Friday evening Cardinal news and notes

—There will be televised college football on seven of the next 10 days. Here’s your schedule.

—SB Nation’s college football crew makes its picks for Week 0.5 of the season, which includes Charlie Strong making his USF debut.

—Pretty awesome video here about the rise of Louisville and its relationship with Adidas.

Very cool.

—College basketball’s ultimate list of cult heroes includes several players who built their legacies largely on big NCAA Tournament performances against Louisville.

—Jay Cutler to DeVante Parker is the new Joe Montana to Jerry Rice.

—The U of L women’s soccer team moved to 3-0 Thursday night with a 2-0 road win over Indiana. Louisville natives Emina Ekic and Kennadi Carbin netted the goals. The Cards will look to stay perfect on Sunday when they host Marquette at 1 p.m.

—The Louisville field hockey team piled onto IU’s misery by thumping the Hoosiers 4-1 in their season opener Friday afternoon.

—Speaking of, always love seeing the U of L coaches supporting one another.

—Steven Godfrey’s deep-dive into how a Mississippi State starting linebacker got caught up as the focal point of the Ole Miss investigation is pretty wild. Also, if you believe the player (Leo Lewis), LSU offered half a million dollars to land an 18-year-old LB who ultimately turned them down.

—James, April and Mia Tyler take the Summer Tour to the Great Wall.

—UCLA abruptly ended its Friday practice because of “privacy concerns.” Toss LaVar Ball into that headline and you’ve got something.

—Most successful move by a Brown in at least 20 years.

—Dabo Swinney’s new contract makes him the third highest-paid coach in college football.

—Mike Farrell of Rivals gives Lamar Jackson just the sixth-best odds of anyone to win the Heisman Trophy this season.

QB J.T. Barrett, Ohio State – 5/1 – People may think I’m nuts but my logic is sound. Barrett quarterbacks the team I think will win the national title and won’t have a ton of Heisman competition on his own team. If he can improve on his touchdown and interception numbers from a year ago, his stats and the team’s wins will get him there. Can he throw for 3,000 yards and 30 scores and rush for 1,000 more and 15 more touchdowns? If he can, I think he wins it. Those aren’t Lamar Jackson numbers but they aren’t far off.

QB Sam Darnold, USC – 6/1 – I mentioned that Darnold could, and the key word is could, take a step back this season, but even if that happens he will be in contention. USC falls short of the College Football Playoff but will still win 10 games with Darnold putting up big numbers. USC quarterbacks always get a longer look.

QB Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma – 8/1 – I don’t have Oklahoma making the playoff and Rudolph could put up better numbers in the Big 12, but Mayfield will get a ton of attention because of his last couple of seasons and the high profile nature of his program.

QB Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State – 8/1 – This is much higher than any odds that I’ve seen but stand back and watch the numbers roll up for him. If he takes his team to the playoff, he could end up in New York.

RB Saquon Barkley, Penn State – 10/1 – The best running back and perhaps player in the country this low? There are two reasons. First, it’s hard for running backs to win the Heisman over quarterbacks, especially with so many elite signal callers in college football this year. Secondly, teammate Trace McSorley could take some votes away if he has a big season.

QB Lamar Jackson, Louisville – 12/1 – Jackson struggled down the stretch last year, but the reigning Heisman winner has to be high on this list. I just don’t think he has the same magical season and Louisville will have too many losses.

—U of L lacrosse has added a pair of grad transfers from Furman.

—We’re one day away from actual games and thank god because the writers have officially run out of ways to try and get attention.

—The Horizon League is suing both Valparaiso and its new home, the Missouri Valley Conference.

—Katina Powell and IBJ Publishing are in trouble again.

—It looks like Louisville and Western Kentucky will soon be resuming their series on the hardwood.

Western Kentucky and Louisville have a signed contract to renew their men’s basketball series for four years starting in the 2019-20 season.

The Daily News obtained a contract Thursday for a basketball series between the Cardinals and Hilltoppers after filing an open records request. WBKO first reported the renewal of the series last week.

WKU and UofL agreed in October 2014 to a three-game series between the schools that would have started in December 2017. The first and third games of the series were to be played at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, with the second to take place at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The contract was amended Jan. 10 of this year to become a four-game series starting in the 2019-20 season.

The series will begin in December 2019 with a neutral-site contest at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The series will continue the next three seasons at the Yum! Center (December ’20), Diddle Arena (December ’21) and again at the Yum! Center (December ’22).

—John Wolford has apparently beat out Kendall Hinton to be the starting quarterback at Wake Forest.

—The first Street & Smith preview, and the current one.

Pretty cool.

—Bleacher Report is the latest outlet to release a bad player ranking list. They have Lamar Jackson as the 10th-best player in the country.

Put ‘em on the list.

—The first S&P rankings from Football Outsiders have Louisville at No. 14.

--Kid’s not wrong.

—Here’s the official press release on U of L’s new deal with Adidas.

—GoCards.com previews the Louisville running backs.

—Little Friday Irrelevance?

—And finally. U of L commits Dejmi Dumervil and Trenell Troutman will be on ESPNU tonight at 7 when their St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) squad takes on St. John Bosco (Calif.).