![As time almost expires, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer looks on to the clock during the fourth quarter at TIAA Bank Field Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 in Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the San Francisco 49ers during a regular season NFL game. The 49ers defeated the Jaguars 30-10. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
Jki Cp Jags 49ers 09](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_4928,h_2772/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/55/01k0w8tj89z1t30fwhsz.jpg "As time almost expires, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer looks on to the clock during the fourth quarter at TIAA Bank Field Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 in Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the San Francisco 49ers during a regular season NFL game. The 49ers defeated the Jaguars 30-10. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
Jki Cp Jags 49ers 09")
You will be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't think Urban Meyer is the worst head coach in franchise history, and that's saying something when you take into account that the Jacksonville Jaguars have had more than their fair share of questionable candidates. By now, everyone knows just how dreadful Meyer was during his lone stint in Duval, and just recently, one of his coaches, one of the ones he handpicked, revealed previously unknown details about the whole debacle.
Brian Shottenheimer became the head coach for the Dallas Cowboys following the departure of Mike McCarthy after the 2024 season. He recently had a sitdown with Mike Silver of The Athletic and touched on several topics, including his brief tenure as the Jags' passing game coordinator in 2021.
Shottenheimer said that Meyer offered him the quarterbacks coach job. But to his surprise, when he arrived, Mike McCoy had already held the position for several days. Surprisingly, he made the decision to stick around, even though running as fast as possible was the right call. Here's the skinny.
"In retrospect, Schottenheimer wishes he'd turned around and run the other direction," Silver wrote. "He later learned that Meyer had already offered former Chargers coach Mike McCoy the job as quarterbacks coach — and that McCoy had been working in the team facility for several days while Meyer continued to woo Schottenheimer. Eventaully, McCoy was sent aways without actually being hired."
Later in the article, Silver says that Shottenheimer stood up to Meyer when the latter asked his coaches what they had done.
"In an infamous November coaches' meeting, Meyer, according to a witness, berated his assistants, calling them out one by one and intoning, "What have you ever won? Most of them stammered in response, hoping to defuse the situation. Finally, Meyer singled out Schottenheimer, "I've won everywhere I've been," he defiantly replied," Silver noted.
For the sake of clarity, it had been previously reported that Meyer questioned his coaches' football acumen, asking them what they've accomplished in their careers. What wasn't known was that Shottenheimer stood out to him. Similarly, it looks like the fact that the Jaguars offered the quarterbacks coach to Shottenheimer and McCoy is news.
To nobody's surprise, Shottenheimer only spent one season with Jacksonville. He joined Big D the following year as a consultant and progressively worked his way up the coaching ranks.
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Brian Shottenheimer reminded us how bad the Jaguars were under Urban Meyer
Short of shooting puppies out of a cannon, Urban Meyer did everything he could to fail in his first and only chance he had to coach in the NFL. At this point, a report could surface that he slept through meetings during his time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and nobody would bat an eye. That's just how dreadful he was. The fact that he hired controversial strength as conditioning coach Chris Doyle to be the director of sports performance should've been a sign of things to come.
Fortunately, owner Shad Khan realized he made a mistake and instead of trying to make it work, he cut his losses and dismissed Meyer. Then again, he only deserves partial credit because he hired the embattled head coach. What's more baffling about the decision is that rather than conducting an extensive background check, he courted Meyer.
The good news is that Meyer has been gone for more than three years. The bad news is that the Jaguars are still trying to flip the script after giving Doug Pederson a chance to turn things around. Now, Liam Coen is at the helm, and he will have a chance to do what his predecessors failed to accomplish: Build a perennial winner that can be in playoff contention year in and year out.
One things is certain, even if Liam Coen fails, though, he won't be close to replicating the Urban Meyer disaster. Brian Shottenheimer reminded everyone just how high Meyer set the bar.