Ohio State Fall Camp Notes – Day 3 – Ohio State Buckeyes
8/15/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
August 15, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State Fall Camp Notes – Day 3
Buckeyes No. 1 in Associated Press Poll
Ohio State University is the No. 1 ranked college football team in the nation in the Associated Press’s preseason poll that was released at 6 p.m. Saturday evening. In the second-closest preseason vote ever, Ohio State just edged Florida State for the No. 1 ranking. The Buckeyes finished with 30 first-place votes and 1,668 points. Florida State totalled 22 first-place votes and 1,633 points. The rest of the top 10 includes: Florida (5 first-place votes; 1,547 points), Nebraska (4; 1,534), Michigan (4; 1,475), Kansas State (2; 1,335), UCLA (1; 1,331), Arizona State (2; 1,256), LSU (1,237) and Tennessee (1,094).
Some Preseason
Coach John Cooper’s Buckeyes were earlier voted No. 1 by the 62 collegiate coaches voting for the ESPN-USA Today Top 25 coaches poll. The Buckeyes were also selected No. 1 in virtually every preseason magazine, with the exceptions being The Sporting News, which ranked OSU third, and Sport magazine, which ranked OSU second. Jeff Sagarin’s computer poll has the Buckeyes ranked fifth.
Some Quick Facts on the Associated Press Preseason Rankings
* This is the sixth time overall that Ohio State has been ranked number one in the preseason by the Associated Press. The previous five times were in 1958, 1962, 1969, 1970 (under Woody Hayes) and in 1980 (under Earl Bruce).
* Eight Associated Press preseason No. 1 teams have won AP national championships that same year with the last being Florida State in 1993.
* This is the second year in a row that the Big Ten Conference has had the No. 1 team in the nation according to the Associated Press preseason poll. Penn State was No. 1 last year. The last time a conference has had the distinction of back-to-back No. 1s was in 1980 and 1981 when Ohio State and Michigan were back-to-back top choices.
* This is the first time in any poll that Ohio State has held a No. 1 ranking since the 1980 season.
Quoting Head Coach John Cooper
“I’m proud and humbled to be the head football coach of the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Now it’s our job to live up to that. Nobody is going to out-work us. I don’t know if we are the best team, but we are going to work hard and try to be the best team.
“The coaches poll came out early in the week and we were number one in that poll so I’m glad that the sports writers agreed with the coaches with change.
“It’s something we work for every year and I’m not going to apologize for being number one. It is an honor to have your peers [coaches] and the sports writers have that much confidence in your football team, but that does’nt mean anything. The games are going to be decided obviously on the football field. The rankings are going to change throughout the course of the season so our job is to get this team ready to play West Virginia.
“It was a real good first day of practice. These kids are in shape. The upperclassmen, you know, are going to be in condition and the young pups really responded better today than they did yesterday with the conditioning.”
Quarterback Joe Germaine “Quotes”
“We are excited about the No. 1 ranking, but humbled as well because we have we have a lot of work to do.
“I thought we really had a good first day of practice. Coaches have been working us really hard, but thats what it is going to take.”
Provitt Out Indefinitely
Sophomore split end Vanness Provitt, a 6-3, 200-pound split end from Warren, Ohio, dislocated a hip during the second practice session on Saturday. He was examined at OSU Medical Center and released, but he will be out indefinitely, according to head team trainer Bill Davis. Provitt played in eight games last year as a red-shirt freshman and caught six passes for 56 yards. Freshman defensive tackle Paris Long suffered a sprained neck during the second session and will be reevaluated on Sunday. Long is a 6-6, 320 pound freshman who went in to fall camp second on the depth chart at one tackle position. He is from Beechcroft H.S. in Columbus.
Pulfer to Offense
Freshman Ben Pulfer (Sydney, Ohio), was moved from the defensive side of the ball to left tackle during Saturday’s three-a-day drills. He red-shirted the 1997 season after mid-season knee surgery.
1998 Associated Press Top 25 Preseason
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 1997 records, total points based on 25 points for a first place vote through one point for a 25th place vote and ranking in 1997 final poll:
1. Ohio State (30) 10-3 1,668 12 2. Florida State (22) 11-1 1,663 3 3. Florida (5) 10-2 1,547 4 4. Nebraska (4) 13-0 1,534 2 5. Michigan (4) 12-0 1,475 1 6. Kansas State (2) 11-1 1,335 8 7. UCLA (1) 10-2 1,331 5 8. Arizona State (2) 9-3 1,256 14 9. LSU 9-3 1,237 13 10. Tennessee 11-2 1,094 7 11. West Virginia 7-5 985 – 12. North Carolina 11-1 864 6 13. Penn State 9-3 804 16 14. Texas A&M 9-4 760 20 15. Colorado State 11-2 631 17 16. Virginia 7-4 620 – 17. Syracuse 9-4 608 21 18. Washington 8-4 494 18 19. Georgia 10-2 480 10 20. Wisconsin 8-5 444 – 21. Southern Mississippi 9-3 341 19 22. Notre Dame 7-6 291 – 23. Michigan State 7-5 211 – 24. Arizona 7-5 208 – 25. Auburn 10-3 201 11 OSU
