Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—North Carolina safety Jaiden Spearman is the 10th member of Jeff Brohm’s 2024 recruiting class. Spearman is a 3-star prospect who also had offers from Florida, Michigan, Penn State and Ole Miss, among many others.

—That 2024 class is now ranked among the 25 best in the country.

—247 Sports highlights 100 true freshmen who will impact college football this season, and Stanquan Clark makes the list.

—This is an eye-opening play by Trentyn Flowers at the USA U-19 training camp.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic ranks the top five interior defensive linemen in Cardinal football history.

—Russ Smith is going on a bourbon signing tour across Kentucky this summer.

—The 502 Circle NIL collective has added 40 Louisville athletes in its latest class.

502Circle declined to share the names of the athletes, although those will be made public in the future as the athletes begin to engage with businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Why did 502Circle announce the number of athletes but not the names?

“For us, it really comes down to keeping the integrity of the athletes that we’re working with, making sure that we do the best we can to protect them and their business activities,” 502Circle President Dan Furman said Monday in a phone interview. “We figured it would be more valuable from a marketing standpoint for that to come out naturally and not necessarily force it through a release or a social pump like this.”

502Circle will announce the signings of more Louisville athletes later this summer.

“At 502Circle, we look to work with athletes that are going to make an impact both on-campus and in the community,” Furman said. “This is high-level group of individuals that we’re excited to expose to a variety of business opportunities in the coming months.”

—Whitley County topped Shelby County on Saturday to become the first team from the 13th Region to capture the Kentucky state baseball title.

—Kansas State beat out Kentucky for Creighton transfer Arthur Kaluma over the weekend. Afterwards, K-State head coach Jerome Tang — who drew the ire of BBN by saying his team just had “more dudes” than UK — took a little shot on Twitter.

—The PGA’s Canadian Open had everything, including former Louisville golfer Adam Hadwin being speared by security while trying to celebrate with fellow Canadian Nick Taylor after an insane putt to win the tournament in a playoff.

According to Hadwin’s wife, Jessica, he apologized to the security guard “in true Canadian form.”

—Dana Evans just keeps putting up numbers.

—Louisville Report evaluates new RB commit Duke Watson.

—Terry appreciates the Watterson love.

—Former Louisville LB KJ Cloyd has picked Miami as his transfer destination.

—I-64 West is re-opening four days early. I-64 Eastbound will shut down for two weeks starting on Friday.

—The College Football News preview for Louisville says fans may need to temper expectations a bit in Jeff Brohm’s first season.

Louisville Cardinals Season Prediction, Win Total, What Will Happen

Set The Win Total At: 6.5

It might be way more of a fight to get come up with a big season than Louisville fans might like.

Jeff Brohm is a fabulous head coach and the offense should work right away, and the trainload of transfers will help the defense, but there are way too many sneaky-tough 50/50 games.

Murray State should be a sure win, but the date with Indiana is in Bloomington and the other non-conference game against Kentucky is always a toss up. Making things worse, Notre Dame is on the slate - but at least that’s in Cardinal Stadium.

There’s one massive plus - there’s no Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, or Wake Forest. And considering the Cardinals lost last year’s meeting, it’s not a bad thing to miss Syracuse, either.

There’s a chance to go on a huge late run with three straight home games - Duke, Virginia Tech, and Virginia - but all three teams will be better this season. Boston College needs to be an early home win. But road games at NC State, Pitt, and Miami are all scary.

It’ll be a very good year, but this should take a little bit of patience. There will be a bowl game, and with a few strong road performances there’s a shot to push past eight wins.

—Cardinal Authority has a notebook from Louisville’s second football camp of the summer.

—ESPN’s Mark Schlabach has a detailed look at how “the deal that rocked golf” came to be.

—I cannot wait to see this bad boy in person.

—LSU kept Kentucky out of the College World Series with a 2-game sweep in the Super Regionals over the weekend. The Wildcats have still never won a Super Regional game and are still the only SEC program without a College World Series appearance.

—Florida WR James Randle was among the visitors at the latest Louisville camp.

—Peyton is the best.

—Racing Louisville settled for a 0-0 draw against Alex Morgan and the San Diego Wave on Friday night.

—It’s “ACC coaches talk anonymously about every other team in the league” season. Here’s what those coaches had to say about Louisville.

What opposing ACC coaches told Athlon Sports about the Cardinals ...

“One thing you know is they’re going to give (Jeff) Brohm a lot of time here, so they won’t rush things or try to reach into the portal to fix their problems. And they have problems, too — they’re not going to be good on defense they’re losing a lot and transitioning to a new scheme. Last year was definitely their best on defense under Satt (Scott Satterfield), they fixed a lot of those problems and finally developed some dudes up front.”

Louisville fans love the Brohm hire, which was met with rave reviews, too. The Cardinals may not see much of a return on their investment this fall, but it’s coming. You know this team is going to score points with Brohm calling the shots offensively, but as other ACC coaches have mentioned, whether or not Louisville will be able to stop the opposition may ultimately decide where this team stands in November.

—And finally, the Mike Rutherford Show is back with a Monday edition this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450AM/96.1 FM. You can stream it here or by calling (518)-931-1125.