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

For essentially all our time as an FBS football program we’ve argued that we lag behind in facilities/resources simply because we were young and loyal alumni had yet to grow into wealthy, loyal donors. There’s truth to that and it may be that The Return itself was possible because some fans were generating “ROI”.

But I wonder if we skipped a decade+ or so of making fans of UAB students before 2014. The Return certainly captured more attention from students so we might see a boost in future years, but is there going to be a gap between current deep pockets and when current students witnessed it all and grow into a broader, deeper base for football?

Yes.

It was a 3 year gap, not a 20 year gap. The question is can UAB maintain the momentum you guys got with the rebirth. Your next HC hire is very important, not sure y’all can “survive” a bad hire. With the perceived advance into the AAC, and getting back in conference with Memphis and ECU, y’all really need to get this hire right.

It was a decade gap of indifference. I was there in the time frame being discussed, and people largely did not care. A group of us came back before and during the shut down to make sure it got going again, but UAB did nothing to engage students in football at the time. Things have changed, but the indifference shown toward the program from 2000ish to the shut down was very harmful to creating an actual fan base.

It is more than a decade. Throw in a mostly irrelevant basketball program after 2005 until 2020. Basketball didn’t take a cliff dive like football but it was more of a slow slide toward mediocrity. Sometimes being average is worse than being awful. When you are awful, people who care try to fix it. When you are just blah, people stop caring. There also was a gap beginning to emerge in the late 1990s just because some of the people who got involved thanks to Coach Bartow began to grow old and depart after he did.

That’s the worry I had with South’s program when Steve Campbell was coach, that it would completely ruin the growth of the program. Fortunately we seem to have gotten our third coach right.

I moved to BHM in 2002 and immediately started going to games. I was always amazed at how thin the crowds were back then, except for the Sept 4th game, you know the one I’m talking about. I went to plenty of games where USM and Memphis fans outnumbered UAB fans. Seems like UAB didn’t even have a band back in those days.

The question is, how fragile is the UAB fan base? Will the support fall back to pre-shutdown numbers if the next coaching hire is a bust?

I wish people could have realistic expectations about attendance but I doubt they ever will. Group of 5 teams will do well to average 25,000 and it is probably going to be harder in the future for all schools to maintain their attendance, including some of the big dogs.

Never been to a game when Memphis and USM fans outnumbered us and I’ve been to all of them but you can make your point without over exaggerating. Hell my season tickets were on the east side as well as many others. Attendance was not good but throwing the BS flag.

Absolute BS. Even when Memphis traveled heavily to Bartow, they maybe had 1000 fans in a sold out(or at least close to) arena. There is absolutely no way they brought more fans than that to football games at the time.

(10-30-2022 09:40 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I moved to BHM in 2002 and immediately started going to games. I was always amazed at how thin the crowds were back then, except for the Sept 4th game, you know the one I’m talking about. I went to plenty of games where USM and Memphis fans outnumbered UAB fans. Seems like UAB didn’t even have a band back in those days.

I was at all of those games and I can say unequivocally that you are Full Of ****. No band? WTF.

(10-31-2022 04:06 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-30-2022 09:40 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I moved to BHM in 2002 and immediately started going to games. I was always amazed at how thin the crowds were back then, except for the Sept 4th game, you know the one I’m talking about. I went to plenty of games where USM and Memphis fans outnumbered UAB fans. Seems like UAB didn’t even have a band back in those days.

I was at all of those games and I can say unequivocally that you are Full Of ****. No band? WTF.

Guys, calm down, it was a long time ago and I was completely going off of memory. Should have thrown in the word “Seemed”, as in it seemed like there were more of those fans then UAB fans in the stand. I also don’t recall there being a UAB band at some of those games, especially when USM would bring there whole band and dance team to the game. A lot of these games were Thursday night games that I went to.

I wasn’t trying to throw rocks, I was just just giving my impression from those early to mid-2000’s games, and what I remember from them. I also remember not going to a Thursday game when it rained, and no one else went either. It was an ESPN game and there may have been 500 people there. We all know fan support was weak in those years, Clark came in and changed that quickly, and is the reason there still is UAB football.

The question is will the support survive a bad hire? I hope for you guys that a return of Memphis and ECU back onto the schedule that support continues to grow, and the right hire, obviously, makes that easier. What hire would excite the fan base? Who do y’all have on your short list?

(11-01-2022 09:28 AM)Usajags Wrote:  

(10-31-2022 04:06 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-30-2022 09:40 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I moved to BHM in 2002 and immediately started going to games. I was always amazed at how thin the crowds were back then, except for the Sept 4th game, you know the one I’m talking about. I went to plenty of games where USM and Memphis fans outnumbered UAB fans. Seems like UAB didn’t even have a band back in those days.

I was at all of those games and I can say unequivocally that you are Full Of ****. No band? WTF.

Guys, calm down, it was a long time ago and I was completely going off of memory. Should have thrown in the word “Seemed”, as in it seemed like there were more of those fans then UAB fans in the stand. I also don’t recall there being a UAB band at some of those games, especially when USM would bring there whole band and dance team to the game. A lot of these games were Thursday night games that I went to.

I wasn’t trying to throw rocks, I was just just giving my impression from those early to mid-2000’s games, and what I remember from them. I also remember not going to a Thursday game when it rained, and no one else went either. It was an ESPN game and there may have been 500 people there. We all know fan support was weak in those years, Clark came in and changed that quickly, and is the reason there still is UAB football.

The question is will the support survive a bad hire? I hope for you guys that a return of Memphis and ECU back onto the schedule that support continues to grow, and the right hire, obviously, makes that easier. What hire would excite the fan base? Who do y’all have on your short list?

To answer your question: no.

(11-01-2022 09:28 AM)Usajags Wrote:  

(10-31-2022 04:06 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-30-2022 09:40 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I moved to BHM in 2002 and immediately started going to games. I was always amazed at how thin the crowds were back then, except for the Sept 4th game, you know the one I’m talking about. I went to plenty of games where USM and Memphis fans outnumbered UAB fans. Seems like UAB didn’t even have a band back in those days.

I was at all of those games and I can say unequivocally that you are Full Of ****. No band? WTF.

Guys, calm down, it was a long time ago and I was completely going off of memory. Should have thrown in the word “Seemed”, as in it seemed like there were more of those fans then UAB fans in the stand. I also don’t recall there being a UAB band at some of those games, especially when USM would bring there whole band and dance team to the game. A lot of these games were Thursday night games that I went to.

I wasn’t trying to throw rocks, I was just just giving my impression from those early to mid-2000’s games, and what I remember from them. I also remember not going to a Thursday game when it rained, and no one else went either. It was an ESPN game and there may have been 500 people there. We all know fan support was weak in those years, Clark came in and changed that quickly, and is the reason there still is UAB football.

The question is will the support survive a bad hire? I hope for you guys that a return of Memphis and ECU back onto the schedule that support continues to grow, and the right hire, obviously, makes that easier. What hire would excite the fan base? Who do y’all have on your short list?

When you come to our board and throw random **** out there, that’s the response you get. The monsoon game is what you are referring to, and there were well over 500 people there. I know because I was there. What was left after half time might have been 500 people because at one of our highest points in history the team laid a giant egg.

For the 100 millionth time, the camera at Legion field showed the visitor’s bench and sideline. UAB fans did not sit there. The camera did not show where UAB fans sat.

I actually think the support will survive a bad hire, I don’t think the support will survive a mediocre hire. We cannot go back to the Watson and Callaway days of a guy doing just enough to keep his job. Watson had all the talent in the world at times and couldn’t ever get past 7 wins. Callaway was seemingly always a couple of plays away from being 7-5 or 8-4, but it was consistently a thing.

I think for the first time in history we are a program that a coach would want to takeover. I think we should have multiple options, and Ingram is actually smart to keep those options quiet. I expect we will make a good hire on paper, but that doesn’t always work out in real life, as we are all aware.

Yea maybe by the end of the fourth quarter there were 500 left but there was a nice crowd at the start of the game. Hell I was on the east side and when the monsoon hit folks started leaving, especially with families and kids. When the wheels fell off in the second half more folks left. You were wrong on about everything you said so don't be surprised when you come on a board of another school, spout off crap that isn't true and get the response you received.

The next time I see UAB fans outnumbered at home will be the first, and I bet I've been to more UAB home games than you have.

(11-04-2022 09:07 AM)Smaug Wrote:  The next time I see UAB fans outnumbered at home will be the first, and I bet I've been to more UAB home games than you have.

That Miss State game in 2006 might've been close.

(10-30-2022 11:55 AM)Usajags Wrote:  It was a 3 year gap, not a 20 year gap. The question is can UAB maintain the momentum you guys got with the rebirth. Your next HC hire is very important, not sure y’all can “survive” a bad hire. With the perceived advance into the AAC, and getting back in conference with Memphis and ECU, y’all really need to get this hire right.

You were not here. You're speaking out of ignorance. Things were bad enough through the Watson Brown years. There was a touch of optimism with the Jimbo Fisher hire, dashed when that was killed. That was followed by years in the wilderness. Go look at the record under Callaway and McGee. There wasn't just student apathy, they stayed away in droves. UAB undergrads from that period don't have many good memories of tailgating and football games. If they have them, they relate to basketball.

I was at that MSU game on the sidelines and there were a lot of UAB fans sitting on the east side as well. I remember thinking I was disappointed in how many State brought. I didn't think it was even close.