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My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
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B'ham Blazer Offline
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Post: #41
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
This year, 85 players from the state of Alabama signed D-1 scholarships, ONE from the state of Idaho did, so Boise has no choice but to recruit out of state. The state of Georgia produced 210.
(This post was last modified: 12-30-2019 04:46 PM by B'ham Blazer.)
12-30-2019 04:45 PM
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UAB Schnauzer Offline
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Post: #42
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
(12-29-2019 01:47 PM)BlazeOn Wrote:  Let me preface this by saying first that my thoughts are worth exactly what you're paying for them (maybe less). And second, I fully support Bill Clark. Clark is the best thing ever to happen for UAB Football and it is no stretch to say that football at UAB wouldn't exist without him.

1. Probably more than most fans, I appreciate good defense. Football scores should not look like basketball scores. When I coached I was a defensive minded coach. I like defense. I believe in the adage "defense wins championships". In C-USA the gap between the number one team and the number seven or eight team is often not that big. There is a good deal of talent parity. I've felt for years that a team that prioritized defense would have an advantage in the conference. In the early 2000s under Watson Brown, UAB had some very good defenses. UAB was winning 6-7 games a year (in an 11 game season), becoming bowl eligible, but not getting bowl invitations (fewer bowls then). Brown made a decision to begin prioritizing offense in an effort to become more attractive to bowls. The key choice was where to put the best athletes; at that time UAB did not have enough athletes to excel at both offense and defense. He chose offense. The result was that UAB got its first bowl invite and had a first round draft pick at wide receiver. But the defense suffered. The wins eventually declined and Brown went elsewhere. Then came Neil Callaway and Garrick McGee. Neither prioritized defense and neither was very successful.

In 2002 Bryan Thomas was drafted in the first and Eddie Freeman in the 2nd. Watson has two seven and one six win season out of 12.
12-30-2019 05:14 PM
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58-56 Offline
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Post: #43
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
(12-30-2019 05:14 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  
(12-29-2019 01:47 PM)BlazeOn Wrote:  Let me preface this by saying first that my thoughts are worth exactly what you're paying for them (maybe less). And second, I fully support Bill Clark. Clark is the best thing ever to happen for UAB Football and it is no stretch to say that football at UAB wouldn't exist without him.

1. Probably more than most fans, I appreciate good defense. Football scores should not look like basketball scores. When I coached I was a defensive minded coach. I like defense. I believe in the adage "defense wins championships". In C-USA the gap between the number one team and the number seven or eight team is often not that big. There is a good deal of talent parity. I've felt for years that a team that prioritized defense would have an advantage in the conference. In the early 2000s under Watson Brown, UAB had some very good defenses. UAB was winning 6-7 games a year (in an 11 game season), becoming bowl eligible, but not getting bowl invitations (fewer bowls then). Brown made a decision to begin prioritizing offense in an effort to become more attractive to bowls. The key choice was where to put the best athletes; at that time UAB did not have enough athletes to excel at both offense and defense. He chose offense. The result was that UAB got its first bowl invite and had a first round draft pick at wide receiver. But the defense suffered. The wins eventually declined and Brown went elsewhere. Then came Neil Callaway and Garrick McGee. Neither prioritized defense and neither was very successful.

In 2002 Bryan Thomas was drafted in the first and Eddie Freeman in the 2nd. Watson has two seven and one six win season out of 12.

Yeah, let's look at the Brown Streak:

1996 5–6
1997 5–6
1998 4–7
1999 5–6
2000 7–4
2001 6–5
2002 5–7
2003 5–7
2004 7–5
2005 5–6
2006 3–9

And that's just wins and (many) losses, on his way to becoming college football's all-time losing-est coach. That doesn't include stabbing Pat Sullivan in the back, running to Baby Bear to save his job, academic eligibility shenanigans and the general air of thuggery and despair around the program (anyone else remember the interesting practices with more players outside the fence than inside?).

Any comparison of Bill Clark to Watson Brown that finds anything in Watson's favor, besides his hairline, is bammer-level moronity.

Edit: In the interest of fairness, Watson did have really, really good hair.
(This post was last modified: 12-30-2019 06:09 PM by 58-56.)
12-30-2019 06:07 PM
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UAB Band Dad Offline
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Post: #44
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
(12-30-2019 04:04 PM)ucwboss Wrote:  I could not care less about where our kids come from! But since we're playing this game, lets compare us to that one program we aspire to be - Boise State. Boise- on their entire roster- has only 13(10%) players from the state of Idaho.

Idaho is not nearly as football crazed as Alabama, and Alabama has two and a half times as many people.
12-31-2019 03:02 AM
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B'ham Blazer Offline
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Post: #45
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
That's what I alluded to yesterday.....Idaho produced 1 (One!) D-1 signee in 2019, Alabama produced 85, and Georgia produced 210.
12-31-2019 08:59 AM
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ucwboss Offline
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Post: #46
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
(12-31-2019 03:02 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  
(12-30-2019 04:04 PM)ucwboss Wrote:  I could not care less about where our kids come from! But since we're playing this game, lets compare us to that one program we aspire to be - Boise State. Boise- on their entire roster- has only 13(10%) players from the state of Idaho.

Idaho is not nearly as football crazed as Alabama, and Alabama has two and a half times as many people.

The point being that this obsession with whether or not our coaches are recruiting enough in the Birmingham metro is not relevant to our success.

More to the point. If Alabama produces 85 D1 quality players per year, that means that (just in out state) there are 5 "major" D1 schools vying for these kids plus numerous FCS and HBCU schools vying for the same kids just in-state. And while Idaho may not be a football hot bed, Alabama is AND we are surrounded by other states who are as football oriented, if not moreso than we are.

This entire string of the post is predicated on the opinion that Clark and staff are lazy about recruiting Birmingham and that is not true.
12-31-2019 09:41 AM
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cb4029 Offline
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Post: #47
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
You guys are arguing like we have a Callaway level lack of talent coming in. If we lacked talent, we would not have gone to the championship game two years in a row. IMO, Clark has done a good job bringing in talent to fill our needs. But I do have one small area of concern going into next season. Injuries and a limited amount of scholarships to offer could be an issue for next year's team.

And I'm not sure we will have a dominant o-line next season, so I would look into adding a zone blocking scheme to make things a bit easier. I'm pretty sure we don't use that right now.
12-31-2019 11:00 AM
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MAN4UAB Online
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Post: #48
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
(12-31-2019 09:41 AM)ucwboss Wrote:  
(12-31-2019 03:02 AM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  
(12-30-2019 04:04 PM)ucwboss Wrote:  I could not care less about where our kids come from! But since we're playing this game, lets compare us to that one program we aspire to be - Boise State. Boise- on their entire roster- has only 13(10%) players from the state of Idaho.

Idaho is not nearly as football crazed as Alabama, and Alabama has two and a half times as many people.

The point being that this obsession with whether or not our coaches are recruiting enough in the Birmingham metro is not relevant to our success.

More to the point. If Alabama produces 85 D1 quality players per year, that means that (just in out state) there are 5 "major" D1 schools vying for these kids plus numerous FCS and HBCU schools vying for the same kids just in-state. And while Idaho may not be a football hot bed, Alabama is AND we are surrounded by other states who are as football oriented, if not moreso than we are.

This entire string of the post is predicated on the opinion that Clark and staff are lazy about recruiting Birmingham and that is not true.

I agree!
12-31-2019 11:01 AM
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BAMANBLAZERFAN Offline
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Post: #49
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
(12-30-2019 06:07 PM)58-56 Wrote:  
(12-30-2019 05:14 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  
(12-29-2019 01:47 PM)BlazeOn Wrote:  Let me preface this by saying first that my thoughts are worth exactly what you're paying for them (maybe less). And second, I fully support Bill Clark. Clark is the best thing ever to happen for UAB Football and it is no stretch to say that football at UAB wouldn't exist without him.

1. Probably more than most fans, I appreciate good defense. Football scores should not look like basketball scores. When I coached I was a defensive minded coach. I like defense. I believe in the adage "defense wins championships". In C-USA the gap between the number one team and the number seven or eight team is often not that big. There is a good deal of talent parity. I've felt for years that a team that prioritized defense would have an advantage in the conference. In the early 2000s under Watson Brown, UAB had some very good defenses. UAB was winning 6-7 games a year (in an 11 game season), becoming bowl eligible, but not getting bowl invitations (fewer bowls then). Brown made a decision to begin prioritizing offense in an effort to become more attractive to bowls. The key choice was where to put the best athletes; at that time UAB did not have enough athletes to excel at both offense and defense. He chose offense. The result was that UAB got its first bowl invite and had a first round draft pick at wide receiver. But the defense suffered. The wins eventually declined and Brown went elsewhere. Then came Neil Callaway and Garrick McGee. Neither prioritized defense and neither was very successful.

In 2002 Bryan Thomas was drafted in the first and Eddie Freeman in the 2nd. Watson has two seven and one six win season out of 12.

Yeah, let's look at the Brown Streak:

1996 5–6
1997 5–6
1998 4–7
1999 5–6
2000 7–4
2001 6–5
2002 5–7
2003 5–7
2004 7–5
2005 5–6
2006 3–9

And that's just wins and (many) losses, on his way to becoming college football's all-time losing-est coach. That doesn't include stabbing Pat Sullivan in the back, running to Baby Bear to save his job, academic eligibility shenanigans and the general air of thuggery and despair around the program (anyone else remember the interesting practices with more players outside the fence than inside?).

Any comparison of Bill Clark to Watson Brown that finds anything in Watson's favor, besides his hairline, is bammer-level moronity.

Edit: In the interest of fairness, Watson did have really, really good hair.

I don't try to compare coaching talent between UAB Blazer staffs. All I have said is that each should be judged by the program they were given. Watson Brown was given ZERO football facilities - even the (renovated) Bell gym weight room did not come into being until Callaway was the coach. Is it significant that the only season FBHC Clark had only those facilities his record was 6-6? I have always believed that the reason the UAB administration was so tolerant of Brown's record was that they had promised to provide facilities for football that never materialized. I have never had the inside Blazer contacts some of you have, so the personal stuff was unknown to me. I just try to be fair to each staff, and I am very glad to have FBHC Clark just as he is glad to have the manicured practice fields and new Football Operations Building. He is delighted to have advantages his predecessors might envy. Now, what football facility does Clark want to build next?
12-31-2019 12:30 PM
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the_blazerman Offline
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Post: #50
RE: My Current Thoughts on UAB Football
Well, the board certainly wouldn't allow any coach to have new facilities in football up until the point where they pushed it too far.

In order to keep themselves on this side of the bars they had to give in.

Even so, the university's part of the contributions to football have been capped even though the benefits to the university from football haven't been.

I think the 3rd football practice field should be in place by next season I would guess.

The new stadium should be considered a new facility for the program as well.

Maybe the next additions to the program come from the conference affiliation.
12-31-2019 02:39 PM
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