UAB Blazers College Football Pregame Quote, 08/23/2019

It begins. A lot of hard work has gone into this year. When you think back to the last bowl game until now, what happens? A lot of work has gone into this year. The standard talk for us will be what happened from the return and bringing it back and all of the great things that group did to what is this group going to do after losing 35 seniors.

In January, we started a mindset of ‚ÄòWe want to keep this thing going.’ From January forward, the work ethic from this group has been tremendous. We have had a great offseason. I think we had four guys late over the whole two months out of about 110 guys, so we have a really good commitment from this group. We’ve had a really good camp.

Obviously, losing Brontae Harris was a blow. That guy is hard to replace. It happened early in camp, it was tough and we look forward to getting him back next year. For the most part, we have stayed pretty injury-free. Just like everybody else, you will get your nicks and bruises and groins and hamstrings. I think we have done a good job keeping those guys well. From our strength staff, training staff and coaches, we have handled the heat well. It’s great to have the pavilion to go under when we need to.

Here we are in game week. The thing that I will say about Alabama State, once again, from having coached at Prattville and being around those guys, having opened up with them in my first game at Jacksonville State, you’re in Alabama where football is important. They are in Montgomery, which is the heart of our state. They have a great recruiting area and a really good school. My wife got her master’s in education from Alabama State. She has to pull for us this week, though.

They have a pretty new stadium that is really nice that they can recruit to. They will have some really good players that are well-coached. It’s the opening game. It’s going to be a huge game for them. They have 10 offensive starters returning, and seven on defense. We’re replacing 35. We will see what happens there. We are expecting a great game from them. They are going to be ready to play and we need to do the same.

On replacing key players from last season:

For all of us, I am no excuses and get the job done. We still go back to being picked No. 130 out of 130. The good news there is we had nowhere to go but up. I don’t want to put so much pressure on this group from that standpoint, yet we put pressure on them anyway. It was unprecedented and had never happened. We had to bring all of these older guys in to have a chance. We knew this was coming. We tried to mitigate it by backfilling with high school guys. We knew we would have some attrition. We did bring in some junior college guys to give us some older guys that would be ready to play. I think we handled it the best we could. I don’t know of any other way to do it. I think it will be an indication of how well we handled that situation. I feel pretty good. At the same time, we are sitting here talking to our seniors and there aren’t many of them. It is going to be great for the future. We are not waiting until next year. We want to be ready now and we don’t want a drop-off. I like this group. We will see how that translates to the field.

On freshmen appearing on the two-deep roster:

One of the things that we have noticed from this freshman group, and this is from our strength coach, is that they are twice as strong as the last group we brought in. That is what we are trying to do in recruiting. You always want to out-recruit the last group, no offense to them. We are just hoping that success and facilities, what is happening in Birmingham, the facilities and all those things lead to even better recruits, which allows some of those guys to be ready early. I tell every player that comes in, ‚ÄòYou have got a chance to play early. If it fits you to redshirt, then that is what we will do.’ We don’t just throw redshirts out there if you can play. Every once in a while, I will have a kid that asks for a redshirt. Usually, it’s just what is best for the team. It’s a good class and we have some of those guys involved.

On playing in-state schools:

There are two things to that. No. 1 is that there is more pressure. There is always more pressure when you play somebody that’s right at the next door. It’s important. They are going to bring a great crowd. With their band and experience, I won’t say it is a true home game, but it is a little bit of a home game for them. They play here every year. Legion Field is not going to be new to them. They are right down the road and that’s what we want. We want this great experience for our fans and players. We set the stadium record two years ago with Alabama A&M. With a Thursday night and a 7 p.m. kickoff, with them bringing a great crowd and us bringing a great crowd, I would love to see us break that record again. That is what you get out of playing in-state schools. We have another one coming up a few weeks later. It’s going to be a good thing, no doubt.

On the speed of this year’s defense:

They are very quick. That’s going to be an incredibly high standard that we set last year. That is where we are trying to go. Defensively, it helps if you can run. The nature of the game is so horizontal now, besides it being vertical and beside the fact that they can run the ball right at you. You have to be able to get out to all of the balls that are on the outside and the perimeter. That is one of the things that we might be a little bit better at. I don’t know about other things, but there may be a little more team speed over there.

On moving TD Marshall to defense:

With his length and speed, he looks like an NFL corner. We feel like we have some good guys over there behind Brontae. We started working him over there in the spring. He would get some work, just on body type. We felt that we had some depth at receiver. We worked him in the spring and some in the summer. When we needed him, it was a no-brainer. He is a true team guy. I’m proud of him. He has really made tremendous strides. Coach Mitchell has worked with him. And now, I think we have some depth there as well, which you need. The receiver corps has some depth, so we could do it.