Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 7.

—Quincy Riley has been named the Jim Thorpe Award national Player of the Week.

—The JMU Sports Blog previews Saturday night’s game at Cardinal Stadium and predicts a 31-30 upset win for the Dukes.

—The first Kenny Payne radio show of the season is tonight at the Roosters on Springhurst Blvd.

—I love how hard Ashton is trying not to smile here.

—Jeff Walz doesn’t mind your questions about when his program is going to get “over the hump” and win a national title.

—The U of L men’s soccer team took a bad 2-1 loss to Virginia Tech in the first round of the ACC tournament Wednesday night. The Cards will now have to wait to hear if their name is called when the NCAA tournament field is announced on Monday, Nov. 14.

—Former Louisville running back Bilal Powell will represent Louisville in the 2022 ACC Football Honors Class.

—Lamar Jackson made an appearance on AEW Dynamite Wednesday night and got called out by Chris Jericho.

Lamar enjoyed himself.

—Adam Zagoria writes for Forbes that Rick Pitino will almost certainly be pursued by power conference programs now that he’s been exonerated by the NCAA.

—Pat Forde seems to believe that the IARP failed in letting Pitino and Louisville “off the hook.” I strongly disagree.

—The latest episode of the Cardinal Sports Zone podcast is here.

—Josh knows.

—The CJ staff makes their picks for the first week of the Kentucky high school football playoffs.

—Our own Keith Wynne is the guest on the latest episode of the From the Pink Seats podcast.

—Louisville Report goes behind enemy lines in preparation for the James Madison game.

—Scott Satterfield spent some time on the ACC Network Friday morning.

—Jim Nantz talks about why he’s walking away from the NCAA tournament after this season.

—Team Rankings projects the Louisville men’s basketball team to finish 13th in the ACC this season.

—Travis Branham writes that the handcuffs are finally off of Kenny Payne on the recruiting trail.

Kenny Payne is widely regarded as one of the best recruiters in the country. Year-after-year, Payne’s fingerprints were left all over the trail bringing in five-star after five-star one hour down the road at the University of Kentucky.

With the cloud overhead finally lifted, Payne can now do what Mack wasn’t given the chance to do and that is to recruit with his hands freed while fighting on a more leveled playing field.

The news on Thursday should absolutely help the Cardinals in their recruiting efforts in the years ahead and could pay off right away if the cards fall their way in 2023.

In the 2023 recruiting class, the Cardinals remain firmly in the mix with Isaiah Miranda and AJ Johnson and if the Cardinals can pair them with Kaleb Glenn and Curtis Williams, they would make for Louisville’s best recruiting class since the Rick Pitino era.

However, expecting Louisville to come out of the gates with a strong class shouldn’t be the expectation.

BUT with the transfer portal cycle coming in the spring and with the 2024 cycles in full swing right after, the excuses are off the table and we can begin to truly assess what this new Louisville staff is capable of.

One thing is certain for the Louisville coaches, it’s a great day knowing they’ll never again have to answer the questions:

“What about the sanctions? What are they going to be? When will they be decided?”

—Speaking of AJ Johnson, he has left Donda Academy and will play his final season of high school ball at Southern California Academy, which is also home to fellow Cardinal recruit Isaiah Miranda.

—All three members of the crew over at State of Louisville like the Cards to take care of business Saturday night.

—It’s a celebration, dammit.

—Congrats to Louisville’s Carmen Griffiths on being named the ACC Women’s Golfer of the Month.

—The 5th-ranked Louisville volleyball team will spend its weekend hosting NC State and North Carolina. Here’s a preview.

—Six new Louisvillians will be getting hometown hero banners in 2023.

—Former Louisville WR Justin Marshall made a MACtion highlight earlier this week.

—Carter Bryant, the 5-star 2024 forward who had to cancel his Louisville Live visit at the last second, is on an official visit to U of L this weekend.

—Cardinal Authority keeps tabs on where U of L’s football commitments are playing tonight.

—Kenny Payne says he saw improvement in Louisville’s second exhibition game.

—Light Up Louisville is returning to downtown for its 42nd year.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—The CJ has three things to know about the Louisville-James Madison matchup.

—A new Card Chronicle podcast episode is out.

—And finally, beat James Madison.