MIAMI (November 3, 2017) – Coming off a 41-30 win at Marshall, FIU returns to Riccardo Silva Stadium for the first of four home games in the next month. The Panthers are one win from being bowl-eligible for the third time in the program's 16-year history. FIU hosts the UTSA Roadrunners, Saturday in a Conference USA matchup. The Panthers and Roadrunners meet for the second time in their series. UTSA won the lone game with FIU 16-13 in San Antonio in 2014. The game will be broadcast live on Stadium with Ron Thulin (play-by-play) and Max Starks (color) calling the action. Madi Morris will report from the sideline. Fans can also listen to the game on 790 the Ticket, the Panthers' official radio broadcast home for the 2017 season, or by logging onto either www.FIUSports.com or www.theticketmiami.com. A.J. Ricketts (play-by-play) and Hurlie Brown (color analyst) will be in the booth all season long.
Click here for complete FIU game notes.
Click here for complete UTSA game notes.
Click here to watch the game live on watchstadium.com.
FIU enters the game 5-2 overall and 3-1 in Conference USA play. A victory would give the Panthers the requisite six wins to become bowl eligible. UTSA is 5-2 overall and 2-2 in C-USA. The Panthers trail Florida Atlantic by one game in C-USA's East Division. The Roadrunners are a game behind North Texas in the conference's West Division.
Last week FIU upset Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia. The Thundering Herd featured the top rushing defense in the conference allowing 109.9 yards per game before taking on FIU. The Panthers punished the Herd with 224 yards on the ground to jump out to a 35-7 lead. FIU receiver
Thomas Owens had 114 receiving yards and two scores to add to the offensive attack.
Brad Muhammad led the FIU defense with 10 tackles and two interceptions – one of them was returned 12 yards for a touchdown. Muhammad has four interceptions on the season which is one shy of the program's single season record shared by former Panthers Richard Leonard, Anthony Gaitor, Lionell Singleton and Nick Turnbull. Linebacker
Sage Lewis had eight tackles. Kicker
Jose Borregales hit two field goals to give him 10 straight on the season.
Game Notables
- The Panthers look to extend the best start in school history to 6-2 and reach bowl eligibility for the third time in program history.
- FIU looks to improve to 4-1 in conference play for the first time since 2010. The 2010 Panthers started Sun Belt play 6-1 and went on to win the league finishing 6-2.
- Saturday is the seventh game for
Butch Davis at FIU (5-2), and 136th of his collegiate head coaching career.
- Saturday will mark the 186th game in FIU history.
- FIU receiver
Thomas Owens looks for his fifth straight 100-yard receiving game. In the last four games, Owens has gone for 114 yards at Marshall, 152 yards against Tulane, 162 yards against Middle Tennessee and 101 yards against Charlotte.
- FIU has won five games when rushing 30+ times (5-1).
- FIU's trio of linebackers look to add to their totals.
Treyvon Williams (46),
Anthony Wint (41) and
Sage Lewis (40) have each racked up over 40 tackles.
- Senior wide receiver
Thomas Owens leads C-USA in receiving yards (728) and receiving yards per game (104.0).
- FIU is 18-of-18 (100%) when it gets inside its opponents red-zone.
For FIU football ticket information, contact the University Credit Union Box Office at 305-FIU-GAME (348-4263).
For the latest information on Panthers football, follow us on Twitter, @FIUFootball.
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute. FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
