Friday Evening Cardinal News And Notes

There is almost more news than possible to note, but try we must.

First of all, I'm not sure you understand how addicts work, 2014. You see, there needs to be a weaning process. When you take away a highly addictive drug at once and replace it with something - shall we say - less suitable, the addict gets very upset.

What you've been doing these first 10 days simply isn't going to cut it. We're going to need you to step it up significantly.

Pat Forde sat down with Bobby Petrino for a lengthy and informative Q&A.

Forde: Is there anything about how you've changed you can tangibly point to?

Petrino: "There was a lot of things with our family. We went to counseling, we learned a lot about each other. We learned a lot about things we weren't doing together or sharing together. There was a whole bunch of that."

Forde: From that standpoint, was the year off from football a good thing?

Petrino: "It was. It was hard, you don't get to do something you love. It was the first time in my life I wasn't on the football field since I was 8 years old, standing on the sideline at my dad's games, charting plays. But we did different things - we got to travel, watch [daughter] Katie golf [for the Louisville golf team]. We worked at it."

Forde: Are you as good a football coach as you were before?

Petrino: "I think I'm better. I don't think there's any question, in my mind, that I've improved and gotten better. One thing I've always believed in is staying on top of everything that's new and trying to be one of the innovators. I know I'm a much better coach than when I first got this job. I truly believe I do a better job of coaching the person, not just the player, and understanding the obstacles they face outside of football."

Hours after news of Poona Ford's decommitment broke, Louisville lost another defensive tackle from the class of 2014 in Chris Nelson. Nelson was reportedly offered a scholarship by Texas two days ago.

Whoever Louisville's next defensive coordinator is has some large shoes to fill (unless, of course, it winds up being Vance Bedford).

Worth noting: Louisville finished one point behind Florida State for the FBS scoring defense championship this season.

— Zach Barnett (@zach_barnett) January 8, 2014

Rick Pitino plans to watch class of 2015 guard Isaiah Briscoe later this month.

Congratulations to Jeff Brohm on officially landing the head coaching gig at Western Kentucky, and congratulations to us for having an excuse to post this:

Holly Anderson of Grantland gives her take on the Petrino hire.

Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader says the hiring of Petrino reveals a surprising insecurity at U of L.

Both Western Kentucky and Bobby Petrino knew what they were getting into 13 months ago, which is why this official statement from AD Todd Stewart shouldn't be overly surprising.

Louisville is just the 62nd-wealthiest program in college football. Texas, in case you were wondering, is No. 1.

Although he has a year of eligibility remaining, it appears U of L offensive lineman Chris Acosta is moving on.

Thank you for all the memories Louisville. Blessed to have been able to make friendships that go past Xs & Os & play In front of great fans.

— Chris Acosta (@ChicoAcosta) January 10, 2014

On to the next chapter of my life. Bigger than football

— Chris Acosta (@ChicoAcosta) January 10, 2014

Best of luck to Chris going forward.

SB Nation lays out a timeline of Bobby Petrino's wild last decade.

Matt Hayes of The Sporting News does not approve of Tom Jurich's new hire.

Forbes begs to differ, and says hiring Petrino was the smart move.

Would love to see this guy hang around on the staff.

Interviewing at the University of Texas for the LB job. Waiting to see if Coach Petrino will offer me to stay.

— Brian Luc Jean-Mary (@luc_brian) January 10, 2014

Draft Express says Chane Behanan's next move after Houston is likely to the NBA Developmental League.

Bobby's already getting into the spirit of the fall by doing some early Red Raging.

If you hadn't heard yet, Charlie Strong is already dealing with some issues at Texas.

Louisville had the sixth-most scoring efficient offense in college football last season.

Mark Coomes of Insider Louisville is on board with the Petrino hire.

Coaches wear whistles, not halos. Joe Paterno had Jerry Sandusky; John Wooden had Sam Gilbert. The world eventually finds a skeleton in the closet of every saint.

So enough with the finger-pointing already.

Our society gives second chances to criminals, politicians and wayward spouses every day. Why should Bobby Petrino be any different?

His wife took him back. Why shouldn't U of L?

Virtually no one complained when WKU hired Petrino. Why is it evidence of moral turpitude for U of L to do the same?

We don't know if Petrino is a changed man. We do know that he paid a steep price for his sins, personally and financially.

Despite his sparkling résumé, he didn't even get a sniff last year at plum jobs like Auburn, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Nineteen other needy programs spurned him too.

There is no statute of limitations on being an unfaithful, tyrannical jerk. But no exile should last forever. Petrino deserves a second chance.

U of L is down to a 10 seed in the latest Bracketology from Jerry Palm of CBS, but i LOVE THAT DRAW.

Via Kyle Tucker, the harsh reality for Cardinal fans right now is that the average RPI of the 13 teams Louisville has beaten is 191. The good news is that the Cards still have seven games remaining versus current top 50 RPI teams, and three versus teams in the top 25.

Also, the RPI is dumb and outdated...but still relevant because it's utilized by the selection committee.

A nice story of why one woman loves the city of Louisville.

I feel really bad about this.

Not one member of CBS' college hoops team is picking Louisville to make it back to the Final Four.

Bill Walton called reigning CC Least Cool Person Digger Phelps "the devil" last night.

While Rick Pitino hasn't made a public comment on the Bobby Petrino hire since it became official, he was very supportive of the new U of L football coach a year ago.

What's your problem, Vermont and Hawaii?

U of L golfer Katie Petrino is happy to have her father back in Louisville for good.

The Houston Rockets recently played a prank on their players that freaked out everyone...except Francisco Garcia.

A story on Poona Ford's decommitment from his hometown paper.

USA Today says Louisville/SMU is the third best college hoops matchup of the weekend, and predicts that the Cards are going to lose their second game in a row.

3.) Southern Methodist at Louisville (AAC) | Sunday, Jan. 12, 1 p.m., CBS Sports Network

The matchup: The Mustangs are coming off a huge upset against Connecticut (SMU's first win against a ranked opponent since '03) in their first game the upgraded Moody Coliseum. In the middle of his second season in Dallas, the pieces in Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown's jigsaw puzzle are falling into place. Sophomore sparkplug point guard Nic Moore (20 points vs. UConn) leads a balanced offensive. Defending national champion Louisville started AAC play with two road victories despite the blow from losing Chane Behanan for the season, however, momentum isn't on its side after falling to Memphis at home. Russ Smith is the Cardinals' primary offensive weapon but developing big man Montrezl Harrell (11.9 ppg, 8.1 rpg) has emerged as more of viable scoring threat in the paint. The position matchup to watch here: The 5-foot-9 Moore (13.9 ppg, 4.4 apg) against Louisville junior college transfer point guard Chris Jones, who stands at 5-10. The speedy point guards play similarly and staying in front of each other could be the difference-maker. Winning on the road, especially at Louisville, is a tall task but SMU has the weaponry and momentum to pull off an upset. Our pick: SMU.

U of L president James Ramsey discusses why he signed off on the Petrino hire.

Josh Pastner looks like he's 20-years-old, and last night he acted like it.

I love the prez as much as the next guy, but you don't roll up and call dibs on John Wallace's number.

I think we've all seen how he handles situations like this...

Eric Crawford with another great take on the Petrino hire.

Yahoo's Rob Hoff says this is going to work out well for both Petrino and the University of Louisville.

And finally, DeJuan Wheat is one of five former Cardinal athletes who will be inducted into the U of L Hall of Fame on Saturday. Congrats to all of the new inductees.