Urban Meyer is beginning to realize the big differences between working in the National Football League and college football.

The newly hired Jaguars head coach is experiencing his first free-agency period in the NFL and he’s not a fan of the process.

Teams are only permitted to contact the agents of players who will become free agents during the two-day period before the new league year, which began Wednesday.

Many deals are reached in that short window, meaning Meyer had to sign free agents without meeting face to face.

“Yeah, that was awful,” Meyer told reporters Friday morning. “I don’t agree with it, but no one asked my opinion. I guess in the old days you could bring them in and meet them, have dinner with them, you find out the football intellect, find out their character. The thing you don’t [do], I found out, is call someone who has skin in the game because they’re going to not quite — I don’t see honest as a very appropriate [word]. So we did a deep dive. Every guy that we signed, we did. …

“To answer your question, that was awful, and I don’t believe it should be that way. Not when you’re making organizational decisions. I’m not sure how that rule came about, but to me that’s not good business.”

After dominating the recruiting game at the college level at Florida and Ohio State, Meyer wasn’t used to bringing on players without getting an opportunity to speak with them. Of the 11 free agents the Jaguars signed this year, Meyers knew just one from his time with the Buckeyes: running back Carlos Hyde. Meyer couldn’t talk to Hyde, who unofficially agreed to terms with Jacksonville on Monday, until 4 p.m. Wednesday.

As for the other 10 players, Meyer’s assistant coaches had some connection to six of them, including receivers Marvin Jones Jr. and Phillip Dorsett, as well as cornerback Shaquill Griffin.

Meyer said he got some insight from former Florida receiver Louis Murphy, who may be joining the team’s coaching staff, on the organization’s other signings – such as Griffin and Jenkins. The Jaguars weren’t able to get one of their top targets in defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, who signed with the Vikings.

“In recruiting we would have our recruiting meeting and identify the best players and say go get them,” Meyer said. “And, then all of a sudden I start finding out this guy cost $28 million and this guy costs … I knew it, to say I didn’t know it, of course I knew it, but just the way you put that puzzle together about here’s your cap space, here’s your choices, can we take him but we get three of these guys to help. And so I imagine once you build your roster exactly the way you want it, then you can take one guy and go get that $25 million athlete.

“We’re not in position to do that right now. We’re just not. So it was a learning experience, and I feel great about it.”