It's four months too early for Penn State coach Joe Paterno to talk about the college football poll.

For now, he wants only to describe his team as "pretty good."He'll talk about the poll in January, which is the only time that any coach can refer to his players as "national champions."

The Nittany Lions, who defeated Georgia Tech 34-22 in the Kickoff Classic on Wednesday night, have made their first move upward, climbing from seventh to fifth in the first regular-season Associated Press poll.

Florida State strengthened its hold on the top spot after beating Brigham Young, 44-28, in the Pigskin Classic on Thursday night, receiving 54 of 59 first-place votes and 1,469 points.

Michigan, which opens against Boston College on Saturday, received one first-place vote and 1,363 points. Miami remained third with one first-place vote and 1,318 points after routing Arkansas 31-3.

Washington, which plays Stanford in its first game Saturday, stayed fourth with two-first place ballots and 1,257 points.

Georgia Tech and BYU's rating fell sharply. The Yellow Jackets dropped from eighth to 17th, while BYU fell from 19th to 25th.

Paterno, whose teams seldom show a penchant for passing, got five touchdown passes from Tony Sacca to defeat Georgia Tech, who took a 16-game unbeaten streak, the nation's longest, into the college football opener.

The game was the first of many big ones that the Lions will have to win if they want their third national championship. Later this month, Penn State plays at Southern Cal and at home against Brigham Young on consecutive weekends.

The Lions play at Miami in October and finish with Notre Dame and Pitt.

Paterno seldom talks publicly about polls during the season, and never after the first week of the season. The Lions were the highest-ranked team not to receive a No. 1 vote.

"The only poll that counts is the final one," Paterno has said very, very often.

Following Penn State is Florida in sixth, then Notre Dame, Clemson, Oklahoma and Houston. None of those teams have played except Houston, which rose from 12th to 10th and got one first-place vote after destroying Louisiana Tech 73-3.

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David Klingler threw nine touchdown passes for the Cougars, including an NCAA record six in the second quarter.

Tennessee is 11th, followed by defending champion Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Southern Cal, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Michigan State and Alabama. Rounding out the Top 25 are Texas A&M, Ohio State, UCLA, Syracuse and BYU.

Auburn fell one spot to 18th after struggling to beat Division I-AA power Georgia Southern 32-17. Iowa rose three spots to 15th and Alabama jumped two places to 20th even though they didn't play.

No teams dropped out of the Top 25.

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