http://www.wave3.com/story/5145548/petrino-signs-new-10-year-contract

Petrino Signs New 10-year Contract


(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) -- Louisville football coach Bobby Petrino signed a new 10-year contract Thursday that will earn him up to $1.3 million a year plus bonuses.



Petrino, whose last contract was signed before the Cardinals entered the Big East conference, had been earning $1 million a year plus bonuses.


Petrino, 45, has been mentioned as a candidate for several major coaching vacancies _ including the head coaching job for the NFL's Oakland Raiders in February, but has said he wants to stay at Louisville.


The new contract runs through the 2015 season.


Petrino is 29-8 in three seasons with the Cardinals. Louisville went 9-3 last fall, losing to Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl. Louisville finished 19th in the final poll.


Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

He is presently reviewing the ACC. He does 1 team/day and has done 9 teams so far (no UofL yet). Read it here.

Peace

Watching the Pelicans(Bluiett Xavier player) vs Det NBA Head coach Alvin Gentry stated that coach Mack does a great job of preparing players for the next level . and that he is very good coach gave alot of praise to coach Mack. Straight from a NBA coach who knows what the hell he's talking about!

"The NCAA isn't expected to allege major violations as a result of its investigation."

This is from an article on CBS Sports. I just shake my head in disbelief. We get hammered for strippers, they get nothing for rapes, many rapes.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...es-change-football-country-go-down/796288002/

UNC coach Larry Fedora at ACC Media Days questioned the link between CTE and football. He also suggested that our country will falter if football were to change too much. If this guy cannot understand the science between repeated head hits and CTE, then I'm not sure he is qualified to be a football coach.

"It hasn’t been definitively proven that football causes CTE, Fedora said during his appearance at Atlantic Coast Conference media days, but the fact that the connection has been made has impacted how people view the sport.

Fedora also spoke specifically about how rule changes in college football are changing the game, and not for the better. As football goes, Fedora said, so goes our country.

“Our game is under attack,” Fedora said. “I fear that the game will be pushed so far from what we know that we won’t recognize it 10 years from now. And if it does, our country will go down, too.”"

Scratching Ga Tech off that list this season. It's pretty amazing how many teams, in 100 years of football, who we haven't played. Lot of Pac-12 teams. Understandably so given the travel involved. Anyway, here's the list. P5 schools only.

Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Iowa St.
Texas Tech
Arizona
Cal
Colorado
Oregon
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington St.
Arkansas
Ole Miss
South Carolina

31 NCAA programs brought in $100 million or more in 2016-17

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

Clemson has reached the College Football Playoff the past three seasons, winning the national championship in January 2017 and playing for a title the year before. None of those teams appeared as stacked on paper going into a season as Dabo Swinney’s 2018 squad, which returns 62 lettermen — the most in school history.

“It’s a different deal for me in that I really haven’t had a team like this in nine years as a head coach,” Swinney told The Athletic this spring. “This year is the first team I’ve had where I really feel like at every position we have talent, we have experience, we have depth, we have character and we have leadership. We have all five of those components.

“That’s a good spot to be in.”

Indeed, there might be just one program in the country, Alabama, that wouldn’t love to trade places with the juggernaut Swinney has built at Clemson.

The Tigers, 82-15 since 2011, have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to reload each year. The breakout 2015 squad that lost to Alabama on the final night of the season did so a year after losing star defensive linemen Vic Beasley and Grady Jarrett to the NFL. The 2016 team that beat the Crimson Tide in Tampa had to replace six starting defenders who turned pro early. And in 2017, Clemson’s first team without all-time great quarterback Deshaun Watson made it back to the Playoff (losing to Alabama in the semifinals).

But 2018 began in entirely different fashion for the Tigers when D-linemen Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant opted to return for their senior seasons despite high NFL draft projections. They join rising junior Dexter Lawrence, arguably the most coveted of the bunch, in forming what could be one of the best front fours the sport has ever seen.

Their goal is to be “THE best,” Ferrell said. Mind you, Clemson’s defense finished tied for first nationally in sacks last season and second nationally in yards per play allowed (4.27).

Swinney has spent the past several years playing the “no respect” card, first when the public was slow to acknowledge Clemson’s ascension and then in response to doubters who thought the Tigers would backslide post-Watson. This year, for a change, the Tigers must deal with the widely held assumption that they’re going to be great.

“Not losing that edge is something that’s going to be really huge for us,” Ferrell said. “I hope nobody in here thinks they’re good enough or they ain’t got nothing to work on, because they’ll get exposed out there.”

Biggest on-field question
All Kelly Bryant did in his first season as Clemson’s starting quarterback was succeed a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, Watson, and lead the Tigers to 12 wins and a third consecutive ACC championship. Less than a year later, however, the rising senior will enter preseason camp in a fight to retain his job.

Not that he agrees.

“Definitely, I feel like it’s my job,” Bryant told The Athletic.

Maybe, but that’s not going to stop Tigers fans from clamoring for decorated true freshman Trevor Lawrence, the nation’s top-rated overall recruit on 247Sports’ Composite Rankings. The lanky 6-foot-5, 205-pound quarterback from Cartersville, Ga. — where he broke Watson’s state records for passing yards and touchdowns — enrolled at Clemson in January and wasted no time dazzling practice observers with his cannon arm.

Then came the Tigers’ April 14 spring game, when 50,000-plus spectators and an ESPN audience saw Lawrence throw a 50-yard touchdown to Tee Higgins on his second pass attempt and finish 11-for-16 for 122 yards. Conversely, Bryant struggled to an 8-for-15, 35-yard performance.

“Our culture is built around no entitlement,” Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said. “Kelly knew that even after all the success he had last year that he’s going to have to come out and compete again this year, especially at the quarterback position, where you’ve got some high-profile guys coming in.”

Bryant has a huge leg up in experience and command of the Tigers’ playbook. Though Lawrence is mobile in the pocket, Bryant is a more dangerous rusher, leading the team last season in rushing yards gained (before sacks) with 884. Clemson certainly felt his absence when Bryant, already playing with an ankle injury, missed the second half of its Oct. 13 game at Syracuse with a concussion. The Tigers suffered their only regular-season loss that night.

But few would argue Bryant was an elite passer as a junior. His 7.0 yards per attempt ranked 70th nationally, and he threw just 13 touchdown passes in 14 games. He endured a miserable night in Clemson’s 24-6 Playoff loss to Alabama, finishing 18-for-36 for 124 yards and two interceptions.

And yet, shortly after the spring game, Bryant was named Clemson’s Male Athlete of the Year at the school’s annual “Clemmys” award show. It’s truly hard to imagine that such a distinguished player would be in jeopardy of losing his job. Only the coaching staff knows whether the new guy is a real threat to surpass him before the season opener.

“Everybody always wants to be curious about the new thing, but that comes with it,” Bryant said. “I’m here. Everybody wants to write me off, but I don’t feel like I’ve done anything to raise any questions.”

Following are the 25 Top Public Colleges:

1. United States Military Academy
2. United States Naval Academy
3. United States Air Force Academy
4. University of Virginia
5. College of William and Mary
6. University of California, Berkeley
7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
8. University of California, Los Angeles
9. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
10. University of Wisconsin, Madison
11. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
12. University of Washington
13. University of Florida
14. University of Maryland, College Park
15. Georgia Institute of Technology
16. University of Texas, Austin
17. University of Georgia
18. United States Coast Guard Academy
19. University of California, Santa Barbara
20. Indiana University, Bloomington
21. University of California, San Diego
22. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
23. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
24. University of Colorado, Boulder
25. University of California, Davis

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Q. Jaylen, obviously it's a transition of quarterbacks. What has Jawon Pass been for you, what can you say coming out of the spring going into the fall, and what he can be for this team as the focus is on -- it's not Lamar, now let's focus on Jawon and why he's so special.
JAYLEN SMITH: Jawon is a natural born leader. It's in him. Once he came, he knew what he was getting himself into. He knew he was going to play behind a guy like Lamar. He learned a lot, and you can see he's learned the plays, he's learned the progressions. His physicality is not a question to me, but what I like about him is his demeanor. He's a guy who's very cool, calm, and collected at all moments of time. It's very hard to rattle a guy like that.

Q. Jaylen, to end the season last year you had a touchdown in each of the last four games. How does one nice episode in your life layer on top of the next, layer on top of the next? Where does the confidence then -- how do you use that, I guess?
JAYLEN SMITH: It's a game of life. Momentum is a game of life, whether it be playing football or whatever. I think that was good for me, building on that. I missed three games, so it was important for me to come back and finish strong, and I think that boosted me into the start of this 2018 season.

Q. Jaylen, just speak on the receiving corps, just what you can say about what you've done individually to improve and what you're seeing out of the rest of the corps, as we know that this offense can score points.
JAYLEN SMITH: Well, I've tried to mold myself into more of a leader at the receiver position, and me, Dez and Seth, we get the spotlight, but it goes way beyond that, guys like Corey Reed, Devante Peete coming back, Emonee Spence who's been under the radar for a minute, and all the freshmen coming in are all speed guys. I feel like we have the best group in the conference, and we work like it. So that's the main thing to me. We put in the work to have the title of the best group in the conference, and it shows.

Q. Jaylen, you returned four offensive linemen and not just yourself but two other wide receivers. Talk about the comfort level for a new quarterback to have that many familiar faces blocking for him and that many familiar faces to throw to.
JAYLEN SMITH: Yeah, that was a focus for us, making Puma's job a lot easier. As much as we can do to help him out in his first season as the starting quarterback is what we will do. The O-line will do the same. So I think that would be important for us. Puma has put in the work, he's put in his time, he's paid his dues, and it's his time to shine.

Q. I want to ask you about the running game. Dae Williams and Colin Wilson, sort of that tandem there, sort of your thoughts about him?
JAYLEN SMITH: Yeah, Dae Williams, he came back from an ACL, and he proved a lot of people wrong, a lot of people thought he wasn't going to be able to play last year, and he did numbers in the sporadic time. Same thing with Mojo. That's Colin's nickname, Mojo. He's one of the best backs I've seen as far as vision goes, and even then we have a stable of running backs, Tobias -- Pee-wee, that's what we call him. Pee-wee, he's come along. He's moved from defense to offense, and we have Tre Smith, who's been here for four years, and he's coming along well. I feel like those four guys right there, they give us a stable back there of running backs, so we'll be in good hands back there, as well.

Q. You talked about that injury last year to your wrist. How did you maintain that football focus while you were out?
JAYLEN SMITH: Just knowing I would be back. It's easy to lose focus unless you have a plan at hand. My thing was I know I'll be gone, but I won't be gone long. That's how I just stayed focused knowing that that wasn't the end of the chapter.

Q. Do you guys feel a little under the radar? You lost Lamar, a lot of talk about him, but do you feel a little under the radar going into the season as a team?
JAYLEN SMITH: Yeah, we do. It's just you lose that production, all that Lamar did. Even with the skills that Puma possesses, people are still going to have questions. They're still going to have their doubts about what we can do without Lamar and how much we actually did without him. So yeah, it feels like we're kind of sliding under the radar, but it's up to us to do what we do, work hard, put it together and let the chips fall where they may.

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It’s better to burn out, than fade away. My subscription is about to lapse and I am not renewing it. The availability of information from other sources is the biggest part of it. I have been considering this a while, but hung around because of most of you on the boards. Anyway, after 10+ years here I thought I would address it, instead of just disappearing like some others because I have met some great people here, as well as, some who are not so great.


For the admins:


Jack - You have a great website. I appreciate what you have done to make this happen and provide us with information. I appreciate your opinions and what you have shared with us.


Howie - You do an amazing job. Your allegiance is unquestioned. I hope you can parlay this into a big job, but I am not meaning to downplay what you do here.


Chris Person - The Rifleman is better than any recruiting guy we have had here. Nice work.


For those people I have met through this site:


PervisGriffith - We met because of this board. You will have to let me know when we have red, white or blackouts because now I won’t know. See you soon.


Prediction: Starts new business, goes bankrupt spending his days posting polls about U of L.


Vegasville - Glad we finally met. You know how to contact me and vice versa. See you at the FSU game.


Umlusa - I haven’t seen you around here in quite a while. You may be gone. If you are still here, you know where we tailgate.


Boomboys 13 - Thanks, for all of the information. You are one of the guys who truly gets real information. I will miss that. You have my email and know where we tailgate.


Prediction: Enters the Octagon with birdteeth. Wins, easily.


Willinger - I always respect your opinions and love your input on Howie’s show. See you at Saints, or somewhere.


Prediction: Our very own 40 Under 40 member cannot handle the pressure of such a designation and the expectations that come with it. He becomes complacent and does not even make the Top 100 for the 50 Under 50 group in 10 years.


Rollem - Again, not much to say here. See you in the August.


Prediction: He actually still has some give a damn or he would not be here.


KingHenry - Glad to have met you in Atlanta. You have my number and the offer of FB tix stands when you can make it to town.


Ajgcardman - I have always appreciated your point of view and even more so appreciate your recent decision to run for public office. I would vote for you any time, despite our political differences, and hope you eventually become GOV and fix this whole mess.


Prediction: Bevin is discovered to be a devil worshiper and is forced to resign. AJ wins the GOV in a special election.


Gocds - Thank you, for inviting me to the lunches. They were fun. Good luck and good health to you. I’ll see you around.


Prediction: Someone finally takes him up on his bet, he loses and gets stuck with a green ass fly. Names it Kevin.


2330859 - I apologize for offending you. I don’t even remember what it was about. I have the utmost respect for you, as you are probably the most gentlemanly and polite poster here. Unfortunately, I will probably not be invited to any more football luncheons because of my departure. Hopefully, we bump into each other at a game.


Mayoman - If 233 is the biggest gentleman on the board, you are a close second. You know where we tailgate, so stop by any time.


Sultan of Swine - I cannot believe that we are now on the same side, mostly. See you at Saints, or somewhere, II.


Prediction: Meets Zipp at preseason practice as challenged by Zipp, refuses to pull it out to measure them as Zipp requests, kicks Zipp’s ass without sweating. BTW, it is August.


WildCard - I have never understood how anyone can have any positive feelings for any part of U of K. However, you have always been classy about it, on both sides of the argument.


Gamedaynut - You are a good dude with a great sense of humor. See you in the parking lot.


CardsDan - Thank you, for introducing me to many of these people and inviting me to the lunches. We will always remember Kyle for that comeback. That alone makes him a U of L legend.


Mark Ennis - I appreciate your information and opinions. I hope you make it big. Maybe, you can take SVP’s job someday.


Prediction: Becomes the next BMOC, but needs a bigger headset than pinhead SVP.


General Red - You should post more, but I know you are keeping busy. You are a good guy, but I still have trouble with your last name.


Lilbobbylefew - I don’t know if you remember, but we met twice. Once at the Parrish House for the signing day event and another time when I met you to give you my basketball tix. Keep those kids in red and I’d love to know what you have been referring to about the gov the last few weeks.


DrakeW - I am glad you recently reminded me that we met before which I think was also at the Parrish House signing day event. Maybe, we will meet again.


Ralph Dawkins - I really need to remember to tell my kids and friends in St. Matts to use your services.


Pushup – He was the second guy I ever met on this board. First, was the Ghost of ShootSix.

Is there anybody...OUT THERE?

And that is how I know

When I try to get through

On the telephone to you

There'll be nobody home


Prediction: Like Daniel Simpson Day, his whereabouts are unknown.


To the guys above, we met because of this board. That alone made it worth the price of admission.


Zipp - Unfortunately, I have to include you because we did meet which was also unfortunate. Nothing was more telling than meeting you in person at the HOF Cafe at last year’s football luncheon. You are very different in person. That makes you a hypocrite, among other things. BTW, get over it.


Prediction: Several UK fans attack him while tailgating at the game in November. Not a single U of L fan comes to his aid. Things get worse when residents of The Harbours physically throw him out. Forced to move to Kentucky and actually pay for the arena he has a nervous breakdown and seeks counseling. The rest of us knew he needed it all along.


Sorry, if I have left out someone that I have met. It was not intentional.

BOBBY PETRINO: I enjoy coaching football. I enjoy the relationship that I get with our players. This is a team that I really like and respect and one that has really stuck together and grown together. I think everyone on our team now is somebody that we recruited to come here, and certainly Jaylen and Jonathan have done a great job of leadership and production. Both of them are excellent students, and they do a great job not only leading on the field but leading off the field.

Q. You heard positive words about you; what can you say about these two gentlemen and why you decided to bring them to represent the team?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, because they both have really put in the work that you need to be a great player. Jaylen came to us as a true freshman, started that year as a true freshman. Because he was such a great learner, he learned the offense. God gave him a lot of ability. He's big and physical and fast. But he does a great job representing what we want at the University of Louisville, and it's fun to hear him talk about his teammates and bring up Tre Smith and things like that. So he does a great job.

Jonathan is a guy that came in and redshirted for us his first year, spent the time in the weight room developing his body and getting bigger. He's also an excellent student of the game, much like Jaylen. He really understands the game. He knows how to cheat a little bit, so he'll recognize certain things offenses are doing or the guy that he's going over is doing, and he just can cheat and make the play. That's why you have the stats -- I couldn't exactly hear the stat you said about negative plays, but that's one of the reasons that allows him to create negative plays is because he really understands the game and knows what's coming, and sometimes you come out of your assignment to make a play. And as long as he makes the play, I'm good with it. The minute he doesn't make the play, I might get on him just a little bit.

Q. Your teams have moved the ball at every level of coaching, every place you've been, and yet I don't think we've ever seen the yards and points that we saw during the last couple of seasons. Walk us through what's your vision of the post-Lamar Jackson era? What's this offense going to look like this year?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, I expect us to be better. I expect us to be more balanced, the ability to get more guys involved, particularly in the running game. I really like our receiving corps coming back. I really think it's one of the strongest corps coming back. I forgot Jaylen missed three games and still had that many catches and that many touchdowns, and Dez is a guy that can really go get the ball and adjust to the ball. Seth is a big, physical guy that really runs well after the catch.

And like Jaylen said, we have some really good young speed guys that will be able to come in and help us create plays and maybe give us a little different flavor in the run after the catch, and guys that can create more after the catch. And then I think that we'll do well at quarterback. Puma is a really good player that's really been an inspiration to all of us because at the quarterback position it's one of transfer throughout the country. He's a very highly recruited young guy with high expectations and came in and sat and supported Lamar at everything that he did. He never once came into my office with any talk about transferring, and I really respect that, and I know he has the respect of all of his teammates on how he's performed every time that he's went out on the field.

We've got a great group of tight ends. I think that's maybe the unknown because we've got three really good tight ends that we can do different things with personnel groupings and a much more experienced offensive line. You might not get the chunks out of one guy like we have the last couple years, but overall they've all got to make up for it and be more productive than we've been.

Q. Running backs?
BOBBY PETRINO: Running backs are a good group. Tre Smith had a great spring. He really showed his ability to run between the tackles and get yards after contact and protect the quarterback. A lot of times young running backs don't play because you don't trust them to protect the quarterback. But we trust him now to do that.

And then Dae Williams and Colin Wilson are two big physical guys, and Colin has some special skills as far as his movement in and out of holes. Tobias Little is a guy that played fullback for us last year, and then we started giving him the football, and he's a 245-pound guy that can play tailback and catch the ball out of the backfield.

I think overall it's a really good group. What we need to find out is who wants to separate from the pack, who wants to become the featured back, and you do that by hard work and practice.

Q. You mentioned the quarterback as a position of transfer. Do you have a sense of why that is or how it's gotten that way?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I think it's just been that way for a long time. The way I look at it is here's a guy that was probably their best player in high school, probably has been playing every game since he was six years old, and been one of the best players out on the field, and now you come in and you sit and you take him away. You play six, seven, eight wide receivers, four or five defensive ends/ outside linebackers, but you play one quarterback. That's how it's always been. Everyone wants one starter and let him play.

So I think that the guy behind him gets impatient and wants to go find a place where he can be the guy.

Q. I wanted to ask you your early impressions of Jawon Pass as a leader, how he's embraced that role of taking over for Lamar Jackson.
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I think what Jaylen said is really true. He's a natural leader. When he stepped on campus, you could see that. One of the things I like so much about Puma was -- like when I would go coach Lamar, go to him and coach him after a play and run down the field, I would turn around and run into Jawon. He would follow me so he could hear what I was saying to him. He's very, very competitive, but he is a little bit low keyed. He's like -- keep his emotions in check. We're working on that, working on getting him to walk just a little bit faster, get to the line of scrimmage just a little bit faster and get guys going a little bit more. But I do know this, I do know every player on our team respects him and is looking forward to playing with him.

Q. What are your feelings about the new redshirt rule, and how will you use that at Louisville?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, I like the rule. I think it's a good rule. I'm getting old, so I remember way back when we changed the schedule from 11 games to 12 games. There was supposed to be a piece of pie out there for the head coaches, that we'll change it to 12 games and give everyone five years of eligibility, which never did happen, so that's really what I was always liking. But I think it's a good deal. What I'm going to try to do is try to find a list of freshmen that I really think can play early and help us and maybe play the entire season and utilize them in the first four games of the year and see where they're at and see if they can continue to improve and help us and make a decision. Then I think we'll have another group of guys that you say, hey, he's not ready right now, either it's physically or mentally or hasn't adjusted to the speed. Let him continue to practice.

We work our redshirts and guys that don't play a lot in the game on Sunday nights, let them continue to work on that and then utilize them in the last four games of the year and get them experience and help us in the bowl game. So that's kind of the plan going in. And then we're going to have to be able to improvise and adjust.

Q. We had a head coach in the room earlier today that said progress in this league is not easy. You're heading into your ninth year, 66-35 as an ACC head coach. How has the progress been for you in this league?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I think that it's a very, very competitive league. Some of those wins that you're talking about we were back in either Conference USA or the Big East, and those conferences you maybe had two, sometimes three games a year where you felt like when you stepped on the field you were better than the other team. It's not that way in our conference. Everybody has really good players. Everybody are very well-coached. So you have to be able to do it week in and week out in your preparation and your performance on the field. That's what makes it so difficult.

I feel like we've knocked on the door a few times. I want to see us get over the hump and get to that championship game here.

Q. One thing that I don't think we spoke about as you were going through the positions, special teams, it seems like on paper it should be pretty good this season.
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I feel great about our special teams. We've got a very, very good kicker back that had great year for us last year, and we have our punter back, both of them returning, both had really good years. A returning long snapper that snapped for us last year as a true freshman. So our specialists should be really good.

I like our cover teams because I feel like we're a faster team than we were, and usually when you're a faster team, you cover punts and kickoffs much better. But we've got to be able to do a better job on our punt return team and creating 1st downs or changing the field with our punt return team.

Q. Jonathan, to speak on Brian VanGorder, new defensive coordinator, what you've taken away from him and what you've seen from this defense as you head into the fall.
JONATHAN GREENARD: Well, I knew instantly when Coach VanGorder came in he was about winning and making sure we impose our will on offenses. Definitely him having that mentality and guys like me who have been around different defensive coordinators, that's what we want, to make sure we're going to play with an aggressive guy who makes sure our presence is known in the game. With him being there and the players that we have, I think we're going to be really successful.

Q. You talk about imposing your will, 22.5 tackles for loss in your career, been fairly steady in that category. As you think about 2018, is there something about you that wants to be more aggressive?
JONATHAN GREENARD: Definitely. The most thing I can say I want to be more aggressive in is finishing, staying aggressive every single play and not giving up and steadily progressing my motor, as in consistently making plays, chasing the ball down the backside, running to the football if the ball is thrown. So I feel like I've been working on that a lot with my conditioning, as well, and from spring I definitely tried to master that craft, as well.

Q. I wanted to ask you about some of those young linebackers, specifically Dorian Etheridge, Avery and Robert Hicks. Seems like those guys have a chance to step up this year.
JONATHAN GREENARD: Right, Robert Hicks came in in January and he's been very good. He's a very physical linebacker, wants to step up and definitely a run stopper. Dorian Etheridge, I knew he was going to be how he was as soon as I saw him last year once he came in with the ones and got some reps with us. And once I knew how he took on that leadership role to lead the defense at a young age already, I knew that he had something in him. And the knowledge he has for the game and the feel he has for a game, it's kind of like you can't really teach that. So when somebody comes like they're all this, you just have to build up and just help him out in his ability to do stuff.

Q. Jonathan, under Coach Petrino the defense has been good, and I understand a new system now, but what was the takeaway from those performances? What has to change?
JONATHAN GREENARD: Yeah, it's definitely not -- we realized at the end of the year that we had to sit back and realize that that's not what U of L football is about. U of L football has always been defensive-minded. We always had a dominant defense no matter what year or what the case may be, so to realize that we gave up that many points, that was very uncharacteristic, like you said. We just definitely took that as a chip on our shoulder towards the end of the year, and that's why we finished a little bit stronger like we did, and we'll just carry that over, and hopefully that lasts for the summer and into the fall, as well.

Q. What drives you? What has been your inspiration as a football player going all the way back to the day?
JONATHAN GREENARD: Oh, man, we inspiration, it's two things, my mother, how hard she worked growing up. That's the reason why I have this passion I have for the game or for anything, period, because anything she does, she does it with 110 percent and anything I do, 110 percent.

Another reason why Ryan Tumblin, one of my friends back home from high school, he's autistic and epileptic, as well. He definitely made me feel -- he made me be more humble and actually respect the game more because somebody who's not able to do that and wishing they could be able to do that, just makes you realize how good you have it and make you not take that next snap for granted.

Q. You just spoke on some inspiration. How does Bobby Petrino inspire?
JONATHAN GREENARD: Because he has a winning tradition. Anybody who knows about Petrino knows where he comes from, what he's about. He's definitely a winning guy. He knows what -- he wants the best for you. The main thing with Coach Petrino, he just wants us just to hone in on technique because technique is going to win you the games, when the other guys who have more talent than you, they just don't have the technique. If you have the technique, you're going to have -- little things like hand placement as a defensive lineman, when you're honing in on your technique and stuff like that, he emphasizes that on stuff like that, so that way you can be able to have yourself ahead of a guy who might be more athletic than you, who might be stronger or faster or whatever the case may be, so you can't beat technique.

Story: The latest with TE Cormontae Hamilton

Given the Chernobyl-level dumpster fire this is becoming, the smart, and right, decision by Dr. Bendapudi to end the relationship with John Schnatter is looking better every second.

That's just my opinion...

Circus is coming to town


JP

Just wondering if I were a member of the UofL BOT and I wanted to resign would I tender that resignation to the Chairperson OR the President of the University. Perhaps to the govenor? What is the process and I’m wondering what process did snotter follow last Friday (or Thursday). Who accepted his resignation. Obviously, I’m very pleased that he did, in fact, resign but I don’t want any questions down the road about the legality of same.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!!

signs 4 year rookie deal with the Mavericks!

** Updates from Bobby Petrino at ACC Media Day **

Here we go... Coach taking the podium now...

Any insight into today’s media schedule, interviews, etc.?

David Teel of The Daily Press:

"The ACC rarely kicks off a football season with multiple conference games. The ACC has never tipped off a men’s basketball season with a full complement of league contests.

Next year’s launch of the ACC Network figures to change those scheduling norms.

Presiding over his 22nd preseason ACC football gathering, commissioner John Swofford revealed those programming details, and more, during a one-on-one interview Wednesday afternoon.

Swofford also addressed ACC Network distribution, financial projections and the revenue gap his member schools are fighting against their Power Five peers.

ESPN, crave a splashy debut. So why not schedule accordingly?

Swofford cemented Wednesday that the ACC will stage multiple league games to start next football season. He didn’t reveal matchups, but based on non-conference contracts already in place, the most likely candidates are Virginia Tech at Boston College, Georgia Tech at Clemson and Pittsburgh versus Syracuse or Virginia.

Power Five leagues generally avoid Week One conference games. There are only two this season — Northwestern at Purdue in the Big Ten, and Virginia Tech at Florida State in the ACC — and there was only one in 2017: Ohio State-Indiana in the Big Ten.

“There will be some conference games in Week One,” Swofford said, “and there will be some high-profile games during the course of the season that you might expect to be on ABC that will be on the ACC Network in all probability, in both football and men’s basketball. And that could continue.”

Most notably, Swofford said the ACC is seriously considering playing seven conference men’s basketball games, spread over multiple days, to start the 2019-20 season, and beyond. One of the league’s 15 teams would have a bye, perhaps Duke — which, along with Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan State, competes in November’s annual Champions Classic.

“It would be exciting in terms of a new network,” Swofford said, “and would bring people to the network right at the beginning of the season. … I think fans would be into it both from a network standpoint as well as from a competition standpoint.

“If we could arrange it where almost every school played, that would be a heck of a way to start the basketball season. It would have a tremendous pop to it.”

Given football’s fall dominance, heaven knows college basketball needs a November pop.

Swofford said ACC coaches would “be fine with it, particularly if everybody’s playing a conference game right (at the start). Then it’s equal, it’s fair. I think they understand the attention it would bring to the league. … It could be something very special.”

Virginia opened the 1960-61 season with then-ACC rival Maryland and in 1979-80 versus league newcomer Georgia Tech. North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest and Duke used to play two nights of doubleheaders against one another — the event was called the Big Four — to start the season in Greensboro, N.C., though the results did not count in the ACC standings.

A full complement of conference games to start the season would be unprecedented for the ACC. It would also help manage a league schedule that expands from 18 to 20 games per team in 2019-20, this to coincide with the network’s launch.

Swofford said new ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro, with whom he met this spring in Texas, is as committed to the ACC Network project as his predecessor, Swofford’s confidant and fellow North Carolina graduate John Skipper.

According to their most recent tax returns, for fiscal 2016-17, the ACC’s revenue trailed the Southeastern Conference’s by $232 million and the Big Ten’s by $95 million, unsustainable gaps long-term. Fueling the disparities are the SEC Network, launched in 2014, also in conjunction with ESPN, and the Big Ten Network, launched in 2007.

“This is our approach to closing that gap,” Swofford said. “The SEC Network was probably an anomaly in the sense it got to its max very quickly, unlike the Big Ten Network and certainly unlike the Pac-12 Networks. And we’ve based our (revenue) projections very realistically and conservatively.”

Naturally, Swofford declines to share projections.

“Obviously the sooner the better,” he said of closing the gap, “and that’s based on distribution. Distribution’s often based on content, so we need to have the best content generally speaking that we can have on the ACC channel. And that’s how both ESPN and the ACC maximize the business proposition.”

Like the SEC, the ACC will have the power of ESPN’s parent company, Disney, to leverage cable providers into carrying its network. If a cable outfit balks at the ACC Network, Disney can withhold Disney Junior.

“I don’t think anybody can (leverage) better than Disney and ESPN,” Swofford said. “That’s a tough world … and a lot of times things go right down to the midnight hour, and it did even with the SEC Network.”

Despite revenue shortcomings, ACC schools continue to thrive in football, men’s basketball and Olympic sports.

“If you have more assets to help you get there, that’s all well and good,” Swofford said. “But … if it were solely about who has the most gold, so to speak, Ohio State, Texas and Florida would win everything. And now maybe Texas A&M. …

“And there a lot of different sources of revenue. Sometimes we write so much about conference revenues, we forget the importance of the individual schools and the revenues that they can self-generate. Because when you look at the schools that are generating the most money, it’s not just television money. It’s tickets sold, it’s contributions, it’s a lot of different things. …

“Conference distributions are important, there’s no question about that, but that’s not the end-all, be-all.”

Here’s how important: In 2016-17, an ACC distribution north of $26 million accounted for approximately 30 percent of Virginia Tech’s $87.4 million in revenue.

And for enhancing conference revenue, the ACC Network is paramount."

University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi will make an announcement today about Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium at 1:00 pm.

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The Chairman of the Board is still a bit confused on how the board is assembled. I'd be willing to wager $1,000 that he avoids the media (again) today.

In other news, Brian Cromer, one of the guys that voted in favor of keeping Tom Jurich, has resigned and will need to be replaced.

Here's hoping Gov. Bevin picks someone with strong UofL ties, preferably a graduate and donor, for these open spots.