Fred Taylor on Jacksonville’s Splash Hire: ‘I Think Coach Meyer Will Do Well With the Jaguars’
One of, if not the most, famous former Jacksonville Jaguars player in franchise history is chiming in on the hiring of Urban Meyer as the club’s head coach.
Former running back Fred Taylor joined NFL Network to brag on the splash hire of the three-time college football National Championship winning coach. This will be Meyer’s first foray into the NFL however, something that will require adjustment and was the biggest question mark surrounding his likely viability in the role.
Taylor, who still owns the majority of Jaguars rushing records, knows what it takes for the Jags to win. He was a part of four playoff runs with the club and explained what it would take for Meyer to get the locker room back to that standard (the Jags have only been to one playoff, 2017, since Taylor was on the team).
“You’ll have your group of guys that get it, those guys are the group of guys that wanna win. As long as Coach Meyer shows that he has. A sense of urgency towards winning, a no-nonsense regime and putting guys in the right position to be successful, the locker room is gonna respect him,” explained Taylor.
“Now on the flip side you’re gonna have guys that don’t take the game as serious as they should and depending on his coaching style, some of those guys can tend to drift away. Hopefully, he’ll find himself a nucleus of veteran guys on the team that he can lean on that can be his short of communication between the locker room and the coaching staff. And hopefully, they can put something good in place to convey all messages where everything’s transparent.
"The guys’ll respect him more that way when it’s black and white as opposed to gray areas. He has to be straight up with them. They have to be straight up with him. Get on the same page, they’ll find themselves winning some ball games.”
If there’s one thing Taylor knows Meyer is capable of, it’s "winning some ball games.” Before going 83-9 and winning a National Championship at Ohio State, Meyer was the main man with the Florida Gators, the alma mater of Taylor.
The Gators former running back played under Steve Spurrier and won the school’s first championship during the 1996 season. Keeping up with UF through the mid-2000s, Taylor watched as Meyer elevated his team back to two National Championships. And as such, he knows the Jaguars—who’s base also contains many Gator fans—are excited about what they’re getting in Urban Meyer.
“I can tell you this much, down in that neck of the country, Southeast and Florida, being a former Florida Gator and that fan base, they’re so excited to have Coach Meyer back in the region. You know the success that he had at Florida, what he did at Ohio State, success has followed him everywhere he went. He was 187-32 in college.
“Hopefully he can bring some of that, some of that winning to Jacksonville…that would be amazing. Really that’s all that matters at this point. But I can tell you he has a passion for the game. I know at one point he decided not to coach then he wanted to coach and then he kinda sat away for a few years but his heart is in it. You can tell his heart is in it. I think Coach Meyer will do well with the Jaguars.”
