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Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

Isaac Smith isn’t planning to “storm the field” if Louisville beats Clemson on Saturday, he’s just planning to “meet at the beak.” It’s tradition.

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—Spread check: Clemson by 24.

—Micale Cunningham and Robbie Bell met with the media after practice on Tuesday. Among other things, Cunningham revealed that he’s feeling fine after being shaken up during the Wake Forest game, and should be good to go this weekend against Clemson.

—Dabo Swinney said a bunch of really nice things about Louisville and Scott Satterfield during his weekly press conference.

“Cannot say enough about the job that Scott Satterfield and his staff has done. It’s incredibly obvious to watch the difference in where they are right now and what I saw last year. It’s polar opposite. Coaching matters and there’s no question about that.”

”It’s a lot of the same guys, but they got them playing with incredible belief. Their effort is tremendous. They have an excellent scheme on both sides of the ball.”

Dabo also called Louisville “the best 2-6 team I’ve ever seen” before last year’s game, so take all of this sweet talk for what it’s worth.

—After a couple of down weeks, Clemson running back Travis Etienne appears to be back on track.

—Christian Fitpatrick (Dez’s little brother) is headed to Louisville this weekend for an official visit. He is currently committed to Washington State. Here are some other recruits to keep an eye on as Scott Satterfield and company look to round out their 2020 class.

—This deserves no fewer than four Oscars.

—The 5th-ranked Louisville field hockey team notched a 3-0 win over No. 16 Stanford on Tuesday.

—Feel good story here on Morehead State long snapper Kyle Goss, who is back on the field after defeating cancer.

—College Football News has Scott Satterfield at No. 8 in their midseason ranking of all 130 FBS coaches.

8. Scott Satterfield, Louisville (4-2)

Best Win: Louisville 62, Wake Forest 59

Worst Loss: Florida State 35, Louisville 24

Midseason Thought: Talk about a total program-changer, Louisville got itself a star. Remember how bad the Cardinals were last year and how hopeless the defense was? Now they’re 4-2, they just handed Wake Forest its first loss, and yeah … they might go bowling. It’s been just half a season, but it’s looking like a brilliant hire.

—The numbers say Lamar Jackson is both a better passer and a better runner than Michael Vick was.

—I already miss the juiced ball era that was the 2019 MLB regular season.

—Javian Hawkins gets some love in the ACC Digital Network’s midseason freshman report.

—In his junior season, expect to see Darius Perry playing several roles.

—U of L big man recruit Gethro Muscadin out of Aspire Academy has announced that he will be committing on Nov. 1. Muscadin is picking between the Cards, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech.

—Paul Weir is a smart dude and a good coach. He handles the NIL question here better than most have during the last few weeks of conference and team media days.

—D’Ante Davis is the first player from the class of 2022 to receive a scholarship offer from Chris Mack.

—Cameron Teague breaks down Louisville’s bowl prospects.

—If we removed the “Center” we could be the only “Yum” in college basketball.

—According to 247 Sports’ Evan Daniels, both Chris Mack and Cincinnati head coach John Brannen watched Bardstown High standout JJ Traynor practice this morning. Traynor, the son of former Cardinal Jason Osborne, now officially has a scholarship offer from U of L.

—Updated ACC football championship odds from Sports Betting Dime:

ACC

1. Clemson: 1/6
2. UVA: 33/1
3. UNC: 35/1
4. Miami: 38/1

Someone let these guys know that Clemson isn’t the only team in the Atlantic Division that controls its own destiny right now.

—It took overtime, but the U of L men’s soccer team took care of Northern Kentucky Tuesday night.

—No one seems to know when Devin Askew is going to commit, but reports that it was going to happen Thursday appear to be inaccurate.

—Danielle Lerner looks at (Athletic link) how Louisville’s new roster will influence Chris Mack’s offense this season.

The size will come in handy particularly at the wing positions, where junior Jordan Nwora and freshmen Samuell Williamson, Jae’Lyn Withers and Quinn Slazinski all measure 6-foot-7 or 6-foot-8. Those players are capable of spending more time in the paint to take some pressure off of Louisville’s traditional post players.

“I hope that we can post up some of our wing players that maybe we didn’t a year ago and have our bigs more on the perimeter than maybe they have been,” Mack said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to be firing up 3 after 3 after 3; just so they don’t get beat up on the block as much we want to move those guys around.”

Senior center Steven Enoch demonstrated his scoring ability with 21 points in the Red-White scrimmage on Saturday. To harness that power, Louisville will emphasize more movement off the ball.

“I think we’re going to put (Enoch) in positions where our players aren’t just standing around watching him in the post at times,” Mack said. “Add some cuts, some screening actions so we occupy the defense away from him.”

—The U of L women’s soccer team is up to No. 14 in this week’s coaches poll. The Cards are one of six ACC teams ranked in the top 17.

—Dwayne Ledford talks a little bit about his team’s progress, and a little bit about the Clemson game.

—This is wild.

—Georgia track star Ariel Lawrence has committed to Louisville.

—Our guy Cardinal Strong answered some questions about Louisville-Clemson for our friends over at Shakin’ the Southland.

—The heroes over at Backing the Pack (NC State) have Louisville at No. 2 in their latest ACC (football) power rankings.

2. Louisville (last week: 62-59 W @ Wake Forest)

Previous Rankings: 11, 7, 10, 11, 11, 6

I know what you’re thinking, but right now, across the entire conference, what is the team you least want to play? If you said Wake Forest, go look again at the outcome of Louisville’s game last week. Scott Satterfield should probably be the ACC Coach of the Year. Not that the Cardinals’ program was devoid of talent when he arrived - and they almost choked this game away - but this team was such a mess last year, it’s a pretty astounding coaching job. Louisville hosts Clemson this weekend. Dang, I feel like I work for ESPN with this out-of-nowhere #1-vs-#2 matchup I just created out of thin air.

—Rubbing the Rock points out five Tigers that Louisville fans should beware of this weekend.

—After some shaky moments in September, Clemson appears to once again be following its recent trend of hitting its stride in October.

—From the Rumble Seat (Georgia Tech) has Louisville at No. 1 in its preseason ACC hoops power rankings.

—Couldn’t be more excited for this intro video.

Also, the guy who brought the 2013 national champions flag is a hero.

—WDRB has some more footage from the intro video shoot at Shawnee Park.

—The U of L women’s basketball team will play 18 games on national television in 2019-20.

—The CCBM resurgence continues.

—ESPN has Louisville at No. 5 in its updated ACC power rankings.

—And finally, some in South Carolina are expecting an “offensive showdown” when Louisville and Clemson get together inside Cardinal Stadium on Saturday.