As Toppled Bruins Know All Too Well . . . : When No. 1 Falls, the Dominoes Drop Into Place : Notre Dame Is No. 1 in Polls; USC Rises to No. 2

For the first time since the beginning of the Gerry Faust era in 1981, Notre Dame is on top of the college football world.

Monday’s wire-service polls placed USC, which will play the Fighting Irish Nov. 26 at the Coliseum, right behind Notre Dame, the fourth team to become No. 1 this season.

UCLA (7-1) fell from No. 1 after a 34-30 loss Saturday to Washington State that dropped the Bruins to sixth in the Associated Press and United Press International polls.

Notre Dame (8-0), a 22-7 winner over Navy, received 44 of 58 first-place votes and 1,144 of a possible 1,160 points from a nationwide panel of sportswriters and sportscasters in the AP poll. The Irish had been second behind UCLA the last two weeks.

USC (7-0), a 41-20 winner over Oregon State, received 11 first-place votes and 1,097 points in climbing from third place to second.

Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz was something less than ecstatic to learn his team was No. 1.

“Being No. 1 wasn’t very good luck for Florida State, Miami or UCLA,” he said. “I’m worried about beating (winless) Rice, and that’s the truth. Every week in this crazy game you’d better be ready to play.

“I think the poll is great and it creates a tremendous amount of interest, but I only pay attention to the last one. I’d rather be No. 1 on Jan. 2, but I’m glad we weren’t No. 1 on Sept. 1.”

After his team’s sluggish performance against Navy, Holtz said Notre Dame was “not a really good football team right now.”

When Holtz succeeded Faust after the 1985 season, he said his motto was, “First we’ll be the best, then we’ll be first.”

Monday, he said: “And I don’t think we’re the best yet. We’re first before we’re the best.

“This team has done an incredible job this year, but it’s like building a house--it looks good and it hasn’t fallen down yet, but it hasn’t had a big storm yet, either.”

And there are at least a couple a tests left. After Rice, Notre Dame plays Penn State on Nov. 19 and then USC.

If Notre Dame and USC are still ranked Nos. 1 and 2 when they play, it would be 24th time that the top two teams have played.

But USC also has a formidable schedule with California, Arizona State and UCLA in the next 3 weeks.

Despite the shuffling, the same teams were in the top 10 this week in the AP poll.

Miami’s defending national champions moved from fourth place to third with one first-place vote and 1,041 points after beating East Carolina, 31-7.

Oregon (6-2) fell out of the top 20 by losing to Arizona State, 21-20. Brigham Young (7-1) made the top 20 for the first time this season by crushing New Mexico, 65-0; and Indiana (6-1-1), which dropped out after losing to Michigan last week, moved back in with a 45-34 victory over Iowa.