Jaguars coach Urban Meyer is the only active coach who never coached or played in the NFL before becoming an NFL head coach. He says he’s up to the task.
Meyer said today that he recognizes the differences between college football and the NFL, but he also recognizes the differences between coaching today and coaching when he got his first head-coaching job at Bowling Green 20 years ago. And when it comes to Xs and Os, Meyer doesn’t think the differences are very big.
“College football is different,” Meyer said. “The days of coaching the way you did back when I was at Bowling Green, or when I was an assistant coach, the whole country has changed. Everything has changed. You have to adapt. Those who adapt have success, those who don’t fail. That’s the part of the game that I love, to be able to adapt to an NFL player. However, between the white lines, I don’t see a lot of difference. I’ve studied the NFL game for years, but really studied it for the first time in my life the last six months.”
Meyer knows he needs to find the right quarterback, but he doesn’t think that’s more true in the NFL than it was in college.
“When the NFL says it’s a quarterback league, I would say so is college, so is high school, so is Pop Warner. It’s a quarterback sport,” Meyer said.
We’ll all get to see this year how quickly Meyer can adapt to the NFL.