Following Jacksonville’s 20-0 loss on Sunday to the Tennessee Titans, Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer denied reports that outlined growing tensions within the locker room, threatening to fire the source behind the leaks.
Those reports included a shouting match between Meyer and wide receiver Marvin Jones, and allegations that Meyer blasted his coaching staff for being “losers,” challenging them to defend their resumes and prove to him when they’ve ever won.
“What’s the answer [when things are going badly]? Start leaking information or some nonsense?” Meyer said after the game. “No. No, that’s nonsense. That’s garbage. I’ve been very blessed. I’ve not really dealt with that. I’ve not dealt with, ‘Well, did you hear what he said?’ What? No. Let’s improve on offense and get our quarterback in a position to be successful. That’s our focus.”
“What someone’s brother said, or someone said someone said, that will occupy very little of my time. And if there is a source, that source is unemployed. I mean, within seconds, if there’s some source that’s doing that,” he added.
Free agent kicker Josh Lambo is no longer employed by the Jaguars, and he isn’t holding back on sharing his experience with Meyer as his head coach.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that Lambo began the 2021 season as Jacksonville’s kicker, but had missed two field goal attempts in the Jaguars first two preseason games. While at practice, Meyer approached Lambo while the kicker was stretching, imploring him to convert his field goal attempts and then delivering a kick to Lambo’s leg.
“I’m in a lunge position. Left leg forward, right leg back,” Lambo said. “… Urban Meyer, while I’m in that stretch position, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Dips–t, make your f–king kicks!’ And kicks me in the leg.”
Lambo characterized the kick as a “five (out of 10),” and then told Meyer “‘Don’t you ever f–king kick me again!” Meyer allegedly responded by saying “I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f–k I want.”
As he did on Sunday, Meyer denied the allegations, saying Lambo’s story was “completely inaccurate.”
“Josh’s characterization of me and this incident is completely inaccurate, and there are eyewitnesses to refute his account,” Meyer said. “[General manager] Trent [Baalke] and I met with him on multiple occasions to encourage his performance, and this was never brought up. I was fully supportive of Josh during his time with the team and wish him nothing but the best.”
Lambo told the newspaper that Meyer approached him the next day at the team facility, telling Lambo he would be off the team if he spoke to Meyer in the same manner again.
“The details of the conversation I do remember, I was having issues with how he was coaching me throughout spring, throughout camp that I had kept to myself and I expressed a couple of those issues with the special teams coordinator, who related them to Urban, who seemingly halfway understood,” Lambo said. “His response was, ‘OK, you don’t like me doing this, OK. If you don’t like me doing that, fine. But if you ever speak to me like that again, you’ll be out of here. You’re the first player I’ve ever let speak to me that way in my career, and if you do it again, you’re gone.’”
Lambo said that Meyer told him that if he had a problem with how the coach treated him at a practice, to “keep that to yourself and you wait until after practice and after meetings and you come find me in the office and tell me privately.”
Lambo told the Times he reported the incident to his agent, who got in touch with the Jaguars legal counsel the day following the incident.
“Jaguars legal counsel indeed acknowledged and responded immediately to the query made by Josh Lambo’s agent Friday, August 27, 2021,” the Jaguars said in a statement to the Times. “Counsel offered to speak with Josh, or to assist Josh in speaking with coaching or any other football personnel, if he was comfortable with her sharing the information. Any suggestion otherwise is blatantly false.”
Lambo was released by the Jaguars on October 19, missing three field goals and two PAT’s in three games.
Meyer agreed to return to coaching this offseason — his first stint in the NFL — after trying his hand at broadcasting. Many questioned the hire at the time, considering Meyer had only coached in the college ranks in his long career.
He found himself in hot water earlier in the season when a video surfaced of Meyer at a bar with a young woman grinding against him. Meyer apologized to the team, but Jaguars owner Shad Khan said he would have to “regain our trust and respect.”
On Monday, Khan said he won’t act “helter-skelter on emotion” when determining Meyer’s future with the organization.
“I want to do the right thing for the team. I want to do the right thing for the city,” Khan said. “That, to me, is way more important than just acting helter-skelter on emotion. I think we have a history of really looking at the facts and then really doing the right thing.
“Gus Bradley was here four years. Doug Marrone was here four years. It was wins and losses and this is a little bit different but, you know, I’m going to reflect on all of that and do what’s the right thing for the team and the right thing for the city.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].