Miami Ranks No. 2 In Football Writers Association Pre-Season Poll
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July 31, 2001
DALLAS (Football Writers Association of America) – The Miami Hurricanes begin the 2001 season where they ended 2000, ranked second nationally in the FWAA’s annual pre-season Top 25 football poll announced on Tuesday.
The Florida Gators took the top spot in the survey to lead a pack of six Southeastern schools in the poll. The Gators were first-place choices on six of 17 ballots and outdistanced second-place Miami (Fla.) by 19 points.
The Gators and Hurricanes were two of eight teams to receive more than 300 points in the balloting.
Following the top two teams was 2000 Grantland Rice Trophy winner Oklahoma with 358 votes, followed in the Top Ten by Oregon, Nebraska, Texas, Florida State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and Oregon State. Miami (Fla.) received four first place votes and Nebraska two. Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Florida State and Oregon State each had one first-place vote.
Other SEC teams in the Top 25 are Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Alabama. The Big 12 had five teams among the nation’s elite – Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Kansas State and Colorado. The Pac-10 had four – Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and UCLA. The Big Ten (Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin), Big East (Miami, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh) and the ACC (Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson) had three each. There was one independent (Notre Dame) ranked in the FWAA’s Top 25.
In 2000, FWAA pre-season voters accurately predicted 15 of the 25 teams in the final Associated Press Poll. FWAA writers picked eventual national champion Oklahoma 19th in the pre-season poll. The FWAA pollsters had five of the final AP Top 10 in the FWAA pre-season poll. The FWAA writers picked Nebraska to win the national championship, but the Cornhuskers finished eighth in the Final AP poll.
2001 FWAA Pre-Season Poll(First-place votes)
1-Florida (6) 3982-Miami Fla (4) 3793-Oklahoma (1) 3584-Oregon (1) 3484(t) Nebraska (2) 3486-Texas (1) 3467-Florida St. (1) 3418-Tennessee 3219-Virginia Tech 25710-Oregon St.(1) 24411-Georgia Tech 24112-Michigan 21313-Kansas State 19714-Notre Dame 16815-LSU 16416-Northwestern 15517-Washington 15418-Clemson 14019-UCLA 13420-Miss. State 13121-South Carolina 11622-Wisconsin 5823-Colorado 5724-Alabama 3425-Pittsburgh 33
FWAA Member Voters: Dave Sittler (Tulsa Word), Kelly Whiteside (USA Today), Jack Bogaczyk (The Roanoke Times), Shelly Anderson (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Mark Blaudschun (Boston Globe), Ivan Maisel (Sports Illustrated), Gregg Doyel (Charlotte Observer), Blair Kerkhoff (Kansas City Star), Dennis Dodd (CBS SportsLine), Ken Davis (Hartford Courant), Mike Griffith (Knoxville News-Sentinel), Ed Graney (San Diego Union-Tribune), Stewart Mandel (CNNSI.com), Don Borst (Lindy’s), Rob Biertempfel (The Tribune Review), John Adams (Knoxville News-Sentinel), Ron Gullberg (Casper Star-Tribune).
