Notre Dame has moved up two spots in this week's Associated Press Poll to the No. 22 team in the country after their 56-30 win in South Bend against the Purdue Boilermakers. The Irish put on an impressive offensive performance racking up 535 total yards of offense backed by quarterback CJ Carr's 223-yard performance and running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price combining for 231 rushing yards and six total touchdowns. This dynamic backfield has been wrecking havoc on opposing defenses the last couple weeks. Love and Price have combined for 446 total yards and 10 touchdowns in their last two outings.
Defensively, the Irish benefitted from playing a Purdue team that featured a brand new head coach, brand new offensive coordinator and over 80 newcomers from a season ago. They took steps in the right direction in a few categories, but still struggled to keep the Boilermakers out of the end zone. Purdue's quarterback Ryan Browne threw for over 200 yards in the first half allowing the Boilermaker offense to put up 23 points on the board in the first two quarters. The defense stiffened in the second half and held Purdue out of the end zone the entire third quarter.
The USC Trojans are, as of now, the only ranked team remaining on Notre Dame's regular season schedule. They advanced to 4-0 on the season and moved up to No. 21 in the latest AP Poll after beating Michigan State at home 45-31. Trojan's quarterback Jayden Maiava threw for 234 passing yards and ended the night with five total touchdowns (three passing and two rushing). Up next, USC will face the No. 23 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini before their first bye week of the season. After the bye week, they face the No. 19 Michigan Wolverines followed by the 22nd-ranked Fighting Irish.
Four teams in the AP Top 10 had bye weeks, but that didn't prevent the voters from shifting some spots in the latest poll. The Miami Hurricanes moved up to the No. 2 team in the country after beating Florida at home 26-7. Penn State and LSU both dropped one spot in the polls respectively. Oklahoma jumped up to No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Poll after beating the Auburn at home 24-17 causing the Tigers to drop out of the Top 25. Georgia and Oregon remained at No. 5 and No. 6 in the country respectively while the Florida State Seminoles went down a spot despite beating Kent State 66-10 at home this past weekend.
The Indiana Hoosiers jumped up to No. 11 in the polls after beating Illinois at home 63-10; the Fighting Illini dropped 14 spots down to No. 23 in the country. Texas Tech moved up to No. 12 in the AP Poll after soundly beating Utah on the road 34-10. Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Missouri and USC all moved up a couple of spots as well. TCU and BYU both made their first appearance in the AP Poll in 2025 this week. The Cougars beat East Carolina yesterday 34-13 while the Horned Frogs took care of business against SMU at home 35-24.
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