Louisville wants Bama

In college football, one of the most dangerous things to do is to want Bama. Recent history has showed that teams who declare themselves desirous of getting Bama will get Bama.

But weren’t all of them going to lose to Bama anyway? Nick Saban is 125-14 from 2008 onward. Does it really even matter whether you say you want Bama, considering Bama will arrive upon you regardless?

This brings us to Louisville, one of Week 1’s biggest underdogs despite being a pretty established Power 5 team.

Head coach Bobby Petrino and his boss said this:

’If we can get where we have every single guy on our team, every single coach on our team, to believe like I believe — because I believe we’re gonna go beat ’em — so I need everybody else to believe that. And we will go beat ’em.’

That ended the luncheon. Athletic director Vince Tyra also spoke, mentioning his experience attending last season’s national championship, featuring ‘Alabama, who we’re going to play and beat.’

Cardinals receiver Dez Fitzpatrick said this:

Every receiver in our receiver corps can honestly beat every one of their DBs one-on-one in coverage. It ties into the other stuff — if the blocks are right, if the quarterback’s drop is right, we ran eight-yard routes instead of a 10-yard route — that’s the kind of stuff I feel like we need to sharpen up.

But I feel like straight talent-wise, I feel like we have the upper edge against their secondary, 1,000 percent.

And offensive linemen Lukayus McNeil and Mekhi Becton said this:

They got a good D front, but we got a great O line. If we can dominate up front, then we’re not worried about the defensive front at all.

I definitely think we are capable of starting off fast and dominating their D line.

I think we’re gonna stack up real well. We’re gonna shock a lot of people. We’re ready to play with a chip on our shoulder and show everybody what we got.

We can show you better than we can tell you.

And hey, why not? Are words going to give the reigning champ, endless dynasty, and preseason No. 1 an even bigger advantage over a team that lost nine games in two years with a Heisman winner at QB? Sure, talking some real confident stuff will make for postgame memes (we might make some ourselves), but you have zero chance of an upset if you don’t take on this mindset.

The choice to publicly express this mindset in blunt terms is a different story, of course.

But if you’re almost certainly going to go down anyway (S&P+ has given the Cards only a 15 percent chance of winning, and even that might sound high), it ain’t like a little talk beforehand is gonna make it count as two losses, rather than just one.

Even pro wrestlers who are booked to lose cut ferocious promos beforehand, and you never know when the script writer might change their mind at the last minute.