A shot has been fired across the bow of Florida State courtesy of ... Rick Pitino?
Pitino, the Louisville head basketball coach, is now on the record for predicting an upset in the Oct. 30 matchup between No. 2 ranked Florida State and Louisville, who is 6-2.
Rick Pitino: "I truly believe we will beat Florida State (in football) ... I haven't been this excited for a football game in a long time."
— Jeff Greer (@jeffgreer_cj) October 20, 2014Louisville, once again under the leadership of Bobby Petrino, opened the season with a 31-13 win over Miami and is coming off a 30-18 defeat of N.C. State. The Cardinals also have narrow losses to Virginia and Clemson.
Both teams are have bye weeks before the Thursday night game on ESPN, giving Florida State plenty of time to chew on this bulletin board material.
However, it's not as if the ACC schools are rivals, especially since Louisville just joined the conference. They've only played each other 14 times, with the last meeting coming in 2002 when Louisville got its second win in the series in a 26-20 OT victory in its home stadium.
That Louisville team was coached by John L. Smith, the same coach who was tasked with leading Arkansas in 2012 after Petrino was ousted.