By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Texas has been picked to win the Southeastern Conference Championship by league media in a poll released on Friday.
The Longhorns were picked ahead of Georgia, Alabama, LSU, South Carolina, Florida, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Auburn, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State.
“We’re the University of Texas, and the standard is the standard here, and that’s competing for championships year in and year out,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It didn’t matter when we were in the previous conference. It didn’t matter now that we’re in the SEC. It is what it is.”
In its first year in the SEC last season, Texas finished 13-3 and reached the league championship game before suffering a thrilling 22-19 loss to Georgia.
The Bulldogs have compiled a 53-5 record and have won back-to-back national championships from 2021-22, but 54 percent of this year’s squad is comprised of first- and second-year players.
“(A) very big change for us,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “I thought last year was probably one of the most veteran teams I’ve been a part of. The COVID class has kind of aged out, so we had multiple players that were in their fifth- and sixth-year last year, especially across the offensive and defensive lines. We had a tremendous group that all went out kind of at the same time, aged out at the same time, and so we’re going to be really young, especially on the offensive and defensive lines.”
Kentucky, which went 4-8 last season, including a 1-7 mark in the conference, was picked to finish next to last, ahead of Mississippi State and below Arkansas and Vanderbilt, respectively.
“I’m really just excited about the opportunity, really diving into the challenge that lies ahead of us and embracing that and having fun with it,” Stoops said. “… I want to use last year for us to learn from and to grow from and to get better and to get back to who we want to be.
“That’s something that our program deserves. That’s something our fan base deserves. The great people in Kentucky, the administration. We’re all in, and we’re excited about this next season.”