VALDOSTA — A week ago, the Gulf South Conference coaches predicted a third-place finish for the Valdosta State football team.

That prognostication wasn’t even a blip on Blazers’ coach David Dean’s radar. The eighth-year VSU head man has good reason to not pay any attention to the preseason predictions: it’s hard to accurately assess what everybody looks like.

“Somebody told me that, that we’re picked third,” Dean said following Monday’s start to the Blazers’ fall camp. “But I don’t pay much attention to that.

“Last year, before the year, we were picked No. 1 in the country and we don’t finish in the Top 25. Nobody knows what you’ve got.”

That includes the other coaches within the same conference. While North Alabama was pegged the GSC’s preseason favorite, followed by Delta State and then VSU, the coaches’ preseason poll has only corrected picked the eventual league champion 14 times in the 39 previous polls.

But Dean said the reason for the subpar performance at predicting the future stems from the fluid nature of rosters in Division II.

“In Division II there’s so much turnover, there’s so many guys that transfer in and out, you don’t ever know what you’ve got,” he said. “The problem you have in Division II is depth, and we found that out last year.

“You lose a couple offensive linemen and a couple defensive linemen and you don’t have much depth, you’re in trouble. We could very easily lose some depth and go from a team that’s contending for the Gulf South Conference championship to where we’re fighting for a winning record.”

Rather than worry about those preseason predictions, and VSU has fared well in those rankings as we’ll – the Blazers were conference favorites the past two seasons and tabbed to win the conference eight times overall – Dean would prefer Valdosta State make their mark once the games have all been played.

“I worry more about it in December when we have the regular season over and, hopefully, we’re sitting there in the playoffs and about to go on another run for a national championship.”

Dean isn’t the only Blazer to dismiss preseason expectations. A trio of VSU standouts were named preseason all-conference. Although none of the threesome – senior defensive end Tevin Davis, sophomore running back Cedric O’Neal and senior offensive lineman Felei Tauave – were too enthusiastic over the recognition.

“It’s just preseason all-conference,” Davis said. “I don’t look too far into it. I’m supposed to be a captain and a leader, so I’m more of a team player. I just try to focus on the team, I’m mower worried about the whole team than myself.”

The two offensive standouts echoed those sentiments, while insisting the awards were team honors.

“I don’t take credit for that,” Tauave said. “I give credit to my o-line. If it wasn’t for them getting me better, I wouldn’t be there to get an award.”

Added O’Neal: “I just want to give this to the whole offense. I couldn’t do it without my offensive line and I look at the great job they did last year. People want to say they didn’t do well last year, but I look at it like they did much better than people thought they could.

“I feel like the offensive line is stronger than ever and is going to shock a lot of people. They’re going to shock the world this year.”

The Blazers hope to follow suit.