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(11-03-2013 10:44 AM)Grammar-Nazi Wrote:  

(11-02-2013 10:40 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  Brown is our best coach.


When does the 7 year curse of Brown end?

Brown is not our best coach. Our best coach remains Jim Hilyer. I wish people would remember him. He was the best thing that ever happened to UAB football, and as much as I love everything Gene Bartow, not letting him coach UAB into Division I remains, in my opinion, Gene's biggest mistake.

Best way to honor Coach Hilyer, IMO? Put his name on that stadium that some of us believe is gonna get built someday, or the Field therein, or the proposed Fieldhouse...

OK, So the NCAA rule change of 1991 created the uncertainty of operating a D3 (or whatever it was called) FB program with a D1 BB program? All I remember is that the UAB leadership seemed to be thinking they could do it , giving them time to build the needed new infrastructure for a new D1 FB program before the costs of granting scholarships would kick in. As they probably feared, UAB has not been able to do both over the past 2+ decades.

Is this similar in effect to the way the new NCAA APR rules that were imposed in the past decade created the problem for UAB FB under Callaway and BB under Davis when players left the programs under poor GPAs?

(11-03-2013 10:44 AM)Grammar-Nazi Wrote:  

(11-02-2013 10:40 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  Brown is our best coach.


When does the 7 year curse of Brown end?

Brown is not our best coach. Our best coach remains Jim Hilyer. I wish people would remember him. He was the best thing that ever happened to UAB football, and as much as I love everything Gene Bartow, not letting him coach UAB into Division I remains, in my opinion, Gene's biggest mistake.

Giving the reigns to Murry was much bigger. I liked Hilyer but he could not have led us into big time football or whatever we try to play now. Not sure current coach can get it done, may take a miracle worker( see second coming).But one thing im sure of.... when we announced that Neil Calloway would be our coach we basically told the world we have no interest in having a football program. And before ya'll start whinning about being forced to hire him......think about what that is saying.

Meanwhile, Fisher is about to take his team to a BCS title game.

(11-03-2013 11:27 PM)Uncle BLAZER Wrote:  Meanwhile, Fisher is about to take his team to a BCS title game.

I cringe everytime I hear an FSU story this year. You never know what could've been. before someone says "It could've been worse under Fisher". guess what? It could've been better.
But anyway, We have McGee now and all we can do is get behind him and hope for the best.

(11-04-2013 06:23 AM)rook360 Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 11:27 PM)Uncle BLAZER Wrote:  Meanwhile, Fisher is about to take his team to a BCS title game.

I cringe everytime I hear an FSU story this year. You never know what could've been. before someone says "It could've been worse under Fisher". guess what? It could've been better.
But anyway, We have McGee now and all we can do is get behind him and hope for the best.

If you cringe when thinking about what could have been with Jimbo, you would almost go bat crazy if you hear the story about how we almost hired Bobby Bowden in 1995, and then settle for Brown. That hiring at that time, would have even been bigger than when we hired Bartow from UCLA.

We didn't almost hire either one. There were talks.

(11-04-2013 07:29 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  We didn't almost hire either one. There were talks.

Gene Bartow told that story himself a few years ago. He said Bowden was willing to consider coming back to Birmingham to coach at UAB. He wanted a $500,000 salary, which was a HUGE sum back then. Gene said he knew he couldn't go to the board and get approval for that, so he went another direction. He was afraid they would pull the plug on UAB Football right then. He regretted not trying harder to get it done though.

In his defense, he was probably right. We see how the BOT operates, and Gene certainly knew it.

Yep.

(11-04-2013 09:16 AM)the Dragon Wrote:  

(11-04-2013 07:29 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  We didn't almost hire either one. There were talks.

Gene Bartow told that story himself a few years ago. He said Bowden was willing to consider coming back to Birmingham to coach at UAB. He wanted a $500,000 salary, which was a HUGE sum back then. Gene said he knew he couldn't go to the board and get approval for that, so he went another direction. He was afraid they would pull the plug on UAB Football right then. He regretted not trying harder to get it done though.

In his defense, he was probably right. We see how the BOT operates, and Gene certainly knew it.

And as I said, that is not almost hiring him.

Solomon was looking for a snapshot of an empty stadium.

He didn't get it, so he is stirring up stuff that really can't be compared outside of just the numbers.

(11-03-2013 01:34 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:44 AM)Grammar-Nazi Wrote:  

(11-02-2013 10:40 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  Brown is our best coach.


When does the 7 year curse of Brown end?

Brown is not our best coach. Our best coach remains Jim Hilyer. I wish people would remember him. He was the best thing that ever happened to UAB football, and as much as I love everything Gene Bartow, not letting him coach UAB into Division I remains, in my opinion, Gene's biggest mistake.

Giving the reigns to Murry was much bigger. I liked Hilyer but he could not have led us into big time football or whatever we try to play now. Not sure current coach can get it done, may take a miracle worker( see second coming).But one thing im sure of.... when we announced that Neil Calloway would be our coach we basically told the world we have no interest in having a football program. And before ya'll start whinning about being forced to hire him......think about what that is saying.

I have to disagree w/ that. I think Hilyer could have done just as good a job as Brown if not better when we made the move. He had worked under some good coaches in his career as well as had a good record for our first 2 yrs at 1AA both winning seasons (how many have we had overall???) If we never hired Brown, which IIRC was also "forced" on us to a degree as well, do we see the mess of a football program we do today? I will agree that Callaway probably did prune too much that it's going to be a large obstacle to overcome in this day & age but I will say a decent foundation has been built but if McGee can build on top of it or someone has to rebuild the foundation is yet to be seen.

Jim Hilyer

But what were the records in their LAST 20 games?

Wow. I take it you disagree

He beat the teams in front of him more than he lost to them, which is a damn sight better than anyone who's followed to date.

(11-03-2013 12:13 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:45 AM)thebernreuter Wrote:  I think jumping up to Division I so soon, especially up to I-A, was a much bigger mistake that we have not recovered from.

How long did UTSA spend at a lower division/subdivision?

Not long, but obviously they are more ready for it than we were. 50,000 fans at their first game, and that pretend team just beat the **** out of us and made us look silly.

(11-03-2013 10:52 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:45 AM)thebernreuter Wrote:  I think jumping up to Division I so soon, especially up to I-A, was a much bigger mistake that we have not recovered from.

No it wasn't.

Alabamans only support big time football. We would not have built support remaining a lower division. Plus the window was open to get not what was believed to be a major conference at the time. You can say with hindsight it was wrong, but if you weren't there and understand what was in play, you can't make that judgement.

I was there. I'm 28, and I've followed the program for a minute. We moved up before we could win at a lower level.

Jacksonville State does fine. They have more support than we do. They have their own stadium on campus. People support North Alabama, Alabama State, and Alabama A&M. Samford is a great program. We should have chilled a little while longer and went to the Sun Belt. We bit off way more than we could chew before we had adequate anything to compete in C-USA. We did okay with JuCo band-aids and special admissions for a few years, but it collapsed under its own weight, and we've sucked ever since.

You fail to mention how Watson squandered every bit of momentum the program had the opportunity to build. Upset a huge favorite one week, get clocked by a cupcake the next. Rinse. Repeat.

Who did the most with the resources handed to him? Hilyer.

Who did the least? Watson.

(11-05-2013 07:08 AM)Smaug Wrote:  He beat the teams in front of him more than he lost to them, which is a damn sight better than anyone who's followed to date.

And sure, they weren't SEC-caliber teams, but they weren't exactly doormats, either...

Folks can read for themselves if they like:

http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div.../index.php

Click on 'Yearly results'... and see for yourself... Given what Hilyer had to work with, I think he did an amazing job.

(11-05-2013 10:53 AM)thebernreuter Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:52 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(11-03-2013 10:45 AM)thebernreuter Wrote:  I think jumping up to Division I so soon, especially up to I-A, was a much bigger mistake that we have not recovered from.

No it wasn't.

Alabamans only support big time football. We would not have built support remaining a lower division. Plus the window was open to get not what was believed to be a major conference at the time. You can say with hindsight it was wrong, but if you weren't there and understand what was in play, you can't make that judgement.

I was there. I'm 28, and I've followed the program for a minute. We moved up before we could win at a lower level.

Jacksonville State does fine. They have more support than we do. They have their own stadium on campus. People support North Alabama, Alabama State, and Alabama A&M. Samford is a great program. We should have chilled a little while longer and went to the Sun Belt. We bit off way more than we could chew before we had adequate anything to compete in C-USA. We did okay with JuCo band-aids and special admissions for a few years, but it collapsed under its own weight, and we've sucked ever since.

I have nothing against any of the programs you mentioned. it appears the shools you listed have been playing football longer then UAB has existed.
I like the fact we are playin D-1 ball, we are trying to dream big dreams, yes, we have had missteps after missteps, but guess what, you can see each week where some team lose or win by large or small margins, doesnt matter if the school is large or small.

I believe if Coach McGee was to speak how he really feel about our facilities it would be like putting his foot in his mouth.

It is the facilities that is hurting this program simple as that.