| | Associated Press
Notre Dame finds itself in an unfamiliar position -- unranked in
The Associated Press Top 25 preseason college football poll.
|  | | Notre Dame coach Bob Davie watches from the sideline as his team plays the University of Michigan last year. Notre Dame finds itself in an unfamiliar position this year -- unranked in The Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll. |
For the first time since 1986, the Fighting Irish were unable to
muster enough support to be ranked among the top teams. In fact,
the 71 voters on the AP panel rated the Irish 34th among 115
Division I-A teams.
The Irish lost their final four games, and went 5-7 last season.
As coach Bob Davie enters his fourth -- and some believe final --
campaign at Notre Dame, prospects don't look bright for a return to
prominence, or the Top 25.
Among early Irish opponents are No. 1 Nebraska, No. 14 Purdue,
No. 25 Michigan State and defending Pac-10 champion Stanford. The
finale is at No. 15 USC.
"I can understand why we're not in the rankings," said Davie,
who has a 21-16 record in three seasons. "Sure, I would like to be
ranked. It would mean people on the outside have a high opinion of
our team coming back.
"But we've probably been ranked a few times just on name only
when maybe we didn't deserve to. We're just not going to get all
bent out of shape about it."
In 1986, Lou Holtz was in his first season after replacing Gerry
Faust, whose fifth and final year ended with a 5-6 record. The
Irish were unranked in the '86 preseason poll, and finished 5-6. It
was the last time Notre Dame posted a losing record until last
year.
Last season, the Irish were No. 18 in the preseason, but dropped
out of the Top 25 by the fourth poll. They were back at No. 24 in
the 10th week, then fell out for good.
In Davie's first two seasons, Notre Dame opened 11th and
finished unranked in '97; and opened 22nd and ended 17th in '98.
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