Notre Dame is my dream job.” So good to have an explanation for that now. Additional goodness: his maternal grandfather spent time in a Siberian prison, he once went to work after a 19 inch snowfall and tried to drop his kids off a school that was closed, and his father made him run home eight miles once when he took a called third strike in a baseball game. So, you know: your typical guy.
Meyer, who is completing his fifth season at UF, will coach the No. 5 Gators in the Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl vs. No. 4 Cincinnati in New Orleans.
Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, who is coaching his final game in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, said of Meyer: “It’s a surprise to everybody. I hope he’s OK physically because he’s done as great a job at the University of Florida as has been done there, or anywhere else. I admire the way he handles himself and I really like his family. The college coaching profession will really miss him.”
The Gators are expected to replace Meyer within the week, The Sun has learned.
It has been a trying season for Meyer and the Gators, who were everyone’s choice to repeat as national champions and opened the year as the preseason No. 1.
After the Gators lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 5, Meyer checked himself into Shands early that next morning for what Florida officials said were dehydration issues. But Meyer admitted to The Sun he had also experienced chest pains.
