Saturday's matchup between WKU and FIU will serve as the Conference USA opener for both schools. Last season, the Hilltoppers won Conference USA's East Division while the Panthers went winless against conference competition. WKU has faced FIU once in its C-USA opener before, taking down the Panthers in 2019 by a score of 20-14.

The Hilltoppers enter Saturday's matchup with FIU off a tough, overtime loss to Indiana. WKU has not lost consecutive games since falling to nationally ranked Michigan State and eventual Conference USA Champion UTSA a season ago.

WKU has scored 30 points or more in every game since the 2020 Lending Tree Bowl. That's a streak of 17 games overall. If just counting regular season contests, the streak goes back to the 2020 matchup with Southern Miss when WKU won 10-7. That streak also covers a total of 17 games.

The Tops have been on the road since Aug. 27 when they opened the season versus Austin Peay in the very first college football game of 2022. The friendly confines of Houchens-Smith Stadium have been good to the Hilltoppers under the leadership of Tyson Helton as the team is 12-6 in home games as opposed to a 13-11 record in all other contests.

In 2015, WKU started the season 2-0 before traveling to Indiana and falling by three points. That Hilltopper team went on to finish 12-2 and win the C-USA Championship. This season, WKU also started 2-0 before traveling to Indiana and falling by three points.

"Our guys are really excited and ready to start conference play. I love the fact that we get to come back home. We need our crowd to be loud and be out there. I do want to say thanks to our crowd that was at the game in Indiana. We had a good following there, we felt their presence. We've got to be able to come home and get that home-crowd advantage, but again, we're looking forward to this game and getting conference play started."
-Tyson Helton on needing the home crowd for C-USA play

"It's anybody's game. I've had a chance to really watch every team play, and it's like anything, there's been some games that have been some tough matchups for some Conference USA teams, but everybody's pretty good. You've got to show up and play every week. We've got a tough schedule, as does everybody else, but it is a competitive conference for sure.
-Helton evaluating C-USA before heading into league play

"I think for the most part on all our phases of the game we played really well. It's just key plays that make the difference in games. We had 545 yards of offense, unfortunately we had two touchdowns called back and had an interception in the red zone. When you look back, those three or four plays are going to make a difference. I think it shows that our team, we can be as good as we want to be. But you've got to show up every week and play the game the right way. Those three or four critical plays that come up, you've got to make them happen."
-Helton looking back at his team's performance at Indiana

LAST TIME OUT
The Hilltoppers suffered a heartbreaking defeat at Indiana when they fell 33-30 in overtime. WKU led nearly the entirety of the game but could not prevent the Hoosiers from tying things up in the final seconds. After a would-be game winning field goal fell short for WKU on the final play of the drive, Indiana secured the win in overtime.

ABOUT FIU
The Panthers enter Saturday's contest with a 1-1 record through their first two games. It took overtime, but FIU defeated Bryant in its season opener by a score of 38-37. The Panthers then hit the road and lose to Texas State in their second game of the year. FIU enters Saturday's matchup off a bye week. Three quarterbacks have played snaps for the Panthers this season, with Grayson James seeing the majority of the reps and throwing for 403 yards and four touchdowns against two interceptions.

SERIES HISTORY
WKU and FIU have met 15 times previously with the Hilltoppers owning a 9-6 advantage in the series. The two sides last met a year ago when WKU visited Miami and brought home a 34-19 victory. The Tops have won three straight in the series, and will be looking to claim their second four-game winning streak over FIU.