Oregon moved up to No. 2 behind top-ranked Texas in the AP Top 25 college football poll Sunday after their dramatic win against Ohio State.

The Ducks jumped a spot after beating Ohio State 32-31 in a thriller at Autzen Stadium on Saturday night for their highest ranking since finishing the 2014 season at No. 2. The fourth-ranked Buckeyes’ first loss of the season cost them only two spots, as they also fell behind Penn State, which moved up to No. 3 after beating USC in overtime.

Texas received 56 first-place votes after blowing out Oklahoma, while Oregon had six. The Longhorns’ hold on No. 1 will be on the line next Saturday night when No. 5 Georgia visits Austin in another top-five matchup in the SEC. It’s the third AP top-five matchup in four weeks.

The biggest mover is LSU, which jumped five spots to No. 8 after beating Ole Miss, which plummeted nine spots to No. 18. The Tigers have won five games in a row since their opening loss to USC. Undefeated Iowa State also cracked the top 10 at No. 9 after a win at West Virginia.

Tennessee dropped three spots despite winning, slipping to No. 11 after needing overtime to beat Florida.

Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 68, Nebraska 62, Arizona State 39, Oklahoma 36, Washington State 32, Iowa 29, Texas Tech 18, Syracuse 13, Arkansas 13, Utah 7, Louisville 6, Southern Cal 5, Liberty 2, UNLV 1

In and out

Oklahoma fell out of the rankings for the first time since 2022 after the Sooners were routed by Texas in the Red River Rivalry. Utah is also out of the rankings for the first time this season after the Utes lost their second consecutive game on Friday night to Arizona State.

In their spots are undefeated Army (No. 23) and Navy (No. 25). It’s the first poll the Black Knights and Midshipmen have appeared in together since 1960. Vanderbilt just missed after its wins against Alabama and Kentucky, as it’s the first team out.

Why I voted Oregon No. 1

Most of my adjustments this week were relatively subtle, with moves of one or two places for much of the top 20. I did, however, decide to vote for another new No. 1: Welcome to the top of my ballot, Oregon.

Yes, it feels odd to move a team like Texas down after the Longhorns beat their rival by 31 points, but the decision was much more about giving Oregon the respect it deserves for notching what could be the best win of the season so far against Ohio State, which I dropped only one spot to No. 3. Plus, the Ducks also have a win against a Boise State team I have ranked 11th behind Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty. The Ducks have the best combination of talent and resume.

Of course, if Texas beats Georgia next week, I’ll likely make another swap at the top of my rankings. — Matt Brown, college sports managing editor

Does Penn State deserve to be No. 3?

The Nittany Lions have their best ranking since reaching No. 2 in 2017, but it feels like they are more the beneficiary of the results of other big games than truly worthy of that lofty ranking.

Penn State is only 23 points ahead of No. 4 Ohio State, so it’s not as if voters went flocking to the Nittany Lions.

To be clear, Penn State has done good work against respectable opposition. Especially when you take into consideration road games at West Virginia and USC and a thorough handling of Illinois.

Voters are rewarding the unbeaten record, but it feels like a stretch to make the case that the Nittany Lions are actually better than Ohio State and Georgia, with their narrow and dramatic losses to Oregon and Alabama, respectively.

And if voters are deferring to the zero in the loss column, a similar case can be made for Miami ahead of the Buckeyes and Bulldogs.

Of course, Penn State will get its chance to prove it on the field in a few weeks at home against the Buckeyes, who they have not beaten since 2016. — Ralph Russo, college sports senior writer

What’s next in Week 8?

No. 5 Georgia visiting No. 1 Texas is the headliner, and it’s the first time the Longhorns have hosted a matchup of two AP top-five teams since a loss to Ohio State in September 2006. The SEC has a pair of high-profile matchups, as No. 7 Alabama will visit No. 11 Tennessee in a game between two one-loss teams that have been on shaky ground the past couple of weeks.

The other ranked matchup is No. 24 Michigan at No. 22 Illinois, though also keep an eye on Nebraska going to undefeated No. 16 Indiana in the Big Ten.

Oregon, meanwhile, will try to avoid a hangover on Friday night at Purdue. Penn State and Ohio State are both idle.

Required reading

(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

It was exactly 36 years ago Tuesday that Kirk Gibson hit his famous walk-off home run off Dennis Eckersley and hobbled around the bases in Dodger Stadium, a 1988 World Series Game 1-winning shot that was so stunning it elicited this famous response from Jack Buck on the national radio broadcast: “I don’t believe … what I just saw!”

If Buck were still alive and in Chavez Ravine on Sunday night, he might have had a similar reaction to a pair of peculiar plays that lacked the drama of a walk-off homer but seemed almost as rare.

Not once, but twice in the first four innings of the National League Championship Series opener against the New York Mets, the Dodgers dropped perfectly placed sacrifice bunts, practically a lost art in today’s game.

Yes, you read that correctly. A Dodgers team that led all of baseball with a .446 slugging percentage, ranked third with 233 home runs and had all of 10 sacrifice bunts in 162 regular-season games gave up two outs to advance runners on the basepaths.

And guess what? The small-ball strategy worked, as both runners who moved up on bunts by No. 9 hitter Tommy Edman and No. 8 batter Gavin Lux scored in a 9-0 Game 1 victory over the Mets, one on a Shohei Ohtani RBI single in the second inning and one on an Edman RBI single in the fourth.

“It’s just playoff baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The truth of the matter is that the postseason is different than the regular season. It’s about 90 feet and giving yourself … some of that was making sure Shohei had a chance to get up.

“To [Shohei’s] and Tommy’s credit, driving in those runs was huge. And Gavin getting the bunt down, Tommy getting the bunt down, it’s just team baseball. If you can get a guy in scoring position, it just creates a little bit more stress.”

Edman’s bunt, which followed Lux’s leadoff walk in the second inning, was not that surprising. The switch-hitting utility man has six sacrifice bunts in his six-year career and has usually hit toward the bottom of the order for the St. Louis Cardinals and Dodgers. Ohtani followed Edman’s bunt with an RBI single to right field for a 3-0 lead.

“We’re always working on bunts in case the situation arises, and it kind of made sense in those situations today,” Edman said. “Obviously, I wanted to get the guy to second for Shohei, and it worked out. In the playoffs, one play can make a huge difference, so to be able to execute in situations like that was huge.”

The left-handed-hitting Lux’s bunt off left-hander David Peterson, which followed Kiké Hernández’s leadoff single in the fourth, was a bit of a shocker because the second baseman had not dropped one sacrifice bunt in his entire five-year career, a span covering 412 regular-season games and 23 playoff games.

“I’ve been working on it a bit since the season ended, just so in those situations where it might be a tougher lefty or where we need to stay out of a double play, I could get it down,” Lux said. “I did it a lot coming up through the minor leagues, so it’s nothing foreign. Just kind of been working on it, doing whatever it takes to get it down.”

The bunt came with a price. Lux tweaked his right hip flexor coming out of the box and was pulled from the game as a precaution in the seventh inning. He said the injury is not serious.

Edman followed Lux’s bunt with an RBI single to right for a 4-0 lead and scored on Ohtani’s 116.5-mph single off the right-center field wall for a 5-0 lead. Freddie Freeman capped the three-run rally with an RBI single to left for a 6-0 lead.

“I don’t think we sac bunted once or twice all year, but you need to stay out of a double play, especially when you have Shohei coming up behind you,” Lux said. “You want him to have that opportunity with a guy in scoring position, so it’s our job at the bottom to get [the bunt] down and stay out of the double play.”

Putting runners on base for Ohtani might be the key to winning the World Series for the Dodgers. The presumptive NL most valuable player and leadoff man is six for eight with runners on base in six playoff games and 0 for 16 with the bases empty. Ohtani is 16 for 19 with runners in scoring position dating to the last week of the regular season.

The Mets wanted no part of Ohtani with two on and one out in the eighth inning Sunday night, walking the slugger on four pitches to load the bases. Mookie Betts followed with a three-run double to left for a 9-0 lead.

“I don’t think there’s a different approach for him with runners on base,” Lux said of Ohtani. “He’s the best player on the planet, so I think he’s just finding hits with guys in scoring position.

“I think, as you saw tonight, when there are guys out there, he’s getting it done, so it’s our job at the bottom of the order to keep finding different ways to get on base, whether it’s bunting, walking, hitting, whatever it is.”

It is a rarity to see Yunus Musah without a smile. An ear-to-ear grin is a mostly-permanent feature for the 21-year-old midfielder.

But as he sprinted towards the corner flag on Saturday night in Austin, Texas, having scored his first goal in a U.S. senior men’s national team jersey in his 42nd appearance, the sense of gratification on his face shined through — even for someone who usually has a happy expression plastered on.

“That moment,” said Christian Pulisic, his AC Milan and USMNT teammate who provided the assist, “that’s why you play.”

The 49th-minute goal in a 2-0 friendly win against Panama was also an immediate validation of the instincts of the team’s debuting head coach, Mauricio Pochettino.

The 52-year-old Argentinian came into his first camp this week intending to spend time with every player on the roster and understand where they stood. The idea was to ensure each of them was handled the right way. It’s why Weston McKennie stayed on the bench on Saturday night; he had entered camp feeling some discomfort after playing in each of Juventus’ last six games, and Pochettino felt it was crucial not to take any risks with the midfielder. It was also why Musah was tested in a new role in his first game under the new regime.

Musah reported to camp having played just 45 minutes in Serie A for Milan in September and zero minutes so far in October. Though typically a central midfielder cast in a box-to-box No. 8 role, Pochettino met with Musah and proposed deploying him wider on the right. Pochettino knew Musah had played that role before, both in Arsenal’s academy and also when he first moved to Spain’s Valencia five years ago. In that position, Pochettino felt Musah would have more freedom to push forward on the ball, one of his strengths, without the pressures of being a focal part of the build-up at a time when he isn’t playing regularly for his club and thus wasn’t in his best form.

It worked to perfection early in the second half, when the U.S. built up down their left side through Antonee Robinson, Pulisic and Brenden Aaronson, and Musah came crashing into the box from the right to finish off a Pulisic cross.

“It’s always worth trying to build his confidence and to (make him) feel again (that he is) a player that can perform on the pitch,” Pochettino said. “It was an important moment for him, to (show) trust in him, but maybe not to give him too much responsibility in the build-up. It’s only to be in a position that can help the team, and then he arrived there and scored.

“Fantastic for him, fantastic for the team. And now maybe he’ll start to perform and behave in a different way, full of confidence. That is the important (factor) in our decision, is trying to help. We are here to help the player to find their best.”

Pochettino and Pulisic speak during the win over Panama (Photo: John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)

If there was a theme to the first night under Pochettino, it was exactly that: creating and building confidence. Confidence for each player, but also for a team that was winless in its previous four games. Copa America group-stage elimination was a crushing experience for a squad that knew how expectations were growing and understood how valuable a tournament run would have been on multiple levels, for them, the fanbase and the sport in the United States.

Pochettino’s hire was meant to restore some of the confidence and belief in the program.

Center back Tim Ream said Pochettino was “speaking about confidence all week”, and that it was reinforced and transmitted into the group by what he was asking the team to do against Panama. Mostly, players were told to be themselves, embrace their strengths and, as Musah said, “play free”.

“He wants us to be solid defensively, and then have guys play the way they are comfortable playing and being confident going forward with the ball,” Ream said. “And everybody saw that, especially in the first 15 minutes. Guys were moving, (there was) intricate passing and getting the ball, moving quick and getting in and around their box. When he tells guys to go and be themselves, it’s a sign that he has confidence in you, and you can see that come out with all the guys out here.”

Things were not perfect. Panama had good chances in the game. Matt Turner was forced into a big double save in the second half and they should have found an equalizer late in the game. As USMNT veteran DaMarcus Beasley said on the Turner Sports broadcast, there were also some mistakes in the build-up that top teams would punish.

But, the U.S. won, with Ricardo Pepi adding the second goal in stoppage time.

The result was needed, even if this was just a friendly.

“I looked back at our recent form, and I was thinking, ‘Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve won’,” Turner said. “Since the Bolivia game (at Copa America, on June 23), right, since we’ve won a game and had a clean sheet? So, yeah, it’s nice to set off this era with a win and a clean sheet. It goes in waves, but winning is something that you learn. You can’t just take it for granted. It takes energy and focus for 90 minutes, especially at this level.”

Pochettino will know that this win was important in building trust and confidence that the ideas he is installing with the team will lead to success. Musah’s goal reinforced that.

The job now is to keep carrying it forward.

“It’s the first step,” Pochettino said. “To start to grow and be better.”

(Top photo: John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)