Here are comments from Florida football coach Urban Meyer from this morning's SEC teleconference with reporters ( audio link here):

Meyer: "We're looking forward to our annual battle with one of the most talented teams in the country. Obviously, a very tough place to go play, but that's why you come to places like Florida. If you don't want to play in places like LSU or Alabama or all these SEC schools, you don't come play in this conference. So, we've got a lot of respect for our opponent, and I think this will be a great game."

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com asked about noise affecting Tim Tebow, noting that noise can have adverse effects upon people who have recently had a concussion.

Meyer: "If noise is a factor, then Tim won't play. That really hasn't been discussed. I'll ask that question myself. If noise is bothering Tim, Tim won't be in the game. That means he's still symptomatic. If there are no symptoms, then all the noise is legit, and it's not just at the line of scrimmage. It's calling the plays. It's communication on the sideline. There's somewhat of a misunderstanding that the crowd noise causes issues with the snap count, and most people don't use a snap count. It's just the functioning of the plays that the offenses and defenses (call). It's so complicated now than what it used to be. You have protection checks, the play checks and those type of things, so that's where it becomes an issue. But to answer your question, there will not be an issue with Tim or John (Brantley) with it. It's all the same."

The Gainesville Sun's Pat Dooley asked what makes LSU's home stadium different.

Meyer: "They've got good players. I played down there ... I was at Colorado State. We went down there and beat them. It was a long time ago, and the stadium wasn't a factor, and it was because the team wasn't very good. What makes LSU's stadium and environment, the fans, is those guys wearing the jerseys are really good players, and I think that's the same thing at Florida, the same thing that, like I mentioned Alabama. Hell, we've got one experience at Alabama. That's the loudest I've ever heard because they won 10 games that year. They had a really, really good team. So, all that other stuff's a little overrated. Once again, all due respect to LSU, that is, but what makes LSU LSU are those guys wearing those jerseys. They're really good players."

The Tennessean's Joe Biddle in Nashville asked Meyer if he knew what grade or level of concussion Tebow suffered against Kentucky.

Meyer: "No, I don't. I do, but I don't want to tell. I heard them say it, but no. I don't know."

Biddle, noting Tebow is an important person, commodity and player at Florida, asked Meyer if he will err on the side of caution even if doctors clear Tebow to play Saturday.

Meyer: "Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I've never seen the attention to detail -- and I guess you'd expect that here at Florida -- but this is not one, two or three; it's many, many people involved with the evaluation phase on Tim, and yesterday's a perfect example. I think there were 12 people in the meeting that we had at one o'clock because we had to clear him to play -- to practice, not play -- to clear him to practice. So there will be an ongoing communication and evaluation up until game time."

The St. Petersburg Times' Antonya English asked if Meyer had reached the point in the week -- which he'd told reporters would come -- after which he wouldn't say anything more about Tebow's status until game time.

Meyer: "I believe it's going to be legit as well, though. I think that this will not be a decision made today. After yesterday's practice I was told to game plan with the intent that there's a chance Tim could play. All the other stuff, we'll make decisions as we get closer. Is it an advantage, us not telling? I'm not worried about that right now. We're game planning as if there's a chance Tim could play and there's a chance he won't play, and that's pretty much going to be the response until the plans evolve down there (in Baton Rouge)."

Her follow-up question was about getting Bentley's mind right in a situation where, she said, it's kind of strange that he's preparing for a game with so much uncertainty.

Meyer: "Practice real hard. Kind of strange? I'm not sure what 'kind of strange' means. He needs to go out and prepare to play the game. John'll be fine. John's done good. He's had a heck of a week of practice, and he's preparing to go play that game."

Mike Herndon of the Press-Register in Mobile, saying that scoring is up about five points a game across the board in the SEC, along with an increase in total yardage, asked Meyer what he thought were some of the reasons.

Meyer: "I think that's interesting. If you look at who, probably ... we've scored a lot of points, but the first two games weren't against SEC-style opponents. I think a lot of that is early in the year because some of these teams, including us, don't play ... we did not play ... like, last year we played Miami, and our scoring wasn't near as high. This year, we played teams from smaller conferences, and so we scored a lot of points. I can't speak on the rest of the conference. That's usually what happens, though, because of the defenses I see in this league. I just really studied that LSU-Georgia game, and that's SEC football. I see the way some of these other teams have played, so I don't know that (the numbers mean anything has changed). I just think the top-level schools in this conference are playing defense probably as good or better than they've played since we've been here."

Tom Rinaldi of ESPN asked if Meyer knew whether Tebow had been cleared yet to practice this afternoon after being evaluated following the Tuesday practice.

Meyer: "Tom, I don't know that. He comes in, I believe, at 11 to get tested, whatever he's doing today, but everything I heard through last night after practice was important as well, and he (was evaluated) after practice, so my intent right now is that he's been cleared to practice, but I have not walked downstairs yet since he's been back here."

The Times-Picayune's Jim Kleinpeter asked Meyer about his defense, specifically about what it's like when his defensive starters go up against his offensive starters in practice, and how much better that makes the defense. He also asked for an evaluation of the defense's level of play this year.

Meyer: "Defense has played at a high level. We didn't feel against Tennessee -- which I think has one of the best running backs in the country, No. 2 (Montario Hardesty) -- we did not play great defense. We played good defense against a good offensive team, but the one thing we take great pride on is the guys running to the ball, and it was not Florida-like, and Coach... did a great job showing '08 defense vs. '09. I think against Kentucky we played a little bit like '08, and that means the pursuit to the ball was relentless, and so that's what makes our (defense great). First of all, good players and relentless pursuit to the ball. Not some magic scheme, but intensity in the effort to the football. So, at this point, after last week we're playing at a very high level."

Kleinpeter asked again about starters vs. starters, 1s vs. 1s, in practice.

Meyer: "Well, 1s and 1s this time of year, we don't put a lot of ... we don't let that happen. That's in training camp and spring ball, but it's tough. You block our defense, you're blocking some very good players and very multiple looks, so it's a great challenge. But we go 1s/2s almost exclusively now at practice this time of year."

Ron Higgins of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis asked Meyer if he'd like to see the officials huddle before making an excessive-celebration call.

Meyer: "I've got to be careful what I say, because we met on that in the spring. I wasn't there (at the LSU-Georgia game); I just saw what the whole country saw."

Meyer echoed South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, saying "If you bring attention to yourself, if you don't celebrate with your teammates, if you do something that's obvious, throw the flag. If it's not, don't you dare throw that flag. Don't do it, or you won't be officiating. I mean, don't do that. And I think the officials are put in a tough situation, like the one where it's clear-cut that the ball is in the air, but everybody who really understands or maybe played the game of football knows that kid who made that play at Washington, that should not have been a penalty. But the official's put in a tough situation, so I'm a little bit like a lot of these coaches where you'd like to think take the judgment out of it, and if a kid brings ... like, I do believe there should be a penalty for excessive celebration or you do something that's not good for college football. Celebrating with your teammates after ... that kid from Georgia made one of the greatest catches I've ever seen to take the lead against LSU, and he went crazy. He was celebrating with his teammates. I don't understand that (being a penalty)."

Higgins asked if Meyer appreciated the SEC office admitting a mistake on the call. Meyer said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and supervisor of officials Rogers Redding handle things openly and the right way.

.

Carl Dubois has written or blogged about LSU sports since 1999. He apologizes for any typos or other problems owing to his rush to post this in a timely manner. He'll post comments from Les Miles on a separate post as soon as possible. You can contact Carl at carl1061 'at' gmail.com.