Meyer steps down after health scare
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – While his coaching successes mounted and his tough-as-nails reputation grew, Urban Meyer admits there was one thing he didn’t pay much attention to – his health.
That hit home when chest pains sent him to the hospital after Alabama beat his Florida Gators in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Dec. 5.
And so on Saturday, exactly three weeks later, the 45-year-old Meyer shook all of college football by saying he was stepping down. He resigned after five seasons and two national titles. In so many words, he said he needed to get his priorities straight.
He will coach his final game at the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati on Friday.
He leaves No. 5 Florida with a 56-10 record that includes a 32-8 mark in league play and a school-record 22-game winning streak that was snapped by the Crimson Tide in that SEC title game.
“I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I have dedicated most of my waking moments the last five years to the Gator football program,” Meyer said in a statement. “I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to re-evaluate my priorities of faith and family.”
Meyer told the New York Times on Saturday night that the night of the Gators’ SEC Championship loss to Alabama was a turning point for him.
He said he awoke in the middle of the night with severe chest pains. He lost consciousness, was transported to the hospital in an ambulance and underwent more than nine hours of testing.
“There was no heart damage,” Meyer told the Times. “But I didn’t want there to be a bad day where there were three kids sitting around wondering what to do next. It was the pattern of what I was doing and how I was doing it. It was self-destructive.”
According to the Times, Meyer told his family on Christmas night that he would be resigning. He said his 18-year-old daughter hugged him and said, “I get my daddy back.”
“I saw it as a sign from God that this was the right thing to do,” Meyer said.
By leaving, Meyer walks away from a program that has become one of the jewels of college football and at a time when he is considered one of the best coaches in the nation.
Meyer had maintained he would never coach as long as Florida State’s Bobby Bowden or Penn State’s Joe Paterno. He planned to go long before anyone asked him to leave.
He probably didn’t expect it to end like this, though.
Meyer consulted with his family, doctors, school president Bernie Machen and athletic director Jeremy Foley before deciding it was in his best interest to focus on his health and family.
He has scheduled a news conference in New Orleans this afternoon.
“Coach Meyer and I have talked this through and I realize how hard this was for him to reach this decision,” Foley said. “But the bottom line is that Coach Meyer needed to make a choice that is in the best interest of his well-being and his family.’
Although reports quickly surfaced that Meyer was suffering from, among other things, a stroke and a defective heart muscle, a person close to Meyer said they were false. The person spoke on condition of anonymity out of respect for Meyer’s privacy.
News of Meyer’s retirement stunned his peers.
“He is a first-class coach, and the success he’s had is unmatched in our profession, especially over the last five years at Florida,” Alabama’s Nick Saban said. “We hope he is able to regain his health and have the opportunity to coach again in the future. Urban Meyer is a great person as well as a great coach, and the game of college football is better with him as a part of it.”
“It’s a surprise to everybody,” said Bowden, who retired Dec. 1 after 34 years. “I hope he’s OK physically because he’s done as great a job at the University of Florida as has been done there, or anywhere else. I admire the way he handles himself and I really like his family. The college coaching profession will really miss him.”