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It is obvious that Mike Davis is no Calipary, but he did try to convince the UAB Athletic Director to adopt a recruiting tactic that Calipary was known to be using at Memphis to great advantage. That is to grant a waiver added to the NOLI for Cousins and Bledsoe to allow them to move with Davis if he left UAB. The UAB AD refused and the two players went to play for Calipary who moved on to UKY with them in tow. Davis was asking his AD to do what his own AD during his college days told his school's boosters -- "meet the competition (in recruiting)".

The irony was that the same fans who were critical of Davis for even asking for the waiver were then angry that Davis stayed on the job a few years anyways. If we judge decisions by results of those decisions, where is Coach Cal today and where is Coach Davis and where is UAB's program? We can never know what might have happened if UAB had been able to sign Cousins and the players Davis thought would follow him to UAB. It could have changed UAB's perception in sports and - like Memphis - led to conference advancement. We can never know for sure.