The University of Florida announced Urban Meyer is “stepping down” as head football coach after UF’s Sugar Bowl game against Cincinnati. Here’s the meat of the official Florida press release:
Urban Meyer is stepping down as head coach of the University of Florida football team, Athletics Director Jeremy Foley announced Saturday afternoon.
“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,” said Meyer. “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.
Very sad day for Florida and college football. Meyer is a mere 45 and on top of the college football mountain. So why is he quitting?
The best we have to go on at the moment was a piece three weeks ago by S.L. Price of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED that chronicled Meyer’s longtime battle with a brain cyst, which was first discovered in ‘98.
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.”
Once you read that, you aren’t as surprised as you might’ve been without context.
You also wonder if there hasn’t been some sort of development in Meyer’s condition since that piece. Hopefully not.
Might be a little early to start examining possible replacements, as I don’t rule out Meyer changing his mind. But it goes without saying that former UF DC Bob Stoops (under Steve Spurrier) would top the list.
UPDATE: Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com reports, “an NFL source tells us that Meyer has informed the team that he has a heart problem.”
UPDATE: Pete Thamel of the NEW YORK TIMES: “He’s not in the hospital . Doesn’t have a disease. A stress and lifestyle issue.“
7:42 pm on December 26th, 2009
I heard that TMZ just got pictures of him with Tiger and he wanted to beat the Turk.
7:55 pm on December 26th, 2009
What was faith before, 8th??
8:21 pm on December 26th, 2009
I hope he’s not sick but I smell a clause in his contract health related and within 6 weeks he feels better and he signs with Redskins for 10 million a year.
8:32 pm on December 26th, 2009
Meyer goes after a less stressful (and no recruiting) booth job in the NFL calling plays for someone after some time off. Meanwhile, Tennessee kicking Florida’s ass in Knoxville next September will be a little less fun now.
9:30 pm on December 26th, 2009
Look = Lane Kiffin??
11:57 pm on December 26th, 2009
Dr. Machen is the president of the university.
10:09 am on December 27th, 2009
Urban Meyer stepped down because of money.
The University of Florida board promised Meyer a $2 million raise if his Gators won the national title. After Florida failed against Alabama, Meyer went to the board and demanded the raise, arguing that the Gators’ winning streak over two seasons qualified him for the raise. The board disagreed.
Meyer was also furious that Notre Dame did not court him more ardently through the media or meet his demands for a 10-year, $60 million contract with a clause that would always pay him $2 million more than any Division I coach in the country. Meyer had told friends that resurrecting Notre Dame, as he had saved Florida, would make him a coaching legend amid the likes of Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, and his beloved Knute Rockne. He wanted that job in South Bend desperately, but Notre Dame’s board and boosters failed to meet his financial and power demands.
Meyer was also livid that his staff had not been able to recruit a quarterback to replace Tim Tebow. Meyer, a devout Born Again like Tebow, had demanded for two years that his staff bring him another “chosen one” with the football skills, religious background, and looks to be the All-American boy like Tebow. Meyer had grown furious with his coaches, cursing at them for failing to land another Tebow.
Before Meyer stepped down from Florida, he reached out to land a studio deal with George Bodenheimer at ESPN. Bodenheimer, delighted by the news, has agreed to fire Lou Holtz, who Meyer despises from his early days in coaching, and give Meyer Holtz’s studio seat and an expanded role at the network. Meyer signed a lucrative deal with ESPN to make up some of the money he’s losing by dumping Florida.
Look for Meyer to angle for the top jobs at Michigan (he’d love to force out Rich Rodriguez, another sworn enemy), Texas (Mack Brown’s about to retire), and Nebraska (which has Oklahoma on the schedule and an easy path to the Big 12 title game annually).
Also, Meyer, on the advise of religious advisers, has also considered a possible political run, potentially for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida against Charlie Crist. Meyer has vowed to bring his Born Again religious views and scorn for the First Amendment and President Obama to Washington, D.C. Meyer also sees a great opportunity to shape the BCS debate in Congress in his image and, much like Billy Tauzin of PhRma, to make a fortune from a career in Congress.
11:17 am on December 27th, 2009
Too bad about coach Meyer. Class act. Not sure who Lebowski888 is but I hope his comment is an attempt at humor. Otherwise what a complete douche!