Wednesday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Florida State by 6.5.

—Blue Ribbon Yearbook has Louisville at No. 6 in its preseason top 25.

—The unbeaten U of L women’s soccer team is No. 20 in the latest coaches poll. The Cards host No. 4 North Carolina on Saturday in Lynn Stadium at 7:30 p.m.

—Top Louisville basketball recruiting target Devin Askew appears close to making a decision. He recently received visits from both Chris Mack and John Calipari.

Askew is a member of the class of 2021, but there’s still some thought that he could reclassify, even though he and his family have previously said that plan isn’t in the works.

—Eric Crawford looks at the recent rise and fall of Louisville football through the eyes of its games against Florida State.

—Louisville women’s soccer star Emina Ekic has picked up two weekly honors from the ACC, including the league’s Co-Offensive Player of the Week nod.

—If you’re a U of L student who has always dreamed of suiting up for the Cards, your opportunity has arrived.

—This guy removed phones from a bunch of pictures he took and the results are pretty creepy.

—ACC Basketball Report has Dwayne Sutton as the 14th-best returning player in the conference.

—By popular demand, WLKY and CBS are bypassing the Colts on Sunday in order to air Baltimore vs. Kansas City.

—Bill Connelly’s S&P Projections give Louisville a 30 percent shot to win in Tallahassee this weekend.

—U of L’s Exercise Physiology program is ranked No. 1 in the country.

—247 Sports has Louisville at No. 7 in its week three ACC power rankings.

7. Louisville (2-1)

Having your lone loss come to Notre Dame is hardly backbreaking. And while the Cardinals could find success hard to come by once the conference season starts, that’s a pretty solid start. Remember that Louisville is just a season removed from a 2-10 season with a winless mark in ACC play, and if first-year coach Scott Satterfield can get Louisville off the mark quickly against Florida State this week, the Cardinals could already exceed last year’s win output just four weeks in. If Javian Hawkins can keep playing at a high level, that would help.

—A look at the freshmen who have seen the field for Louisville through the football season’s first three weeks.

—The uniforms the Cards will be wearing for Louisville Live a week from Friday are ... well, they’re something.

—Louisville field hockey is up to No. 7 in the national rankings.

—Florida State is last in the FBS in time of possession, but Tomahawk Nation doesn’t think that ranking has played a huge factor in the Seminoles’ 1-2 start.

—Nick Solak was web gemming Tuesday night.

—Via ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, here are the set official visits for class of 2020 standout Jaemyn Brakefield.

- Louisville: September 27

- Michigan: October 3

- Ole Miss: October 17

—The Athletic’s Max Olson has a great feature (Athletic link) on the hot start of Javian Hawkins.

Javian Hawkins’ nickname is “PlayStation.” His position coach had not heard that until recently. He does like the sound of it. But Louisville running backs coach Norval McKenzie is not about to start calling the kid that quite yet.

“That’s a lot to live up to. He better be hitting some ‘B’ buttons out there and some ‘R1’ buttons, or whatever the buttons are,” McKenzie said with a laugh. “That’s a lofty expectation right there to be called ‘PlayStation.’ It’s kinda catchy. But he’s gonna have to earn that nickname before I start calling him that.”

Well, he’s off to a great start. For this week’s Freshman Orientation, we’re taking a closer look at the top freshman rusher in college football through three weeks. That would be Hawkins, a redshirt freshman for the Cardinals who has put up 338 rushing yards and one touchdown on just 49 carries. He’s currently No. 15 nationally in rushing yards per game and No. 2 in the ACC behind Florida State’s Cam Akers.

Hawkins is averaging 6.9 yards per carry and nearly 6.5 when the Cardinals give him the ball on first down. First-year head coach Scott Satterfield’s offense is built around that run game, and it has found an explosive young back to keep it moving. This has been quite a quick rise for a player who was the second-lowest-rated signee in Louisville’s 2018 recruiting class.

“He was not highly regarded,” McKenzie said. “The program right now is not a program that’s at the top of the ACC. So every day when we come to work, it’s a worker’s mentality, it’s an earn everything mentality, it’s a big chip on our shoulder mentality. I think he’s taken to that, and there’s been a lot of doubters in terms of what he can do. Right now, I think he’s proving some of them wrong.”

—Despite his small stature, TuTu Atwell has come up huge for Louisville so far in 2019.

—The Florida State secondary certainly appears to be vulnerable. Regardless of who gets the start at quarterback, Louisville needs to take advantage.

—And finally, John’s off today so I’ll be hosting R&R with our own Keith Wynne from 3-6 this afternoon on 790-KRD. We’ll talk about the Pitino stuff, get excited about Florida State, and have a conversation with the voice of the Seminoles, Gene Deckerhoff. You can stream the show here.