SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame football, coming off a 35-14 win over unranked Virginia on Senior Day, moved up to No. 6 in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll, released Sunday.
The surging Irish (9-1) have won eight straight since their Week 2 stunner against Northern Illinois. Unbeaten Army, ranked 17th by the coaches, is up next on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
Army (9-0), idle last week, is tied with Ohio State for the FBS lead in scoring defense at 10.3 points per game. Notre Dame remained third in scoring defense at 11.4 points per game.
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The Associated Press poll of media members also ranked Notre Dame sixth, moving the Irish up two spots after losses by BYU and Tennessee.
Notre Dame was ranked seventh in last week’s coaches poll and eighth by the Associated and the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. Under the 12-team playoff seeding system, Notre Dame was projected to play a first-round game at Tennessee as of last week.
Three one-loss teams are ranked ahead of Notre Dame by the coaches: Ohio State, Texas and Penn State.
Prior Notre Dame foes this season include Texas A&M (8-2), ranked 14th this week in the coaches poll; and Louisville (6-4), which fell out of the coaches poll with a last-second loss at Stanford (3-7).
Navy (7-3) was unbeaten and ranked 24th in the AP poll before facing the Irish on Oct. 26 in New Jersey. The Mids fell 35-0 at home to Tulane on Saturday.
USC (5-5) evened its record on Saturday with a 28-20 home win over Nebraska. Notre Dame closes its regular season on Nov. 30 at the Trojans and new starting quarterback Jayden Maiava, the UNLV transfer and redshirt sophomore.
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
