FOUR BITS: Dunlap, Billy D, Loeffler, defense

1 » Reinstated by University of Florida administrators and Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer, junior defensive end Carlos Dunlap has rejoined the team with a spring in his step and a heavy feeling of guilt. “He knows he let himself down, let his teammates down, let his coaches down,” defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. “He hasn’t had one issue since the day he got here, until that one problem. I don’t know anybody that goes unblemished without a problem in their lives. It was a serious one, a major one and he paid a heck of a price, but he’s ready to go. I’ll be real surprised if he doesn’t play real well Friday night.” Even so, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong said he is not sure if Dunlap will start the game.

2 » Florida head basketball coach Billy Donovan is friends and contemporaries with Meyer, leading him to have a good understanding of the head football coach. The fact that Donovan also pulled an about-face after deciding to step down as coach of the Gators puts him in a unique position to empathize with Meyer’s recent decision to return to the team after a leave of absence. “I don’t think people really understand what happens and what goes on, and I think at least hearing some of Urban’s comments when he initially was going to step away, I can certainly relate and understand,” Donovan said. “It’s very hard to balance — it’s nearly impossible to balance — because you are living with yourself knowing there is more you can be doing. And when you get put into situations every single day, every minute of every day, to make a decision between your wife, your kids and your job, and then when you spend time with one of them you worry about neglecting the other one, it is an incredible emotional drain.”

3 » Though he has often been rumored to be one of the top candidates for the vacant Central Michigan Chippewas head coaching position, Gators quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler contends that he has yet to be contacted by the school. “I have not spoken to them none whatsoever,” he said according to Florida Today. “I am coaching the quarterbacks at the University of Florida, enjoying every second. It’s been great with Tim [Tebow]. It’s been a special week for him being his last football game, and Johnny Brantley, we’re trying to get him better for the future. All I am worrying about is just concentrating and doing everything in my power to help this team win another bowl.”

4 » Charlie Molnar, the Cincinnati Bearcats passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, told The Cincinnati Enquirer on Tuesday that Florida’s defense is the best in the country. “We have not faced a defense of that caliber,” Molnar said. “The problems they present are so many. They can get pressure on the quarterback with just a four-man rush. They don’t have to blitz in order to get pressure on you. It certainly changes the way the game is played. It will take a very, very concentrated and focused effort on our part to have our success on offense.”