The University of Florida is in shock upon hearing the news that head coach Urban Meyer has decided to retire. Here is a detailed account of how it unfolded from a current player.
"We were told we had a team meeting today, but we thought it was regarding the bowl game. That was our mindset that we are going to talk about the bowl game.
"When we showed up the only coach that was there was the strength coach and some GAs (graduate assistants). The only coach was Coach Meyer — no other coaches were in the room. Urban gave us our calendar for the bowl week and stuff and told us to put the practice calendar down and we could tell something was wrong, (there was) no energy and you could tell that something wasn't right. He was talking about life skills and how things did not go the way we wanted and our main objective is to win the bowl game.
"After that he told us he spoke with those close to him and all of his doctors and (Meyer said) 'if I keep going my health will continue to get worse so I can't risk it to my family — so I am stepping down. I will be around and will help Jeremy Foley get a top-notch coach and you guys will be fine.' He was saying he has not been able to be involved with his family.
"As he was finishing, he was telling us for most of us this will be good because some of us need to start over and make a new impression with another coach. Near the end of the speech the freshman class was going crazy, saying they were all leaving and they kind of lost it for the most part. It really hit those guys hard, but to the others it was not as emotional. It was mainly a dead silence and everyone other than the freshmen were just looking around.
"Urban told us that he will still be around for us and a bunch of guys went to see him one-on-one to discuss it in more detail.
"After we left we were called back into the team meeting room and it was only Jeremy Foley — no Urban Meyer. Jeremy Foley said Urban had just come to a point where you come to a point in life where you have nothing left in the tank for coaching. Foley told us it's his job to bring in a GREAT coach for this team and he told us not to worry about it at all — 'that will be the easy part. I will bring in a great coach, this has happened before and bringing in a great coach is the easiest part of this deal. I will bring in a great coach who will get this train back on the right tracks.'
"After that it was kind of like a state of shock. Everyone was on the phone calling people they know and the freshman and sophomore kids were all saying the coaches don't care about us — and those kids just kept saying they are going to leave. I mean