When Urban Meyer took his first NFL head coaching job with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he sought out the advice of his FOX TV partner Jimmy Johnson. The two-time Super Bowl winner and Hall of Fame coach came back with an important nugget for the longtime college coach about filling out his staff.
“Number one: bring in the right coaches obviously,” Johnson said, back in January, per 247Sports. “And him not having pro experience, he’s is going to have to bring in coaches with professional experience. Number two: bring in talent, and utilize the information that he’s got.”
Meyer went out and did just that, by building a staff stacked with assistants who have had a variety of experiences around the league. Longtime NFL coaches Darrell Bevell (offensive) and Joe Cullen (defensive) joined the Jaguars as the two top coordinators, while a group of other veterans from both the college and professional level rounded out the staff.
In an interview with USA TODAY’s Mackenzie Salmon, Meyer said that he did his best to use that advice from Johnson when putting together his Jaguars staff. He spoke about how he admires the Hall of Fame coach and now considers him a close friend.
“Well, he’s one of the guys I leaned on the most when I was, first of all, considering it,” Meyer said. “I had some college opportunities and professional opportunities, and Jimmy Johnson’s a guy that, we’ve always been friendly, we became good friends. And I admire him, once you get to know … sometimes you see personalities on TV like Jimmy who is excellent on television, but that guy’s a deep guy, man. He’s an intelligent guy. I’ve got to know him, I’ve leaned on him—I leaned on him before the draft.
“So if you look at our staff, I absolutely did that. I tried to put … you know the one interesting thing about the NFL, a lot of guys are under contract. So you can’t just pick the all-star staff. In college, you say, ‘OK, I want that guy,’ you go pay him more and you hire him. In pro, you can’t do that. But I love where we’re at as a staff. Obviously this is to be determined, but I did surround myself with guys with a wealth of (NFL) experience and some college guys as well.”
Time will tell if Meyer made the right hires for the Jaguars in year one. He certainly seems confident heading into training camp, which bodes well for the start of the regular season.
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