UAB Blazers College Football Pregame Quote, 09/27/2021

Just to rewind back to Tulane. Just super proud of our group. We had a really good week of practice last week. Probably like a lot of teams in the country, you look up and you have a few guys banged up here and there. You know being on the road as much as we have we kind of know what that thing looks like. As I tell them all the time. You just got to be better on the road. You got to come together more. You got to have more energy. I think we were super physical against a good team. I know obviously with the two teams they have played. They had a couple of losses, but we knew this was a really good team. We knew they are going to be really good at home. We knew they were not going to quit. So we jumped out to really good lead. A little disappointed giving that one up right before half, but then we came back second half and settled in. And then we had to fight for our lives right there at the end. But once again I think those are the things that will make us better as the season goes on. We had to find a way to win that thing at the end on the road. But just super proud of them. A lot of great effort throughout.

Now we turn to Liberty who I really thought would probably be undefeated coming off a loss to Syracuse. I know that was a big game for Syracuse after losing to Liberty pretty handedly last year and Liberty had their chances to win the game. They’re very well coached. They’ve got one of the best players in the country at any level who leads them on offense at quarterback. They’re just really good all around. They’re good in all three phases. We’re going to have our work cut out for us. Then we will be talking about the game, that we’ve been talking about for a long time. It’s our first chance to be at our new stadium. I could not be more excited. I hope we’ve got that thing packed out. I believe we will. The environment is really going to be that great. So just cannot wait to get in there and just get back home around our fans and folks who we’ve had so much success with at Legion. And now to get to be at our home stadium it’s going to be terrific. We’re excited and we’ve got a lot of work to do against a great team and so it should be fun.

On keeping the team focus:

I think that’s something we talk about all the time. It’s all about what we do on the field and how we take care of each other and how we prepare. I think all we have to do is cut the film on with Liberty and see how good they are. I know they’ve heard a lot about them so that should be it. We talk about it all the time. That’s the case and lets not let all the stuff that’s going on around us take away from what we’ve got to do to get ready for the game.

On the anticipation for the opening of Protective Stadium:

I think for so many reasons. We could be up here all day just talking about all the reasons it’s special for our program. You know the history of what’s happened to us. To bring the program back and really having the dream of building the stadium for our city. You know for all the people that came together and this is such a great story because so many different groups had to come together to make this stadium happen. It was truly a team effort. A lot people said it would never happen and then to see it where it’s at. It has so many other great benefits for our program and the city. It’s just really is that special. For all the things we all had to go through to make it happen so I’m really excited.

On the new gameday traditions:

I think just from the walk. We are going to come right there down that plaza which is between all of the restaurants and its right there by the hotel. That’s going to be a great Blazer Walk tradition that we start. I think getting our fans in the stadium. I think I’ve talked a lot about to folks what the songs look like for pregame. You know what can we do. It’s going to be a great experience out there. It’s going to be food trucks and a lot of fun. You know you got all that stuff, but we’ve got to get everybody in the stadium for the kickoff and we’re going to need them.