It's already been five years since Urban Meyer became the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He didn't even last a full season with them, getting ousted after a series of baffling controversies. But just because he's no longer with the Jaguars doesn't mean that the shenanigans have stopped.
In fact, wherever Meyer goes — dating back to his days at Florida — he gives everyone something to talk about, and it's often for no good reason. Just recently, the disgraced head coach made headlines because of his comments about NIL.
Former Jaguars HC Urban Meyer thinks NIL is cheating
Just recently, Meyer was part of a roundtable with USA president Donald Trump. He took advantage of the opportunity to express his disdain for NIL collectives, going as far as calling them cheating.
"Get rid of the collectives. That's cheating! So everyone understands what a collective is, donors put money in a pot, and it's distributed to the players through the coach and the general manager according to your talent level," Meyers said via Scarlet & Game. "That's not allowed. You're not supposed to do that. That's called pay-for-play."
The issue with Meyer's comments is that in the past, collegue programs would go around the rules to recruit players, looking for loopholes to get the best possible talent. However, NIL collectives allow schools to offer money to players to commit.
This isn't a bad thing when you take into account that players now get paid for their label, which wasn't possible before the NIL era. Sure, you could argue that this gives certain schools an edge, but what makes Meyer sound hypocritical is that head coaches at the college level get massive amounts of money. Wouldn't it be fair for players to also get a slice of the pay?
Rightly, Meyer caught heat for his remarks and eventually had to clarify, noting that players do need to get paid and was only offering a suggestion. But the fact that he had to further explain his comments shows that they were ill-advised.
Urban Meyers showed with the Jaguars that he's stuck in the past
The issue with Urban Meyer, leaving aside his scandals, is that he has never been willing to adapt. That rings true for the NIL era and his failed stint with the Jaguars. Throughout it all, he thought that he was good enough to win anywhere he went after winning National titles with Florida and Ohio State. He's been in for a rude awakening.
In Jacksonville, he had no idea what he was doing nearly all the time. He didn't know when his players were on the field. To make matters worse, he wasn't aware of who he was playing. Simply put, he was underqualified to coach in the NFL, which is why he lasted less than a year.
Had he been willing to adjust and put in the work, maybe things would have played out differently with the Jags.
More recently, his remarks about NIL collectives show that Urban Meyer doesn't know how things work and that he's stuck in the past. That may have been enough to help him win 10 or 20 years ago, but not anymore.