At noon, he met Meyer for the first time. At the Meyer house, Foley and Meyer both had a lot of questions for each other during the 4-hour meeting. Meyer wanted to know about Foley and UF; Foley wanted to know about Meyer's philosophies on offense, defense, assistant coaches, weight training and discipline.

Foley's mission was to let Meyer know the University of Florida is a special place. Meyer made it clear that Utah is as well.

In the middle of that initial face-to-face discussion between Foley and Meyer, the Utah coach had to excuse himself to do a previously planned interview. During ABC's television coverage of the Texas-Texas A&M game in Austin, Meyer was interviewed via telephone by the network.

When he was done, Foley told Meyer, "You could have really caused a stir if you told them who was sitting in your living room."

Foley left the meeting impressed with Meyer. Meyer indicated he had an interest in the Florida job, but he still had some homework of his own to do.

Foley couldn't get a flight back to Vermont and instead took one to Boston. He landed at midnight, rented a car and drove to Stowe, getting home at 3 a.m.

On Sunday, Nov. 28, Foley returned to Gainesville and phoned Meyer to tell the coach how much he enjoyed the visit. Meyer said his wife, Shelley, wanted to know more about Gainesville.

Foley turned to a strong recruiter named Donovan. Not Billy, the Florida basketball coach, but his wife, Christine. Christine Donovan called Shelley Meyer on Nov. 29. Their call was cut short because Shelley Meyer had to pick up one of her children. The next day, Christine Donovan called again to answer any other questions about the home of the University of Florida. A day later, Billy Donovan called Meyer to talk about what it is like to work at UF.

Earlier that Tuesday, Foley met with Machen, who had been kept informed about the search but had yet to speak to Meyer about the job. Foley told Machen that Meyer was the coach he wanted to hire. Machen agreed and told him to pursue the Utah coach.

Foley spoke to Meyer three times that day. One of those conversations took place after Notre Dame surprisingly fired Ty Willingham. Meyer called Foley while the athletic director was at the Florida-Florida Atlantic basketball game.

Foley let Meyer know he wanted to return to Utah on Wednesday. Meyer said he couldn't meet because of a previous commitment. They settled on Thursday, Dec. 2.