Athlon Ranks Us No. 5

Although I hate teams who play the respect card, a less-than-number-one ranking might be just what we need to secure that \"no respect\" fervor. And in the end, the rankings don't matter. We'll be preseason top ten, which is all we need if we take care of business. GO DAWGS!!!

Forget curses (being #2), I'm with DawgSpeare.....I want THE highest ranking we can get at the start of the season.....it can ONLY help in the long season and NOT hurt us in any way.

Forget psycology, being ranked #1 should make REAL champions work TWICE as hard.....not make them big headed.

These magazines shoot all over the target. Athlon has us 5th, Lindy's has us # 1, and i heard that Phil Steele has us 9th......It doesn't matter until all the bowls are played in January, though. i can't wait to see how SI eventually ranks us. They are rarely correct in their assesments, and they all LOVE Florida. I think we can all agree on that.

Of course it's all speculation but I will grant you this, we were the best team in the country at the end of last year. I think we'll be the best team in the country at the end of this season with a trophy to prove it.