AM850.com

Isn't the Christmas season supposed to be a time of joy and happiness? Isn't the Christmas season supposed to be a time when you spend quality time with your family?

A lot of us were doing that; but now it looks like Urban Meyer was spending some agonizing time over the holidays with his family not worrying about what Santa brought for presents but about his health and his coaching future.

Health reasons?

Sure, we knew he entered the hospital after the SEC title game suffering from dehydration...right. How about chest pains?

And we learned in a recent Sports Illustrated article that Meyer had a heart issue that was not considered to be life threatening although with stress it could bring on migranes and dizziness.

But even with all that information, no one, and I mean NO ONE, knew this was going to happen; Meyer's decision to resign was a real stunner.

I'm not going to bore you with adulation about Meyer, his winning percentage, his national titles and all of that. For me, Meyer steps down because there is only one way he knows to coach and that is 24/7 from the offense to the defense to the special teams to the pregame meal to what time practices will begin and end. Because of his health, he couldn't coach that way any more, and that's why he's quitting.

Some cynical fans and broadcasters have already speculated that in time Meyer might coach again...so what if he does? Does he owe the University of Florida anything? No, he doesn't. He won, he won the right way for the most part and Gator fans should be thankful for the time he was their coach.

But there is more bad to this outside of the obvious...what about the fate of the assistant coaches on his staff? I am told by several sources that they had no idea this was coming down, and if so, now many of them could be out of work. If he did not tell his staff that he was thinking about stepping down, should he have? The timing here seems awkward but I am also told this was not a snap decision by any means.

And of course, there is the possible impact on recruiting. You can bet Charlie Strong will now go after the kids he recruited to Florida to get them to go to Louisville and he should do that now. Strong said all along out of loyalty to Meyer he would not pursue any of those kids but now that picture changes drastically. Don't be surprised if an assistant coach or two goes with him as well.

Finally, Athletic Director Jeremy Foley will now have to find a replacement for Meyer at a rather strange time when coaching staffs are mostly filled. You can bet the names of Bob Stoops and Mike Shanahan will come up, as will Bobby Petrino because he was by all accounts on Foley's short list when Meyer got the job. He is a terrific offensive mind who works well with quarterbacks but he also recruited some rather shady characters while at Louisville. Other names will surface too; always do.

The Urban Meyer Era is over at Florida. It's too bad; he's a young man and obviously a terrific coach. I hope his health does allow him to coach one day, but as a father myself, I also hope he will take this time to enjoy his kids and his family.

That is certainly more important than coaching football.