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SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010 COLLEGE FOOTBALL
National champ Alabama opens season atop poll
Crimson Tide starts year at No. 1 for
first time since 1978 ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alabama will start this season
where it ended last season. The Crimson Tide is on top. Coach Nick Saban has the Tide
rolling theway Bear Bryant did in his day, first in the Associated Press preseason poll for the first time since 1978. Alabama received 54 of 60
first-place votes from the media panel and 1,491 points to easily outdistance second-ranked Ohio State in the rankings released Saturday. The Buckeyes, who have been
ranked no lower than 11th in the last eight preseason polls, re- ceived three first-place votes. Boise State is third, its best preseason ranking, following an- other undefeated season. Under- dogs no more, the Broncos even received one first-place vote. Florida, Alabama’s Southeast-
ern Conference rival, is fourth. Fifth-ranked Texas received a first-place vote. The rest of the top 10 has TCU
sixth, followed by Oklahoma, which received a first-place vote, Nebraska, Iowa and Virginia Tech. The 10th-ranked Hokies face
MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST
“I’m playing well, but the summer isn’t over,” said DennyMcCarthy, who plans to play at U-Va. for four years before taking the next step.McCarthy tied Peter Jacobsen’s Argyle Country Club course record by firing a 9-under-par 62.
McCarthy, 17, is on the fast track mccarthy from D1
save? McCarthy finished with a 9-under 62, tying the course re- cord at Argyle Country Club, which was set by longtime pro Peter Jacobsen. “Yeah, I’m playing well, but
the summer isn’t over,” McCa- rthy said. “I can make it a special summer. But that’s talk. I have to go out and do it.” So far, McCarthy has made
things look easy.His game is not terribly flashy. At 5 feet 9, he’s not the longest hitter off the tee, but he hits a driver plenty far.He then grooves precision-like iron shots and takes advantage of opportunities with his short game. “A lot of juniors strike the
ball,” saidMcCarthy,whoseolder brother, Ryan, was an All-Met golfer in 2007 and now plays for Loyola (Md.). “The difference is from 100 yards and in – hitting greens and making putts.
“The area I’ve improved the
most is in golf course manage- ment, getting around and shoot- ing a score. Even when I don’t havemy best stuff I can scrape it around and get a score.” Though he has one more year
of high school remaining,McCa- rthy already has accepted a scholarship offer to play for the University of Virginia.He insists he will play four years of college golf, then take whatever comes next.
But with a player so talented,
turning professional would seem a viable option at some point, possibly sooner rather than later. After all, golf is a fickle game, where a player’s wavering confidence can signifi- cantly alter his play. “We haven’t talked about it a
lot,” said his father, Dennis. “If you wanted to be the editor of The Washington Post sports page or be the next president, I’ve always believed you have to
dream it. You don’t wake up one day and it happens. I think Den- ny has had that dream.” Said Denny: “Who wouldn’t
want to go pro? I wanted to go pro in basketball, too. But now I realize that can’t happen.” Unlike other elite junior golf-
ers, McCarthy takes a few months off each year. Some Washington-area players mi- grate south for the winter be- cause the cold weather makes it difficult to maintain and im- prove their game. McCarthy, on the other hand, trades in his golf spikes for a pair of high-tops and plays guard for the Georgetown Prep basketball team, which fin- ished last season ranked 20th in The Post’s poll. “He’s always been pretty
grounded and we try to keep that,” Dennis McCarthy said. “Last year, I almost had to push Denny to play basketball in Sep- tember and October — ‘You’ve always put the clubs down.’ It
keeps him in good shape and anxious to get back on the golf course. I think that helps.” When he resumes playing
golf, McCarthy plays nearly ev- ery day. He isn’t fanatical about training or practice regimes, doesn’t worry about his diet and feels that he has plenty of strength and flexibility without getting in the weight room out- side of basketball season. As for working on his game,
he prefers to play 9 or 18 holes and drop a few extra balls around the course to getting on the driving range. “He actually thinks he can
make everything and more often than not he does,” said Mike Barillo, the club pro at Argyle, McCarthy’s home course. “What setshimapart is his tenacity, he’s just so tough mentally. “The sky’s the limit, there’s no
question about it. Just look at the numbers he is shooting.”
barrj@washpost.com
Boise State at FedEx Field on Labor Day night in the season’s first huge game. As for Alabama, Bryant was
coach the last time the Crimson Tide was theAP’s preseasonNo. 1. The Tide started and finished that 1978 season on top of the rankings, the first of two straight national championships for Ala- bama. The only other time Ala- bama was preseason No. 1 was 1966,whenBear’s boys were com- ing off back-to-back national championships. Saban’s Tide, led by Heisman
Trophy winnerMark Ingram, will try to make Alabama the first program to win back-to-back AP titles three times. Oklahoma and Nebraska also have done it twice. But please don’t call Alabama
the defending champion — at least not in front of its coach. “What was accomplished by
last year’s team has nothing to do with this year’s team. The players have to understand that,” said Saban, who in three seasons has fully restored Alabama’s status as an elite program. “This team has to develop an image, an identity of its own by its performance. What was accomplished last year is just a standard for somebody else to top.” There’s no doubting Alabama
has the credentials to beNo. 1, but poll history suggests the odds are against the Tide finishing on top.
AP Top 25
The top 25 teams in the Associated Press preseason college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 2009 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and final ranking in 2009:
1. Alabama (54) 2. Ohio St. (3) 3. Boise St. (1) 4. Florida 5. Texas (1) 6. TCU
7. Oklahoma (1) 8. Nebraska 9. Iowa
10. Virginia Tech 11. Oregon
12.Wisconsin 13. Miami
14. Southern Cal 15. Pittsburgh
16. Georgia Tech 17. Arkansas
18. North Carolina 19. Penn St.
20. Florida St. 21. LSU
22. Auburn 23. Georgia
24. Oregon St. 25.West Virginia
Record Pts Pv 14-0 1,491 1 11-2 1,400 5 14-0 1,336 4 13-1 1,237 3 13-1 1,223 2 12-1 1,160 6 8-5 1,104 — 10-4 1,033 14 11-2 1,007 7 10-3 973 10 10-3 870 11 10-3 822 16 9-4 785 19 9-4 590 22 10-3 516 15 11-3
511 13
8-5 496 — 8-5 397 — 11-2 382 9 7-6 379 — 9-4 300 17 8-5 296 — 8-5 206 — 8-5 198 — 9-4 184 25
Others receiving votes: Cincinnati 108, Stanford 81, Utah 80, South Carolina 71, Houston 66, Connecticut 32, Notre Dame 31, Missouri 27, BYU 19, Arizona 15, Clemson 15, Texas Tech 14, Navy 12, Washington 8, Texas A&M 7, Mississippi 6, Oklahoma St. 3, Central Michigan 2, Middle Tennessee 2, Temple 2, Boston College 1, SMU 1, Central Florida 1.
Only 10 of the 60 previous preseason No. 1 teams have won the national championship. And only two (Florida State in ’99 and Southern California in ’04) have held the top spot for the entire season. Notable in the top 10, Nebras-
ka has its highest preseason rank- ing since 2001, when the Corn- huskers startedNo. 4. “That really doesn’t have
much to do with where we are now and what we have to accom- plish and something we’re not in control of as a football team,” Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. “That is a positive that we’re up there a little bit higher than in years past.” Thesecond 10 in the preseason
top 25 starts with Oregon. No. 12 is Wisconsin andMiami is 13th. Southern California is No. 14.
Thelast time theTrojans started a season outside the top 10 was 2002. Pittsburgh, the highest-
ranked Big East team, isNo. 15. GeorgiaTech, Arkansas,North
Carolina, Penn State and Florida State round out the top 20. Navy was unranked but re-
ceived 12 votes.
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