Jaguars

Report: Jaguars Players Believe Urban Meyer’s Practice Schedule Contributing To 2nd-Half Collapses

October 17, 2021

According to Jason La Canfora, several Jaguars players believe the early-season trend of second-half collapses is because of HC Urban Meyer‘s practice schedule creating fatigue.

Dating back to training camp, La Canfora writes players have indicated to the staff that they don’t think enough recovery time is being built into their schedules to make it through the grind of an entire season.

Meyer has already shown there are a few things about the transition from college football to the NFL that have caught him by surprise, and an NFL season is a lot longer than in college.

“Just ask anyone down there about how the players feel on game day,” said one source with direct knowledge of the situation, per La Canfora. “They have dead legs. It’s become a real problem. It’s not just one or two guys. It may sound like an excuse, but to the players it’s real.”

“I’ve heard the dead legs thing consistently since the summer,” said another source. “They think it’s why they fade in these games. They aren’t fresh enough.”

La Canfora adds it’s not just the players. Members of the Jaguars’ staff have had conversations about whether they’re working the players too hard.

This becomes just the latest issue in a host of problems bedeviling Meyer and the Jaguars so far in 2021. For now, the Jaguars are not considering firing Meyer.

Meyer, 56, got his start in coaching in 1986 as a graduate assistant at Ohio State. He worked as an assistant coach at Illinois State, Colorado State and Notre Dame before getting his first head coaching position at Bowling Green in 2001.

Meyer moved on to become the head coach at Utah in 2003.

In 2005, he was hired as the head coach at Florida before retiring due to health reasons in 2010. Meyer came out of retirement to take the lead job at Ohio State in 2012 and was in that position until 2018 before retiring again citing health reasons.

It’s worth mentioning while Meyer has been hospitalized for chest pains and migraines, both of his health-related retirements have followed off-the-field controversies, including how he handled a domestic violence accusation for one of his assistant coaches at Ohio State.

The Jaguars hired Meyer out of a TV analyst job to be their head coach in 2021.

As a college head coach, Meyer has a career coaching record of 187-32 and has won three national titles at two different schools.

Entering Week 6, Jacksonville is 0-5 under Meyer.