Georgia picked to win SEC, Cats predicted to finish 11th

Georgia was picked the Southeastern Conference title by league media in a poll released Friday.

The Bulldogs received 165 votes and finished ahead of Texas, which garnered 27 first-place votes followed by Alabama (12) and Ole Miss (4). Kentucky was chosen 11th, ahead of Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.

For the first time since 1991, the league won’t be divided into East and West divisions and the top two finishers based on overall SEC win percentages will compete for the conference title.

“We’re dealing with new challenges this year,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “We don’t have a chip on our shoulder in terms of people trying to use that as motivation. I’ve never used a failure from the previous year as motivation and never used the success of a previous year as motivation; we won’t do that this year. That’s not who we are. We want to recreate ourselves to say in the best light we can.”

Kentucky had five players named to the preseason All-Conference teams, with Deone Walker (lineman) and Maxwell Hairston (defensive back) named to the first team on defense. Barion Brown was named to the first team as a return specialist. He also was named to the third team as an all-purpose performer.

Offensive lineman Marques Cox and linebacker Jamon “Pop” Dumas-Johnson were on the third team.

“We play together,” Walker said. “We’re a bunch of experienced guys. We got years together, but on our defensive line we got me, Octavious Oxendine, Tre Rybka, Kahlil Saunders, Keeshawn Silver, Josaih Hayes.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys. We got our secondary with three, four years of experience with Maxwell Hairston, who just had a break-out last year, Zion Childress, who has been a consistent player all year, Ty Bryant. He’s going to be a sophomore this year. Jordan Lovett. We got Pop and D-Jack in the middle.

“We’re a complete defense right now, but we just have to work on staying together and never wavering.”

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