Urban Meyer Lands New Job After Being Fired as Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach

By Brian Jones

Urban Meyer is back in a familiar place after being fired as Jacksonville Jaguars head coach last year. Fox Sports recently announced that Meyer will be part of the Big Noon Saturday college football pregame show. Before being hired as the Jaguars' head coach last year and after resigning as Ohio State's head coach following the 2018 season, Meyer worked as an analyst for the Los Angeles-based studio show in 2019 and 2020. He will be joined by Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Reggie Bush, and Matt Leinart.

This is not a big surprise considering The Athletic reported in April that Meyer and Fox were in negotiations for the coach to return to the network. The announcement received backlash from fans and media members due to Meyer's conduct in his less than one season as coach of the Jaguars. There were reports that Meyer kicked Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo, and there's a video of him inappropriately touching a woman who was not his wife while at a Columbus restaurant. On top of that, the Jaguars weren't winning games as the team was 2-11 when Meyer was fired. 

"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," owner Shad Khan said in a statement in December.   "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. 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."

Shortly after being fired, Meyer spoke to NFL.com and issued an apology to the Jaguars. "I just apologize to Jacksonville," Meyer said. "I love Jacksonville. It's one of the reasons I took the job. I still think Shad's a great owner. It's heartbreaking. I just had a dream of it becoming a destination place with a new facility he agreed to build and someday to walk into that stadium where it's standing room only. Because I know how bad the people of Jacksonville want it." Meyer is known for being one of the most successful college football coaches in history, winning two national championships at Florida and one at Ohio State.

Trending Now: