By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
BIRMINGHAM — The votes are in and Alabama is the favorite to win the Southeastern Conference title.
The Crimson Tide was chosen to win the Western Division, while Tennessee is the early favorite to capture the Eastern Division title.
Although Alabama is the favorite, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said earlier this week the team has some challenges that await in fall workouts.
“For the third year in a row, I’m standing up here talking about somebody’s going to be a new quarterback for us,” he said. “Somebody’s got to win that job. Somebody’s got to win the team. You know, that has not necessarily happened yet and, you know, I’m not going to sit up here and sort of try to, you know — I don’t know the right word, but give you some statistics on who’s winning the race and how the race is going and who’s ahead, are they on the back stretch or in the final turn. That’s something that’s going to happen probably in fall camp. I hope in fall camp.”
Kentucky was picked to finish fourth in the East behind Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia respectively. The Wildcats received 933 votes by members of the media.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said the key to the season will be getting off to a good start and sustain it from beginning to the end.
“It’s always important to get off to a good start,” he said. “We’ve been able to do that the last two years. As you know, it’s a problem in the second half of the season. We need to finish stronger. There’s no doubt about that.
“Coming out of the block strong is always important.I have been pleased with the way we left camp and the preparation of our team, and that is shown on the field. We have to sustain that for the second half of the year. But it’s always a challenge. “
With his team back into the limelight, Tennessee coach Butch Jones embraced his team’s expectations going into the season.
“You want those expectations,” he said. “I think it’s a compliment to everyone in our program of how far we’ve come. It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. But I think it is a compliment in how we’ve grown and developed this football program.”
Predicted order of finish:
SEC East
Tennessee (2,167) *225
Florida (1,891) *57
Georgia (1,860) *45
Kentucky (933)
Vanderbilt (810) *2
Missouri (807)
S. Carolina (800) *2
SEC West
Alabama (2,220) *246
LSU (1984) *76
Ole Miss (1,479) *5
Texas A&M (1,130) *3
Arkansas (1,047) *1
Auburn (890)
Mississippi State (518)
* First place votes
Williams a finalist for Doak Walker Award
University of Kentucky junior running back Stanley “Boom” Williams has been named a preseason candidate for the 2016 Doak Walker Award, which is annually presented to the nation’s top college running back, it was announced Thursday afternoon.
Juniors Leonard Fournette of LSU and Christian McCaffrey of Stanford headline the 2016 candidate list after both were Doak Walker Award finalists a year ago. Fournette led the NCAA at 162.8 yards per game last year, while McCaffrey was the nation’s leader in all-purpose yardage (276.0 YPG). Six of the 11 semifinalists for the 2015 Doak Walker Award appear on the 2016 watch list. Nominations for the award will be accepted through October.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter