Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 2.5.

—U of L continues to be ahead of the game when it comes to preparing for the new name, image, likeness rules that are coming at some point. On Thursday the school announced the creation of ELEVATE, a program designed to help student-athletes build their individual brands.

—The WDRB sports staff makes their predictions for Saturday night.

Eric Crawford: Miami 35, Louisville 31

Annice McEwan: Louisville 49, Miami 35

Aaron Matas: Miami 38, Louisville 34

Tom Lane: Louisville 24, Miami 20

John Lewis: Louisville 21, Miami 14

Rick Bozich: Louisville 28, Miami 24

Ruby: Miami

—The Miami 247 Sports site has 10 keys to victory for the Hurricanes on Saturday.

—The Three-Man-Weave crew has Samuell Williamson (78) and David Johnson (46) in its countdown of the top 100 players in college basketball for 2020-21.

—I think Satt gets the Best Actor award here.

—The U of L women’s soccer team opened its 2020 season with a 3-0 road win over Miami Thursday night. Here’s hoping that isn’t the last Cards over Canes triumph of the week.

—During a tough time, Louisville’s restaurant community is doing some great things.

—I’ll give anything for this to make it on TV.

Doing the Lord’s work.

—Brandon Marcello of 247 Sports takes a look around the weekend ahead in college football.

Contenders or pretenders?

The first ranked-against-ranked matchup of the season is also the game of the week, even if it’s between two teams expected to finish at or near the middle of the pack in the ACC.

The crazy thing is we don’t quite know where No. 18 Louisville and No. 17 Miami stand entering the matchup at Cardinal Stadium. Louisville found success through the air with Micale Cunningham throwing a career-high 343 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-21 victory against Western Kentucky last week. Meanwhile, Miami dominated the ground with 337 yards in a 31-14 victory against UAB, the most against an FBS foe since 2014.

Houston transfer D’Eriq King has provided Miami with an immediate upgrade at quarterback, but results were still mixed. Miami’s receivers weren’t quite consistent and King threw for 141 yards, but if that ground game with three of the better running backs in the conference (led by Cam’Ron Harris) continue to power the zone-read offense, the Hurricanes could walk out of Louisville with a big early-season win.

“He is hard to contain, then you couple that with their running backs,” Louisville coach Scott Satterfield said. “They do not have just one running back, they have several running backs that I think are very explosive runners.”

Tidbits: Louisville is 3-8 in ranked-against-ranked matchups in the regular season. ... Miami leads the Power 5 with an average of 1.95 turnovers forced per game since 2017.

No. 17 Miami at No. 18 Louisville

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET

Where: Cardinal Stadium in Louisville

TV: ABC

—U of L is motivated to avenge a blowout loss to Miami from last season, and being in the national spotlight only amplifies that drive.

—The pre-Miami episode of the CC Podcast — featuring Keith calling Dan Enos an asshole — is here.

—We’ve come a long way from Miami players acting like it was beneath them to play a game at Louisville 14 years ago.

—GoCards.com has its preview for Louisville-Miami.

—Miami podcast Through the Smoke previews the Louisville game.

—The ACCDN previews Louisville-Miami:

—Cardinal Strong answers some Louisville-Miami questions for the Canes folk over at State of The U.

—The latest episode of the Big Red Louie podcast features Harry Douglas reflecting on the 2006 blowout of Miami.

—Our bubble will be better.

—Chip Patterson of CBS makes his case for Miami toppling Louisville on Saturday night.

—Cardinal Authority is out with its latest U of L fall sports notebook.

—Tyler Hunt of Bucky’s 5th Quarter also likes the visitors.

Miami (+3) @ Louisville

Both the Miami Hurricanes and Louisville Cardinals faced quality Group of 5 teams in week one and handled their business which creates a nice ABC primetime match up. Miami looked great with D’Eriq King on offense, and I think that could be the biggest key for them in years. Additionally, the Hurricanes always have dudes on defense and we saw that with Gregory Rousseau last year who was the best pass rusher not named Chase Young. Add in Quincy Roche from Temple, and Zach McCloud at linebacker and you have the usual strong Miami defense.

Louisville looks like a good team, but I think they’ll struggle to move the ball against that front. On the defensive side of the football, nothing scares you for the Cardinals. They were No. 112 against the run last year, and King is going to be able to make things happen with his feet to bail out his less than stellar offensive line. I think on paper Miami is just the better team, so I am going to take the three with the road dog in this match up. If you can’t find a three out there, consider just eating the points and taking the moneyline.

—The U of L men’s soccer team is headed to Pittsburgh for an exhibition match on Saturday.

—The CJ lays out three keys to success for Louisville against Miami.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—UConn transfer Cam DeGeorge could be the key to Louisville’s offensive line success this season.

—The ACC’s official website previews the league’s biggest game of the weekend.

—Athlon is taking the Cards in a tight one.

Final Analysis

Even though both teams won last week, there’s still quite a bit of mystery going into Saturday night’s matchup. Can Miami connect on more big plays through the air to complement its ground game? Louisville’s high-powered offense already seems to be finding its rhythm, and big plays by Cunningham, Atwell and Hawkins could be there if the offensive line holds up. Special teams could play a key role in this matchup. Louisville had two issues on punts last week, while Miami lost a fumble on a return. On paper, this matchup is relatively even, so small things like special teams, big plays or turnovers could be the deciding factor. This one is a tossup, but a small edge goes to the Cardinals.

Prediction: Louisville 34, Miami 31

—It’s not officially a Friday until we get Barry Tramel’s pick for the upcoming Louisville game. He’s going Cards, 28-22.

—College GameDay fun facts for Saturday from U of L:

-This is the show’s third visit to Louisville - and it’s nearly four years to the day of the show’s first visit to Louisville (September 17, 2016)

-Corso picked Louisville in both previous instances the show was in Louisville

-He is 1-1 in those picks

-He correctly picked Clemson to beat Louisville in 2016

-Corso has picked Miami seven times and is 5-2 with those seven picks

-He hasn’t put on Miami headgear since September 4, 2006 when he incorrectly picked Miami to beat Florida State

-He has picked against the Hurricanes each of the last five times the show has been at a game involving Miami - he’s been correct four of those times

-Corso is 5-7 all-time when picking against the Canes

-This is just the seventh time GameDay has been at a game featuring two ranked teams that were both ranked outside the Top 15

—The Miami Herald’s “Eye on The U” podcast has a good discussion about Saturday’s game.

—State of The U gets fired up on “Louisville Eve.”

—And finally, beat Miami.