Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Syracuse by 21.

—Some notable numbers from Saturday’s absolute embarrassment at Clemson.

75 – The highest point total Clemson has scored in basketball against Louisville, two points shy of the football team’s total Saturday. The schools have played in basketball seven times.

50 – Louisville has given up 50 or more points four times this season for the first time in school history.

277.4 – Louisville has now allowed 277.4 rushing yards per game, still the school’s worst since 1985 but 2.6 yards from being the worst since 1975 and 10.6 yards from being the worst since at least 1948.

367 – Points allowed by Louisville this season. If the Cardinals allow 63 more in the last three games — and they’d have to beat their season average by more than 20 points not to do so — they’ll set a school record for points allowed in a season.

11.5 – Clemson’s average of 11.6 yards per play was the best in Clemson history, beating the previous record of 11.2 from 1903.

There’s not even a part of me that’s mad about this. This is a solidified disaster, and when you’re dealing with a solidified disaster, there’s no point in being angry, it does you no good. All you can do is marvel at the carnage, wait for it to finally “officially” be over, and then start the process of trying to move forward.

For now, we marvel.

—Eric Crawford looks at the circumstances surrounding the one game where Louisville football gave up more points than it did on Saturday: A 105-0 loss to Murray State in 1932.

—Clemson fans get so mad when people don’t know about their dumb ass “meet at the paw” tradition that it keeps them from being able to actually enjoy victories. Knowing this and knowing what was likely to happen on the field Saturday afternoon, I decided to make this the most fun weekend of Louisville football I’ve experienced all year.

I’m not going to post all of the tweets from Saturday/Sunday/Today (but of you haven’t seen them you owe it to yourself to check them out), but this is officially my new favorite tradition. Win or lose, I can’t wait to be shocked by Clemson fans storming the field after playing Louisville in two years.

It’s just weird to me.

—Also, from the “couldn’t make this up if I tried” library, there was a DePaul fan participating in the field storming.

#MeetAtDepaul

—The fifth-ranked Louisville women’s basketball team will open its 2018-19 season Tuesday with a road game against Western Kentucky. Here’s a preview from U of L.

—One of Myron Medcalf’s bold predictions about the upcoming college hoops season should make Louisville fans smile.

7. Chris Mack will win national coach of the year after leading Louisville back to the NCAA tournament: The hype about Mack surrounds his 2019 recruiting class, a group currently ranked No. 1 on ESPN.com. But Cardinals fans won’t have to wait that long to see Mack showcase his coaching prowess. The Cardinals lost four of the five top scorers from a team that was on the bubble in the final weeks of last season and probably one fluky finish against Virginia from earning a berth. With V.J. King and other respectable returnees on the roster, however, Mack will guide the Cardinals to the NCAA tournament and win every meaningful coach of the year award before welcoming the top recruiting class in the country next season.

—Updated CFP odds from Bovada:

Team 10/29/18 Current Odds (11/5/18)

Alabama 1/2 5/13

Clemson 5/1 5/1

Notre Dame 13/2 11/2

Michigan 12/1 13/2

Georgia 16/1 20/1

Ohio State 12/1 20/1

Oklahoma 22/1 22/1

West Virginia 50/1 100/1

Central Florida 66/1 150/1

Washington State 100/1 150/1

LSU 25/1 1000/1

Florida 500/1 Off the Board

Iowa 500/1 Off the Board

Kentucky 200/1 Off the Board

Mississippi State 200/1 Off the Board

Northwestern 1000/1 Off the Board

Penn State 500/1 Off the Board

Texas 100/1 Off the Board

Virginia 1000/1 Off the Board

—The folks over at Cardinal Sports Zone caught up with U of L QB transfer Jordan Travis to talk a little bit about his decision to leave the program. As you might have guessed, Travis didn’t exactly give a ringing endorsement of the current Cardinal coaching staff.

CSZ: In our first interview back in January, I asked what was most influential factor in your decision to commit to Louisville back in June. You said the coaches made you feel at home on your visit. Did you feel differently, or did they treat you differently when you arrived on campus after enrolling?

JT: It was definitely different then my official visit.

CSZ: It was reported by other media outlets that you wanted to be closer to home. Since Florida made a late push to recruit you, is that the school you are interested in or is there another school you really want to play for? Maybe Central Florida?

JT: I was just very unhappy here.

...

CSZ: What was your relationship with your QB coach like? Was it what you expected?

JT: Not what I expected.

Well then.

—Louisville is one of college basketball’s five most interesting unranked teams for the 2018-19 season.

—Free this man and make him mayor.

—Josh Newman of the Asbury Park Press lists his favorite days on the college basketball calendar. The first Thursday of the NCAA tournament is the obvious No. 1.

—The Ravens lost by one yesterday, which wouldn’t have happened if Joe Flacco had thrown the ball to a wide ass open Lamar Jackson early in the game.

—Lamar was/is ready.

—Is it time for the Lamar era in Baltimore to officially begin?

—Tua is going to win easily after one of the weirdest Heisman “races” ever.

—This is awesome.

—Louisville entered the weekend on track to go 2-10 and managed to exit the weekend somehow looking worse than that.

—Yahoo’s Jeff Eisenberg makes 68 predictions about the 2018-19 college basketball season.

35. New coach who will have the most long-term success: Tough call between Louisville’s Chris Mack and UConn’s Dan Hurley, both of whom are poised to win despite inheriting scandal-tainted programs facing looming NCAA sanctions. Give Mack a slight edge if only because he has already proven he can recruit at a high level despite the uncertainty hanging over his program. Louisville has six Class of 2019 commitments, five of whom are consensus top 100 prospects.

—Despite spending most of the season ranked in the nation’s top 10, the Louisville field hockey team did not receive a bid to the NCAA tournament on Sunday. The exclusion was especially painful since U of L is hosting the tournament’s semifinal and championship games this season.

—The Louisville men’s soccer team is into the ACC tournament semifinals after a 1-0 win over Notre Dame. The Cards will face No. 1 Wake Forest in the semis Wednesday night at 7 in Winston-Salem.

—Despite losing by 61 points on Saturday, Louisville was one of the weekend’s biggest winners according to Alex Kirshner.

Louisville

Yes, the Cardinals lost 77-16 to Clemson, somehow looking even more putrid than a 2-6 team visiting a championship contender is supposed to look. Yes, it was one of the most embarrassing defensive performances in recent ACC history.

Let’s look at the big picture, though. Petrino’s second Louisville tenure has clearly gone stale. Louisville has become one of the sorriest programs in the Power 5, from defensive ineptitude, to the offense being totally lost without Lamar Jackson, to the team’s 2019 recruiting class looking bad. Despite his inexplicable $14 million buyout, it’s time for Petrino to go.

If getting embarrassed is what it takes, then good for the Cards.

—A rough start to November for the 24th-ranked Louisville volleyball team continued with a four-set loss to Florida State.

—Major thanks to everyone who came out to Headliners on Saturday night. It was a really fun way to kick off the college hoops season around here.

Thankfully, there will never be a released recording of what was said.

—Shaking the Southland celebrates the dominance of Saturday.

—Yahoo’s Pete Thamel focuses on Louisville in one of his 10 biggest takeaways from the weekend that was in college football.

10. From predicting Bobby Petrino was quietly on the hot seat prior to the season to highlighting Louisville’s consistently pathetic performances throughout the year, the lowlights of the Cardinal program have been dutifully chronicled on Yahoo Sports. We predicted the hire of Brian VanGorder would be a disaster, just like his time at Notre Dame. And it has. We predicted that Bobby Petrino having three relatives on his staff making a total of $650,000 would be an issue, especially because they were lightly qualified. And, well, they have.

But what no one could have predicted is how obvious Louisville’s decision to fire Bobby Petrino and eat the $14 million buyout would become. Louisville is in shaky financial straits, as the departures of Tom Jurich cost $4.5 million and the hiring of new basketball coach Chris Mack will cost $28 million over the next seven years. (There’s a $40 million lawsuit regarding Rick Pitino looming as well.)

But as colleague Pat Forde pointed out in a tweet on Saturday, the Louisville football program plummeted to a nadir where Louisville can’t afford to not fire Petrino. We’ve become numb to Louisville masquerading as a Sun Belt team and unsurprised by lowlights like the ironically named Marlon Character celebrating an illegal hit on a defenseless returner while trailing by 46. This is the new normal at Louisville, somewhere south of the crossroads of inept and undisciplined. Even the most cynical pessimist couldn’t have predicted these depths.

—Louisville is No. 104 in the latest S&P rankings.

—How did Louisville, Florida State and North Carolina all fall so far, so fast?

—*Rafiki voice* ...

It is time.

—Yet another decommit has knocked Louisville football’s 2019 recruiting class down to No. 73 in the country.

—And finally, there is once again plenty to talk about on the Monday edition of R&R. You can listen here from 3-6.