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Gators Favored To Win Conference Championship

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 26, 2008

HOOVER, Ala. - The University of Florida won another Southeastern Conference football championship on Friday. Unfortunately for the Gators, it's on paper and written in pencil.

Media attending the Southeastern Conference preseason gathering outside Birmingham put their notepads together to vote Florida as the favorite for this year's league championship.

The Gators were selected as Eastern Division champions, while Auburn received the nod to win the Western Division.

Of the 70 media members who voted, Florida was named SEC champion on 36 ballots, Georgia on 18, Auburn 13 and LSU, Tennessee and Ole Miss one each. In the Eastern Division, Florida had 45 first-place votes, followed by Georgia (23) and Tennessee (two). The Gators, Bulldogs and Volunteers were selected 1-2-3 in the division, followed by South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

In the Western Division, Auburn was named first on 48 ballots, while LSU received 21 first-place votes and Ole Miss one. The predicted order of finish in the division was Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Arkansas.

Take the news with a grain of salt.

"I got up this morning and was really excited," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "Then I saw you picked us to win the Western Division, and you guys are never right."

In preseason All-SEC team voting, Auburn had nine representatives on the first and second teams, while LSU had eight. Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina each had five players selected. Florida had the most first-team selections with five, followed by LSU and Tennessee with four each.

There were no unanimous selections to the All-SEC team. Florida WR Percy Harvin was the leading vote-getter with 68, while Gators LB Brandon Spikes had 65. Florida QB Tim Tebow was named on 64 ballots.

UK RISING: Rich Brooks has quietly raised Kentucky's football standards, but he has not gotten the deserved attention because the Wildcats still are chasing the big three of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

"Well, I want to tell you the difference isn't what it used to be," Brooks said. "When I got to Kentucky, the first year we had one player that could run under 4.5. Last year we had 17. We have the first and second fastest players that I've ever hand-timed in Derrick Locke and Alfonso Smith. We have more speed. We have more talent. We have players that are capable of playing at Florida and Georgia and Tennessee.

"I think that we've closed the gap on the talent level, which is the biggest significant difference in Kentucky football now versus four or five years ago."

AUBURN SPREADING OUT: Auburn, a school known for a hard-nosed running game, is going to the spread offense.

"Offensively, new, different, totally different for me, for Auburn, even for the SEC," Tuberville said. "Everybody says, 'Well, some teams run this.' Not like we run it. It's no-huddle, fast- paced, fast tempo, involve your quarterback in running the football, spread the field, use a lot of wide receivers. You know, really, it's a change for us.

"Last year, we averaged 56 plays a game in the regular season. In the bowl game we ran 93. We will still run the football. You've got to be able to run it to win."

PETRINO'S SIDE: Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino bailed out on the Atlanta Falcons last year late in the season, bolting a team that already was dealing with the Michael Vick mess.

He weathered a lot of criticism. But Friday he took the high road.

"The whole situation, the timing was bad," he said. "There's no question about that. If it could have played out any other way, I would have loved to see it play out a different way.

"But with the Falcons, and with Arkansas, it was really the only way that it could play out. And I'm extremely happy to be the head football coach at the University of Arkansas."

Mick Elliott

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