Urban Meyer famously -- ominously -- had not a day of NFL experience when the Jacksonville Jaguars handed him control over the entire organization nearly a year ago. He was actually drafted by the Atlanta Braves out of high school and played minor league baseball in the summer while spending his falls playing defensive back for Cincinnati, but he never attended a training camp as a player, never did a year as a position coach as a young assistant, didn't springboard into a head coaching job from an NFL coordinator position.
His first NFL paycheck came as the head coach and de facto GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The outcome was the biggest disaster of a hiring in NFL history -- fired with a 2-11 record amid a series of embarrassments.
To find his replacement, ProFootballTalk reports the Jaguars will interview Jim Caldwell and Doug Pederson for their vacant head coaching position.
Both men are essentially the anti-Urban (the rural?): low profile, low controversy, loads of experience.
Caldwell spent close to 25 years in the college ranks, including eight seasons as Wake Forest's head coach, before taking the Tampa Bay Bucs quarterbacks job in 2001. He's remained in the NFL ever since and owns a 62-50 record as a head coach. He was fired twice, but got a raw deal both times. After going 24-8 with a Super Bowl appearance in 2009-10 with the Indianapolis Colts, the club fired him for going 2-14 in the season between Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck.
Caldwell landed the Detroit Lions job in 2014 and immediately led the club to a rare playoff appearance. The Lions returned to the playoffs in 2016 -- the first time since 1997-99 they reached the playoffs twice in three seasons -- but he was fired after a 9-7, non-playoff season in 2017. The club has not matched Caldwell's worst season (7-9 in 2015) in their four post-Caldwell seasons.
Pederson spent close to a decade in the NFL as a journeyman quarterback, then joined the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff as a quality control coach in 2009 and led the club to its only Super Bowl victory within a decade. After guiding the Eagles to three straight playoff seasons from 2017-19, he was fired following a 4-11-1 campaign last season.
Neither coach is on a staff right now, meaning they'd be free to interview in Jacksonville immediately.
The club is also reportedly interested in former Vikings head coach and longtime NFL assistant Leslie Frazier, currently the Buffalo Bills' assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.
We'll have more as the Jags search develops. In the meantime, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.