Gator Country

Shelley Meyer celebrates with her husband, Florida head coach Urban Meyer, after the Gators' 51-24 win against Cincinnati in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. / Gator Country photo by Tim Casey

The two wakeup calls came three weeks apart, both of them on a Sunday morning. The first wakeup call told Urban Meyer he could no longer sweep his health issues under the rug, that he had to deal with them now. The second reminded him that he is a football coach. That is his life calling, what he was born to do. Which of the two calls was most important is like asking, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

The first wakeup call was the episode of chest pains the Sunday morning after Florida had lost to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta. In the early hours of the morning, Shelley Meyer made a 911 call asking for an ambulance to rush to their Haile Plantation home to take Urban to Shands. He had bouts with chest pains before, but never this severe.

“It was a scary time for us,” Shelley said. “We knew he was going at this unbelievable pace and everyone kept asking could he keep it up? Well, we found out that morning that something had to give. Either he had to quit coaching or make some serious changes ... either that or lose his life because if he kept on going the same way he was going to kill himself.”

Three weeks later, on a Sunday morning less than 24 hours after he had announced that he was resigning as Florida’s football coach to take care of his health issues, Meyer watched the Gators go through their last practice in Gainesville before boarding a plane that would take them to New Orleans for their final preparations for the Sugar Bowl. As Meyer stood there, watching his team go through a spirited practice, players trickled over to where he was standing. There were plenty of tears and hugs that seemed to go on forever, but the message was the same --- “Coach, just get well.”

It was there on the practice field, sharing tears and hugs with young men whose lives he has impacted that Urban Meyer was reminded once again why he coaches football. It’s not about the winning, although winning is indeed important. In Meyer’s plan to win, winning football games is a by-product of his far greater plan to take young men and turn them into responsible, accountable, caring citizens. Win their hearts and minds, put them on the right path to get an education and live a productive life and winning takes care of itself. That has and always will be the Meyer plan.

Before he left the practice field that morning he knew these things for sure: (1) He had to do whatever it takes to get his health issues resolved; (2) that he couldn’t walk away from so many kids whose lives are still in transition; (3) that he wanted to coach football because it is the best vehicle at his disposal to change the lives of kids for the better; (4) the only place he wanted to coach football was the University of Florida; and (5) he had great bosses, a great wife and great kids.

Within an hour after that practice ended, Urban Meyer became the third famous Florida Flopper. The first was the 1971 Florida defense that flopped and allowed a Miami touchdown so John Reaves could have one more chance to set an NCAA record for passing yards. The second was Meyer’s good friend Billy Donovan, who in the spring of 2007 left Florida for the NBA Orlando Magic only to return a week later as the Gators’ basketball coach.

Urban Meyer’s decision to take a leave of absence rather than leave the coaching profession altogether might have caught the sports world by surprise, but the person who knows Urban the best knew in her heart that the leave of absence was the best thing.

“Urban is a football coach,” Shelley Meyer said. “He loves his players like they are his own sons and he loves making a difference in kids’ lives. This is why he does it.

“If it were only football, he could have walked away easily. He loves football. He loves being a college football coach, but the real reason he does it is because he is a Christian man who we believe so strongly that God has called him into this profession with the purpose of having an effect on kids’ lives. He couldn’t walk away from those kids he loves so much and he couldn’t walk away from what we know is his life mission.”

Following that very emotional Sunday football practice, Meyer met with Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and spoke with UF president Bernie Machen. Saturday night, both Foley and Machen had held out the possibility of a leave of absence rather than a resignation.

Saturday night, Urban said no. Sunday morning, he asked them to reconsider and they were more than willing to accommodate. Sunday afternoon, at a Sugar Bowl press conference in New Orleans, Meyer said he would coach the game against Cincinnati and would spend the days and weeks leading up to National Signing Day (February 3) assisting his staff and interim head coach Steve Addazio with recruiting. Later in the week and again after Florida’s 51-24 win over Cincinnati, Meyer said he felt that he would return to coaching full time when practice began in August.

None of this came as a surprise to Shelley, his wife of more than 20 years. Their marriage is a true partnership in which there are no secrets and decisions are shared.

“Urban put his heart and soul into building the Gator program,” Shelley said. “For him to drop it and leave --- he just couldn’t do it. He loves the players, loves and respects Jeremy Foley, and of course, Dr. Machen. He also felt he owed us --- his wife and kids --- to make the right decision about his life path and when he thought it all through, he took the leave instead of totally stepping down and leaving the program. He knew this was the right decision. The kids and I knew it was the right decision. He can’t go on like he did before but coaching is what he’s supposed to be doing so he has to figure out a way to work it all out. He made the right decision. We have no doubt about that.”

Working it out and returning to coaching full-time means Meyer must make changes in his life, sooner and not later. First and foremost, he has to take care of his health. From just before the Florida State game on Thanksgiving weekend until the Sugar Bowl, he lost 22 pounds. During interviews at the Sugar Bowl, Meyer admitted that he often got so engrossed in his preparation for the next game that he forgot to eat or simply never finished the meal.

“I’ve been in his office and seen the lunches that weren’t eaten and the salads he picked through because he was on the phone or dealing with other issues,” Foley said in New Orleans.

Eating right has been a priority and so has working out, taking long walks and getting more sleep. In the days since the Sugar Bowl, Shelley says she can already see how much of a difference eating better, sleeping more and working out has made in Urban.

“He’s worked out nearly every day, taken some long walks ... he’s eating better and he’s sleeping so much better,” she said. “He’s working every day, but not as many hours. He’s involved in recruiting but he’s trusting his staff to do the hard work and they’ve done an unbelievable job. I think he knows this is all going to work out the right way.”

The health issues will be dealt with in February after National Signing Day. Although he didn’t disclose the exact nature of his heart-related problems, Meyer admitted in New Orleans that the issues aren’t life threatening now, but will be if left unattended. Shelley says don’t worry, that Urban is in good hands, and that he will listen to the doctors and do whatever is necessary to put his health issues behind him.

On the weekend of the Meyer flip-flop, Florida football was declared dead in the water by some of the top writers and broadcasters in the country. They questioned if Meyer could get his team to play hard and win the Sugar Bowl. They questioned if he could salvage the recruiting class, which at the time was ranked number one in the nation. They questioned if he could ever be the same coach again.

Most of those questions have already been answered. Florida destroyed Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl and in the past two weeks, the Gators have actually improved what was already the best recruiting class in the country by adding the MVPs of both the Under Armour (Dominque Easley) and U.S. Army All-American (Ronald Powell) games as well as three other five-star recruits in Chris Dunkley, Shariff Floyd and Matt Elam.

The Elam situation was a real testament to Meyer’s prowess as a recruiter. When Meyer resigned only to take the leave of absence the next day, Elam de-committed the University of Florida and committed to Florida State. At the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Elam told Gator Country’s Justin Wells that a heart to heart talk with Meyer on the phone convinced him that everything was going to be fine with the Florida football program.

With Cincinnati vanquished and recruiting moving along at warp speed, the only questions that remains are can Urban Meyer put his health issues behind him and can he figure out a way to be as effective as a coach by delegating more authority or perhaps eliminating some of the intensity in his job?

“He knows things have to change,” Shelley said. “He knows he can’t keep doing things the same way he’s done them in the past. He knows he has to find a way to work through these issues and find a way to still be Coach Meyer. Things have to change and they will. That’s the way Urban is. He figures out what the problem is and then he finds a way to deal with it.

“Too much has gone into this. He isn’t going to let what he worked so hard to build fall apart. The time away will give him a chance to think, get healthy again, spend time with his family, recharge and then he will be able to make a logical decision about when to return. In his heart, he feels that he will be there in August.”

TOMORROW, PART II: Shelley Meyer can’t believe some of the rumors and outright lies that are circulating about Urban Meyer --- everything from his health to his personal life to fabrications about why he decided to return to Florida after resigning.  In part two, she sets the record straight and debunks many of the myths that are making their way around the message board circuit.

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