NFL Exec: Urban Meyer Might Be Coaching Texas If Jags Couldn't Draft Lawrence

The Jacksonville Jaguars have Trevor Lawrence to thank for Urban Meyer taking their head coaching position.

The University of Texas reportedly might have Lawrence to blame for Meyer not being in Austin.

"I spoke to an exec this weekend who said, 'Meyer, if the Jacksonville Jaguars were picking second, he might be coaching the University of Texas right now making $10-12 million a year,'" ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said Sunday on SportsCenter.

Texas offered its head coaching job to Meyer in December before firing Tom Herman in early January, but he turned it down. The Longhorns eventually hired Steve Sarkisian in an attempt to return the program to its former glory.

Meyer went 187-32 as a college coach with stops at Bowling Green State, Utah, Florida and Ohio State. His .854 winning percentage is the third-highest in college football history.

Texas has not won 11 games in a season since 2009; Meyer's teams won at least 10 games in each of his seven seasons at Ohio State. His hiring would have been a no-brainer home run that would have instantly catapulted Texas back into the national championship conversation.

The Jaguars' decision is much more of a risk, especially given Meyer lacks a history of developing star professional quarterbacks. None of Meyer's most notable collegiate quarterbacks—Tim Tebow, Alex Smith, Chris Leak, Braxton Miller, Cardale Jones, J.T. Barrett or Dwayne Haskins—turned into star-level NFL players. Smith became a solid game manager at the NFL level, but every quarterback had far more success under Meyer than at the next level.

Lawrence is considered one of the biggest can't-miss quarterback prospects in recent NFL history, so the judgment may fall squarely on Meyer if he doesn't pan out.