Another Vrabel Mentor Poised to Become a Division Rival

Jacksonville is expected to name Urban Meyer its next head coach. Vrabel spent two years as an assistant under Meyer at Ohio State.

Mike Vrabel worked under three head coaches since the end of his playing career.

By the end of next season, he will have gone head-to-head with two of them.

Thursday’s news that Urban Meyer is in talks to become the Jacksonville Jaguars’ new head coach creates another interesting dynamic for Vrabel, who spent two years as Meyer’s defensive line coach at Ohio State (2012-13). The Buckeyes went 24-2 during that time, including 12-0 in 2012, when ESPN.com named Vrabel the national recruiter of the year.

Vrabel, who got his start as Ohio State’s linebackers coach in 2011, jumped to the NFL in 2014 and spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Houston Texans under Bill O’Brien before Tennessee hired him to replace Mike Mularkey in 2018.

“I got to coach under Urban Meyer and learn so much, the importance of teaching,” Vrabel said at his introductory press conference. “We have a young league and we're going to have a young team, and (must) teach these guys the right way and develop them and (make) them better. I'm not Urban, but I'm going to take a lot from him.

“I've been able to be in Houston with Bill O'Brien, so I'm lucky to go through basically a doctorate degree of coaching with the people that I've been around.”

When it came to matching wits with one of his masters, he held his own.

Vrabel and the Titans went 2-2 against the Texans before Houston fired O’Brien early this season. Tennessee then swept the 2020 season series with Romeo Crennel as the Texans’ interim coach.

O’Brien, who went 52-48 with four playoff appearances in six-plus years, took over at Houston after two seasons as Penn State’s head coach. Before that, however, he spent five seasons as an assistant with the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick.

Meyer, conversely, never has coached in the NFL. He has been a head coach at Ohio State, Florida, Utah and Bowling Green and has a 187-32 record over 17 seasons. He won national championships with Florida (2006, 2008) and Ohio State (2014). Before he became a head coach, he spent 15 years as an assistant with four college programs and one as a high school assistant.

Jacksonville has made one playoff appearance in the last 13 seasons and has finished last in the AFC South four of the last five seasons, including each of the last three. The Jaguars went 1-15 (worst in the NFL) this season and currently hold the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

The Titans also swept the season series with Jacksonville and have won five of six since Vrabel became head coach.