Urban Meyer adds Charlie Strong to Jaguars staff

After being hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars, Urban Meyer has begun assembling his coaching staff. Now, he has reportedly added former Texas head coach Charlie Strong as an assistant.

According to Brett McMurphy of Stadium, Strong will be coming down to Jacksonville as a defensive assistant. McMurphy thinks Strong will take on the role of linebackers coach.

Most recently, Strong was a defensive analyst for Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama. Previously, Strong was the head coach at Louisville, Texas, and USF. HIs combined record as a college head coach is 74-53.

From 2010 through 2013, Strong found a lot of success as Louisville’s head coach. In his last two seasons with the Cardinals, Strong went a combined 23-3. After that, Texas hired Strong to be its next head coach. Strong never really got his feet under him with the Longhorns as he failed to record one winning season and had an overall record of 16-21. Strong was then the head coach at USF from 2017 through 2019. After going 10-2 in his first year with the Bulls, but he got fired after a 4-8 season in 2019.

In his introductory press conference with the Jaguars, Meyer was asked about hiring staff members from his most recent program, Ohio State. Meyer said that he might bring one person down from Columbus but didn’t want to be too disruptive to the Buckeyes.

“I talked to Gene (Smith) and I talked to coach (Ryan) Day and I won’t (raid their staff),” Meyer said. “I’m not there yet. That’s the best infrastructure in college sports. I’m not touching, there might be one that will leave, but I’m not going to do that to that organization. Ohio State is home to those guys now.”

When it comes to his approach to the NFL game, Meyer will tweak how he manages the game on the field. As a college head coach, Meyer was involved in the play-calling, but he will step back and let his offensive coordinator take full control in that area.

“I’m not going to be the play-caller. I’ve been active doing that in my career, but I’m not (here),” Meyer said. “Schematically, I think the NFL is different. One thing about offensive football is you find weaknesses. In the NFL, they’re all the best players in America.”