Media Days Notes: Florida Dominates Preseason Projections

A year ago, Georgia was the top team in the country to start the season, but the media in Hoover, Ala. for SEC Media Days still picked Florida to win the East. It probably shouldn't come as a big surprise then that the Gators were the runaway pick to repeat in 2009.

Florida was a unanimous selection by media to win the SEC East in the preseason balloting released Friday. Only one of the 64 voters selected anyone other than the Gators to win the conference. The lone dissenting vote went to Mississippi.

With the exception of receiver Percy Harvin, Florida returns nearly every key contributor from last year's national championship team, and the Gators' selection as the odds-on favorite to repeat as conference champs came as no surprise to the rest of the SEC.

"They win the big games, and you can't take anything from them," Georgia senior Jeff Owens said of the Gators. "They're a great football team, and we know that if you're going to be successful in this league, you've got to beat Florida. If you want to win a national championship or an SEC championship, you've got to beat Florida. That's the No. 1 thing."

Georgia was the consensus pick to finish second in the East, and the Bulldogs also landed five players on the All-SEC teams, as selected by the media. Receiver A.J. Green was the team's lone first-team representative, while linemen Clint Boling and Trinton Sturdivant, defensive tackle Geno Atkins and linebacker Rennie Curran were both named to the second team.

In the coach's poll, Curran was a first-team selection, but South Carolina's Eric Norwood said the demotion by the media was a reflection of the immense talent at linebacker in the conference.

"Our conference, you've got to have good linebackers," Norwood said. "It's not an option. It's not like you're in the Pac-10. This is a tough, physical conference, and you've got to be able to hit."

Alabama was selected by the media to win the SEC West, but the balloting was much closer. The Crimson Tide received 33 first-place votes, followed by Mississippi with 16 and LSU with 15.

Florida led all teams with 12 representatives on the All-SEC teams, including eight first teamers. Alabama had eight selections, while LSU and Ole Miss tied Georgia with five.

MY BAD, GUYS

The long national nightmare is over. The culprit has been found. The mystery has been solved.

The coach who left Florida quarterback Tim Tebow's name off his preseason All-SEC ballot was South Carolina's Steve Spurrier, but he promised the slight was unintentional.
Spurrier said an assistant filled out the ballot, leaving Tebow's name off and instead voting for Mississippi's Jevan Snead. Spurrier signed off on the ballot and admitted it was a mistake.

"I've called (SEC media relations director) Charles Bloom and said, 'Can I change our selection and put Tim Tebow in?'" Spurrier said. "I was able to put Tim Tebow in today, so now it's unanimous."

But even after Spurrier took full responsibility for leaving Tebow's name off his ballot and corrected the mistake, large contingent of reporters refused to let the story die. Nine more questions were posed to Spurrier involving Tebow, Florida or his voting habits, and a horde of reporters followed the former Gators coach off the stage and into the lobby to pose additional inquiries.

"I know some of you may not think that's right," Spurrier said of the voting error, hoping to end the discussion. "We made a mistake. Tim Tebow is not only the best quarterback in this league, I think he's the best in the country. … I admire and respect him. I apologize to him. He should have been on that ballot. I messed up, and I take full blame for it."

DELIGATION OF AUTHORITY

Spurrier's admission of the voting snafu put an end to the week's biggest story, but it created a second wave of inquiries from the reporters in attendance.

After admitting that an assistant filled out his ballot, Spurrier added a bit of fuel to the fire surrounding the decision this spring to keep coaches' ballots anonymous in the top-25 poll, beginning in 2010.

The coaches' poll represents one-third of the formula for determining the final BCS standings, which in turn determine which teams play for the national championship. Many coaches, like Spurrier, don't fill out their own ballots, instead delegating the job to assistants, and the South Carolina coach understands why that creates a problem.

"I've been doing the preseason ballots for 17 years, and I've never filled one out," Spurrier said. "I don't know why we vote. I guess it's because college football is still without a playoff system. I really believe most coaches do not know a whole lot about other teams, but we do vote. That's what they ask us to do, and I think we all try to do the best we can."

The sentiment isn't one LSU's Les Miles disagrees with, but he thinks delegating the voting to assistants at least makes the system work a bit better, as head coaches focus primarily on teams in their own conference.

In the end, Miles agreed the system was far from perfect, but argued that he hadn't heard a better alternative.

"I am for the playoffs, I just don't see how it works effectively," Miles said. "Everyone in the room can come up with a playoff system … but until it gets done, I'm not going to complain."

STILL WAITING

With just 10 days before Georgia begins fall practice, head coach Mark Richt is still waiting on one more recruit to arrive.

Lineman Kwame Geathers still hasn't qualified officially, and while Richt remains confident that he will, nothing is set in stone yet.

"The only guy who hasn't been in is Geathers, and we still expect him to be here," Richt said. "There's a couple more hoops that he had to jump through that hopefully he's jumping through right now."

BEAUTIFUL MIND

Norwood figures to be South Carolina's defensive leader when the Gamecocks arrive in Athens on Sept. 12, but if he knew in high school what he knows now, he might have been in the opposite locker room.

Georgia recruited Norwood heavily, he said, but issues with his grades – he had a 1.6 GPA at the end of his senior season – forced the Bulldogs to give up their pursuit.

"I had a grade problem," Norwood said. "Clearinghouse was like a 2.3, but by then it was too late. Teams have to recruit."

Auburn and Oklahoma State joined South Carolina in offering a scholarship to Norwood, but the majority of the other teams that had shown interest dropped out after learning of his grades. Once he chose South Carolina, it took three tries before he could be admitted. The process was a lesson learned for the All-SEC linebacker.

Since joining the Gamecocks, Norwood has turned his academic life around. He has made the Dean's list five times, he said, and he is scheduled to graduate in December.

The key, Norwood said, was simple. He just had to commit to his studies and believe he could do it.

"Applying myself, that's the main thing," Norwood said. "In high school, I used just walk around the halls and stuff like that. Now, we have a great academic support staff, and they let me believe that if I didn't have football, I could still succeed academically in college."

GIVING UP ALREADY?

Tebow was the dominant topic of conversation throughout media days, and Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin knows why. His fan base may hope the Volunteers will be national championship contenders this year, but Kiffin is already handing the title over to the Gators and their star quarterback.

"I think there will be a million articles written after Tim has another great year," Kiffin said. "With all the great players, they'll win another national championship. He'll win a Heisman. I'm serious about that. I really believe that."

Media Days '09: More From Mark Richt

A few more quotes from Mark Richt from yesterday's Media Days session...

On what it will take to turn the defense around...
"Number one, we hope to stay healthy. Number two, we hope to practice the way we've practiced every year since I've been at Georgia, and that is to practice tackling by tackling, and to practice goal line by getting on the goal line, practice inside run by getting after it full speed, full contact.

"What we did last year, at my direction and my decision was to we backed off of some of those practice sessions in full pads with the intention of playing full speed as far as tackling to the ground, cutting below the waist, just playing football, because we got to the point where we were so thin at some positions, if we lost one more guy, we were gonna be in trouble with just having a guy that would know what to do.

"And so our injuries came fairly fast and furious. I mean, like, for example, we normally have three scrimmages in the pre season to try to determine who the starters should be, the backup should be, but also to hone our skills at playing football and tackling, playing with speed and energy and intimidation on defense. By our scrimmage number two last year, I made the decision to thud that practice rather than go full speed.

"As soon as it was over, I knew I made a mistake because you don't get good at defense by doing that. So the next day, we did scrimmage some, not nearly as much as we would have the day before. I was trying to at least get us back into that mode.

"But things like that happen throughout the year because of the number of guys that were banged up. I hope I'm not put in that situation again to have to make that decision, but if I don't flinch, we're gonna keep practicing the way you got to practice playing defense. Hopefully, we learned a good lesson there."

On handling off-field issues this year vs. last...
"There's really been no difference in our coaching staff's pursuit of educating our guys about those types of things. I think when it comes to that, that has to be player led. I did spend a lot of time speaking to our seniors.

"We have a character education class. We meet once a week for half an hour and talk about leadership. We sometimes get off of our curriculum and we'll just talk about the team, how we can practically lead the team.

"We talked about some of the things that happened last season. One of the things the seniors came up with is they felt like there wasn't enough accountability, you know, player to player. One guy didn't have enough accountability to his teammate in how he handled his business in a lot of ways, whether it was schoolwork, how hard he worked, what he did off the field. So they felt like they needed to be accountable to each other much more than they ever have.

"I think that Joe Cox, Jeffrey Owens, the two that are here today, and others, have done a very good job of relaying that to their teammates. I just think they see the value in that.

"I think there's a lot of players that got sick of it themselves. They didn't want it to happen again."

On Georgia's tough non-conference schedule...
"Yeah, non conference, to have three BCS conference opponents out of the four non conference games is pretty heavy duty. Then when you look at who they are, you know, Oklahoma State, probably pre season top 10 by most people, loaded offense coming back, a team that you hear the coaches say, We've been kind of pointing to this season for the last couple years, opening a brand new stadium. I think they're charging $100 a ticket. I think it's the highest pre season start for Oklahoma State.

"So they're gonna be off the chart when it comes to enthusiasm and excitement and expectations towards their season.

"Then you also have Arizona State. Another BCS opponent. Dennis Erickson has won a couple of national championships, at least one. Did he win one or two? He won two, didn't he, at Miami?

"Then of course, Georgia Tech, we've all seen what they've been able to do under Paul Johnson's direction. That's pretty tough when you consider who you play in conference.

"We might have bit off more than we should have. I think the plan was never to have three BCS opponents. We did say, after the 12th game was added, we would add try to add a BCS opponent outside of the Southeast Region. We decided to do that. Just because of the scheduling, it so happened the only way it would work, with some home and aways with Arizona State and Oklahoma State, it had to happen all in this year. But I doubt that happens again anytime soon."

On being the longest tenured head coach at one school in the SEC...
"When I said I was surprised I'm here, it wasn't so much because of any recent season or anything like that. I think I was reflecting back on being here for the first time nine years ago, and to think that you are going to be here nine years later in our league, in college football in general, the same team, the way things are going, you can't sit there and start predicting that that would happen.

"You know, every decision I ever made since I've been at Georgia has been to try to make a decision that would help us in the long run. I didn't try to do anything in a quick fix fashion. I was used to working for a man, named Bobby Bowden, he had so much success at one place, you know, that was attractive to me. I wanted to provide that same kind of stability for our players and our program and our staff and their wives and children, as Coach Bowden did for me and my family.

"So everything I've done is to try to make sure we will be here for the long haul. But it's humbling, no doubt. I don't know what that means other than we're doing a little something right here."

On prepping for a new defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State...
"You look at where he's been, and if it's consistent at Kansas, Miami, then schematically you know this is probably what he likes to do. But then as you're studying his scheme, you're not studying his personnel. If you're studying Oklahoma State's personnel, it's in a system that they're probably not going to be running. Coaches don't like the unknown, and we don't know for sure what's going to happen."

On Tim Tebow...
"If I had a vote on a national level, I'd have voted for him, too. I think that guy might be the greatest player/leader, maybe the greatest one ever in college football. When you take his ability, his productivity, his leadership, his ability to get everybody to rally around him, I don't know if there's been many like that."

On what he likes about Joe Cox...
"I've coached QBs a long time. To me, quarterbacks need to be accurate. They need to be great decision makers. They need to be able to handle the pressure of the job. And they need to be leaders. Joe is all of those personified. He also has the confidence of his teammates. A lot of guys have leadership qualities, but for some reason guys don't tend to follow them. Maybe he doesn't have that charisma that draw people to him. Joe's had that from the first day."

Media Days '09: Back in Black?

Mark Richt addresses the potential of the team wearing the black jerseys again this year despite the debacle against Alabama last year.

Media Days '09: Richt on Tebow

The hot question of Media Days has been, "Who didn't vote for Tim Tebow?" The Florida quarterback was one vote short of a unanimous selection to the All-SEC team, and Georgia coach Mark Richt says he wasn't the culprit.

Media Days '09: Rich Brooks

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks talks about his team's quarterback situation in 2009.

Media Days '09: Bobby Johnson

Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson talks about what winning the school's first bowl game in more than a quarter-century last year did for the program's reputation on the recruiting trail.

Media Days '09: Bobby Petrino

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino discusses the progress his team has made in his second year in Fayetteville.

Thanks for a Great Year

With the start of SEC Media Days right around the corner, I took a few minutes the other day to go back and re-read my first blog post. It was one year ago today that I wrote it, propped uncomfortably on a disheveled bed in a Days Inn in Hoover, Ala. with spotty Internet access. That seems like a long time ago now (although the Internet access is still spotty).

Looking back, I think my favorite post from the blog is still one of my first . Some people go their entire careers without getting material as funny as Dicky Lyons provided during my third day of work. I guess I'm sort of like Dan Marino -- I hit the pinnacle early and will spend the rest of my career trying to get back.

Sadly, Mr. Lyons won't be back at Media Days this year, and he's not the only one. Instead of Phil Fulmer being served a subpeona in the lobby, Lane Kiffin will be there to pick a fight with Steve Spurrier. Instead of Sly Croom babbling about the series of tubes, Dan Mullen will be talking about Mississippi State's new offense. And instead of Paul Dehner and I snubbing Tommy Tuberville, pretty much every non-Auburn media member will be generally disinterested in Gene Chizik.

But hey, people come and people go. At least three of last year's Bulldogs beat writers won't be back this year, and I guess I'm pretty lucky to be around for a second season.

When I wrote that first blog post a year ago, it wasn't just the first one I'd written for the Telegraph. It was the first one I'd written period -- save the occasional blurb on MySpace. But things have gone exceedingly well, mostly due to the great people at University of Georgia, the patience and assistance of the staffs at the Telegraph and Ledger-Enquirer, a lot of support from my fellow reporters and bloggers who have linked to my work, and mostly, the immensely passionate Georgia fans who come here regularly to read about their team.

In the past year, I've written 1,150 posts and the blog has racked up well over 1 million page views. To be honest, I'm not sure that's a lot, but it certainly has seemed like it thanks to all the kind words, insightful emails and hilarious comments you guys have offered since we launched. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

But, looking back doesn't get you very far, so I'm definitely excited to begin Year 2 which begins Wednesday with the start of SEC Media Days 2009.

So, to get you primed for what's in store, here's a run down of your need-to-know items for the week ahead.

SCHEDULE: (Note: all times CENTRAL)

Wednesday

12:30 p.m. SEC Commissioner Mike Slive
12:45 p.m. ESPN-SEC
1:10 p.m. Vanderbilt (head coach Bobby Johnson, cornerback Myron Lewis and center Bradley Vierling) and Arkansas (head coach Bobby Petrino, tackle Malcolm Sheppard and tight end D.J. Williams.
3:10 p.m. Mississippi State (head coach Dan Mullen, lineman Derek Sherrod and linebacker K.J. Wright) and Kentucky (head coach Rich Brooks, lineman Zipp Duncan and cornerback Trevard Lindley).

Thursday

8:40 a.m. Alabama (head coach Nick Saban, lineman Mike Johnson and linebacker Rolando McClain) and Georgia (head coach Mark Richt, quarterback Joe Cox and tackle Jeff Owens).
10:40 a.m. Mississippi (head coach Houston Nutt, defensive end Greg Hardy and quarterback Jevan Snead) and Florida (head coach Urban Meyer, quarterback Tim Tebow and linebacker Brandon Spikes).

Friday

8:40 a.m. Auburn (head coach Gene Chizik, defensive end Antonio Coleman and tight end Tommy Trott) and South Carolina (head coach Steve Spurrier, wide receiver Moe Brown and linebacker Eric Norwood).
10:40 a.m. Tennessee (head coach Lane Kiffin, safety Eric Berry and running back Montario Hardesty) and LSU (head coach Les Miles, lineman Ciron Black and linebacker Jacob Cutrera).

OTHER NOTES:

-- Don't forget to follow all the up-to-the-minute action on Twitter. You can follow me HERE . You can also get running commentary from the SEC's Twitter feed HERE or HERE (the latter one will be updating quotes throughout). And since Jeff Owens will be Georgia's player rep, you might get a few nuggets out of his feed HERE.

-- I had originally planned on doing a lot more with Facebook when we started the blog last year, but alas, it never really developed. Perhaps I'll post some photos, etc. this week, however, if you're interested in befriending me. Otherwise, you can hitch your wagon the SEC's Facebook page HERE.

-- The media's preseason predictions and All-SEC Teams will be released Friday.

-- I'll have daily stories and notes at Macon.com and Ledger-Enquirer.com.

-- And finally, I want to know what you are hoping to learn from SEC Media Days. If you have a question you want me to find answers to, send me an email by CLICKING HERE.