Gators at No. 23 in USA Today preseason poll

By Adam Silverstein
August 2, 2012

Despite falling short of the 2012 BCS National Championship, the LSU Tigers earned the No. 1 spot in the USA Today preseason coaches’ top 25 poll released Thursday, which has the Florida Gators slotted in the bottom fifth of the rankings at No. 23.

LSU received 18 of 57 possible first-place votes with Alabama (20), USC (19), Oklahoma and Oregon rounding out the top five.

Other Southeastern Conference teams ranked by USA Today this preseason include 2011 SEC East champion Georgia (No. 6), South Carolina (No. 9), Arkansas (No. 10) and Auburn (No. 25). UF’s in-state rival Florida State came in at No. 7.

Florida also began 2011 at No. 23 in the USA Today poll (No. 22 in the Associated Press top 25) but concluded the season unranked after finishing 7-6 (3-5 SEC).

The Gators are one of five unranked teams to receive recognition in the poll this preseason, joining USC (sanctioned), Texas, Notre Dame and Auburn.

6 Comments

Aligator says:

August 2, 2012 at 1:25 pm

So basically we are playing 4 top 25 opponents? 8-4 here we come!!

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gatornutt says:

August 2, 2012 at 2:02 pm

4 top 10 opponents actually

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Tractorr says:

August 2, 2012 at 4:09 pm

Provided we don’t have many injuries our defense should be better than last year.

Our offense should be better as well, because Pease can craft of an offense to the strength of his players. This was something that Weis could not do. His Notre Dame offenses were not good until his last year when it was all his players.

We will be able to hang with everyone on our schedule. Even LSU doesn’t have that much of an offense as seen in the championship last year, and our defense should be close to their’s.

I don’t think we are going to beat everyone but I am expecting 9-3 or 10-2.

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alex says:

August 2, 2012 at 4:52 pm

WE ARE GOING 14-0, MUSCHAMPIONS

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Mr2Bits says:

August 3, 2012 at 8:31 am

Georgia and FSU are not top 10 teams but all will play out throughout the season, I think we are where we should be after last years offensive woes

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gatorhippy says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:51 am

11 SEC squads receiving votes…78.5% of the conference…ridiculous…

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