Homefront concerns
Urban Meyer's area connections express surprise and support for one of Ashtabula's brightest stars
BOB ETTINGER
Star Beacon
When the news broke that University of Florida coach Urban Meyer was resigning from his post because of stress-related issues with his health, shockwaves were felt all around the college football universe.
The 1982 St. John High School graduate has since pulled a reverse on that decision, but it didn’t erase the shock, concern and downright fear the decision aroused in Northeast Ohio.
“Yes, it did scare me,” Bill Schmidt, Meyer’s baseball coach at St. John, said. “Having had some health issues myself in the last few years, a few tears were shed when I heard, to tell you the truth. I think of him at the top of my list. For him to even contemplate doing something like this, it had to be a serious situation. I knew it wasn’t just a hang nail.”
“The first thing that went through my mind was that he was really, really sick,” Joe Pete, St. John graduate and host of The Sports Report on ESPN 970, WFUN, said. “Of course, the worst-case scenario comes to mind — disease, cancer or heart problems — or somebody in his family was sick.”
Breaking news
The news broke Saturday evening that Meyer was stepping down as coach of the Gators. ESPN made the announcement during a live college football broadcast and ESPN News followed the story for hours.
Even those closest to Meyer had no idea what was happening — his own dad, Bud, learned the news from the television. Needless to say, everyone was in a state of shock when they learned of the news.
“It’s funny because I was sitting here watching ESPN and I heard the announcer say, ‘Wow! This is one story you’re not going to believe. We’ll give it to you after the break.’
“I was kind of reading the paper and doing some other things and it piqued my interest. Then he said Urban Meyer resigned from the University of Florida. I said, ‘What?’
“I couldn’t believe it. I thought the worst. I thought something was very seriously medically wrong with him or his family. I hoped that wasn’t the case.”
“To say I was shocked is an understatement,” SS. John and Paul boys basketball coach Tom Penna said. “I was watching a football game and they came on to say there was breaking news. I saw (Florida) athletic director Jeremy Foley’s name and I said that has got to be about Urban. I said what the heck is going on.”
“It hit me hard,” George Dragon said. “We had gotten close. The first thing that came to mind was cancer. Then (the guys on ESPN) brought up the heart.”
Getting the scoop
Once the news Meyer was resigning hit the airwaves Saturday evening, telephones rang all through the area. People from all over the country were calling Meyer’s friends trying to glean any information they could.
“All of a sudden, during the next half hour, my phone, which hadn’t rung all day, went absolutely bonkers,” Pete said. “I was getting texts and phone calls and everyone wanted to know what was up with Urban.”
“Everyone thinks a few of us have the inside track on Urban,” Schmidt said. “I talk to him, but he keeps a lot of stuff inside. The way he approaches what he does, it’s not surprising it took a toll.”
“I was in my basement and I heard my phone going off and going off,” Rick Pugliese, Meyer’s friend since the third grade, said. “It was a guy I barely knew from Cleveland calling to ask where Urban was going. Penna called three times.”
“I got a thousand phone calls that night,” Penna said.
“I got a rash of text messages,” Dragon said. “I was getting texts from friends wanting to know what I knew. At that point, I didn’t know a lot about it.”
Warning signs
Despite being shocked, those close to him had an inkling something just wasn’t right with the popular coach.
“It shocked me, but it didn’t shock me,” Schmidt said. “I’ve been concerned about his health for quite a while. I made the comment that if he kept doing things the he’s doing them, he’s going to pop something.
“When I went down to visit him (the week before Thanksgiving) and I came home, I told my wife, Kathy, and I called Penna and said that something was not right. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something just wasn’t right.”
“There was something really wrong,” Penna said. “He didn’t look healthy when we there in October. He looked like he’d lost a lot of weight. He didn’t look healthy. He looked like he wasn’t taking care of himself.
“I usually text and he texts right back,” Penna said. “When he didn’t say anything for the last three weeks, I knew there was something wrong. He wasn’t getting back to me and he wasn’t returning calls when I’d try to get a hold of him. I hope to talk with somebody down there soon.”
Though they may have had an inkling something wasn’t right, nobody close to him knew Meyer was having such serious problems with his health. It’s not like Meyer to open up and talk about what’s bothering him. Thus the resignation really drove home the serious nature of the situation.
“Myself and Tom text him once in a while,” He might not get back to us right away, but usually by the end of the day or the next day, we hear from him. The last three weeks, we’ve heard nothing from him. That’s when we started to think something might be wrong. When that came out, it knocked me for a loop.”
He never, ever said anything that he was sick or that his heart hurt,” Dragon said. “He was more emotional than we’ve ever seen him. He said he missed his daughter (Nicole, who is playing volleyball at Georgia Tech). He said he sat in her room and cried.
“He let stuff out he never said to us. We were like, ‘Wow! He’s never been like this with us before. Looking back, it all comes together a little bit.”
Cautionary tales
Meyer has seen his share of death and sickness.
His mom, Gisele, died of cacner. He befriended St. John alum and former football coach John Buskirk and his wife, Jessica, during John’s battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He does most anything he can for terminally ill children. He is well aware of former Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser’s untimely death.
“What’s not come up on ESPN is he devotes a lot of time to terminally ill kids,” Schmidt said. “He calls them, sends them things.
“I wear a wrist band from a little girl from Tampa who has a brain tumor. Last year, she (to Gainesville) and (Meyer’s secretary) Nancy said there’s a little girl and her father there from Tampa. They went out to practice and I talked to them for a while.
“When practice was over, I said to Tim Tebow — I call him Timmy — I said, ‘Timmy, go over and sign her football and get your picture taken. I said the same to Urban. He’s still one of my kids. He invited them in to eat with us. He took his jacket off and gave it to her. He had the players come over one or two at a time and sign the football. He takes care of her family when they come to Gainesville. He does that.
“I walked into his office and there’s a paper there written by a 17-year-old terminal cancer patient,” Schmidt continued. “Timmy walked into the office and (Urban) said we’ve got to call this kid. Timmy wore the kid’s favorite bible verse on his eye patches for the game that week.
“Urban called Mack Brown (the coach at Texas) up and said there’s an 11-year-old who’s terminally ill and he had to have him up for a game. It’s like my wife says, Urban is such a wonderful man.”
And his friends believe that each of those situations could have played a role in Meyer deciding it was in his and his family’s best interest to step away from the game he’s coached for the better part of 20 years.
“In his office, he has a lot of pictures,” Pugliese said. “There are some pictures on his desk. There’s one of John Buskirk’s grave and a card from his memorial. It’s right next to a picture of (President Barack) Obama. Losing his mom 10 years ago to cancer affected him. He was close to his mom.
“The year they played the Buckeyes, he had a kid die in a car accident. That starts to weigh on you. There are 85 kids on the team. It’s like he has 85 more children.”
“Cancer has always been a big issue for him,” Penna said. “Skip Prosser died.
His daughter is away at school (Georgia Tech). He said that really bothered him. He told us he goes into her room and just sits and cries. That’s why I think this is something he needs to address soon. Maybe it all caught up with him.”
“I think all of that enters his mind,” Dragon said. “His mom had health issues and his dad has health issues. He’s conscious about it. John Buskirk, in Urban’s mind, is not forgotten.”
Mutual love
Much has been made of the relationship Meyer has with the Heisman Trophy-winning Tebow. And, no doubt, the two are close. But that relationship is not unique between Meyer and his players. He makes a point of getting close to his guys.
“He loves the players,” Schmidt said. “At a team dinner, he gets his food and he eats. Then he walks around and talks to his players. He knows his players. He’s not a CEO in a tower watching it all happen. The kids really appreciate that. They know where he is. They believe in the program and they believe in him. That’s why he’s had the success he has.
“He’ll always be there for them He would be there for them anyway, even if he doesn’t return. He wasn’t going to pull up the tent right now.”
“At the press conference for Tebow’s last game, (Urban) broke down three times,” Pugliese said. “I’ve been friends with Urban since the third grade. I’ve never heard him mention crying, let alone see him break down in front of people.”
And those players make a point of getting close to their leader, even going so far as to attend Meyer’s younger daughter Gigi’s, volleyball games with him.
“He invited us out to go see his daughter’s volleyball game,” Pugliese said. “Tebow was there, too, to see a high school volleyball team. It really is a family. That’s not lip service. That’s how Urban grew up.”
It’s no surprise, then, that those players were hurting when Meyer told them he was stepping down.
“I think it’s very hard for (the players),” Dragon said. “Every bit of what he said at the news conference is true. They’re very close-knit. His door is never closed. Tebow is always in there. We went to his daughter’s volleyball match and David Miller, a wide receiver, Joe Hayden a defensive back and Tebow came, too. There were at least three players there to watch (Urban’s) daughter.
“They all sat with Urban. It was like he was their dad. He’s very close to all of them, even at practice. He goes around and hugs them and he tries to talk to most of the players.”
He’ll be back
With an indefinite leave of absence, Meyer could be away from the Gators for a week, a month, a year or longer. Those that know Meyer tend to think he’ll be back with the Gators sooner rather than later.
“I don’t think he’s going to stay away,” Schmidt said. “This is a good time (to get away from the team). The season’s over and he can recover. A little bit of down time will give him the opportunity to relax a little bit. I don’t see (Meyer staying away).
“He can’t get away from it. I can see him in a hospital bed looking at (football-related) stuff. Being away is going to be very hard on him to do. The question is, can he delegate some authority but still keep his fingerprint on everything.
“I kind of see him back before (the first game). The only thing preventing him from being back, of course, is a medical situation. Yes, I see him back there and. He has to take some time off right now, but I don’t see him taking that much time off. He is the coach of the Gators and that’s how I view it. He’ll be there. Hell or high water, he’ll be there.”
“I don’t think he can stay out,” Pugliese said. “He can’t come back and not be Urban Meyer. He can’t get out of coaching. He loves it. He loves the kids.
There is some thought that it could take a while for Meyer to return to the sideline.
“I think it’s going to take some time because he’s got to figure out a way to change some things in the way he does the job,” Pete said. “I think it’s going to be longer than people think. I don’t think it’s going to be just one or two months. He could miss the Spring game.
“I think it will be hard for him. He’s such a tireless worker. He needs to find a way to lessen his burden. It will take time.”
Nor was it a surprise the players were the reason he decided against resigning.
“When he changed his mind on Sunday, I wasn’t surprised,” Pete said. “That’s a tough decision when you do the things he’s done in his career. It’s a tough decision at 45 to give it up. A lot of things had to go through his mind.
“I think it bothered him that he went to practice in the morning and he saw the team was doing well. There was already talk of who was going to coach Florida and I think that bothered him. That’s his job. That’s his program he built into a top one, two or three team in the country.”
“I think they’ve been on a roller coaster emotionally,” Schmidt said. “Like a lot of people, when he told them, they were upset. They think so much of him. There were a lot of tears on both sides. He saw them out at practice Sunday and they put it behind them. They were all business. They were going to win a game (the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati) and at practice, they were good.
“He saw that. And said he can’t leave his kids.”
“I don’t know that he’ll be away for the Spring game,” Penna said. “That’s in like April. I don’t think he’ll be there for that. But he’ll be on the sideline for that first game of the season. I don’t see him staying away that long.”
Wishing him well
Meyer’s friends back home have all sent messages to let him know he’s in their thoughts. It’s clear they’d like him to be back in action as soon as possible.
“On a personal level, I sent him a text message saying I hoped he’d be OK,” Pete said. “He’s always been good to me. He comes on the show a couple of times a year. He always accommodates me. I think he’s been pretty good to St. John.
“I’m pulling for him. I want him to well. He’s a hometown guy. I want him back, not just coaching, but I want him to have fun. I could tell this season he just wasn’t having the fun he usually has.”
“I left him a message,” Schmidt said. “I told him we’d talk after the game. I said I loved him, to take care of himself, hang in there and he’d be OK.”
Short-timer
No matter when Meyer returns to the Gators, he may be short-lived for the job. He’s made it clear to his buddies that he doesn’t want to coach forever. His plan is to get out of the game while he’s still relatively young.
“He did say he might not be there for the length of his contract,” Penna said. “He doesn’t want to be coaching in his 50s. He’s always said he wasn’t going coach a long time because of the stress of the job.”
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