What Is It Like Playing for Jaguars’ HC Urban Meyer? Let Joshua Perry Explain
To truly understand Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer and the way he leads his football programs, it takes a special type of insight.
It takes a peek behind the curtain. A first-hand exploration of the intensity that has preceded Meyer's years of winning at the college level, the same intensity he hopes will help him find success in the NFL ranks.
Count former Ohio State linebacker and captain Joshua Perry among those who has gotten that kind of rare look at Meyer's operations. Count him as one who has seen every side of Meyer's coaching ability, helping him see the true fruits of his coach's labor as results poured in year after year, even if things weren't always serene.
"He's such a unique coach, man," Perry told JaguarReport.
"Like he is a very demanding coach. He has standards and expectations for everything. He is a very direct coach. And so at times, it's like, not necessarily the most pleasant thing. But he's absolutely a caring coach. Like he really cares about players."
To truly understand the kind of demanding coach Meyer is, and the value he places on being direct with his players (see, DJ Chark), Perry relays a story from when Meyer was first hired as Ohio State's coach in 2012. Perry, an early enrollee who wasn't recruited by Meyer, met his new head coach and quickly learned what kind of experience he was in for.
"I came in -- I tell this story all the time. But he told me that he didn't recruit me, and he told me that if he was the head coach when I was getting recruited, I would have never been an Ohio State Buckeye," Perry said.
"And so I think that really just kind of set the tone for what our relationship was going to be like, just in terms of brutal honesty. But as a player, you need that. Like, if there's not somebody who is on you, holding you accountable, be honest, and letting you know where you stand at all times. That's when things start to get a little bit sidetracked."
Perry, who is now an analyst at the Big Ten Network, while also launching a podcast series called "Glory Days: Dreams and Nightmares.” that details his Ohio State career, relays the same key words over the phone that Meyer has said while standing in front of podiums in Jacksonville since January.
Looking back at his time with Ohio State from 2012-2015, Perry emphasizes Meyer's willingness to develop his players on and off the field to maximize their potential, which has been a key mantra to Meyer's tenure in Jacksonville thus far. This is one of many carryover principles Meyer has seemingly taken to Jacksonville.
As Perry continues to talk about his own experience with Meyer, one thing becomes abundantly clear. Whether at Bowling Green, Ohio State, or in Jacksonville, Meyer hasn't changed much in terms of his approach over his coaching career. He has preached the same principles over and over. Competition, trust, and, most importantly, winning.
"And he's also really loyal. He is he's one of the most loyal guys, that I know, personally, this in terms of, you know, when you earned his trust in, in, kind of that, I guess, that trust relationship, which everything's built off of, but once you're there, you know, anything that you want, or need, he's got, he's always got your back," Perry said.
"So it was, I think my career would have probably been a little bit different if I didn't play for a guy like Urban, just because of some of the standards and the hard conversations that we had to have really early on. But at the same time, I'm very grateful for it."
From the big details to the little details, playing for Meyer hasn't changed much. The Jaguars had a unique training camp experience under Meyer, with the Jaguars selecting specific days in camp as "winner/loser" days that emphasized competition and one-on-one battles.
But the competition went beyond that. Meyer tracked the results of the Jaguars' winners and losers with acute diligence, while also going as far as to have Jaguars' chief of staff Fernando Lovo announce the results of each rep on a loudspeaker on the field.
It was a new experience for (most) of the Jaguars veterans; the ones who never played for Meyer. For Perry, learning of the Jaguars' competitive camp jogged back strong memories of his first spring under Meyer.
"So my, my first spring on campus, I was an early enrollee and that was Urban's first spring as head coach. And so everything that we did that spring was competitive, it was winner, loser and kept score. If you won, you were celebrated," Perry said.
"If you lost you were treated like a damn loser."
Perry goes on to explain Meyer's entire philosophy on creating that kind of competitive atmosphere and why he believes it is important to lead to winning. Meyer's Ohio State teams frequently got into full-on bare-knuckle brawls in terms of regular-season contests, but more often than not, they found a way to dig themselves out of any possible holes to win the game.
This is what the Jaguars have failed to do over the last plus-decade, and what Perry explains is Meyer's entire philosophy around winning and losing. He wants to create a stigma around both results; a stigma that hasn't been prevalent in Jacksonville as the Jaguars have racked up losing season after losing season.
Meyer's entire personality and philosophy as a coach is to avoid losing at all costs. To emphasize that losing is truly the worst result possible and a result that should hurt. As Perry says, "I think it's really just about celebrating winning and stigmatizing losing. You don't want to be known as a loser."
"Just to build a mentality, I think that's the important part about winning and losing is like, you know, there's nothing that goes perfect in the game of football. But when you build a mentality, that winning is the only thing that you'll accept, you'll find the ways to win, you'll be able to persevere and power through," Perry said. "And Urban wanted to create that and he wanted to create a stigma, too, around losing that losing should be uncomfortable, it should not be allowed, you should feel like a loser if you lose, and then try to do things to make sure that you don't have to feel that feeling again."
"And the tough part about what he's doing in the league right now is there are vets who've been doing their thing for a certain time period one way that probably aren't going to want to adjust. And then there's guys who like -- and I think Urban's gonna do a really good job of getting culture guys around there -- but in the league, they're also guys who work around the locker room that are literally fine regardless. Like as long as the check hits on a Tuesday, you know, they're gonna be fine."
Perry recognizes a lot of the faces Meyer has brought with him to Jacksonville. He played on the same 2015 National Championship team that Jaguars' safeties coach Chris Ash served as co-defensive coordinator for. He knows Lovo, who was Ohio State's football operations coordinator for three seasons. He also knows Jaguars' director of player assessment Ryan Stamper well after Stamper helped lead Ohio State's player development under Meyer.
To Perry, the strategy to bring in faces that Meyer was familiar with is a smart one because of how Meyer structures his program. Meyer has talked about complete organizational alignment at every stop of the Jaguars' offseason, making it no surprise that these are the same words Perry used when describing Meyer's reorganization of the Jaguars.
"It is two things. It is relationships -- he's smart by having people around, that he has a rapport with, because a part of the relationship is that trust-building, and that happens over time in for Urban, he always likes to expedite the process to be able to build as quickly as possible," Perry said.
"So if you have people who you know, or people who are from the same circles as you, you can do that, which is good. And then number two, it's full alignment. And it's being able to speak the same language, and it's being able to everybody, he listens to one voice, and they differ kind of to the same coaching, or whatever the case is, yeah, this is just for players, but it's for coaches, it's for support staff, everybody. And when you have that type of alignment, there's less friction within the organization. And so you're able to achieve your goals a lot faster too. And Urban's always been like that."
When it comes to what Meyer does well and what should carry over to the NFL level, it isn't hard to pinpoint. Perry has seen Meyer's methods work over and over again, and there is reason to believe they can again at the NFL level.
But what about the downsides to Meyer's coaching skill set? What about the areas he is going to need to grow in to give the Jaguars -- and himself -- a chance to make this entire experiment work?
As Perry explains, one big area will be letting his veteran players simply be veteran players. Let them breathe. In the preseason, for example, many veteran players may not go 100% because these are reps they have already done, in games that don't count, played with and against many players who won't be on the team in Week 1 of the regular-season.
But perhaps more importantly is how Meyer handles the one thing he hasn't been able to handle in the past: losing. On the surface, Meyer took the Jaguars' two preseason losses tough after the Jaguars performed poorly in each bout. The way Meyer is wired, games like that are bound to doom his mood. But that isn't healthy at the NFL level where a six-loss season is considered a rousing success, Perry says. Especially not for a coach who lost only nine games at Ohio State.
"Urban, and he's talked about this, and I'm sure he's, you know, like, this was a part of his mentality as he decided he wanted to become an NFL coach. But it's not that you have to be okay with losing, but you have to understand that, you know, one loss or two losses, or six or seven losses is not the end of the world," Perry said. "You know, like, we see it all the time, but teams lose. You lose six games in the NFL, that's a good season. Like that's a playoff season. You know, you're going to the playoffs."
This will be key for Meyer considering the situation he is stepping into. The Jaguars were 1-15 just a year ago and have one winning season since 2007. Other than 2017, the Jaguars' last 15 years have been defined by embarrassments on the football field and consistently finishing seasons with double-digit losses.
Meyer was hired to change that, but he may have to change himself first. His process after losing games worked at the college level but, as Perry says, there is reason to believe he will have to adjust in a big way now.
"I think that's something he's gonna have to just, you know, make sure that he's prepared for, and not the locker room. Because those guys understand, the coaches probably understand, the players definitely understand, but just for his own mentality and how he approaches game-planning," Perry said.
"This was his process and I only saw it four times when I was at Ohio State -- we only lost four games when I was there. And his process was after a loss he'd come in on Sunday, be pale as a ghost, really, like, just look like he was lost. It was just like, that was a day where you can basically chalk it up like, you know, Urban's basically not here today, you know. As a player in the program, you're like, our coach is just, like, mentally he's not here. But then, game week starts again, and you thought he was already intense, and you thought he was already focusing? Everything's ratcheted up more. And you can't do that."
Essentially, would Meyer ramp things up for a Jaguars' locker room full of veterans if the Jaguars started the season 0-2? His college tenures suggest he likely would, with the championship-winning coach going into crisis mode at the college level with any single loss.
But the NFL is a different game. The league is built for parity, with teams designed to go .500 every year as a result of the draft process and the salary cap. It is a 17-game marathon where 10-7 or 11-6 can be viewed as terrific seasons, while a two-loss season at the college level would be defined as an otherwordly failure by Meyer's standards.
Meyer's process to address losing worked at the college level for a reason, but Perry believes he will have to take a long look in the mirror before implementing it at the NFL level, simply because the two sports are so different in terms of paths to success.
"And players in college will let you do things like that, for two reasons. The first one's pretty simple. They don't know any better. But the second one, too, is as a college player, you understand the urgency after you lose that first one. Right? Well, that was our mulligan, like we can't f****** do this again. Whereas that second one, it's like, once you lose that, the locker room is pretty much gone. Urban did not want to get to that point," Perry said.
"In the league, you lose that first one, dude's ain't even sweating. Like it's not even an issue. And so I think he's for him, like, you can't just ratchet up the intensity, because you lost one game in the league? Because guys aren't going to go for that."
But for all of the areas Meyer may have to improve in, there are as many reasons Perry believes Meyer can find success with the Jaguars.
Meyer has won everywhere he has gone and it was little surprise to Perry that he finally made the jump to the NFL level. Meyer was so competitive as a coach at Ohio State that it trickled down to his players, with Perry today not even being able to play a board game without some competitive intensity. That same drive meant Meyer was never going to stay out of football for long. That same drive is why Meyer has been regarded with Nick Saban as one of the best coaches of his entire generation.
"My first reaction was I'm not surprised. I just, I didn't think that he could stay out of the game for very long," Perry said.
"I feel like he can build something. I feel like, you know, coaching is coaching, obviously, there's some adjustments that you have to make for the professional game. But, he's one of the best coaches that's ever done it in college. It's not to say that it always translates, but I think that he can replicate some level of success in the NFL."
And beyond Meyer's coaching ability, he has one other thing working in his favor: The amount of people inside of football who are rooting for him. From his friends in the coaching community to the countless former players he is still close to, Meyer has a support system willing to help him at every step of the way -- a support system that includes Perry.
"The other thing I was thinking about is anything that he ever needed from me, if you ever needed something down in Jacksonville, I would try to figure out a way to do it. You know, if he was asking about free agents, or, you know, there was whatever the case was. I'm always there. And that's, I feel like, the thing that he has going for him as well, is there are so many people who want him to do well," Perry said.
"He's gonna have all the chances to get it done. So it's exciting."
Playing for Meyer is a unique experience, but so is winning at the professional and college levels. The hope for Jacksonville and the Jaguars' entire organization is that the same things Perry saw at Ohio State can help Meyer find success today.
Whether the Meyer experient in Jacksonville truly works will only be known after he fields a team and proves whether he is built for the NFL, a league where losing isn't celebrated, but isn't uncommon.
But for Perry and countless others, they have a good idea of what the Jaguars team they are about to watch will look like because they know how it was all built. At one time, they were the builders themselves. Now, they will look on and watch with the rest of the league to see if Meyer can make it work.
