December 08, 2010

Urban Meyer Stepping Down in Florida: Urban Meyer has quit the University of Florida coaching job for the second straight year, this time after a 7-5 record that is the worst in his six seasons on the job. "I fully grasp the sacrifices my 24/7 profession has demanded of me, and I know it is time to put my focus on my family and life away from the field," Meyer said in a statement.

posted by BornIcon to football at 02:21 PM - 15 comments

Original article.
Press conference at 6:00 PM today. Do big announcements usually happen at 6:00? Seems like they happen more like at noon.

posted by NoMich at 02:55 PM on December 08, 2010

It's Groundhog Day.

posted by tommybiden at 03:06 PM on December 08, 2010

Exactly, tommy. This is happened last year, too. Is Urban Meyer becoming Brett Favre?

posted by bperk at 03:27 PM on December 08, 2010

Meyer flamed out quickly. The pressure for a coach to succeed at UF has to be as high as anywhere else on the planet. College football consumes almost all of the sports oxygen around Jacksonville.

posted by rcade at 03:42 PM on December 08, 2010

rcade,

I think you have to count his work at Bowling Green & Utah as well-they were as good as they could be under his watch (personally, some of those Utes teams were as good as any team in my opinion), & maximizing a program's success is taxing regardless of where you coach at. The fact that he made Bowling Green a top 25 team for a bit may have been the most demanding thing he did in a sense.

So, in my mind he's been going 24/7 for over a decade, so i wouldn't say his flame out happened quickly. Hardly surprising he has hit the wall.

posted by brainofdtrain at 03:50 PM on December 08, 2010

"College Coach Takes $900,000 Pay Cut"

posted by Joey Michaels at 04:13 PM on December 08, 2010

So when Coach Meyer and Coach Paterno meet at midfield for the post-game handshake at the Outback Bowl, Paterno will smile and wish Meyer the best of luck in his retirement.

But maybe Meyer isn't retiring. Maybe he's thinking ahead. Zook seems to be on shaky ground at Illinois.

Jimbo will temporarily own the Sunshine State recruiting scene until UM and UF get their corner offices reloaded.

Michigan is probably perspiring a bit. Rich Rod's firing (if it happens) wouldn't come until after Jan. 1 because the buyout amount goes way down at that point. If Michigan wants to bring in a top guy, it just got tougher to do so. They may bump up a dismissal date and eat the buyout overage.

Happy Holidays, Chuck Neinas. Can't hang his stocking by the chimney with care. It's gonna have too much cash in it.

Maybe Dan Mullen's will too.

posted by beaverboard at 04:28 PM on December 08, 2010

bb,

Are you implying that Meyer is quitting @ UF so he can take the gig @ Illinois? Why would he do that career-wise? Maybe there is something i don't get here. Why in your mind would he want to make that move?

posted by brainofdtrain at 06:07 PM on December 08, 2010

Illinois? The same Illinois that settled on Zook when he bombed out at UF?

posted by rcade at 06:12 PM on December 08, 2010

I can't see Michigan going for Urban Meyer. I really hope they wouldn't go for Meyer.

I think he misses Tim Tebow a little.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:43 PM on December 08, 2010

I think he misses Tim Tebow a little.

So you saying that he resigned to become the new head coach for the Denver Broncos so he could reunite with Tebow?

BREAKING NEWS!!

posted by BornIcon at 07:59 AM on December 09, 2010

Sorry folks - the Illini thing was a gag.

An homage to a memorable prior post on Spo Fi.

A few years back, there was a point at which Dungy and the Colts couldn't get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the Bucs had finally won their SB.

People were asking out loud what needed to be done to get the Colts the extra mile.

An incisive and cold blooded person on this great site simply said:

"Bring in Gruden to finish the job".

I locked that one away involuntarily.

posted by beaverboard at 08:50 AM on December 09, 2010

The Michigan comment was not that Meyer would go to Ann Arbor, but mainly thinking that if they are doing a search for a new coach, now UF needs a new head man, and that is going to draw a ton of attention from the finite pool of truly qualified candidates. Michigan has already seen that its program is not necessarily a top preferred destination for elite coaching candidates.

posted by beaverboard at 08:55 AM on December 09, 2010

Pay very close attention to the post-game handshake between Meyer and JoePa after the Outback Bowl. Maybe Meyer is looking for a spot at Happy Valley when JoePa hangs them up?

posted by Howard_T at 02:09 PM on December 09, 2010

I think Bob Stoops is going to take this job. He has a condo here on the beach a couple miles south of where I live in Florida (near places owned by Steve Spurrier and Lindy Infante, oddly enough). He comes here right after the season ends, and it's only 70 miles from Gainesville.

posted by rcade at 06:08 PM on December 09, 2010

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