wn, a 31-year-old counselor and track coach at Vista Peak

Seventh-ranked Louisville welcomes some down time after slipping out of the national title discussion.Plenty of time remains for the Cardinals to be reconsidered, though, and much now depends on how they and Heisman Trophy front-runner Lamar Jackson rebound from last Saturdays loss to No. 3 Clemson.Coach Bobby Petrino said this weeks bye comes at a good time for Louisville (4-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). Besides allowing players to heal from a grueling opening stretch that included complete domination of then-No. 2 Florida State and a tough 42-36 loss at Clemson, the Cardinals get to regroup and figure out how to run the table.Even with the loss, theyre obviously in a better place one year after entering the break 2/3 and trying to salvage a season.Weve had a very grueling schedule and a lot of intensity, a couple of huge, huge games, Petrino said this week. So I think its a good opportunity for us to settle in and get our schoolwork done and everything we need to do with class work, get back to technique and fundamentals, kind of go back to half of the practice being camp practice where you go ones-on-ones and work hard on it.Then, some of your guys are able to heal up, he said. So, for us its a great time for our bye.Especially since it allows Jackson to recharge and follow up his dynamic start.Any discussion of the Heisman has begun with the 6-3, 204-pound sophomore, who has passed and rushed for 14 touchdowns each and combined for 2,313 yards. The national leader in several offensive categories has room for improvement after throwing a career-high three interceptions and fumbling once at Clemson, but his leadership showed as he finished with 306 yards passing and positioned Louisville to have one final chance that fell a yard short on fourth down.The frustrated look on Jacksons face after his mistakes spoke volumes about his desire to get it right, an attitude he has shown in workouts this week.Well mess up a play and Lamar will immediately come back with, `Lets do it again, Louisville wide receiver Jaylen Smith said on Petrinos weekly radio show. You have to want to be perfect.The Cardinals task now is a perfect finish they hope will keep them on the radar for the four-team playoff. Their remaining schedule seems favorable toward regaining that dominance.Louisville hosts Duke on Oct. 14 in the first of five straight ACC games before the Cardinals visit No. 6 Houston in a non-conference showdown on Nov. 17 that could shape their playoff prospects. That conference docket certainly isnt easy, with North Carolina State, Boston College and Wake Forest all boasting winning records.Overtaking Clemson to win the Atlantic Division would require two losses by the Tigers, an unlikely scenario considering they seem energized by clearing their toughest challenge to date. Louisville remains unfazed and challenged to improve on offense, defense and special teams and play its best football from here on.Weve got a lot of pride on our team, Petrino said, and guys were able to watch the (Clemson) video and know that we competed extremely hard. (We) just had 15 or 20 plays in there, where if we make one of them, the outcomes different.Were going to stick together as a team, have a great attitude and continue to work hard and try to improve, the coach added.---AP College Football: collegefootball.ap.org---Follow Gary B. Graves on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GaryBGraves Custom Portland Trail Blazers Jerseys . One game after a miserable showing in Oklahoma City, Gay tied a career high with 41 points and the Sacramento Kings cruised to a 114-97 victory at the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. Bill Walton Jersey . Fred Couples, captain of the U.S. side, put it all into perspective. "We know whos in charge," he said. https://www.blazerslockerroom.com/Gary-Trent-Jr-City-Edition-Jersey/ . -- An ugly goal by Nick Bonino helped the Anaheim Ducks overcome the defensive-minded Phoenix Coyotes on a night when their ragged power play continued to struggle. Rodney Hood Jersey .25 million option on reliever Jose Veras. Georgios Papagiannis Jersey . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The reasons for triathlons burgeoning appeal are as varied as the sport itself.-Fitness freaks looking for a new challenge.-Millennials wanting something to hold both their interest and youthful physique.-Gen Xers coaxed in by NBCs annual Ironman competition in Hawaii.The biggest factor, according to USA Triathlon, is the inclusion of the sport in the Olympic program.Looking at the causes for this growth, one must first turn their attention to the 2000 Olympic Games, triathlons first appearance at this international event, the sports national governing body said in its most recent demographics report . This elevated the publicity of the sport on the national level.Triathlon could get another big boost from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where two British brothers crushed the course on Copacabana Beach and where American Gwen Jorgensen, the two-time defending ITU world champion, is the gold medal favorite in the womens race Saturday.When the races are being played in every bar in America, its impossible for it not to help, suggested Patrick Lemieux, Jorgensens husband and operations manager, who added that hes seen a giant leap in the sports awareness in the U.S. just since the 2012 London Games.USA Triathlon touts itself as the worlds largest multisport organization, sanctioning more than 4,300 races and connecting with a half million members annually. Its also the national governing body for duathlon, aqua-thon, aqua-bike, winter triathlon, off-road triathlon and para-triathlon. In addition to working on the grassroots level, it supports elite athletes competing in international events such as the International Triathlon Union world championships and the Olympics.The 30-year-old Jorgensen was a late-comer to triathlon, recruited to the sport after an All-American track career at the University of Wisconsin, where she also was on the swim team.Others start as soon as they can.Ive been around the sport two-thirds of my life, since I was about 8 years old, said Ben Kanute, a 23-year-old Olympian from Geneva, Illinois, whose father was a triathlete and helped organize the first kids triathlon at a health and wellness center near their home about the time the sport debuted at the Sydney Olympics.Kanute said he started out swimming a couple of hundred meters, followed by a five-mile bike ride and a mile-long run, and he felt like those Ironmen he loved to watch on TV.I fell in love with the sport, said Kanute, who hung with Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee on Thursday until the brothers broke free midway through the 6.dddddddddddd.2-mile run that followed a one-loop ocean swim and a steep 24-mile bike ride at Copacabana.It might just be that parents put them in there to blow off some steam, buts its kind of the wow factor with triathlon, Kanute said. You get to swim, bike and run all in the same day. Its pretty kid friendly.As they graduate to adulthood, triathletes typically start with the shorter sprints and move up to the Olympic-length races. Some move up to Ironman, which is 140.6 miles: a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mike ride and a marathon. Theres also half of that, the Ironman 70.3.The Olympic races are over in an appealing two hours.And I think thats the beauty of it, Lemieux said. In triathlon, you can do a sprint thats one hour long, you can do an Ironman, which are eight hours for the fastest, 14 or 15 for others. So, the nature of the sport is that it can cater to anyone and I think thats something thats really appealing to people.Jay Brown, a 31-year-old counselor and track coach at Vista Peak Preparatory School in Aurora, Colorado, is a typical triathlete: he got into the sport in his mid-20s after souring on long runs and was hooked.The variety is the appeal. You have three sports instead of just running, which had gotten boring, Brown said. I was looking for something else to do and a friend suggested I try triathlon. I said I can do that. I just started swimming 50 meters in the pool and I didnt even own my own bike. I used an old road bike.Soon, it was his passion. His training got more intense, his diet changed accordingly and as he gained the requisite energy and expertise, he also acquired his desired equipment, an aerodynamic bicycle. He even has a coach and a sponsor, Tabata Songs.A 23-year-old right out of college might not have the means to buy a triathlon bike, hire a coach and pay for travel and Ironman entry fees, Brown said. So, a lot of people get into it a little later.No matter their age or the discipline, triathletes find a close-knit community.Every triathlon that I go to just has a very cool vibe, Kanute said. Theres camaraderie because everyone knows how hard each person has trained to get there.---AP Summer Games website: http://summergames.ap.org---Follow AP Sports Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton ' ' '