New Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer isn’t the only one on the staff who will be coaching in the NFL in 2021 for the first time ever. Though he loaded his staff with a number of experienced professional assistants, he also brought in a familiar face.
Charlie Strong has a long history with Meyer. The two were assistants at Notre Dame together from 1996-98, and when Meyer received the head coaching job at Florida in 2005, he brought in Strong as his defensive coordinator, a position he held until 2009.
After head coaching stints at Louisville, Texas and South Florida, Strong will be working with Meyer again as the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach for the Jaguars.
On an episode of the “Another Dooley Noted Podcast” with Pat Dooley, Strong discussed the adjustment he’s had to make coaching at the professional level.
“When you think about the differences between just the college athletes and the professional athletes, it’s all about can you create value for them,” Strong said, according to quotes transcribed by Saturday Down South. “The thing about a professional athlete, he just wants to extend his career because it’s a living for them and if you can help them extend their career, they’re more than willing to listen, Pat. We’ve had no resistance from any of the players, and it’s really been exciting just to see how much they’ve come to work each and every day and how much they’re buying into what we’re trying to get them to do.”
Joining a team coming off a 1-15 finish (the worst in franchise history), it’s clear that the new staff needed to bring a jolt to the locker room. According to Strong, the coaches are already seeing that buy-in from the players.
“Coming in as a completely new staff and then coming in with Urban, I just think that the players are really buying in and trying to do everything you ask them to do,” he said. “When you have a plan in place, which he does have a plan in place, then the players are more willing to listen. And then these guys are professionals, so they understand that our success is going to be how we go play is going to be more for them. And so they’re going to try to do everything you ask them to do. Like I said, it’s all about creating value. How do I create value for myself?”
The track record of first-time NFL coaches isn’t great, but this staff enters with one of the best situations one could ask for. The team has a rookie potential star quarterback in Trevor Lawrence and lots of cap space. The Jags are undoubtedly a team set up to succeed in the future, and it seems the staff likes the early returns it’s seeing.
