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Ok so we had a thread for record predictions so I thought it might be fun to look at the schedule based on confidence in a a blazer victory. How would you rank the schedule based on 12 being the game you are most confident in a UAB win and 1 being least confident.

Mine:

12 — Alabama A&M. Should be a comfortable opening W which hopefully an opportunity to play some backups a lot.

11 — Georgia Southern. The switch from the option to the passing offense is hard to pull off in one year. I don’t think the Eagles will be ready in week 2.

10 — Charlotte. I actually think the 49ers will be pretty good but I do not think they match up with the Blazers at the line of scrimmage or in Bham.

9 — MTSU. This team is hard to figure going into the season but I expect the Blazers will handle them on homecoming after dropping the Children’s Harbor game last season.

8 — Rice. Speaking of that Children’s Harbor disaster, Rice is one of the few teams in CUSA that tries to match smash mouth with UAB. They have done it pretty well the three years.

7 — North Texas. They played really good in the 2nd half of last season but it is at home. It being the week after the UTSA game does concern me in a WTH way.

6 — WKU — on the road, but I think the Blazers will get it done in a national tv game.

5 — Liberty. They don’t have Willis who just destroyed the Blazers in one quarter last year. But it is the first road game for UAB and the Flames are still pretty talented and well coached. I think UAB will get a hard-fought win.

4 — La Tech. People could be underestimating them. Skip did a good job down there, they had horrible luck last year and I like the coaching hire they made. Tech would love to spoil things for UAB in the last regular season game.

3 — UTSA. The more I look at UTSA the more I respect them. I think they could be better than last season but record may not show it and this one is at Protective.

2 — FAU. The Owls are much better at home than on the road. They will want revenge for last season. This game is sandwiched between the road trip to Western and the big showdown with UTSA so that makes it a scary one.

1 — LSU. Until the Blazers go into one of these big SEC venues and prove it, it is hard to be real confident about coming away with a dub.

Last thing is this is a good year to miss UTEP. I think they may be for real. They remind me of … UAB. Loads of jucos who play with a chip on their shoulder. I won’t be surprised if they are in the title hunt in November.

I would put Liberty at 2. The OOC has not been good for us. On the road too. I remember getting killed at Ball St, Coastal, TN, UF, UG and losing to Louisiana and Liberty at home. Tulane games not withstanding.
Rice QB is back and looked really good at Protective last year.
Road games always are tough. WKU, FAU, La Tech and Rice are CUSA road games.
UTSA will be a big game but we have multiple qbs that will help us get through the season. I wonder if Harris can remain healthy with a tough schedule and his determination. UTSA gets a bye before meeting at Protective. We will be in Boca. We could have easily won the game last year at UTSA. Not the case with Liberty or Rice in Protective. If we can build some momentum by winning at Liberty and Rice then where will the WTH game hit?

This is the strongest schedule top to bottom we’ve played since CUSA 1.0

The “easiest” conference game might very well be against the Rice team that beat us at home last year.
All four non-conference games are good. Liberty and LSU we know are good, but both of our opening OOC games are intriguing as well. We’ve had close games against the instate HBCU’s before and this A&M team is probably the most talented we’ve played. Georgia Southern was bad last year, but they have traditionally been a pretty solid team and coach Helton is a huge coaching upgrade for them. They have a game against Nebraska the week before coming to Birmingham, so I’m holding off judging them until I see that game.

I didn’t realize the Nebraska link
It would be pure gold for me if GS beats Nebraska and then we beat GS

IF we just beat GS worse than Nebraska does, that will provide me with plenty of local entertainment

12–Alabama A&M
11-Georgia Southern
10-Charlotte
9-@Rice
8-MTSU
7-North Texas
6-@FAU
5-@La Tech
4-UTSA
3-@Liberty
2-@Western Kentucky
1-@LSU

(08-23-2022 04:06 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Ok so we had a thread for record predictions so I thought it might be fun to look at the schedule based on confidence in a a blazer victory. How would you rank the schedule based on 12 being the game you are most confident in a UAB win and 1 being least confident.

Mine:

12 — Alabama A&M. Should be a comfortable opening W which hopefully an opportunity to play some backups a lot.

11 — Georgia Southern. The switch from the option to the passing offense is hard to pull off in one year. I don’t think the Eagles will be ready in week 2.

10 — Charlotte. I actually think the 49ers will be pretty good but I do not think they match up with the Blazers at the line of scrimmage or in Bham.

9 — MTSU. This team is hard to figure going into the season but I expect the Blazers will handle them on homecoming after dropping the Children’s Harbor game last season.

8 — Rice. Speaking of that Children’s Harbor disaster, Rice is one of the few teams in CUSA that tries to match smash mouth with UAB. They have done it pretty well the three years.

7 — North Texas. They played really good in the 2nd half of last season but it is at home. It being the week after the UTSA game does concern me in a WTH way.

6 — WKU — on the road, but I think the Blazers will get it done in a national tv game.

5 — Liberty. They don’t have Willis who just destroyed the Blazers in one quarter last year. But it is the first road game for UAB and the Flames are still pretty talented and well coached. I think UAB will get a hard-fought win.

4 — La Tech. People could be underestimating them. Skip did a good job down there, they had horrible luck last year and I like the coaching hire they made. Tech would love to spoil things for UAB in the last regular season game.

3 — UTSA. The more I look at UTSA the more I respect them. I think they could be better than last season but record may not show it and this one is at Protective.

2 — FAU. The Owls are much better at home than on the road. They will want revenge for last season. This game is sandwiched between the road trip to Western and the big showdown with UTSA so that makes it a scary one.

1 — LSU. Until the Blazers go into one of these big SEC venues and prove it, it is hard to be real confident about coming away with a dub.

Last thing is this is a good year to miss UTEP. I think they may be for real. They remind me of … UAB. Loads of jucos who play with a chip on their shoulder. I won’t be surprised if they are in the title hunt in November.

I would pretty much agree with that except I would swap Liberty and WKU.

Tech scares the hell out of me. Ruston is a **** hole like Troy and it's tough to go in a **** hole and not be covered in ****.

I also think UTEP will have it's best season in a long long time. They remind me of a Bill Clark coached team. They are poised to be very good.

(08-25-2022 08:14 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  I also think UTEP will have it's best season in a long long time. They remind me of a Bill Clark coached team. They are poised to be very good.

UTEP looks like they are going to sell out their home opener. Glad we miss them this year and look forward to maybe one day selling out Protective.

The Liberty game is key to me. Early season, OOC road game that we have been very iffy in under this coaching regime. They also spanked us in embarrassing fashion at the grand opening of our new stadium. If we can win this game, I think we can have an excellent season. Losing it doesn't really kill any of our main objectives, it'll just show me that it's more same ole, same ole for UAB.

Agree the Liberty game is a big one. Hard to know what they have without Willis because he could turn bad plays into 70 yard touchdowns. But I expect they will still be pretty darn good, just a little less explosive. Btw, that Liberty game is one where the penalties just killed us. Does it turn out different if we don’t settle for a FG (killing a drive) and having a TD taken off the board (by a penalty) and miss a chance to go up 14-0 in the 1st quarter?

Also, Answer, apologies to you. I know I can be pretty opinionated and straightforward and therefore statements in text can come off as pretty blunt or more combative than intended. Hey, I did choose the handle “Dueling” lol. I enjoy your posts and conversing with you (and everyone else here) even with disagreeing.

(08-25-2022 12:26 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Agree the Liberty game is a big one. Hard to know what they have without Willis because he could turn bad plays into 70 yard touchdowns. But I expect they will still be pretty darn good, just a little less explosive. Btw, that Liberty game is one where the penalties just killed us. Does it turn out different if we don’t settle for a FG (killing a drive) and having a TD taken off the board (by a penalty) and miss a chance to go up 14-0 in the 1st quarter?

Also, Answer, apologies to you. I know I can be pretty opinionated and straightforward and therefore statements in text can come off as pretty blunt or more combative than intended. Hey, I did choose the handle “Dueling” lol. I enjoy your posts and conversing with you (and everyone else here) even with disagreeing.

Agreed. Thanks for saying that!

Is this the toughest schedule since the Return? Maybe.

It is set up to have a chance to have a great start. UAB will be favored in 5 of the first 6 games, maybe even all 6. I would guess being a 3-4 pt underdog at Liberty right now. But I don’t think any of them look like cakewalks. The back half looks really tough.

(08-24-2022 05:52 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  12–Alabama A&M
11-Georgia Southern
10-Charlotte
9-@Rice
8-MTSU
7-North Texas
6-@FAU
5-@La Tech
4-UTSA
3-@Liberty
2-@Western Kentucky
1-@LSU

well, we beat 12, 11, 10...
lost to 3 and 9

updated:
8-Charlotte
7-North Texas
6-@La Tech
5-@FAU
4-MTSU
3-UTSA
2-@Western Kentucky
1-@LSU