Notre Dame Rebounds Into Poll

Welcome back Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish opened their season with a 24-10 victory over Texas A&M; on Saturday and moved into the Associated Press top 25 poll at No. 23.

Notre Dame, which faces top-ranked Nebraska this Saturday, was not ranked in the preseason or first regular-season polls. It was the first time since 1986 that the Irish weren’t among the top 25 in AP preseason rankings.

Nebraska and Florida State remained 1-2, while Michigan moved up three places to No. 3 and Alabama tumbled 10 spots to No. 13. Miami was No. 4 and Wisconsin was No. 5.

Nebraska received 39 first-place votes and 1,736 points from the 71 sports writers and broadcasters on the AP panel. Florida State, idle on Saturday, had 28 first-place votes and 1,725 points.

Colorado and Texas A&M; dropped out of the poll.

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Florida middle linebacker Andra Davis is expected to miss the rest of the season because of a left knee injury that will require surgery, Coach Steve Spurrier said in Gainesville.

Davis, a junior, injured his left knee in the second quarter of No. 8 Florida’s 40-19 victory over Ball State on Saturday night. Spurrier didn’t reveal the exact nature of the injury.

Davis plays at one of the thinnest areas on defense for the Gators. Backup middle linebacker Travis Carroll is serving a three-game suspension for violating unspecified team rules.

“It’s a very big concern for us,” defensive coordinator Jon Hoke said. “We’ve got about two weeks to figure out who is going to play there and train them to play.”

After Davis left, freshman Travis Harris played the middle for Florida and forced a key fumble in the fourth quarter, with Ball State inside Florida’s 20 and looking to cut its deficit to seven.

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Finger-pointing has replaced smiles in Happy Valley. Penn State is 0-2 for the first time in 10 years.

The Nittany Lions lacked offense for the second straight week, and the defense couldn’t stop the run as Toledo, a 17-point underdog, gained a 24-6 victory on Saturday.

One player blamed the ineffectiveness of the offense on the coaching staff.

“It’s the system, entirely the system,” tailback Larry Johnson said. “We’ve got coaches who’ve been here for 30, 20 years. It seems like things never change.

“We run the same offense and teams that played us know what we’re going to run. They can pull out tapes from back in ‘92, ’93. We run the same offense. It’s the same plays, same system. Guys [on the opposing team] kind of guess on that, and they end up guessing right.”

After gaining only six rushing yards in a 29-5 season-opening loss to USC, Penn State gained 30 on the ground against Toledo. The offense needed seven quarters to score its first touchdown and has 308 total yards in two games.

“Everything we do is too predictable,” said Johnson, whose father, Larry Sr., is a defensive line coach at Penn State.

Penn State, which entered the season ranked No. 22, last week fell out of the AP top 25 for the first time in eight years.

“I can’t fathom it. If you’d have told me this would have happened, there’d have been no way,” linebacker said Aaron Gatten said. “No one would have expected this to happen.”