Sports
Goodman: What is the future of UAB football?
This is an opinion column.
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At UAB with Trent Dilfer, there was always a chance that things could go terribly wrong quickly.
Well, we were here after six weeks of his second season on the South Side.
I will always believe that under different circumstances it could have been a good hire, but by different circumstances I mean Dilfer should have hired an experienced defensive coordinator from the start instead of giving his high school friend a job he didn't want. was willing to accept.
It's more important to Dilfer to take care of his friends than his football team. That's his choice, but in reality, Dilfer's blind loyalty makes things difficult for the Blazers.
At worst, UAB football should at least be tied with Tulane every season in this new American Athletic Conference. Before this season, the all-time record between UAB and Tulane was 6-6.
At best, UAB should be competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff. That is not excluded for the Blazers now that the CFP has been expanded to twelve teams. More playoff expansions are also coming soon. There is a path for UAB to the playoffs. A few months ago, Memphis was a preseason favorite to make the CFP. UAB's all-time record against Memphis is 10-6.
Last Saturday, UAB lost at home to Tulane, 71-20. The score was 57-6 at the end of the third quarter after an interception return by Tulane defenseman Chris Rodgers, a transfer from Troy. UAB plays Army on Saturday in West Point, NY and the Black Knights are 26.5-point favorites. UAB is 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the AAC. These are all signs of a football program going off the rails.
Without UMass, UAB might be the worst team in the entire Football Bowl Subdivision.
Dilfer is not without his positive qualities, but he needed help in his transition from high school to FBS. He needed someone with experience as an FBS coordinator on his staff. UAB athletic director Mark Ingram lacked the vision or leadership to steer Dilfer in the right direction, and now they're in this mess together.
Ingram took a chance on Dilfer and there's nothing wrong with taking risks. But UAB jumped to the American Athletic Conference last year and at the same time, college football shifted into the transfer portal, the pay-for-play era. Former UAB coach Bill Clark retired due to a back injury rather than wade into those waters, and I can't really blame him. Alabama's Nick Saban also retired.
Clark now has a podcast, Saban is on ESPN College GameDay and Dilfer, ESPN's former talking head, is a coach. Strange things.
Clark never had a losing season at UAB. He turned the Blazers into a perennial conference championship contender after bringing UAB football back from the dead. He is a legend for that and should be in the College Football Hall of Fame for everything he did for UAB.
But I have to be honest here. Clark did not get along well with Ingram, the UAB athletics director. It's not uncommon for ADs and football coaches to clash, but I always believe another administrator could have kept Clark.
Ingram would never hire Clark's first lieutenant, Bryant Vincent. When Clark suddenly retired and Ingram was in trouble, the UAB athletic director had no choice but to promote Vincent to interim coach. Ingram wanted to make an impression, so he hired Dilfer.
Vincent is now the head coach of Louisiana-Monroe. I'm not saying Vincent was the answer for UAB, but his ULM Warhawks are now 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Sun Belt. In the second week of the season, Dilfers UAB was outclassed by Vincents ULM 32-6.
It was ULM's easiest win of the season.
ULM's all-time record as a football team is 329-465-8. That's 128th out of 135 teams currently competing at the FBS level.
For those wondering, UAB's all-time record is 173-191-2, or 108th out of 135.
People won't like to hear this, but UAB football needs help and support from the University System Board of Trustees as it figures its way out of the AAC basement. UAB football can be a Group of 5 powerhouse, but the bottom line is that it takes support from the top to make anything work in any sector.
I am quite invested in the future of UAB football. UAB football is important to Birmingham's success. My biggest fear as a UAB graduate, former editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and father of a son who recently graduated from UAB, is that the Board of Trustees is just going to kill the football team again.
It's an irrational fear at this point, right? But some traumas you just can't shake. My great wish for UAB football is that the leadership of the BOT would help UAB President Ray Watts clean up the UAB athletic department.
What's next for UAB football?
Dilfer told me before last season that UAB could possibly win the AAC in its first season. At this point I'm not sure he'll win another game. Last week I asked Dilfer what defensive adjustments UAB made for the game against Tulane. He said UAB tried everything it could.
For those who think President Watts doesn't care about athletics at UAB, you are wrong. Watts cares. It's just that he doesn't know much about what it takes to win football games.
That's probably for the best, since UAB, the state's largest employer, has more important things to worry about at any time of the day.
However, these are embarrassing times for UAB football fans. President Watts said UAB would compete to be the best in the AAC. The Blazers have a new stadium downtown and the student campus is booming. UAB football is by no means hopeless, and the administration invested a significant amount of money this year into rebranding the image of the entire university to give the massive campus a more collegiate aesthetic.
It's now up to President Watts to fix UAB football, and the good doctor may have to bring his scalpel to the job.
MAILBAG
Do you have a question for Joep? Do you want to get something off your mind? Send Joe an email about what's on your mind. Make your voice heard. Ask him anything.
Joseph Goodman is the main sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban's Ultimate Team.
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