Football: AP Ranks WVU Fifth to Start the Season
August 19, 2006 09:31 AM | General
August 19, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will start the 2006 football season in the Top 5. The Mountaineers were ranked fifth in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, released Friday.
West Virginia is coming off an 11-1 season in which it defeated Georgia 38-35 in the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The Mountaineers have 48 lettermen returning including Sugar Bowl MVP Steve Slaton and starting quarterback Patrick White.
West Virginia received six first-place votes; it’s the highest the Mountaineers have ever been ranked in the preseason and only the second time WVU has started the year in the Top 10. In 2004, Coach Rich Rodriguez’s team was ranked 10th to start the season.
“There was a lot of hype a couple of years ago but the publicity some of our players have gotten and our program has gotten is a good thing,” Rodriguez said. “We shouldn’t shy away from it. I think if you aspire to be a great program then the hype comes every year.
“But at the same time it shouldn’t change who you are about going about and doing your business. I’m comfortable that it has not changed anybody and it’s certainly not going to change how we do business,” Rodriguez said.
Ohio State received 35 first-place votes and is ranked first, followed by Notre Dame, Texas and Auburn. Two-time national champion and last year’s runner-up USC was sixth. Rounding out the Top 10 were Florida, LSU, California and Oklahoma.
Big East Conference partner Louisville was rated 13th.
