Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Urban Meyer Loves A Deep Bench

As the NFL prepares for the 2021 season, I wanted to share lessons learned from one of the most high-profile coaching changes made during the league’s off-season. The Jacksonville Jaguars made that change, bringing in a highly successful college coach, Urban Meyer, to take the reins in his first NFL job. 

As the head football of the Florida Gators from 2005 to 2010 and the Ohio State Buckeyes from 2012 to 2018, Urban Meyer won three national championships and established himself as one of only three coaches, along with Pop Warner and Nick Saban, to win a major college football national championship at two universities.

But as he told me and Special Guest Host and Author John C. Maxwell in this episode of Corporate Competitor Podcast, he feels he evolved as a coach between those three championships.

“I used to say the job of a leader is to set the standard and demand all live up to that,” said Meyer. “I’ve come to believe the job of a leader is to earn your team’s trust. And then you set a standard, while equipping and inspiring them so they can achieve the standard.”

Meyer’s coaching philosophy rests on his belief that the best teams have a culture that produces deep benches which can produce extraordinary leadership when the normal chain of command is broken. To illustrate his point, Meyer points to his 2014 team that came together when Cardale Jones, OSU’s third-string quarterback, played in the national championship game after injuries knocked out the first- and second-string quarterbacks.

Meyer’s system for building a deep bench will help any business leader seeking to build strong teams in their organizations. In this podcast you’ll learn about:

2:15   How to respect the accomplishments of your predecessors.

6:00   How to motivate people with love vs. fear.

13:00  How to keep your team “above the line” when confronting adversity.

15:00  The keys to battling complacency.

18:30  How to bake leadership development into your core values.

20:15  The secret of building a “deep bench.”

23:00  How Coach Meyer uses the Navy Seals as an example.

Meyer believes championships may be won or lost by such routine decisions as how leaders respond when feeling tired, bored or angry about something. Make your smart decision now and listen to this edition of Corporate Competitor Podcast!

Check out the full Corporate Competitor Podcast interview archive and subscribe to new episodes.