Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread Check (we’re back, baby): Notre Dame by 20.5.

—Week 1 Louisville football game notes (sans depth chart) are here.

—Three Man Weave — which is a super informative college hoops website and podcast — has Louisville at No. 7 in its preseason countdown.

Bottom Line: Louisville has all the pieces of a National Championship contender. The Cardinals have a fantastic coach, a bona fide star in Nwora, and one of the deepest benches in college basketball. Offense will run through Nwora, but Mack needs Kimble, Johnson, or Perry to seize the PG reins for this team to be truly elite. Defensively, the Cardinals should be as solid as ever with three or four guys on the court at all times that can switch onto other positions. The ACC is crowded at the top with UNC, Duke, and Virginia all looking tough as usual, but the Cardinals have as good a shot as any to capture the conference crown.

—The U of L women’s soccer team had no trouble with Morehead State in their home opener, holding the Eagles without a single shot and rolling to a 3-0 win on Sunday.

—Donovan remains the best.

—Video game designers nerd out over the right way for football to do overtime.

—Yahoo focuses on Lake Travis High School in Texas, which has developed a reputation for being America’s “QB factory.” The program’s current offensive coordinator is none other than Will Stein.

Card will be starting for his second year under offensive coordinator Will Stein, a sharp 29-year-old who played quarterback at Louisville. Stein’s hiring over from his job as an analyst at the University of Texas two years ago may be the most telling example of the school’s commitment to football. Stein worked under both Charlie Strong and Herman, making about $48,500 in his final year there. As a teacher and offensive coordinator at Lake Travis, he said he’s making “roughly around $70,000” when considering his teaching salary and money from camps.

Stein’s Gumpian trip through football helped shape his offense, as he played at Louisville under these quarterback coaches – Purdue coach Jeff Brohm (2008), Texas Tech coach Matt Wells (2009), Eagles OC Mike Groh (2010) and Pittsburgh OC Shawn Watson (2011-12). He’s also worked under Herman, Strong and Bobby Petrino, among others, which meant a hybrid of philosophies.

Stein is in charge of QBs Nos. 9 and 10 in the lineage, with Card already considered one of the best players in all of high school football. Carter jokingly calls Stein’s offense FTS – short for Feed The Studs – which means that Card will be exploiting mismatches all season. Things will look familiar when Card arrives in Austin, as Stein employs Herman’s three-level passing game and many of the offensive formations that Card will be running there.

—The 25th-ranked Cardinal volleyball team opened its 2019 season with a straight set win over Miami University.

—Kaheem Roach, a redshirt sophomore safety who appeared in six games last season, has entered the NCAA transfer portal.

—If you’re planning on being in Nashville for the Western Kentucky game, there will be a party for Cards fans the night before.

—This story about a Kentucky loophole that has allowed a rapist who vows to kill walk free time after time is terrifying.

—Preseason competition has wrapped up for the U of L field hockey team.

—The TV ratings nationally for Florida and Miami’s week zero tilt were enormous. In Louisville, the game drew a surprisingly modest 5.0 rating.

—I officially have Penix envy.

—Donovan Mitchell and USA Basketball bounced back from an embarrassing loss to Australia by walloping Canada in their final exhibition game before the start of the FIBA World Cup.

—Russ Yeast “has his swagger back” for the Louisville defense.

—Jeff Greer tackles three Cardinal basketball topics in his latest “3 and G” column, including the summer captain “controversy.”

1. A trio of captains and a silly question

Louisville announced its team captains last week. Ryan McMahon and Dwayne Sutton made sense. McMahon is entering his fifth year in the program and is an experienced player whose voice is respected on the court and in the locker room. Sutton, also a fifth-year senior, worked his way from UNC-Asheville to walking on with the Cardinals to starting on an NCAA Tournament team. He’s not a big talker, but he is easy to slot into the lead-by-example category, which I wrote about in January. Without post-game locker room access for reporters last season, I’ll admit I found it a lot more difficult to get a feel for the team’s dynamics, and I missed observing Malik Williams’ rise in stature as a major voice among his teammates. The post-game locker room is the perfect place to pick up on that. This summer, though, I learned he is considered one of the team’s best communicators, a trait that made him a popular pick for captain with two elder statesmen.

One of the sillier conversations that came out of the announcement was whether Jordan Nwora not being named a captain was a big deal. The players who aren’t named as captains can and do, of course, still play leadership roles on the team. But the captain choices, voted on by the players, are all about personalities. Just because someone is your best player and your go-to scoring option, doesn’t mean he should be an automatic choice for captain. Mohamed Salah isn’t a captain at Liverpool. Bobby Orr was never a captain for the Boston Bruins. It doesn’t always work like that, and that’s fine. Nwora will stay play an influential role.

—Streaking the Lawn (Virginia) serves up its preview of the 2019 Louisville football team.

—Hunter Cantwell’s coaching debut at Christian Academy was a 6-0 overtime win over South Oldham.

—Besides shitting on Dan Dakich, this is the only Andrew Luck-related media that matters.

—This story from a former NFL offensive lineman on the mental exhaustion of constant rehabilitation is also good.

—Cardinal Authority takes a closer look at the official visits the U of L basketball staff has scheduled for the two months to come.

—Florida State has named James Blackman as its starting quarterback.

—Very cool moment during Trinity’s Friday night stomping of Carmel when Jackson Schulz, whose father was tragically killed earlier this month, notched an interception for the Shamrocks.

—Rick Bozich looks at the 10 most intriguing local college football coaches/players.

—Former Card Jonathan Greenard was a monster for Florida on Saturday night.

Did not hurt me to type that. Nope. Not at all.

—The recent trend of exploratory football documentaries has revealed just how weird some of the sport’s head coaches (at every level are). I’m fascinated by this one.

—Regardless of where you stand on the “pay the players” discussion, I think we can all agree that College Football Playoff executives don’t need to living this lavishly.

—College Basketball Central has Louisville at No. 3 in its preseason top 100.

#3. Louisville– It’s remarkable how quickly Chris Mack has Louisville back on track among the nation’s elite. An All-American in Jordan Nwora leads the way, but he’s surrounded by a good group of role players and an elite freshman class that features potential first-rounder Samuell Williamson. The swing piece for the Cardinals is Saint Joe’s grad transfer LaMarr Kimble, who needs to provide serviceable or better point guard play for Mack’s group to reach its ceiling.

—Local music fans, Jim James has teamed with Teddy Abrams & the Louisville Orchestra for a new album called “The Order of Nature.”

—College basketball coaches weigh in on what they believe the most underrated job in the sport is.

—Jordan Nwora continues to light it up for Nigeria.

—U of L tight end Jordan Davis will miss the first two games of the 2019 season because of academics.

—Fansided has Louisville last in its first ACC power rankings.

—ESPN’s FP gives Louisville a 12.1 percent chance to upset Notre Dame.

—And finally, my thoughts are with the friends, family and loved ones of Tyler Kelty, who passed away last week at the far, far too young age of 26. He was a huge Cardinal and Card Chronicle fan who graced the site’s front page after he and his friends went pants-less in Lexington following Louisville’s Elite Eight win over Florida in 2012.

That’s how you celebrate a Final Four.

Tyler will be missed.