JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The post-Urban Meyer era began on Wednesday night, hours before his firing became official.
The remaining staff kept game-planning for the Texans, with Meyer not at the facility to work on the details for Sunday’s home game.
Hours later, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell got a phone call from general manager Trent Baalke informing him about what was about to happen. Owner Shad Khan was firing Meyer and Bevell was being tasked as the interim head coach.
At 12:45 a.m., the Jaguars sent out a release saying that Khan had fired Meyer after a 2-11 start and no shortage of public relations nightmares. The latest was the story that came out Wednesday afternoon that Meyer had kicked former player Josh Lambo during warmups for a preseason game.
That becoming public was the final straw for Khan. Now, it’s up to Bevell and the Jaguars to clean up in the aftermath of Meyer’s messy 13-game tenure.
“Coach Meyer brought me in here. And you know, I have a lot of respect for him and what he did for me and my family. And other than that, you know, I really wanted as I said to the team, you know, we’re not looking back,” Bevell said. “Today’s a new day, we’re moving forward, and I want to move ahead and all eyes and everything that we’re doing, I want it to be on Houston.”
The Texans (2-11) should have Jacksonville’s full attention. They clobbered Jacksonville 37-21 in Week 1. Houston and the Jaguars are locked in a battle for the Nos. 2 and 3 draft picks. But the game now will have quite less drama than had Meyer still been coaching.
The drama of the past two weeks has been noticeable around the Jaguars. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence mentioned it during Wednesday’s press conference and again on Thursday.
“Like I said yesterday there’s been some drama, there’s been some distractions and you can’t ever go back though,” Lawrence said. “You just got to move forward. Where we’re at right now coach Bev’s our head coach rest of the season and I have a lot of respect for Bev and who he is and he’s earned my respect.”
Lawrence said that he learned of Meyer’s firing like most people around the country — he woke up early Thursday morning and saw the messages on his phone.
Then he Googled it.
Same thing for cornerback Shaquill Griffin, who said he learned about the change when he got up Thursday morning. Griffin said that he was a believer in Meyer when he signed, but understands that the league is a business.
“Why do I think it didn’t work out? I’m not truly sure. You know, he believed in something. Don’t get me wrong, you know, I came when I signed here, I believed in everything that he said. And I rolled with it. You know, my main thing is, I was going to give everything that I had to it and whatever his mission was, or whatever it was that he wanted to give out, I was going to follow it,” Griffin said of Meyer.
“It’s kind of hard to say, but I know whatever it was, I believed in that at first. It’s crazy and stuff that didn’t work out, surely man, business is business. I totally understand that aspect of it.”
The Jaguars are moving forward and Lawrence is on board with that plan, which is very good news for a jilted Jaguars fanbase.
Earlier this week, Khan recalled a conversation that he had with Lawrence before the draft. Khan said that Lawrence vowed he’d retire with the Jaguars if the franchise selected him.
On Thursday, Lawrence said it has been challenging but that he and his wife still consider Jacksonville the place that they want to be. After the challenges of this season and the drama of Meyer, Lawrence remained upbeat on the Jaguars.
“Obviously, this year has been … I wouldn’t believe you if you told me how this year was going to go. Like I said, I’ve learned a lot and I still feel that way. Me and Marissa have come to love Jacksonville,” he said. “And that’s our plan. Let’s go turn this thing around. Let’s go become a winner. Let’s go win some games and get this thing turned around. I have full faith in that still. Obviously, there’s a lot of steps to be made in the future to go in that direction. But I still believe that, and I plan on being here for a long time, hopefully my whole career.”