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Just tweeted out

Just saw that. Stating medical reasons, I hope he’s alright

This is a shocking turn. Hope he gets the help he needs for his back and can recover properly from any procedures he has to go through.

Good luck to you guys moving forward, it will be interesting to see how the future looks.

Just saw that myself. Yes he's ok, back/spine issues & needs some surgery & looks like recovery/trying to be head coach would conflict. Vincent will be fill in

Officially retiring August 1. Recommending Bryant Vincent as interim head coach and David Reeves asst head coach to Watts

Wow. It must be serious for him to step down now and not finish out the season. Hope everything turns out ok. No doubt he’s a UAB legend and the standard for UAB football. I was tough on him, but he got the program to a place where we have much higher expectations than in the past. Glad he’ll still be involved with the program/university.

I get needing time away for surgery/recovery, but why not just take a one year leave of absence then return in 2023? Outright retiring in his mid 50's seems weird to me, especially when we're about to take a big step forward into a better league.

https://www.al.com/uab/2022/06/bill-clar...coach.html

Scarbinsky article, goes into a little more detail.

(06-24-2022 09:45 AM)hooverblazer Wrote:  I get needing time away for surgery/recovery, but why not just take a one year leave of absence then return in 2023? Outright retiring in his mid 50's seems weird to me, especially when we're about to take a big step forward into a better league.

Health and family for some people have a little more importance than football.

Time to back up the Brinks truck for Andy...we're a basketball school again!

Bill Clark is an absolute legend What this man and his program accomplished is literally a movie script waiting to be made He brought UAB back from the dead

something doesnt add up lfmd

Wow. Best wishes to Coach Clark. Him stepping down now allows his staff an opportunity to prove themselves before the AAC. If not, there won’t be a shortage of candidates.

One more item we need to consider is the unintended consequences the transfer portal situation will have. Player retention is paramount. It helps that Coach Clark waited until now to announce--that was probably by design.

News conference just started

Hoping for a quick recovery for coach and thankful for all he did! I hope athletics doesn’t try to bring in anyone new this late in the off-season and upset the order of things. Vincent and Reeves already have a good relationship with the players.

There has to be more to the story than this...

Plenty of people continue to work after spinal fusions. Job modifications can be made to accommodate spinal and mobility. For God's sake Jabba the Hutt Wayne Bolt coached for us, and he looked like the most unhealthy human alive. It makes no sense to RETIRE outright just before the season starts, after being here so long and going through what he's gone through and building what he's built. It makes no sense to me to outright retire at his age for a surgery that thousands of people go through and keep working. I would completely understand if he took the year off, stepped away, or whatever, but to outright retire is bizarre to me.

I hope someone can shed some light on this.

In any case, I hope he has a successful surgery and recovers, but this sucks majorly

I don’t see any deeper meaning from this. He’s hurting and can’t perform his job

(06-24-2022 10:05 AM)blazer74 Wrote:  Hoping for a quick recovery for coach and thankful for all he did! I hope athletics doesn’t try to bring in anyone new this late in the off-season and upset the order of things. Vincent and Reeves already have a good relationship with the players.

Doubt we’ll get anyone for this year, not many quality candidates at this time. I’m sure Vincent/Reeves will be given a chance to earn their new roles full time if they perform this year.

He's been dealing with this since college which is 30+ years. Spinal fusions are no guarantee of pain relief and there's a significant "failed back syndrome" rate. I think he's been working on a continuity plan for a while because he knows there's a significant chance he couldn't return effectively. He has been working 14 hour days for years in pain. Sometimes you just have to tap out