Tuesday Afternoon Cardinal News And Notes

Our thoughts and prayers are with the U of L cheer program, which lost 22-year-old Dani Cogswell yesterday. Cogswell, who transferred to Louisville from Arizona State last year, was found dead inside a Cardinal Towne apartment Monday morning. The cause of death is still unknown.

"The University of Louisville Spirit program is devastated to lose one of our beautiful and talented team members," said U of L spirit teams coach Todd Sharp. "Dani had a contagious smile and a spirit that would ignite the room. She will be greatly missed."

Congrats to U of L commit Raymond Spalding, who captured an AAU national championship on Monday. Spalding scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to guide The Ville to a 46-40 win over Albany City Rocks from New York.

Louisville commit Raymond Spalding after leading The Ville to the AAU Nationals title pic.twitter.com/K06mUX4omf

— Michael McCammon (@mcmichael20) July 28, 2014

Spalding finished the tournament with 120 points, 61 rebounds and 31 blocked shots in eight games.

NFL.com sticks Louisville at No. 29 in its preseason rankings.

29. Louisville

Coach: Bobby Petrino.
2013 record: 12-1
Top players to watch: RB Dominique Brown (6-2, 233, senior); OT Jamon Brown (6-6, 346, senior); LB Keith Brown (6-1, 236, sophomore); TE Gerald Christian (6-3, 244, senior); RB Michael Dyer (5-9, 213, senior); CB Charles Gaines (5-11, 190, junior); QB Will Gardner (6-5, 226, sophomore); LB Lorenzo Mauldin (6-4, 244, senior); G John Miller (6-2, 325, senior); WR DeVante Parker (6-3, 208, senior); C Jake Smith (6-4, 307, senior).

The outlook: The prodigal son returns. Petrino first made a name for himself a decade ago as Louisville's coach, and now he's back -- older and, hopefully for his sake, wiser. He takes over a team moving from the AAC into the much tougher ACC. But it's a team with a lot of key upperclassmen, and it's also a program on more solid footing now than when he left in 2006. While star QB Teddy Bridgewater now is in the NFL, Gardner looks to have a high ceiling. He has a stronger arm than Bridgewater, but accuracy will be a concern, as will his overall knowledge of the offense. It helps that he is surrounded by a lot of offensive talent. There is a deep group of tailbacks headed by Dominique Brown and Dyer, the well-traveled former Auburn star. Brown is a physical runner who also is a good receiver, while Dyer -- if fully invested in the process -- is a home-run threat with great explosiveness and surprising power. Parker is a phenomenal athlete (he's No. 1 on this list), and a huge weapon in the red zone because of his size and leaping ability. Christian, who began his career at Florida, is an athletic guy who should play a much bigger role in the offense under Petrino, who likes tight ends who can get deep. Jamon Brown is massive and can be a road-grader in the running game. Miller has struggled with his consistency, but when he is at his best, he's a top-flight mauler inside. Smith will be a four-year starter; he began his career at guard before moving to center last season. Mauldin had 9.5 sacks as an end in last season's 4-3 defense, but has been moved to outside linebacker in the Cardinals' new 3-4 set. He still will be unleashed against opposing passers, though he occasionally is going to drop into coverage. Keith Brown has a ton of talent, but played in only three games last season because of a knee injury. He can be a legit difference-maker if healthy, and his return likely is one reason coaches are quite comfortable going to the 3-4. One issue: The defensive line features three new starters, so the linebackers had better play well. Gaines, who has good speed and is a dangerous kick returner, is the best player in a secondary that has lost both starting safeties, including first-round pick Calvin Pryor. Gaines, who had five picks and seven pass breakups last season, can't take as many chances this season because of unproven safeties. If Louisville can get past Miami (Fla.) in its opener, it should be 6-0 when it heads to Clemson on Oct. 11; the game against the Tigers opens the second half of the schedule, which is much tougher than the first half and also features games against Florida State and Notre Dame. Still, this team has the talent to win nine or even 10 games and cause some waves in its first season in the ACC.

Three-star offensive lineman Evan Mallory will announce his college decision today at 2 p.m. Mallory is reportedly down to Louisville and Cincinnati.

Sadly, Monday proved that in the social media age, there is legitimately no news immune from potentially devolving into a Louisville/Kentucky argument.

NFL.com lists Teddy Bridgewater as one of the biggest winners from the first week of training camp.

Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings: The hype from OTAs continues. Bridgewater is reportedly splitting reps with Matt Cassel earlier than anyone expected. Norv Turner and others in Minnesota have said that Bridgewater is far ahead of where the team expected him to be. This stands in direct opposition to what we've heard about the other rookie quarterbacks. It wouldn't be a shock if Bridgewater started in Week 1; however, it would be a shock if Bridgewater isn't starting by November.

Yuuuuup.

Final tally from 11-on-11 drills tonight: Cassel 5-for-9, Bridgewater 12-for-13 (only incompletion was a drop), Ponder 1-for-2.

— Ben Goessling (@GoesslingESPN) July 29, 2014

SaturdayBlitz.com says that people are overhyping Louisville because of the return of Bobby Petrino, and that Charlie Strong didn't leave enough talent for the Cards to compete in the ACC right away.

According to ESPN's football power index, Louisville has just a 7 percent chance of beating Florida State when the Seminoles come to town on Halloween Eve.

This shot from the Vikings' Instagram account is pretty awesome.

Cardinal Sports Zone is back with their weekly hoops recruiting notebook.

This is pretty cool.

For the first time in any major Championship, the top 100 ranked golfers are set to compete at Valhalla Aug. 7-10.

— Keith Farmer (@LEX18KFarmer) July 29, 2014

Jeff Greer takes a closer look at the Cardinal defensive line.

Spencer Hall's "How to Construct a Preseason Top 25" take is spot on.

Great quote from Richard Pitino on fattening up Minnesota freshman Carlos Morris.

When Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino told reporters last week that scrawny freshman Carlos Morris gained 17 pounds since joining the team this summer, he credited the NCAA's new policy.

"He came in, he might have been 160 pounds," Pitino said. "Now that he gets in this environment, and he's eating several times a day, thanks to Shabazz Napier, he'll eat like 20 times a day. So we just keep feeding him. That's the way it's going to be."

This is just like Forrest Gump, except not at all.

CBS' Matt Norlander examines how the transfer trend has altered the way coaches recruit at AAU level.

The rarest of rare sightings: DJ Matz in his element from Anas Mahmoud's latest Instagram video:

Bobby Petrino will sit down with Billy Reed for a 1-on-1 interview tonight at 5:30 at the University Club Ballroom.

I am not okay with this.

V-T: local booze; 2-time BronzeMedal LEO-RC Feature Writer; &...QUACKY?! How dey gonna do u like dat @CardChronicle? pic.twitter.com/lHvIKHmuk6

— David Lasoski (@lasoski) July 29, 2014

Between me and the moonlight flitted a great bat, coming and going in great, whirling circles. The name whispered from every dark corner of the city..."Quacky."

The Cordia boys' basketball program, which was coached by former Kentucky player Rodrick Rhodes, was dealt the death penalty by the KHSAA on Monday. The program's list of infractions might represent the most complete disregard for a set of rules in the history of sports.

Louisville has made the final seven for five-star guard Antonio Blakeney.

My final 7 : FSU, Louisville , Mizzou, Kentucky , Oregon , LSU and USC . No order . Thanks to all the other schools who recruited me !!

— Antonio Blakeney (@blakeney96) July 28, 2014

Shoni Schimmel talks about (video) her backstory with NBA.com.

According to Evan Daniels of Scout.com, Donovan Mitchell will likely visit Louisville on Aug. 8.

Also hoping to visit Louisville this summer or fall is 7'4 Christ Koumadje, who was a breakout star earlier this month at the Reebok Classic in Philadelphia. Christ and Prince together would make for one hell of a recruiting class.

And finally, VegasInsider.com has updated its week one college football odds, and now has Louisville as a 2.5-point favorite over Miami on Labor Day night.