Keg of Nail Celebration, Louisville vs. Cincinnati 2012 Photo by Mike Lindsay

Cards to Take on Cincinnati in Wasabi Fenway Bowl

Mark BlankenbakerDecember 4, 2022

The University of Louisville football team will close out the 2022 season in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl against Cincinnati on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, at the iconic Fenway Park in Boston, Mass.

The game will kick off at 11 a.m. ET and be televised by ESPN and air on 93.9 FM.

The Wasabi Fenway Bowl will be the 19^th different bowl game that the Cards will play in and the Bearcats will be the 22^nd different opponent. The Fenway Bowl will be the 11^th game that the Cardinals have played in a Major League Baseball stadium.

The Cardinals won five of their last seven games to finish the regular season at 7-5 and 4-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. With five victories over teams with seven or more wins, Louisville tied for the most among FBS schools this season.

Louisville defeated a pair of ranked teams over the course of the season, dismantling No. 10 Wake Forest, 48-21 and handling No. 24 NC State, 25-10.

The Cardinals were ranked No. 25 in the last College Football Playoff Rankings before falling to Kentucky to close the regular season.

Defensively, the Cardinals are ranked second in the nation in sacks and third in turnovers gained with 28. The defense has lifted the Cards this season, allowing just 20.2 points per game (19^th nationally) and giving up 347.1 yards of offense all season.

Quarterback Malik Cunningham, who has battled injuries all season, rushed for 12 touchdowns, while throwing for 1,568 yards and eight touchdowns. Running back Jawhar Jordan has taken over as the top running back, rushing for 700 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Twelve UofL football student-athletes earned All-ACC honors this season, including first team linebacker Yasir Abdullah, who was second in the conference in sacks with 8.0 and seventh with 13.5 tackles for loss.

Louisville is making its 25^th postseason appearance, posting an 11-12-1 all-time record in bowl games and is 1-1 in the postseason under head coach Scott Satterfield.

The Cardinals and Bearcats will meet for the 25th time on the gridiron and the first time since 1997. Cincinnati leads the all-time series 30-22-1. The two schools have a home-and-home series scheduled for 2026 and 2027.

About Cincinnati
The Cincinnati Bearcats finished the season at 9-3, coming within a game of playing for the American Athletic Conference Championship. The Bearcats won six consecutive games midway through the season and were ranked as high as number 20 in the Associated Press poll and number 19 in the AFCA Coaches Poll. The team was led by senior linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. and sophomore punter Mason Fletcher, who are both in contention for national awards and All-American honors. The Wasabi Fenway Bowl marks the Bearcats’ 22^nd bowl appearance all time and 13^th appearance in 15 years. Since 2007, Cincinnati has been to four New Year’s Six bowls and the 2021 College Football Playoff, while winning 70 percent of its games.

Ticket Information
Louisville fans can purchase Wasabi Fenway Bowl tickets directly through the UofL Athletics Ticket Office to be seated with fellow Cards fans. Louisville’s allotment includes a variety of tickets options starting as low as $30 and can be purchased online at am.ticketmaster.com/uofl/fenway.

Fans can also take advantage of exclusive Wasabi Fenway Bowl hotel discounts, available at either the Marriott Copley (the official team hotel) or the Boston Sheraton. Additional hotel and travel information can be found online at GoCards.com/BowlCentral.

2023 Season Tickets

Don’t miss a minute of the game day excitement next year. Purchase your season tickets for the 2023 today!

Tickets start as low as $20 per game. The 2023 home schedule features seven games, including marquee matchups against Notre Dame and Kentucky.

Ticket Link – https://am.ticketmaster.com/uofl/virtual-venue/MjNGQg==

In addition to cost savings over single game tickets, you will receive access to all our FREE Season Ticket Membership benefits.

Here are some of the many perks you can look forward to:

Special ticket opportunities
Annual membership gift
Customized member perks
Concessions specials
Priority access to UofL events
Flexible payment plans and digital ticket management

Visit gocards.com/fbstm or email sales@gocards.com for more info.

History of the Keg of Nails
The Keg of Nails is a traveling trophy continuously-awarded to the winner of the college football rivalry game between Cincinnati and Louisville. The rivalry has stretched over the span of four conferences from the Missouri Valley Conference, to Conference USA, and more recently in the Big East Conference, which in 2013 was renamed to the American Athletic Conference. It is believed to be the oldest rivalry for the Louisville football team and the second oldest for Cincinnati, only behind the annual game with the Miami RedHawks.

The rivalry went on hiatus following the 2013 season, as Louisville moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, 2014. Cincinnati leads the series 30–22–1.

The series was played sporadically before becoming an annual match-up from 1966 to 2013, with only a brief hiatus from 1992 to 1996. The match-up gained more significance with the growth of both programs into the 2000s, primarily with the success under coaches John L. Smith and Bobby Petrino for Louisville and Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, and Butch Jones for Cincinnati.

The trophy is a replica of a keg used to ship nails. The exchange is believed to have been initiated by fraternity chapters on the UC and UofL campuses, signifying that the winning players in the game were “tough as nails.” The present keg is actually a replacement for the original award. It is adorned with the logos of both schools and the scores of the series’ games.