Louisville Is New To The Citrus Bowl Game, But Not To Its Host Venue

Louisville will be making their first appearance in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl when they play LSU on December 31, but they are not strangers to Orlando or to what is now Camping World Stadium. In 2013, the Cardinals wrapped up their final season in the Big East with a 36-9 dismantling of Miami in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

That 2013 game was the final season for Teddy Bridgewater and a recruiting class that had established Louisville as a force to be reckoned with. As the Cardinals moved to the ACC the following season, Coach Bobby Petrino returned to the Louisville sidelines to continue the run of success.

There’s no greater measure of Louisville’s growth as a football program than their planned next appearance in Orlando —

it will meet Alabama in the Camping World Kickoff during college football’s opening weekend in 2018. The neutral-site season opener is the second in a series of Camping World Kickoff games in Orlando The series began this season with Florida State’s Labor Day win over Ole Miss.

The Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl will mark Louisville’s seventh straight appearance in a bowl game and their 21st time overall (10-9-1). The Cardinals have played an SEC team in a bowl game in four of the last five seasons. They defeated Texas A&M in the 2015 Music City Bowl, lost to the University of Georgia in the 2014 Belk Bowl and beat the Florida Gators in the 2012 Sugar Bowl.

The Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl will mark the first ever match up on the gridiron between LSU and Louisville.