Former Florida coach Urban Meyer has taken the head coaching job at Ohio State, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday.

Meyer, who led the Gators to two national championships before stepping down to spend more time with his family amid ongoing reports of health concerns, had worked as a game analyst this season for ESPN.

But he asked to be taken off his assignments for the network this weekend as reports swirled of his imminent hire by Ohio State, a program with a glittering past that has suffered through a difficult year of NCAA violations, suspensions and a 6-6 record.

Columbus will be the fourth stop in the 47-year-old Meyer’s coaching career. He had a 104-23 record over 10 seasons with Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. From 2001-10, he had five 10-win seasons, the two BCS titles with the Gators and a 7-1 record in bowl games.

Sources told WKMG-TV in Orlando last week that Meyer will receive a seven-year, $40 million contract.

“Well, if he’d had a heart attack and his heart was bad, I’d be worried about that,” the 70-year-old Bruce said on Monday, according to The Associated Press. “I’m not worried that he was stressed out over the game of football because he was thinking too much and not doing some things (exercising) that would have kept him straight.

“I think he got everything back under control by sitting out a year. I think he missed football. And he’s good at it.”

The Buckeyes capped their season Saturday with their first loss to Michigan in seven years, a 40-34 defeat that left them at .500 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten.

It marked the most points Michigan had scored against Ohio State since putting up 58 in 1946 and the first time since 1999 that the Buckeyes finished under .500 in conference play.

Ohio State had been led by interim coach Luke Fickell after Jim Tressel was forced to resign nearly six months ago amid a tattoo-parlor scandal involving star Buckeyes quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who now plays for the Oakland Raiders.

On Saturday, Fickell tried his best to avoid questions about his future and pounded a table after one such query.

“Like I said, it’s about the Ohio State-Michigan game,” Fickell said. “It’s been about that since last Sunday. It’s going to be about that always.”

Information from ESPN’s Stats & Information Group and The Associated Press was used in this report.