Speaking at press conference for the 2010 Sugar Bowl Thursday, Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer admitted he and the University of Florida attempted to cover up the reason for his hospital visit after the 2009 Southeastern Conference Championship in order to protect his family and players.

“I have three children [11, 16, 19] that mean more to me than anything. I have a football team that means more to me than anything. […] I didn’t want it to get out at all. And then we were very careful. I didn’t want anybody alarmed” Meyer said. “You do what you’ve got to do to protect them. I think at some point, whether you’re a football coach, whether you’re a lawyer or whatever, you think at some point there would be a lot of respect for families involved. If that means not coming clean with full details about something very personal, if you can’t understand that, then, first of all, I think you’ve got to recheck yourself.”

Avoiding additional questions about his health, Meyer tried to focus the media on the upcoming game. “I love my players. I’m not ashamed to say that. I love Florida. And I want to win this game in the worst possible way,” Meyer said. “Not for myself, not for our staff, not for Steve, not for whomever, but for our players. And so has there been a little bit of a good push, I think there’s been a good push.”

Five-star safety recruit Matt Elam (West Palm Beach, FL), formerly the prize of the Florida Gators 2010 recruiting class, has decommitted and pledged to play for the Florida State Seminoles. Elam, who appeared to waiver about his commitment throughout the entire recruiting process, reaffirmed his decision to play for the Gators numerous times over the last few months, most recently sporting a Florida jersey and declaring that he could not wait to enroll early in January. Now his jersey is garnet and gold.

“I just see better opportunity to come in and play and to have an impact as a freshman,” Elam told Warchant.com. “They have two of the best cornerbacks in the country and I just feel like I can go in there and help make that secondary even better. They got three two of the best players in the country and I see along of things changing. It was on my mind, but today I really made the decision. I was sitting down thinking like I can make a difference, if I go to Florida I really can’t make a difference at Florida I can just jump on the bandwagon. I want to make a difference and I see a lot of good things there.”

Head coach Urban Meyer was the main reason Elam planned to attend the University of Florida, as he has been close with the coach ever since Meyer recruited his brother Abram Elam (now with the Cleveland Browns) to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. When Meyer briefly resigned on Saturday before deciding to take a leave of absence from the Gators instead, Elam became very upset.

“I feel like he knew before Saturday that he wanted to step down,” Elam Orlando Sentinel. Dorsey will visit the Tennessee Volunteers on Jan. 14, a trip scheduled before Meyer’s announcement. He has long been considered one of the most likely Gators commitments to decommit.

Photo Credit: Ray Graham, Palm Beach Post

In anticipation of Florida Gators senior quarterback Tim Tebow‘s final college game on Friday in the 2010 Sugar Bowl against the Cincinnati Bearcats, Dan Shanoff – author of TimTeblog.com and close friend of OGGOA, has ranked the Top 10 moments of Tebow’s career. Shanoff’s site has been obsessively covering the “Tebow phenomenon” all season and wraps up 2009 with this list, complete with extended commentary. Check out the Cliffs Notes version here then head over to TimTeblog for the rest!

Check out the Top 10 moments of Tim Tebow’s career after the jump!
Continue Reading » Top 10 moments of Tim Tebow’s college career

The 2000s were quite a decade for University of Florida athletics. Florida Gators football and basketball were especially exceptional, combining for four National Championships (five appearances) and five Southeastern Conference Championships (six appearances) while earning five BCS bowl game and eight NCAA Tournament berths, respectively, over the last ten years. To end this decade of champions, OGGOA has compiled our own Gators All-Decade Team for each sport.

Continue Reading » OGGOA Presents: Florida Gators All-Decade Team

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.”