Notre Dame’s football team moved up two slots in this week’s USA Today Coaches’ Poll. The Fighting Irish improved their ranking to 15th in the country after routing Rice on Saturday 48-17. Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson threw 53 and 83 yard touchdown passes and totaled 295 passing yards. The ND quarterback also ran for three touchdowns, becoming just the third Notre Dame quarterback in school history to do so.
“Everett Golson was electric,” coach Brian Kelly said after Saturday’s game. “He kept his eyes down field. He knew when to run. He knew when to throw it.”
While the Irish climbed the rankings, several teams dropped. UCLA fell four places to #11, Wisconsin fell five spots after suffering a 4 point loss in a late game collapse to LSU, South Carolina fell 12 slots after a devestating a 52-28 home loss to Texas A&M, and Clemson fell eight spots after losing to Georgia 45-21 in Athens. Ohio State and Texas both dropped one spot with less than impressive victories.
The top 5 remained constant but every team between 6 and 21 shuffled from the pre-season rankings. The biggest gains were for Texas A&M (up 7), Georgia (up 4) and Nebraska (up 4). Michigan State, Notre Dame, Arizona State and Ole Miss all moved up 2 spots.
Here is the full top 25:
1. Florida State (1-0) — 57 first-place votes
2. Alabama (1-0)
3. Oklahoma (1-0) — 2 first-place votes
4. Oregon (1-0) — 2 first-place votes
5. Auburn (1-0)
6. Michigan State (1-0)
7. Ohio State (1-0)
8. Georgia (1-0) — 1 first-place vote
9. Baylor (1-0)
10. Stanford (1-0)
11. UCLA (1-0)
12. LSU (1-0)
13. Texas A&M (1-0)
14. USC (1-0)
15. Notre Dame (1-0)
16. Arizona State (1-0)
17. Ole Miss (1-0)
18. Nebraska (1-0)
19. Wisconsin (0-1)
20. Kansas State (1-0)
21. South Carolina (0-1)
22. Missouri (1-0)
23. North Carolina (1-0)
24. Clemson (0-1)
25. Texas (1-0)
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