BEAUMONT — BEAUMONT – Lamar University will host four Southland Conference football games

during the 2013 season, as well as playing road games at Oklahoma State and

Louisiana Tech head coach Ray Woodard announced on Monday.



After opening the season at Provost Umphrey Stadium on Aug. 31 against Oklahoma

Panhandle State, Lamar will travel to Louisiana Tech (Sept. 7) and Oklahoma

State (Sept. 14) in back-to-back weeks. This will be the second straight season

that Lamar has played a pair of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponents after

taking on Louisiana-Lafayette and Hawaii in 2012.



“I’m looking forward to it,” said Woodard about the two FBS games. “I

think Louisiana Tech will be an exciting game. They’re coming off a great

year. I think Oklahoma State will be preseason top 10. I’ve coached up there

one time before and it’ll be great to take our players up there and expose

them to that.”



The Cardinals, who finished 4-8 overall and 1-6 in the Southland Conference a

year ago, will open league play at national runner-up Sam Houston State on Oct.

12. Lamar, which will play six home games and six road games in 2013, then hosts

Central Arkansas on Oct. 19 for homecoming.



Lamar closes the season with a pair of home conference games as rivals Stephen

F. Austin and McNeese State come to Beaumont on Nov. 16 and Nov. 23,

respectively. Nicholls visits on Nov. 2 for the Cards’ other home conference

game.



In addition to the league opener at Sam Houston, Lamar will play Southland

Conference road games at Southeastern Louisiana (Oct. 26) and Northwestern State

(Nov. 9).



Following the two FCS games, Lamar hosts Bacone College on Sept. 21. The

Cardinals then travel to Grambling State to face the Tigers on Sept. 28 before

heading into their bye week. Lamar also took on a Southwestern Athletic

Conference (SWAC) team in 2013, defeating Prairie View A&M 31-0.



“It’s got a little bit of everything in there,” said Woodard, about the

2013 slate. “We have two Division II home games early but we also have two big

FBS games on the road. We get four conference games at home and we get the two

so-called rival games to close the year both at home. I think it’s a great

schedule.”



For ticket information, call (409) 880-1715, or visit

http://www.lamarcardinals.com/tickets/footbl-s-tickets.html.