Steve Spurrier has one less thing to complain about.

The Florida football coach who often finds fault with his quarterbacks should have little problem with the coaches poll, which tabbed his Gators as the preseason No. 1.

The Gators claimed 25 first-place votes and 1,401 points in a poll of 60 Division I-A coaches released Thursday night.

"We look forward to be being No. 1, no matter how early it is," Spurrier said. "I didn't realize that we are a popular team. We'll try to hang on to it as long as we can."

Three of the top five teams are from the Sunshine State, with Miami second and Florida State fifth.

Oklahoma, which defeated Florida State in the Orange Bowl to claim the national championship, will begin the season third in the poll.

Florida was 10-3 last season and returns a pair of adequate quarterbacks in Rex Grossman and Brock Berlin. However, Spurrier has yet to show complete faith in either one.

"We're going to let them battle it out," Spurrier said.

The strength of the Gators will be a corps of receivers led by Jabar Gaffney and a defense anchored by end Alex Brown.

Miami, left out of the national championship game last season by a complicated Bowl Championship Series formula, received 15 first-place votes and 1,349 points. The Hurricanes were 11-1 last season and have a new coach in long-time assistant Larry Coker, who takes over for the departed Butch Davis.

Oklahoma, the only unbeaten team a year ago at 13-0, had eight first-place votes and 1,314 votes. The Sooners open their season Aug. 25 against North Carolina and will replace Josh Heupel at quarterback with Nate Hybl.

Nine teams received at least one first-place vote.

Nebraska (10-2) is fourth overall with six first-place votes while Florida State (11-2) received one. No. 6 Texas received two and No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Oregon and No. 10 Michigan had one each.

Virginia Tech must replace star quarterback Michael Vick but still begins the season ninth in the preseason poll.

Kansas State is the fourth Big Conference team among the top 11 and is followed by Oregon State, Georgia Tech, Washington and UCLA.

Notre Dame, which was routed by Oregon State in last season's Fiesta Bowl, is 16th. LSU, Clemson, Mississippi State and Northwestern round out the top 20.

Ohio State, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Colorado State and Alabama complete the poll. Alabama, which begins a new era with Dennis Franchione as coach, is the sixth Southeastern Conference team in the poll and is ranked despite a dismal 3-8 record in 2000.

The coaches' poll is among the components used to determine the participants in the Bowl Championship Series title game. This year's game will be the Rose Bowl on Jan. 3.

The Associated Press poll will be released Aug. 11.