Florida Gators prepare to make a run at their third national title in
the last four seasons, the defending champions have already made some
history.
Florida is No. 1 in The Associated
Press' preseason Top 25 released Saturday, followed by Texas, Oklahoma,
Southern California and Alabama. But the Gators are in a class by
themselves, the most overwhelming preseason No. 1 in the history of the
media poll.
Florida received 58 of the 60 first-place votes, or 96.7 percent. Texas got the other first-place votes.
The previous highest percentage of
first-place votes for the AP preseason poll, which started in 1950, was
95.4 percent for USC in 2007. Those Trojans got 62 of 65 first-place
votes — and didn't play for the national title.
Ten preseason No. 1s have won the
national championship. If the Gators can become the 11th, they will
have put together one of the great runs in college football history.
Only one program since 1950 can claim three national championships in
four years; Nebraska won it all it 1994 and 1995, then earned a split
title in 1997.
With expectations soaring in
Gainesville, Fla., coach Urban Meyer has been on a mission to keep his
team's eyes on the small prizes – to heck with history.
"There's a lot of guys getting patted
on the back and being told how good they are," Meyer said in a recent
telephone interview. "Their only focus is on survival to the next day
and working hard in practice.
"I don't want them to even think
about that kind of stuff. Our goal is to get to Atlanta" for the
Southeastern Conference championship game.
The rest of the top 10 includes two
Big Ten powerhouses (No. 6 Ohio State and No. 9 Penn State) and the
defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion (No. 7 Virginia Tech).
No. 8 Mississippi is in the preseason top 10 for the first time since 1970, when the Rebels were ranked fifth.
Oklahoma State is tied with Penn
State for No. 9, the Cowboys' highest preseason ranking since No. 16 in
1985, when Thurman Thomas was in the backfield.
Florida is preseason No. 1 for the
third time (1994 and 2001), and the Gators are the 20th defending
national champ to start the season on top.
From the moment Florida wrapped up
its 24-14 victory over Oklahoma in the BCS championship game in
January, talk of a repeat started.
And when Tebow a few days later
announced at a rally on campus celebrating the national title that he
would come back for his senior year, there was no doubt the Gators
would be the runaway preseason No. 1.
Florida's rugged, multidimensional
quarterback won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and finished third behind
Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy last
year.
As good as Tebow is – he has a
chance to end his career as the most decorated player in college
footbal history with three national title rings and two Heismans –
Meyer sees areas for improvement.
"I'd say in the passing game he can
certainly improve some things," Meyer said. "Leadership-wise he used to
get angry when he felt other guys weren't working as hard as he was.
Now he gets those players to play at that level."
While Tebow leads an offense with
plenty of speedy gamebreakers, All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes —
another guy who passed on a chance to enter the NFL draft to return for
his senior season — leads a defense that has potential to be the best
in the country.
All 22 players on the defensive
depth chart for the BCS title game are back. Among the standouts are
defensive end Carlos Dunlap and cornerback Janoris Jenkins and Joe
Haden.
All that experience will allow defensive coordinator Charlie Strong to good deep into his playbook.
"Our defense has been installed at a
much greater pace than ever before," Meyer said. "That allows you to
put in a lot more different packages, three down (linemen) and four
down."
The Gators are one of five SEC teams
ranked in the Top 25, matching the Big 12 for the most from any
conference. Joining Florida, Alabama and Ole Miss are LSU at No. 11 and
Georgia at No. 13.
No. 23 Nebraska and No. 25 Kansas are the other Big 12 teams, along with Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Utah, which finished No. 2 last
season and was the only undefeated team in major college football, is
ranked 19th to start this season. But the Utes aren't even the highest
ranked team from the Mountain West Conference.
That distinction belongs to No. 17
TCU, while No. 20 BYU gives the MWC three ranked teams to start the
season, as many as the Big Ten and Pac-10 and three more than the Big
East, which was shut out.
No. 14 Boise State is the highest
ranked team from a conference that does not automatically qualify for
the Bowl Championship Series. The Broncos, the champions of the Western
Athletic Conference, play the season's first big game, facing No. 16
Oregon on Sept. 3.
Notre Dame is back in the rankings
for the first time since the final poll of the 2006 season. The
Fighting Irish, coming off a 7-6 season, are No. 23.