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USF, Florida, Miami make minor gains in football poll

 
Published Sept. 17, 2017

USF, Florida and Miami all moved up in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.

The Gators are up four spots to No. 20 in the rankings, released Sunday afternoon. USF is up one to No. 21, and the idle Hurricanes rose three spots to No. 14. Idle Florida State dropped one spot to 12th.

Alabama remained No. 1, though Clemson chipped away some of its first-place votes to leapfrog Oklahoma for second. The Tigers gained 613 yards and kept Lamar Jackson mostly in check with a dominating 47-21 victory at Louisville. Jackson accounted for 381 of Louisville's 433 yards, most coming in the fourth quarter when the game was decided.

"We had two goals," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "One was to get the job done, and the other was to leave no doubt. We felt like we left a little doubt in the past couple of years."

USC, which beat Texas 27-24 in double overtime, dropped one spot to No. 5. Sam Darnold passed for 397 yards and three touchdowns, and freshman walk-on Chase McGrath hit a 43-yard field goal to win it. On Texas' possession leading off the second overtime, Christian Rector forced a goal-line fumble by stripping the ball from quarterback Sam Ehlinger. McGrath had hit a tying 31-yarder on the final snap of regulation.

Also of note, former Bulls coach Willie Taggart is back in the top 25; his Oregon Ducks are 24th.

UTEP FIRES PEASE: UTEP fired offensive coordinator Brent Pease after an 0-3 start. Pease, who was Florida's coordinator from 2012-13 when the Gators ranked 92nd and 110th nationally in yards per play, was in his second season with the Miners. UTEP ranks second-to-last nationally in total offense at 204.7 yards per game and in yards per play (3.89), and is 125th in scoring at 13 per game.

AUBURN: Backup quarterback Sean White was charged with public intoxication and jailed on $500 bond early Sunday. The one-time starter had been suspended for undisclosed reasons for the first two games.

Quotable

"We were like 3 years old, 6 years old when this happened, so it really didn't mean that much."

Uchenna Nwosu, USC linebacker, on the idea that the Trojans avenged a loss for the national title to Texas in the 2005 season's Rose Bowl

Information from Times wires was used in this report.