Miami players still taste bowl loss to Louisville

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Miami's players here at the ACC Football Kickoff won't soon forget the 36-9 Russell Athletic Bowl loss they suffered to Louisville nearly eight months ago.

Especially with their season opener -- against Louisville -- on tap. That game's set for Labor Day night, and it'll be on national television. Oh, and it'll be Louisville's first game in its new conference.

"Nobody likes to be embarrassed," Miami linebacker Denzel Perryman said. "Just to start with them is going to be good. It's going to be great. It's a rematch. I'm 0-1 against those guys. I ain't going 0-2."

For Miami, it was a season-ending throttling that soured a 9-4 season that once looked promising before an ankle injury sidelined star running back Duke Johnson and prompted a late-season slide.

For Louisville, it was an emphatic, if informal, introduction to the ACC seven months before the Cards officially joined the league. It was their second statement bowl win in two seasons, a year removed from 33-23 Sugar Bowl win over Florida.

It was also the generator of a lot of confidence ahead of their Labor Day rematch, at least for U of L linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin.

"First game, black out, playing a team we already played ... We're just going in more confident than playing any other game," Mauldin said.

Johnson missed the season finale, which led to him dismissing a desire to build up the significance of Louisville's bowl win.

But even he couldn't refrain from a little smack talk.

"It really doesn't matter if we start off with them or play them in the middle of the year," Johnson said. "We still have that taste in our mouths from last year."