While working to improve his physical health, Florida coach Urban Meyer also focused on balancing his life. He shut off his BlackBerry for long stretches, something Shelley Meyer noticed because she was not awakened by its buzzing in the middle of the night. Shelley Meyer said her husband got a second phone this off-season, an older model with no Internet connection. He programmed seven numbers in it — for his four immediate family members, his two sisters and his father. No one else knew the number. “Boom, I shut it off,” Meyer said. “I’d never done that before. I’d check once in a while, but I’d go three days without looking at it, which is mind-boggling.” — NY Times

The Gators will still pound the quarterback up the middle in short-yardage situations – just not with John Brantley. Florida has been using freshman quarterback Trey Burton in goal-line drills and he has impressed coaches. “He did a great job [Friday] at the goal line,” Brantley said. “He loves to run that ball, he has always told me that. He got a big chance today to do that and he proved himself.” Burton could be utilized in the same fashion Tim Tebow was in his freshman season. That year, Tebow came into games for starter Chris Leak to run the ball 89 times, while only throwing 33 passes. “He’s looking really good right now,” running back Emmanuel Moody said. “He is taking a lot of snaps like Tebow did last year.” — Orlando Sentinel

Florida defensive coordinator Teryl Austin is a little bit tired of hearing the debate over which defense he will run in the fall. A 4-3 — four down linemen, three linebackers — as the Gators used under former coordinator Charlie Strong? Or a 3-4, as Austin’s former team, the Arizona Cardinals, ran under coordinator Billy Davis? It’s pointless and a waste of time to talk about it, Austin said, because the scheme is irrelevant. Only results count. “It doesn’t matter,” Austin said. “At the end of the day, the guys we put out there, no matter what we put them in, they’ve got to be able to run to the ball, get off the blocks, tackle, make a play, cause a turnover.” Florida’s defense will certainly look different in 2010, but not because of any scheme changes. The Gators lost six starters from one of the best defenses in school history. — Florida Times-Union

South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier said Thursday that he’s not sorry he left the University of Florida to take the head coaching position with the NFL’s Washington Redskins following the 2001 college football season. Speaking with reporters at the annual SEC Football Media Days, Spurrier, who spent 12 seasons at the Gators head coach and led the program to the 1996 national title, said that at that point, coaching in the NFL was something that was very important to him. “I love Florida and I always will,” he said. “But I’d been there 12 years, and there’s something about a 10-, 12-year stay. I’d been there 12 years. At the time, I thought I wanted to coach in the NFL five or six years and that’d be about the end of it. But it’s sort of funny how you keep coaching and you feel kind of the same way you did five or six years ago.” Spurrier, who coached two season for the Redskins, struggled at the professional level, going just 12-20 before resigning on Dec. 30, 2003. — GatorCounty.com

Urban Meyer’s health problems were severe enough to compel him into a brief resignation Dec. 26, a week before his team played Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl, but he insisted they will not hinder him this season. “The stress of a job like we have that wasn’t the issue,” Meyer said Wednesday at SEC Football Media Days. “The issue was knowing that there was something wrong. That’s been solved. “The issue was not coaching at Florida. The issue was, ‘What’s going on?’ and we’re not finding it. We found it in January, so that stress of knowing there’s a health issue has been relieved.” — Palm Beach Post