UF coaches will root for Belichick

The great ones understand. They share ideas and philosophies. They pick at brains and expose theirs to be picked.

The great ones only keep secrets from the media. They stack up knowledge like firewood, a little of this and a little of that.

The great ones get it.

“You try to gain knowledge from other people's experiences,” Billy Donovan said. “I've been around guys who think they have it all figured out and they have some kind of secret formula.”

Bill Belichick is not one of those guys, which is one reason his team is playing in the Super Bowl today. His relationships with Florida's two franchise coaches — Donovan and Urban Meyer — have resulted in an iconic triangle of respect.

When Belichick needed some fresh thoughts about dealing with playoff pressure in January, he called Donovan. When he was looking for a new wrinkle for his offense, he called Meyer.

When Meyer needed someone to listen to him vent after Florida's Capital One Bowl loss to Michigan, Belichick's phone rang at 6 a.m.

“The day after the game,” Meyer said. “I just wanted to talk.”

When Donovan was looking for an edge before Florida's second post-season run to

a national title, he brought in Belichick.

“He had talked to the team the year before,” Donovan said. “He told me he was coming down and I asked him to speak again. He said, ‘OK, I'm going to prepare.’ ”

Belichick showed the Gator team a tape that included a myriad of success stories, players (or in one case a horse named Secretariat) making big plays in big games. Here's Jordan turning the ball over. But watch him get back into the play and make something happen.

The funny thing is that even though the two Florida coaches live a house apart in the same Gainesville neighborhood, the friendships are separate. The closest the threesome has come to spending time together was when Belichick and Meyer sat near each other for Donovan's national title win over Ohio State in Atlanta.

The origins of the relationships are diverse as well. The best man at Donovan's wedding — Ryan Ford — works for the company that made the Patriots' Super Bowl rings. When Donovan found out Ford was meeting with Belichick, he asked his buddy to put a good word in.

“This was when we really hadn't done anything,” Donovan said.

Belichick called Donovan and invited him to come to Boston. The two coaches hooked up at the Metropolitan Grill in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

For four hours.

“Usually when you are talking to a guy like that, after an hour he's ready to go,” Donovan said. “We talked about coaching and mind-set and dealing with guys, personnel and what he's looking for. He was incredible. He even said it was really refreshing because a lot of times as a head coach going into a season you don't have an opportunity to have conversations like this.”

They kept in touch and Donovan asked Belichick to address his team before its magical run to the first national title and again last year. Belichick has spent nights at the Donovan house where the two coaches have sat up late into the night discussing, well, everything that has anything to do with being a coach.

“He's really open to me,” Donovan said. “I've really enjoyed our talks. I talked to him for awhile before they went into the playoffs this year. He wanted to ask me about distractions and all of the stuff a coach has to deal with.

“Before (last season), during the summer, I called him and asked if he had a couple of hours he could put aside just to talk on the phone. I just wanted to say, ‘Here is where I'm at. Here's what I'm thinking. Am I missing anything?’ It's great to be able to talk to him.”

For Meyer, the call “came out of the blue.”

“He got my cell number and called me. I thought someone was jacking me around,” Meyer said.

Belichick wanted to talk offense. In recent interviews, Belichick has said that his league is not like college football where you can spend the off-season with other coaches dissecting their playbooks. Instead, he has turned to the college game and turned to Meyer.

Meyer said he sees some of the spread offense in New England's empty backfield formations. But, as is the case with Donovan, a lot of the conversations have been about more than game strategies.

In a recent interview with NFL.com, Belichick said of his relationship with Meyer,

“The No. 1 thing, from a football sense, I think we see a lot of things the same way. The basic philosophy of coaching, both on a fundamental level and a more technical strategic level, I think, are similar.

“Probably a lot of things I believe in have been reinforced, because I respect him. Sometimes, you question if you're on the right track or not and therefore, when your philosophies are kind of the same, I think it's easy to be open-minded to a new idea.”

Their relationship blossomed into a give-and-take, Meyer addressing the Patriots at practice and Belichick addressing the 2007 Gator football team at practice.

Meyer calls the time he spent at the New England workouts “the most refreshing

experience I've ever had.”

“You see Mike Vrabel running down the field with a special teams' beanie on his helmet,” Meyer said. “You see Tom Brady running the two-minute drill like it was the Super Bowl. Just to sit and study, I've never seen anything like that organization.”

Meyer isn't much for watching NFL games. Donovan — in the middle of a season — isn't much for watching anything but game tape.

But both Florida coaches will be watching Super Bowl XLII, rooting for their friend.