Jaguars: Urban Meyer puts and end USC speculation, now needs to win

Not long after the Jacksonville Jaguars 37-21 loss to the Houston Texans, talk about head coach Urban Meyer leaving the Jags for the USC Trojans arose. He put the speculation to rest in his last sitdown with the local media. Right off the bat, he said his focus is on his current team.

"There’s no chance, I’m here committed to try to build this organization."

There it is, Meyer isn’t going anywhere. Rumors connecting Meyer to USC popped up right after the Trojans gave head coach Clay Helton the pink slip. The fact that the Jaguars lost in an embarrassing fashing in Week 1 only help intensify the whispers. Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienienmy is currently the frontrunner for the college opening, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Meyer was one of the winningest head coaches in college history and had a big role in turning Ohio State and the Florida Gators into powerhouses. Thus, it was easy to talk about him leaving Jacksonville for an environment in which he’s constantly thrived. Keep in mind that there were no actual reports linking the Jaguars head coach to the USC vacancy, more than anything, there were conjectures.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have nowhere to go but up in Week 2.

Meyer also told the media that he believed that his transition to the pros was relatively smooth up until the season opener. He said he was concerned about treating players right and later added that the general approach to player-coach relationship and coaching staff-relationship has been positive. However, he acknowledged that they ultimately need to win, “it’s just that we lost the game”.

That’s the key, winning and playing competitive football will help Meyer put an end to the criticism he’s been facing over the last few months. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports recently reported that Meyer has undermined his coaching staff and gets extremely frustrated with losing. If that’s true, he will need to adjust, otherwise, he won’t be able to succeed. Having said that, suggesting that he would jump ship after just one game is too much. Sure, he’s previously quit other jobs but that doesn’t mean he will do it again.

Meyer took over a 1-15 team, and the rebuild won’t be sudden. Instead, they will need to lay one brick at a time, and things won’t be easy. He attested in Week 1 that he must do a better job of preparing his team. The Jaguars can’t afford to burn two timeouts early in the game because the offense can’t align right. They also show more discipline when tackling. All those areas have nothing to do with talent and are a reflection of the coaching staff.

The Jaguars are a 6.0 point underdog ahead of their Week 2 matchup against the Denver Broncos. It won’t be easy to pull the upset but if they do, it will be because they worked on their fundamentals and tried to fix everything that went wrong versus the Texans. Also, making running back James Robinson a bigger part of the game plan would help.