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Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

What Marcia doesn't show you is that an hour after this picture was taken she etched Gorgui Dieng's face right next to Lincoln's.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium Athlon says Lamar Jackson is the No. 4 Heisman Trophy candidate in the ACC.

I_medium It's been like five years and you crazy SOB's are still coming up with new and innovate uses for the CCBM.

The possibilities really are endless.

I_medium The remains of Jim Thorpe need to be brought back to his home.

I_medium The new Red Rage Tailgate website being championed by Justin Renck launched on Aug. 1. Check it out.

I_medium Aaron Brenner of The Post and Courier says Louisville has the look of a darkhorse title contender.

"I don't know whether to rush the quarterback or just all 11 of us back up and try to contain him," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said of Jackson. "He is extremely fast. Those are the guys that frighten you."

He ran a pistol offense in high school based solely on hand signals; the majority of his freshman season contributions to Louisville were on pure skill. Jackson recorded just one pass and one rush in Louisville's early-season 20-17 loss to Clemson.

"Last year, I stared at my receivers and just took off if they weren't open," Jackson said. "I didn't know the plays from under center. That's why coach just kept me in the gun."

Petrino, his son Nick (Louisville's quarterbacks coach) and offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway plan to have Jackson line up 50 percent of the time in shotgun and 50 percent under center.

"He's really grown in understanding the game," Bobby Petrino said. "That's what the offseason was all about: being more of a student, learning it more, being precise with his footwork and the dropback pass game, and being a leader. Now it's time to come out and play. I know he's excited to do that."

Louisville might begin the year unranked, but early games vs. Florida State (Sept. 17, noon) and at Clemson (Oct. 1) will quickly determine the course of its season.

"It's not talk anymore, because we've been talking for, I guess, the last two years," Jackson said. "Last year we talked about it, but we were a young team. Now we're an older team, so we've got to show it, because talking about it's not going to do us any justice."

I_medium Pat Forde says the Big 12's status as a Power 5 conference is clearly in jeopardy.

I_medium The planned "Cardinal Summer Festival" last Friday at the U of L Golf Club was cancelled. There will, however, be a second event on Aug. 16. All details are here.

I_medium Stained glass Trez belongs in every church in the world.

I_medium Former U of L recruit Dennis Smith Jr. is fully healthy and ready to go for NC State this season.

I_medium The Sports Quotient has Louisville at No. 20 in its preseason countdown.

Final Analysis

Louisville will surely improve its record from last season, but it is unlikely that the Cardinals will be in the College Football Playoff conversation in November. In order for that to happen, they'll have to take down Florida State and win a road game against Clemson in a three-week span. That's a tough order.

A 10-win season is not out of the question for the Cardinals. My prediction is that the team will finish the season 9-3 but, because of an upset of Florida State in September, will find itself in second place in the ACC Atlantic Division. Devonte Fields will be named the ACC's Defensive Player of the Year. Louisville will lock up its 10th victory in a bowl game and put the cap what should be a very solid season for the Cardinals.

I_medium Keith Kelsey was a "near miss" in ESPN's countdown of the 25 best players in the ACC.

I_medium The Cardinal Sports Zone folks had a solid interview with Preston Knowles and Perrin Johnson over the weekend.

I_medium Angel's ready for another gold medal.

I_medium Your 2016-17 women's golf schedule is here.

I_medium If you want tickets to Louisville's four biggest home volleyball games this season (including UK), you can make that happen for just 20 bucks.

I_medium Sam Vecenie is high on the former Ballard High standout, and there's also a Deng Adel shoutout in there.

I_medium The Louisville Bats are the 11th-most valuable team in minor league baseball.

I_medium This story of Scott Davenport surprising a Bellarmine walk-on with a scholarship yesterday will make you smile.

I_medium ESPN's David Hale looks at Jamari Staples, "one of the most under-recruited players in college football history."

Jamari Staples is 6-foot-4, long and lean with quick burst speed. He has a 41-inch vertical leap, and when the ball is in the air, his strong hands ensure that, by all rights, it belongs to him. He's a quick study in the playbook, too, running precise routes again and again. He's the epitome of a leader by example, his coach said.

It's the total package, a receiver with size and strength and speed and maturity, a player with a future running routes on Sundays. And yet, when Staples wrapped up his high school career in Lineville, Alabama, in 2013, only two FBS schools had offered a scholarship to play receiver: Western Kentucky and UAB.

"I think he's one of the most under-recruited players in college football history," said Garrick McGee, the man who inked Staples at UAB. "Jamari could start for any college in the country."

Staples' career path should've been a straight line to the pros. Instead, it has been filled with twists and turns and transfers, but as he approaches his senior season as Louisville's top receiver, the ending point remains the same. Only now, the rest of the world is starting to notice what McGee saw so many years ago.

"It's funny how blessings come in disguise," Staples said. "A year-and-a-half ago, I didn't know what my future may hold. I've been fortunate to land here."

I_medium This is a monster week for Louisville basketball, which will host a pair of major 2017 recruits.

I_medium Former Kentucky commit Lindsey Duvall has now decided to play her college basketball for Jeff Walz, and she seems pretty excited about it.

I_medium As of Aug. 1, college coaches are now allowed to like and retweet tweets from recruits on Twitter.

If you assholes ever pressure to me to write a "why hasn't Bobby Petrino retweeted (insert recruit name here)" post, I'll walk. I'll walk so far and so fast and I'll hand the reins of the site over to Scorpio Card.

I_medium Teddy Bridgewater is now using "Purple Rain" as his audible call of choice.

I_medium Cards fans and Bryson Tiller were both representing Louisville at Lollapalooza.

I_medium The Louisville Cardinal breaks down the U of L defensive line for the upcoming season.

I_medium The Crunch Zone looks at Louisville's per game efficiency.

I_medium Drinks on Chad if the young fella makes it happen.

I_medium Trey Lewis has officially left for Germany to begin his professional career.

I_medium Eat it, Wisconsin.

Eat it, Virginia.

Eat it, Pitt.

Eat it, Stone Mountain.

Out here Chronning everyone and anything all summer '16.

I_medium The kindness of public donations will allow Kelsi Worrell's family watch her chase her Olympic dream in Rio.

I_medium Mike Zimmer is glad that Teddy Bridgewater is his guy.

I_medium You've disgraced yourself and I'm here to make that disgrace public.

This is how you get kicked out of awesome BBN fan groups on Facebook.

I_medium Athlon says Louisville-Houston is the 10th-best non-conference game of the 2016 season.

I_medium Put on some Christopher Cross "Sailing," crack open a beer, stare at this picture for three hours and call it a Monday night.

I_medium Rick Bozich outlines five questions that the Louisville football team needs to answer.

I_medium The Louisville men's track and field team pick up a No. 27 preseason ranking here.

I_medium The Sporting News says that Lamar Jackson is the perfect darkhorse Heisman Trophy contender.

Jackson arrived at Louisville as a four-star freshman from Boynton Beach (Fla.) High School, and the first challenge was the playbook.

Jackson didn't have a written playbook in high school. He would meet in the coach's office, come up with the plays for that week then run through those signals with the receivers. Everything was predicated on sign language and run out of the pistol offense.

He spent a large chunk of his first year simply learning Petrino's extensive playbook. Both Jackson and Petrino found a way to translate the "visual" part of the playbook into motion.

"The thing that stood out to me so quickly and early in practice was his ability to throw the ball, his vision, the things he could see down the field, snap his wrist and get the ball there," Petrino said.

Yet it was in game situations, including some where he said "you didn't need to look at the film" where Jackson relied too much on his ability as a playmaker with his feet. Jackson would see that when he was watching film from the 20-13 win against N.C. State. Jackson had good protection and decided to run anyway, and that resulted in a sack.

"I feel like I'll run less this year because I know what I'm doing out there," Jackson said before a pause. "And the playbook."

I_medium Watch Last Chance U on Netflix. It's phenomenal, and features (briefly) Gary McCrae, the defensive lineman who is hopeful that he's going to be able to report to U of L today.

I_medium There's less optimism for class of 2016 signee Mike Boykin, who will spend his 2016 season either playing for a junior college, or not playing football at all.

I_medium Chicken Fights are awesome. The pool kind ... involving humans.

I_medium Campus Insiders predicts that Louisville will begin the season ranked No. 24 in the coaches' poll.

I_medium And finally, Blogging the Bracket serves up an early primer for the Battle 4 Atlantis. Thanksgiving week is going to be glorious.

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