Urban Meyer describes difference between NFL and college football, sounds off on losing so many games
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Urban Meyer hasn’t spoken publicly very often since getting fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this season.
But, on Monday, he joined OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me” with Dan Dakich for a lengthy interview.
He described the differences between the college game and the pro level, starting with practice differences (via The Comeback):
“Well, I certainly didn’t help it,” Meyer joked about the notion that college football coaches can’t make it in the NFL. “I’ll tell you, Dan, it is a lot different. It is different. Just the amount of time you get with your quarterback. Just the amount of time you get with your team. The roster management. How you practice.
“You know, the amount of reps you get before you go play a game, to me, was shockingly low. For example, we would practice, you maybe get one or two reps at something, next thing you know you’re calling it in the game. In college, you never do that. In college, you’re gonna get at least a dozen opportunities to practice that before you ask a player to go do it in the game. So there are a lot of differences.”
Meyer went on to describe why coaching the Jaguars was the worst experience of his coaching career:
“It was the worst experience I’ve had in my professional lifetime,” said Meyer. “What really got me, I almost don’t want to say people accept it, I mean, you lose a game, and you just keep…I would seriously have self-talk. I went through that whole depression thing too where I’d stare at the ceilings and [think] ‘are we doing everything possible’ because I really believed we had a roster that was good enough to win games. I just don’t think we did a great job.
“It eats away at your soul. I tried to train myself to say ‘okay, it happens in the NFL. At one point, the Jaguars lost 20 in a row. Think about that. 20 games where you’re leaving the field where you lost. And we lost five in a row at one point and I remember I…just couldn’t function. I was trying to rally myself up, I was in charge of the team, obviously, and then we won two out of three, and I really felt like we flipped that thing.
“You know, our defense was playing excellent. At one point our defense was No. 1 in the league. We held Josh Allen to six points. Two field goals. And playing high-level football. Offense, we were really coming, and then quit scoring points. We just really struggled offensively and that’s when we went on another losing streak…I really struggled with that.”
It sounds like Meyer won’t be making a return to the NFL coaching ranks any time soon.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
