Urban Meyer Ducking the Denver Media, Jaguars' PR Understands People Have to Be Outraged
The Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-1 and tied for the worst record in the NFL right now. This weekend they will host the Denver Broncos. In what is apparently an unusual move, the Jags declined to make Urban Meyer available to the Denver media ahead of the game. The Denver Post is particularly perturbed by this with Broncos beat writer Ryan O'Halloran joking about Meyer visiting USC and the Post sports editor Scott Monserud calling it a "bush move."
#Jaguars declining to make Urban available to esteemed #Broncos media this week via conference call.
— Ryan O'Halloran (@ryanohalloran) September 14, 2021
( Wonder if that's when he'll be visiting with USC!! #kiddingbutonlyalittle )
Bush move by Urban Meyer and Jags not to have their coach on conference call with Denver media; but it's up to NFL to require such interaction so equally bush on its part
— Scott Monserud (@monserud) September 14, 2021
In Meyer's defense, he's new at this. Maybe the media customs of the NFL are different than the college game. Meyer may be finding that out the hard way. Just like he and Trevor Lawrence are going to experience a lot more losing than they're accustomed to in Jacksonville.
Lawrence lost the first regular season game of his life last weekend, while a Meyer team dropped the season opener for the first time ever. In nearly two decades at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State, no Meyer team ever started 0-1. The next milestone will be the Jaguars' sixth loss of the season which will eclipse the five losses the 2010 Florida Gators suffered through.
Luckily for Meyer, Jaguars public relations is taking full responsibility for the decision.
It was 100% my call, @mikeklis @ryanohalloran. Rip me. Majority of teams don’t do these anymore. I understand we are living in a world where people have to be outraged about something.
— Amy Palcic (@amypalcic) September 14, 2021
This will be an interesting thing to monitor as other media markets are either granted or denied time with Meyer. I understand why most markets wouldn't care about a lot of coaches, but Meyer is high profile and new so a lot of these media members might not have ever had a chance to speak to him unless they're in SEC or B1G country and also covered college football while Meyer was there.