Shafer Looks to Louisville

Syracuse will open its ACC slate on Friday against the league's newest member on Friday night when the team hosts Louisville.

The Cardinals are a team that 'Cuse is all too familiar with after the two spent years as BIG EAST rivals, with head coach Scott Shafer and the Orange looking forward to another matchup between the programs.

"Good week of preparation, short week, but a good week of preparation for this Louisville team," Shafer said. "It's a good football team, well coached, highly talented Louisville football team coming to the Dome. We're excited to get back in the Dome with our fans. Just looking forward to going head to head with a very good football team. It's kind of neat to go against an old BIG EAST foe and rekindle that competitive nature that we had with each other when we were in the BIG EAST together."

The teams last met in 2012 when Syracuse handed a then No. 11 Louisville, and previously 9-0 team its first loss of the season.

The Orange enter the contest with some uncertainty of which Cardinals' signal-caller it'll be matching up against, as sophomore Will Gardner started the first three games before missing last week's game against Wake Forest and freshman Reggie Bonnafon led Louisville to a win in his absence.

"I think both kids are a little bit different," Shafer said. "I think Bonnafon has the edge, the young guy, with his ability to take off with the ball. The one thing about coach Petrino is that he's very systematic with the offense and what he's going to have those quarterbacks do. So you're not going to have two different offenses when one guy is in. For the most part we're going to see an offense that's true to what they are – but it is an offense that breaks its tendencies all the time. With a short week, I'm sure they'll try to stay with what they've had success with but I know coach Petrino will have some wrinkles in the game plan for us."

To hear what else coach Shafer has to say about Friday's matchup, check out the full press conference on Cuse TV: Coach Shafer Press Conference