UVA and Louisville Meet Saturday In the "Derby City"

Nov. 6, 2017

Cavaliers Head to the “Derby City”
– UVA returns to the road on Saturday when the Cavaliers face ACC cross-division rival, the Louisville Cardinals. It is UVA’s second trip to the “Derby City” since Louisville joined the ACC in 2014.

The Louisville Series
– Saturday marks the sixth time in series history the Cavaliers and Cardinals have met in football and the fourth time in ACC play.
– Louisville leads the all-time series, 3-2. UL also leads the series, 2-1, since Louisville joined the ACC in 2014. Until last season’s final minute heroics from 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson, the home team had won every game in the series.
– All five games in the series were won by a touchdown or less, including the first three on field goals in the closing minutes.

Five Top Storylines
– Virginia is playing its fourth all-time game in the city of Louisville and third against the Cardinals. UVA first played in the “Derby City” 119 years ago this weekend against Vanderbilt. UVA won the 1898 meeting with the Commodores, 18-0.
– Virginia is bowl-eligible for the first time since 2011. UVA head coach Bronco Mendenhall is bowl-eligible for the 12th time in 13 seasons as a head coach.
– Saturday UVA faces 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. Current members on UVA’s roster from 2013-2017 have faced three of the last four Heisman Trophy winners (Marcus Mariota in 2013, Jameis Winston in 2014 and Lamar Jackson in 2016 and 2017).
– FS Quin Blanding is UVA’s all-time tackle leader with 445 career stops. He currently ranks No. 20 all-time in ACC history in tackles and needs 22 tackles to pass UNC’s Dexter Reid (2000-03) for the most career tackles in ACC history by a defensive back. Reid is currently No. 14 all-time in the ACC in career tackles with 466.
– HB Olamide Zaccheaus has 66 catches through nine games. Since 2012, it’s the most in a season by a Cavalier since Taquan Mizzell‘s 75-reception year in 2015. Zaccheaus’ 66 receptions are tied with Kris Burd (2011) for No. 5 in the UVA record book for single-season catches.

Cavaliers Making Their Fourth All-Time Trip to the “Derby CIty”
– Virginia is making its fourth all-time journey to Louisville, Ky., but only its third road game to play the Cardinals. UVA and the Cardinals also met in 1988 at old Cardinal Stadium and in 2014 at current Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
– The Cavaliers first played in the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Nov. 12, 1898 against Vanderbilt. UVA won, 18-0, against the Commodores.
– UVA’s first-ever game in the city of Louisville fell on the same weekend 119 years prior to this season’s meeting in Derby City with the Cardinals.
– With the help of the University of Louisville’s Archives and Special Collections, and the Nov. 13, 1898 edition of Louisville’s Courier-Journal, it was determined the game was played at Fontaine Ferry Park, which was slightly south of the terminus of Market Street near the Ohio River.
– Fontaine Ferry gets its name from a family of French Huguenot descents that settled in Louisville in the early 1800s and operated a ferry across the Ohio River. By 1898, under new ownership, the grounds housed a hotel, velodrome, outdoor restaurant, bandstand and grandstand for events like football. In the early 1900s, Fontaine Ferry became Louisville’s premier amusement park. In 1997 the $1.2 million Shawnee Park Sports Complex was built on the former Fontaine Ferry site.
– According to the Nov. 13, 1898 edition of Louisville’s Courier-Journal, the UVA football team attended “The Royal Box” at Macauley’s Theatre after the win over Vanderbilt. The theatre was located on Walnut Street, which is current day Muhammad Ali Boulevard. It was reported that the squad occupied three boxes and they filed in “to a ripple of applause” from the audience. According to Louisville’s Courier-Journal, each player wore a big yellow chrysanthemum and a “large streamer of orange and blue.”

More on the Louisville Series
– The two schools first met at Louisville in 1988, a 30-28 Cardinal win. Louisville kicker Ron Bell connected on a 39-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in the game to give the Cardinals the triumph at Old Cardinal Stadium. UVA had led Louisville 28-14 after scoring on its opening drive of the second half, but Louisville scored 16 unanswered points to snatch the victory away from the Cavaliers.
– The tables were flipped when the series moved to Charlottesville in 1989. Jake McInerney kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired to lift UVA over Louisville, 16-15.
– McInerney’s kick is one of two field goals in UVA history to win a game with zeros on the clock. The most recent was in 2011 when Robert Randolph chipped a 23-yard game-winner at Indiana.
– Shawn Moore gave UVA a 13-9 lead with his 4-yard passing strike to Herman Moore in the closing seconds before halftime. Louisville used two fourth-quarter field goals to build a 15-13 lead before McInerney’s heroics.
– On UVA’s game-winning drive, Moore orchestrated the offense on a 10-play, 60-yard drive, to set up McInerney’s field goal. The drive included a 25-yard quarterback draw by Moore as the UVA signal caller accumulated for 40 yards during the drive with his own legs.
– PK Ian Frye‘s 42-yard field goal with 1:24 left won the game for the Cavaliers in 2014. Frye’s field goal is the third-longest game-winning field goal in UVA program history.