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BCS newcomers Louisville, Wake Forest meet in Orange Bowl

Jan 2, 2007 - 2:37 PM No. 5 Louisville (11-1) vs. No. 15 Wake Forest (11-2) January 2 Orange Bowl 8:00 pm EST

MIAMI (Ticker) -- Fifth-ranked Louisville and surprising No. 15 Wake Forest make their BCS debuts Tuesday when they meet in the Orange Bowl.

Despite losing star tailback Michael Bush to a broken leg in the season opener, the Cardinals (11-1) won the Big East Conference in their second year in the league, going 6-1 in conference play with just a last-second loss at Rutgers, 28-25, on November 9.

After the upset defeat, Louisville routed Big East foes South Florida, Pittsburgh and Connecticut by a combined 127-49. Junior quarterback Brian Brohm threw for 10 touchdowns in the three contests, while Harry Douglas had 16 catches for 367 yards and five TDs in that span.

While Louisville, which tied its school record for wins in a season, was expected to contend for the Big East title with West Virginia, not much was expected of Wake Forest in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But the Demon Deacons went 6-2 to win the Atlantic Division, then beat Coastal champ Georgia Tech, 9-6, to win the ACC title game on December 2.

Even more impressively, the Demon Deacons won their first ACC title despite losing starting signal-caller Ben Mauk to a broken arm in the first week and running back Micah Andrews to a knee injury soon thereafter.

Asked if he could have imagined his team's success, Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said, "No, honestly I'd have to tell you no. I thought we'd be a pretty good football team. I didn't know we were going to lose Ben and Micah, but losing them even makes it more incredible."

Redshirt freshman Riley Skinner replaced Mauk and completed 66 percent of his passes for 1,780 yards and eight TDs with just four interceptions. Still, Wake Forest ranked just 98th in Division I-A in total offense at 301.23 yards per game. By contrast, Louisville ranked second in total offense (476.83).

"I think you're best chance (to defend Louisville) is to roll the dice a little bit," Grobe said. "I think you've got to mix things up. I think you got to pick your spots to bring pressure and pick your spots to put more people in coverage. You also have to keep an eye on stopping the running game. There's no science to it, it's just kind of rolling the dice and mixing things up."

The teams will be meeting for the first time.