NEW ORLEANS, LA — Sometime between Saturday’s shocking announcement that he was stepping down as Florida’s football coach and the end of Sunday morning’s football practice, Urban Meyer re-discovered his life calling. He is a football coach and a brilliant one at that. He went to bed Saturday night thinking football had to go but Sunday morning when he watched the Gators go through their final Sugar Bowl practice in Gainesville before boarding a plane for New Orleans, he realized that there has to be a way to balance faith, family, health and football.
The decision to walk away from football had everything to do with health and the health issues have everything to do with football. To do what Meyer has done in what he calls “a 30-year coaching career in nine years” has required unparalleled levels of passion, intensity and commitment. Meyer loves the coaching and if it were only about the time he spends getting his team ready to play, we wouldn’t have gone through this tumultuous 24 hours but at the level where the University of Florida competes, the head coach’s responsibilities are far greater than tooting a whistle and drawing up plays on a blackboard.
“There are certain jobs and I think ours is one of them — it’s a big job,” said Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley. “Everybody says I know he gets paid $4 million and everything but it’s a big job. It’s not just Xs and Os and recruiting ballplayers. It’s 24/7, it’s managing a program … he’s the CEO of a major, major company so to speak.”
For Meyer, winning has required complete immersion into the job and as a result, his health suffered. He’s 20 pounds lighter than he was back when the season began in September and there are whispers that he’s been in Shands not just the one time that was reported the morning after the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta but a second time a few days later.
He’s suffered from chest pains the last four years and he’s got an arachnoid cyst on the brain that can cause horrific headaches. All those things and the time it takes to run the machine that is University of Florida football caused Meyer to question if it’s really worth it to be a football coach. It’s not a decision that was made overnight and not without a tremendous amount of thought and prayer. After a discussion with his wife (Shelley) and three kids (Nicki, GiGi and Nate) on Christmas Day, Meyer concluded that something had to go and that was football. When he tendered his resignation to Foley Saturday evening after practice, Foley offered Meyer the possibility of taking a leave of absence, a chance to regain his health, recharge his batteries and re-invent himself in such a way that he can maintain the level of excellence without jeopardizing all the things he holds dear.
Meyer didn’t accept the offer, but a seed was planted.
When he broke the news to his team Saturday evening that Friday’s Sugar Bowl game with Cincinnati would be his last as a Gator there were plenty of tears but what impressed Tim Tebow was the fact that in the midst of the most difficult decision of his career, Urban Meyer was more concerned for his team than he was for himself.
“In his speech and just talking to me one‑on‑one on the side last night, he wanted to make sure that with this decision everybody else was taken care of,” Tebow said. “Even when he’s trying to do something for his family and for himself, he still wants to make sure the players are taken care of and the coaches got a spot; everything is good with the coaches and everything is good with the players. That’s what I remember most is when he’s got all these big decisions for himself and for his health, all the huge critical decisions he’s got to make, he’s still worried about everyone else.”
Then came Sunday morning’s practice. Instead of a prevailing air of sadness gripping the team, Meyer saw his players working hard as they could to prepare for Cincinnati. Before practice was over, Meyer realized he was doing what he was born to do.
Sunday’s practice was in The Swamp. Watching a team of players that he truly loves work hard and seeing all those SEC and national championship momentos he realized that while he has some issues to deal with, he did want to coach and only at one place.
So he called Foley.
“I made this clear to Jeremy, if I am able to go coach, I want to coach at one place — the University of Florida,” Meyer said. It would be a travesty, it would be ridiculous to all of a sudden come back and get the feeling back, get the health back, feel good again and then all of a sudden go throw some other colors on my shirt and go coach. I don’t want to do that. I have too much love for this university and these players and for what we’ve built.”
Without hesitation, Foley agreed to give Meyer whatever time he needs to sort through things, get his health back and re-invent himself in a way that there is room for faith, family and football. There is no time frame for Meyer to return. Although Meyer says he expects to be back on the sidelines in the fall, it’s not a requirement.
Foley doesn’t know how long it will take and really, he doesn’t care as long as Meyer takes care of his health.
“You can’t coach when your chest hurts,” Foley said. “You can’t live your life when your chest hurts.”
The easy part for Meyer is realizing he has to get his health in order. Getting the issues resolved might take some time and then there is the task of re-inventing himself. The health issues are directly related to football so when he returns to football, he has to do it in such a way that it’s not quite so stressful.
That could mean delegating more authority to assistant coaches and support staff. It could mean spending less time agonizing over recruiting.
It could mean finding a hobby other than coaching football.
“We have to see how he handles his leisure time,” Shelley said after the Sunday press conference. “I’ve never seen him handle leisure time. That’s [leisure time] an oxymoron.”
He will have time on his hands following Friday’s game. Foley said he expects Meyer to make some recruiting phone calls and a few things like that, but the office is off limits and that is non-negotiable.
“He’s agreed to that,” Foley said. “That’s the university’s stance. That’s Dr. (Bernie) Machen’s stance. That’s my stance. What’s best for the University of Florida and the flip side what’s best for Urban Meyer.”
Saturday, Meyer thought leaving football altogether was what was best for him and for his family. By Sunday afternoon he realized that while nothing will ever replace God, Shelley and the kids as his top priorities, there has to be room for football, too.
Urban Meyer is a football coach. He didn’t know that when he woke up Sunday morning but Sunday afternoon he knew who he was and what he needs to do. Football coach isn’t just his title. It’s his life calling and he couldn’t walk away. He simply needs some down time to resolve all the things that keep him from doing what he knows he was meant to do.