No. 9 Illinois rides win streak to first top-10 ranking since 2001

These are heady times at Illinois, which is enjoying its most successful run of football in over two decades.The No. 9 Illini entered the top 10 of The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday for the first time since 2001. The 20 weeks they've been ranked since Bret Bielema took over in 2021 are the most over a five-season stretch in four decades.They're on a six-game win streak heading into Saturday's home game against Western Michigan.That Bielema's team continues to ride the momentum it created during a 10-win season is really not a surprise. The Illini returned 16 starters, including quarterback Luke Altmyer, who led five straight second-half scoring drives during a confidence-building 45-19 win at Duke."Anybody on the schedule can give us a good run and beat us, but we know if we do the right things, we're a really good team," Altmyer said. "It was good for us to face adversity."Illinois, which was coming off a 52-3 win over Western Illinois of the Football Championship Subdivision, was slow to get going against the Blue Devils and led just 14-13 at half. Illinois outscored Duke 31-6 in the second half, and the 26-point margin was the Illini's biggest in a nonconference road win since 2001."Whole first half we never really seemed like we were in rhythm," Bielema said. "We were ahead on the scoreboard, but in my opinion we weren't doing a lot of things that put us in a better position. Literally flipped a switch in the second half and capitalized on it. I'm really excited about this team."Just how good can the Illini be?We'll know more in two weeks after they visit No. 22 Indiana, a team the Illini did not play during Curt Cignetti's breakout first season with the Hoosiers. No. 1 Ohio State, another team they missed last season, goes to Champaign on Oct. 11.Ducks take flightRobert Cessna of the Bryan-College Station (Texas) Eagle is the only one on the 66-member AP Top 25 voting panel who has No. 4 Oregon listed at the top of a ballot. He moved the Ducks up from No. 2 after preseason No. 1 Texas lost at Ohio State.The 69-3 whooping the Ducks put on Oklahoma State could be seen as validation of Cessna's opinion. The Ducks have outscored two opponents 128-16. They opened against Montana State, which went to the FCS championship game last year, and the Bobcats scored 10 more points against Dan Lanning's team than the Cowboys did."Looking from afar, I like the way he coaches, I like their schedule, I like the players coming back, so I never gave it a second thought," Cessna said Sunday. "If I have them No. 2 and they beat the tar out of a good FCS team, why not move them up if the No. 1 team loses and doesn't look good doing it?"Transactional blowoutsThe lopsided Week 2 scores bordered on the ridiculous, but the overmatched opponents were well compensated for taking their beatings:— No. 1 Ohio State hammered Grambling 70-0 and paid $1 million for the experience. It wasn't as bad as the last time the Buckeyes played an FCS team. That was a 76-0 win over Florida A&M in 2013.— No. 10 Florida State beat FCS foe East Texas A&M 77-3, achieving a program first by scoring touchdowns on its opening 10 drives. The Seminoles got a bargain price: $450,000.— No. 19 Alabama's 73-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe was the largest margin of victory in a shutout in program history. ULM earned $1.925 million.— No. 15 Tennessee's 72-17 win over FCS team East Tennessee State set a program record for points in the modern era. ETSU earned $575,000.— No. 21 Texas Tech has opened with wins of 67-7 over FCS foe Arkansas-Pine Bluff and 62-14 over Kent State. The Red Raiders outscored their two opponents by a combined 95-0 in the first halves. Pine Bluff pocketed $575,000; Kent State earned $1.5 million.Extra pointsNo. 2 Penn State and Oregon each have reached 50 straight weeks in the Top 25 and No. 7 Texas hit 40 weeks in a row... No. 14 Iowa State has won 19 of its last 25 games, 10 straight when leading after the first quarter and is 3-0 for the third straight year... No. 18 South Florida, with its upset at Florida, becomes the first program to have won at least one game on the home field of each of the other six FBS teams in the Sunshine State (Florida Atlantic, Florida, Florida State, Miami, UCF and FIU).