Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check (football): Louisville by 10.

—Spread check (basketball): Louisville by 15.5.

—Louisville has released its redacted appeal to the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. You can read it here.

—The U of L managers kicked off their 2017-18 season with a win over Southern Illinois last night.

—U of L football finally has some momentum as it heads into rivalry week.

—CBS’ Chris Trapasso now has Lamar Jackson as the No. 1 quarterback in the 2018 NFL Draft.

1. Lamar Jackson, Louisville

Stock Up

Jackson's made an unassuming, methodical climb to the top spot. That's a strange sentence for a former Heisman winner. Last week, I touched on the amazing reality that Jackson's rushing ability was being overlooked this season and when projecting him to the NFL. This week, while watching Louisville dismantle Syracuse, I made a concerted effort to ignore his runs. How would I come away from a Jackson performance without the scrambling, read-option carries, and just plain ridiculous jukes in the open field? The answer: thoroughly impressed.

Jackson is one refined quarterback prospect. I'm telling you. Way more often than not, he swiftly avoided pressure like it was white noise around him, then uncorked a rocket 20 or 30 yards downfield into the hands of a tightly covered receiver. Did that receiver catch the pass? Ehhh, maybe, maybe not. In the win over the Orange, Jackson made one or two inaccurate throws and a few short ho-hum passes into the flat. The rest of his attempts resulted in that "thoroughly impressed" reaction. Arm strength? Check. Pocket drifting? Check. Accuracy to all levels of the field? Check. Right now, Jackson is the best quarterback prospect in the 2018 class, and that's even without his running capabilities, which, you know, are reminiscent of Vick.

—Tickets for Sunday’s Sweet 16 soccer game against Colgate are now on sale.

—Quality work from the Red Rage crew.

—USA Today profiles Asia Durr.

—Bobby Petrino, like any rational person, believes Lamar Jackson belongs in New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist.

"I think he does for sure. I can't imagine there's a better player in the country than Lamar Jackson, his ability to throw the football, run the football. I know we had our struggles, but it wasn't his play. He was playing great and doing everything he could."

—The rims at the Maui Invitational are suuuuper soft, which has been great for scoring.

—Vince Tyra may have played baseball at UK but he’s still not afraid to drop an A bomb on Lexington Basketball Academy.

—Bobby Petrino isn’t taking the rivalry bait this year.

—John L. Smith has always been up for adventure, so it shouldn’t be a shock that he jumped at the opportunity to rebuild Kentucky State.

—Jake Lourim of the C-J says the rivalry game in the Lamar Jackson era has tended to go the way No. 8 goes.

“I’ve waited a whole year for this game,” the junior quarterback said, “and we’ve just got to prepare well this week.”

Jackson has not admitted to thinking about his chances at a second Heisman Trophy, considering the possibility of leaving early for the NFL Draft or lamenting the end of Louisville’s national title hopes.

He said he was eager for the Kentucky game, and he knew why.

“Because I fumbled last year and we lost,” he said. “I don’t like that, so it’s going to be a good game.”

The chance for revenge is in Jackson’s hands. His performances in the past two UK games have followed him.

Last year, he completed 16 of 25 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns. He ran 25 times for 171 yards and two touchdowns. His 452 total yards were his most in one game since Oct. 1.

But his four turnovers were costly. With 1:45 left and the score tied, he fumbled on an option keeper at the Kentucky 9-yard line, and the Wildcats took the ball from there to score the game-winning field goal.

“He put too much on himself thinking that that fumble cost us the game, and that’s just how great competitors are,” Petrino said. “Always when you look back at a game like that, there were 15 other plays that if you just do it on that play, you win the game.”

—Football Scoop says that Auburn has been “kicking the tires” on Bobby Petrino as a backup plan if Gus Malzahn were to leave the school.

—Quite the downgrade from Maui Bill Walton.

—Craig Yeast loved playing for Kentucky, but he’ll be rooting for his son and Louisville on Saturday.

—WNIT MVP Myisha Hines-Allen is the ACC Player of the Week.

—Someone at this campus store in Illinois was led astray.

—Asia Durr, meanwhile, was named the ESPN W Player of the Week.

—You can see the No. 4 team in the country in action for just three bucks.

—TNIAAM breaks down Syracuse’s offensive play-calling in the loss to Louisville.

—Southern Illinois will look to counter Louisville’s pressure defense with an attacking offense tonight.

—What if, like Louisville, Thanksgiving had an interim coach?

—And finally, R&R is on this afternoon previewing tonight’s game against Southern Illinois and also talking Governor’s Cup with Chris Redman and Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader during the second hour. Listen here.