According to his statement today, Urban Meyer will resign as University of Florida head football coach “for health reasons” following the 2010 Sugar Bowl. As I type, the ESPN crawl on the Emerald Bowl says he has a heart muscle defect, and that he’ll assume some non-coaching role with Florida.
As of now, he is 56-10 at Florida, and 95-18 as a head coach overall (including Bowling Green and Utah). Wow.
I hate this as a person for him, for his family, and for his players. I hate it as an Alabama fan because the Saban vs. Meyer narrative had tremendous potential for the next decade or so (or however long Saban coaches before he retires). They’re both awfully good, and several more epic clashes were all but guaranteed.
Plus, who is that urchin in Knoxville going to pick on now?
All the best to you, Coach Meyer.
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Bo, he was an arrogant SOB who boasted his spread offense could not be stopped if run correctly. He had access to the richest pool of talent with the greatest Athletic Director in college sports. I hate that his health has suffered and that we’ll never see Saban tear him up twice next year, but he wasn’t a saint…he just happened to be coaching Jesus at QB. I’ll miss the competition, but honestly, he annoyed me.
UF already clamoring for Patterson (TCU), Peterson (Boise), and Da Spur(!!!) to take the reins. Here’s hoping their fickle, jorts-wearing fan base gets Charlie Weiss.
BamaDan, I hear you, but I’m not so sure he’s arrogant to the point that I’d have a problem with him were he “mine.”
‘Course, now it looks like he’s not really quitting, but taking a “leave of absence” or something. Now my opinion of him has taken a serious hit. You don’t come out like you did yesterday unless it’s happening.
Hmm. It seems altogether too convenient.
Look, if he really has some sort of health issue that needs him taking a leave of absence/resigning/whatever, then fine for him, I wish him well, hope it clears up and glad that he’s in a position to be able to sit back and do nothing for a while.
However, I don’t buy it. Like BamaDan said, his grand plans end when the Second Coming graduates, and without God at QB, he’s in a position to do nothing so much as to take a backseat to the rest of the SEC, and his ego won’t allow that.
Which leaves the urchin in Knoxville in a decently good position to kick a little Gator tuckus next year.
Just $.02 from a broad’s perspective.
Oh it’s now a win-win for Urban. If his team sucks w/o Tebow, he can stay out and let Steve Addazio take a beating for it. If things start to look up, he can step back in and lead on like a conquering hero. No negative impact to his record. I’m waiting for a statue or a plaque as a sequel to “The Promise.” Maybe “The Palpitation” or “The Sabbatical.”
Won’t help him on 2 OCT 2010 or at the SECC if he’s fortunate enough to get back to the ATL.
FEAR LORD SABAN!
Perhaps the man did what many of us would do when confronted with a scary health issue. He resigned, maybe thinking that was the best thing, to spend time with his family, knowing he could not focus on his job. Did his admin talk him into the leave of absence, instead?
This very thing happened to me about 5 years or so ago. I had to resign because I nearly could not work and it was really interfering with my life and job. My admin talked me into a leave after the original resignation was accepted.
‘seester, I don’t dispute that these are real issues and worthy of consideration. The whole thing has been awfully weird, though. The main problem I have with it is that there’s no reason whatsoever this couldn’t have waited until after the Sugar Bowl. Perhaps, had he waited two measly weeks, in addition to avoiding (in my view, inappropriate) attention focused on himself instead of his team–particularly his seniors–he could have worked out the whole resignation vs. LOA thing before he said it out loud.
The coaching drama has been highly strange this year. Not sure what to make of Leach. As I was telling BamaDan yesterday, they really need to work that out. In my view, very few schools and coaches are as well suited to each other as Texas Tech and Mike Leach.
All I am saying here is that when it comes to getting shocking or scary health news, sometimes you can only think about how it will affect you and your family. So, I can see someone making that decision, telling the higher ups, and it gets to the news before they can talk him out of it.