Irish, Trojans Near Top 10

Notre Dame, attempting to return to its glory days, nearly returned to the top 10.

With a 25-23 victory over Michigan, the Fighting Irish (3-0) climbed eight spots to No. 12 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released Sunday.

Notre Dame, under new Coach Tyrone Willingham, last made AP’s top 10 at No. 10 in the 2000 final poll of the regular season. Then came the 41-9 Fiesta Bowl loss to Oregon State, and the Irish finished No. 15.

While the top six teams remained unchanged from last week--Miami was a near unanimous choice at No. 1--the Irish led a reshuffling of the rest of the Top 25.

USC defeated Colorado, 40-3, Saturday and moved up six places to No. 11. Penn State, a 40-7 winner over Nebraska, returned to the poll at No. 15.

UCLA moved from No. 23 to 20.

Besides Penn State, newcomers this week are California at No. 23, Iowa State at No. 21 and Kansas State at No. 25.

There were quite a few tumbles too. Michigan, No. 7 last week, dropped to No. 14; Nebraska, eighth a week ago, fell to No. 18. Michigan State, No. 18 last week, dropped out of the poll.

Also dropping out were Marshall, Colorado and Colorado State. Marshall lost to Virginia Tech, 47-21, last Thursday night. The Hokies moved up from 11th to seventh this week.

Miami received 68 of the 74 first-place votes and 1,844 points from the sportswriters and broadcasters on the AP panel.

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As far as Utah Coach Ron McBride is concerned, his team did not lose to Arizona on Saturday night in Tucson.

The scoreboard read “Arizona 23, Utah 17” but McBride knows his team scored the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds, only to have it taken away.

“It was a touchdown. Game’s over. Period,” McBride said. “It’s an impossible call to miss. Everybody in the stadium saw it. Everybody on TV saw it. That’s embarrassing.”

The Utes (2-1) trailed, 23-7, early in the third quarter, but after Bryan Barreson kicked a 53-yard field goal with 4:11 left, Arizona led, 23-17.

Utah mounted one final drive from its own 28-yard line. On second and 10 from the Arizona 12, wide receiver Josh Lyman broke open over the middle and made a diving catch of Lance Rice’s pass as he slid out of the back of the end zone. The official standing on the line a few feet away ruled the catch was not good.

But television replays showed that Lyman’s knee came down at least a foot inside the end zone.