Florida Announces Charlie Weis As Offensive Coordinator

The University of Florida officially announced the arrival of Charlie Weis on Monday, one day after Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley confirmed to reporters that Weis was headed to Florida. Weis, who is currently the Chiefs offensive coordinator, will head to Florida once the Chiefs are out of the playoffs.

Though there’s been plenty of speculation on the reasons for Weis’ exit, Haley said he was leaving for “family reasons” with Weis’ son going to school at Florida and working in the football program next year.

Somehow, someway, this has actually happened. According to multiple reports floating around the Internet, Charlie Weis will step down as the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator to take the same position on new Florida head coach Will Muschamp’s staff ahead of the 2011 season. Florida will reportedly officially announce the hiring as early as Monday. The rumor first popped-up yesterday and, apparently, developed at warp speed.

Muschamp was looking for a coordinator to install a pro-style offense in an effort to continue the flood of high profile recruits to Gainesville. In Weis, he gets just that. Weis has extensive experience in the pro ranks, despite a failed stint as head coach at the college level.

Muschamp said he hasn’t yet hired any assistant coaches, and doesn’t plan to announce any hirings until after the team’s Jan. 1 bowl game. Strength coach Mickey Merotti is the only current coach he seems to have listed as definitely staying, though he left the door open for more. He did provide a clue as to which assistants you can cross off your list, mentioning he expects to run a pro-style offense, wants a defense that uses both 3-4 and 4-3 sets, and is considering calling defensive plays himself.

He also said Florida lacked discipline this season, as former coach Urban Meyer looked on in attendance.

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley is expected to release Muschamp’s contract details at some point Tuesday.

To talk business with Florida fans, tote your briefcase to Alligator Army.

An awful lot of never-gonna-happen coaching changes have gone down this week, and Florida appears to have perpetrated yet another: The Gainesville Sun’s Robbie Andreu is reporting that Alabama defensive coordinating wunderkind Kirby Smart has been offered what we’ll safely assume is a substantial pile of ducats to make a lateral move into the SEC East and join Will Muschamp’s new staff at Florida.

This is coaching search news, so please remember to apply a good-sized deer lick of salt before descending upon your message boards of choice in a screaming melee. Everybody’s been wrong about everything this week, and it’s not that difficult to be wrong about an organization as notoriously closemouthed as Florida football.

To the candidate: Smart is currently pulling down $750,000 a year to run Nick Saban’s THE PROCESS defense in Tuscaloosa, a job he’s held since 2008. His only previous coordinating experience, prior to a series of position-coaching gigs in I-A and the NFL, was a season steering the defense of Valdosta State.

This would be an interesting get for a couple reasons. Not only would it be a lateral move for Smart, but he’s a proven Saban man, having served under the tiny emperor during his time at LSU, Miami, and now Bama. But every fledgling general has to flee the nest sometime, and the offer, whatever it is, is certainly a lucrative one. This could all click together this afternoon or spark a bidding war for Smart’s services. You’ll know when we do.

For all the latest news on Will Muschamp’s nascent regime at Florida, stay tuned to this StoryStream, and connect with Gator and Crimson Tide fans at SB Nation’s Alligator Army and Roll Bama Roll.

The path to Will Muschamp becoming the next head coach at Florida was paved in part by Urban Meyer’s abrupt resignation this past week. Meyer spoke about family being the reason for his departure, but it seems like his health played a role, too.

The Gainesville Sun’s Pat Dooley reports that a source said health reasons make it “too risky” for Meyer to continue coaching, and that the esophageal spasms that plagued Meyer in 2009 — when he was hospitalized after the SEC Championship Game, then briefly resigned before later altering his resignation to a leave of absence — are just the start of Meyer’s issues.

It looks like the questions about whether Major Applewhite will become the offensive coordinator at Florida are close to being answered. Edward Aschoff of the Gainesville Sun tweets that Applewhite will head to Gainesville.

Will Muschamp will be Florida’s next head coach. You knew that. But did you know that blogs may have broken this story?

It begins on Friday night, with a post by SB Nation’s own Burnt Orange Nation saying that Muschamp was a top Florida target. In that post, Peter Bean wrote:

The world in which we live tends to react to news almost as soon as that news exists. It’s an instantaneous era. But Trey Burton and Tim Tebow stepped that up tonight.

Less than a half hour before news broke that Will Muschamp would be hired as Florida’s next head coach, Florida’s Trey Burton tweeted this:

Today was supposed to be a quiet day in college football. The Army-Navy game was the only FBS game scheduled. The Heisman Trophy presentation seemed like merely a way to delay Cam Newton holding up a bronze figurine. Then, seconds before that show began on ESPN, this bombshell dropped:

Will Muschamp will be named UF’s new coach, sources have told the Times-Union. He’s the D coordinate at Texas.That’s from Michael DiRocco of the Florida Times-Union, breaking news that Florida will hire Muschamp, Texas’ defensive coordinator, to replace the recently resigned Urban Meyer.

Because he was a former defensive coordinator in Gainesville and has been successful as head coach in Oklahoma, Bob Stoops’ name was bound to crop up in connection with Florida’s search for a new coach to replace the retiring Urban Meyer. Stoops name was already mentioned after Steve Spurrier resigned, after Ron Zook was fired and in the 24 hours last year when Meyer briefly retired.

So in some respects, it wasn’t really surprising when some Florida-centric websites started reporting that Stoops was working on the final details of a contract with the Gators. It also wasn’t surprising when Stoops quickly knocked down the rumors.

Rumors are always fun. For instance, today’s rumor mill is cranking out plenty of static that sounds a lot like Chris Petersen met with Florida officials while in Orlando for the ESPN College Football Awards banquet. If so, that’s the first hint of any kind of meeting between Florida officials and a coach of any sort.

If he is on Florida’s list, let’s review the Petersen file, just in case the Boise State coach actually takes any offer Florida makes to become the new head coach in Gainesville.

Charlie Strong seems to be a top candidate for the head coaching position at Florida left vacant by Urban Meyer’s resignation, and for a boatload of very compelling reasons. Strong coached at Florida not once, not twice, but in four different stints, the most recent being a nine-year stay beginning in 2002 where Strong served as the defensive coordinator for one of the nation’s most consistent units. He was a masterful recruiter, a favorite of the Gator community, and the man behind two national title-winning defenses.

That said: Strong interviewed for a slew of jobs before he ever got to Louisville, and always in the same role as the token minority candidate who trekked to a job, interviewed well, and was then passed over for the job in favor of the guy the school wanted from the jump. It clearly wore on Strong personally, especially as assistants he worked with and entered the profession with got their first and sometimes second shots at head coaching jobs. (Meyer and Dan Mullen were both on the same staff with Strong at Notre Dame under Bob Davie, and Meyer was on his third job and Mullen on his first before Strong got hired as a head coach.)

Louisville gave Strong his first legitimate shot at a head coaching job, and a year later Strong is just beginning to build Louisville out of the Krag-hole he inherited. No one says coaching is not a mercenary business, and Strong won’t stay at Louisville forever if he is as successful as his trajectory and track record indicates he will be. However, loyalty is a factor when you talk about someone who was passed over for all the wrong reasons during his time as an assistant and who finally landed at a place that believed in him.

Urban Meyer announced his resignation from Florida at a press conference on Wednesday in what was possibly the most emotionless farewell press conference you’ll ever see. He started with one line, saying he was resigning, and then when straight to questions. It’s probably a sign that Meyer is completely content with his decision, or that he’s just totally cold-blooded, or some mix of both. Regardless, here are the “highlights” of a pretty uneventful presser:

The full transcript of Meyer’s press conference responses to the questions can be found here. He was asked “why?” a lot of different ways, but the bottom line seems to be that he wants to spend time with his family.

Nearly a year ago, Florida coach Urban Meyer stunned the football world when he announced that he was resigning his post. However, “resignation” eroded into “leave of absence,” which further eroded into, “okay, I’ll coach spring ball.” Sure enough, he returned to the Gators this season.

Apparently, Meyer will only extend his career as Florida’s head coach for one more year, as he announced on Wednesday that the Outback Bowl will be his final game, ending a disappointing season in which Florida finished 7-5. Our Gators blog, Alligator Army, wonders whether adding one sub-par year to an excellent career will serve to tarnish Meyer’s legacy.

Following Urban Meyer’s resignation on Wednesday, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said a replacement will be named before the end of the year. “Two weeks, two-and-a-half weeks, I don’t see any reason it would take longer than that,” was Foley’s response when asked for a time frame on hiring a new football coach.

Foley also said he expects the process to be much more efficient this time compared to when he replaced the last great Florida coach — Steve Spurrier — with Ron Zook in 2002:

Let the speculation continue…

Amid speculation that Mississippi St. Bulldogs coach Dan Mullen would return to coach the Florida Gators after Urban Meyer’s resignation, Mullen has told the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger’s Brandon Marcello that he’s “absolutely” committed to the Bulldogs.

College football coaches say things like that all the time, but I’m not aware of Mullen going back on his word before. Though he could make much, much more money at Florida, with a greater set of resources at his disposal, he could be concerned about his reputation if he leaves the Dawgs after only two years.

After resigning as head coach of the Florida Gators and releasing a statement in which he mentioned his family as a prime motivator, Urban Meyer spoke to the media Wednesday night.

He opened with, “I have great love for the University of Florida. I’m stepping down as head coach to focus on family and other interests away from the sidelines,” and then he took questions from the media. He did appear relieved and set in his decision.

With Urban Meyer resigning on Wednesday, Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen appears to be the most likely replacement at Florida. Mullen was offensive coordinator at Florida from 2005-2008, a that stretch including two national titles, two SEC titles, and the most prolific offense in school history in 2008. Mullen left just before the 2008 National Championship Game to become head coach at Mississippi State, where he turned a faltering Bulldogs squad around

Likely doesn’t mean definite, no matter what talk radio in Tampa tells you. (And on the food chain of rumormongering, talk radio is somewhere above a magic 8-ball and somewhere below an internet message board, since at least an internet message board is a two-way form of communication.) Mullen is also a candidate for the Miami job, and would certainly use the two to leverage a hefty contract out of one of his suitors, a process that could extend the process a bit longer than it might go otherwise. There also remains the slight possibility of Mullen remaining at Mississippi State, but given the money thrown around, his youth, and his boundless ambition, that possibility is indeed slight.

The next day he stated his intention to step down, dialing down the decision on the following day to a leave of absence. He coached the team in the Sugar Bowl, did most of his recruiting work from home, and returned as full-time head coach in March 2010.

This time around Meyer hasn’t mentioned his health, only his family. Should we be putting two and two together and presuming his health is also a factor?

Meyer and Athletic Director Jeremy Foley came to an agreement on the resignation Tuesday. On Wednesday, the university released a statement from Meyer, which reads in part:

“I have been a Division I football coach for the last 25 years and, during that time, my primary focus has been helping my teams win titles. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, and I am a fierce competitor to my core. At this time in my life, however, I appreciate the sacrifices my 24/7 profession has demanded of me, and I know it is time to put my focus on my family and life away from the field. The decision to step down was a difficult one.

According to FanHouse’s Brett McMurphy, Urban Meyer is stepping down as the head coach to the University of Florida’s football team. (Yes, again.) The official announcement is expected to come in a press conference at 5 p.m. EST Wednesday evening.

If reports are true, this would not be the first time that Meyer has stepped down. Last December, Meyer announced he would resign as Florida’s head coach following a health scare earlier in the month (Meyer went to the hospital with chest pains and was released later the same day on Dec. 6). At the time, he said, “I have ignored my health for years, but recent developments have forced me to re-evaluate my priorities of faith and family.”