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

(12-08-2019 12:07 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  

(12-08-2019 12:03 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  

(12-07-2019 09:53 PM)bftb Wrote:  Can you imagine being an AD in the SEC and trying to sell your boosters on a coach that lost 49-6 (and lost its composure in doing so) in its last game? And that team also lost 37-2 to another rival (and 30-7 to its only SEC opponent)?

Or how about you say you want a guy who is coaching a team that is ranked #26 among Group of 5 schools, and #77 over all in the College Football Ranking Composite for this week (and that was BEFORE today's beatdown)? In other words, there are more than two dozen coaches leading G-5 teams ranked ABOVE the one you are interested in? That would be a tough sell.

I love Coach Clark and I am grateful for what he has done at UAB, and I am excited about his leadership for the future. But I think we're living in our own little Blazer echo chamber if we think everyone in the college football world is interested in him.

And as much as we want to get into the AAC--and I hope we can--but let's face it, if we were playing a typical schedule of those opponents (Memphis, Cinci, UCF, SMU, etc.) with our current team we would probably be 4-9 instead of 9-4. And something tells me there wouldn't be any P-5 schools beating down the door to hire our coach then either.

I know, I know...we lost 35 seniors, and we are a "young" team (though if you look at our depth chart most everyone in the two-deep were juniors and seniors this year). But we had just one win this year against a team with a winning record (and if their guy catches that wide-open pass down the middle at the end of that game, we lose that one too).

We still have a long way to go. But I am looking forward to the ride until we get there.

Go Blazers!

Excellent post!
An intelligent Blazer fan. My faith is restored.

Just give it a minute........

I do agree with his post.

I agree too. I am completely happy with coach Clark and can’t thank him enough for resurrecting the program. We have a lot to work on though. We lost by a combined score of 116-15 in the three games where we played legitimate opponents. Our offense is stuck in the 80s and will continue to hold us back if we don’t make some big changes. We don’t have any real signature wins and have feasted against weak opponents. Additionally, Our team is undisciplined, dirty, and racks up penalties faster than offensive yards a lot of the time. We are in a GOOD place, but have a long way to go to be where we want to be.

And man, if you guys think this board is sensitive.. look at the save uab football Facebook group lol...

Sure the schedule has been weak, but the average fan around Birmingham isn't really paying attention to the quality of our opponents when assessing our program. Since the return what UAB has needed most is wins. Regardless of competition level, wins help legitimize us and build a foundation of support among the fan base, students, and general population. Of course we need to take the next step of playing/beating better teams but it's a process. I feel good about our future.

We would be a lot more marketable with a high powered offense to go with our good defense. I've had several casual fans tell me this.........not impressed at all with our style of play. People around Birmingham know what good football is supposed to look like.

(12-09-2019 03:57 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Sure the schedule has been weak, but the average fan around Birmingham isn't really paying attention to the quality of our opponents when assessing our program. Since the return what UAB has needed most is wins. Regardless of competition level, wins help legitimize us and build a foundation of support among the fan base, students, and general population. Of course we need to take the next step of playing/beating better teams but it's a process. I feel good about our future.

Im not disagreeing completely with your point but i would say what UAB needs above anything is respect. It may not be fair but we cant have many games like we had last Saturday. That was a step backwards. The average fan around Birmingham will stop being interested if we are content to play weak teams just to qualify for a bowl. We dont have the luxury of taking years to slowly grow this program. Winning against bad programs and not being competitive against merely decent teams and we will lose the momentum weve built. Look at our basketball program.

Never used the words it's a process around here. Those words belong to McGee.

I don't see any other school being ridiculed for easy non-conference schedules.

Schools can play whatever school out of conference they want to wherever they want to.

The conference games are handed out by the conference.

(12-09-2019 07:52 PM)Bham Blazer Wrote:  We would be a lot more marketable with a high powered offense to go with our good defense. I've had several casual fans tell me this.........not impressed at all with our style of play. People around Birmingham know what good football is supposed to look like.

I always thought good football looked like winning.......but I could be wrong.

Winning is better than losing, especially against G-5 cellar dwellers. Not going 1-4 (and soon to be 1-5) against teams with winning records would be even better. A high scoring offense like the one we just got humiliated by, or like the one we will face in New Orleans would be nice to have though.

Bad football? You weren't around for Callaway or McGee, were you?

We graduated 35 seniors last season. Coaches knew that was coming, and that we would be a very young team, so they scheduled soft. That was smart, it put us in a position to play for a conference championship. The majority of our weak SOS comes from playing the teams in our conference, which we have zero control over.

Yes, the offense was spotty. I feel that Johnston took a step back this season. We also lost four of five guys on the OL and had a ton of injuries.

But, hey, if you would have been happier if we went 5-7...

(12-07-2019 09:53 PM)bftb Wrote:  Can you imagine being an AD in the SEC and trying to sell your boosters on a coach that lost 49-6 (and lost its composure in doing so) in its last game? And that team also lost 37-2 to another rival (and 30-7 to its only SEC opponent)?

Or how about you say you want a guy who is coaching a team that is ranked #26 among Group of 5 schools, and #77 over all in the College Football Ranking Composite for this week (and that was BEFORE today's beatdown)? In other words, there are more than two dozen coaches leading G-5 teams ranked ABOVE the one you are interested in? That would be a tough sell.

I love Coach Clark and I am grateful for what he has done at UAB, and I am excited about his leadership for the future. But I think we're living in our own little Blazer echo chamber if we think everyone in the college football world is interested in him.

And as much as we want to get into the AAC--and I hope we can--but let's face it, if we were playing a typical schedule of those opponents (Memphis, Cinci, UCF, SMU, etc.) with our current team we would probably be 4-9 instead of 9-4. And something tells me there wouldn't be any P-5 schools beating down the door to hire our coach then either.

I know, I know...we lost 35 seniors, and we are a "young" team (though if you look at our depth chart most everyone in the two-deep were juniors and seniors this year). But we had just one win this year against a team with a winning record (and if their guy catches that wide-open pass down the middle at the end of that game, we lose that one too).

We still have a long way to go. But I am looking forward to the ride until we get there.

Go Blazers!

This is a great post. I'm all in on Bill Clark and I absolutely think he is the best thing to happen to UAB athletics since Gene Bartow, but I think the next step is becoming a team like an App St who can win a couple of Power 5 games and get a top 25 ranking and then becoming a legit contender for the access bowl. I think Clark has us on the right track but after Saturday's game I think most of us can see where the deficiencies lie. We have some ultra talented skill players on offense but unfortunately we were hurt by a young QB who regressed, injuries and an outdated offensive philosophy. Injuries happen but the other two are fixable with proper coaching.

For thought, let's ask ourselves if Clark did a better overall job last year or this year.

On the surface it seems like last year & maybe so.

(12-09-2019 09:15 PM)randy22263 Wrote:  

(12-09-2019 03:57 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Sure the schedule has been weak, but the average fan around Birmingham isn't really paying attention to the quality of our opponents when assessing our program. Since the return what UAB has needed most is wins. Regardless of competition level, wins help legitimize us and build a foundation of support among the fan base, students, and general population. Of course we need to take the next step of playing/beating better teams but it's a process. I feel good about our future.

Im not disagreeing completely with your point but i would say what UAB needs above anything is respect. It may not be fair but we cant have many games like we had last Saturday. That was a step backwards. The average fan around Birmingham will stop being interested if we are content to play weak teams just to qualify for a bowl. We dont have the luxury of taking years to slowly grow this program. Winning against bad programs and not being competitive against merely decent teams and we will lose the momentum weve built. Look at our basketball program.

I can see that point of view as well. But basketball is a little different - we have a strong history of success there. In football, we've had good seasons since the return but not much historical success before that. The wins we've accumulated (even against an easy schedule) allows us to establish a culture among the team, fans, admin, etc where winning is expected. That's something we've never had before. Now that we've built that foundation it's time to take the next step. But given the roster turnover an easy schedule is exactly what we needed this year.

In all this, what stuck out to me was that Arkansas ended up hiring the offensive line coach from Georgia. Sound familiar? (For those who weren't here 15 years ago, that's how we ended up with Neil Callaway).