Fangio: Meyer says ‘every week it’s like playing Alabama’
By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Pro Football Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Vic Fangio says Urban Meyer told him coaching in the NFL is “like playing Alabama” every week.
Denver’s coach relayed his conversation from last weekend with the embattled Jacksonville Jaguars coach to illustrate a point about parity in the NFL.
Asked on Wednesday how his Broncos (2-0) would handle being a 10½-point favorite this weekend against the Jets (0-2), Fangio said betting lines “don’t mean anything to us. You know, this is the NFL.”
Then, he recounted his conversation with Meyer from the Broncos’ 23-13 victory at Jacksonville (0-2).
“I don’t know Urban Meyer at all really, I met him the other day, shook his hand before the game and after the game and his comment to me was, ‘Every week it’s like playing Alabama in the NFL,’” Fangio said.
“And that’s it. Everybody’s capable of beating everybody in this league.”
Meyer has lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2013 when his Ohio State Buckeyes lost to Michigan State in the Big Ten title game and to Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
The Jaguars were roasted on social media for a postgame tweet Sunday night that featured a message from Meyer following the franchise’s 17th consecutive loss.
It read, “Hang in there with us. We’re going to get better. The one thing about Jacksonville and the 904, go to sleep knowing there’s not going to be any group working harder to get this thing flipped.”
Beneath those words was a photo of Jaguars players and coaches arm-in-arm with No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence in the middle.
Meyer was conspicuously absent from the photo.
The post promoted one podcaster to respond, “Bro … It’s only Week 2.”
Meyer has had a rough transition to the NFL following a 17-year run as a college head coach who won 85% of his games and three national championships.
He botched the hiring of two coordinators (Chris Doyle, Brian Schneider), invited Tim Tebow to training camp as a tight end, didn’t upgrade a bad offensive line in the offseason and had Lawrence split valuable first-team repetitions in training camp with a quarterback no longer on the roster.
The Jaguars looked dysfunctional in a 37-21 loss at Houston in Meyer’s NFL coaching debut and when Southern California fired coach Clay Helton a day later, speculation swirled about Meyer’s immediate future in Jacksonville.
Meyer responded last week by saying “there’s no chance” he takes the Trojans job and he insisted he was in Jacksonville for the long haul.
The Jaguars host the undefeated Arizona Cardinals (2-0) Sunday. The previous time Meyer lost three consecutive games was in 2010, when his Florida Gators lost to Alabama, LSU and Mississippi State.
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