The first I heard about University of Florida's Head Coach Urban Meyer decided to resign due to health reason last night. I personally was shocked, surprised, and stunned that this was happening with one of the best coaches in all of football right now. The Florida split could be compared to a famous band breaking up (such as U2 or the Rolling Stones) with Tim Tebow leaving and then Meyer's choice to leave. There is a huge void at Florida now just like if Bono and the Edge left U2, they wouldn't be the same band or a band at all for that matter.
I thought that he had to have something truly wrong with him explaining why he would step down from a top five program he had built. People started to report that he had experienced chest pains and other stress-related issues. Not to mention making frequent trips to hospital after the SEC Championship, which would make a family man like Meyer is if it's really worth coaching football if I am endangering my health thus not being around for my children.
The other thing I question is with all these health problems and Tebow leaving... Was Meyer afraid to rebuild again and worried that it might not be the same at Florida ever again? This could go with his decision today as well but Meyer had to wonder what things with would be like post-Tebow.
Now, today we learned that Meyer changed his mind and he will just take a sabbatical from the sport then return to the program. He said his players convinced him to keep coaching, which leads me to believe two things, a.) Urban doesn't want to leave his players out to dry and worries about their lives after he leaves (goes back to the Tebow thing about having to start over, I think he didn't want to leave his team without their two leaders) b.) He woke up and thought about life after football realizing he just couldn't do it.
My roommate and converted Gator fan E believes that Meyer is holding the program hostage by taking this leave. Nobody really knows what this entails whether he isn't making the trips all over the country for the recruits, or Meyer might not be coaching as much during Spring Ball. Who knows really, but I agree with E completely. Florida is a top five program right now (USC, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State are the others) and with recruits not being able to trust the head coach is going to be a huge disadvantage for the program. In addition, other programs can use that to convince recruits to come to their school.
-Charlie.
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