Urban Meyer’s turbulent tenure as an NFL coach came to an abrupt end overnight when the Jacksonville Jaguars fired him after less than a  season following yet another of the controversies that had defined his brief time on the job. 

Meyer was ousted from his first and only professional football job after racking up more problems than wins for the 2-11 Jaguars.  Great fanfare had accompanied the hiring of a coach who had won three college football national championships, but Meyer was in hot water almost from the moment he...

Urban Meyer’s turbulent tenure as an NFL coach came to an abrupt end overnight when the Jacksonville Jaguars fired him after less than a  season following yet another of the controversies that had defined his brief time on the job. 

Meyer was ousted from his first and only professional football job after racking up more problems than wins for the 2-11 Jaguars.  Great fanfare had accompanied the hiring of a coach who had won three college football national championships, but Meyer was in hot water almost from the moment he took over.

The controversies included his own off-field conduct—with salacious videos that circulated on social media—and deteriorating relationships with players and staff. On Wednesday, the team’s former kicker alleged that Meyer had kicked him during practice. 

“After deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team, I am bitterly disappointed to arrive at the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone,” owner Shad Khan said in a statement early Thursday morning. 

”I am bitterly disappointed to arrive at the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone,” said Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

Photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images

Eleven months ago, Khan had struck a far different tone. After the Jaguars finished the 2020 NFL season with just one win, the worst record in the league, he sought out Meyer to be the team’s savior. Meyer, who had roots nearby as the former coach at the University of Florida, where he won two titles before winning another at Ohio State, was the latest in a long list of giants who had conquered the college game before deciding to take their chances with the pros. 

Armed with No. 1 overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence, Meyer was installed to turn the Jaguars into winners the way he had done at every one of his college stops. 

Problems quickly emerged. Less than a month into Meyer’s tenure, Chris Doyle, who Meyer had hired as the team’s director of sports performance, left because of renewed attention on past allegations of bullying and discrimination made against him when he was the strength coach at the University of Iowa. Doyle had denied the allegations. 

The incident was an early signal of how Meyer would handle the transition. He had to quickly pivot from saying the team had done a “very good job” vetting Doyle, to saying they “should have given greater consideration to how his appointment may have affected all involved.” 

The problems mounted when the actual football began. Meyer and the team were fined for violating offseason practice rules that prohibit contact. He was also the subject of an investigation by the players union for suggesting players’ vaccination statuses played a role in roster decisions, before the team walked back his comment. In another eyebrow-raising decision, Meyer signed—before later cutting—his former college star, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, as a tight end. Tebow hadn’t played in an NFL game since 2012.

As more of these examples piled up, a high-definition portrait emerged of a coach who was struggling—and failing—to adjust to a new universe. That was never clearer than in October, when viral videos emerged of the coach at his eponymous Columbus, Ohio restaurant with a woman, who wasn’t his wife, dancing suggestively on his lap. 

The concern wasn’t just his personal behavior. It was the decision he made to stay in Ohio after a Thursday-night loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in lieu of flying back with the team—something that people in football circles portrayed as almost unheard of. Meyer, at the time, said he apologized to the team and shouldn’t have put himself in that situation. 

That was also the moment when his job appeared to begin facing serious jeopardy, even if his first season wasn’t halfway done at the time. Khan, who had hailed Meyer as a “winner, a leader, and a champion” upon his hiring, issued a rare statement in October rebuking his coach and implying he lost the trust of the team. 

“His conduct last weekend was inexcusable. I appreciate Urban’s remorse, which I believe is sincere,” Khan said in a statement then. “Now, he must regain our trust and respect. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver.”

All of that could have been ignored had the Jaguars improved on the field. Instead, they emerged as perhaps the NFL’s worst team once again. During their latest five-game losing streak, the team’s offense—which Meyer was always known for in college—has been especially woeful, averaging just 9.6 points per game. The Jaguars were shut out Sunday by Tennessee. 

That loss came on the heels of yet another report calling into question Meyer’s fitness for the job. An NFL Network story said Meyer told his assistant coaches they were losers while he was a winner and described tensions boiling over with players inside the locker room. Meyer called the report inaccurate, indicated he would fire any source for that story and said more broadly Sunday that he still had confidence he could make it in the NFL. 

“Yeah, I do,” Meyer said. “Most certainly.”

Hours before Meyer’s firing, Lawrence—the team’s most prized asset—noted that the constant drama surrounding the team was becoming an issue. 

A top priority for Jacksonville now is stabilize the career of rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the top overall pick in the NFL draft.

Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

“There’s been a lot,” Lawrence said, “I do think that has to change. That’s something that we need to work on for sure. You can’t always be in the headlines.”

The same day Lawrence said that, another ugly accusation emerged: former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo told the Tampa Bay Times that Meyer had kicked him when he was with the team. Meyer said the incident was mischaracterized, while the Jaguars had confirmed that Lambo’s agent had made a complaint to the team at the time. 

A person familiar with Khan’s thinking said that this specific incident did not play a role in Meyer’s firing. 

“As I stated in October, regaining our trust and respect was essential,” Khan said in his statement. “Regrettably, it did not happen.”

Meyer’s disastrous season will go down as perhaps the worst transition from college to the pros in recent history. Nick Saban didn’t become a star in the NFL, but lasted two years and went 15-17 with the Miami Dolphins before bolting for Alabama. Lou Holtz, with the New York Jets, and Bobby Petrino, with the Atlanta Falcons, each only lasted 13 games—just like Meyer—but each managed to win three games to Meyer’s two. 

Meyer’s 11 losses with the Jaguars mark more defeats than he suffered over his entire seven-year tenure at Ohio State. 

Darrell Bevell, Jacksonville’s offensive coordinator, will serve as the team’s interim coach. The current priority for the franchise will be to avoid turning Meyer’s failed season into an even bigger miscue: squandering the talents of Lawrence. The former Clemson quarterback was hailed as a generational quarterback coming out of college, with absolutely zero doubt that the Jaguars had earned a windfall by being bad enough to select him. It’s part of what made Jacksonville an attractive destination for coaches last year, so much so that it lured Meyer back into coaching and into the NFL for the first time. 

Lawrence, though, has struggled mightily as a rookie. He has thrown nine touchdowns and a league-high 14 interceptions, and it has been especially difficult lately while the offense has sputtered. 

Still, he has fallen short while having to deal with an unusual circus surrounding him. And his abilities, combined with the discount he’ll get for spending the season under Meyer, are why the Jaguars will be an attractive coaching destination once again. 

Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com