Urban Meyer is an intense football coach who was known at the college level for burning himself to the ground in the pursuit of championships, pursuits that eventually forced him to retire to the safety of his family and ancillary work as an analyst for the game on ESPN and later FOX Sports before attempting a return to coaching.

According to fresh rumors, after a few years restoring his health and sanity away from an NCAA sideline, Meyer may be interested in jumping to the National Football League to give the professional game a shot. He certainly has nothing left to prove at the college level, having won three national championships at two different schools, and leaving the game with a 187-32 record across 17 seasons, an 85-percent victory rate that has set him in the rarified air of the sport’s greatest leaders.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter had earlier reported that two different NFL teams had contacted Meyer or his people about coaching, while Kyle Rowland of The Toledo Blade has now followed that up with a claim that discussions have occurred between intermediaries of both Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

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“The former Ohio State head coach has had exploratory discussions with intermediaries about the Jacksonville Jaguars job,” wrote Rowland.

The Jags are 1-13 this season, losers of 13 straight games after winning in Week 1, and are one of the betting favorites for the draft’s number one pick, likely a quarterback in the class of Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, which would give Meyer a fresh start with a signal caller potentially capable of reversing the fortunes of an entire franchise. 

Jacksonville is coached currently by Doug Marrone, who is 23-41 overall and 12-34 since 2018. Marrone had the Jaguars in the 2017 AFC Championship game, a contest they lost despite a double-digit second half lead, but the fall from grace has been precipitous. Meyer would take the Jacksonville job with nowhere to go but up. 

Rumors have a way of attaching themselves to Meyer and always have, the most recent being a claim that the Texas Longhorns were going to find $30 million to buy out head coach Tom Herman and pay Meyer to take over their flagging football program. None of those rumors came to fruition.

Now it’s the NFL on deck for the former college champion and only time will tell if he goes to bat.