August 04. 2006 5:27PM
USA Today ranks Gators No. 8
By John Patton
Sun sports writer
pattonj@gvillesun.com
Florida found itself eighth, second among SEC schools and first among those in state in the USA Today college football preseason coaches poll released Friday.
For his part second-year Gator coach Urban Meyer was more concerned with things other than the poll.
"Right now our whole focus is trying to become a great team through hard work and developing an unselfish attitude," said Meyer, whose team finished 9-3, winning four of its last five in his inaugural season in Gainesville.
Ohio State was No. 1 in the poll for the first time since the end of its 14-0 2002 national championship season. Defending BCS champ Texas, which hosts the Buckeyes on Sept. 9, opened second.
The highest ranking SEC team was Auburn at No. 6, and LSU gave the conference three top-10 teams with its No. 9 ranking. Florida State and Miami were 10th and 11th, respectively. Those two rivals open against one another on Sept. 4 in Miami.
In addition to Auburn, LSU and FSU, three of UF's other 2006 opponents — Georgia (14), Tennessee (23) and Alabama (24) — had preseason rankings. And Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Gamecocks, the Gators' Nov. 11 foe, was among those also receiving votes.
Rankings below Ohio State, Texas, and co-third-place teams Notre Dame and Southern California could come with an invisible asterisk, as votes came in before fifth-ranked Oklahoma kicked starting quarterback Rhett Bomar off its team earlier this week. The Sooners actually had the second-most first-place votes (13) of any team, 15 less than the Buckeyes and two more than the Longhorns.
Meyer is not one of the 63 Division I coaches listed as voters in the USA Today poll. Spurrier and Illinois' Ron Zook, also a former Gator coach, are voters.
The preseason Associated Press poll is scheduled to be released Aug. 19. The first BCS poll of the season is set for Oct. 16.