FOXBORO — Brandon Spikes and Jermaine Cunningham have already taken a memorable journey together as teammates at the University of Florida. Now, they’ll get a chance to continue their partnership with the Patriots.

In the latest example of the Gainesville-to-Foxboro pipeline, the two Gators were picked in the second round of Friday night’s NFL draft by New England — Cunningham was taken at No. 53 overall and Spikes was selected at No. 62.

“I know it’s going to be different, coming to a new place and around new people. But with him, with my teammate that I’ve been around, he’s like my brother,” Spikes said of Cunningham. “We built a great relationship through the process in college and he was actually my roommate when we stayed in the dormitories when we were freshmen and sophomores. We’re probably going to room up there. We’ll see.”

“We spent a semester together in the dorms our second year,” Cunningham said. “[It’s] just the simple fact that both of us came in the same class in 2006 and are coming out together and having an opportunity to play together with the Patriots.”

The two sat in a meeting with Belichick when the Patriots’ coach visited Florida, and had the chance to talk with the both of them. Cunningham said the meeting had a “good vibe.”

“It was a good meeting — like it always is with Florida,” Belichick said. “Those kids are very focused on football. Football’s important to them. They’re in a good program. It’s important for them to win. They know what they are doing. They’ve worked hard both on and off the field. They’re extremely well-coached by Coach [Urban] Meyer and his staff, so it’s a lot of fun to sit down and talk football with them.

“It’s fun to watch film with them and watch them play against other players who are in the draft this year or who were in the draft last year or probably going to be in the draft next year if they’re underclassmen. It was a good meeting. We spent two days down there, and it was very productive.”

The 6-foot-3, 249-pound Spikes played inside as a collegian, and will likely occupy that spot at the next level as well. A first-team All-SEC selection each of the last three years, he was accorded as one of the smarter linebackers in college football over the last few seasons, and served as the quarterback of the Florida defense.

“Brandon Spikes is pretty much the middle of our defense like Tim Tebow was the center of our offense,” Cunningham said of his once and future teammate who returned four interceptions for touchdowns in his college career. “He was the center of our defense. He goes out there, he’s quick and he holds the defense together.”

In the New England system, Spikes figures to challenge Gary Guyton for time at the inside linebacker spot, and a Spikes-Jerod Mayo combo on the inside for the Patriots should be enough to get a lot of New England football fans excited.

“I think they’re both good players,” Belichick said when asked about a Spikes-Mayo pairing inside. “They’re very intense. I think that they’re smart. They both have good power and explosion. We’ll see how it goes together, but I think that they both have a lot of physical talent, they have a lot of intangibles, they're both very instinctive players,

“We’ll see how it turns out, but I think Brandon and Jerod — to answer your question — they’re both very instinctive players, they were very productive in a good conference at a high level of competition that had them play against a lot of good backs and a lot of other good players and they played well.”

“Oh, I’ve got a great deal of respect for that kid,” Spikes said of Mayo. “I got a chance to watch him when he was at Tennessee. I watched him on film when he was an opponent. Just to be beside him, I know he came in and had a great deal of success so far. I just want him to be a great teammate, show me the ropes, and we can get in and get it going.”

As for Cunningham, the 6-foot-3, 266-pounder had 18½ sacks and 33 tackles for loss over the course of his career with the Gators. He’s the type of outside linebacker/edge rusher that’s in the Willie McGinest mold, a longer type of player who Belichick and the Patriots have traditionally coveted at that position.

“He’s a chill guy,” Spikes said of Cunningham. “I’ve been out there in the war with him plenty of times and he’s a guy I’d keep in my corner any day. Like I said, I’m just happy all of that happened. The four years we were there, me and Jermaine, we played a big role in the success that we had. Jermaine’s a hard worker in kind of the same way.”

The two also have the distinct advantage of having played in a system that Belichick has been watching very closely the last few seasons. Belichick has a small collection of college coaches — a group that includes Florida’s Urban Meyer, Fresno State’s Pat Hill and Alabama’s Nick Saban — who he trusts intimately, and will frequently lean on for advice in the college scouting process. (It’s no accident the New England roster is full of players who have played for former Belichick assistants like Hill or Saban or trusted friends like Meyer.)

“I know he and Coach Meyer have a great relationship. I know pretty that he knows pretty much everything about me. So I know what he’s about and I’m pretty sure he knows what I’m about,” Spikes said.

“I have a great deal of respect for Coach Belichick and his staff. I know a lot of the times we did things the way they do in New England; we did things like that in Florida. Seeing the success that we had with the guys that we had with us, I pretty much know what to expect, I think, right now. But we’ll see when we get there.”

“Every year, at least once a year, Coach Belichick would come down and talk to the team,” Cunningham said. “And how much Coach Meyer would talk about Coach Belichick and what a great coach he is.”

The transition should be a little easier for Spikes, who already knows a thing or two about the New England area — he’s dating Callie Rivers, the daughter of the Celtics head coach. Spikes laughed a little when a reporter asked him last night if he has some Celtics tickets “lined up” (“Yeah, yeah. You know how that is,” he said with a laugh), while Doc Rivers smiled broadly after exiting the podium during his postgame press conference in Miami.

“The Patriots made a terrific pick today in Brandon Spikes,” he said with a grin. “You’ll remember that name.”

“[Spikes] came with a good recommendation from Doc [Rivers], which I appreciated,” Belichick said with a laugh. “Doc can keep an eye on him up here — keep his daughter a little closer to home.”