Duke football ranked in latest national polls

Duke is ranked.

Adding a 48-30 victory against then-No. 24 Miami to increase its winning streak to six games, the Blue Devils were ranked No. 25 in the country in this week's AP Poll, receiving 94 votes. It is the first time Duke has been ranked in the AP top 25 since Dec. 6, 1994, when the Blue Devils were also ranked 25th in the nation.

"It's been a long drought," head coach David Cutcliffe said. "We were one of those teams that when you read an article that didn't have anything to do with us, it would comment on how many weeks or years or whatever it was since we'd been in the top 25 poll."

Duke barely snuck into the AP top 25, receiving 17 more votes than an 8-2 upstart Minnesota squad. The Blue Devils received more votes than a number of college football powerhouses this week, including Notre Dame, Texas, Georgia and Nebraska.

Ranked on 53 of the 65 ballots, according to pollspeak.com, Duke was pegged as high as No. 21 by Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Six writers also listed the Blue Devils at No. 22.

Duke spent eight weeks ranked in the top 25 during the 1994 season, which it finished 8-4, reaching as high as No. 16. With two games remaining on their schedule against Wake Forest and North Carolina, the Blue Devils can reach their first ACC Championship game in program history by posting back-to-back wins.

In other poll-related news, Duke was ranked 24th in this week's USA Today Coaches Poll with 131 points. The Blue Devils sit one spot ahead of 25th-ranked Southern Cal. After yesterday's win, Cutcliffe, who is a voter in the USA Today Coaches Poll, said that this would be the first week this season he cast a vote for his own team.

"I think I have enough respect for our team. I'm going to vote for our team—I can tell you that," Cutcliffe said after yesterday's win. "I think we've earned that respect... but I can't control what anybody else thinks. Again, if you don't keep playing good, that doesn't matter anyway."