Polls and such

One notable Ohio college football team dropped out of the national poll of record Sunday, but another one might just be on the way back into the top 25 in its level of competition. Ohio State had not been unranked in The Associated Press Top 25 since Nov. 20, 2004, but the Buckeyes' seven-year run ended Sunday when they tumbled out of the rankings. Actually, it pretty much happened Saturday night, when Ohio State stunk up Sun Life Stadium with a performance the likes of which its fans hadn't seen in years and never want to see again.

The Buckeyes managed just two field goals in a 24-6 loss to unranked Miami. Ohio State hadn't lost a non-conference road game to an unranked opponent in exactly 23 years. The last one happened on Sept. 17, 1988, when the Buckeyes were crushed, 42-10, by Pittsburgh in John Cooper's first season.

But it wasn't just that Ohio State lost. It was the way the Buckeyes lost to the Hurricanes on Saturday night. Miami ran all over Ohio State early. It took several series for the Buckeyes' defense to get into the game and by then, they were down 14-0. Ohio State couldn't contain Lamar Miller on the ground and its defensive backs couldn't seem to cover anybody.

Little did Ohio State fans know that as the game progressed, the defense would be the least of their concerns.

The Buckeyes literally had no passing game. None. Quarterbacks Joe Bauserman and Braxton Miller were a combined 4 for 18 for 35 yards. And Miller's two completions came at garbage time on the final series of the game. All four completions went to running backs. The Buckeyes' wide receivers? No one is sure where they were. The only time they were seen was on several drops. They were almost never open against a Hurricanes secondary that was shredded by Maryland a couple of weeks ago.

But while the Buckeyes appear to be on the way down, the Youngstown State Penguins appear to be moving in the opposite direction.

YSU beat Illinois State, 34-27, in its Missouri Valley Football Conference opener on Saturday. Just for the record, I picked the Penguins to win, 31-27.

Football Champion Subdivision poll voters were lukewarm toward YSU after the Penguins' season-opening 28-6 loss to Michigan State and an ensuing 77-13 rout of Valparaiso. They just didn't know what to make of YSU, which finished 3-8 a year ago in Eric Wolford's first season.

But the Penguins led at some point in every one of those 2010 games and they did it with an utter lack of talent at some key positions, especially on defense. Wolford has rebuilt the program from the ground up and although he isn't finished yet, this is not nearly the same YSU program he inherited.

I would be surprised if the Penguins didn't slip back into The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top 25 this week. Wolford has improved this team a lot and people are starting to notice.