Nebraska Hopes to Finish Where It Starts in AP Poll

Frank Solich, football coach at Nebraska, was eager to know how highly his Cornhuskers would be ranked at the start of the season.

He was happy to see his team atop the Associated Press Top 25 poll Saturday.

“We finished very strong at the end of last year and felt we could play with anyone in the country,” Solich said. “How it all plays out this year, we’ll see.”

Florida State is ranked No. 2. USC is No. 15. Notre Dame is unranked in the preseason poll for the first time since 1986.

Nebraska starts on top for the sixth time since the AP’s first preseason poll in 1950. The Cornhuskers have won four AP national titles since then, but none in years they started No. 1.

Coming off a 12-1 season and No. 3 final ranking, the defending Big 12-champion Cornhuskers received 36 first-place votes and 1,732 points from the 71 sportswriters and broadcasters on the voting panel.

Florida State, 12-0 last season and the first team to be ranked No. 1 from start to finish, had 29 first-place votes and 1,720 points.

Alabama, the defending Southeastern Conference champion and UCLA’s first opponent, is No. 3--the Crimson Tide’s highest preseason ranking since a No. 2 start in 1993.

Notre Dame was 5-7 last season, and Coach Bob Davie understands why the Irish are not ranked. “We’ve probably been ranked a few times just on name only when maybe we didn’t deserve to,” he said. “We’re just not going to get all bent out of shape about it.”

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Rashard Casey’s off-field problems haven’t affected his status as Penn State’s quarterback.

“There isn’t a football player that’s going to walk out on that field when we start practice that’s going to have his job except maybe Casey,” Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said a day before the Nittany Lions begin preparing for their Kickoff Classic opener against USC.

Casey, charged with assaulting an off-duty police officer earlier this year, spoke publicly for the first time Saturday. But he was allowed to answer football-related questions only.

“My teammates know the type of person I am. They know me enough to know what’s going on,” said Casey, a senior who dismissed the matter as “nonsense.”

Casey pleaded innocent to the aggravated assault charge in the May 14 incident in his hometown of Hoboken, N.J. At the earliest, his case could be sent to a grand jury next month.

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Marshall defensive end Bobby Addison was suspended for two games for a bar fight that injured an Ohio man.

Marshall Coach Bob Pruett said Addison will sit out the Aug. 31 opener against Southeast Missouri State and the Sept. 9 game at Michigan State. Addison also is barred from practicing until school starts Aug. 21.

“This isn’t a measure of guilt or innocence,” Pruett said. “It’s because he was involved in an altercation. He had no business being there at 3 a.m.”

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AP Preseason Top 25

The Associated Press preseason college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 1999 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and ranking in the 1999 final poll:

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Record Pts Pvs 1. Nebraska (36) 12-1 1,732 3 2. Florida State (29) 12-0 1,720 1 3. Alabama (3) 10-3 1,570 8 4. Wisconsin (1) 10-2 1,408 4 5. Miami 9-4 1,392 15 6. Michigan 10-2 1,380 5 7. Texas (2) 9-5 1,297 21 8. Kansas State 11-1 1,276 6 9. Florida 9-4 1,255 12 10. Georgia 8-4 1,226 16 11. Virginia Tech 11-1 1,044 2 12. Tennessee 9-3 940 9 13. Washington 7-5 816 -- 14. Purdue 7-5 751 25 15. USC 6-6 723 -- 16. Ohio State 6-6 601 -- 17. Clemson 6-6 599 -- 18. Mississippi 8-4 541 22 19. Oklahoma 7-5 455 -- 20. Texas Christian 8-4 404 -- 21. Illinois 8-4 361 24 22. Penn State 10-3 359 11 23. Southern Miss. 9-3 224 14 24. Colorado 7-5 166 -- 25. Michigan State 10-2 145 7

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* Others receiving votes: Texas A&M; 139, UCLA 115, East Carolina 75, Oregon 63, Auburn 36, Colorado State 35, Mississippi State 34, Utah 33, Notre Dame 32, Virginia 26, Marshall 23, Arkansas 22, Georgia Tech 10, Louisiana State 10, Syracuse 9, Brigham Young 7, Minnesota 5, Boston College 3, Kentucky 3, Texas Tech 3, Toledo 3, Stanford 2, Arizona State 1, Oregon State 1.