U. in prime spot

There was so much going on Monday morning that Utah coach Urban Meyer had to turn his phone off. And he said he may leave it off.

Meyer's phone was ringing off the hook for a couple of reasons.

One, his Utes had surprisingly moved up one spot in the BCS standings into the all-important top six, which would guarantee a berth in one of the four BCS bowls at season's end. And two, Ron Zook was fired as head coach at Florida, fueling speculation that Meyer could be a top candidate for the job.

Meyer, whose 7-0 Utes play at San Diego State on Saturday, was happy to talk about the BCS situation. At least happier than he was to talk about the possibility of another job.

"I just heard that a few minutes ago," Meyer said at his weekly 1 p.m. news conference Monday. "I think it's great. Actually my wife called me and her comment on my message machine — I didn't get to talk to her — was, 'You're No. 6 — make sure you stay there.' "

Meyer then laughed and added, "That's great coaching on her part."

The Utes leapfrogged Wisconsin to No. 6 in the BCS standings, even though neither team moved in the Associated Press or coaches poll. The Utes' BCS average is .7217, compared with Wisconsin's .7180. Last week the Badgers led the Utes by just .0004. Even though Wisconsin is ranked higher than Utah in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, the Utes enjoy a big edge over the Badgers in the computer polls with an average ranking of five compared with Wisconsin's 11.

Although Meyer did acknowledge he "did look for it" and that "a lot of people will talk about it," he also said it doesn't matter if the Utes are No. 6 or No. 8 or 9 in the BCS standings right now.

"Where you are now doesn't matter," he said. "I think we have four of our toughest games coming up. In December we can have a great big press conference or a party or whatever, but right now there are no issues with that."

Later, Meyer got a little testy when asked about the suddenly open job at Florida. Zook was let go a few hours earlier and the fact that former University of Utah president Bernie Machen is president at Florida now makes some folks believe Meyer is bound to be contacted.

When asked if he's looking for Machen's name on his caller ID, Meyer replied, "I don't carry a phone around with me now. I had a bunch of calls today, which was disruptive, so, no more."