After a dominant victory over Virginia , USC has claimed the top spot in The Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

While former No. 1 Georgia opened its season with a glorified scrimmage against an FCS team (Formerly Div 1-AA) USC took a long trip across the country and battled it out against a BCS conference team coming away with a decisive 52-7 victory and staking their claim as a force to be reckoned with this coming season.

USC moves to No.1 In AP Poll

The move to No. 1 dropped Georgia and Ohio State the preseason No. 1 and 2 to second and third respectively.

The voting was extremely close with USC receiving 21 first place votes and 1,539 points. Georgia received 20 first place votes  and 1,506 points. Ohio state pulled in 15 first place votes and 1,497 points.

Ohio State opened its season with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State, while Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21.

It is very early in the season and polls don’t mean much after the first game…that is  unless you’re being moved out of or into the top 25. That was the case for a number of teams who had some dissapointing season openeres or some unexpeted victories.

Perhaps one of the most dissapointing performances came from Pittsburgh who entered the season at No. 25 in the AP poll and were expected to be a major player in the Big East Conference. Pitt lost its opening game to an unheraled Bowling Green team and were knocked out of the Top 25 when thte new poll came out Tuesday.

Clemson is another team that took a huge hit after their troubling loss to Alabama last week. The Tigers were dropped out of the Top 25 after being ranked ninth the opening week. Clemson was handled by Alabama 34-10  which jumped up 11 spots after its victory to claim the 13th spot.

Also falling out due to opening week loses were Virginia Tech and Tennessee. Tennessee lost a heart breaker to UCLA in overtime after tying the game on a 47 yard field goal at the end of regulation.  Virginia Tech dropped its opener to East Carolina 27-22.

There are a few teams out there that have to be excited about the new poll having jumped into the Top 25 for the first time this season. Among them are No. 21 Fresno State who defeated Rutgers in their opening game, No. 22 Utah,  No. 23 UCLA, and No. 24 South Carolina.

This marks the first time that a preseason No. 1 lost its spot in the opening week since Florida in 2001. The gators defeated Marshall 49-14, but No. 2 Miami beat Penn State 33-7 and secured the No. 1 spot.

Don Bosco Prep Football-Established 1956

• 10 State Championships (1968, ’70, ’73, ’85, ’90, 2002, ’03, ’06, & ’07)
• Members of the NNJIL since 1981 (14 championships)
• 8 consecutive NNJIL championships
• Finished season nationally ranked 4 times since 2002
• 4 State Championship since 2002
• New Jersey team of the year 4 times since 2002 ( 2002,’03, ’06, ’07)
• MSG Tri-State Team of the year 4 times since 2002 (2002, ’03, ’06, ’07)
• 2003 Team Named Greatest Team in the history of New Jersey (Star-Ledger)
• 2003 team finished #2 in USA Today poll
• 2007 team finished #3 in MaxPreps poll
• 71-1 regular season record since 2000
• Enter season w/24 game win streak

Former Players on College Rosters

• Brian Toal- Boston college
• Mike Teel- Rutgers University
• Eric Cumba- University of New Hampshire
• Corey Wooton- Northwestern University
• Michael Ray Garvin- Florida State University
• Brian Roche- University of Louisville
• Darius Mann- University of Louisville
• Joe Marcoux- University of Villanova
• Nate Nurse- California University of Pennsylvania
• Ryan Lindsay- Boston College
• Tom Mele- Sacred Heart University
• Jason Mills- Lafayette University
• Matt Simms- University of Louisville
• Justin Trottau- University of Florida
• Sam Griffin- University of Cincinnati
• Ken Marcoux- Pace University
• Dan Marcoux- University of Akron
• Mike Farr- University of Rhode Island
• Alexander DiSanzo- Boston College
• Nick Mistretta- Columbia University
• Curt Williams- Columbia University
• Kevin Rose- William University
• Logan Siska- Iona University
• Ken Mahoney- Iona University
• Gerald Ford- Iona University
• Jack Daniels- Monmouth University
• Greg Kafaf- Colgate University
• Ken Prior- Colby College
• Braezen Subick- University of Rochester
• Orry Michael- John Hopkins University (Lacrosse)
• Brandon Boykin-Rutgers University (Baseball)
• Dale Fava- Delware Valley College (wrestling)
• Steven Proscia- University of Virginia (Baseball)
• Kevin Ferber- Amherst College
• Guy Germinario- Fordham University

“Friday Night Lights” bring the world of small town Texas high school football alive. It’s worth watching no matter who you are, but if love sports, or if you have kids in or about to go to high school, you definitely shouldn’t miss it.

Gaius Charles – Friday Nights’ Smash Williams

One of the major plot lines is the story of the Dillon Panthers’ star running back, Brian ‘Smash’ Williams and his on- and off-the-field life and how that affects his chances to play for a major powerhouse. What’s interesting in the way they handle the story in the importance of both Coach Taylor and Smash’s Mom play in the process.

It’s important lesson for high school athletes. Your coach and family have an important role to play. In today’s supercharged world – with the internet and all-day and all-night sports radio and TV – the pressure on high school athletes can be enormous.

And in a way “Friday Night Lights” is showing a small-town world where personal interaction is the norm – and just maybe that isn’t the experience for many young people today.

It is very interesting to see the high-tech world of recruiting on-line. Here are a couple of websites devoted to recruitment. And let me say right off, that I’m not vouching for any of these places. If you sign on, that’s something you have to work out with the advice of your folks and coach.

This is what beRecruited.com has to say about itself:
“beRecruited.com is the premier football recruiting service for high school football players and NCAA football coaches.
Simply put: it works! beRecruited has been the choice for more than 150,000 users from all 50 states and 30 different countries. You can connect with over 25,000 NCAA coaches from divisions I, II, and III of which more than 9,000 are registered active users of our service.”

This is the myspace, facebook digital world young people live in. You post the details of your high school sports experience in L.A. or Flint, Michigan or Dillon, TX and college coaches thousands of miles away can check you out. This new plugged-in virtual recruitment works for club teams as well – including incorporated groups such as YMCA’s, Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs, Parks & Recreations, Churches, Businesses or Unincorporated Groups such as ‘Mom and Pop’ teams, squads, individual groups, multiple teams, multiple groups, etc.

Speaking of the new digital reality, this is a youtube world. And athletes have to have their own videos – letting schools know who you are as well as demonstrating what you can do on the field.

It got me thinking about the incredible opportunity for athletes to connect with kids they may never really interact with in class or the cafeteria. Chances are the best and most imaginative kids with a video camera or with the talent to create and edit a video that will get the coaches’ attention are precisely the kids sitting at the other end of the lunchroom from the jocks. And it you want to create a highlight film unlike any other, it might be worth it to make that connection.

Another internet site to check out for information about recruitment is scout.com. Let’s stick with football – this site declares:
“Scout.com has become the largest and most trusted source of football recruiting coverage on the Internet. It has been the official recruiting content provider to SportsIllustrated.com, CBS SportsLine and Yahoo Sports, and is now the official college team website partner and recruiting provider for FOX Sports team sites.”

Bryce McNeal

Here’s a typical item from the site:
We told you earlier in the week that Minneapolis Breck WR Bryce McNeal was about to have quite the weekend, between a Michigan visit and the New Level Athletics Passing Camp in Akron, he would have a full slate.

Well I don’t want to make this post too long. We’ll be blogging more about the ins and out of recruitment. In the meantime you can watch previous episodes of “Friday Night Lights” online at http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/.