Steve Jones

@stevejones_cj

Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said Wednesday that the Cardinals have contacted the Atlantic Coast Conference office to express concerns that upcoming opponent Syracuse was sometimes allowed to snap the ball before the chain crew was set in its first game.

Petrino had said earlier this week that U of L planned to check if the Orange, which has a new up-tempo offense under first-year coach Dino Babers, was sometimes allowed to snap the ball too quickly in its 33-7 victory over Colgate.

“The chains have to be set,” Petrino said Wednesday. “You’ve got to let the chains get down and be set before they can snap the ball again, and there were a couple times in that game where they didn’t get set. So we have talked to the conference office, and that’s part of the officials’ responsibility to make sure the chains are set before they let the ball be snapped.”

Babers, a former Bowling Green head coach whose no-huddle offense is influenced by time on the staff at Baylor, said he has never experienced an occasion when an official told him his offense needed to slow down to make sure the chains were set, and he said he’s not aware of an opposing coach ever previously being concerned about it.

“No, I haven’t (experienced that before),” Babers said. “I’m not concerned about the chains being set. I’m concerned with all the defensive speed they have and offensive speed they have and really good coaching and physical players. I don’t think the game’s going to be decided by the one or two seconds and whether the chains are set or not. I’m more concerned about that top-20 ranked football team he’s bringing up than if the chains are set or not.”

Babers said his understanding has always been that the offense can start a new play when "the box" - presumably referring to the football parlance for the poll and sign that indicates which down it is - at the line of scrimmage has been set.

“Then the chains could come later,” Babers said. “But I’m sure the officials will straighten it out and tell us how they do it.”

After being asked a few questions on Wednesday's ACC coaches media teleconference about the chains being set, Babers said he thought the issue was being a little bit overblown.

However, Babers' understanding of the rule appears to be correct.

ACC director of officials Dennis Hennigan said in an emailed statement from the league office that, "assuming that the offense does not substitute, the officials will allow the offense to snap the ball when the officials are in position, and when the 'box,' i.e., the down indicator, is set. The officials do not wait for the chains to get set. Both the box and the chains move upon the direction of the officials."

It wasn't entirely clear from Petrino's comments on Wednesday if his issue had been with Syracuse snapping it before the "box," (aka the down marker) had been set, the 10-yard chains or maybe both. On Monday, he'd referred to "down markers." On Wednesday, he referred to "the chains."

"We’ve got to see if all of that’s legal, because there’s a few times they’re snapping the ball and the down markers haven’t even been moved yet," Petrino said on Monday. "So we do need to check into that and see how that works."

On Wednesday, Petrino made a joke when he was asked about the notion that home teams hire the chain crews and if any strategy goes into aligning the chain crew with what the offense plans to do.

“I don’t know; that’s a good idea,” Petrino joked. “We might need to look into it when we play fast teams at home, hiring some guys who don’t run very fast so that they can slow it down. I’ve never thought about it. That’s a new idea for us.

“The other thing we might need to do is get some oxygen down there and make sure they have a defibrillator in case they can’t keep up when they’re running down the field.”

Syracuse's offense exceeded all of its 2015 highs with 81 plays and 554 total yards against Colgate. The Orange's 437 passing yards were sixth-most among NCAA FBS teams during the first week of the season. Starting quarterback Eric Dungey threw for a career-high 355 yards and two touchdowns.

Petrino said U of L has been practicing this week with two offensive scout teams subbing in quickly and running against U of L’s first-team defense, with the goal of snapping the ball within 16 seconds of the previous play every time. The Cards have also pumped music over loudspeakers to simulate the noise at the Carrier Dome.

“It’s hectic when you’re at practice like that, but it really helps at game time,” Petrino said.

Babers' Bowling Green offense last year ranked No. 4 in the country in total yards (547 per game) and trailed only Clemson, which played one more game than Bowling Green, in total plays. Syracuse, under former coach Scott Shafer, tied for second-to-last nationally in total plays in 2015.

Bowling Green averaged 81 plays per game last season - 18 more than the Orange did - and ran as many as 105 in one game. The 2015 Falcons averaged a play every 20.7 seconds of possession.

U of L, by comparison, averaged 69 plays per game last season and a play every 25.6 seconds of possession. Louisville ran 70 offensive plays in Thursday's 70-14 win over Charlotte and averaged, again, a play every 25.6 seconds it had the ball.

Against Colgate, Syracuse averaged a play every 22.5 seconds of possession. Babers said the staff doesn't specify a certain number of seconds it wants between plays, but he wants the Orange's offense to get even quicker. He vowed after the game that it would be the slowest Syracuse would play while he's the coach, joking that he could see paint drying on the Orange.

"It's too slow," he said Wednesday. "We've got to get faster. ... All the mechanics need to speed up. I thought our team was moving too slow play to play."

The Cards figure to counter Syracuse's pace, at least sometimes, with the new dime defense they used extensively against Charlotte.

"We've played fast teams before, and we'll play them again," defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. "It's the way college football is, so we understand that. We know as soon as we make a tackle, we have to get lined up and go play. So we'll deal with it."

Defensive lineman Chris Williams said getting aligned quickly can be harder than it looks because the defenders have to look to the sideline to get their call and make any substitutions.

"It can get pretty hectic if things are moving faster than expected," he said.

The Cards gave up only 286 yards to Syracuse last year and scored a defensive touchdown in a 41-17 victory last year, but Grantham said the 2016 Orange has "obviously improved and (is) obviously excited about what they're doing" in Babers' system.

"Anytime there's a (coaching) change, sometimes you get some energy from that," Grantham said. "They pretty much dominated that (Colgate) game and could have scored as many as they wanted to in their first ballgame. They had 550-plus yards. That's pretty dynamic for a first time out, so we know we'll have our hands full."