At halftime of the Florida Gators vs. South Carolina Gamecocks basketball game, head football coach Urban Meyer spoke with reporters in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center about his health and plans for the future. Meyer explained that he has been exercising and eating right since his health scare, resulting in a weight gain of 20 pounds.

“I feel real good. I’ve been working out a lot,” Meyer said. “I’m over 200 pounds, so I guess that’s how they gauge it a little bit because I was not good there for a while. Doing a lot better.” He also indicated that he will undergo a series of tests on his heart in February to check for stress levels and any other outstanding issues.

Meyer, speaking for the first time publicly since the 2010 Sugar Bowl, mentioned that he plans to coach the Gators during spring practice in March, a sign that he may actually be recovering quickly from his ailments (or that he is simply too stubborn to stay off the field). Practice begins March 17 and stretches into April. “I keep hearing about this ‘time out,’” Meyer said. “People I’m closest to are going to demand I take some time off, but I tried that already. I tried a day and a half, and it didn’t work.”

He confirmed that doctors advised him against traveling for recruiting over the last few weeks even though his medical tests have been “coming back pretty positive.” Meyer said he will speak with his wife Shelley and meet with athletic director Jeremy Foley and his football staff to determine a course of action after National Signing Day on Feb. 3. “We’re trying to get to February 3, and then we’re going to sit down, have a very in-depth meeting about it,” Meyer said.

Part of those meetings will include determining the roles of his coaching staff, particularly interim coach and offensive coordinator Steve Addazio. Even so, Meyer realizes that he will need to take a break in one way or another after those sit-downs. “I’ve been instructed I have to [take time off],” Meyer said. “I’m just not sure what I’m going to do. I just don’t know how long. I have to change some things. That’s obvious.”

PART II: Meyer on hiring Edwards, bringing back Drayton

Tags: Florida Gators, Jeremy Foley, National Signing Day, Shelley Meyer, South Carolina Gamecocks, Stephen C. O'Connell Center, Steve Addazio, Sugar Bowl, Urban Meyer

1 » If you were watching the basketball game Tuesday night between the Florida Gators and No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats, you may have seen this clip of head coach Urban Meyer and his wife Shelley smirking while checking their respective phones:

2 » The Tennessean points out that former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Lane Kiffin “decided it was included in his job description […] to annoy Urban Meyer.” Unfortunately, as the article puts it, “a good feud was just ruined.” Similarly, the Orlando Sentinel recounts Kiffin’s top 10 most memorable moments as coach of the Volunteers.

3 » The brand new 2010 ESPNU 150 and 2010 Rivals100 both list Gators five-star defensive end commitment Ronald Powell (Moreno Valley, CA) as their respective No. 1 prospect in the country. Other top Florida recruits ranking high on both lists include five-star defensive tackle Dominique Easley (3/7) five-star safety Matt Elam (9/25), five-star defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd (25/4), four-star cornerback Joshua Shaw (28/28), four-star tight end Gerald Christian (35/81), four-star wide receiver Chris Dunkley (37/77), four-star offensive tackle Ian Silberman (41/71), four-star CB Jaylen Watkins (50/47) and four-star DT Leon Orr (81/95). Others who made the ESPNU list but not Rivals’ include: S Jonathan Dowling (10/NR), S Demar Dorsey (12/NR), RB Mack Brown (34/NR), CB Cody Riggs (79/NR), WR Solomon Patton (106/NR). ESPNU ranks four Gators in its top 10.

4 » “If Florida is to be an NCAA tournament team again — if it’s to snap a two-year hiatus after consecutive NCAA titles — the Gators must start a roll Saturday against LSU,” writes ESPN senior college basketball writer Andy Katz. Read his entire blog entry on the Gators and their hopes to earn a spot in March Madness this season.

Tags: Chris Dunkley, Cody Riggs, Demar Dorsey, Dominique Easley, Gerald Christian, Ian Silberman, Jaylen Watkins, Jonathan Dowling, Joshua Shaw, Kentucky Wildcats, Lane Kiffin, Leon Orr, Mack Brown, Matt Elam, Ronald Powell, Sharrif Floyd, Shelley Meyer, Solomon Patton, Tennessee Volunteers, Urban Meyer

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.”

Tags: Florida Gators, SEC Championship, Shelley Meyer, Urban Meyer

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.”

Tags: Bowling Green Falcons, Shelley Meyer, Urban Meyer, Utah Utes

1 » First, Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer resigned and the media had sympathy for him and respect for making what they deemed to be a mature and righteous decision. Then, Meyer decided to take a leave of absence instead and has since been met with immense backlash. Starting his column by calling the school “Flip-Flop Florida,” ESPN’s Pat Forde drops some sarcasm on the coach. “Meyer apparently went out to practice and decided that burnout is for losers,” Forde writes, “and his family may or may not come before his players. They had a spirited practice in unseasonably cold weather and, shazam, Urban’s not resigning after all! Just taking a vacation of unspecified length! While looming over the program like a 900-foot shadow!” Don’t worry, there is more, but you need to check out the column for the rest of it.

2 » Jumping on the bus with Forde is CBSSports.com senior writer Dennis Dodd. (This cannot be surprising to anyone, you had to know Dodd was going to write something like this.) Calling Meyer’s change of heart “baffling” in the title of his story because no one has ever changed their mind before, Dodd seems to go back on that opinion later on while still lending himself the ability to criticize. “Maybe it was a simple change of heart.,” he wrote. “Maybe Meyer is going against doctors’ wishes by coming back. Either way there is still room to criticize him for waffling. After sleeping on it, the subject changed from chest pains to being homesick. After careful reconsideration, Meyer walked into a karaoke bar and started belting out Billy Donovan tunes.”

Check out four more BITS on Urban, Addazio, Shelley and more after the jump!!!
Continue Reading » SIX BITS: Urban Meyer absence edition (Part 2)

Tags: Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Dan McCarney, Earl Everett, Marce Petroccio, Montreal Alouettes, Nikki Meyer, Shelley Meyer, Steve Addazio, Urban Meyer