CARDINALS

Wake Forest a good memory for Louisville

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj

In January 2007, Louisville topped Wake Forest 24-13 in the Orange Bowl, the last game of Bobby Petrino's first tenure as head coach at U of L. The Cardinals finished 12-1 that season, setting the program record for wins.

The mention of that game on Thursday brought a smile to Petrino's face.

"My favorite memory of the Orange Bowl was when we were flipping the coin and Muhammad Ali's out there vs. Arnold Palmer," Petrino said. Ali is Louisville's most famous native; Palmer attended Wake Forest.

"That was a pretty good memory," he added.

Almost a decade later, the teams kick off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium with whole new importance attached to their meeting.

Louisville (3-1) is an Atlantic Coast Conference member, and Wake Forest (2-2) represents the Cardinals' first divisional game in their new league​

In the preseason, U of L had aspirations of a berth in the ACC title game. Each contest from now until Nov. 8, when the Cards conclude conference play with a road trip to Boston College, has a direct impact on them reaching that goal.

The Cards start that march with a new quarterback. In fact, both squads enter Saturday's game with a freshman leading their offenses.

Wake Forest quarterback John Wolford won the starting job in the preseason and will start his fifth consecutive game for the Demon Deacons. He has struggled at times, throwing seven interceptions in four games, but Wolford helped Wake Forest rally in the fourth quarter and beat Army.

"Their learning curve right now is so steep," said first-year Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson, who added that his team starts three other freshmen on offense. "When you play young guys like that, there are ups and downs. The ups are easy. The downs are when those guys really got to push themselves."

With redshirt sophomore Will Gardner's knee still hurt from a low hit in U of L's win at FIU last weekend, the Cardinals have handed the reins to freshman signal caller Reggie Bonnafon.

Petrino said Thursday that U of L won't necessarily change its play calling because of the quarterback switch. Bonnafon does, however, provide a different look for the Cards' offensive unit.

"You try to do what they do well," Petrino said. "That doesn't mean you shrink (the playbook), but you do exactly what they do well. We're going to come out and try to play to Reggie's strengths and get the ball to our playmakers."

The newness to Saturday's game is a funny contrast to that first meeting.

The 2007 Orange Bowl was the peak of Grobe's time at Wake Forest. It was the highest point of Petrino's first time coaching U of L.

Now they're league foes, with young quarterbacks and a slew of other differences.

But history is history, and seeing those Wake Forest uniforms on Saturday will again spark Petrino's memories of Ali and Palmer, of a significant point in his career and Louisville's football history.

"It's fun to go against those guys again," Petrino said.

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).​