Miami, Fla. (FIUSports.com) - The FIU football team (1-2, 0-0 Sun Belt) hosts the 18th-ranked Louisville Cardinals (3-0, 0-0 BIG EAST), Saturday, Sept. 22, at Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium. Kickoff with the Cardinals is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcasted on ESPN3. The FIU Sports Radio Network will also have the live call of the game, heard anywhere around the world on FIUSports.com.
Click HERE to view FIU-Louisville Game Notes
Click HERE to listen to the FIU Sports Radio Network
This week's game vs. Louisville marks the fourth and final non-conference game for FIU during the regular season. The Panthers begin Sun Belt play next Saturday, Sept. 29, on the road in Lafayette at the University of Louisiana.
FIU enters the game off a road loss, 33-20, at UCF. In the game, FIU overcame a slow start in the first half to outscore UCF, 20-10, in the second half. The Panthers narrowly came within one touchdown of the Knights, 20-30, after Darian Mallary scored his second touchdown on the day near the end of the third quarter, but FIU missed on the two-point attempt.
Mallary, a senior from Miami's Gulliver Prep, has had a brilliant start to his final campaign with the Blue and Gold. He has scored a team-best five touchdowns this season, including back-to-back games with two rushing TD's.
The seniors are shining on defense, with Johnathan Cyprien, Winston Fraser and Jordan Hunt 1-2-3 on the team in tackles. Tourek Williams leads FIU with 4.5 tackles for loss. For his efforts at UCF, Williams was named the National Defensive Lineman of the Week from College Football Performance Awards. Williams tied a career-high with nine tackles in the game, including four tackles for loss and one sack.
Louisville is the second nationally-ranked program to visit Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium (No. 12 South Florida, Sept. 18, 2008).
GAME DETAILS:
Date: Saturday, Sept. 22
Location: Miami, Fla.
Time: 7 p.m.
Stadium: Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium (20,000)
2012 Records:
FIU: 1-2 Overall, 0-0 Sun Belt
Louisville: 3-0 Overall, 0-0 BIG EAST
Series: FIU leads 1-0
Social Media: Twitter.com/@FIUFootball
Game Broadcast: ESPN3; FIU Sports Radio Network at FIUSports.com
Next Up:
Opponent: Louisiana (2-1/1-0 Sun Belt)
Date: Saturday, Sept. 29
Location: Lafayette, La.
Time: 7 p.m.
Stadium: Cajun Field (31,000)
Game Broadcast: ESPN3
FIU-LOUISVILLE
• The 2012 home game concludes the two-game series with the Louisville Cardinals. FIU looks to remain undefeated in the series with Louisville after winning on the road, 24-17, last year in Kentucky on Sept. 9.
• The first meeting at Louisville was a monumental victory in FIU's decade of football history, with the Panthers upending the Cardinals, 24-17 on national television.
• In its history, FIU has faced four BIG EAST opponents: Louisville (1-0), Pittsburgh (0-1), Rutgers (0-2) and USF (0-2). Additionally, FIU is currently in the middle of a four-game series with future BIG EAST member UCF (1-1).
• Similar to its first two opponents, Duke and Akron, FIU does not have a player on its roster from the state of Kentucky. However, Louisville has a large array of players from Florida.
• 34 of the Cardinals 104-man roster are from the Sunshine State (33 percent). 21 of the 34 Floridians hail from the South Florida tri-county region (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties).
• In addition to last season's initial meeting, FIU's Mario Cristobal and Louisville's Charlie Strong had met once prior in a coaching capacity. Cristobal was in his first year as an assistant coach (Tight Ends) at the University of Miami during the 2004 season, where the Hurricanes defeated Florida, 27-10, in the 2004 Peach Bowl. Strong was the interim head coach and Defensive Coordinator for that Gators' squad.
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FIU has five exciting home game remaining on the 2012 schedule, including 18th-ranked Louisville this Saturday, plus Sun Belt schools Arkansas State, Middle Tennessee (Homecoming), WKU and ULM.
Season tickets are on-sale and start at just $42. Single-game tickets to FIU's home schedule at Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium are also on-sale. Tickets to the FIU-Louisville game on Sept. 22 will only be available as part of a season ticket plan. For more information or to place your order, please visit FIUSports.com or call 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/.
--FIU Athletics--
