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The Answer UAB Online
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Post: #1
Change My Mind
This will be my last rant on this I promise, but I had to get it all out for the 50th time before I really let it all go. Please try to change my mind on any of the points I make. I desperately want to be wrong and have more hope for the future. Here goes..

Bill Clark coaches an old-school, overly conservative, non-analytics based, boring, scared, undisciplined, and an excessively penalized brand of football. He and his staff do not manage the clock, timeouts, or game situations well (look at the 4th down play last night as evidence, as well as a myriad of other situations). He and his staff make a lot of very questionable (to be nice) decisions. He doesn't have a killer instinct. He wants to run the clock out on the other team the second the game starts. He does not own up to mistakes, seemingly can't handle criticism, and does not change or adapt his style of play or his staff. We don't recruit at a high level. UAB has plateaued and will never be better than 2018 unless we make changes. I don't think Clark and his staff as currently constructed will be able to lead us to take the proverbial "next step" in the AAC. I fear that with the step up in competition we will fade further backwards.

He has massively bungled what was supposed to be our best season ever, with a triumphant transition into a beautiful new stadium and a new and better conference. Instead, we have less fans in attendance than we did at Legion field, fans are upset, and we have zero positive momentum. He and much of the fanbase seem to be stuck in the "thank God we got football back" mindset, and are unwilling to strive for more.

That being said, I really can't express how much I appreciate his loyalty to UAB and fighting for the program when it got shut down. I remember how bad that felt. Loyalty means a lot to me personally, and what he showed during that time was priceless. He is obviously a good coach. He always has a top notch defense. He is able to maximize what most would consider to be very marginal recruiting talent. He instilled a winning culture in the program. In a nutshell, he fixed an absolute dumpster fire.

Even the best coaches need to recognize their weaknesses. He needs to make staff changes. He needs to address the penalties. He needs to shore up the clock, time out, play, and game management. He needs to delegate things he is not good at to staff members who specialize in that particular thing. I really do think we're at a crossroads. If he digs his heels in and makes no changes over the offseason, we will never be anything more than CUSA-level good and nationally mediocre.
(This post was last modified: 11-21-2021 10:27 PM by The Answer UAB.)
11-21-2021 10:25 PM
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Post: #2
RE: Change My Mind
I don't think he will ever take UAB to the next level. I have a lot more faith in Kennedy doing that. Most of Clark's wins have come against #80 -#120 teams with losing records. 0-7 vs P-5. I do think he recruits better than the rankings. Talent level is not bad. There is probably a reason hardly anybody ever tries to hire any of his assistants away.
11-21-2021 10:39 PM
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RE: Change My Mind
Some of these words are just coming up now. The analytics thing is literally from yesterday. The football definitely isn’t boring when our back is eating La Tech up. I don’t even know what you mean by scared. Do we run away when the other team comes on the field? The style of football Clark plays is not going to beat Top tier teams. It is what it is to me.

I don’t know what some of you guys want there honestly. To design a specific gameplan to not lose to Georgia by 42? It’s a waste of time and I honestly agree with how Clark treats those games. Until we are nationally ranked and on a run like Boise state, those games aren’t going to do anything for us. I also don’t know why we are obsessed with Clark owning his mistakes. He coaches football for a living, I’m pretty sure he can watch the tape and see what happens. He doesn’t have to give me, you, or any other fan an explanation of what happened and how he will correct it. He has a boss he answers to.

I do agree with the penalties. I do agree with the mismanagement of timeouts.

And I’ll also counter with, for the 50th time, you cannot make staff changes in the middle of a season typically. We can’t go from the offense we are currently running to a spread in a week. That’s not how it works. I’m curious if changes will be made in the off-season though.

Things aren’t as great as some want to make it out to be, and things aren’t as horrible as some make it out to be. Our definition of a disappointing season is not winning the west, and losing to an undefeated, top 25 team on the road on a last second play.

I am higher on Clark than the two of you are. I would suggest we all be careful what we wish for as well, as we still aren’t that far removed from the dumpster fire that McGee was.
11-21-2021 11:13 PM
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The Answer UAB Online
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RE: Change My Mind
(11-21-2021 11:13 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Some of these words are just coming up now. The analytics thing is literally from yesterday. The football definitely isn’t boring when our back is eating La Tech up. I don’t even know what you mean by scared. Do we run away when the other team comes on the field? The style of football Clark plays is not going to beat Top tier teams. It is what it is to me.

I don’t know what some of you guys want there honestly. To design a specific gameplan to not lose to Georgia by 42? It’s a waste of time and I honestly agree with how Clark treats those games. Until we are nationally ranked and on a run like Boise state, those games aren’t going to do anything for us. I also don’t know why we are obsessed with Clark owning his mistakes. He coaches football for a living, I’m pretty sure he can watch the tape and see what happens. He doesn’t have to give me, you, or any other fan an explanation of what happened and how he will correct it. He has a boss he answers to.

I do agree with the penalties. I do agree with the mismanagement of timeouts.

And I’ll also counter with, for the 50th time, you cannot make staff changes in the middle of a season typically. We can’t go from the offense we are currently running to a spread in a week. That’s not how it works. I’m curious if changes will be made in the off-season though.

Things aren’t as great as some want to make it out to be, and things aren’t as horrible as some make it out to be. Our definition of a disappointing season is not winning the west, and losing to an undefeated, top 25 team on the road on a last second play.

I am higher on Clark than the two of you are. I would suggest we all be careful what we wish for as well, as we still aren’t that far removed from the dumpster fire that McGee was.

Scared as in he won't go for it on fourth and inches in what amounted to a championship game, won't go for it on 4th and 1 in the opponent's territory in the Marshall game to go for the kill shot, etc etc. I've always thought he coached a very non-analytics type game. You'll never, ever see him doing the stuff a lot of NFL teams and high level college teams are doing in terms of going for it on fourth down and other things. I personally don't give a damn about the georgia game. We got embarrassed, but it has nothing to do with how I feel about Clark. I wasn't happy with the La Tech game either. We got down three touchdowns to a 3 win team bc of asinine coaching decisions and penalties, and we let them drop 38 on us - not much to be proud of there.

I'm obsessed with him owning his mistake because it was such an astronomically bad one. An epic fail. The worst coaching decision in UAB history, and we've had literally all-time bad coaches. Something like that deserves an explanation or an acknowledgement or something.
(This post was last modified: 11-21-2021 11:26 PM by The Answer UAB.)
11-21-2021 11:24 PM
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blazers9911 Online
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RE: Change My Mind
We were never down 3 touchdowns to la tech. They scored their 38th point with seconds left on the clock when we were up 21. It’s a meaningless score at that point. We smacked La Tech around most of that game, and I always enjoy those days.

So we have two examples of scared and that’s what it is now. It’s literally the style he plays. We both knew he was going to punt that ball while begging for us to go for it

Why does he owe you an explanation or acknowledgement? He said it’s something he’d do 100% of the time, that’s a coaching philosophy. It’s a mistake to you and I. To him, it’s a failure on his defense to do what was needed with a minute to go. It’s not a mistake.
11-21-2021 11:40 PM
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The Answer UAB Online
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Post: #6
RE: Change My Mind
It’s a dumb coaching philosophy and will continue to get us beat in winnable games.
11-21-2021 11:50 PM
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The Answer UAB Online
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Post: #7
RE: Change My Mind
He literally said he didn’t know what he’d do if they fumbled the snap or the ball fell thru someone’s hands, how does that not sound scared AF to you
11-21-2021 11:51 PM
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Post: #8
RE: Change My Mind
Valid points are being made from both sides of the aisle. At the end of the day it is clear Clark has to address some issues that has plagued his teams this offseason. We can all agree on this.
(This post was last modified: 11-22-2021 08:26 AM by HiddenDragon.)
11-22-2021 08:24 AM
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Post: #9
RE: Change My Mind
(11-21-2021 10:25 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  This will be my last rant on this I promise, but I had to get it all out for the 50th time before I really let it all go. Please try to change my mind on any of the points I make. I desperately want to be wrong and have more hope for the future. Here goes..

Bill Clark coaches an old-school, overly conservative, non-analytics based, boring, scared, undisciplined, and an excessively penalized brand of football. He and his staff do not manage the clock, timeouts, or game situations well (look at the 4th down play last night as evidence, as well as a myriad of other situations). He and his staff make a lot of very questionable (to be nice) decisions. He doesn't have a killer instinct. He wants to run the clock out on the other team the second the game starts. He does not own up to mistakes, seemingly can't handle criticism, and does not change or adapt his style of play or his staff. We don't recruit at a high level. UAB has plateaued and will never be better than 2018 unless we make changes. I don't think Clark and his staff as currently constructed will be able to lead us to take the proverbial "next step" in the AAC. I fear that with the step up in competition we will fade further backwards.

He has massively bungled what was supposed to be our best season ever, with a triumphant transition into a beautiful new stadium and a new and better conference. Instead, we have less fans in attendance than we did at Legion field, fans are upset, and we have zero positive momentum. He and much of the fanbase seem to be stuck in the "thank God we got football back" mindset, and are unwilling to strive for more.

This reads like a resolution approving a new job description for Head Football Coach at UAB from the Board of Trustees
11-22-2021 08:50 AM
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Post: #10
RE: Change My Mind
Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?
11-22-2021 08:59 AM
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Post: #11
RE: Change My Mind
Hopkins does take snaps from under center every now and then, and I agree it was one of, if not the worst call in UAB's short history..........worse than McGee kicking off to start both halves. We help to pay Clark's salary, he does not pay ours.
11-22-2021 09:06 AM
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Post: #12
RE: Change My Mind
I was not happy with this 4 down call , it was an incredible mistakes and i am expecting him to learn from it . dont forget that the offense was more open and he let the OC open up , we look like a new generation team because the other team had a good offense

we had less penalty at marshall because the ref let the db play defense , he play conservative and we barely won ,,but we won

Penalty willl be less if cusa ref let the db play defense like everywhere else...look at the nfl

No one great will come here for 1.5 million/year , , UAB season went below expectation but we saw it coming when georgia make us look like a bad hs team

Beat UTEP and win the bowl game and we will be ready for next year

I want my team to win every game but it is very difficult to do but we can dream about it ,,,,it is a dream ,,,dont forget about it

Recruiting will get better , that is the first season with a shinny stadium

UAB will start to get AUBURN fans and Saban will quit coaching some day

I am disappointed from the season but i follow UAB when we barely win 4 games

Firing the coach is not an option except if you want to paid his buyout and most big crying baby can not do it (fyi i paid a lot of $$ for this program but my opinion is not more important that a small donor but it is not less important )

It is difficult to be an UAB fans
The coach wife internet story , i got no idea if it is true or not but she is passionate and UAB love and need passionate fans ")

Go Blazers
11-22-2021 09:07 AM
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Post: #13
RE: Change My Mind
(11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?

Doubt that was discussed, but yeah, that's a risk. So is going under center for a direct snap with a big gash on your hand.

I would have gone for it, and I would have put TJII in to run that play. But I also believed our defense could find a way to get a stop either way.
11-22-2021 09:08 AM
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Post: #14
RE: Change My Mind
(11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?

he took some direct snap this year i think
11-22-2021 09:10 AM
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The Answer UAB Online
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Post: #15
RE: Change My Mind
(11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?

It didn't have to be a QB sneak. Could've been any play we have in the book that's designed for super short yardage situations. Anything would've been better than our coaches standing over there like deer caught in the headlights, not knowing what to do, and then letting the delay of game penalty happen without even trying to draw them offsides!

And if you don't play 1970's football, going for it there was absolutely the right thing to do.

And if you do think punting it is the right decision there, why in God's name do you not try to draw them offsides first? Why do you then allow their QB to run around completely unfettered to gash our defense and leave huge swaths of the field wide open for them to drive it on us? If you believe punting was the right play, to net us ~30 yards of field position, why play matador defense and completely give away the field position advantage from punting the ball. We should've just handed it to them on our 40 and said hey, here you go.

I knew this team found ways to beat itself with penalties and some poor play calling at times, but man, I never would've thought I also had to worry about bad coaching decisions before this year.
(This post was last modified: 11-22-2021 09:26 AM by The Answer UAB.)
11-22-2021 09:21 AM
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Post: #16
RE: Change My Mind
(11-22-2021 09:08 AM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  
(11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?

Doubt that was discussed, but yeah, that's a risk. So is going under center for a direct snap with a big gash on your hand.

I would have gone for it, and I would have put TJII in to run that play. But I also believed our defense could find a way to get a stop either way.

That's a fair point and one I hadn't considered. As a proud graduate of the Dieter Brock Quarterback Camp, I'll also point out that taking a snap is harder than it looks, it you haven't done it in a while with your nice, soft hands.

I still think we should have gone for it, but UTSA managed to go 80 yards in less than two minutes and still needed an untimely injury TO and a weird desperation pass just over the fingertips of leaping Noah Wilder. It was not a no-brainer - there's a case for punting, though I disagree with it - as I first thought, but I still really doubt any brain was harmed in sending out the punt team.
11-22-2021 09:28 AM
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Post: #17
RE: Change My Mind
(11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?

No, I wanted to see him give the ball to Debo and let them try to stop him.
11-22-2021 10:07 AM
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Post: #18
RE: Change My Mind
First if what we saw Saturday is boring 1970's type offense then pass me the pet rock, platform shoes and bell bottoms. I'll take that every time. It was a beautiful game plan and with the exception of a short stint in the 3rd quarter we made a 10-0 defense playing at home look less than average. I've watched a lot of UT and Ole Miss this year and they score in bunches but their defenses are gassed by the 3rd quarter against quality offenses because they're trotted out there every 5 minutes.

As far as "massively bungled" the year and the move to the stadium, I just can't make that reach to pin that on one person. Liberty was frustrating because we left at least 3 scores on the field by just not executing. Did the year turn out like anyone wanted? Nope. None of the coaches, players, fans or boosters thought we'd be in this position. Those things happen. Winning in San Antonio would have put a big bow on things but their guys made plays in the last 75 seconds.

As far as playing scared, I wouldn't call it playing scared. I think it has more to do with being comfortable with your strengths. I will say though if the defense can predict what you're going to run in those closing moments then you're putting your offense at a serious disadvantage. Punt or no punt, rushing 3 against someone like Harris is just putting way too much pressure on a secondary. The only thing a prevent defense prevents is winning. If you have faith in your defense, then let them go play defense.

I really think some of us need to take a step back with the rhetoric. EVERY program has years like this. Some of stuff I've read on here regarding Jennifer Clark is disappointing. That includes what she's said as well as some of the unfounded innuendo posted here. Everyone is disappointed but everyone is also better than this
11-22-2021 10:09 AM
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blazers9911 Online
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RE: Change My Mind
(11-22-2021 08:59 AM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  Not going for it was actually the right call. Do you really want to run a QB sneak with the game on the line in an offense where the QB doesn’t take direct snaps?

Statistically speaking it was not the right call. There was a significantly higher percentage of winning the game by going for it on 4th and inches. That being said, I understand the decision Clark made knowing his coaching philosophy. I never had a doubt we would punt that ball. As I've said before, my biggest issue at that point is we decided to rush 3 and let their QB do whatever the hell he wanted. Our defense was effective the entire second half, let the boys play their game at that point.
11-22-2021 10:13 AM
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RE: Change My Mind
(11-21-2021 11:50 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  It’s a dumb coaching philosophy and will continue to get us beat in winnable games.

Comments like this are the epitome of what is wrong with society today. One cannot have an opposing view or opinion without being called dumb. When your go to is name calling, the other side will not listen. I've emailed Coach Clark in the past and he has replied. Perhaps send him an email and see if he'll give you some insight?

This man took a bottom five college football program, and has us competing for conference championships year in and year out after helping resurrect it from the dead. While nobody on this board agrees with every decision he has made on the field, especially the past two years, it's hard to argue with the results. He isn't getting paid $1+ million a year because he doesn't know what he is doing.
11-22-2021 10:18 AM
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