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Trevor Lawrence Says Urban Meyer's Firing 'Brings a Little Bit of Clarity' to Jaguars
December 17, 2021
Jacksonville Jaguars rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence is ready to move forward without Urban Meyer, who was fired as head coach of the franchise early Thursday morning, following the drama surrounding the longtime college football coach throughout the 2021 campaign.
"I wouldn't believe you if you told me this is how this year was going to go," Lawrence told reporters. " ... I think [the coaching change] brings a little bit of clarity to the guys in the locker room. I wouldn't say relief, but I would say just bring some clarity and some direction moving forward."
Lawrence added:
"You know, we really want to go and finish the season strong and to be honest, it's been hard to last the last week with everything going on. And there's a lot of things being stirred up I think by the outside, too. That didn't help [and] made things a lot worse, but also everything that's going on.
"It's hard to be focused and have all your attention and efforts going towards winning the game when there's so many things going on."
Meyer's tenure in Jacksonville was anything but smooth. First, he hired former Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle as the director of sports performance in February. Doyle was accused of racism and bullying from Iowa players, and he resigned from the Jacksonville position two days after being hired in the wake of backlash about his past.
Then in May, Meyer brought in failed former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow as a tight end. In July, Meyer and the Jaguars were fined a combined $300,000 for excessive contact during offseason practices. After that, videos of a woman that was not his wife dancing on him at a Columbus, Ohio, bar surfaced in October.
In addition, reports surfaced alleging that Meyer called his assistant coaches losers, and former kicker Josh Lambo accused Meyer of kicking him during warm-ups.
Then just one day before Meyer was fired, Lawrence admitted that he was fed up with the drama surrounding the franchise.
“You’re always going to have some form of drama. I’ve learned that the NFL is just more drama in general than college, no matter where you’re at,” Lawrence told reporters. “But you’re right. There’s been a lot. To your point, I do think that has to change and that’s something that we need to work on for sure.
“So you can’t always be in the headlines. You just got to go play football and that’s where we’re trying to get and I have no doubt we’ll get there, but for sure [it has to change].”
Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell is now serving as interim head coach of the Jaguars, and Lawrence appears to be looking forward to having him as the team's boss.
"He's very even keel," Lawrence said of Bevell. "Always the same person. Never gets too high or too low. That's something that I respect and that I can level with."
The Jaguars went 2-11 with Meyer as head coach. They'll look to turn things around when they meet the Houston Texans on Sunday.