Tuesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check (basketball): Louisville by 25.5.

—Spread check (football): NC State by 16.

—After initially announcing last week that he intended to transfer, Russ Yeast has rejoined the Louisville football team. He should be available for Saturday’s game against NC State.

—Pat Forde looks at what went wrong for Bobby Petrino in take two at Louisville.

Vince Tyra is a career businessman and relative newcomer to college athletics administration, and it showed Sunday when he discussed his firing of Louisville football coach Bobby Petrino (1). It showed because Tyra almost completely skipped the standard, over-the-top rhetorical posturing that comes with such occasions. Hirings and firings bring out the phony in college sports like nothing else (well, except maybe NCAA investigations). Tyra wasn’t here for the phony.

He didn’t disingenuously laud the guy he just canned at great expense — the guy who went 2-8 in 2018, whose team has lost seven straight, whose offense was terrible early in the year and defense was worse at the end. Whose team committed 18 penalties and had four first-half turnovers Friday night against Syracuse. Whose team had, in the last few weeks, quit.

If most of the same guys who played in bowl games in recent years give up 54 to Syracuse, 56 to Wake Forest, 66 to Georgia Tech and 77 to Clemson, they aren’t trying.

After Tyra pulled a Michael Corleone and settled all family business — he whacked not only Petrino but his son, quarterback coach Nick Petrino, his two sons-in-law on staff, and his right-hand stooge Andy Wagner — the AD called it like he saw it.

Quote: “If you want to say culture equals effort, something screwy was going on.”

Quote: “The players aren’t responding, I think that’s clear. At some point it does come back on leadership.”

Quote: “We’ve got to teach them to play their ass off in a Cardinal uniform.”

Thus here is the epitaph on Bobby Petrino, a onetime offensive savant whose talent allowed him more chances than most: When the pretty plays and schemes started to become outdated, and the Heisman Trophy-winning star quarterback moved on to the NFL, and the defensive coaching became a mockery, there was nothing left. That’s how it could implode as quickly and completely as it did at Louisville.

There wasn’t enough talent, because recruiting was spotty. There wasn’t a quality staff to coach up the players and bridge the gap between the Cardinals and elite opponents. And since the players clearly felt zero inspiration to play for their coach — he was a tactician, never a motivator — even the equal or lesser competition began crushing the Cards.

You could find toll booth operators with more enthusiasm than Louisville football in recent weeks. No wonder Tyra mentioned “energy” and an “ability to relate to kids” among the important attributes he’s looking for in the next coach.

—Eric Crawford attempts to answer the big questions about why the second Petrino tenure ended the way it did and where Louisville football goes from here.

—Samuell Williamson plans to sign his letter of intent with Louisville on the first day of the early signing period.

—As for Aidan Igiehon, our own Jake Weingarten reports that he’ll wait until the late signing period so his family from Ireland can be there for the ceremony.

—Yahoo’s Pete Thamel looks at the college football coaching carousel and naturally spends some time on Louisville.

3. Is Jeff Brohm to Louisville a foregone conclusion?

He’s certainly the top target for Louisville, and no one will blink if he drives his 2004 Honda Accord down I-65 back home. The trump card Purdue has here is its affiliation with the Big Ten. If the Boilermakers decide to go all-in on Brohm and offer him $7 million or $8 million per year, it’d be difficult for Louisville to match. (Big Ten money makes this notion feasible, as the ACC lags well behind.) Plus, Purdue already has a top-five football facility and could promise a deep financial reservoir for on-field and ancillary staff. Louisville, meanwhile, is wading its way out of buyouts and lawsuits and waiting on ACC Network money to start coming in next year.

How much will sentimentality pull Brohm when he has a strong team, loaded recruiting class ranked No. 22 on Rivals.com and a transcendent player in freshman receiver Rondale Moore? Plus, it’s easier to compete historically with Iowa and Northwestern than Clemson and Florida State.

If Purdue can leverage its literal assets, it may offer the best chance to keep Brohm. One last thing to remember, Brohm has never been a job hunter. He irked ADs and search firms by holding off interviewing for jobs while at Western Kentucky until after they played in the Conference USA title game. He turned down a chance to work for Nick Saban at Alabama to stay at Louisville as an assistant.

Ultimately, no one will be surprised if he leaves. But any notion this is either simple or done is incorrect.

—Vermont, Louisville’s Friday opponent, led Kansas for most of the first half last night in Allen Fieldhouse. It took a career performance from Lagerald Vick for the Jayhawks to pull away. The Catamounts will walk into the Yum Center in three days battle-tested and expecting to win.

—A quick look at the football series between Louisville and NC State.

—U of L swim and dive continues to roll.

—Louisville commit Josh Nickelberry’s final season of high school ball is off to a scorching start.

—With the Ravens teetering on the edge of irrelevance, Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr says it’s time to pull out all the stops, including giving Lamar Jackson a start at quarterback.

—This is cool.

—Four facts to know about interim coach Lorenzo “Whammy” Ward.

—Montrezl Harrell is becoming a force in the NBA. His shoe game is also elite.

—Asia Durr has been named the ACC women’s basketball Player of the Week for what I’m fairly certain will not be the last time this season.

—Former Cardinal pitchers Zack Burdi and Josh Rogers will headline the 2019 Louisville baseball Leadoff Dinner. Tickets are now available.

—Rivals looks at five recruiting misses that helped doom Bobby Petrino at Louisville.

—Happy game day GIF.

—Andrea Adelson of ESPN has a great inside look at how it all fell apart for Bobby Petrino at Louisville.

—TNIAAM has a GIF recap of Louisville-Syracuse. You don’t have to look at it if you don’t want to.

—Elvis Dumervil shares his thoughts:

—The latest episode of the “It Seemed Smart” podcast dives headfirst into the WakeyLeaks “scandal.”

—The U of L women’s basketball backcourt features a rare combination of depth and speed.

—Ken Lolla breaks down his first ACC tournament title.

—Lorenzo Ward says these last two games aren’t about him.

—Two Louisville assistants are listed among the top up and coming coaches in women’s basketball.

—And finally, beat Southern.