Urban Meyer and Charle Strong Reunite With the Jaguars To Make ‘One More Run’
Charlie Strong and Urban Meyer have won a lot together.
Together at the University of Florida, the duo went 57-10, won three division titles, two conference titles and two National Championships.
Now both encroaching on their 60’s and a couple of years removed from head coaching positions, Strong felt they could go after one more.
Speaking with local media on Thursday, Strong recalled the push he made to Meyer to chase another title.
“We had a conversation this summer. We were just sitting around talking and I said, ‘We have one more run in us. We have to make one more run.’ He’s like, ‘Don’t ask me to do that.’ I said, ‘I know you want to do it because it’s still in you.’”
Whether or not they’ll raise another trophy is yet to be seen, but Strong was right about one thing. That desire to try was still in Meyer.
It’s why he elected to throw his hat back in the coaching ring, leading to him being hired as the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. While Meyer spent nearly a month assembling his coaching staff, there was one hire that was made immediately; the man who could help him make “one more run.”
“[Charlie] was my first hire,” Meyer told reporters on Thursday.
“[He was the] first hire and arguably one of the most, if not the most, important hire.”
The defensive-minded Strong will coach inside linebackers, a unit that can largely coach themselves seeing as how it’s led by veterans Joe Schobert and Myles Jack.
More importantly, he will serve concurrently as Meyer's assistant head coach. It's a role he's held before. While with the Gators, Strong was not only the defensive coordinator but also the assistant head coach. Meyer is technically the man at the top, he wants Strong seen as much the same way in the eyes of the team.
“He’s going to be the number two, that means the assistant head coach, and he’ll be in front of the team,” explained Meyer. “He’ll be my right-hand man as he’s been many, many times over my time at Florida…a high character guy, great family, someone that I trust explicitly, but also a guy I just feel very strong about being in front of the team, being in a locker room and being at my side.”
Meyer’s implicit trust in Strong—so much so as to present him to the team as another head coach—was born out of years of wins and championships, yes. But also out of the grind that both went through together, creating a bond that last even when out of the trenches.
Recalls Strong, “The relationship that Coach and I have, it’s been a relationship we started, and what a lot of people don’t know, back in our days at Notre Dame. We were assistant coaches together. From there, he left and went to Bowling Green. I left and went to South Carolina and then we reunited again at the University of Florida.”
When Meyer was hired at Florida, Strong was already on staff having served as DC under Ron Zook. Strong was the only staff member Meyer retained.
“But we’ve developed a relationship. It’s been a relationship where we’ve been with some unbelievable programs and two runs at two national titles that we had at the University of Florida, and then we have a chance to come here to Jacksonville.
“With a lot of coaches, you don’t develop that relationship that the two of us have. I just think that back in our Notre Dame days, we worked for Coach Holtz and some of these same things that he has taught us, each of us have used in our program. He’s had a lot of success. I haven’t had the success that he had as a head coach.
“But then we were able to come together and just set aside the football side of it with the personal side where we can sit down, and we can have a conversation and I can bring things to him and he can bring things to me. Even being here, that has already happened where we can have that conversation. Even if one of us disagrees with one another, we don’t take it personal. I can say to him, ‘Okay then, I trust you on it. I believe that it’s going to work. Let’s go with it.”
As Strong referenced, he hasn’t had quite the same success as a head coach that Meyer has over the years. Strong was hired from Florida to become the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals, then the Texas Longhorns and the South Florida Bulls. He accumulated a 74-52 record at the three stops before spending a season as a defensive analyst with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
But Meyer knows his value.
“I always tell people that the chance of us winning those two National Championships without Charlie Strong would not have happened.”
Now the duo is reunited, taking over a Jacksonville Jaguars club that went 1-15 last season and hoping to not only turn it around, but see if perhaps Charlie Strong was right when he nudged his friend back into the fray last summer.
Do they have one more run in them?
Strong says yes.
“At the end of the day, coaching is all about relationships and coaching is all about helping young men create value for themselves. Knowing that who he is and the staff that he has put together, I know that we can get that done here and I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
