Will Urban Meyer join Belichick, Saban and a who’s who of others on football’s ‘Quit List?’

Will Urban Meyer join Belichick, Saban and a who’s who of others on football’s ‘Quit List?’

All eyes are on Jacksonville to see if Meyer bolts before season’s end

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Read that face.... is that a man who looks like he found his “happy place?”
Read that face.... is that a man who looks like he found his “happy place?”
Image: Getty Images

For Urban Meyer, January probably feels like it happened eight years ago, instead of eight months ago.

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‘’I’m ready to coach the Jacksonville Jaguars,’’ Meyer said in a statement when the team hired him.

‘’I’ve analyzed this decision from every angle – the time is right in Jacksonville, and the time is right for me to return to coaching. I’m excited about the future of this organization and our long-term prospect for success.”

A picture, or in this case, a video, paints a thousand words. Earlier this week, Meyer looked miserable as he had to answer questions about the rumors that were swirling about his potential interest in the USC head coaching vacancy that opened this week.

“No chance,” said Meyer.

But, does his body language agree? You be the judge.

Ever since Meyer took the job, it’s been a sh*t show in Jacksonville — and that’s being kind. He hired a coach with a history of racist behavior at Iowa — despite “thoroughly vetting him” – signed Tim Tebow to play tight end and then cut him, has racked up fines for himself and the team for not knowing the rules, traded away a solid backup quarterback in Gardner Minshew, and according to a new report, is the sole reason why team morale is low.

Even as the Jaguars enter Week 2, it feels like we’re all just trying to figure out when — not if — Meyer will quit, as it feels inevitable as Thanos.

If that does happen, Meyer will join the “Quit List,” which is a group of football coaches that quit on their teams after saying they wouldn’t, and/or left before they even got started.

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Bill Belichick

Bill Belichick

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In 2000, Bill Belichick was the head coach of the New York Jets for a day. Not even a day! The dude quit at a press conference that was supposed to announce his hiring.

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“I’ve been in situations, and more importantly my family has been in a situation, where I was the head coach of a team in transition,” he said that day. “Frankly, it wasn’t a really good experience for me or for them.”

How’d he do it?

Belichick wrote “I resign as HC of the NYJ,” on a napkin.

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George O’Leary

George O’Leary

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In 2001, George O’Leary finally made it to the mountaintop. But we would soon find out that he took the elevator to get there, instead of climbing it like claimed. After officially being named head coach at Georgia Tech in 1995, Notre Dame came calling six years later to lead their squad.

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Buuuut… the dude had padded his resume and lied about his days as a player and having a master’s degree that he never earned.

So O’Leary’s tenure lasted less than a week.

“Due to a selfish and thoughtless act many years ago, I have personally embarrassed Notre Dame, its alumni and fans,” O’Leary said in a statement.

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Nick Saban

Nick Saban

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2006 wasn’t a good year for the Miami Dolphins as they finished 6-10, marking the first time Nick Saban had ever suffered a losing season. So when Mike Shula got fired at Alabama, the questions and rumors began.

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“I guess I have to say it. I’m not going to be the Alabama coach,” Saban publicly stated in December of 2006.

A few weeks later, Saban was the Alabama coach.

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Bobby Petrino

Bobby Petrino

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Coming into the 2007 season, the thought was that the Atlanta Falcons were headed to new heights. They were about to pair Michael Vick with Bobby Petrino after he’d found success on the college level with his high-scoring spread offense.

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Then the dog-fighting charges landed, and Vick was gone.

With a 3-10 record, and three games left in the season. Petrino assured Falcons owner Arthur Blank that he wasn’t going anywhere. A few hours later, he was the new head coach at Arkansas.

“I said to Bobby, ‘Tell me what you want me to tell them. Tell me what you’re feeling.’ I remember him standing up, reaching out and shaking my hand and saying, ‘You tell them you have a coach,’’ Blank said in a 2016 interview. “We played Monday night. I can’t remember who it was against. We lost the game, and then later that evening ... I was watching Coach Petrino up at the University of Arkansas doing the ‘Pig Sooie’ thing. This was all within a six-, eight-hour span. So I was sitting in bed actually, and I was watching that, after throwing up all over the place — no, not literally. But it turned out that he had decided that was what he was going to do before.”

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Matt Rhule

Matt Rhule

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Matt Rhule was the man in Texas until he wasn’t. After going 1-11 in his first season at Baylor, the Bears won seven games in his second year and went 11-3 in his third season. And then the NFL attention, and lies, began.

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“One thing people don’t realize is coaches, we pick up our families,” Rhule said in December 2019. “We rip them out of their homes. We rip them out of the places that they are. Sometimes you do that until you get to a point where you find ‘happy.’ You shouldn’t mess with happy.

“There’s a lot to accomplish at Baylor. And most importantly, it’s just each and every year, I want to put together a championship-caliber team. And I think we have a chance to be even better next year than we are this year. . . . More than money, it’s about the situation for my family.”

A few weeks later, Rhule ripped his family out of Texas and was introduced as the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

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