With the college football season rapidly approaching, Gatorsfirst.com is presenting a different take on the 2009 season every day for the entire month of August. We call it our ''Full Month of College Football Previews''. As part of the project, we are having fellow bloggers and other college football personalities from around the SEC and the rest of the nation give us their take on the current state of college football. This approach will allow us to bring you a much more in-depth look at the 2009 season than we could possibly provide on our own.
 
For the next in this series, our own Jesse Colston of Gators First answered the same questions we've been posing to all of the others helping us with this project. This should complete the picture, and ensure we are all on record with our opinions on these things. Why would you trust any of our analysis throughout the year, and see through our Gator bias, if you didn't know where we were coming from?
 
Anyway, here is the ''interview''...

Projected Conference Finish

Conference Championship:  Florida over Alabama
 
East 
Florida 12-0 (8-0) 
Georgia 10-2 (6-2) 
Tennessee 8-4 (5-3) 
South Carolina 7-5 (4-4) 
Kentucky 6-6 (2-6) 
Vanderbilt 5-7 (2-6) 

West 
Alabama 10-2 (7-1) 
Ole Miss 10-2 (6-2) 
LSU 9-3 (6-2) 
Auburn 7-5 (4-4) 
Arkansas 6-6 (3-5) 
Mississippi State 4-8(1-7) 

Gatorsfirst (G1): How did you become a fan of your team?

Jesse Colston (JC): I grew up about 30 miles away from Florida Field. Ever since I was a little kid I can remember HWY 301 being absolutely packed with cars full of Gator fans travelling to the game every Saturday. I went to several Gator games every year but it wasn’t until high school when I started thinking about college that I really started to become the fan I am now. I knew without a doubt that Florida was the school for me and that I was meant to be a Gator. Even though I was a big fan going into college, I turned into a fanatic once I got there. As a student walking around campus and seeing Ben Hill Griffin Stadium every day you really learn to appreciate what it means to be a Gator.

(G1): Give me some thoughts on your coaching staff.  Are you satisfied?  Do you wish your team ran different schemes?  How is recruiting?

(JC): As a Gator you have to be extremely pleased with the coaching staff. I think they have done just the right amount of tweaking while not making any significant changes to a machine that is working better than any other in the country. Although we have had some recent changes in coaching staff, the core is still there and I expect only bigger and better things this year.

Recruiting has been great as Florida has consistently produced top ranked classes. Florida has been able to go out and get freshmen who can start and be successful which says a lot about or coaches.

(G1): Make one point about your school, and another point about your conference, you think is overlooked on the national level.

I’ll touch on both of these with one point. I think the passion of SEC fans is something that is talked about nationally but I’m not sure people outside of the Conference really get it. I think the SEC is a good conference to hate if you’re not a fan because our passion can be misinterpreted as arrogance. I truly believe that the SEC has the most sincere fans in the country. We don’t watch college football because it’s cool, or only because it’s a reason to party. We watch college football because it’s a part of our life. Like breathing, right?

(G1): What do you think about conference title games?  Was it a good idea to add to 12? Would you change something about the conference?

(JC): I think conference title games are great and should be the standard for all BCS conferences. It’s never made sense to me that some teams have to play 13, and some only play 12 to get to the same game. The conference title game can assure that a team plays an elite team in the conference regardless of regular season strength of schedule. I think the conference “title-less” Big 10 proves my point very well.

As far as something I would change about the SEC, I guess I’d like to see every team play at least one more team in the other division. There are great East v West rivalries that we only get to see once every few years.

(G1): How much did you like the bowl system pre-BCS? As a fan, how much do you concentrate on 'National Championships'? Has this changed in the last decade or so?

(JC): I can’t say anything bad about the bowl system pre-BCS because it was part of the sport that I grew to love. The bowl system IS college football… and college football is huge! It surely hasn’t diminished support for the sport. That being said, I’m not against entertaining other systems that are a blend of the current with a playoff type system… such as the “plus one” post season.

I don’t think my season goals or outlook have really changed since the advent of the BCS. I have always thought that the primary goal should be to win the conference. I would like to think that if we play like we should and put ourselves in position for the SECCG, the big one will follow.

(G1): What sort of changes, if any should be made to the BCS system? Does this opinion put you in-line or out-of-line with other fans of your team and conference?

(JC): I am very much torn on our current system. I love bowl games, as I have ever since I can remember watching college football. The bowl system is one of the reasons I love the sport as much as I do. That being said I know a lot of people out there are pushing for a playoff system. As a Gator I’m fine with the current “win and you’re in” (at least for us) system but I do understand the reasons for wanting a playoff type system in place. Out of proposed systems I’ve seen I think the “plus one” playoff would make the post-season more fair to the top handful of teams while still maintaining the bowl system that has made college football what it is today. 

(G1): Are the polls a good idea in the first place?  Should they play a role in determining a 'National Champion'?

(JC): Polls are a necessity in college football. How else can you rank 120+ teams who only play 12 (maybe 13) games a year? Unless you trim down the number of teams and create and NFL type field you surely can’t rank teams based solely on record.

Like I said about bowls above, polls are a part of college football. They have morphed a little over the past couple of decades but the idea is still there. That human element, I think, is important in determining the best teams and I think that “shade of grey” is what makes it exciting to sit and wait for the new polls to come out.

(G1): How much should non-BCS teams be included in the BCS- and other high payout- bowls?  How much do you watch these teams?

As I said before, I love college football and I love the bowl system. Non-BCS teams should have a shot at the big time just like the other teams but we live with a poll system and these pollsters (most of them) take strength of schedule into account. Don’t play the 112th hardest schedule, go undefeated, and then whine when you don’t play in a big money bowl.

I watch these teams as much as I can because I am a fan of college football. From September to December, it’s fun to sit back and watch all the games, and watch the season develop into what you know is going to be a December full of excitement, letdowns and of course, controversy. I can’t wait…