UAB Blazers College Football Pregame Quote, 11/22/2021

Heartbroken after the loss. As I said after the game, I could not be prouder of our players and staff. I mean what an epic game it was. Two great teams. I thought the atmosphere was incredible. We handled it back and forth throughout the game and I just hate how it ended for our guys. It sure is tough to lose that way at the end. But I couldn’t be prouder of them. Yesterday was our meeting, we have a short week this week, so it was a tough meeting. We built these guys to play for championships, so they are still recovering, or were, and moving past it last night as much as we possibly can.

We’re now getting ready for a big senior day against a really good UTEP team. Coach Dimel, I have a lot of respect for him, what a great career he has had. I knew if they gave him long enough there he would get them playing good, and he is. They are good on both sides of the ball and special teams. Offensively, they have a really good quarterback. They can run it, they can throw it. Defensively, they can get after you. Very physical. They have a bunch of good player. They are bowl eligible, same record as us. So good team that’s coming in here for us on senior day ‚Äì big day for us. We have a bunch of seniors that have meant so much to me and this program. I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for us. That’s what we’ve said, we want to go out there and play at our best for those guys. Looking forward to finishing it out the right way and we know we have a tough opponent coming in.

On turning heartbreak into a positive:

I’ve said this before, when you talk about championships and you break it down on champs, you are setting yourself up for something if it doesn’t go the way that you want it to. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s do we play with emotion? Yes. Do we care? Yes. Do we put all we have into it? Yes. That is the only way I know how to do it. When it happens and it doesn’t go the way that you want it to, it’s going to hurt. But, I don’t think that I would have it any other way and I don’t think our guys would. You care and you care about each other and you work hard. I’ve had so many texts from coaches that saw that game and was like ‘that was an epic game’ and how hard our guys played. That is the one thing that I can always say that’s the resume of our staff. That’s their resume that you put everything into it. That’s all you can do is give it all that you have. I can say honestly that I have no regrets with how we prepared and how we work. There is always a thing or two that you do that you would like to see different. I could not be prouder of those guys and kind of where we are as far as being all in for each other.

On the senior class:

I think it was two-fold ‚Äì I think it was to win another championship and to play in Protective Stadium and to be with each other. We were sitting there last year and I’ve told that story so many times when we had game after game after game canceled. We were hurting and then we walked up the steps in the backside of Protective and I think they saw the fact that they could play in that stadium, stay together and have a chance to win. We were just trying to get another game to maybe have a chance to be in the championship game. I think it was just as much about playing with each other ‚Äì and that they enjoy that ‚Äì and playing in that stadium. For us, it’s always about trying to win a conference championship, that’s what it has always been about. This is a special group. What a good group of guys and how they’ve led, they’ve led us throughout. They were seniors last year, so we would have the senior meeting last year and then we would have them again this year. It’s going to be tough to lose those guys, so we want to send them out the right way.

On fans coming out to the game on Friday:

We understand Thanksgiving and all of the things that are going on and there is high school games that night and then games the next day. That is why we picked the time that we are doing it, is to hopefully get the fans out. I think these guys deserve it ‚Äì you look at their effort, you look at what they’ve done ‚Äì they deserve to be sent out the right way, they deserve to have a really good crowd. From where I just came from (UTSA), that was a great crowd supporting their team and that is what we need.