Friday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 4.5.

—If you somehow missed it yesterday, Donovan Mitchell has been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

—The Louisville women’s basketball program has released its non-conference schedule for the 2022-23 season. It all gets started on Nov. 7 at home against Cincinnati.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic is going with the Cards over the ‘Cuse by a final of 35-17 tomorrow night.

—The U of L women’s soccer team pulled off a 3-2 road win over No. 23 Memphis State last night. They were pumped.

—The men’s soccer team will look to start 3-0-0 when it hosts Seattle tonight at 7:30. Here’s a preview.

—The third-ranked Louisville volleyball team plays its first home match of the season tonight against No. 15 San Diego.

—Louisville Report goes behind enemy lines with Syracuse’s FanSided writer.

—The infiltration started yesterday:

—Cardinal Authority serves up its preview of the Louisville-Syracuse season-opener.

—The Cardinal Sports Zone staff members make their predictions for the Syracuse game.

—S&P Godfather Bill Connelly previews (Insider) college football’s opening weekend for ESPN. He likes the Cards Saturday night.

Louisville at Syracuse (8 p.m., ACCN). The ACC is loaded with fun quarterbacks, and Louisville’s Malik Cunningham might be the most fun of all. Syracuse’s defense could be solid, but upside should give the Cardinals the edge in the dome formerly known as Carrier (now JMA Wireless). Current line: Louisville -4.5 (up from -4 on Sunday) | SP+ projection: Louisville by 5.0 | FPI projection: Louisville by 2.8

—Only one of the four staff writers over at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician like Syracuse to pull the upset of Louisville. 55% of their readers think the Orange win.

—Anyone who thought Mikel Jones’ ACC media day comments were taken out of context or were just a joke needs to hear Malik Cunningham tell the story on the From the Pink Seats podcast. There is absolutely bad blood there.

—This did not need to be deleted.

—Aaron Fitt over at D1Baseball.com says (insider) Louisville has the best overall coaching staff in college baseball.

—Louisville Athletics has launched the ELEVATE Marketplace, it’s official NIL Marketplace, through a continued partnership with Opendorse.

—The Bellarmine Knights will kickoff their inaugural sprint football season on Sept. 17.

—This is pretty cool.

—Syracuse’s student newspaper is predicting a small upset win for the Orange.

—ESPN serves up a preview for tomorrow night.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Louisville: QB Malik Cunningham accounted for 39 touchdowns last season, totaled 3,872 yards of offense, and became the second quarterback in school history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season (1,031).

Syracuse: TB Sean Tucker set a Syracuse record last season with 1,496 yards rushing and the Orange have already begun touting him for the Heisman Trophy.

FACTS & FIGURES

It’s the earliest conference game for Louisville since the Cardinals played their first as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Sept. 1, 2014 against Miami. ... The Cardinals held Syracuse without a touchdown in last year’s meeting, the only game the Orange failed to score a touchdown in 2021. ... Syracuse led the ACC and was 16th in the nation in rushing offense in 2021, averaging 213.5 yards per game. ... Since the Dome opened in 1980, Syracuse is 23-19 in home openers. ... Louisville has averaged at least 200 rushing yards in each of Satterfield’s first three seasons. The Cardinals and Ole Miss are the only teams from Power Five conferences to accomplish that.

—A total of 100 college basketball coaches were asked to name the sport’s best home game environments. Only one mentioned the KFC Yum Center. Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse and Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium were the runaway top two choices.

—Dan Mullen does not think highly of the 2022 Louisville Cardinals football team.

—Jody Demling and Michael McCammon over at Cardinal Authority make their game-by-game predictions for the upcoming season.

—All Syracuse looks at who has the edge in the key matchups for Saturday night’s game.

LB Mikel Jones vs. QB Malik Cunningham

We can turn the grill on high and throw the meat on for this one, because it’s definitely beef. Jones wasn’t shy about seeing Louisville as a non-challenge but a great opportunity at ACC Media Day, and Cunningham definitely took notice. Jones is the QB of this defense, and a lot of Saturday’s outcome will be determined by how much Jones can limit Cunningham’s big plays in scramble situations and in designed runs. It’ll be fun to see this #3 for both schools match up in the open field. Jones is a true sideline-to-sideline defender with impressive instincts and a knack to be around the ball during big moments, but Cunningham is arguable the best athlete in college football and has shown the ability to simply get it done despite not being a proficient pocket passer and operating as Louisville’s only legitimate offensive threat.

ADVANTAGE: Louisville

Damn right.

—The U of L cross country team will begin its season at the Covered Bridge Open.

—Starting fast is important for every college football team, but it’s been especially important for Syracuse in recent years.

—Friday Irrelevance:

—WHAS-11 looks at the reasons why Louisville will beat Syracuse.

—Jason Frakes, Kent Spencer (who wants me to make sure everyone is aware that he’s winning this year) and company make their picks for the area’s biggest high school football games.

—Here’s how you can watch Racing Louisville players who are currently on international duty.

—The play of the year happened on the season’s first Thursday.

—Orange Fizz has three keys to a Syracuse upset.

—The Homies are brining Louisville’s flourishing creativity to the rest of the world, says Vice.

—A Johnny Manziel documentary appears to be coming to Netflix. I’m all in.

—Seems like getting commitments from the best players in California is a solid recruiting philosophy.

—Louisville Report highlights the points of emphasis for the Cards’ season-opener.

—Keith Wynne will join me in the freshly-named University of Louisville College of Business Studio from 3-6 for today’s Mike Rutherford Show. You can catch the Syracuse preview and other nonsense on 1450 AM, 96.1 FM, or streaming live here.

—And finally, beat Syracuse.