Urban Meyer has already been forced to explain his widely-ripped hiring of Chris Doyle as the Jacksonville Jaguars' new director of sports performance but still the ripping continues.
In a statement to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Rod Graves, the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, said Doyle's hiring is "simply unacceptable." The Fritz Pollard Alliance was founded in 2001 to advocate for greater representation of minorities in NFL leadership positions; Graves has been its executive director since 2019.
Doyle, of course, resigned as Iowa's strength coach after he was credibly accused on the record by multiple ex-Hawkeyes of racially insensitive behavior toward Black players. "Doyle's departure from the University of Iowa reflected a tenure riddled with poor judgment and mistreatment of Black players. His conduct should be disqualifying for the NFL as it was for the University of Iowa."
He continued: "Urban Meyer's statement, 'I've known Chris for close to 20 years,' reflects precisely the good ol' boy network that is precisely the reason there is such a disparity in employment opportunities for Black coaches."
In saying he and the Jaguars vetted Doyle's background, Meyer did not say how they went about that vetting -- namely, by speaking to ex-Iowa players who spoke out about their treatment by Doyle and his enforcement of a culture that many described as hostile to Black players.
As a first-year coach who does not have sole oversight over the strength department, Doyle will not have near the influence in Jacksonville that he enjoyed at Iowa.
Still, it's hard to remember a first-year NFL head coach being put on his heels over an assistant coaching hire quite like this. Considering Doyle will hold a position of authority over a majority Black workforce, it would be in all parties' best interest for Meyer and Doyle to answer specific questions: Why Doyle deserves this job over any other candidate, how deep Jacksonville went into Doyle's background, and how Doyle plans to change his approach and what prompted him to make said changes, assuming he does plan to change in the first place.