CARDINALS

U of L's 2015 football schedule set

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj

The University of Louisville's football team ran through a bevy of new experiences in its first Atlantic Coast Conference season.

In Year 2, U of L gets to experience a few more.

U of L will travel to powerhouse Florida State on Oct. 17 after hosting Clemson on Sept. 17 this upcoming season, the ACC announced on Thursday. Those two games highlight Louisville's league schedule, which also includes trips to NC State (Oct. 3), Wake Forest (Oct. 30) and Pittsburgh (Nov. 21).

In addition to Clemson, which is expected to make a serious run at FSU for the league title, the Cardinals also have three other home conference games at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium against Boston College (Oct. 24), Syracuse (Nov. 7) and Virginia (Nov. 14).

The Clemson game is the featured ACC game of the week and will be on national television.

Seven of the eight ACC games are sandwiched between Louisville's four nonconference games.

The Cards open the season with a Sept. 5 meeting in Atlanta against Auburn. That matchup, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, will be nationally televised. Auburn, fresh off an 8-5 season, is considered a College Football Playoff contender by early-season prognosticators.

A week later, U of L hosts Houston at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in the first of a two-year home-and-home series with the Cougars, who still play in the American Athletic Conference, Louisville's rent-a-league in 2013. Houston has a new head coach in ex-Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman.

FCS opponent Samford comes to Louisville on Sept. 26. The Cards have played an FCS team each season since 2007.

The annual rivalry game between Louisville and Kentucky will close out the regular season again in 2015, this time with UK hosting at Commonwealth Stadium on Nov. 28.

The ACC schedule fills in everything else, with the road games at NC State and Pitt and the home meetings with BC and Virginia all having potential to be entertaining games beyond the Clemson and FSU matchups.

Louisville gets a bye week on Oct. 10.

2015 Louisville Football Schedule

Date / Opponent / Site / Series

Sept. 5 / vs. Auburn / Atlanta Georgia / Auburn leads 1-0

Sept. 12 / Houston / Louisville, Ky. / Louisville leads 8-7

Sept. 17 (Thur.) / Clemson* / Louisville, Ky. / Clemson leads 1-0

Sept. 26 / Samford / Louisville, Ky / First Meeting

Oct. 3 / at NC State* / Raleigh, N.C. / Louisville leads 4-1

Oct. 17 / at Florida State* / Tallahassee, Fla. / Florida State leads 13-2

Oct. 24 / Boston College / Louisville, Ky. / Louisville leads 4-3

Oct. 30 (Fri.) / at Wake Forest* / Winston-Salem, N.C. / Louisville leads 2-0

Nov. 7 / Syracuse* / Louisville, Ky. / Louisville leads 7-6

Nov. 14 / Virginia* / Louisville, Ky. / Virginia leads 2-1

Nov. 21 / at Pittsburgh* / Pittsburgh, Pa. / Series tied 8-8

Nov. 28 / at Kentucky* / Lexington, Ky. / Kentucky leads 14-13