NEW ORLEANS – In the end, Urban Meyer didn’t want to abandon his second family and what they had built.
So with his first family – wife Shelley and children Nikki, Gigi and Nate – giving him a collective blessing, and with his bosses at the University of Florida – President Dr. Bernard Machen and Athletics Director Jeremy Foley – giving him their backing, the 45-year-old Meyer decided to take a leave of absence following Friday’s Allstate Sugar Bowl against his alma mater, Cincinnati, to get a grip on the health conditions that led to his stunning decision Saturday to resign.
“I was offered and encouraged to consider taking a leave of absence. After careful consideration and spending time this morning at practice with my players and coaches that I care so deeply about, care so much about, I’ve accepted this offer to improve my health,” Meyer said. “We have developed a program we are very proud of at the University of Florida. I owe it to our players and our staff and my family and the University of Florida to get healthy and coach.”
Meyer, whose five-year Florida tenure has produced a 56-10 record and SEC and national championships in 2006 and 2008, admitted publicly Sunday upon the Gators’ arrival in New Orleans that he had been having chest pains for four seasons, that their intensity had increased in the last two seasons, and that he had two incidents following Florida’s 32-13 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game that caused him to get checked out at Shands Hospital and which ultimately led to his stunning decision to step down Saturday evening.
But on Sunday morning, Meyer was having remorse about his decision when he arrived at his office in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for the Gators’ final workout before their departure.
The Gators, who were told by Meyer on Saturday of his plans to resign in a very emotional post-practice meeting, practiced Sunday morning in The Swamp with such energy and enthusiasm under the direction of their similarly focused coaches that Meyer decided he needed to reconsider his resignation and he called up Foley to see if the offer of a leave of absence that his wife Shelley had encouraged him to take (without success) on Friday and Saturday still was on the table. It was.
“The intent here is to make sure Urban goes and deals with the issues we discussed last night,” Foley said Sunday at a press conference in a hotel near the Louisiana Superdome, where the game between the unbeaten Big East champion Bearcats (12-0) will meet the 12-1 Gators at 8 p.m. New Year’s evening.
Following the game, Meyer will begin his leave of absence and offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Steve Addazio, who came to Florida with Meyer in 2005, will lead the team until Meyer feels he’s ready to return and both his family and the school sign off that he is ready to return.
Neither Meyer nor Foley would give a timetable for that return, though Meyer hopes he will be well enough to coach Florida’s 2010 season opener against Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 4.
“To not try would not be the right thing to do,” said Meyer, who seemed relieved during the conference that was televised nationally by ESPN and attended also by his family and two of his players, quarterback Tim Tebow and linebacker Ryan Stamper.
The players, of course, were elated when Meyer told them following their workout that he was going to take the leave of absence after talking with his wife and Foley, whose office is next to Meyer’s in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Meyer’s children, who had learned from their father on Christmas that he planned to step down, found out just before the charter left for Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans that he was going to give the leave of absence a try.
“I know I’m dealing with some stuff and that my family comes first,” Meyer said. “That’s never been an issue. That’s non-negotiable, that I want to make sure I do right by my family. My second family are my players and our staff.
“To see them come out this morning – I guess I’m a Southerner now – for us Southerners it was kind of cold, and to see them come out with a great attitude and great work ethic and just go to work. I admire that.”
He admired it so much that he called Foley, who said he thought the leave of absence door had closed Saturday and admitted he had done some preliminary work in beginning the search for Meyer’s successor.
Both Tebow and Stamper, who sensed something was amiss with their coach during Saturday’s workout, also sensed Sunday that their coach had possibly changed his mind.
“When he told us he was coming back, you could see a little bit more joy came into his eyes and came to his face, and it just got brighter,” Tebow said. “That’s what I remember most. When he’s around the people he loves and he’s talking about his family, he lights up, and that’s what we very special about today.”
Meyer, who admitted that the chest pains he recently suffered have been an ongoing thing for four seasons, said he did not suffer a heart attack but did admit that he had two instances following Florida’s 32-13 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Dec. 5 when he had to go to Shands Hospital to get checked out.
He refused to comment on reports that he might need to have surgery to correct a problem with a heart valve. Meyer did talk about the need of learning to delegate and prioritizing. “I just have to be smarter,” he said. “I’m not very smart, that’s part of the problem.
“I came to the conclusion I had to re-prioritize everything,” Meyer said. “When you put your heart, soul and everything into being a father, husband and coach, not much time is left. (I’ve) got to make sure we stay in that order – father, husband and coach – and not flip it.”
After Friday’s game against his alma mater, the work to make sure he doesn’t begins for Urban Meyer.