It seemed like Irish head coach Brian Kelly knew that the latest USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll was going to punish them, so he put his starters back in late against Stanford. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.
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It had been multiple weeks in a row where the Irish kept creeping upwards in the Coaches Poll, but this week, the steak ended. Two teams jumped them, Michigan, coming off a win over Ohio State and Oklahoma State who beat Oklahoma.
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Was it the score that dropped the Irish, most likely not, but they still ended up falling. Here is the latest Coaches Poll with last weeks ranking in parenthesis.
1 – Georgia (1)
2 – Alabama (2)
3 – Michigan (6)
4 – Cincinnati (4)
5 – Oklahoma State (7)
6 – Notre Dame (5)
7 – Ohio State (3)
8 – Ole Miss (8)
9 – Baylor (10)
10 – Oregon (11)
11 – Oklahoma (9)
12 – Iowa (12)
13 – Michigan State (13)
14 – BYU (15)
15 – Pitt (17)
16 – Houston (16)
17 – Utah (19)
18 – Wake Forest (21)
19 – San Diego State (22)
20 – NC State (24)
21 – ULL (23)
22 – Kentucky (25)
23 – Texas A&M (14)
24 – Clemson (NR)
25 – Arkansas (NR)