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Florida coach Urban Meyer, who announced Saturday night that he would step down after coaching the Gators in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day, is having second thoughts about retirement and will instead take an indefinite leave of absence following the bowl game, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN on Sunday.

Urban Meyer is stepping down as coach at Florida because of health concerns that came to light when he was admitted to a hospital because of chest pains following the Southeastern Conference championship game. The 45-year-old Meyer resigned Saturday, calling it quits after five seasons in Gainesville and two national titles. He leaves Florida with a 56-10 record that includes a 32-8 mark in league play and a school-record 22-game winning streak snapped early this month against Alabama. "I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida coach Urban Meyer, who was admitted to a hospital because of chest pains following the Southeastern Conference championship game, is stepping down because of health concerns. Meyer resigned Saturday, calling it quits after five seasons in Gainesville and two national titles. He leaves Florida with a 56-10 record that includes a 32-8 mark in league play and a school-record 22-game winning streak snapped early this month against Alabama. HISTORIC RUN Urban Meyer is stepping down at Florida after the Allstate Sugar Bowl, and he goes out on top among current FBS coaches. His win percentage is...

Urban Meyer leaving Florida according to ESPN

Just announced on the broadcast of UNC vs. Pitt. No reason given. Meyer will be available at the arrival press conf. at their bowl game.

Here's an interesting note from Florida's camp heading into Saturday's big game ... President Barack Obama is rooting for Florida to beat Alabama on Saturday, according to Gators right tackle Marcus Gilbert, whose father Jeff helped protect Obama as a U.S. Secret Service agent during his president campaign. According to the Palm Beach Post ... Marcus said Obama often asks his dad how Marcus and the Gators are doing."He's rooting for us all the way, like he did last year," Gilbert said.

Florida Gators starting defensive end Carlos Dunlap was arrested for DUI early Tuesday morning in Gainesville, according to Gainesville police department spokesman Lt. Keith Kameg. Dunlap, a junior from North Charleston, S.C., was arrested at 3:25 a.m. near campus and was booked into the jail at 5:52 a.m., according to police. Kameg said officers responded to a reckless driving complaint and found Dunlap's 2000 Chrysler stopped at a traffic light near the 200 block of W. 34th Street. Kameg said officers found Dunlap's car stopped at a green light. "They approached the car and found the suspect slumped over....

Fire fighters rescue a 7-foot gator from a storm drain Urban myth our fat fannies! Miami-Dade Fire Rescue pulled a 7-foot, 150-pound alligator from a storm drain in a residential neighborhood Friday afternoon, just before it could burst from underneath the street and take its revenge on the person who flushed it down the toilet. Not really. No one knows how the reptile got stuck in the sewer, but our guess is it was flushed as a baby and then grew up in the sewers while eating rats, beef patties and the occasional chihuahua. Rescue officials think it just wandered...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was taken to the UK Medical Center by ambulance after taking a shot to the head while being sacked in the third quarter of the top-ranked Gators' 41-7 victory over Kentucky at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.

Welcome to Waldo, Fla., home of a giant flea market (NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA'S LARGEST!), a superb antiques village (OPEN 7 DAYS) and one of the most devious speed traps in the world. Over the course of a quarter mile on the way into town, the speed limit plunges from 65 mph to 35. Word is, Waldo's finest aren't real big on giving out warnings. There, just north of the antiques village, a southbound semi sat on the shoulder on a recent July evening, its driver a picture of surliness as an officer wrote him up. Cruising past in the opposite...

Gainesville Police arrested and Tased Florida Gators cornerback Janoris Jenkins following his involvement in a street fight over the weekend, according to Alachua County jail records. **** Jenkins is the Gators' 24th arrest in the last four years, a trend the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Dave Hyde recently pointed out. Jenkins is the third Gator to be arrested in 2009, following offensive lineman Carl Johnson and walk-on Marquis Hannah. Defensive tackle Torrey Davis was arrested shortly after leaving the team in March.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY DARRYL SJOBERG Nokomis resident Jan Keith found an 8-foot long alligator on her front porch in the Calusa Lakes subdivision Friday morning. Trapper Harry Flechig and two Sarasota County Sheriff's deputies quickly captured the animal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1yJBZzK4M

After spending the season as college football’s marquee stars, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford now hold the biggest off-season question in their hands. One N.F.L. scout said that Sam Bradford is a "no-brainer" overall No. 1 pick in the draft.

Tim Tebow took over for Florida and the top-ranked Gators grabbed a 14-7 lead over No. 2 Oklahoma after three quarters at the BCS national championship game Thursday night. With two Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and offenses that combined to average 99 points per game in the regular season, the Gators and Sooners were expected to trade scores most of the night at Dolphin Stadium. But the defenses came up with most of the biggest plays in the first 30 minutes, and Tebow was the show in the third and forth quarter. Florida wins 24- 14.

We've reached the final game of the college football season. I know that we've had some arguments regarding who really should be the national champion (and due to my own bias I've tried to stay away from it). But anyway, somebody decided #'s 1 and 2 for this game a long time ago and here they are. The BCS National Championship Game: Florida vs. Oklahoma (8:00 pm, FOX) The last two Heisman trophy winners take to the turf for the waterford crystal shaped football from Sears (or at least it used to be from Sears). Leading up to this game,...

MIAMI -- Florida Gators defensive coordinator Charlie Strong believes race is a reason he hasn't been offered a head-coaching job during his 25 years in college football, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Strong, a 48-year-old black man, shook his head affirmatively when an Orlando Sentinel reporter asked him if his interracial marriage was a factor in getting passed over for jobs, including one at a Southern school a few years ago. Strong, whose wife is white, said he heard that too many times for it to be rumor.

Florida Upsets No. 1 Alabama For SEC Crown SEC Championship: Florida 31, Alabama 20 Florida appears headed back to the national championship game after Alabama picked the worst possible time for its first loss of the season. Tim Tebow threw three touchdown passes -- including the decisive score with just under three minutes remaining -- to lead the No. 2 Gators to a 31-20 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Saturday. The win should be enough to give Florida (12-1) a spot in the BCS title game for the second time in three years....

This is where life imitates ... what exactly? What began two years ago with a quirky jump-pass in a college football game has evolved into this extraordinarily surreal life: communicating with heads of state, preaching to prisoners and, yes, circumcising children in a Third World country. All in one offseason. Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy in December, the first sophomore to do so. In the six months since, the Florida Gators' iconic 20-year-old quarterback has traveled more than 15,000 miles to be honored by 15 organizations in nine states. A devout Christian, he has spread the gospel all over...

Talk about getting off on the wrong foot. A Plant High School (Tampa, Fla.) tight end broke the Florida Gators’ 2006 BCS National Championship trophy over the weekend at a NIKE football camp. I kid you not. Orson Charles, who is being recruited by Arkansas and at least 10 other schools including Florida, bumped into the “handcrafted Waterford crystal trophy” outside of UF coach Urban Meyer’s office this weekend. The poor guy declined to talk about breaking the Gators’ crown jewel to a local TV crew, as did his head coach, according to a report. The trophy has a reported...

DAN: Before the game on Friday night a nice honor for you, you'll play in San Antonio, Texas in the US Army All-American bowl in January... TIM TEBOW: It's very exciting, we've known for a while but they didn't want us to let anyone know..its a huge honor and I am looking forward to it... DAN: I've heard that you may be making an announcement about your college intentions December 14th... TIM TEBOW: Yes sir, that's when ESPN wants me to do it..and they're doing this series thing too, so we're looking at that...but it's a good possibility we'll announce...

Ed Long thought he was shooting at a snapping turtle, but got a surprise when he pulled his trophy from the Milwaukee River: a metre-long alligator. Long had been in the river Saturday hunting for ducks. "At first, I thought it was a turtle tail," he said. "The it turned and came back at me. I seen the eyes come out of the water, but my brain didn't click. This is Wisconsin. There's not supposed to be gators in Wisconsin." "I'm still just absolutely 100 per cent shocked," said Long's uncle, Herb Sagan. "You've got a better chance of shooting...

Gwendolyn Wunneburger never thought she would shoot an animal older than herself in this stage of her life. On Wednesday, Wunneburger, 77, shot a 12-foot, 4-inch, 750-pound male alligator estimated to be around 80 years old. Just two hours earlier, she had shot another male alligator measuring 10 feet, 4 inches and weighing 650 pounds. The 4-foot-5, 110-pound Wunneburger, who lives in Lakeway, has hunted wild game all over the world. She has stalked leopards in Africa and grizzly bear in Montana, but said Wednesday's hunt was one of her most exhilarating. "Not many people go after big alligators because...

Billy Donovan informed the Magic and the University of Florida over the weekend that he had second thoughts about agreeing to be Orlando's head coach, but it's unclear if the NBA team will let him go. Orlando has a signed contract from Donovan and are making a decision as to whether or not to let him out of the five-year, $27.5 million deal that he signed Thursday, multiple sources told ESPN.com Sunday. If the Magic do let Donovan out of the deal, they have to decide whether to enforce a financial penalty. Both sides aren't talking publicly since there are...

It is a stats page. Go Gators!

It was the end of Monday night's BCS Championship party and we still weren't having Fun Bunch yet. Oh, you remember the Fun Bunch, a four-pack of Ohio State Buckeyes that colluded to put 42 points on Michigan and at least 35 on nine of their 12 ruthlessly-whacked opponents. Well, after weeks of mind-numbing analysis, we now know the Fun Bunch was no match for the Run Bunch. Yeah, the Run Bunch checks in as a collection of speed freaks from Florida coached by Urban Meyer and, at 41-14, better on title night than the long-running favorite.

THE BCS NATIONAL TITLE GAME vs. Florida vs Ohio State (-7) The BCS National Title game is being played in Glendale, Arizona and features the BCS #1 team and Big Ten conference champion Ohio State Buckeyes vs. the BCS #2 and SEC Conference champion Florida Gators. Being that this is the National Title game as we know it, I’ll break it down by groups. Feel free to disagree if you like, but I’ll do my level best to keep it even here. Ohio State’s offensive line vs. Florida’s defensive line: This is one of 3 critical match-ups in the game....

Florida's fine, but how is Michigan left out? If you're Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, how do you explain to your players that they won't be in the BCS Championship Game? How do you tell the second-best team in the country to get pumped about playing USC in the Runner-Up Bowl? How do you resist the urge of wishing Nutcracker drills on every person who jumped one-loss Florida ahead of the one-loss Wolverines in the final polls?

AUBURN, Ala., Oct. 14 — It can be a merciless existence in the Southeastern Conference, with a team’s schedule stacked with Top 25 opponents and fierce crowds of up to 107,000 people screaming from start to finish at a visiting squad. Given all that, it was not exactly surprising that No. 2 Florida, trying to stay in the national championship hunt, was finally taken down by the SEC gantlet here Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Gators were surrounded by a howling crowd of 87,541, which revved up the Auburn defense in the second half as the No. 11 Tigers...

Traffic keeps back from an amphibious assault vehicle from “Team Gator,” D Company, 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5. Team Gator patrols the highways to keep them clear of improvised explosive devices and insurgent attackers. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva ‘Gators’ Prowl Highways Surrounding Fallujah Team Gator is tasked with keeping the main routes in the area open for Coalition and civilian traffic. By U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq, Aug. 28, 2006 -- Forget murky swamps or backyard swimming pools. Regimental Combat Team 5 (RCT-5) has “Gators” stalking...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It was curtains for Crusty. The 8-foot alligator had been fed too many marshmallows, jelly beans and M&Ms, and had lost his fear of humans. Under state policy, he was deemed a nuisance, which is a virtual death sentence. But then an anonymous donor last month paid to have the gator moved to a nearby animal exhibit. Crusty was one of the lucky ones. More than 7,000 gators, or about 20 a day, are killed each year under Florida's nuisance alligator criteria — 4 feet or longer and a perceived threat to people or pets....

Teen Uses Discovery Channel Tip To Escape Alligator Attack Mom: Tip To Poke Eye With Thumb Saved Son's Life   POSTED: 9:29 pm EDT July 23, 2006 UPDATED: 9:58 pm EDT July 23, 2006   DELAND, Fla. -- A 16-year-old being dragged into a Central Florida lake by a large alligator used a tip he watched on the Discovery Channel to break free and likely save his life, according to a Local 6 News report.Corey Workman was in a remote area of the St. John's River in Volusia County, Fla., just before midnight Saturday, throwing rocks and sticks into...

TUALATIN, Ore. - They may not be soft and cuddly, but James "Bugs" Brown said his three alligators are beloved pets. He said the gators _ Chomper, Hisser and Snapper _ are like family. And he'd rather move than cave to the pressure from the city to get rid of them. Brown has lived in the city for 26 years and his oldest alligator has been with him since 1985. But recent concerns from a neighbor prompted the City of Tualatin to push Brown to say "see ya later" to his pets. The neighbor runs a daycare out of her...

Manatee woman shoots gator as fatal assaults leave state shook up EAST MANATEE -- An unprecedented surge in fatal alligator attacks has created a stir among Floridians, including a local woman who used a handgun to fend off a gator. When a 3-foot alligator came onto Candy Frey's lanai Saturday and attacked her golden retriever, the East Manatee woman grabbed her pistol. Frey and her daughter managed to push the alligator through a dog-door on their lanai, then Frey shot the reptile four times. "I was running on so much adrenaline," recalled Frey, 48, a former U.S. Marine aviation technician...

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS — Billy Donovan's job as a recruiter just got a lot easier. Another trip to the Final Four gives Florida Gators coach even more to sell, but the Gators' first national title means Donovan has a good chance to sign anyone he wants, said one of the nation's top recruiting analysts. "Billy Donovan is one of the most dangerous recruiters out there," said Dave Telep of Scout.com, in his 10th year as a national analyst. "When he locks into a guy, he works them over into submission." Recruiting in a climate of NCAA Tournament...

Florida beat UCLA 73-57

Saw this on the road in Orlando the other day: I think my brain overloaded trying to figure it out. I'm glad to see that the Vols are conceding long before the season starts this year. But seriously, what ARE they thinking?

NICEVILLE · Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel has temporarily moved a boys' school and ministry he works for from hurricane-racked New Orleans to a camp near this Florida Panhandle city. It's a return home for Wuerffel. He lived in nearby Destin while attending Fort Walton Beach High School before going on to Florida, where he led the Gators to their only national championship in 1996. He then played six seasons in the NFL, including three with the New Orleans Saints.

A man in Pascagoula, Miss., is credited with saving the lives of a 90-year-old man and his wife after rising waters carried their car into a ditch filled with alligators that had escaped from a nearby alligator farm, according to a Local 6 News report. "The alligators were waiting," good Samaritan David Nix said. "The water was coming through my window and the alligators were waiting for these people to die. They were sitting in the car and not doing anything, in shock and scared. They were just grabbing the steering wheel." Good Samaritan David Nix said he noticed the...

"There are increasing indications that the situation in New Orleans may be worse than Americans are being told. TV outlets abroad are reportedly showing video of large numbers of floating bodies, and just as the US media did not show people jumping from windows in the World Trade Center on 911, it may be that we're being spared the worst. Russian and Chinese intelligence analysts are calling it a "dead city." Some reports estimate that as many as 50,000 people may be dead. It may be impossible to get an accurate count of the dead because alligators are devouring the...

A week after a reptile slaying in Chesterfield County, it remains unclear whether the fisherman who reportedly clubbed it to death will feel the bite of the Endangered Species Act. Max Belle, the angler in question, hasn't even been told by federal game officials if the deceased reptile was indeed on the protected-species list, said his lawyer, David Baugh. "If the government takes this long to determine whether or not it is a protected species, I wonder why they would expect a common, ordinary citizen to make this differentiation," Baugh said Friday. "How is someone supposed to know the difference...

Utah's Urban Meyer has been offered the Florida coaching job and is expected to accept it later today, two separate sources told the Times-Union today. Meyer's salary package is expected to be in excess of $2 million annually, one source said. Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley denied that the school had reached an agreement with Meyer. "The search is in progress,'' Foley said. 'snip' A source close to the Utah coaching situation, however, told the Times-Union that Meyer met with Foley in Salt Lake City on Thursday, and Foley offered Meyer the job then. Meyer also met with Notre Dame...

So I said to myself, "Self, is the Ol' Ball Coach coming back to Gainesville?'' Well, on the one hand, yes. On the other hand, maybe not. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems at first blush. If it was, Steve Spurrier would have a Super Bowl ring by now and defensive coordinators around the NFL would be trying to figure out how to defend the deep fade. On the one hand, the man is a Gator. He is more a Gator than people who paint themselves orange and blue and get drunk at 7:30 on Saturday morning outside...

Steve Spurrier has told University of Florida officials that he is interested in discussing a possible return to coach the Gators, sources told ESPN's Chris Mortensen on Wednesday night. In addition, Florida officials have now given Spurrier two weeks to determine if he wants the job, although no formal offer has been given and no details such as salary have been discussed, Mortensen reports.

Gainesville, FL - In an effort to win votes, in the critical swing state of Florida, the Kerry/Edwards team has volunteered to replace fired coach Ron Zook for the remainder of the season. "When I played football as a young man in Vietnam, I did not hesitate to beat the Bulldogs and I won't now. Floridians are tired of this failed Zook administration. They continued to call the wrong play at the wrong time in the wrong game. It's time for them to come clean with this Gator nation." When asked what he would do differently, however, the senator replied...

ALBANY, Ga. (AP) - Art Ford's frightening experience during Georgia's first alligator hunting season last year whetted his appetite for more adrenaline-pumping adventures. He hopes to be among the 300 picked for the 2004 season, which runs Sept. 11-26. Hunters have until July 31 to apply. "You're hunting something that bites back," Ford said. "There was an element of danger. I think anything like that ups the adrenaline a little bit." Last year, Georgia joined Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Louisiana in offering an alligator season. Officials at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources hope the hunts will help reduce...

CJTF-7 Public AffairsBAGHDAD, IraqRelease #040101a  101st Soldiers, Michigan town facilitate pen-pal program MOSUL, Iraq – Traverse City, Mich., has taken an interest in the Qayyarah-Nineveh region of Iraq. Since early September, three 3rd and 4th grade classes have started a correspondence with 4th grade Iraqi children in the village of Tulul Nasir. This pen-pal program sparked the interest of residents in Traverse City, who responded with boxes of art supplies and t-shirts for the children and mail and food for the soldiers. The pen-pal project includes seventy-one 4th grade children in Tulul Nasir and seventy-one 3rd and 4th grade children...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Norm Sloan, who coached North Carolina State to the 1974 NCAA basketball title, died Tuesday at 77. He died of pulmonary fibrosis of the lungs at Duke Hospital, daughter Leslie Nicholls said. Sloan was living in Raleigh at the time of his death. Sloan first came to N.C. State to play for Everett Case, then took over the Wolfpack for the 1966-67 season, posting a record of 7-19 overall and 2-12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. ADVERTISEMENT Within a few years, the Wolfpack had won the 1970 ACC championship with a 42-39 double-overtime victory over South...