Blazers picked to finish 2nd in Gulf South
Published 4:35 pm Wednesday, July 23, 2025
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Can the Valdosta State Blazers win a third consecutive Gulf South football championship? The league’s coaches don’t think so.
A preseason poll announced Wednesday by the league has the Blazers tied for second.
West Florida is the conference favorite, earning nine points in the poll. VSU is tied with West Alabama with six points. Delta State brings up the rear at three points.
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It’s a double blow for the Blazers in regard to first-place votes.
The Argos of West Florida got first-place votes from three coaches. The other was for West Alabama.
That does not mean that new Valdosta State head coach Graham Craig does not have confidence in his squad. The Gulf South press release said that coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team.
Considering the Argos were not allowed to vote for themselves, opinion among the rest of the league is unanimous they will win the big crown.
West Alabama finished second in the Gulf South in 2024. West Florida was third. VSU was undefeated, but were not the only team to hand the Tigers a conference loss; their game was canceled because of Hurricane Helene. Delta State had the win over West Alabama.
VSU shared the 2023 championship with Delta State. The last Gulf South teams not named Valdosta State to win a football title was the shared 2022 championship of Delta State and West Florida.
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Under head coach Kaleb Nobles, West Florida went 5-2 in the Gulf South in 2024 and 7-3 overall. The last-week loss to the Blazers possibly knocked West Florida out of the national playoffs.
Two early-season losses meant the Argos were a borderline playoff team — ranked No. 21 in the D2Football.com poll on Nov. 11. Five days later, the Blazers bottled up the West Floridians completely in a 28-7 score.
The Gulf South ended up with two playoff teams last year, VSU and West Alabama. The Blazers made it all the way to the national title game (falling to Ferris State) and the Tigers dropped a first-round contest to Lenoir-Rhyne.
