Starting the season against a big-name opponent is anything but a foreign concept to Ohio.
The Bobcats defeated Big Ten foe Penn State by 10 points in their 2012-13 season opener and then proceeded to rattle off seven straight victories. But besides the parallel of airing on ESPN, similarities between this and last season’s opening games aren’t glaring.
Penn State began its 2012-13 season hampered by NCAA sanctions and with a new coach at the helm, not to mention the players who left the program in the wake of controversy.
Ohio redshirt junior safety Nathan Carpenter said this year’s season kickoff will be different because of the caliber of roster that the No. 9 Cardinals boast.
“Obviously, Penn State last year was a huge deal with all the circumstances they were facing last year, and going into their home theater there and without their coach they had for a long time, but Louisville is a completely different situation,” Carpenter said. “They’re a national championship contender team this year but we have to treat every game like an individual game.”
The Cardinals are fresh off an Allstate Sugar Bowl victory last season and return 19 starters from that squad, including Heisman hopeful Teddy Bridgewater, a junior quarterback.
Louisville is also flush with a bevy of playmakers on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball — Bridgewater was named the Big East offensive player of the year last season after passing for 3,718 yards.
Although similarities between the upcoming game and last year’s Penn State triumph might not be apparent on the surface, Ohio redshirt senior wide receiver Mario Dovell said the Bobcats prepare for such games comparably.
“There’s definitely similarities,” Dovell said. “When you’re the underdog you always step your game up and when you go into another house — especially with a team ranked or like a big BCS school — you just want to rise to the occasion and that’s what we try to do.”
Carpenter said the Bobcats’ silencing of the Nittany Lions on their home turf gave the team a taste of what it takes to knock off a perennial power.
“Going into a huge amphitheater like (Beaver Stadium) and beating Penn State, upsetting them in front of the whole country, going into Louisville this year is the same situation: having that experience and that exposure to other big, huge arenas under huge crowds and a lot of pressure,” he said.
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