Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Virginia Tech by 3.5.

—The Louisville-Virginia Tech preview episode of the Card Chronicle Podcast is live.

—The folks over at Gobbler Country are predicting a 38-27 Virginia Tech win on Saturday.

—Dates and times for the (virtual) ACC men’s and women’s basketball media days (I will never use “Operation Basketball”) have been set.

—Three out of four Sports Illustrated college football writers like Louisville to spring the mild upset of Virginia Tech.

—The Fenway Bowl and the Quick Lane Bowl have both announced that they will not be played this season. That leaves us with (for the moment) 36 bowl games for 2020-21.

—U of L athletics has “parted ways” with associate athletic director Christine Herring. Herring was widely believed to be the front-runner to land the interim AD job after Tom Jurich was fired in September, 2017. She ran track at U of L from 2004-08, and had been on the athletics staff since 2008.

—Our own Justin Renck as Ralph Dawkins on Halloween back in the day is glorious.

—Emina Ekic scored in the 49th minute, but the Louisville women’s soccer team still fell to No. 1 North Carolina 3-1 on Thursday night.

—JCPS has extended its pause of sports competition (except for postseason) for a second straight week because of high COVID-19 numbers in the community. This means that the annual rivalry game between Male and Manual won’t be played this season, which is a massive bummer.

—The ACC Digital Network previews Louisville-Virginia Tech:

—Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence has tested positive for Covid-19, meaning he’ll miss the Tigers game against Boston College on Saturday. Former five-star prospect D.J. Uiagalelei — a name familiar to anyone who watches “QB1” on Netflix — will start in place of Lawrence against the Eagles.

The big question now is whether or not Lawrence will be able to play in Clemson’s showcase game against Notre Dame in eight days. down

—Louisville has offered class of 2022 WR Xavier Townsend.

—Grace Wood doing her best Eric Wood impression for Halloween is wonderful.

—It’s ACC championship weekend for the U of L men’s and women’s cross country teams.

—The folks over at Bucky’s 5th Quarter react to Wisconsin drawing Louisville in this year’s ACC-Big 10 Challenge.

—HokieSports.com lists some things to watch for tomorrow from a Virginia Tech standpoint.

—Tech Sideline takes a look back at the 2006 Gator Bowl.

Early on, it was the Cardinals who struck first. Quarterback Hunter Cantwell threw two touchdown passes in the first quarter as Louisville went ahead 14-3. To make matters worse, All-American senior cornerback Jimmy Williams was ejected after making contact with an official.

“I think in those scenarios it comes a point where you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Look, we have to wake up. We’re a better team than this. We’ve proven we’re a better team than this.’ Everything that happened to that point we basically did to ourselves,” Anderson said. “Louisville had a great team, they had some great players, and they were good that year, but it wasn’t anything they were doing to us. Most of the things that happened we had done to ourselves. We just had to right the ship.”

Then, late in the second quarter, there was the infamous stomp from Marcus Vick on the Cardinals’ stud defensive end Elvis Dumervil’s ankle.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal to me until after the game, until we actually saw what happened and how it happened,” Anderson said of the stomp. “That’s when it kind of got blown up. In the moment of the game, some of those things happen and you’re just so focused in the game that it doesn’t even register until after the fact.”

Fuck Marcus Vick forever. Tomorrow is for Elvis.

—Both Jody Demling and Michael McCammon over at Cardinal Authority are predicting a Louisville victory.

—Bounce backs have become a thing for Virginia Tech under Justin Fuentes. The Hokies are looking for another one against Louisville.

—Never forget:

—The Virginia Tech 247 site goes behind enemy lines to learn more about Louisville.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—A look at the tale of the tape between Louisville and VT.

—Larry Brown Sports believes Jordan Nwora is one of the five biggest sleepers in the 2020 NBA draft.

5. Jordan Nwora, Louisville

I would imagine every NBA scouting department or coaching staff has a Jordan Nwora believer speaking up this draft cycle. Nwora is a 6-foot-7 sharpshooter. He has the body to immediately contribute on both ends of the floor. He made 39% of his 450 collegiate 3-point attempts. Clearly, there’s a pro prospect in him.

Yet, Nwora will be available in the second round because of a tendency to disappear in games. He had the talent to dominate the ACC last season but turned in totally ineffective performances at times. In back-to-back losses to Clemson and Georgia Tech, Nwora managed just seven combined points on 2-of-11 shooting. Cardinals fans wanted him to control games and he instead had a tendency to shrink away from that role.

In the NBA, that wouldn’t be his role. If he can continue to make shots, defend his position, and rebound at a high level (7.7 per game as a junior), there’s a spot for him on every NBA roster.

—The Louisville field hockey team suffered its first loss of the season with a 2-1 defeat at Syracuse in the regular season finale for both teams on Friday. The Cards are now 7-1 on the year and 5-1 in the ACC.

—The latest Covid-19 testing release from U of L:

Over the past week, the University of Louisville Athletics’ COVID-19 testing program has administered 1,130 tests to student-athletes, coaches and staff with four positive tests from that group. Over the last 10 weeks, a total of 9,090 tests have been administered with 46 positive test results. Since student-athletes began returning to campus for voluntary activities on June 2, a total of 10,123 tests have been administered with 129 positive test results.

—The CJ outlines the keys to success for Louisville against Virginia Tech.

—The U of L men’s soccer team wraps up its fall season tonight at 8 against Virginia Tech. The game will be carried on the ACC Network where one Jeffrey Greer will be making his national TV debut. Have a few drinks, turn the game on, and then hate tweet Greer mercilessly.

—And finally, beat Virginia Tech.