Urban Meyer

[broncophan]

stepping down at Florida...........................WOW...
sorry no link......just talked about it on the pitt/carolina bowl game...on espn...

[BroncoWave]

I heard it too. This is pretty unbelievable!

[Skinny]

Yeah, just heard that during the NC/Pitt game. Wow is right.

[broncophan]

wonder what he is up to???
ESPN news says health related

[Nomad]

Must be something pretty troubling and worrisome for him to step down!!


____________________________________

Meyer to coach final game at Sugar BowlComment Email Print Share ESPN.com news services

Urban Meyer is stepping down as coach of the Florida football team, athletic director Jeremy Foley announced Saturday afternoon in a release.

"I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I have dedicated most of my waking moments the last five years to the Gator football program," Meyer, 45, said in statement. "I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to reevaluate my priorities of faith and family.

"After consulting with my family, Dr. Machen, Jeremy Foley and my doctors, I believe it is in my best interest to step aside and focus on my health and family."

Meyer will coach his last game for Florida against Cincinnati on Jan. 1 at the Sugar Bowl.

"Coach Meyer and I have talked this through and I realize how hard this was for him to reach this decision," Foley said in a statement. "But, the bottom line is that Coach Meyer needed to make a choice that is in the best interest of his well being and his family. I certainly appreciate what he has meant to the University of Florida, our football program and the Gator Nation. I have never seen anyone more committed to his players, his family and his program. Above all, I appreciate our friendship."

Meyer helped the Gators win two national titles in five years at Florida. He is the only coach to win two BCS titles.

A three-time national coach of the year, Meyer is 95-18 in nine seasons. Meyer's five-year record at Florida is 56-10, including a school-record stretch of 22 straight consecutive wins, the fourth longest streak by an SEC team and the longest in the conference in 15 years.

Meyer, 45, holds a 32-8 mark in SEC play at Florida, which is the top career SEC winning percentage among head coaches who spent five years or more in the conference.

Meyer came to Florida from Utah, where he closed out his stint with 16 consecutive wins. He began his head coaching career at Bowling Green in 2001, where he engineered the top turnaround in NCAA Division I-A football, showing a six-win improvement from the previous season. The Falcons rebounded from a 2-9 record with their first winning season (8-3) since 1994.

[broncophan]

Didn't Shanahan interview for the Florida job 5 years ago when Meyer took it??...
I think I remember something about Shanahan and the school President or something....being friends...

I just wonder if their would be any interest from either side...

[BroncoWave]

Didn't Shanahan interview for the Florida job 5 years ago when Meyer took it??...
I think I remember something about Shanahan and the school President or something....being friends...

I just wonder if their would be any interest from either side...

I was about to post the same thing. He didn't interview but his name was mentioned as a candidate.

[SmilinAssasSin27]

As much as I hate the Gators...the best to him and his family and hope is health improves.

[Buff]

Crazy... Never could have predicted that. I wonder if they'll call Shanny now--he almost took the job before Ron Zook did.

Interesting stuff here about some of his health issues.


December 26, 2009, 7:13 pm
Florida’s Meyer to Step Down
By CONNOR ENNIS
In a shocking announcement, Urban Meyer said Saturday that the Sugar Bowl would be his last game as Florida’s coach.

“I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I have dedicated most of my waking moments the last five years to the Gator football program,” Meyer said in statement released by the university. “I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to re-evaluate my priorities of faith and family.

“After consulting with my family, Dr. Machen, Jeremy Foley and my doctors, I believe it is in my best interest to step aside and focus on my health and family.”

The Gators, who have won two national titles in five seasons under Meyer, will play Cincinnati on Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl. Dr. Machen is Bernie Machen, Florida’s president.

A recent profile of Meyer in Sports Illustrated made mention of Meyer’s dealing with splitting headaches while on the sideline. One instance, when Meyer was a Notre Dame assistant, was witnessed by Irish flanker Joey Getherall:

He even thought it funny, at first, when late in that 1998 win over Michigan he saw Meyer reeling: eyes saucered, face gone pale, knocked nearly unconscious by a blast of pain. “My head!” Meyer roared. He was holding the earflaps of his headset, sinking to a knee as if his usual storm—all that furious ambition and energy—had backfired at the source. “Agggghhh!” Meyer bellowed again. “My head!”

It felt, Meyer would later say, like his skull was being split by an ax. He moved to the bench, caught his breath, got back up. He’d had headaches before but nothing like this. Any movement might bring back the pain; he felt it hovering. He was scared. As the clock spun down, every play, every twist, felt like a threat.

But he kept coaching.

Update | 7:19 p.m. Florida’s athletic director, Jeremy Foley, said in a statement:

“Coach Meyer and I have talked this through and I realize how hard this was for him to reach this decision. But, the bottom line is that Coach Meyer needed to make a choice that is in the best interest of his well being and his family.”

Health is being cited as the reason for the 45-year-old Meyer’s resignation, and he was hospitalized following the Gators’ loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Dec. 5. Bruce Feldman of ESPN The Magazine sent a tweet shortly after the announcement where he said that a coach he knew saw Meyer two weeks ago and “said he looked so gaunt he barely recognized him.”

The Sports Illustrated article, which was written by S.L. Price and appeared in the Dec. 7 issue, also referenced a scary moment for Meyer that happened while he was coaching at Utah against Oregon six years ago.

Then it hit. The pain stampeded through his skull, near-blinding, far worse than the time in South Bend: “It was killing me,” Meyer says. The Utes won, the game ended in a roiling riot of celebration, and, Lord, Meyer tried. He took his ecstatic players into the locker room and led them in prayer, grinning to show he was happy, though the grinning hurt too. He stumbled into the training room, and the men there laid him out on a table.

This time Meyer didn’t blow it off. He went to a doctor the following week, and when he was shown the CAT scan, he could see the big, dark mass. “That’s a tumor on my brain,” Meyer said. “Oh my gosh….” He felt a flash of terror, saw images of Shelley and the girls and four-year old Nate, and at 39 he realized that he just might die.

But no: It wasn’t a tumor but the same arachnoid cyst, inflamed again by stress, rage, excitement. Again, a doctor told Meyer he had to ease up. This time he listened. “Ever since that day, on the sideline you’ll see me—I’m trying to stay very composed,” he says. “I have headaches, but not like that. I’ve changed.”

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/floridas-meyer-to-step-down/?src=twt&twt=nytimes

[Timmy!]

ESPN now reporting it is due to a heart muscle defect, and Meyer has been to the hospital several times for chest pains since the Dec 5 SEC title game. They are also reporting it is not life threatening.

[Buff]

December 27, 2009
Meyer Says He’s Quitting as Coach of Florida
By PETE THAMEL

Hours after Florida lost to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference title game on Dec. 5, Gators Coach Urban Meyer awoke in the middle of the night with severe chest pains.

He had experienced similar pains the past two years, but this time was different. He lost consciousness, went to a hospital in an ambulance and had more than nine hours of testing.

That night was the tipping point for Meyer, 45, who stunned college football on Saturday by announcing that he was stepping down from coaching.

“There was no heart damage,” Meyer said. “But I didn’t want there to be a bad day where there were three kids sitting around wondering what to do next. It was the pattern of what I was doing and how I was doing it. It was self-destructive.”

Meyer said in a telephone interview late Saturday that the hospital trip prompted weeks of soul searching that ended on Christmas night, when he told his family he would be leaving his job at Florida. He said that his 18-year-old daughter, Nicki, hugged him and said, “I get my daddy back.”

“I saw it as a sign from God that this was the right thing to do,” Meyer said of his daughter’s reaction. “I was worried about letting people down. I was feeling so awful and concerned about my health. That was among several other signs that said it’s time to back away.”

Meyer led the Gators to two of the past three national titles and posted a career record of 95-18, including a 56-10 mark at Florida entering the Sugar Bowl.

If there was a hallmark to Meyer’s coaching style, both on and off the field, it was his relentlessness. He said he found himself e-mailing recruits in church. He said that his 16-year-old daughter told him that she had not felt as if she had talked to him in the past two years. In a 10-day period around the SEC title game, Meyer said, he lost 20 pounds. Meyer discussed coaching one more year with Florida’s athletic director, Jeremy Foley, but decided to step down immediately.

“When your health flashes before your eyes, what’s before you means more than anything,” he said. “I have a strong faith that there’s a reason for everything, and God has a plan for us. I just don’t know what it is.”

Asked if he would return to coaching, Meyer said he had not thought about it. But it appeared clear that he would not return anytime soon. He said his main concern was winning the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati on Jan. 1 and making sure he took care of his coaches and his players.

“I just want to win this game for these players and make sure that the University of Florida is in good shape,” Meyer said. “I haven’t even thought about anything after that, other than I’m a Gator and I’ll always be a Gator.”

The decision came as a surprise to many people close to Meyer. He said he broke down in tears multiple times when addressing his team Saturday. He said the players took the news well, understanding that he was putting his health first.

“I was very concerned about that,” he said. “They were awesome. They stayed 45 minutes afterward.”

Meyer’s father, Bud, said he did not know of his son’s decision until he received a phone call Saturday night.

“He just doesn’t take losing very well,” Bud Meyer said. “He doesn’t want to die because he wants to raise his family. He feels he has an obligation to raise his family. He takes it extremely hard. That’s what happens.”

Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen, a former assistant to Meyer, said he was stunned by the news, which he heard when he was on an exercise machine while watching bowl games at his house Saturday. Mullen said building a successful program consumed Meyer.

“When he commits to doing something, it consumed him,” said Mullen, who worked with Meyer at Notre Dame, Utah and Florida. “I think that takes a toll on you after a while. Putting that much in. It burns you out pretty quick.”

The news sent shockwaves through the sport and raised a fascinating question: Who will replace Meyer in what some consider the best job in college football? The two top candidates will be Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops and Mullen. Both are former Florida assistant coaches: Stoops was the defensive coordinator during Steve Spurrier’s tenure, and Mullen left after last season to take over at Mississippi State. Other names to be considered include Boise State ’s Chris Petersen; Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh; Louisville’s Charlie Strong, who was Florida’s defensive coordinator until this month; and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham.

Meyer will be involved in the choice of his successor, but the decision will be Foley’s.

Meyer’s resignation was met with shock and understanding by other top coaches. Many said they respected his decision.

“Being a college football coach, especially at the level of Florida, is like being on Wall Street,” Texas Christian Coach Gary Patterson said. “It’s a pressure that multiplies when you consider all the different things that go along with it. You’re talking about millions of dollars, the pressure to win, the fan base. It’s a seven-day evaluation.”

Mississippi Coach Houston Nutt said: “It’s a shame. It really is.”

For Meyer, it was the only decision.

“I made the decision that had to be made at this time,” he said. “There were all the warning signs. I felt like God was telling me I have to slow down and stop it.”

Thayer Evans contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/sports/ncaafootball/27florida.html?_r=2&ref=sports&pagewanted=print

This seems to be the story from the horse's mouth.

[BroncoAV06]

Oh wait there is more! Myer is just taking leave!


GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida coach Urban Meyer will not step down but instead will take an indefinite leave of absence, a Florida source confirmed to SI.com Sunday afternoon. Offensive coordinator Steve Addazio will serve as the Gators' interim coach until Meyer's return, the source said.

Meyer is expected to discuss his decision at a news conference in New Orleans at approximately 4:30 p.m. ET.

Meyer stunned the college football world Saturday when he announced he would leave Florida after five seasons because of concerns for his health. Meyer was rushed to a Gainesville hospital Dec. 6 after suffering major chest pain. He told multiple media outlets Saturday that the scare made him re-evaluate his priorities, and he decided this past weekend that he would step down.

Rivals.com site GatorBait.com cited multiple sources as saying Meyer addressed the Gators again on Sunday as their plane sat on the tarmac in Gainesville before their flight to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. On the plane, Meyer floated the idea that he might return.

Word spread quickly after that. Several recruits heard the news and sought more info.

Lineman Leon Orr, from Gulf High in New Port Richey, Fla., called Gators defensive line coach Dan McCarney, who confirmed that Meyer had changed his mind.

"I'm real excited," Orr said. "I'm glad he's just taking a leave of absence."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/12/27/meyer.indefinite.leave/index.html?eref=sihp#ixzz0avM5lkJZ