Florida gives Meyer contract thru 2014

The University of Florida brought unbridled joy to Gator Nation Monday and effectively ruined it and the more than 300 Mondays which will follow for football fans of the Gators’ 11 Southeastern Conference rivals, their state rivals Florida State and Miami, the passionate zealots (both real and subway) of Notre Dame, and the credibility of one Southeast sports talk radio host who professes to be “in-the-know” but in reality is Sgt. Schultz.

Let the word be proclaimed on billboards around Rocky Top and on radio stations across the Southeast that value truth over blabber. Let the threadnaughts in Tallahassee and Miami ponder the next targets of their poisoned arrows. Tell the Domer denizens that the presumed heir, who once dreamed of ascending to the throne once occupied by Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, Devine and Holtz, isn’t interested.

For the next six seasons, though 2014, Gainesville will continue to be the home of football coach Urban Meyer, whose team has won two national championships in his four seasons at the helm and is the preseason favorite to successfully defend the second one the Gators won last January over Oklahoma, 24-14, at the FedEx BCS Championship Game in Miami Gardens. The $4 million-a-year contract, his third since he succeeded Ron Zook following the 2004 season, is an increase over the $3.25 million-a-year deal he signed following the Gators’ 41-14 victory over top-ranked Ohio State at the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game at Glendale, Ariz.

“I continue to be very thankful and appreciative for everything the University of Florida and the athletic program has done for me and my family,” Meyer said in a statement released by Florida. “(School president) Dr. (Bernie) Machen, (athletic director) Jeremy Foley and the community make this a special place, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

The new deal makes the 45-year-old Meyer the SEC’s highest paid coach. Alabama’s Nick Saban is next at $3.9 million and LSU’s Les Miles makes $3.75 million but has a deal which guarantees he will make $1,000 more than the highest-paid SEC coach at the time if the Tigers add another national title to the ones recently won under Saban in 2003 and Miles in 2007.

Meyer becomes the third college coach with an annual salary of $4 million or more. Southern California’s Pete Carroll is reportedly earning $4.4 million a year, while Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis is making $4.2 million. During this offseason, much has been made—wrongly—about Meyer’s admitted fondness for Notre Dame, where he served as an assistant under Lou Holtz and Bob Davie before becoming the head coach at Bowling Green.

“Coach Meyer has certainly proven to be one of the top college football coaches in the country and should be compensated as such,” Foley said in a statement. “We are proud he is our coach and we appreciate all that he has done for the Gators.”

Meyer, whose four Florida teams are a combined 44-9 with two SEC championships proceeding their BCS title victories, is 83-17 in eight seasons as a head coach since 2001, starting 17-6 in two seasons at Bowling Green. He went 22-2 in two seasons at Utah, where he worked with Dr. Machen, who left before the 2004 season during which the Utes became the first non-BCS team to play in a BCS bowl, the Fiesta, and ended 12-0 with a victory over Pittsburgh.

“I believe that Urban Meyer is the best at what he does,” Dr. Machen said in a statement. “He demands excellence of his players on the field and in the classroom. Not only did the University of Florida win a national championship in January, but all 13 seniors earned degrees and the 2008 football team tied an SEC league record with 37 players named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll. We’re proud he’s a Gator.”

Along with men’s basketball coach BIlly Donovan, Meyer co-chairs the Florida Opportunity Scholars Program, created by Dr. Machen to provide financial assistance to first-generation, financially disadvantaged students who are working toward their bachelor’s degrees. The program hopes to raise $50 million, and Meyer has made a $1 million pledge to help it.