Comeback win boosts UMaine to 18th in nation

Maine’s comeback victory over Atlantic 10 foe Villanova on Saturday attracted some national attention Monday with a No. 18 ranking in the Sports Network’s I-AA College Football Poll.

Maine, now 5-1 overall and 4-1 in the Atlantic 10, moved up from last week’s ranking of 24th by the Sports Network. The Bears also broke into the USA Today/ESPN Division I-AA Top 25 poll with a No. 22 ranking after going unranked in that poll last week.

Maine coach Jack Cosgrove was pleased with the national ranking, but is more focused on Maine’s tough remaining A-10 schedule.

“It’s nice obviously when you have a football game when two ranked teams play and you win and people take notice of that,” he said. “But at this point, it’s just another step along the way. It’s a nice reward but also something that doesn’t mean anything. It means something when they do the final rankings at the end of the season.”

Maine, which had trailed 40-21 late in the third quarter, rattled off 23 unanswered points to knock off Villanova and send the Wildcats out of the national rankings. Villanova had been ranked 20th last week by the Sports Network, but was unranked this week.

The Black Bears now face a challenge as they head on the road the next two Saturdays for games against A-10 opponents William & Mary (Oct. 27) and Rhode Island (Nov. 3). Rhode Island is ranked fourth by the Sports Network.

Cosgrove said his team has been very focused and that has paid recent dividends with a road win two weeks ago against A-10 foe Northeastern and Saturday’s victory over Villanova.

“We came off the Northeastern road win and started talking right away about Villanova. Now we’re talking about William and Mary and what challenges they bring to us,” Cosgrove said. “We haven’t gotten ahead of ourselves.”

Maine had not been nationally ranked since Sept. 15, 1997, when it was 24th in the USA Today/ESPN poll.

The A-10 is the highest-rated Division I-AA conference in the country and is ranked 10th overall, according to the power ratings compiled by Jeff Sagarin for USA Today.