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Wednesday evening Cardinal news and notes

The Card Chronicle 2017 Summer Tour goes beachin'.

By Mike Rutherford

I_medium SB Nation has the Cards taking on Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl in its preseason bowl projections.

I_medium The story of the day that seems to generating the most conversation is Jon Hale's Courier-Journal piece focusing on why a pair of the state's top prospects didn't even have Louisville on their final lists.

"Louisville is 10 minutes away and they never even showed up at school," Herron said. "They never did anything. I don't know if it was just the fact they thought they were so close they didn't have to work as hard, but whatever it is, UK came up a few times and I went down for the spring game."

Moore said he never felt a great connection with Louisville.

"For me, my position coach (at Louisville) and I just didn't have that relationship," Moore said prior to committing to Texas. "I camped twice, and I just felt like I hadn't got that respect that I believed I deserved. ... I felt like they just recruited out-of-state guys more than the guys 10 minutes away from their home. That was just kind of disrespectful to me. Louisville was always kind of like a dream school of mine, you'd say, if I had one."

Kentucky offered Moore, who transferred from New Albany to Trinity before the 2016-17 school year, a scholarship at a camp in June 2016. He participated in a camp at Louisville that month but did not receive an offer from the Cardinals until February.

Louisville was the first school to offer Herron a scholarship in June 2016, but he said contact with the U of L coaches dropped off after former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham left for Mississippi State.

"I feel like Louisville right now is very focused on these Florida boys and these Southern dudes and are not really even giving in-state a look unless you're a top dog," Herron said. "Right now, I don't really understand it, but that was Louisville's problem: Just the fact that Grantham left and they didn't really even make an effort to come see me, any contact. ... They never came out to the school. It just seemed like they were recruiting out-of-state dudes better than they were recruiting me and Rondale, two big athletes, 10 minutes away."

Doesn't seem great.

I_medium CardinalSports.com has a rebuttal of sorts featuring Louisville's new Director of High School Relations, Stephen Field.

"Coach Petrino places a high priority on keeping the top talent from Louisville and the state of Kentucky at home. It is very important to him," Field said. "We know that Coach Petrino has had great success with local talent in the past, and we want to keep that tradition going."

While the overall numbers of local football prospects pale in comparison to hot-beds like Florida, Georgia and Texas, the top players in Louisville can typically play alongside the best of the best nationally. And local stars have always been a part of Louisville football's most-successful runs.

Louisville bowl teams of the early 1990s boasted local stars like Mark Sander, Greg and Jeff Brohm and Miguel Montano. Local star Chris Redman led Louisville's resurgence on the national scene with the help of local stars like Ibn Green, Rashad Holman and others.

And on Louisville's 2004-06 bowl run of Liberty, Gator and Orange, locals like Michael Bush, Brian Brohm, the Leffew brothers, Eric Shelton and Mario Urrutia were a major key. The Cardinals have had great success throughout the years with local lineman who worked their way into being starters like George Bussey, Alex Kupper.

In 2015, Louisville natives DeVante Parker and Jamon Brown were the top two Cardinals selected in the NFL Draft. Parker went 14th overall to the Miami Dolphins and Brown was selected in the third round by the Rams. Eastern High grad Colin Holba was the top Cardinal taken in the 2017 draft.

...

"We are working on a project called #RedGate19 for the next class," Field said. "We know this 2019 class has great talent not only in the Louisville area, but also out in the state of Kentucky. It's a strong class."

I_medium Former Louisville defensive coordinator Todd Grantham has arrived at Mississippi State with a chip on his shoulder.

I_medium It's been a big week for U of L national champ Mallory Comerford, who set a U.S. Nationals Meet record in the 100M Freestyle.

I_medium Comerford continues to emerge as one of the biggest stars in American swimming.

I_medium Louisville freshman Brian "Tugs" Bowen is featured in the latest issue of Slam Magazine.

I_medium Donovan Mitchell will be throwing out the first pitch for the Triple-A Salt Lake City Bees Wednesday night. The team is currently home to former Louisville pitcher Cody Ege.

I_medium Love this from the Trailblazers social media department.

I_medium The current media environment is not ideal, but ESPN and the ACC Network have still managed to take a solid first step together.

I_medium Kentucky has self-reported a minor violation related to the fantastic Netflix documentary show Last Chance U. The bigger story is that season 2 of Last Chance U is out on July 21.

I_medium Athlon ranks all 130 college football head coaches, and has Bobby Petrino at No. 10.

10. Bobby Petrino, Louisville

Petrino's second act at Louisville has been just as successful as his first stint from 2003-06. The Cardinals were in the mix for the CFB Playoff in early November and finished 9-4 overall. The 7-1 record in ACC play was the program's best conference record since joining the league in 2014. And of course, quarterback Lamar Jackson claimed the Heisman Trophy after a dominant 2016 season. Since joining the ACC in 2014, Louisville is 26-13 and has not posted a losing mark in conference play. The Cardinals went 41-9 under Petrino's direction from 2003-06 and claimed two finishes inside of the top 10. Petrino left Louisville for the NFL but lasted only one season (2007) with the Falcons. However, he wasn't out of work for long, taking over the Arkansas job in 2008. After a 5-7 mark in his first year, Petrino guided the Razorbacks to 29 wins over the final three seasons, including a No. 5 finish in 2011. After his dismissal from Arkansas prior to the 2012 campaign, Petrino sat out that season and resurfaced at WKU in 2013. The Hilltoppers finished 8-4 in Petrino's only year at the helm, with Charlie Strong's departure to Texas opening the door for a return to Louisville in 2014.

Mark Gottfried checks in at No. 1.

I_medium Louisville QB commit Jordan Travis says his recent commitment to U of L was "the best feeling" of his entire life. He also said that seeing the success that Lamar Jackson -- who is from the same area as Travis and who possessed a similar recruiting ranking -- has had as a Cardinal heavily impacted his decision.

I_medium I want to cover this so badly.

I_medium Brendan McKay has added the ABCA national Player of the Year award to his trophy case.

I_medium If new legislation passes, the college basketball season will be starting three days earlier than in previous years, and teams will be able to start practicing 42 days (not 30) before it begins.

I_medium Drew Ellis has signed his deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks and is now officially a millionaire.

I_medium Brendan McKay is the first Louisville player ever to make a CWS All-Tournament Team.

I_medium I am a huge fan of the pettiness involved in the Utah/BYU rivalry. The latest installment came this week when Utah made sponsor Pepsi remove its royal blue branding for products sold at Utes home games because that color is BYU's.

I_medium Bleacher Report lists Lamar Jackson among college football's most indispensable players.

I_medium Both of these guys need to have monster seasons for the U of L defense.

I_medium Louisville checked in at No. 5 on the final National College Baseball Writers Association top 25 poll.

I_medium Lonnie Galloway spits some truths.

I_medium Jason Kirk looks at the biggest miss from every college football preseason AP poll ever, featuring the 2007 Louisville Cardinals.

I_medium Romeo Langford is blogging about his experience with USA basketball for USA Today. Here's his first entry.

I_medium I know she's an active player, but it would be hard to leave Myisha Hines-Allen off this team.

I_medium The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy thinks college basketball coaches saying they wish they had the "baseball rule" for their draft is junk. I respectfully disagree.

I_medium Chane Behanan has signed a deal to play in the Philippines.

I_medium Sports on Earth ranks Jaire Alexander as the No. 1 cornerback in all of college football.

1. Jaire Alexander, Louisville. The speedy Alexander broke into the starting lineup as a sophomore and shined for what was mostly a terrific Louisville defense. He's only 5-foot-11, but he's a dynamic playmaker in the secondary, finishing last season with five interceptions and nine pass breakups. He also shows off that athleticism on special teams, particularly on his punt return for a TD against Florida State. A second-team All-ACC pick last year, Alexander has All-America talent that he should reach in his junior year.

I_medium U of L pitcher Nick Bennett has added a fourth freshman All-American honor.

I_medium Rick Bozich examines the issue of whether or not basketball coaches should receive bonuses for playing tougher schedules.

I_medium "It's pretty, it's so pretty." --Sidney Deane

I_medium ESPN looks at how the most recent helping of conference realignment affected all the parties concerned, including U of L.

I_medium I will never look at Lonzo the same way again.

I_medium Athlon lists Seth Dawkins and Trevon Young as Louisville's wildcard players for 2017.

I_medium And finally, it's been less than a week since Louisville baseball saw its season end in Omaha, but Dan McDonnell has already turned his attention to 2018.

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