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

Just looking at Auburn's week 1 depth chart, and former Blazer Tony Fair is going to be their starting nose tackle. I don't think they have the number of athletes on the D-line that they had in recent years, but that is still a pretty good look for us when someone who came out of the spring as our second team NT or DT is now a starter at Auburn.

On the same note, most of the P-5 transfers on our roster aren't coming in and immediately stepping into the rotation. Only Justin Thomas is a starter at DT, and Tyler Taylor is second team at LB. I don't know if Witherspoon is hurt or not, but he wasn't on the depth chart for the first game, and I don't think he played. I saw Troy Young on the field, but according to the depth chart, he is third team at the Star, as is Benton at LB and T.J.Jones at WR.

Some of that is that our coaches are pretty good at evaluating diamond-in-the-rough players and developing them (see Spencer and Jermaine Brown, Kris Moll, and Noah Wilder, among others). And some of it is that possibility that some of those players who were recruited by P5 schools were not necessarily as good as advertised.