Florida Named Preseason No. 1
Tuesday, July 31, 2001 | Football
The University of Florida was named the preseason No. 1 team in the country on Tuesday by the Dallas-based Football Writers Association of America.
Returning 17 starters from a 2000 team which posted a 10-3 record and claimed the SEC Championship, the Gators were first-place choices on six of 17 ballots to rank ahead of second-place Miami by 19 points. Six SEC teams are in the FWAA preseason top 25 (Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Alabama), the most of any conference's just ahead of the Big Ten's five schools.
A year after facing the nation's toughest schedule in 2000 according to both the NCAA and the BCS, five of UF's 2001 opponents (Florida State, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State and South Carolina) are ranked in the FWAA preseason poll.
"We do have a good team ready to go but we're not quite as great as people think right now," head coach Steve Spurrier said. "It does give the Gators a lot of publicity and probably helps us in recruiting."
2001 FWAA Pre-Season Poll (First-place votes) 1-Florida (6) 398 2-Miami, Fla. (4) 379 3-Oklahoma (1) 358 4-Oregon (1) 348 4(tie) Nebraska (2) 348 6-Texas (1) 346 7-Florida State (1) 341 8-Tennessee 321 9-Virginia Tech 257 10-Oregon St.(1) 244 11-Georgia Tech 241 12-Michigan 213 13-Kansas State 197 14-Notre Dame 168 15-LSU 164 16-Northwestern 155 17-Washington 154 18-Clemson 140 19-UCLA 134 20-Mississippi State 131 21-South Carolina 116 22-Wisconsin 58 23-Colorado 57 24-Alabama 34 25-Pittsburgh 33
