Jaguars coach Urban Meyer finds himself on the defensive after the controversial hiring of a sports performance coach accused of bullying and making racist remarks.
Chris Doyle, formerly the strength and conditioning coach at Iowa from 1999 to 2020, was dismissed from that program after multiple allegations of racist language and treating black players differently than other players.
Meyer hired Doyle as his sports performance coach, one of 28 people hired as the long-time college coach filled out his first NFL coaching staff.
Meyer, however, feels good about the hire based on his background study of Doyle and the allegations against him.
Meyer said:
I vet everyone on our staff and, like I said, the relationship goes back close to 20 years and a lot of hard questions asked, a lot of vetting involved with all our staff.
We did a very good job vetting that one.
I met with our staff, and I’m going to be very transparent with all the players like I am with everything. I’ll listen closely and learn and also there’s going to have to be some trust in their head coach that we’re going to give them the very best of the best, and time will tell.
As for how the hire may be perceived by some of his players, Meyer says they should feel good about the process that was followed.
“The allegations that took place, I will say [to the players] I vetted him,” Meyer explained. “I know the person for close to 20 years, and I can assure them there will be nothing of any sort in the Jaguar facility.”
Meyer is in his first year as an NFL coach after a lengthy college career that included three national championships at Florida and Ohio State.