Indiana football fell one spot to No. 5 in the Week 3 Associated Press Top 25 Poll released Sunday. Despite falling, the Hoosiers received four first place votes — one more than last week.
The Hoosiers improved to 3-0 with a 38-0 victory over Western Kentucky University on Saturday. Their offense struggled to begin the contest, scoring a season-low 14 points in the first half, but bounced back to put up 24 in the final two quarters.
Meanwhile, Indiana’s defense continued its dominance and notched its second consecutive shutout for the first time since 1993.
All three teams ahead of Indiana in last week’s AP Poll, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame, earned Week 3 victories. But with then-No. 8 University of Mississippi’s 32-24 victory over Louisiana State University on Saturday night, the Rebels jumped the Hoosiers for the No. 4 spot.
Like last week, six Big Ten teams joined Indiana in Sunday’s rankings.
Despite a 59-3 victory over Kent State University, Ohio State dropped one spot to No. 7. USC remained at No. 12 following its 42-35 win against Rutgers on Saturday.
The other four Big Ten programs each improved one spot in this week’s poll. Penn State moved to No. 13 with a 55-13 victory over the University of Buffalo and Iowa now sits at No. 17 after a shutout 55-0 win against the University of Northern Iowa.
Michigan defeated the University of Texas at El Paso 52-17 to secure the No. 18 slot. Meanwhile, Oregon rebounded from its Week 2 upset loss with a dominant 84-0 win over Portland State University on Friday to earn No. 20 in the rankings.
Indiana will return to action when it begins conference play against Northwestern at 8 p.m. Sept. 25 at Memorial Stadium.
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
