BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University will be in San Antonio, Texas Saturday looking to right the ship against one of the Southland's top teams in defending conference champion UIW. Saturday's game against the league's other Cardinals is slated for a 4 p.m. kick from Benson Stadium.
 
Big Red enters the week looking to put consecutive heartbreakers behind them (at Northwestern State and against Houston Christian) and get in the win column. The Cardinals are currently tied for fifth in the league standings and one of four schools still looking for their first conference victory of the season. LU is just a game back of three other teams in the standings.
 
San Antonio's version of the Cardinals are looking to repeat as conference champions for the first time in program history. Coming off a 10-3 (.769) campaign last season, UIW enters Saturday's showdown with a 4-1 (.800) overall record and a 1-1 (.500) mark in Southland play.
 
UIW jumped out to a great start on the season opening the year with a blowout victory over No. 9 Southern Illinois and followed that up with a victory at Nevada. UIW won its first three games before stumbling in their Southland opener at Southeastern Louisiana but rebounded last week against McNeese.
 
UIW relies on a high-octane offense that has averaged nearly 47 points per game this season. The Southland's other Cardinals are averaging better than 540 yards of offense per game including 369 through the air.
 
LU is averaging 21 points per game, but that number has been hurt by slow starts each of the past two weeks. Over the course of the past two games, LU is averaging just 8.5 points per game in the first half compared to a second that has seen that number balloon to 22 points per game.
 
The series history is all knotted up at four wins apiece. Dating back to the 2011 season (before UIW moved into the Southland), the hometown team has won two straight and four of the previous five. UIW took the last meeting (42-20) during the COVID shortened 2020 season. LU's last win in the series came in 2018 when the Cardinals blocked a potential game-winning field goal and returned it the length of the field to defeat UIW – a play that sparked a six-game win streak and led to the school's first NCAA FCS Playoff berth.
 
Saturday's contest is slated to kick off at 4 p.m. from Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium. It will be broadcast live on Newstalk 560 KLVI and streamed live on ESPN3.