Urban Meyer leaving Florida

[darylscook]

The announcers on the Pitt/UNC game just said that Urban Meyer is leaving Florida. That is all they know, and the Florida AD had just confirmed it with them! Wow!

PD

[dolfan]

Just saw it not 5 minutes ago; one minute later, my phone rang from my brother. We've both been away at different places from TV's this afternoon. Says it's his health. The only thing I can think is cancer. I hope not. Man, alive, I hope not.

[TW]

I just watched the ESPN video on this and read their article. According to their reporters it is a heart issue. Supposedly a non-life threatening problem with a valve. If I had to guess I would say that he has an Aortic Stenosis. This is a problem that I have first hand knowledge of, I have a very mild one. I know what it's like if I place too great a load on the heart. Basicly the valve starts to stiffen, not closing properly. The more load you place on the valve, the faster that it degenerates and stiffens more. It would seem that his is a bit more severe than mine. If my guess is anywhere near correct I can certainly understand his decision.


TW

[Rob]

Now the question is who get's this job? Has Charlie Strong signed at UL? Could Spurrier go back? Or how about this, Bobby Bowden is a Gator?

[TW]

Now the question is who get's this job? Has Charlie Strong signed at UL? Could Spurrier go back? Or how about this, Bobby Bowden is a Gator?

They will be coming out of the woodwork after this job. But Spurrier coming back? The biggest mistake Spurrier made was when he left Florida, the second greatest might be to try to return. He would have to surpass his old record and Meyer's record. Not an easy task. Charlie Strong has not signed a contract at Louisville, yet. He signed a "Term Sheet." And Bobby Bowden? Why on earth would he? He "owns" Tallahassee, and he knows it.


TW

[Rob]

Now the question is who get's this job? Has Charlie Strong signed at UL? Could Spurrier go back? Or how about this, Bobby Bowden is a Gator?

They will be coming out of the woodwork after this job. But Spurrier coming back? The biggest mistake Spurrier made was when he left Florida, the second greatest might be to try to return. He would have to surpass his old record and Meyer's record. Not an easy task. Charlie Strong has not signed a contract at Louisville, yet. He signed a "Term Sheet." And Bobby Bowden? Why on earth would he? He "owns" Tallahassee, and he knows it.


TW

I agree about Spurrier, but you know drama follows him and he has not done so hot at USC. I could see Charlie, taking it. If Bobby owned Tallahassee as much we think, they would have treated him better than they did. What would be more of a feather in Bobby's cap then to take the Gators back to Tallahassee and beat the them and then retire for good. He's let them know he will not return next year for any send off, and will not do any fund raising for them, and could be moving to Birmingham, why not Gainsville.

[TW]

Now the question is who get's this job? Has Charlie Strong signed at UL? Could Spurrier go back? Or how about this, Bobby Bowden is a Gator?

They will be coming out of the woodwork after this job. But Spurrier coming back? The biggest mistake Spurrier made was when he left Florida, the second greatest might be to try to return. He would have to surpass his old record and Meyer's record. Not an easy task. Charlie Strong has not signed a contract at Louisville, yet. He signed a "Term Sheet." And Bobby Bowden? Why on earth would he? He "owns" Tallahassee, and he knows it.


TW

I agree about Spurrier, but you know drama follows him and he has not done so hot at USC. I could see Charlie, taking it. If Bobby owned Tallahassee as much we think, they would have treated him better than they did. What would be more of a feather in Bobby's cap then to take the Gators back to Tallahassee and beat the them and then retire for good. He's let them know he will not return next year for any send off, and will not do any fund raising for them, and could be moving to Birmingham, why not Gainsville.

Pastor Rob, that was the administration at FSU caving in to the Florida State Boosters Association. The administration knows where the big money comes from and they buckled under to the pressure. The Boosters Assoc. was on the hook to Jimbo Fisher for $5 mil. if he wasn't named Head Coach by 2011, so it was push Bobby out and name Jimbo Head Coach for 2010. The people in the Tallahassee area love Bobby. The Boosters Assoc. is like any Alumni Assoc. at any major school, it's: "What have you done for me lately?"

The sad thing is that the State of Florida has lost two great coaches this week.


TW

[Pastorbps]

Seems Urban has changed his mind. Read something that said he has decided just to take a leave of absence instead. Hmm.

[dolfan]

That's my name for Meyer from now on. The great Christmas Flakeout of 2009 belongs to him.

Yesterday, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. I've changed my mind, too. Now, I think this guy is a total flake. Was this a press conference or a new age love-in?? Good grief!! I've never seen a group of men so set on showing their feelings. Meyer, you wanna change your mind? Great. Issue a press release, stink it up and coach. Why make your flakiness a matter of news record? Between him and Tebow, I don't know that the SEC has ever seen a pair of men more determined to be so feminine in their expresiveness. And, no, there is no virtue in being a high self-discloser and attention diva. I'm glad he changed his mind. Next season when Bama plays them in the regular season, we'll see how quickly he gets rushed to the hospital. Heavens, he may even come down with a case of the vapors and have to be back rubbed. And, you press guys, if you could just slobber over him just a little more, I think he might walk on water for you.

[Rob]

Now the question is who get's this job? Has Charlie Strong signed at UL? Could Spurrier go back? Or how about this, Bobby Bowden is a Gator?

They will be coming out of the woodwork after this job. But Spurrier coming back? The biggest mistake Spurrier made was when he left Florida, the second greatest might be to try to return. He would have to surpass his old record and Meyer's record. Not an easy task. Charlie Strong has not signed a contract at Louisville, yet. He signed a "Term Sheet." And Bobby Bowden? Why on earth would he? He "owns" Tallahassee, and he knows it.


TW

I agree about Spurrier, but you know drama follows him and he has not done so hot at USC. I could see Charlie, taking it. If Bobby owned Tallahassee as much we think, they would have treated him better than they did. What would be more of a feather in Bobby's cap then to take the Gators back to Tallahassee and beat the them and then retire for good. He's let them know he will not return next year for any send off, and will not do any fund raising for them, and could be moving to Birmingham, why not Gainsville.

Pastor Rob, that was the administration at FSU caving in to the Florida State Boosters Association. The administration knows where the big money comes from and they buckled under to the pressure. The Boosters Assoc. was on the hook to Jimbo Fisher for $5 mil. if he wasn't named Head Coach by 2011, so it was push Bobby out and name Jimbo Head Coach for 2010. The people in the Tallahassee area love Bobby. The Boosters Assoc. is like any Alumni Assoc. at any major school, it's: "What have you done for me lately?"

The sad thing is that the State of Florida has lost two great coaches this week.


TW

TW I understand it was the Admin who fired Bobby, he deserved to be treated much better. I promise you when the time for Joe Pa to step aside, PSU will not do to him what FSU has done to Bobby. In my opinion, we have heard the last out of FSU for a long while. Bobby is not going to fund raise for them. I honestly think him and Ann will move out of Tallahassee back to Alabama, Bobby will not show up for anything that FSU tries to do to honor him. And while I want to see Jimbo do well, he is a West Virginia boy, I don't think he will, and it will be his head on the chopping block next.

[Rob]

That's my name for Meyer from now on. The great Christmas Flakeout of 2009 belongs to him.

Yesterday, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. I've changed my mind, too. Now, I think this guy is a total flake. Was this a press conference or a new age love-in?? Good grief!! I've never seen a group of men so set on showing their feelings. Meyer, you wanna change your mind? Great. Issue a press release, stink it up and coach. Why make your flakiness a matter of news record? Between him and Tebow, I don't know that the SEC has ever seen a pair of men more determined to be so feminine in their expresiveness. And, no, there is no virtue in being a high self-discloser and attention diva. I'm glad he changed his mind. Next season when Bama plays them in the regular season, we'll see how quickly he gets rushed to the hospital. Heavens, he may even come down with a case of the vapors and have to be back rubbed. And, you press guys, if you could just slobber over him just a little more, I think he might walk on water for you.

WOW! Tell us how you really feel Tim! Meyer was born to coach, and a pretty good one I might add, his record proves it. You can't blame a guy that wants to take care of himself, who in the recent past hasn't done a very good job of it. In my opinion, if he stepped away in the prime of his career college football would have been the less for it. Just like I think pro football and more importantly the Detroit Lions have been the less for it since Barry Sanders stepped away.

I'm not a Gator fan, but I'm glad Meyer is staying.

[dolfan]

I don't care one way or the other if Coach Snowflake stays or goes. My beef is with the handling of the decision. It has all been very public and very full of nonsense. There was no reason to announce the resignation before the Sugar Bowl. There was no reason to announce a resignation at all if there wasn't going to be one. There was nothing about a "spirited practice" to prompt a man to make a swift 180 degree turn less than 24 hours after publicly announcing his retirement. Heck, he was all about family, family, family on Saturday, and then he goes to practice on Sun. morning, and makes his mind up to take a leave of absence, talks it over with his assistants and AD and tell his players before he even talked about his change of mind with his own WIFE!! THEN, on top of it all, we're subjected to this love-in panel on Sunday afternoon. It is bizarre. Weird, bizarre, goofy, flaky.

Lots of coaches have taken leaves of absence. Take one. Get healthy. No one can deny that coaching a top school's football team is a pressure cooker, and I don't doubt for one minute that his body feels the stress. There's nothing new about that, either. People with far less public jobs have endured the same thing many times over -- some thrived anyway, some died, some hung it up, some just backed off and mailed it in and took a check. I personally would rather see him take a leave of absence. But, that should've been his initial decision, not the last one, and they shouldn't have formed a klutzy love train press conference to try and glitter and gloss over an already very clumsy and public career decision.

[Rob]

Okay, So Meyer and UF didn't handle it right. He changed his mind, how many times have you/me changed our minds? I have several times. I'm sure some thought I didn't handle it right. But after I thought things through I knew that my initial decision was not the right one. I'm not saying this is what happened with Meyer but it could have been.

Besides, if Meyer had resigned, who in the world would Kiffin make jokes about next year?

[dolfan]

Everything that happens with Meyer and Tebow gets treated in the media as the most important thing in college football. The media feeds off it, UF feeds off it. And, what it is is all touchy-feely stuff. It is, to borrow a term from Rush Limbaugh here, the chickification of football. I don't like it.

When Billy Donovan did his flip flop a few years ago, I didn't care. I laughed a little, like everyone did. And, if he made a great emotional appeal to the public about why he did what he did, the media (read: ESPN) didn't just glom onto it like it was all important. They made fun of Donovan, commented on the impact of his flip flop in terms of the Magic's conditional release of him (an NBA non-compete agreement, etc.), and that was largely it. Donovan returned, although Florida has not been the hoops team they were before his rather notorious u-turn.

Now, though, there is this endless parade of all these people talking about their feelings. The people at Florida feel self-important enough about it that they rush to press conferences to discuss it, and the media people treat all this emoting and the people doing it as important enough to cover it as "breaking news" and talk it to oblivion.

Here's the thing: Everybody has to be somewhere doing something. It is pretty disgusting to see all this fawning and foaming at the mouth about a man's decision simply to coach or not to coach. I can see UF people being upset if Meyer left Florida for FSU or LSU, etc., and that being topic number 1 in Florida circles. I can't understand UF parading Meyer out with Tebow and Foley to talk endlessly about how much everyone loves each other and all the claptrap they went into on Sunday. It cheapens football; ESPN is equally to blame.

[Rob]

Dolfan,

I couldn't disagree with you more. First and foremost, Tebow is everything that is right with college football. He stayed 4 years, he has been consistant with regards to his testimony. College football could stand a few more Tebow's, especially with regards to all the guys who one are eye gouging, and drunk driving and so forth and so on.

Tebow and Meyer's relationship is no different then the guys that have played for Bowden at FSU or Joe Pa at PSU. Sure the media feeds off of it, it's a feel good story, certainly a lot better than the one coming out of Lubbock right now, surely you would have to admit that. This story is a lot better than the one coming out of Tallahassee too. I for one like the feel good stories.

Not only does this have to do with a man coaching or not coaching it has to do with his health, I hope we don't lose sight of that. I don't see the parading of Tebow, Foley, Meyer how they feel about each other a problem. You mean to tell me guys at Bama didn't "love" the Bear? Guy's at UK "love" Rupp, guys at Michigan "loved" Bo, as did guys at Ohio State "loved" Woody.

To be real honest it sounds like an "SEC" guy with sour grapes that the attention is on another "SEC" school instead of his school playing for the NC.