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

First, let me say and I think I speak for most of us that we have truly appreciated what Bill Clark has done for the program. Championships, a new stadium, facility upgrades, and most importantly bringing the program back from the dead. UAB Football will forever be indebted to Coach Clark.

That being said, the growth of the program has become stunted. While Coach Clark got UAB Football to a level it should have been at 20 yrs, it is struggling to get to the next level of where the program should be right now. We have been passed by programs who started their football shortly before or shortly after us in terms of national prominence and performance results against power programs.

So lets have an conversation without the angst, anger, and vitriol that usually occurs when talking about the next steps forward for the program. What needs to happen for UAB Football to get to a level of a UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Boise St, App St., and others that we so desperately want our program to be? What concerns do you have that may prevent this from happening? Or are you content with the path UAB Football is on and believe the concern from others isn't warranted?

What say you Blazer fans???

1) hold onto the ball
2) don’t miss tackles on 3rd and long
3) don’t panic when adversity strikes

We need a coach who will run a modern day offense. Players don’t want to be in a run heavy offense with a few deep shots a game.

Our defense unfortunately doesn’t need much done differently. We have elite cb’s, which are an integral part of stopping modern day offenses. Our line is always solid and has guys who can make plays. The only weKansas I consistently see us have there is against scrambling qbs.

We also need to play some winnable p5 games. Let’s be real, nobody cares if we beat liberty, and when we lose it’s a nightmare. I get we like our six home games, but some years we might need to do otherwise if it gets us a 2 for 1 with a Maryland-ish team. We can be better, and we should expect better.

(09-11-2022 10:25 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  We need a coach who will run a modern day offense. Players don’t want to be in a run heavy offense with a few deep shots a game.

Our defense unfortunately doesn’t need much done differently. We have elite cb’s, which are an integral part of stopping modern day offenses. Our line is always solid and has guys who can make plays. The only weKansas I consistently see us have there is against scrambling qbs.

We also need to play some winnable p5 games. Let’s be real, nobody cares if we beat liberty, and when we lose it’s a nightmare. I get we like our six home games, but some years we might need to do otherwise if it gets us a 2 for 1 with a Maryland-ish team. We can be better, and we should expect better.

Exactly. We've had a Top 15 defense every year, but what we need is an explosive offense. UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Boise St, App St., Coastal Carolina, all of those teams win big games and become ranked because they all had explosive modern offensives. Even the team west of us on 20/59 figured out that a stout defense and running game isn't cutting it anymore in the modern game - they adapted and started having an explosive modern offense as well.

(09-11-2022 10:25 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  We need a coach who will run a modern day offense. Players don’t want to be in a run heavy offense with a few deep shots a game.

Our defense unfortunately doesn’t need much done differently. We have elite cb’s, which are an integral part of stopping modern day offenses. Our line is always solid and has guys who can make plays. The only weKansas I consistently see us have there is against scrambling qbs.

We also need to play some winnable p5 games. Let’s be real, nobody cares if we beat liberty, and when we lose it’s a nightmare. I get we like our six home games, but some years we might need to do otherwise if it gets us a 2 for 1 with a Maryland-ish team. We can be better, and we should expect better.

I think if we are going to go with a run heavy offense we should probably have a QB who is a dual threat, one that can run and throw.

We need a really good coach, like AK, who can take us to the next level. Simple as that. Clark and Vincent reached their ceiling in 2018. Vincent ain't it - poor man's version of Clark.

I'm very thankful for what Clark did with the program, but it's crystal clear his system and coaching style, and his staff's, are not good enough to take us over the hump. He screwed UAB over with how he "retired" this off season.

It's time to say thank you, hold onto the good memories, and move onwards and upwards. Vincent, and the Clark coaching tree, ain't it.

Agree with pretty much everything here. Our biggest deficiencies are on the offensive side of the ball, coaching and QB. Agree with the poster who said if we are going to be a run first offense, we need a dual threat QB who can make big plays with his legs. Our play calling is high school level.

ESPN College Gameday will be at Boone next Saturday for App St vs Troy. Man UAB could sure use that type of publicity for our program.

I think there is a mental aspect to developing a winning culture at UAB. UCF, App St, Houston and other programs we consider to be our peers have the mentality they can compete and win against anyone, anywhere, anytime. Even Watson Brown UAB teams had this mentality to a degree. This current version of UAB Football don't have this mentality. The victory over BYU was huge but it doesn't appear to have carried over to this season so far (albeit the season is young). I think this is why scheduling is so important, we need to play a tougher OOC schedule so the guys can get use to playing better competition and eventually beating said better competition. Playing Bama St and Bama A&M isn't helping the cause from a competition point of view.

Clark leave UAB for a very strange reason , i am still dont know the real reason and it may ruin his reputation .
The new coach show that the HC position was over his head , the offense play calling was atrocious, the Time out use was dismal as usual and the special team was as usual terrible on punt return or coverage
If i was in charge i will fire the HC today and UAB will make national new because so far we cannot do it with a winning team , plenty of coach can do better them him ,,,hire on the talking head on college show ,,,,,it work with kennedy
It is very frustrated ,,UAB lost to a very bad team

I was reading about App St and their win yesterday, and the person who wrote the article mentioned that in their last like 8 games against P5 programs, App led at some point during the 4th quarter. They went on to lose several of those games, but they have proven time and time again they can hang with the $ programs. We have proven the exact opposite. As soon as we take a step up in competition, we get smacked down hard. The BYU game is the one exception, and the cynical side of me can make an argument there were extenuating circumstances in that game that definitely worked to our advantage (BYU probably felt disrespected being sent to Shreveport and they were playing with their back up QB).

It's definitely time to get out of the mentality of basing our football success on winning CUSA titles. This league is terrible and it's not like we are dominating it.

(09-11-2022 10:42 AM)BlazintheAtl1 Wrote:  Agree with pretty much everything here. Our biggest deficiencies are on the offensive side of the ball, coaching and QB. Agree with the poster who said if we are going to be a run first offense, we need a dual threat QB who can make big plays with his legs. Our play calling is high school level.

When I watch the other good G5's what stands out the most is the talent at QB. Recruiting at the most important position on the field has been seriously inadequate for UAB. Erdely, TJIII, and Hopkins are tough kids but they lack the mobility and arm strength I see at the better G5 programs.

(09-11-2022 11:20 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(09-11-2022 10:42 AM)BlazintheAtl1 Wrote:  Agree with pretty much everything here. Our biggest deficiencies are on the offensive side of the ball, coaching and QB. Agree with the poster who said if we are going to be a run first offense, we need a dual threat QB who can make big plays with his legs. Our play calling is high school level.

When I watch the other good G5's what stands out the most is the talent at QB. Recruiting at the most important position on the field has been seriously inadequate for UAB. Erdely, TJIII, and Hopkins are tough kids but they lack the mobility and arm strength I see at the better G5 programs.

I think, put in the right situation, Hopkins could be a very good quarterback. He's more athletic than he's been allowed to show. He is accurate when given a chance.

(09-11-2022 11:46 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  

I think the underwhelming passing yards has a lot to do with UAB's depleted talent at WR and TE. Probably the reason why Vincent is leaning on the run game so much.

(09-11-2022 11:57 AM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  

(09-11-2022 11:46 AM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  

I think the underwhelming passing yards has a lot to do with UAB's depleted talent at WR and TE. Probably the reason why Vincent is leaning on the run game so much.

One glaring problem is our not including TEs in the passing gaem. Without the TE receving threat the LBs just hang around the line of scrimmage. Doesn't seem difficult to me to have the TE go out and find a hole in the defense and sit there. Of course we pass so seldomly...might as well be a military academy.

The big picture is that everybody actually is right. But in trying to be right maybe they can’t see the big picture of what has happened here at UAB.

UAB *does* need to evolve its offense to build beyond current capacity. But this cannot be at the expense of the foundation. UAB has two of the best backs and one of the better OL in the G5 and it would be coaching negligence not to ride that advantage.

These schools people are talking about as having gone “next level” like UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Boise State, App State or even TCU and Utah before them didn’t get to where they are with a flashy offense.

They built their lines and defenses first and a winning culture focused on line play. *Then* they upgraded offensive creativity as they filled in talent and built over time. UAB is just now reaching this stage in the Return.

I have watched plenty of flash-in-the-pan teams which lit up the scoreboard and then started losing games 45-38 and could never get a stop or a tough yard when they needed it and didn’t have a special quarterback to cover up that deficiency. (Hawaii, Tulane are two that come to mind but there are countless others.

The most important part of the rebuild of UAB football is building a culture, identity and level of expectation that can endure beyond individuals. That is the big picture. In that big picture, sometimes even the expectations start to exceed the individual (UCF with O’Leary, TCU with Patterson) where highly successful coaches eventually fall to what they themselves built).

Yes, it can be frustrating sometimes to see these other schools get a big moment and see UAB continually searching for that “next” big thing. But it’s still a process. The foundation is much more important than any sugar high or sugar crash.

We need smarter scheduling, more support overall and, yes, maybe even a change in coaches down the line. UAB needs an NIL program and continued investment in facilities and support staff. It is detrimental to debate that game by game, series by series, especially when the AD has already said he is going to evaluate as we go and do a national search at the appropriate time.

One loss on a rainy night when UAB had 4 fumbles isn’t really the time, is it? We gonna do this every game? Every possession? Every call? Boy this place is gonna be miserable.

(09-11-2022 12:04 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  The big picture is that everybody actually is right. But in trying to be right maybe they can’t see the big picture of what has happened here at UAB.

UAB *does* need to evolve its offense to build beyond current capacity. But this cannot be at the expense of the foundation. UAB has two of the best backs and one of the better OL in the G5 and it would be coaching negligence not to ride that advantage.

These schools people are talking about as having gone “next level” like UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Boise State, App State or even TCU and Utah before them didn’t get to where they are with a flashy offense.

They built their lines and defenses first and a winning culture focused on line play. *Then* they upgraded offensive creativity as they filled in talent and built over time. UAB is just now reaching this stage in the Return.

I have watched plenty of flash-in-the-pan teams which lit up the scoreboard and then started losing games 45-38 and could never get a stop or a tough yard when they needed it and didn’t have a special quarterback to cover up that deficiency. (Hawaii, Tulane are two that come to mind but there are countless others.

The most important part of the rebuild of UAB football is building a culture, identity and level of expectation that can endure beyond individuals. That is the big picture. In that big picture, sometimes even the expectations start to exceed the individual (UCF with O’Leary, TCU with Patterson) where highly successful coaches eventually fall to what they themselves built).

Yes, it can be frustrating sometimes to see these other schools get a big moment and see UAB continually searching for that “next” big thing. But it’s still a process. The foundation is much more important than any sugar high or sugar crash.

We need smarter scheduling, more support overall and, yes, maybe even a change in coaches down the line. UAB needs an NIL program and continued investment in facilities and support staff. It is detrimental to debate that game by game, series by series, especially when the AD has already said he is going to evaluate as we go and do a national search at the appropriate time.

One loss on a rainy night when UAB had 4 fumbles isn’t really the time, is it? We gonna do this every game? Every possession? Every call? Boy this place is gonna be miserable.

This.

(09-11-2022 12:04 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  The big picture is that everybody actually is right. But in trying to be right maybe they can’t see the big picture of what has happened here at UAB.

UAB *does* need to evolve its offense to build beyond current capacity. But this cannot be at the expense of the foundation. UAB has two of the best backs and one of the better OL in the G5 and it would be coaching negligence not to ride that advantage.

These schools people are talking about as having gone “next level” like UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Boise State, App State or even TCU and Utah before them didn’t get to where they are with a flashy offense.

They built their lines and defenses first and a winning culture focused on line play. *Then* they upgraded offensive creativity as they filled in talent and built over time. UAB is just now reaching this stage in the Return.

I have watched plenty of flash-in-the-pan teams which lit up the scoreboard and then started losing games 45-38 and could never get a stop or a tough yard when they needed it and didn’t have a special quarterback to cover up that deficiency. (Hawaii, Tulane are two that come to mind but there are countless others.

The most important part of the rebuild of UAB football is building a culture, identity and level of expectation that can endure beyond individuals. That is the big picture. In that big picture, sometimes even the expectations start to exceed the individual (UCF with O’Leary, TCU with Patterson) where highly successful coaches eventually fall to what they themselves built).

Yes, it can be frustrating sometimes to see these other schools get a big moment and see UAB continually searching for that “next” big thing. But it’s still a process. The foundation is much more important than any sugar high or sugar crash.

We need smarter scheduling, more support overall and, yes, maybe even a change in coaches down the line. UAB needs an NIL program and continued investment in facilities and support staff. It is detrimental to debate that game by game, series by series, especially when the AD has already said he is going to evaluate as we go and do a national search at the appropriate time.

One loss on a rainy night when UAB had 4 fumbles isn’t really the time, is it? We gonna do this every game? Every possession? Every call? Boy this place is gonna be miserable.

Amen! Imagine if we hadn’t fumbled four times.

It's not even about being right or wrong. It's about how UAB can get over the hump to the next level. Good points DD.