Former Iowa strength coach who left amid accusations of racism hired by Jaguars

Chris Doyle, the former longtime strength coach for Iowa Hawkeyes football who left the program amid accusations of racism, has been hired as the director of sport performance with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

New Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer said on Thursday that he has known Doyle for close to 20 years.

"I vetted him thoroughly along with our general manager and owner," Meyer said at a news conference. "I feel great about the hire, about his expertise at that position. We vetted him thoroughly and sports performance is going to be a high, high priority."

Doyle spent 21 years with the Hawkeyes, but as former players made accusations about institutional racism within the football program, including specific accusations against Doyle, he and the university agreed to a $1.1 million buyout.

After that decision was made, Doyle released a statement that said while he made past mistakes, he never used racist language: "At no time have I ever crossed the line of unethical behavior or bias based on race. I do not make racists comments and I don't tolerate people that do."

In the aftermath of Doyle's firing and an external review of racism in the football program, the Hawkeyes hired former Cretin-Derham Hall and University of Iowa standout Broderick Binns to be their executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the athletic department.

Binns had previously been the director of player development for the Hawkeyes football team.

Meyer officially hired Doyle as Jacksonville's director of sports performance — part of a 30-person staff — and said he will assist the strength and conditioning and athletic training programs.

The staff also includes Darrell Bevell as offensive coordinator, Joe Cullen as defensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer as passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach, and Brian Schneider as special teams coordinator. Meyer made most of the hires weeks ago, but waited to announce them until after each one signed.

Bevell was most recently with Detroit and is a former Vikings offensive coordinator.

Meyer, a longtime college coach, also made former Louisville, Texas and South Florida coach Charlie Strong his assistant head coach/inside linebackers coach. Strong was one of three key hires who had no previous NFL experience, along with tight ends coach Tyler Bowen and safeties coach Chris Ash. Strong spent the better part of the last four decades in the college ranks. Ash is a former head coach at Rutgers.

Meyer kept seven holdovers from fired coach Doug Marrone's staff, including veteran offensive line coach George Warhop, cornerbacks coach Tim Walton, nickel cornerbacks coach Joe Danna and assistant linebackers coach Tony Gilbert.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.