Urban Meyer’s move to the Jacksonville Jaguars will carry a lot of repercussions. Some of them may involve members of Ryan Day’s staff at Ohio State.
Many of those on Day’s staff are holdovers from the Meyer era at Ohio State, and some of them have ties to Meyer even going back to their Florida days. That raises the question of whether the incoming Jaguars coach will return to the Buckeyes and poach some of the names he knows well.
For now, there’s no clear answer. Bill Rabinowitz of Buckeye Xtra reported that Mickey Marotti, the Buckeyes’ strength and conditioning coach, who has known Meyer since they were students at Cincinnati, will remain at Ohio State. Mariotti had worked closely with Meyer at Florida and Ohio State, so there had been some thinking he may be tempted to move to Jacksonville.
Less clear are the futures of some other key staff members with close ties to Meyer. Assistant athletic director for player development Ryan Stamper played for Meyer at Florida, and is actually a Jacksonville native. Mark Pantoni, who runs the Buckeyes’ vaunted recruiting department, is also a Florida native who has worked for Meyer since their Gator days. There were no immediate hints about whether they would follow Meyer to Jacksonville, or if they’d even be offered the opportunity.
Rabinowitz does report that Ohio State does not expect many members of its athletic staff to leave for the Jaguars.
The expectation is that the vast majority of Meyer’s staff will be filled from elsewhere. For instance, Meyer has already added one big name to his staff who has no ties to Ohio State.
