VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) -
Earlier in the summer, Valdosta State head football coach David Dean said he thought West Alabama was going to be the favorite in the Gulf South Conference to start the season but the rest of the coaches in the conference disagree. It's in fact coach Dean's VSU Blazers that has been picked to win the conference in a vote by the league coaches on Wednesday.
The Blazers received three of the four first place votes and one second place vote to garner 15 total points, edging West Alabama, which had two first place votes and two second place to finish with 14 points. Delta State tallied two second place votes and a pair of thirds to register 10 points while North Alabama had six votes to finish fourth in the league preseason rankings. West Georgia rounded out the field with five points. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team in the poll.
Valdosta State also placed eight players on the Preseason All-GSC team, including four each on offense and defense. West Alabama led the way with 10 total Preseason members while West Georgia had six and Delta State and North Alabama four each.
Coach Dean says the conference schedule will be tough as always even newcomer Shorter College because of one important reason.
Dean said "What they do, they run that option which is going to cause a lot of people a lot of problems because we haven't seen that in this conference for a long time"
Valdosta State opens its 2012 preseason camp next Monday, August 6 and its season on Saturday, September 1 when it travels to Saginaw Valley State. The Blazers return 18 starters and 47 letterwinners off of a team that went 6-4 last season.
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