How Coach Meyer's past shaped his decision on Sunday

[O-town Gator]

Well-written article, but the author shouldn't have stooped to the level of all the hacks using the term "flip-flop": http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/sl_price/12/29/urban-meyer/index.html?eref=sircrc

THIS is the real reason why Coach decided on the LOA, and it's the truth:

"Why did he change his mind about quitting? Meyer says it's because his players' attitude and demeanor in practice Sunday touched him deeply, made him realize what he owed the university and the program. Maybe that's true. Meyer isn't being cute when he says his players are his second family, his "sons;" he lives that devotion, demands that his assistants live it, too, and thus he's better than almost any coach alive in creating a program's tough-love unity -- and knows it. Meyer also knows it's rare for a man to discover such skill in himself, and he's smart enough to sense that walking away from that without being certain will leave an abiding emptiness."

As far as I'm concerned, Urban Meyer has earned this much-needed break. Now it's time for the media to just leave him alone for awhile and allow him to be a husband, father and a man.

 

[Escambia94]

This break will only do good for him if he truly walks away for a little bit, and returns after changing a few things. For one, he needs to let someone else do the hectic traveling for recruiting. I hear that Nick Saban, Pete Carroll, and SOS delegate some of these tasks, among others that Urban Meyers takes upon himself. Granted, the others do not have that same Type A personality to the nth degree as UM, but Coach needs to change SOMETHING for his health. A short, n-month vacation is not going to save his health--he needs to make a long-term change somewhere. He needs to figure out what that change needs to be while he is on leave.

 

[O-town Gator]

This break will only do good for him if he truly walks away for a little bit, and returns after changing a few things. For one, he needs to let someone else do the hectic traveling for recruiting. I hear that Nick Saban, Pete Carroll, and SOS delegate some of these tasks, among others that Urban Meyers takes upon himself. Granted, the others do not have that same Type A personality to the nth degree as UM, but Coach needs to change SOMETHING for his health. A short, n-month vacation is not going to save his health--he needs to make a long-term change somewhere. He needs to figure out what that change needs to be while he is on leave.

Agreed; the most important thing for Coach right now is that he gets well. Based on random things I've been reading right now, our guys are really concerned about him and his overall health.

When he's ready to come back and resume his duties won't be up to the fans, bloggers or the media to decide - that will be a decision he makes after consulting with his family and the UF athletic department. Luckily Dr. Machen and Jeremy Foley are giving him the time he needs to recover without any set parameters, and that's the right thing to do.