Still trying to recover from three straight losses after climbing to No. 10/11 in the AP Top 25 and USA Today/ESPN Top 25 polls three weeks ago, Florida Gators basketball (10-3) rolled the Presbyterian Blue Hose (2-12) 79-38 on Wednesday night in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Junior forward Chandler Parsons led Florida with 21 points including two three-pointers and three dunks.

Fellow forwards juniorAlex Tyus and freshman Erik Murphy posted double-doubles in the Gators’ victory, scoring 16 points each; Tyus collected 13 rebounds while Murphy grabbed 11 boards. Florida shot 30 percent from downtown with freshman guard Kenny Boynton going 3-for-8 from beyond the arc, leading the team in makes and attempts while finishing with 14 points. Freshman point guard Rod Tishman saw seven minutes of limited action, earning two points, rebounds and assists.

Gators sophomores G/F Ray Shipman (knee) and center Kenny Kadji (back) both sat out the contest; starting redshirt junior transfer C Vernon Macklin only played 14 minutes. F Jake Trovli led the Blue House with 14 points. Florida will next face the North Carolina State Wolfpack in Raleigh, NC, on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010, at 3 p.m.

Also on Wednesday, the women’s basketball team (7-6) defeated the Jacksonville Dolphins (1-9) for head coach Amanda Butler’s 50th win at the school. The Gators shot 54.5 percent from the floor while limiting Jacksonville to only 26.5 percent shooting. Sophomore G Trumae Lucas and freshman F Jennifer George led the team with 15 points each while senior F Sharielle Smith turned in the sixth double-double of her career with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

The morning after the 2009 SEC Championship, at about 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 6, Shelley Meyer, the wife of Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer, called 911 after her husband awoke briefly in the early morning and fell out of bed onto the floor.

ESPN investigative reporter Paula Lavigne obtained the 911 call Wednesday, which features Shelley explaining to the operator that Urban “was breathing and had a pulse but would not wake up,” presumably due to him having taken the sleeping pill Ambien earlier in the evening. Rushed to the hospital by ambulance, Meyer complained of chest pains and a tingling sensation on the side of his body. Shelley, a certified nurse, also mentioned that Urban had never had a heart attack before, though he had previously complained of chest pains caused by anxiety.

Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel also got ahold of the full 911 call and provides a few more details into the panic experienced by Shelley.

Shelley tells the 911 operator that “my husband’s having chest pains.” Shelley, talking in a calm tone, eventually sees Meyer moving and breathing but “he’s not talking to me.”

“Urban, talk to me please,” Shelley said. “I see him breathing.”

Four-star running back commitment Mack Brown (Lithonia, GA), who has reaffirmed his decision to play for the Florida Gators a number of times since head coach Urban Meyer announced his decision to take a leave of absence, was interviewed by ESPNU Wednesday afternoon. In the interview, Brown said Meyer told him Monday morning that he would be “back coaching by August,” according to Rivals.

Though this timetable is obviously not confirmed, Brown’s revelation lends credence to the belief that many have held since Meyer’s announcement – that he would take six-to-nine months off, missing summer and spring practice while still being around the program, before returning to the staff when the 2010 season begins. Or, that could just be what Meyer is telling recruits.

1 » Reinstated by University of Florida administrators and Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer, junior defensive end Carlos Dunlap has rejoined the team with a spring in his step and a heavy feeling of guilt. “He knows he let himself down, let his teammates down, let his coaches down,” defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. “He hasn’t had one issue since the day he got here, until that one problem. I don’t know anybody that goes unblemished without a problem in their lives. It was a serious one, a major one and he paid a heck of a price, but he’s ready to go. I’ll be real surprised if he doesn’t play real well Friday night.” Even so, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong said he is not sure if Dunlap will start the game.

2 » Florida head basketball coach Billy Donovan is friends and contemporaries with Meyer, leading him to have a good understanding of the head football coach. The fact that Donovan also pulled an about-face after deciding to step down as coach of the Gators puts him in a unique position to empathize with Meyer’s recent decision to return to the team after a leave of absence. “I don’t think people really understand what happens and what goes on, and I think at least hearing some of Urban’s comments when he initially was going to step away, I can certainly relate and understand,” Donovan said. “It’s very hard to balance — it’s nearly impossible to balance — because you are living with yourself knowing there is more you can be doing. And when you get put into situations every single day, every minute of every day, to make a decision between your wife, your kids and your job, and then when you spend time with one of them you worry about neglecting the other one, it is an incredible emotional drain.”

3 » Though he has often been rumored to be one of the top candidates for the vacant Central Michigan Chippewas head coaching position, Gators quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler contends that he has yet to be contacted by the school. “I have not spoken to them none whatsoever,” he said according to Florida Today. “I am coaching the quarterbacks at the University of Florida, enjoying every second. It’s been great with Tim [Tebow]. It’s been a special week for him being his last football game, and Johnny Brantley, we’re trying to get him better for the future. All I am worrying about is just concentrating and doing everything in my power to help this team win another bowl.”

4 » Charlie Molnar, the Cincinnati Bearcats passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, told The Cincinnati Enquirer on Tuesday that Florida’s defense is the best in the country. “We have not faced a defense of that caliber,” Molnar said. “The problems they present are so many. They can get pressure on the quarterback with just a four-man rush. They don’t have to blitz in order to get pressure on you. It certainly changes the way the game is played. It will take a very, very concentrated and focused effort on our part to have our success on offense.”

OGGOA has heard athletes make a lot of excuses in our day, but this one is literally a slice of hilarity.

New Orleans Saints defensive end Bobby McCray was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with four of counts including driving while intoxicated. Handcuffed after refusing to take a breath alcohol test during a traffic stop for speeding, McCray was booked into Orleans Parish Prison and released on his own recognizance. McCray, a two-time All-SEC second-team selection who played in 36 games while with the Florida Gators from 2001-04, claims he was arrested under false pretenses and was actually “driving with pizza.”

“Trying to deal with this bogus charge of DWP…driving with pizza,” McCray said via his twitter account (@bobbymccray) Wednesday morning. “My fiance was feeding me pizza [while I was] driving home. [The police officer] pulled me [over] for doing 80 in a 60. He got upset because I asked him why did I need to get out of the car on a routine traffic stop. He started ranting and raving, saying I think I know it all and threw me in cuffs. I had cuffs on me in three minutes. This was a short guy with [a] Napoleon complex. Lawyers mount up – we got some work to do!”

In the Dec. 7, 2009, issue of Sports Illustrated, S.L. Price profiled Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer in what OGGOA called a “must-read” article. Part of the reason why Price’s piece was so intriguing was the access Meyer gave him to his family and information he provided about his medical history. Now that the media is roundly criticizing Meyer for waffling on his decision to step down for his health and family, Price discusses the story from a different perspective, saying that in order “to understand Meyer’s flip-flop, one must first understand his past.”

Shelley Meyer, Urban’s wife, explained to Price in July how hard her husband takes a loss and the type of damage it does to his psyche. “He’s miserable,” Shelley said. “He can’t sleep, and he can’t eat: He’s in the tank. The 2004 Utah season was the best ever, because we didn’t lose a game. Last year we lost to Ole Miss, and he went into the depths as he always does. He sits alone, and the worst thing is if we have people over. He just wants to sit all by himself. He goes in the den, he doesn’t want to talk to anybody, doesn’t want to see anybody. He usually puts the TV on and he usually just wants me to come sit with him. He can’t sleep that night. Terrible, terrible. And he’s up by 5 a.m. the next morning and in (his office) watching that film: What went wrong? It’s the most distraught thing you’ve ever seen, because it’s all his fault — in his mind: It’s my fault. What did I do? I didn’t put the players in the position to win.”

Most of all, Meyer’s change of heart came about not just because he loves the players and program at Florida (his “second family”) but also due to the fact that “he was as happy as he’d ever been,” Price writes. “In Gainesville, he had finally been at a school long enough to build a program his way, with his recruits, his system. For the first time, he had a built a machine capable of creating its own self-sustaining fuel.”

“He’s finally stayed somewhere long enough to where the team is where he wants it,” Shelley said. “I told him that: Bowling Green was two seasons, same thing at Utah. We’ve been here four seasons, he’s getting the guys he wants in here, everybody’s buying into the program, everybody knows the expectations and the rules: This is what you’ve been working for. Why would you want to leave it now?”

And therein lies the paradox for Meyer going back on his initial decision. He has worked his entire life, putting all of this stress and anxiety literally on his heart, in order to land the job of his dreams. Yet everything he has done to reach the pinnacle of his profession is exactly what is endangering his life. How do you give up something you have worked your entire life for without at least trying to change and perform your job in a healthier manner? “Anyone who knows Meyer understands he had no choice but to change his mind,” Price concludes. “Whether he can solve his problem, whether he can coach without killing himself or his family, is the question of the season.”

The Florida Gators defensive unit was made available to the press Tuesday, three days before they face the Cincinnati Bearcats in the 2010 Sugar Bowl. Aside from every player and coach being asked about the health of head coach Urban Meyer, one of the hottest topics was the defense’s collapse in the 2009 SEC Championship against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Special thanks to the Palm Beach Post and ESPN affiliate GatorCountry for providing the quotes below.

Defensive coordinator Charlie Strong:
“Looking back, we just didn’t play well. We played well all the way up to that game, and just weren’t prepared. We didn’t do a good job of coaching that day and just didn’t play well, and it showed.”

“Guys understand we have to be prepared to play each week, and we didn’t do a good job of coaching that day. We always talk about, if there’s 10 or less missed tackles, you have a good chance of winning the game. We exceeded that in the first half.”

Senior linebacker Ryan Stamper:
“The last game was a disappointment, but we want to just come out and play hard and show that we are still one of the best defenses in the country. We just want to come out and play the way we are capable of playing.”

“Blown coverages, missed coverages, guys out of gaps – we’ve never had that many missed assignments all season. Guys just weren’t into the game. You could see that on film.”

Junior cornerback Joe Haden:
“I haven’t even looked at the game. We haven’t watched film or anything. The equipment staff, when Major [Wright] asked them for the DVD, was like, ‘Why do you want to see that?’ It’s like nobody wants to bring it up.”

Junior safety Major Wright:
“We didn’t play Florida defense. We weren’t playing physical enough. We usually go out and have fun, chest bump, every play. But it wasn’t happening.”

“[Winning the Sugar Bowl is] very important. For one, just getting the taste out of our mouth from our last game, and start the season off right. We’ve got a lot of young guys who can come out and get better, make plays and show what they got.

Junior safety Ahmad Black:
“I don’t think we were ready. They wanted it a little bit more than we did.”

New Orleans Saints defensive end Bobby McCray was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with a number of counts including driving while intoxicated, according to a report by The Associated Press. McCray was handcuffed after refusing to take a breath alcohol test during a routine traffic stop.

McCray was pulled over and arrested at 4:30 a.m. by an officer who caught him speeding. He was charged with DWI, speeding, careless operation of a motor vehicle and absence of vehicle registration. McCray was booked into Orleans Parish Prison but has been released on his own recognizance. Anyone who refuses a breath test under suspicion of driving drunk in Louisiana automatically loses their license for 12 months.

McCray was a two-time All-SEC second-team selection who played in 36 games while with the Florida Gators from 2001-04. He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2004 NFL Draft (249th overall) by the Jacksonville Jaguars.