Nebraska Strengthens Grip On No. 1 Ranking
College football
Sixty minutes was all it took for Nebraska to strengthen its grip on the No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press’ Top 25 college football poll.
The Cornhuskers, with a 55-14 victory over Michigan State in their season-opener, received 57 of 67 first-place votes and 1,659 points Sunday from the sports writers and broadcasters who vote in the AP poll. Last week, the ‘Huskers had 49 first-place votes and 1,642 points.
The top five teams remained the same as last week, but No. 2 Tennessee (2-0), a 35-20 winner over UCLA, received only four first-place votes and 1,557 points. A week ago, the Volunteers had eight first-place votes and 1,566 points.
Florida State, which beat Duke 44-7 in its season opener, was third with three first-place votes - down from five a week ago - and 1,528 points. Florida, 2-0 after a 62-14 win over Georgia Southern, was fourth but lost its only first-place vote, while Colorado (2-0) was fifth with three first-place votes.
There were several major changes after the Top 5, the most significant being Syracuse’s tumble from No. 9 to No. 23 after losing to North Carolina 27-10 at the Carrier Dome. The Tar Heels (2-0) jumped 12 spots, from 24th to 12th.
Northwestern, last year’s surprise team, was surprised itself by Wake Forest 28-27 and fell out of the Top 25 after entering the game ranked 13th.
Notre Dame, which defeated Vanderbilt 14-7 Thursday night, dropped three places from No. 6 to No. 9.
Penn State (2-0) was sixth after a 24-7 win over Louisville, followed by Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Miami.
Michigan was 11th, followed by North Carolina, Alabama, Brigham Young and Auburn. Southern California (1-1) beat Illinois 55-3 and moved up three places to No. 16, followed by Kansas State, Arizona State, Virginia Tech, Louisiana State, Iowa, Virginia, Syracuse, Kansas and Texas A&M.
BYU, unranked in the preseason, continued to move up even without playing Saturday. The Cougars (2-0) climbed two more places, from 16th to 14th.
Kansas (1-0) returned to the Top 25 after a week’s absence.
The Cornhuskers have Saturday off before returning to action at Arizona State Sept. 21. The Vols and Gators are both off next week as they begin preparations for their showdown at Knoxville Sept. 21.
Wake shows signs of life
He’s toiled in the shadows of the hottest basketball team in the basketball-crazy Atlantic Coast Conference. Now Jim Caldwell has Wake Forest followers in Winston-Salem, N.C., thinking about another sport.
In the weeks leading up to his fourth season as the school’s football coach, Caldwell kept saying that the Demon Deacons appeared to be on the right track. That’s a hard sell when you’ve gone 6-27 in your first three years and won only two ACC games.
The sell got a lot easier Saturday night when Wake Forest rallied from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 28-27 victory over Northwestern, which was ranked No. 13 but fell out of the rankings after the loss.
“It gives you an indication of what we have the potential to become,” Caldwell said. “We’re not there yet. I mean, this is a great game for us, but we’re not there. We’re so far away. We’re such a young group and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Saturday night’s victory was a good start. Not only was it Wake Forest’s first triumph over a ranked opponent since 1979, but it improved the Demon Deacons to 2-0 - doubling their victory total from last year, when they went 0-8 in the ACC and 1-10 overall.
Saturday’s late game
Tevell Jones scored on a 30-yard blocked punt return at the start of the game and Kareem Wilson and Steve Hookfin scored on runs Saturday to lift ground-oriented Ohio to a 21-10 victory over Hawaii at Honolulu.