With Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame for LSU, rumors are circulating that Urban Meyer would be the choice, but will he leave Jacksonville?
On Monday, the football world was rocked when Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was announced as the new coach at LSU, and now all eyes turn to Urban Meyer. Once again, the Jaguars head coach is being seen as a possible candidate to head to the college football world, this time to South Bend.
In fairness to Meyer, he has denied previous rumors that he would leave Jacksonville after taking over a struggling franchise and committing to rebuilding the organization. Additionally, he has a franchise-caliber quarterback in Trevor Lawrence.
Despite their rough season thus far in 2021, Jacksonville has an opportunity to achieve a high draft pick in April, which can help provide assets in assisting Meyer to accomplish his goal of restoring Jacksonville to prominence. Though he has struggled with what he has thus far, there have been glimpses of what Meyer’s vision of the Jaguars is supposed to look like.
Urban Meyer has been known to lie before about not being interested in a job, but right now, he may be right about wanting to stay in Jacksonville
If Urban Meyer were to go back to college, he would return with a strong reputation for being one of the sport’s greatest coaches. Meyer turned the Florida Gators into a national championship contender, winning two titles in 2006 and 2008. Soon after, Meyer became the head coach at Ohio State and won a national title in 2014, the inaugural season of the college football playoff.
However, his tenures in college football have not been without controversy, highlighted by the domestic violence scandal in Columbus regarding assistant coach Zach Smith. Additionally, there have been times that he has not come off as truthful.
Meyer’s tenure in Jacksonville got off to a rocky start when he hired controversial strength coach Chris Doyle after Doyle’s history with racism before Doyle resigned. Moreover, Meyer was also caught on video this season in a bar with a woman that was not his wife Shelley after Jacksonville lost to Cincinnati.
Should Meyer leave for Notre Dame, it would be an excellent move for the Irish as it could get them back into contention, but in terms of the DUVAL fanbase, they will have felt betrayed, and a fanbase that feels betrayed is a fanbase no coach ever wants to deal with.