The loss to Cincinnati is going to be looked back upon as a potential turning point for the Irish as it dropped them down to No. 13 in the latest USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll. Many of us, myself included, wondered why Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees didn’t turn to Drew Pyne earlier, as they opted not to play him at all in the first half.
[listicle id=35350]
It was a true tale of two halves, as the Irish were blanked in first two quarters and took a 17-0 deficit against the Bearcats into halftime. They would win the second half, 13-7, but it wasn’t enough as the first half hole was too deep to dig out of.
As Nick Shepkowski said last night, it’s time to turn the reigns over to Pyne, after both Jack Coan and Tyler Buchner were ineffective in the first half.
[lawrence-related id=35400]
The first loss of the season will sting for a while, as the Irish seemed like the better team, but mistakes, mainly turnovers in their own territory, ultimately doomed them.
It does help that multiple other Top-25 teams lost, including No. 2 Georgia blanking No. 11 Arkansas, No. 3 Oregon getting upset against Stanford in overtime, No. 9 Florida falling to Kentucky, No. 13 Texas A&M losing at home to Mississippi State and No. 21 Fresno State lost to host Hawaii.
That means there was plenty of movement in this weeks newest Coaches Poll. Below are the updated rankings along with last weeks in parenthesis.
1 – Alabama (1)
2 – Georgia (2)
3 – Iowa (5)
4 – Penn State (6)
5 – Oklahoma (4)
6 – Cincinnati (8)
7 – Ohio State (10)
8 – Michigan (14)
9 – Oregon (3)
10 – BYU (15)
11 – Michigan State (16)
12 – Oklahoma State (18)
13 – Notre Dame (7)
14 – Kentucky (23)
15 – Coastal Carolina (16)
16 – Arkansas (11)
17 – Ole Miss (17)
18 – Florida (9)
19 – Auburn (22)
20 – Wake Forest (25)
21 – Clemson (19)
22 – North Carolina State (NR)
23 – Texas (NR)
24 – Southern Miss (NR)
25 – Arizona State (NR)