The Louisville Cardinals open their season against Alabama in Orlando, Florida, on Sept. 1 and are 25.5-point underdogs against the Crimson Tide, per OddsShark.com.

But wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick is confident, telling reporters he believes the team's wideouts have more talent than Alabama's defensive backs (h/t Zach Barnett of College Football Talk):

"Every receiver in our receiver corps can honestly beat every one of their DBs one-on-one in coverage. It ties into the other stuff, if the blocks are right, if the quarterback's drop is right, we ran eight-yard routes instead of a 10-yard route, that's the kind of stuff I feel like we need to sharpen up.

"But I feel like straight talent-wise, I feel like we have the upper edge against their secondary, 1,000 percent."

A lot will depend upon how quarterback Jawon Pass—who has the unenviable task of trying to replace 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson—plays against the Crimson Tide. Or how a reshaped Alabama secondary trying to replace Anthony Averett, Levi Wallace, Tony Brown, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ronnie Harrison fares.

As Barnett noted, Alabama also lost former defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt (the new head coach at Tennessee) and defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley (now holding the same position for the Oakland Raiders on Jon Gruden's staff).

It's not as though the Crimson Tide are bereft of talent in the secondary, however. Safety Deionte Thompson, who started in last year's playoffs, will lead a group that also includes Shyheim Carter, Saivion Smith, Trevon Diggs and Xavier McKinney.

According to Chance Linton of 247Sports, all five of that group were "ranked among the top 120 prospects in their respective high school recruiting classes, according to the 247Sports composite."

Louisville brings back experience at wideout. Jaylen Smith caught 60 passes for 980 yards and seven scores last year, while Fitzpatrick nabbed 45 passes for 699 yards with nine touchdowns, and Seth Dawkins hauled in 42 receptions for 642 yards and four scores.

No doubt, it's a solid group, and Fitzpatrick said the Cardinals simply need to play loose and confident against Alabama (h/t Linton):

"When we watch film and other players play Bama, it's not like Bama's beating them, it's like they're beating themselves, like dropped balls that people usually don't drop. If we don't play nervous, if we play like we're playing a regular team, like we're playing Kentucky—obviously we're not playing Kentucky—but if we just have that mindset that we're just playing football, at the end of the day it's football, we've been doing this since we were seven years old. So if we just think like that, they're just human just like us."

That may be the case, but Alabama regularly fields extremely talented players behind one of the best coaches in the business, Nick Saban. Even if Louisville's more experienced wideouts get the better of the Alabama secondary, it might not be enough to topple the mighty Crimson Tide.