Ken Rogers
07/25 at 12:27 AM

HOOVER — It’s Florida in a landslide.

The Gators were a unanimous pick to win the SEC East and were one vote shy from sweeping the overall balloting at the conclusion of SEC Media Days.

Florida also put the most players on the Preseason All-SEC first and second teams with 12 — including eight first-teamers, led by quarterback Tim Tebow.

The Gators’ entire defense and seven offensive starters return from last year’s national championship team. They are the first unanimous pick to win a division since the conference split into East and West in 1992.

Alabama was picked to win the West with 33 first-place votes. The Crimson Tide was followed by LSU (15), Ole Miss (16), Arkansas, Auburn and Mississippi State.

The Rebels’ lone first-place vote kept Florida from being a unanimous overall preseason favorite.

Alabama had six first-team members and two second-teamers on the All-SEC team.

Auburn defensive lineman Antonio Coleman was the Tigers’ only first-team selection. Lee Ziemba and punter Clinton Durst made the second team.

Alabama first-teamers were wide receiver Julio Jones, offensive lineman Mike Johnson, defensive lineman Terrence Cody, linebacker Rolando McClain, defensive back Javier Arenas and placekicker Leigh Tiffin. Running back Mark Ingram made the second team, along with Arenas as the return specialist.

The predicted order of finish in the East was Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Spurrier steps up
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier had a rough appearance at the podium, his 17th at an SEC Media Days.

In addition to his apology about the Tim Tebow omission, he was candid about his first four years at South Carolina.

“Well, we thought we’d do a little bit better, but it hasn’t worked out,” the coach said. “We’re starting a new four-year stint with a lot of new coaches and hopefully a lot better attitude on our team.”

Spurrier noted the Gamecocks have only seven seniors this year.

“I’ve not don’t as good a job as I hoped to have done,” he said. “I would have hoped we had a whole lot of fourth- and fifth-year guys ready to play. Hasn’t worked out that way.”

It has been a bit humbling for Spurrier, who had a reputation as the brashest coach in the game when he was winning big at Florida.

“When you’re winning a lot, you naturally do that,” he said. “And then when you’re 7-6, like I am now, you don’t have much to say. That’s just the way it is.”

LSU gets two more titles
LSU coach Les Miles said he enjoyed watching three of his players win national championships in other sports.

Chad Jones and Jared Mitchell were part of the Tigers’ baseball title. Trindon Holliday won the 100 meters in the NCAA Championships.

“I can tell you I insist on them going to school. I can tell you I insist on them doing the right things, and they’re having the kind of experience that everybody in sport would love to have,” Miles said.

He said Holliday loves the toughness and the contact of football.

“I think he’ll have a great fall,” Miles said. “I think we’re going to run him from the backfield a little bit more.”

He also said he loved watching Mitchell and Jones in Omaha at the College World Series.

“I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching Jared Mitchell lead off the third game with a home run,” Miles said. “I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching Chad Jones throw left-handed and throw dominantly and look like a beast on the mound, come off and chest-bump a guy and dang near knock him down.”

Kiffin on Kiffin
Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin knew he was getting a hard worker when he hired his father, NFL great Monte Kiffin, to be the Vols’ defensive coordinator.

But even he didn’t know how tireless his 69-year-old dad would be.

“I saw him in the office every single day for three weeks,” Kiffin said of his father. “My mom is calling me, telling me will you please send him on vacation? I haven’t seen him.

“So I sent him to Tampa. I think he’s on vacation. Then I find out that the Tampa Bay Bucs set up an office for him. He’s going in every single day in the morning, not coming home til night. My mom calls, says, he ain’t been here one time. He’s not here for breakfast, he’s not here til after dinner. He goes into the Bucs.

“They set up this office and they streamline all the SEC film for all the opponents. He was still down there working every day.”

Majors returns
Kiffin said he has worked to bring back former coach and Vols legend Johnny Majors, who had been estranged from the program during the Phil Fulmer era.

“He’s a huge part of our tradition,” Kiffin said. “To have him around ... has been extremely important to me.”

Kiffin said he invited the coach to a practice. Majors told Kiffin it was the best organized, most energetic practice he had seen in 17 years.

Kiffin asked him to tell his staff that, since it would mean more coming from the legend rather than the head coach.

“I was thinking he was going to relay that message about what a great job they did in about a minute or two,” Kiffin said. “He spent about 45 minutes. He told us how good we were. But then also, as a great coach would do, he went through each guy and told them what they could do better.

“He told our linebacker coach how he could make his drills better, our DB coach his drill. I could see how he’s a great coach. He sat at one practice and had something for each of our coaches to get better at.”