Like the Springsteen song about the guy with a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack, Urban Meyer went out for a ride and he never went back.
In his first press conference at the interim head coach of the Jaguars, Darrell Bevell said that Meyer left before last night’s meetings and didn’t return. Bevell also said that the coaches met and worked on game planning without Meyer. Bevell added that the other coaches didn’t know what had happened until late last night, when G.M. Trent Baalke told Bevell that Meyer was out and Bevell was in.
Frankly, Meyer’s absence may not have set off any alarms among the staff. One of the complaints that had been making the rounds about the failed first-year coach was that he left the office early, allowing others to work while he didn’t.
Bevell also went out of his way to praise the rest of the staff, and he had this to say about running back James Robinson, the focal point of one of the final Meyer dramas as it relates to the curious benching of Robinson.
“James Robinson is our starting running back, and he will played as such,” Bevell said.
Bevell declined to delve into the disconnect between Meyer and his colleagues, deferring it possibly to a proper moment in the future. But it’s clear that Meyer’s firing has provided an energy that previously wasn’t there.
Indeed, the press conference began with a reporter pointing out that Bevell has a really good chance to finish the season with more career wins than Meyer. Bevell, for his part, smiled and laughed before waving his hand and pointing out that he has nothing to say to that.
