Friday Afternoon Cardinal News And Notes

The C-J's Adam Himmelsbach has a great one-on-one with former (don't cry) Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

WHAT CAN FANS EXPECT OF YOUR PROBABLE REPLACEMENT, WILL GARDNER?

Will is a great guy. He was raised under coach Watson and myself where he was able to learn from my mistakes and also take the great coaching from coach Watson.

Will, I feel like, hes going to light it up next year with everything he's been taught for the past two seasons of just being the understudy and in the shadow of me I feel he's learned a lot. He's gonna take over that team and he's gonna do great things.

WHAT WILL YOU MISS MOST ABOUT LOUISVILLE?

Just the relationships I was able to form with some of the guys. There were great guys on that team. We had guys from all over the country. That's one thing ill cherish the most, you know, is it was a brotherhood there and each guy felt the same way about each other.

The latest Sports Illustrated mock draft has Teddy going No. 3 overall to Jacksonville.

I suppose it's time to bring this back.

I do not enjoy the extended time away, especially during the heart of the season.

Clay Travis of Fox says that Louisville made the best offseason hire in all of college football.

Petrino will win big again at Louisville. That's a guarantee.

How many of these other hires are absolutely guaranteed to win big at their new jobs? None.

That's why Petrino is the best hire of the offseason.

His talents far exceed his problems. So long as that's the case, he'll always be employed in America today.

Appearing on our 3HL show here in Nashville, Petrino said that looking back he wishes he'd never left Louisville. I think he means it.

Plus, you can sometimes rank a hire by the reaction of your most hated rival. When news broke that Louisville had hired Petrino, Kentucky football fans - yes, they exist - simply looked to the heavens and said, "Why does God hate Kentucky football so much?"

Enjoy the college football playoff, Louisville fans - Petrino will take you there.

Jody Demling answers three questions about Bobby Petrino's recruiting style.

SB Nation's super early bowl projections for 2014 have Louisville squaring off against Arizona State in the Sun Bowl.

Kai DeLa Cruz has started his own YouTube series called "Cruz Control." In episode one he reveals his goal of trying to make the Louisville baseball team.

That's a pretty solid swing, but apparently cracking the roster of a team coming off a College World Series appearance is going to be a tall task.

Bobby Petrino officially has his first verbal commitment in cornerback Shaq Jones.

ESPN's Andrea Adelson offers up three reasons why the Louisville-Miami season-opener will be much different than the Russell Athletic Bowl.

3. Major losses to Louisville D. The Cardinals lose seven starters on defense, including five in the front seven. Linebacker Preston Brown (who led the team in tackles), defensive end Marcus Smith (who led the nation in sacks), and the terrific safety duo of Hakeem Smith(first-team All-AAC) and Calvin Pryor (second in tackles) happened to be four of the best players on the 2013 team. There will be a new defensive scheme and new defensive coordinator in Todd Grantham, who has run the 3-4 and is expected to make that change to this unit. Expect some unfamiliarity in the first game of the season. 

What is particularly interesting is the way expectations for Louisville have suddenly grown with Petrino back in charge. My colleague, Mark Schlabach, only put Louisville into his updatedWay-Too-Early Preseason Top 25 after Petrino was hired. His track record speaks for itself, but Petrino faces the same personnel questions Charlie Strong did before leaving for Texas. The Cards will not be as good on Sept. 1 as they were last Dec. 28, no matter who is coaching this group. 

None of this is to say Miami will waltz into Louisville and win. The Hurricanes have their own questions to answer at quarterback and with their defense, a group that has not been up to par over the last several seasons. They are the ones that must prove the bowl performance is not a sneak preview of what is to come in 2014. For their sake, it can't be. They'll also face a more difficult schedule in 2014 than 2013. 

But given the changes Louisville has undergone, the bowl game should have no bearing on the rematch.

Four-star athlete D'Cota Dixon has scratched Louisville from his list.

Just Chicken being Chicken.

@ChickenKnowles3 your new biggest fan pic.twitter.com/J14p84FdMy

— Celena Flores (@_LatinaFlava) January 19, 2014

Marcus Smith has been moved from defensive end to linebacker for this Saturday's Senior Bowl, which is set to kickoff at 4 p.m. on the NFL Network.

I enjoy this.

Cardinal Sports Zone has the full list of football recruits visiting this weekend.

NFL.com has a feature on how Teddy is preparing himself for the draft process.

A small sampling of what it's like to be a Louisville fan inside Gampel Pavilion:

The latest Bracketology from Jerry Palm of CBS has Louisville jumping from an 11 seed to a 6 seed.

And finally, Chane Behanan had a message for Louisville fans as well as his former teammates Thursday night:

Here's hoping everything is going well for Chane.