LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Both Louisville and Syracuse are coming off impressive Big East Conference victories with the Orange trying to become bowl eligible for the second straight season.
The Louisville Cardinals are just looking for consecutive conference wins for the first time since 2006.
The Cardinals (3-4, 1-1) are coming off a 16-14 win over Rutgers, while Syracuse (5-2, 1-1) upset then-No. 11 West Virginia 49-23 last week. The Orange haven not reached bowl games in consecutive years since 1998 when they played in the Orange Bowl and 1999 in the Music City Bowl.
Louisville also is dealing with the career-ending injury to senior cornerback Anthony Conner, who broke his neck in the win over Rutgers. Conner left the hospital Thursday after his taking his first steps the day before. He had surgery on Monday to stabilize his cervical fracture, and his teammates will him by wearing “AC” stickers on the back of their helmets.
Coach Charlie Strong said that win is a big building block for his Cardinals after letting a halftime lead slip away in losing to Cincinnati the week prior. With six of eight Big East teams having one conference loss or fewer, Strong calls the league race still wide open and he wants his Cardinals to take each of their five remaining conference games one at a time.
“We’re just so young and I don’t know if we can look ahead,” Strong said.
Syracuse coach Doug Marrone is trying to manage success for his team going into Saturday’s game.
“That’s the one thing that we have to do a very good job of this week,” Marrone said. “We are playing a football team that we have not beaten since I’ve been here, a team that is built or may be better suited for exposing things that we have been inconsistent with during the year. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”
Marrone cites Louisville’s pressure defense relying on man-to-man coverage and a power running game for helping Strong and Louisville rally from a 17-14 halftime deficit to win 28-20 at the Carrier Dome. Now the Orange face a Cardinals’ defense that ranks 15th nationally this season.
Louisville will need that unit to be very stingy with Syracuse scoring 29.9 points a game. Senior quarterback Ryan Nassib has thrown 15 touchdowns compared with just four interceptions and is on pace to break school single-season records for completions, yards and touchdowns.
“He runs that offense to perfection,” Louisville defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said of Syracuse’s West Coast attack. “He’s grown up a lot since last year so we’re really concerned about that. He executes extremely well.”
Bedford said the Cardinals must force Syracuse into third-and-long situations and limit the production of their tight ends to have a chance Saturday. Nassib threw four touchdowns to his tight ends, three to Nick Provo and another to David Stevens, in routing West Virginia.
“Obviously, If you beat West Virginia worse than the No. 1 team in the nation did, you know we’re going to have to put up some points,” Louisville guard Jake Smith said. LSU beat the Mountaineers 47-21 on Sept. 25.
Louisville seems to be growing into its offense. Jeremy Wright became the first Louisville rusher this season to run for at least 100 yards with a career-high 108 yards on just 11 carries. Wright ran for 98 yards and two touchdowns last year in Louisville’s win over Syracuse.
Wright and teammates Dominique Brown and Victor Anderson will face a stingy run defense giving up 99.4 yards per game. Syracuse has not allowed a 100-yard rusher in the last eight games. Louisville quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson said the Syracuse defense will be the best they’ve seen this year, singling out defensive end Chandler Jones who had two sacks last week after missing five games due to injury and safety Phillip Thomas.