Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Louisville by 8.

—Brett McMurphy’s latest bowl projections have Louisville facing Penn State in the Orange Bowl.

—We recorded an emergency podcast in the wee hours of Sunday morning. F bombs flew liberally.

—Here’s Eric Crawford’s post-game story on the signature victory of the Jeff Brohm era so far.

—I’m still buzzing.

—Andrea Adelson writes that Louisville finally ended the ACC’s misery against Notre Dame.

—Chip Patterson of CBS has Louisville up 10 spots to No. 13 in his weekly ranking of all 133 FBS teams.

—Did fatigue play a factor in Notre Dame’s performance on Saturday? One Foot Down thinks so.

—It’s safe to say the recruits in town for Saturday’s game were impressed.

“That atmosphere was amazing,” Corona (Calif.) Centennial Top247 quarterback Husan Longstreet said.

He is the No. 4 quarterback in the 2025 class.

“From the beginning to the end the entire team set the tempo from the start. That performance was speechless the way their energy was maintained throughout the whole game. Great leadership and great execution by the Cardinals,” Longstreet said.

Longstreet has close to 30 offers, with Louisville showing him that he can play on the stage he’s looking for come the next level.

“Definitely a program in the running thus far,” Longstreet said. “Great leadership, talented team and exciting fans.”

Many others echoed the same sentiment.

“It was an amazing environment,” Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy running back Kolbe Harmon said. “The culture in the crowd and how the players interacted with each other was nice to see. And most importantly this team has lots of potential. Their DB’s were locking up all night and their receivers were making great plays, (I’m) excited to see where they go this season.”

“The energy is always high in Louisville,” Nashville (Tenn.) Lipscomb Academy defensive lineman Amir Leonard-Jean Charles said. “After the game I rushed the field and celebrated the win with the coaches and players and it was insane. You can clearly see that the Cards are going to be a problem for the rest of the ACC and I’m definitely coming back to watch it all go down.”

Dearborn (Mich.) Divine Child 2026 athlete Marcello Vitti was offered during his visit.

“The crowd was great,” Vitti said. “A lot of the fans talked about the city not having their own professional team, so if you play at Louisville, you’re treated like a pro. The crowd was genuine without the hype. They had a big win against ND. The coaches loved my film and are recruiting me as an athlete because they think I can play on both sides and they will figure that out once I come there.”

—Traditional basketball powers North Carolina, Louisville, Duke, UCLA, Kansas and Kentucky are all ranked in the same AP football poll for the first time ever.

—Louisville is No. 13 in this week’s FWAA Super 16 poll.

—Hmm, I wonder what the difference could have been then ...

—Oh yeah.

—If you missed it during all the excitement on Saturday night, Miami lost to Georgia Tech in an unimaginable way. I don’t care what their record was or where they were ranked, I think I would have had to have fired Cristobal that night.

—The updated S&P rankings give Louisville nearly a 75% chance of finishing the regular season with at least 10 wins.

—Douglas Farmer of NBC Sports lists the three plays that doomed Notre Dame against Louisville. His description of the facemask call that kept U of L’s final touchdown-scoring drive alive is an all-timer.

The Cardinals would have almost certainly punted, attempting to pin Notre Dame deep in its own territory. And the Irish had not mustered any offense, gaining 53 yards in the third quarter, 24 of it on one catch by junior tight end Mitchell Evans. But, that was Notre Dame’s chance to get the ball back with a chance to take the lead.

Instead, fifth-year linebacker Marist Liufau was whistled for a face mask penalty away from the ball.

“We get them off the field on third down and we get the penalty,” Freeman said. “That hurt. You can’t have that. … Then they drove and we missed a tackle in the hole, and they scored again.”

Indeed, the drive ended with a poor run fit springing loose Louisville running back Jawhar Jordan for a 21-yard touchdown, his second explosive score of the night.

But what was Liufau guilty of? Getting blocked.

Notre Dame had lined up only two defensive linemen with their hands on the ground, and Liufau showed a blitz look, standing between them. He blitzed upon the snap and was picked up by an offensive lineman. As the jet sweep around the edge occurred, another offensive lineman chipped Liufau in the shoulder, effectively knocking Liufau’s arm up into the initial blocker’s facemask while also knocking Liufau off balance enough that his hands instinctively grabbed for balance.

Liufau did not face mask a Cardinal. His arm was knocked into a face mask as Liufau fell.

I didn’t stab him, I was holding a knife and instinctively made a stabbing motion into his chest after someone bumped me at the party.

—Former Louisville pitcher Bobby Miller will make his playoff debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight.

—Eric Mac Lain has Louisville at No. 2 in his weekly ACC power rankings.

—Brooks Holton of the CJ has three questions facing Kenny Payne and the Cards heading into Wednesday’s Red and White scrimmage.

—Not bad company.

—Ibn Green gets some love in this discussion of the best tight end in college football history.

—It was another mostly solid weekend for former Cards in the NFL.

—Irish Illustrated looks at fives things that doomed Notre Dame against U of L.

—Ross Dellenger of Yahoo has Louisville in his new top 10.

10. Louisville

This week: won 33-20 vs. Notre Dame

Next week: at Pitt

Best win: vs. Notre Dame

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Don’t look now (we’re looking!) but the Cardinals are 6-0 under first-year coach Jeff Brohm. Junior RB Jawhar Jordan — don’t forget that name! — carried the ball 21 times for 143 yards. It was his fourth 100-yard outing in five games.

—The CJ has a photo gallery of Saturday night’s scenes at L&N Stadium.

—Jason Frakes updates his Kentucky high school football rankings as we inch closer to the end of the regular season.

—Matt McGavic of Louisville Report has some final thoughts and observations from Louisville’s win over the Irish.

—Brad Crawford of 247 Sports grades college football’s first-year head coaches at the season’s midway point. Guess who’s at the top of the class.

1. JEFF BROHM, LOUISVILLE

Grade: A+

Record: 6-0

Prior to Saturday’s convincing win over 10th-ranked Notre Dame, the Cardinals had beaten up one of the nation’s most favorable schedules. Still, give Jeff Brohm a ton of credit for the culture switch he clearly established early at Louisville. Not only does Brohm’s team have a chance to win the ACC, but getting to the league championship game unblemished with a couple wins over top 25 opponents puts them in the playoff conversation.

—After a four-set win over North Carolina on Friday, the sixth-ranked Louisville volleyball team swept Duke on Sunday.

—It was a bad Friday night at Clemson for the 21st-ranked Louisville men’s soccer team, which has hit a bit of a rough patch.

—Donovan Mitchell used Saturday night as a bonding experience for himself and his Cavalier teammates.

—James Quick says that a call from Teddy Bridgewater the night before the Sugar Bowl locked up his commitment to Louisville.

—Here’s On3’s write-up of Louisville’s Saturday night win.

—The fifth-ranked Louisville field hockey team disposed of Central Michigan, 3-0, on Sunday.

—One Foot Down saw coaching incompetence as the reason for Notre Dame’s dismal performance on Saturday.

—Good stuff from U of L and our guy Matt Sefcovic.

It seems like Caden enjoyed the party.

—This week’s S&P rankings have Louisville at No. 20.

—The U of L women’s soccer team celebrated Senior Day with a 2-1 win over Syracuse.

—Louisville’s dominating win on Saturday crushed Notre Dame’s playoff hopes.

—And we still have the Keg of Nails.

—There was no late-game magic for the Fighting Irish this weekend.

—I told you it was going to happen if we won: The “can Louisville be this year’s TCU” talk has arrived.

—Louisville playing for an ACC championship in Jeff Brohm’s first season suddenly feels like a very realistic goal.

—I enjoy the juxtaposition here.

—Cardinal Authority updates where Louisville stands in the national statistical rankings.

—College Football News joins Brett McMurphy in projecting the Cards to play in the Orange Bowl.

—Josh Pate called a Cardinal upset and he definitely took a victory lap (video) the day after.

—And finally, a very celebratory episode of the Mike Rutherford Show is coming your way from 3-6 this afternoon on 1450AM/96.1FM The Big X. Hopefully my voice will somewhat hold up for the full three hours. If it doesn’t, that’ll be ok too. You can stream the show here.