During his weekly news conference last Monday, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said he had no expectations about where his team would be ranked in the first College Football Playoff rankings.
"Let me know how it comes out, would you?" he told local reporters.
Petrino clearly got the message way before any reporter got to him. Because after Louisville debuted at No. 7, he and his coaches made sure his players knew exactly what the committee thought of them.
Nearly every day at practice, they brought up the ranking. For good measure, they brought it up in the locker room before they played Boston College on Saturday, adding just a little extra motivation to an already hyper-focused group.