The Urban Meyer experience has come to an abrupt and premature end in Jacksonville. The former college coach was let go from the Jacksonville Jaguars last night after only 13 games into his first season as head coach.
Now it is up to speculation as to what will happen next with Meyer. An NFL coaching job seems nearly impossible considering how much of a disaster he was at Jacksonville. He could probably get a college coaching job again at some point, but that seems really unlikely in the immediate future.
It is also possible that he returns to the FOX desk next season. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post said yesterday afternoon before Meyer was fired that if he were to be let go, FOX would have interest in bringing him back to Big Noon Kickoff.
He was on the show for two years prior to leaving for the Jaguars’ head coaching gig. Big Noon Kickoff averaged 1.383 million viewers in 2021, which the network says is up 15% over its debut season in 2019.
Some prominent media members had some predictions on social media about where Meyer would end up in the coming weeks and months.
It helps that FOX and Meyer have a prior relationship, and Meyer has had some media members come to his defense. His former Big Noon Kickoff co-host Brady Quinn recently said that the local media in Jacksonville had an ax to grind with Meyer and that is why he was getting such bad press.
Now this was before the incident that most people saw as the final straw, the recent reports that Meyer had gotten into an altercation with Kicker Josh Lambo which turned physical, resulting in Meyer kicking Lambo.
Quinn doubled down on Thursday, saying that Meyer was the victim of a professional hit job and that the people reporting these stories could never handle a football locker room.
I would expect some time to pass between now and when Meyer accepts his next job offer, whether or not that be at FOX or another coaching job. The best thing that Meyer can do at the moment is to get out of the spotlight and hope for his failures as an NFL head coach to blow over.