Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

The updated editor has made it impossible for me to figure out how to do the little Cardinal heads, so you’re just going to have to do without them for today.

—Steve Jones has Michael Vick on the latest installment of his podcast to talk about Lamar Jackson.

—Matt Brown of Sports on Earth looks at the most watchable team in each conference for the upcoming college football season.

ACC: Louisville

The ACC will undergo a quarterback transition in 2017. Clemson will still be fun, but it has to say goodbye to Deshaun Watson and will surely have some growing pains on offense. Mitch Trubisky, Nathan Peterman, Brad Kaaya, Justin Thomas and Jerod Evans are all gone from the ACC Coastal. But not everyoneloses their QB, and there is one clear answer here: the returning Heisman Trophy winner. Louisville, despite its late-season slide, is the most fun team to watch in the ACC, because Lamar Jackson is the most entertaining player to watch in all of college football. Forget the Heisman backlash; Jackson had 3,543 passing yards, 1,571 rushing yards and 51 total touchdowns in a spectacular, Heisman-worthy season in which he didn't always get enough help from his offensive line and receivers.

The Louisville offense will have to deal with a lot of turnover, losing the top three receivers and tailback Brandon Radcliff, but Jackson is an electrifying talent, an explosive runner with a strong arm who should continue to get more comfortable as a passer in his third year in Bobby Petrino's system. Defense may rule the ACC this year, because of all the quarterback turnover, but Louisville still gets to deploy its Heisman winner, who's a highlight-creating machine and sparked an offense that scored 42.5 points per game and averaged 7.2 yards per play. Jackson has made every Louisville game a must-watch.

—The Louisville Cardinal ranks the top 10 coaches currently at U of L. Ken Lolla is criminally under-ranked at 8.

—A video recap of week one of the Big3 basketball league in Brooklyn is here.

—Very sad to hear of the passing of former E’Town and Western Kentucky football player Mitchell Henry, who died after a lengthy bout with leukemia. He was only 24.

—Here’s Jeff Brohm’s statement on the loss of Henry:

—SI says the NCAA needs to start planning for a world where sports gambling is widely legal. It’d be nice if the state of Kentucky would have the same foresight, but that’s a topic for another day.

—Love this.

—The ACC Atlantic has emerged as the toughest division in all of college football.

—A thorough examination of what WKU mascot Big Red actually is.

—For those interested, here’s a clip from the upcoming second season of Last Chance U.

—NCAA experts explain to the C-J how Louisville can navigate the appeals process.

—Tom Crean was highly critical of former Syracuse forward Tyler Lydon on NBA Draft night, and Jim Boeheim’s response might be my favorite thing of the summer.

"He's an idiot," Boeheim said. "He said he's not a good shooter. Freshman, sophomore year he shoots 40 percent from 3. That's pretty good for a young player. I think he had the best shooting statistics at the combine, I think, of all the big guys. He shoots it. That's what he does. It just shows the ignorance and not doing the work, the research, the background check. He's athletic and can do a lot of other things but he can really shoot."

Crean was critical of Lydon after the draft saying, "I don't think he's that good" and questioning Lydon's shooting and whether he could guard NBA players as a stretch-4.

Crean made his comments as part of an NBA Draft livestream with The Vertical, the media platform established by esteemed NBA reporter Adrian Wojanarowski. The draft night broadcast is popular because it runs ahead of the televised broadcast, and the website generally supplies a deep level of analysis, particularly when it comes to finances and transactions.

I’m actually both shocked and impressed that Boeheim didn’t go on to make any sort of reference to Syracuse’s complete punking of the top-seeded Hoosiers in the 2013 Sweet 16.

—According to Scout’s Evan Daniels, class of 2019 wing Marcedus Leech is taking an unofficial visit to U of L today. Leech is a four-star prospect who is currently ranked 40th overall in the class by ESPN.

—2017-18 future so bright

—Bleacher Report says Cole Bentley is the most interesting freshman on Louisville’s 2017 team.

—NFL.com looks at the best draft picks to come out of Louisville.

—Two U of L swimmers are headed to the finals at the World Trials.

—And finally, have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend, boys and girls.