Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread Check (we’re back, baby!): Louisville by 4.

—The U of L men’s soccer team is back in action tonight against Bellarmine. Here’s a preview.

—The Syracuse depth chart for Saturday night’s season-opener is out.

—The ACC Digital Network has Ahmari Huggins-Bruce on its list of potential breakout players (video) for the upcoming football season.

—Game weeeeeeeeekkkkkkk.

—Former Cardinal volleyball star Tori Dilfer helped the U.S. Women’s National Team defeat Mexico to earn the bronze medal at the Pan Am Cup.

—Louisville Report analyzes U of L’s week one depth chart.

—For nearly a decade, ACC administrators struggled to find consensus on overhauling the league’s football schedule. Finally, this year, a breakthrough. David Teel explains how it happened.

—Congrats to Zach Greenwell, who has officially been named Associate Athletic Director of Media Relations & Strategic Communications at U of L.

—Hercy Miller hype?

—Racing Louisville star Savannah DeMelo has received her first call-up to the U.S. Women’s National Team for its September friendlies.

—The 502 Circle, Louisville’s first major NIL collective, is officially live.

—Eric Crawford shares some thoughts on the collective.

—The CJ’s Alexis Cubit writes that Louisville will go as far as Malik Cunningham can take them in 2022.

—U of L fan Marshall Kellner has recorded a new rap anthem for the 2022 Cardinal football season.

—The starting backfield for Louisville’s first play of 2015:

The NFL QB was the starting RB, and the NFL RB was the starting QB.

—The Louisville women’s soccer team bounced back from a loss to Xavier with a 1-0 win over Northern Kentucky on Sunday.

—RIP to Tom Clemons, the man behind The Back Door, Dundee Tavern and many more Louisville establishments.

—The ninth-ranked Louisville field hockey team improved to 2-0 on the young season with a 2-1 road win over No. 11 Penn State on Sunday.

—Greatest game of all-time.

—Caleb Chandler and Malik Cunningham both hear their names called in ESPN’s college football super team draft.

—Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has acknowledged that multiple players will be unavailable for UK’s season-opener, but declined to say who they were, that they were suspended or how long they would be out.

—State of Louisville says that Kenny Payne’s stance on NIL is unrealistic long term.

—After Tiyon Evans wins the Heisman, I’m excited for him to hand the reigns to this guy:

—The fourth-ranked Louisville volleyball team swept all three of its season-opening matches in South Dakota.

—Rick Bozich writes that no one has owned Syracuse like Louisville has in recent years.

—Former Syracuse QB Tommy Devito took a few indirect shots at his old club after leading Illinois to a season-opening win on Saturday.

Behind a shaky Syracuse offensive line the previous four years, DeVito was hit hard and often. During four seasons at Syracuse, DeVito was sacked 80 times over 717 dropbacks (11.15% sack percentage), according to Pro Football Focus. For context, only seven teams allowed a higher sack percentage last season than Syracuse did during DeVito’s career.

So when DeVito — who suffered multiple injuries at Syracuse — went 37 pass attempts without getting sacked on Saturday and he was hurried just twice, he couldn’t believe the actual feeling.

“It was a lot of fun. My body feels good right now,” DeVito said. “…I’m not taking shots here, but I think this was the first game I’ve been in where I did not get sacked. Am I fair to say that? [The offensive line] did an awesome job.”

—St. John Bosco opened its 2022 season with a 52-14 blowout road win over Texas Powerhouse Allen High School. You can catch the highlights (DeAndre Moore, my goodness) right here.

—ACC football scores from week zero:

Florida State 47, Duquesne 7
North Carolina 56, Florida A&M 24

—Jack Harlow co-hosted the VMAs and earned four awards as well last night.

—Terrence Williams has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud and identity theft in connection with a multimillion-dollar scam against the basketball league’s health plan. He faces a minimum of two years and a maximum of 20 in jail.

—The energy was unreal at Ballard Friday night, as the Bruins pulled off their first upset of Male since the DeVante Parker days.

—Preseason All-American Caleb Chandler is very confident that the Cardinal offensive line will be even better in 2022 than they were a season ago.

—Louisville native and former Cardinal Will Smith has announced on Instagram that he will be playing for Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

—Louisville’s game notes for week one reveal that Mason Reiger and Francis Sherman are the latest Cardinal walk-ons to be placed on scholarship.

—I will be forever bummed that we never really got a chance to see this guy as a Cardinal.

—The staff members over at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician make their season predictions for the 2022 Syracuse football campaign. I wouldn’t say they’re overly optimistic.

—John Clay previews the Louisville football season on the latest episode of his podcast.

—Cardinal Authority identifies five potential defensive MVP candidates for the Cards. And five offensive MVP candidates.

—The Louisville Cardinal says Scott Satterfield needs his recruiting momentum to carry over into actual on-field results.

—College Football News is going with an Orange upset on Saturday night.

Why Syracuse Will Win

The Louisville defensive front decent isn’t going to be a rock, and here comes the Syracuse ground game.

The pass rush should work fine against an always leaky Syracuse offensive front, but even with a slew of improvements and tweaks, the Cardinals are going to get bashed on by the teams that can run.

The 1-2 punch of All-America RB Sean Tucker and bruising QB Garrett Shrader were held in check in the 41-3 loss to the Cardinals last year – one of the Louisville’s best performances of the season – but get ready for a much different look at home. The two rushing stars are about to bash away.

What’s Going To Happen

This is one of those tone-setting games for both teams that each must have. There are too many landmines along the way to each one to assume six wins without getting one here.

Louisville was brilliant in last year’s win with Cunningham throwing for four scores and running for another, and he’ll be electric again. The difference this time around will be the more effective Syracuse offense that will control the clock and the game from the start.

It’ll be a back-and-forth fight, but the steady will push back over the sensational.

Louisville vs Syracuse Prediction, Line

Syracuse 34, Louisville 31

—You can cast your vote for the Louisville are high school athlete of the week here.

—Brent Axe of Syracuse.com says that Saturday night’s game is the most important Syracuse home opener of the Carrier Dome (I’m not calling it whatever it is now) era.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is kicking off game week from 3-6 this afternoon on 1450/96.1 The Big X. You can stream the show here.