 season because of ill health and worked as a college football analyst for Fox Sports. An NFL foray would be his first since the beginning of his coaching career at St. Xavier High School, outside Cincinnati, in 1985.
If Meyer, 56, is not the final choice or decides to remain retired, then his successor to OSU, Ryan Day, will be under consideration by Rapoport. Day lost just one game in two years as head coach for the Buckeyes and led the team to the National College Football Playoff Championship against Alabama’s No. 1 this year.
Anyone who accepts the job of Jaguar has a difficult task ahead of them. Jacksonville is 1-14 after losing their last 14 games, although the team has some talented players on both sides of the ball, including linebacker Josh Allen and running back James Robinson.
Adding a player like Lawrence would be a tremendous boost for any franchise, and Meyer is interested in working with him.
“It looks like he just wants Trevor Lawrence,” an anonymous executive told Mike Sando of The Athletic. “Good for him, and if I were to call on Lawrence, I would look for the best head coach.”
Jacksonville will have the opportunity to beat Lawrence on April 29, which marks the first day of the 2021 draft of the NFL. The Jags secured the first general choice of the draft.