Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Louisville is an 11 seed taking on Boise State in the First Four in the new ESPN Bracketology. So everyone go ahead and book those flights to Dayton.

—The first installment of Chris Dobbertean’s Bracketology for SB Nation does not feature the Cardinals in the field of 68.

—The Cards also don’t appear in Jerry Palm’s latest bracket for CBS.

—Southern Pigskin’s Jim Johnson says it’s time to acknowledge Lamar Jackson as the best player in college football history.

The only worthwhile comparison for the 2017 iteration of Jackson is himself, a year ago.

Yet, even having become the youngest Heisman winner ever, for his sophomore campaign, from a sheer production standpoint, or at least efficiency point of view in some cases, he has improved, almost across the board, as a junior.

In fact, the only reason he didn’t become the second person to ever hoist the sport’s most prestigious individual award twice is the frame of reference through which he is viewed -- something that he, himself, created. He’s simply a victim of his own success.

Beyond all of that, though, it’s time to recognize Lamar Jackson for what he is: the best college football player of all-time.

He is not necessarily the greatest ever. That carries a different connotation, with the implication of having won championships, but as far as pure talent and production, he is in a class all his own. There’s not a better college player to start or build a team around. Transcendent of his supporting cast, as has been on full display behind that offensive line the past two years, there’s never been a player more well equipped to succeed, nay dominate, in spite of his circumstances.

—Jeff Greer looks at Louisville’s rotation options moving forward as well as a monster two weeks ahead.

—Jaire Alexander has inked with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports.

Roc Nation Sports has signed former Louisville standout and top NFL Draft cornerback prospect Jaire Alexander.

A native of Charlotte, Alexander excelled as an elite cover corner and explosive punt returner during his time at Louisville, earning second team all-ACC honors as a sophomore.

Alexander joins Saquon Barkley in the 2018 Roc Nation Sports NFL Draft class. He will be represented by Roc Nation Sports NFL Agent and former NFL defensive tackle John Thornton.

Here’s to the Roc.

—Here’s the U of L recap of the women’s team’s toppling of Duke yesterday,

—Marc Murphy gives Lamar some love.

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—Jeff Walz rules.

—Some more sights and sounds from the big win at the Yum Center last night:

—Jake Lourim of the C-J profiles Lamar Jackson’s likely replacement in Jawon Pass.

Jackson is even higher on his likely successor. He said he was looking forward to seeing Pass in a game, and after he did, he said, “That’s just the beginning of you guys seeing him. He makes the checks and stuff on his own, and that’s tremendous. For me, I probably wouldn’t have even done it. I’d have been too scared. He’s great.”

When Pass replaced Jackson again in the Syracuse game, Jackson said, “Same thing I see in practice. He drops dimes.”

It is asking a great deal of Pass to follow a quarterback who has twice made it to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist. But Pass now has two years on campus, one year in a uniform, and he is almost 21, just 2 1/2 months younger than Jackson.

—The Ball Brothers’ Lithuania jerseys sold out on Amazon in five minutes. New year, same bullshit.

—U of L previews tomorrow’s very significant game at No. 25 Clemson.

—Forty-two! Worthy of an exclamation point.

—Brian Kelly doesn’t like this trend of coordinators getting massive deals. His defensive coordinator just accepted a massive deal to take the same job at Texas A&M.

—I’ll never get tired of these videos.

—The Bellarmine Knights overcame a 15-point deficit to extend the longest home court winning streak at any level of college basketball to 51 games.

—Patrick Ewing has my favorite mic’d up moment of 2018 to this point.

—As the teaser says, I would highly suggest watching this until the very end.

—Indiana’s De’Ron Davis is out indefinitely with a leg injury, Things could get very ugly for the Hoosiers for these next two months.

—Rick Bozich says that Lamar Jackson proved that anything was possible for Louisville football.

—More evidence of Lamar’s greatness:

—The C-J lays out what they believe are the 10 best Lamar Jackson memories at Louisville.

—U of L has added a preferred walk-on named Brandon “Beef” Wellington. I have no idea if he’s any good but I am 100 percent behind the move.

—I enjoyed this. I think you will too.

—Tiger Net previews the Louisville-Clemson game.

—The Pitt Post-Gazette wonders why Kevin Stallings’ comments became such a big deal.

—And finally, beat Clemson.