Big Ten Daily (Feb. 12): J.J. Watt Released by Texans, Urban Meyer's Controversial Hire and More

Huge news broke in the NFL world on Friday morning as the Houston Texans released the face of the franchise in J.J. Watt.

Watt is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year in his 10 years with the Texans. He put out a video on Twitter, saying he was the one that asked for his release, and it was a mutual agreement between the two.

Houston, I wanted you to hear this directly from me... pic.twitter.com/YqT3P6Lb6l
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) February 12, 2021

"I came here 10 years ago as a kid from Wisconsin who had never really been to Texas before, and now I can't imagine my life without Texas in it," Watt said in his video. "The way you guys have treated me, besides draft night, every day after that you treated me like family."

Watt said it is always hard to move on, but he loves Houston, and he is looking forward to his next opportunity, wherever that may be.

Houston appears to be in total rebuild mode after losing its best defensive players, and its best offensive player, Deshaun Watson, has made it clear over the last few weeks he doesn't want to play for the organization anymore.

The Texans went 4-12 last season and will try to start fresh with new head coach David Culley.

For more on Watt from Sports Illustrated, CLICK HERE.

Urban Meyer Defends Controversial Hire of Chris Doyle

Former Ohio State coach and now new Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer made a controversial hire this week.

Meyer hired Chris Doyle, who was previously the strength and conditioning coach for Iowa for over 20 years. Less than one year ago, Doyle and Iowa had a "separation agreement" following numerous former players alleging the program had racial disparities, referencing alleged racial remarks and mistreatment by Doyle.

Doyle did deny the allegations, but it still resulted in his tenure ending with the Hawkeyes.

So when Meyer hired Doyle this week, it created a cloud of controversy over the Jaguars. Meyer spent his Thursday press conference taking numerous questions about Doyle, who he has had a two-decade relationship with.

“I’ve known Chris for close to 20 years. Our relationship goes back to when I was at Utah and he was the number one strength coach. Really, he was doing sports performance before sports performance became a high priority in college sports," Meyer said. "I’ve known him. I’ve studied him. We’ve had a relationship. I vetted him thoroughly along with our general manager [Trent Baalke] and owner [Shad Khan]. [We] feel great about the hire, about his expertise at that position."

For more on Meyer's hire of Doyle from Sports Illustrated, CLICK HERE.

Painter Rips Refs After Purdue Loss

For those who missed the Purdue game at Minnesota on Thursday night, it featured a late traveling call on Purdue's Trevion Williams when the Boilermakers were down one with under 10 seconds to go.

Trevion Williams pic.twitter.com/or4vTQwFsf
— Viral Hoops (@ViralHoops12) February 12, 2021

Purdue head coach Matt Painter was very displeased with the call, and he wasn't afraid to comment on it postgame.

“I looked at it. He didn't (travel). You can’t call a travel when somebody doesn’t travel. He dribbles, he hops, he keeps his left foot set,” Painter said. “That’s a hard one for us in our locker room. We get a 50-50 call that goes against us and we get a call that’s obviously wrong. It just looks like he was searching for something.”

Williams, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds, also didn't think he traveled. He said postgame, "I personally don’t think I traveled... It’s life on the road, man. Everything doesn’t always go your way. It’s hard to play the game, fighting your opponent, fighting the refs."

With the loss, Purdue dropped to 13-8 overall and 8-6 in the Big Ten.

To read the complete game story on Purdue-Minnesota, CLICK HERE

Urban Meyer Defends Controversial Hire of Chris Doyle

Painter Rips Refs After Purdue Loss

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