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SPORTS Friday 20 december 2019
Jaguars adjust clocks with Coughlin

gone, stump for Marrone

By MARK LONG one wants to have that earlier amid one of the
AP Sports Writer on their team, where they strangest seasons in fran-
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — have disgruntled players chise history. Among the
About 12 hours after Jag- and they're trying to get drama:
uars owner Shad Khan fired money back and all that." —Linebacker Telvin Smith,
top executive Tom Cough- Marrone might not have to the team's top tackler the
lin, all the clocks inside the win his final two games, be- past two seasons, abruptly
building were reset. There ginning Sunday at Atlanta walked away from football
was no more "Coughlin (5-9), but he probably can't in May. This photo taken Aug. 29, 2019, shows Tom Coughlin, executive
Time" in Jacksonville. afford another embarrass- —Defensive end Yannick vice president of football operations for the Jacksonville Jaguars
It could be the franchise's ment. The Jaguars (5-9) Ngakoue skipped most of watching players warm up before an NFL preseason football
most significant change. have lost 19 of their last 26 the offseason and part of game in Jacksonville, Fla.
There's growing belief games, 11 of those by dou- training camp in a con- Associated Press
that Khan plans to keep ble digits and six by 20 or tract dispute that remains game. Ramsey demanded coach."
coach Doug Marrone and more points. unsettled. a trade and refused to play Coughlin won two Super
general manager Dave They dropped five straight —Quarterback Nick Foles until he got shipped to the Bowls as coach of the New
Caldwell in 2020. Marrone by at least 17 points — the broke his left collarbone 11 Los Angeles Rams. York Giants. But he clearly
and Caldwell have two first NFL team to do that plays into the opener and "We've had a lot of noise," failed to make the transi-
years remaining on their since Tampa Bay in 1986 — missed eight games. Campbell said. "Coach tion from the sideline to the
contracts, and Khan ap- before scoring twice in the —Ramsey got in a heated Marrone's done an incred- front office, unable to stop
parently wants to see what final 5:15 last week to up- sideline exchange with ible job keeping the guys meddling in game plans
they do can without one set Oakland 20-16. Players Marrone at Houston and a focused and staying on and seemingly unwilling to
of the NFL's most stringent praised Marrone for keep- much-less public one with the task at hand. That's im- ease up on his mandates
taskmasters trying to con- ing them from crumbling Coughlin after the Week 2 pressive. He's a very good and minutiae.q
trol everything from draft
picks to sock choices.
"We'd love to see coach
Marrone stick around
and see this through," Pro
Bowl defensive end Cal-
ais Campbell. "Change
can be good. Too much
change can work against
you."
"It threw me off when I first
got here," defensive tackle
Abry Jones said. "I thought
I was late. That's probably
the strongest adjustment
we're going to have to get
to, just resetting 5 minutes
back."
Khan said he decided
weeks ago to fire Coughlin,
who botched several draft
picks, failed repeatedly to
fix the team's quarterback
situation and upset star
cornerback Jalen Ramsey
so much that he faked a
back injury to avoid play-
ing for Jacksonville.
Khan adjusted his time-
line after the NFL Play-
ers Association slammed
Coughlin on Monday. The
union said more than 25%
of player grievances filed
in the last two years have
been against the Jaguars
— against Coughlin, re-
ally — and warned players
to "consider this when you
have a chance to select
your next club."
It was damage Khan had
to address. "Mr. Khan was
trying to send a message
to the league and every-
one else," Jones said. "No