Central Florida makes AP top 25 for first time

Long in the shadows of the state’s traditional powerhouses, Central Florida has some bragging rights this week.

Central Florida’s rise reached a major milestone Sunday with the program’s first national ranking in the Associated Press poll at No. 25. Although Florida is No. 24, Florida State and Miami are unranked.

Word of the ranking spread through text messages and phone calls and some Central Florida players — many shunned by the state’s Big Three — were even on the Internet awaiting the results. Another group was eating at a supermarket deli when it heard the news.

“A lot of high-fiving. People were excited,” senior defensive end Bruce Miller said. “There was a lot of people there who thought we were weird.”

The Knights (7-2, 5-0) are the only team unbeaten in Conference USA this season. They vaulted into the national rankings with big wins against East Carolina and Houston and are in prime position to host the league title game.

Central Florida has been working to make this kind of national splash.

In the last few years alone, the university has built an on-campus football stadium, a basketball arena and athletic facilities made to sparkle. The school also has ballooned into the second-largest university in the country, with more than 56,000 students.

Central Florida got a late start, not playing its first football game until 1979 in Division III. Then known as the Golden Knights, they moved to their current status in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, in 1996.

North Carolina’s White out for season

North Carolina senior tailback Johnny White, the Tar Heels’ leading rusher, fractured his right clavicle in the first half of the Tar Heels’ 37-35 win at Florida State and will sit out the rest of the season.

White was leading the team with 720 yards and was Carolina’s third-leading receiver, with 24 catches for 288 yards. He ranks fourth in the ACC in all-purpose yards, with an average of 112 per game, and sixth in rushing, with 80 per game.

White finished the year with 130 rushing attempts and a team-high seven touchdowns.