The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Lord, I'm tired. I did something I've never done before at a tailgate. I popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.

Korbel. Top shelf. Piggly Wiggly. $14.83. Nothing but the best for the classiest bunch of guys I know. A toast was offered. To victory. The team's, by their 60 minutes of football, and ours, because they came out of the tunnel at all.

Anywho, on to the observations. All the standard caveats apply. First game, FCS opponent, et cetera.

1. Wow, the good Lord dialed up some nice weather, didn't He? It was looking pretty grim early in the week.

2.I may be by myself here, but I like the green pants.

3.If you don't admit to getting a little misty at some point today, I'm calling you out for the damn liar you are.

4. I think we might play a little D this year.

5. We diehards deserved a day like today, and we got one. The energy, excitement, and hell, raw joy was palpable. The polar opposite of the rage and despair of Black Monday. A little cosmic symmetry, if you will.

6. That offensive line grew up a little bit in the second half, which is good, because...

7. We looked a lot like a team that hadn't ever played together before for a while.

8. We scored a defensive touchdown. A big, heavy guy rumbling down the field with the ball is one of the most improbably pleasing things to happen in a football game, and we got one.

The Good

Hell, we played football today. What else do you need? Oh, and we won convincingly, too.

Tailgating was, of course, a blast. The story-telling and laughing and fellowship was a balm for the soul. Damn, I missed you guys.

The Old Grey Tart was rockin' today. 45K+, with no help from Reuben Studdard. Fitting, for all we've been through, as a school, program, and fanbase. Dammit, we deserved a moment in the sun and we got it.

Every parking Nazi I encountered was cordial and helpful. Refreshing.

The Bad

The 11th hour kerfuffle over shifting tailgate spots could and should have been handled better. Even with that, I'm pretty sanguine. I just could not be pissed off today.

A&M's band. Bless their hearts, they're a good band, and a helluva lot of fun, but damn, they're relentless. I mean, you played when we scored. Throttle it back a notch.

The Ugly

I'm too tired to look for the penalty totals, but it was bad. Almost like a team that had never played together before. I'm not too worried about that, either. First game bugs to work out.

Best Smack of the Day

Dude with the sign. "We Want Bama. Out of our program".

So, what does this mean, Barbara?

Hell, it means everything. We won. We won a football game, and we won because we played a football game. It was glorious. I don't know how long we'll remain media darlings, and I don't care. All I ever wanted to be was a school with a football team trying to win games, just like everybody else.

The rat bastards who thought that was too much to ask can go play in traffic. There will be no harshing my buzz tonight.

That's all I got. For now. I think.

Amen and Amen!

And, one more Amen, to your point about the A&M band. Once the game was out of hand for them, it was all about the band. We were right across from them and couldn't here a thing. No stadium announcer, no stadium music, no UAB Marching Blazers, no ref whistles...nothing!

I said the same things about AAMU's band last time. I'd prefer we just not allow their band or even not play them at all if they have to bring the band. Their good halftime show isn't worth the rest that comes with it.

I hope this doesn't turn into a bash A&M's band thread. It was an irritant, but a minor one. At least to me.

(09-02-2017 11:04 PM)Smaug Wrote:  I hope this doesn't turn into a bash A&M's band thread. It was an irritant, but a minor one. At least to me.

My apologies. You're right! It was a glorious day!

K. The tailgate issue didn't seem to be much of a problem for the tailgate. Seemed like we had plenty of room. I'm glad it worked out.

I loved their band, and was sitting right across from them. This stuff is supposed to be fun. I'm really glad Clark didn't ask to shut them up. But it must be kinda tough on the football players when the band surrenders on their behalf.

It's college football, not golf. I think all bands should play a LOT more, and they should show them on TV too and just pay the damned royalties. If football can be played with 461 commercial breaks then it can be played with band music during plays.

I also liked seeing the Golden Girls back on the sidelines.

Oh how I've missed these .02 threads. I'm glad we got the W and I actually enjoyed hearing A&M's band. They didn't play much at all in the third quarter.

Speaking of bands, I'm sure A&M would have new uniforms like UAB if they could afford them. UAB's uniforms looked fantastic!

I don't dislike their band. I would just like to have heard ours occasionally.

So, anyone else have an opinion on the green pants. McGee debuted them, but I won't hold that against them.

I was surprised to see the green pants, but really like them. Better than white pants at home if you ask me. Now wait until they unveil the gray-lime ones...

I kinda liked the all green myself

Any uniform combination the team wears looks good in the opponent's end zone.

(09-02-2017 11:53 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  I kinda liked the all green myself

On a side note thank you blazerworker for all you did this weekend.We are fortunate to have a great cook and a great guy.

(09-02-2017 11:22 PM)Smaug Wrote:  I don't dislike their band. I would just like to have heard ours occasionally.

My idea was to put the band in the end zone so they are facing everyone. We will all here them then. I sat across from them in the second half, and they sounded good.

Green pants. I didn't even realize they weren't gold until I saw pictures after the game. I like them. Seems like we'll have at least three color options for the tops and bottoms. Could get interesting, especially our holloween green look.

The game. We didn't look as impressive as the beat down of Troy in 2014, but this is the first game. The offense has me worried, especially QB, but it was the first game. We should get better in week two. Also, coach could have kept the playbook simple for two reasons. Future teams won't get to see the rest of our playbook just yet. I could see them holding back a little when you're only playing A&M. Plus they could force the team to get better at the bread and butter plays. Would like to see us go down field more to keep teams from loading the box. As long as the offense doesn't turn into the run, run, draw I'm good. We'll need to see a little improvement in week two to take down Ball State. Clark was right, we will be competitive. Go Blazers.

(09-03-2017 07:33 AM)DMBLAZER Wrote:  

(09-02-2017 11:53 PM)blazerwkr Wrote:  I kinda liked the all green myself

On a side note thank you blazerworker for all you did this weekend.We are fortunate to have a great cook and a great guy.

Huge +1

(09-03-2017 09:48 AM)cb4029 Wrote:  We didn't look as impressive as the beat down of Troy in 2014, but this is the first game.

I expected to see all sorts of stupid, thanks to nerves (this wasn't just any opening day) and didn't. Erdeley is slower than I expected, and Johnston smaller than listed, but the turnover came from a WR after a catch, not a backfield disaster, and I didn't see many WTF busted plays.

Shaq Jones looked like we played Marshall last week, not almost three years ago.

I'd also like to add as an out of towner I e joyed the "stadium" tv broadcast, the commentators got a few chuckles out of me and the pregame "return" backstory was incredibly well done and edited, quite the tearjerker. It may have been seen before but I hope someone finds a link.

The A&MU band along with all hbcu (historically black colleges and universities and universities) have always had that style of interrupting or not really paying attention to the game at all sometimes it seems. If you've been in the band scene long enough its obvious and you come to look forward to the change of flavor.

I thought it was illegal for a band to be playing while the opposite team's offense was on the field?? I cant imagine how our guys could hear the snap count or verbal signals about alignments, etc once lined up to run a play while A & M 's band was tooting and drumming.