Former Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, now entering his second season at Louisville, appeared Tuesday on The Paul Finebaum Show in prep for Saturday’s opener against Auburn.

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One of four season-opening non-league matchups against Power 5 opponents for the SEC, Auburn’s showdown inside the Georgia Dome will be televised nationally on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Petrino called this weekend’s matchup an intriguing one for his football team and heads into the game with great respect for the Tigers and coach Gus Malzahn.

Here are some of the highlights from Petrino’s interview with Finebaum. You can find the full audio, here.

On reputation as an offensive guru, respect for Malzahn:

“I admire the way he runs his offense even going back to his days in high school. He’s always done a great job of putting his players in position to make plays and utilizing their talent. He’s kind of did with up-tempo and changed a lot of things in college football. That’s going to create a huge challenge for us, being able to handle their tempo and stop the run and try to find a way to put some pressure on the quarterback.”

On opening games against nationally-ranked teams like Auburn:

“I like it. I like, first of all, to have a game to open the season that means something because I think it helps us throughout the winter. Helps us in spring practice. Helps us all through the summer in our motivation for our conditioning and weight-lighting. With this game sitting out there, it certainly motivates us. We feel like with the way the Playoff system is right now that we need to play a great non-league schedule to have an opportunity to play for a national championship.”