Miami, Fla. (FIUSports.com) – The FIU football team (1-6, 0-3 Sun Belt) is back in action, Saturday, Oct. 20, as the Panthers go on the road for the fourth time in 2012 to face the Troy University (3-3, 2-2 Sun Belt) at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy, Ala.

Kickoff with the Trojans is scheduled for 1 p.m. EST. and will be broadcast through the Sun Belt Network (televised locally in South Florida on CSS). The FIU Sports Radio Network will have the call of the game, heard anywhere around the world on FIUSports.com.

Click HERE to view FIU-Troy Game Notes

The Panthers enter the game at Troy coming off a narrow loss to Middle Tennessee, 34-30, Saturday, Oct. 13 at Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium, while the Trojans were also knocked off at home, 31-26, by Western Kentucky on Thursday, Oct. 11.

Jake Medlock (R-So., QB) returned to the FIU line-up vs. Middle Tennessee after missing the previous two games at Louisiana and Arkansas State with injury. The Jacksonville, Fla., native was sharp throwing for a career-high 380 yards vs. the Blue Raiders, completing 24-of-38 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Medlock's return was bolstered by an active receiving corps of veterans, highlighted by juniors Glenn Coleman (5-for-115) and Willis Wright (3-for-109) recording career-highs in receiving yards along with a pair of touchdown catches.  Wayne Times (Sr., WR) continued his career-long streak to 24 straight games with a pass reception with his five catches vs. the Blue Raiders - the third-longest streak in FIU history.

Darian Mallary (Sr., RB) would also score his team-high eighth rushing touchdown, a four-yard run at 1:39 in the second quarter. He has now had at least one touchdown rushing in each game played this season.

On defense, Chuck Grace (R-Sr., FS) had a record day notching a career-high 13 tackles, including 10 solo. Tourek Williams (Sr., DE) was active in the backfield, sacking the Middle Tennessee quarter 2.5 times to up his career total to 15.0 sacks.

GAME DETAILS:

Date: Saturday, Oct. 20

Location: Troy, Ala.

Time: 1 p.m. (EST)

Stadium: Veterans Memorial Stadium (30,000)

2012 Records:

FIU: 1-6 Overall, 0-3 Sun Belt

Troy: 3-3 Overall, 2-2 Sun Belt

Series: Troy leads 6-2

Social Media: Twitter.com/@FIUFootball

Game Broadcast: FIU Sports.com (FIU Sports Radio Network)

Next Up:

Opponent: WKU (5-1/2-0 Sun Belt) [vs. ULM, Sat., Oct. 20]

Date: Saturday, Oct. 27

Location: Miami, Fla.

Time: 6 p.m.

Stadium: Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium (20,000)

Game Broadcast: ESPN3

 

FIU – Troy Series

The all-time series with Troy has been one of the longest-played on the FIU schedule, beginning in FIU's second season (2003). The series became annual in 2005 when the Panthers joined the Sun Belt Conference. Troy owns the series advantage, 6-2, however, FIU's two wins have come in the last two meetings (2010 and 2011).

In 2011, the Trojans traveled to Miami and battled FIU into overtime before FIU prevailed, 23-20, in the extra period. Troy began overtime with the ball but wasn't able to create positive yards resulting with a missed 43-yard field goal attempt. FIU handed off to Kedrick Rhodes six straight times totaling 18 yards on its overtime possession. Jack Griffin then came on and nailed a 22-yard field goal for the win.

Rhodes starred in last year's contest, rushing for a career-high 172 yards on 30 carries. Griffin would also make three field goals and two extra points to supply nearly half FIU's points.

Both of FIU's touchdowns in the game came in the third quarter on long-distance connections between quarterback Wesley Carroll and Wayne Times (76 yards) and Jacob Younger (43 yards).

Past Games

10/18/03; at Troy; (L) 10-21 [19,417]

10/20/05; at Troy; (L) 13-18 [18,232]

12/2/06; Troy; (L) 13-26 [15,023]

10/6/07; Troy; (L) 16-34 [5,723]

10/18/08; at Troy; (L) 23-33 [19316]

10/17/09; Troy; (L) 33-42 [10,142]

11/13/10; at Troy; (W) 52-35 [20,243]

10/25/11; Troy (OT); (W) 23-20 [15,852]

 

FIU – Troy Roster Connections

The active Troy roster contains 25 players from Florida, including two from the Tri-County (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties) region: Jimmie Arnold (Jr., OL) - Belle Glades, Fla. (Day); T.J. Mitchell (Sr., RB) - Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Hollywood-Chaminade). The majority of Troy's Floridians hail from North Florida.

FIU has one player from Alabama on its roster: Denzell Perine (Mobile/Davidson).

Excluding in-state opponent, UCF, Troy's 25 Florida players are the second-most amount of opponent Floridians FIU has faced so-far: Duke (13); Akron (11); Louisville (34); Louisiana (7); Arkansas State (2)

Two Trojans have high school connections with FIU players:

Ocala/Trinity Catholic

FIU: Kedrick Rhodes (Jr., RB); Troy: Dionte Ponder (R-So., DB)

Itawamba (Miss.) Community College

FIU: Tevin Blanchard (Sr., CB); Troy: Martrez Townes (Jr., LB)

 

FIU in Sun Belt Conference Play

FIU is in its eighth Sun Belt Conference schedule (since 2005), and sixth playing under Head Coach Mario Cristobal (since 2007).

Since 2005, FIU is 21-34 (.382) vs. Sun Belt competition (however, three wins were vacated in 2005 for an actual 18-34 NCAA record). At home, FIU is 13-15 (.464), while going 8-19 (.296) on the road.

Under Cristobal, FIU has built its program back up and has improved greatly in league play. Since 2007, FIU is 18-23 (.439) in Sun Belt games, while going 11-10 (.524) at home and 7-13 (.350) on the road.

Most notably, starting in 2010, when FIU won the Sun Belt Conference championship and began its streak of two straight bowl seasons, the Panthers have gone 11-8 (.579) in SBC games, with a 6-4 (.600) home and 5-4 (.556) road record.

 

Playing Opponents with Centuries of History

FIU, in its 11th season playing football and eighth at the FBS level, is playing a school, Troy, that is in its 90th season of football, and whose roots stretch back to 1909.

However, like FIU, Troy is a young FBS program, moving up in classification prior to 2001. The Trojans had played at the NAIA and Division I-AA (FCS) levels prior to 2001.

The Trojans have played continuously since 1946. Prior to that year, the team was fielded with only a few interruptions from 1909 to 1942. According to Wikipedia, eight seasons were missed due to lack of participation and later World War I from 1913–1920, while the Wall Street Crash of 1929 kept the team from playing that year.

Aside from UCF (34th season since 1979), FIU's other seven opponents, Duke (100), Akron (112), Louisville (94), Louisiana (110), Arkansas State (98), Middle Tennessee (98) and Troy (90) have a combined 702 seasons of football between them.

Looking ahead is aged WKU (1913). South Alabama in Week 10 and FAU in Week 11 are more familiar with FIU's youth having begun football in 2009 and 2001, respectively.

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FIU has two home games remaining on the 2012 schedule, including Sun Belt schools WKU and ULM.  Tickets can be purchased by visiting FIUSports.com or by calling 305-FIU-GAME (348-4263).

About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.

About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelors, masters and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission and enrolls nearly 48,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. More than 140,000 alumni live and work in South Florida. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.

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