GSC Releases Pre-Season Football Poll and All-Conference Team
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Magnolia, Ark. - North Alabama snapped Valdosta States four-year run as the Pre-Season number one pick, gaining the top spot in the annual Gulf South Conference Pre-Season football poll released today (Tuesday). The poll and the Pre-Season All-Conference team were announced at the GSC Football Media Day at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service building in Little Rock.
UNA, with 95 total points, tops the poll for the first time since 1998 behind six first-place votes, placing ahead of VSU (92) with four first-place nods and Delta State (82) with one. Only one point separates the next three schools with Southern Arkansas and Arkansas Tech tying for fourth with 65 points and West Georgia sixth with 64.
Harding is seventh with 45 points, Henderson State (34) eighth, Ouachita Baptist (26) ninth, West Alabama (20) 10th and Arkansas-Monticello (17) 11th.
The Muleriders had two second-place votes, one vote for fourth, five for fifth and two sixth-place votes.
In national publications, North Alabama is ranked eighth in both the Football Gazette and Street & Smiths, and 12th in Lindys magazine. The Football Gazette has Valdosta State 17th, West Georgia 27th, Delta State 28th and Arkansas Tech 39th. Street & Smiths places VSU 11th, and Lindys has Valdosta 11th, West Georgia 22nd and Delta State 23rd.
As with the pre-season poll, the GSC football coaches also select the conference pre-season team, which includes eight players named to last years All-Conference First Team and 10 from the Second Team. North Alabama leads the way with six honorees, while SAU placed five on the team.
Southern Arkansas is represented by senior running back D.D. Holyfield and junior tight end Johnny Fields on offense, and senior linebacker Derrick Harris and senior defensive back Demarea Caldwell on defense. Holyfield was also named as the return specialist on the team.
Among the 2006 Top Newcomers named, the Muleriders had four - junior linebacker Lucas Holts from Senatobia, Miss., via Northwest Mississippi College; junior defensive back Mike Brown of Belle Glade, Fla., and Northwest Mississippi College; junior wide receiver Mario Coleman from Indianola, Miss., out of Mississippi Delta College; and freshman offensive lineman Jonathon Moore from Greenwood, Miss.
