Nine Tiders Make Coaches’ SEC Team

Alabama placed six players on the first team All-Southeastern Conference pre-season football team selected by the league coaches, the SEC announced Thursday.

Defending SEC and national champion Florida Gators had a league-high 16 representatives on the 2009 pre-season team, while LSU had 10 total selections and defending Western Division Champion Alabama and Georgia had nine each.

Florida led the way with eight players selected on the first team while Alabama had six and LSU had three.

Nine of the 12 SEC schools had a member on the first-team All-SEC squad. Each SEC school had at least two student-athletes on either the first-, second- or third-team.

Ole Miss and Tennessee had seven total members on the squads, while Kentucky had six, Vanderbilt five, South Carolina and Arkansas four each, Auburn three and Mississippi State two.

There were only three unanimous selections to this year’s All-SEC pre-season squad – LSU offensive lineman Ciron Black, Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones and Tennessee defensive back Eric Berry. Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players, thus a unanimous selection earns 11 of 12 first-team votes.

There are 10 first-team pre-season selections that were on last year’s first-team coaches All-SEC post-season team. Those include: QB Tim Tebow (Florida), RB Charles Scott (LSU), RS Brandon James (Florida), DL Terrence Cody (Alabama), LB Rolando McClain (Alabama), LB Brandon Spikes (Florida), LB Rennie Curran (Georgia), LB Eric Norwood (South Carolina), DB Eric Berry (Tennessee) and DB Trevard Lindley (Kentucky).

The All-SEC first-team squad had 15 seniors and 10 underclassmen, including eight juniors and two sophomores. The second-team had 18 seniors, seven juniors and three sophomores. The third-team had 16 seniors, eight juniors and five sophomores.

This marks the sixth straight year of the SEC Coaches Pre-Season All-SEC Team. The team is announced each year in advance of the SEC Football Media Days. This year, the event will be held next week, Wednesday through Friday, at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover.

Alabama players selected to the first team in addition to Jones, Cody and McClain are:

Senior offensive lineman Mike Johnson, senior cornerback Javier Arenas and senior placekicker Leigh Tiffin.

Second team representatives from Alabama were sophomore linebacker Don’t’a Hightower and Arenas as kick return specialist.

Sophomore tailback Mark Ingram was third team running back.