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Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

Landon Blake Hardwick says news and notes on a game day are better late than never.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium Spread check: Louisville by 16.

I_medium Syracuse is doing this tonight. It will be bad.

I_medium The Louisville women's basketball team game against South Carolina on Nov. 27 has been picked up for a national broadcast.

I_medium TNIAAM gives you three reasons why you should tune in tonight.

1. Lamar Jackson is just about as exciting as it gets. The Louisville quarterback is as good a breakout candidate this season as any, and he explained why with his play against Charlotte. Jackson can run like the wind and make any number of guys miss, and if he develops into a great passer, there won't be much stopping him. This is a chance to watch that evolution, which could happen quickly. He was 17 of 23 for 286 yards and six scores last week.

2. The Orange can move it, and do they ever. The pace here is obvious from just one game, and it's in line with what Babers often did when he coached at Bowling Green. The Orange ran almost three plays per minute of possession time in their opener, and they sure did a lot with them. Mobile quarterback Eric Dungey was 34 of 40 for 355 yards and a couple of touchdowns, and Amba Etta-Tawo and Ervin Philips ran wild as pass catchers.

3. There will be points -€” lots of them. It's fairly likely that Louisville scores more of them than Syracuse, but both teams should get theirs. Both teams have weapons, and they're playing in a climate-controlled dome, on turf. This is your best bet if you're looking for good football on Friday night, and the teams have a real shot to deliver it.

I_medium The Charleston Southern situation is ridiculous.

I_medium Tom Izzo is being inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight. I wrote about it.

I_medium I disagree with pretty much everything in this grad transfer piece.

I_medium I could watch this all day.

I_medium Penny's ready to up her lifetime record as the CC dog to 1-0.

She's not the only dog focused on this Friday.

Hashtag, Dogs of Card Nation.

I_medium Scout has a look at Louisville commit Corey Reed in action.

I_medium Preston Brown says if Syracuse pulls the upset tonight, it'll be because they cheated.

I_medium Louisville safety commit TreSean Smith picked up a scholarship offer from Notre Dame and was promptly bumped to a 4-star prospect by 247 Sports, because that's how this works.

I_medium Chip Patterson of CBS says he expects Syracuse to cover tonight.

Syracuse storyline: When the Carrier Dome gets loud on a Friday night, Syracuse is only a few good bounces away from pulling an upset. Five years ago, it was another former Big East team, West Virginia, that entered the Dome on a Friday night to test its nationally ranked status on national television. Nothing went right for Dana Holgorsen and the Mountaineers that night; an evening that concluded with Orange players climbing into the stands to celebrate the upset with the 45,000+ in attendance.

Dino Babers and Syracuse, with their exciting style and unique home-field advantage, will get someone in the Carrier Dome. It might not be Louisville, but there's going to be a game where one of the ACC powers stumbles out of the gate and suddenly finds itself in a 14-0 deficit.

Pick: This seems like the kind of game where Bobby Petrino just wants to get out of New York with a win and get an extra day to prepare for next week. It's going to be stressful for Cards fan -- memories of old Big East upsets and Lamar Jackson's difference-making against Charlotte is minimized playing against a Power Five defense -- but he'll still be the difference in a 10-point Cardinals' win.

Pick: Syracuse +14.5

I_medium ESPN Classic is showing the 2004 Louisville-Boise State Liberty Bowl game from 6-8 tonight. Got a feeling Michael Bush is going to have himself a night.

I_medium Good game to have him on campus.

I_medium Lotta creepy stuff going down tonight.

I_medium U of L baseball's fall scrimmage tomorrow at 2 p.m. is open to the public at Jim Patterson Stadium.

I_medium Steve Jones of the C-J likes Louisville by 18 tonight.

I_medium Athlon like the Cards by a field goal more.

Final Analysis

If history is any indicator, Syracuse will be good sooner rather than later, as Babers, even going back to his days at Eastern Illinois at the FCS level, has won everywhere he's been. Although the Orange have played just one game under him, the style of play he brings will inject some life into a program that has been largely dormant this century. However, he is still a few recruiting classes away from bringing in the type of talent that both fits his system and can keep up with the type of speed top ACC opponents have. Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, on the other hand, appears to have his program in a spot where it can compete with Clemson and Florida State in the Atlantic Division. Expect a lot of points, but at this stage, the team that is capable of making more stops is Louisville, and whatever initial surge the Orange bring will eventually wear down from Louisville's superior talent.

Prediction: Louisville 48, Syracuse 27

I_medium And finally, beat Syracuse.

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