Florida head football coach Urban Meyer announced yesterday that he is taking “an indefinite leave of absence” after the Gators’ Sugar Bowl match-up vs. Cincinnati on January 1 in New Orleans. Meyer, citing health concerns, initially announced on Saturday that he was stepping down from the program but then issued a revised statement the following day. “During the past couple of days I was offered and encouraged to take a leave of absence,” said Meyer. “I’ve accepted this offer to improve on my health.” Meyer will still coach the Gators in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Friday evening before beginning his leave of absence. Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio will take over as interim head coach during Meyer’s time away from the program. Meyer won two national championships in his five years at Florida (2006 and 2008) and two Southeastern Conference championships (2006 and 2008). He is the only coach in the nation to win two Bowl Championship Series national championships and the only coach in the history of the SEC to win two outright national titles. Meyer came to Florida from Utah after beginning his head coaching career at Bowling Green in 2001.

Other transactions

Coaches

Baseball assistants – Evan Davis was hired at Felician.

Football – Hiram tabbed Randy Moore, defensive coordinator at Otterbein for the past seven years. He replaces Bob Wolfe, who retired at the end of the 2009 season … Murray State selected Chris Hatcher as its head coach. Hatcher formerly was a head coach at Georgia Southern and Valdosta State. He also was an assistant at Kentucky and UCF … Stony Brook extended head football coach Chuck Priore’s contract through the 2013 season … Rich Hulkow was named head football coach at Olivet. He recently coached at the high school level … Bethune-Cookman named Brian Jenkins head football coach. Jenkins was an assistant at Rutgers in 2009, coaching wide receivers. Before joining the Scarlet Knights, he coached at Louisiana-Lafayette after a stint coaching special teams for the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe. He has experience at Bowling Green, Eastern Illinois and Western Kentucky. He was a student-athlete at Cincinnati.

Football assistants – Louisiana-Monroe hired Bryan Applewhite to coach running backs, Leon Lett to coach defensive tackles, Jason Nichols to coach wide receivers and Adam Waugh to coach safeties.

Men’s and women’s soccer – Saginaw Valley selected former Cardinal standout Cale Wassermann for its men’s program. Wasserman was an assistant coach at Lewis for the past two seasons.

Men’s and women’s volleyball – Paula Fantini has been named head women’s soccer coach at Tiffin. Fantini, a native of Brazil, takes over the women’s program from Rudy Brownell, who will remain as head men’s soccer coach … Chad Esposito was selected to lead the women’s program at Youngstown State. He most recently coached at High Point … Northwestern State hired husband and wife Hugh and Stephanie Hernesman as co-head coaches for the women’s volleyball program. The duo replaces Brittany Uffelman, who resigned in November to pursue other opportunities in her home state of Wyoming. The Hernesmans come to Northwestern State after serving the last three years at Ball State, Hugh as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator for the Cardinals and Stephanie as a volunteer assistant.

Deaths

Former Youngstown State football student-athlete Blake Halverson was killed in a car accident on December 21 in his hometown of Tampa, Florida. Halverson was a three-year letter-winner with the program from 2005-07 and was a member of the squad in 2003 and 2004. He was 24.