Notre Dame Tied At No. 29 In Amway Coaches Poll
The 2017 preseason Amway Coaches Poll, comprised of 65 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches (Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly not among them), was released Thursday with the Fighting Irish not surprisingly outside the Top 25.
Coming off a 4-8 season, though, Notre Dame was tied with Boise State for No. 29 in the “also receiving votes” category with 49 points. Placing No. 23 was the University of Texas Longhorns (5-7), now under new head coach Tom Herman, making them and No. 28 TCU (6-7 after bowl loss to Georgia) the lone teams with a losing record last season to place higher than Notre Dame.
Four 2017 Irish opponents were ahead of them in the initial poll: No. 4 USC (Oct. 21, at Notre Dame), No. 14 Stanford (Nov. 25, on the road), No. 15 Georgia (Sept. 9, at Notre Dame) and No. 18 Miami (Nov. 11, on the road).
Other foes on the slate include No. 33 North Carolina State (home on Oct. 28), a tie at No. 47 between Temple (Sept. 2 opener at home) and North Carolina (Oct. 7, on the road), and a tie at No. 58 with Michigan State (Sept. 23, on the road).
However, USA Today, which had previously sponsored the poll until 2014, had Notre Dame among the five teams most likely to crack the Top 25 this year. The others were Boise State, Colorado, Nebraska and North Carolina State.
Wrote USA Today: “There’s plenty of reason for optimism in South Bend. Seven of their eight defeats were by eight points or less, indicating the distance to turning things around isn’t as far as it might seem.”
For whatever it’s worth, last year’s preseason Amway Coaches Poll had Notre Dame No. 9. It also had Alabama and Clemson at 1-2, and the two ended up playing for the national title, with the Tigers pulling out the 11th-hour victory. The other two 2016 Playoff participants, Ohio State and Washington, were ranked, 5th and 18th, respectively at the start of the year.
Alabama, which has captured four national titles the past eight seasons, is No. 1, receiving 49 of the 65 first-place votes. Ohio State is No. 2. The complete Top 25 and others receiving votes are listed here.
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