Tuesday morning Cardinal news and notes

• Sports Illustrated lists the five players most likely to win the 2017 Heisman Trophy, and not one of them is named Lamar Jackson.
• SI also has a post counting down the top 100 players in college football for the upcoming season. Jaire Alexander is No. 25, and Lamar Jackson is No. 3.

25. Jaire Alexander, CB, Louisville

Don’t be surprised if most quarterbacks avoid testing Alexander this fall, coming off a sophomore campaign in which he broke up nine passes, intercepted five more and established a reputation as one of the country’s feistiest one-on-one battles. Alexander forced his way into the national consciousness with standout performances in Louisville’s two biggest measuring-stick games of 2016, taking a punt back for a touchdown in the Cardinals’ thrashing of Florida State and picking off Deshaun Watson twice in a last-second loss to Clemson. — ES

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3. Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville

The defending Heisman winner and one-man viral stat line factory stumbled just enough down the stretch to split opinion on his long-term potential squarely down the middle. Jackson accounted for at least four touchdowns in seven of his first nine games, only to look startlingly mortal over Louisville’s three-game losing streak to close out the year—and he still topped 5,000 total yards. Is the book out on his eye-popping athleticism, or did he (and the Louisville O-line) just run out of gas? If Jackson can produce some more heroics against the blue-chip-laden defenses within the ACC Atlantic Division, non-believers will be few and far between in November. — ES

Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield is No. 2 and Florida State’s Derwin James is No. 1.

• This is a good tweet about a bad media guide cover.

• This is hypnotizing.

• The most iconic photo in the history of women’s soccer was almost never taken.
• Todd Marinovich is attempting a bizarre football comeback at age 48.
• No one went deep more often in 2016 than Lamar Jackson.

• Bob Knight is a bad human being and a creep, part 8,000.
• Lamar Jackson is a nominee for the 2017 AFCA Good Works Team, honoring student athletes' volunteer work.
• Duke released its non-conference schedule on Monday, and was reportedly told by the ACC to keep some dates in early December open for potential league games. That’s ... interesting?
• Dez Fitzpatrick spits some fast facts.

• Memphis will play host to the 2019 AAC Tournament.
• Very cool Donovan painting from my man Chris Link.

• Chris Ryan of The Ringer says Donovan is the cure for Gordon Hawyard withdrawal.

Gordon who? If Donovan Mitchell plays in the regular season like he has been playing in Las Vegas summer league, the Jazz are going to be just fine. Of course, Pat Connaughton is not exactly Klay Thompson, but after watching Mitchell treat the former like a speed bag over the weekend, the Louisville rookie looked more than ready to play against the latter.

In some ways, Mitchell is too good for summer league, but if the Celtics are going to trot out Jaylen Brown and let him put up Kobe usage numbers, who really cares how the Jazz deploy their rookie? Mitchell was drafted 13th by Utah in June’s draft. The Jazz moved Trey Lyles to Denver in order to take Mitchell, and he is making the Jazz front office look like a bunch of Rhodes scholars right now.

Whenever a franchise player leaves a team, there’s an identity vacuum. The guy whose face was on the billboards is gone, so what does the team look like now?

Like an extremely pissed off direwolf, apparently.

• The Red Rage Tailgate and the U of L Alumni Association are teaming up to host a tailgating competition like no other on Sept. 2 in Indianapolis. Details are here.
• What would a hypothetical 3-on-3 ACC Tournament look like? ACCSports.com explores.
• The ACC had a lot of big stories in 2016-17, but none bigger than Clemson and North Carolina going from national runners-up to national champs in one year.
• According to Pro Football Focus, Louisville has two of the most productive defensive players in college football returning to its starting 11 in 2017.

• Vice Sports takes a closer look at Russ Smith’s ridiculous play in China.
• ESPN has a really good read on Greg Oden, who one decade after taking Ohio State to the national title game finds himself back in Columbus.
• Are Oklahoma and its fans happy in the Big 12?
• You should always go to the mall because you might meet Peyton Siva.

• Here’s a solid 15-minute chat on ACC football if you’re looking for something to listen to.
• Matt Norlander of CBS looks at the 10 most intriguing storylines of college basketball’s offseason. No. 1 involves Louisville. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.
• We .... love you too?

• Athlon projects that Louisville will face Florida in the Belk Bowl. Cool with the opponent, not so much the bowl.
• U of L swimming remains very well represented on the national stage.
• On a related note, U of L swim & dive has its own Dark Knight.
• The bromance (Does anyone still say bromance? I’m keeping it because I’ve got nothing better. It’s July. Whatever) between Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson continues.

• The Yum Center saw an attendance decline and a drop in the number of concerts this past year. Thanks, Kanye.
• Everyone loves the Don.

• John Calipari provided more fuel for his critics by coaching the first USA Basketball loss of any sort since 2011, and then skipping the postgame press conference.
• The CCBM was born for Poorcastle.

• Sports on Earth has Louisville at NC State as one of the most intriguing college football games of 2017.
• And finally, if they were still making college football video games, no player would dominate this year’s version like Lamar Jackson.