Urban Meyer discusses potential of adding Ohio State coaches to his Jacksonville staff

It doesn’t appear that there will be a mass exodus of staff leaving Columbus to join Urban Meyer in Duval.

Meyer, named head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday, hasn’t coached at Ohio State for two years. But that hasn’t stopped the speculation that the former Buckeyes head coach might pillage his old program.

Instead, it seems like Meyer is going to tap outside of Columbus, having already spoken to athletic director Gene Smith about his intentions (and self-imposed limitations):

Meyer said that he would take at most one person from Ohio State to join him and it might not even be any. Said he talked to Gene Smith and assured him he wouldn't be raiding OSU.

— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) January 15, 2021

Urban Meyer calls Ohio St "the best infrastructure in college sports." He said he might take one coach from the Bucks. Strength coach Mickey Marotti staying for sure. Looks like personnel director Mark Pantoni too.

— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) January 15, 2021

I'd been told Mickey Marotti wouldn't be leaving. Meyer said Mark Pantoni, who leads the OSU recruiting department, wouldn't be joining him in Jacksonville, either.

— Bill Rabinowitz (@brdispatch) January 15, 2021

There have been rumors about former Buckeyes defensive coordinator (and former Rutgers head coach) Chris Ash possibly joining Meyer’s staff. Ash was with Texas last season and helped turn around a pretty bad defense in his one year in Austin.

Meyer is also reported to be adding another assistant that was at Texas under Tom Herman. That assistant, Fernando Lovo, also served under Meyer at Ohio State and Florida.

It isn’t uncommon for college coaches to raid their former programs for talent. In the case of Meyer, however, he hasn’t coached Ohio State in two years and has been an analyst at FOX during that time. Presumably, his ties to the program wouldn’t be as deep as some current college coaches were they to make the jump straight to NFL.

In seven years at Ohio State, Meyer was 83-9 with a 5-2 mark in bowl games.