The Gator Football team held their annual media day yesterday on campus. The event is nowhere near the spectacle that SEC Media Days are, but it provides a lot more relevant information for Gator fans. Head coach Urban Meyer, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, offensive coordinator Steve Addazio, and numerous players had a few things to say about the upcoming season.

Urban Meyer didn’t have too many new things to say but his comments on John Brantley sure were strong.

“Johnny Brantley did very well at practice today. At this point in time, he will play meaningful minutes in games. He is starting to earn that right. Unless he starts to hit reverse on the practice field, in which case we would back off. Johnny has to be ready to go and he’s starting to really impress people.”

That means that he will have a role similar to what Tebow played in the 2006 season behind Chris Leak. It will be a more situational passing role than Tebow’s hyrid- fullback look in 2006, but nonetheless expect it to be in big games rather than just against Charleston Southern and FIU.

Coach Meyer also took on the question of whether he expects an undefeated season saying, “I’m hoping you don’t hear them talk about it very much. I think sometimes what happens is that these young guys get baited into making comments like that. That is certainly not one of our goals. Absolutely not. Our goal is to get to Atlanta, and that’s it.”

He also said failing to win a national championship wouldn’t make the season a failure. I am not sure too many fans would agree with him on that one.

Coach Strong commented on how  extremely impressed his staff is with the depth on defense.

“Having depth is always a good thing. I was talking with Chuck Heater, Dan McCarney and Vance Bedford and even with all of our coaching experience; none of us have ever had a team with this type of depth. The main thing at this point is to continue to work hard. Even though we have all of our guys back from last year, we have to continue to get better with each day. Our players understand this, and they understand the expectations that they will face this year.”

He also had high praise for senior LB Ryan Stamper, saying “what makes him so special is that the players respect him so much. If you were to ask anyone on our football team, ‘Who is the one person on this team that you respect?’ it would be Ryan Stamper. He’s a guy that cares about the rest of the guys on this team. He’s a very special player.”

Senior LB Brandon Spikes sounds pretty excited to come back for his senior year. On his choice to come back he said, “The chance to rewrite history and be remembered forever – to go out and do it, to go down in history as one of the greatest teams ever.  Tim [Tebow] coming back was big for me.   I knew he was going get the offensive guys ready to do their part.  He’s the captain of the offense, and I’m the captain of the defense.”

Junior TE Aaron Hernandez shed some light on his relationship with Coach Meyer and how much he has helped him not only as a player but as a person. He said “Urban helped me get through [losing my father], and that is one of the main reasons that I decided on coming here. He is a great guy and has helped me get through a lot of things in my life. My papa always told me to be the best ever, and Coach tells me all the time, ‘Go get that dream your dad wanted.’ He always keeps me motivated, and I look up to him like a father figure.”

The rumor has been that Joe Haden might see snaps at QB, Haden commented on the issue saying “I definitely expect it to happen now. I’ve been practicing at it every day after practice with Coach [Scot] Loeffler. We practice run plays, pass plays and going through my drops. We usually do this after practice is over when everyone else has gone in. They are making sure to keep everything real simple for me.”

Jeff Demps has gained muscle and after seeing him recently the guy is jacked. Here is his quote on what running track and being a two-sport athlete has done for him.

“Anyone can get out on the field as long as they go hard and take this seriously.  I made it tougher on myself in the weight room.  I needed to gain weight after track season.  I’ve been eating more to put on some weight for football.  Track made me more explosive.”

Now that SEC Media Days, the first fall practice, and the Gators’ media day have all passed on the calendar, Gator fans only have one thing to wait for; waking up on September 5th to the start the tailgating and football season off right. As of right this minute, there’s 24 days, 10 hours, and 10 minutes left until kickoff, but who’s counting?

Ben Pettito is a columnist for GatorTailgating.com