updated 5:16 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Coach Urban Meyer tried to reassure Florida fans of his commitment to he Gators on Tuesday, but reiterated that Notre Dame might always be his “dream job.”

Meyer said he was “trying to be extremely respectful for all involved,” but his latest comments might not help stave off criticism.

“Our staff has given our life to Florida football for four years,” Meyer said following the team’s first bowl practice. “We plan on giving our life to Florida football for a long, long time. You start hearing, ’Well coach, I thought you said (Notre Dame was) your dream job.’ I grew up in the North and that was my dream job. Probably always will, but that has nothing to do with this.

“This is my dream job. This is my job. I hope to be here for a long, long time. I hear that out there and it’s my fault. But this is everything I want in a school. This is the best job in America. You don’t give your life to a school like our whole staff has. We plan on doing this for a long time.”

Last week, Meyer told a Miami radio station that he might want to coach the Fighting Irish once his three children completed high school.

Meyer spurned Notre Dame in 2004, instead choosing to move from Utah to Florida. He won a national championship in his second season and will play for another one next month in the Bowl Championship Series national title game in Miami.

“Once my kids are done, maybe some day I’ll go coach there,” Meyer told WQAM. “I don’t know that. That’s way down the road. Being a father and being able to recruit the best athletes in America within a five-hour radius of my home, that’s why I came to Florida. I thought we could have a great chance at success.”

There was plenty of speculation that if Notre Dame fired Charlie Weis after this season, the school would take another run at Meyer.

Meyer signed a seven-year, $3.25 million extension after the 2006 championship. But he made it clear during the radio interview that returning Notre Dame — he was an assistant there from 1996 to 2000 — was still a possibility.

“To be the head football coach of Notre Dame, you’re on a plane recruiting because you recruit San Diego as hard as you recruit New York as hard as you recruit Florida, Texas, Ohio,” said Meyer, whose youngest child has yet to reach middle school. “It’s a national recruiting base. I recruited there for six years, and I spent every night in a hotel in an airport. I’m going to be a good father first.”

Also on NBCSports.com PFT: Packers president admits he’s ‘disappointed’ CFT: By the numbers spotlights McCoy  |    Images MLB blog: A look at the top 111 free agents College hoops: North Carolina will be scary good   Video: Red card? Some rough play in women's soccer Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

MORE FROM COLLEGE FOOTBALL

College football Section Front

SEC not all it’s cracked up to be Bowl Projections: Big Ten blows BCS spot Opinion: 10 bowl matchups that would be a treat CFT: ‘By the numbers’ — McCoy goes for record CFT: Iowa’s Stanzi could return for bowl game CFT: Meyer says Florida ‘lacking the big hits’ Tribe stops school from dropping nickname   Vote: Which is the best conference? CFT: Mystery over for No. 5 Cincinnati — Pike will sit Iowa-Ohio St. in-depth video preview, analysis College football Section Front   Add College football headlines to your news reader: