The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Football Continues Preparations For Army
10/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 28, 2003
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The UAB football team practiced in full pads for nearly two-and-a-half hours on Tuesday as the Blazer coaching staff worked on implementing its game plan for Saturday's Homecoming game against the Army Black Knights. UAB faces Army at 3 p.m. at Legion Field on Saturday.
"Practice went well today," said UAB head coach Watson Brown. "Tuesday's are usually one of our tougher days, just because the offenses and defenses are so different every week. I think that the one major difference between college ball and pro ball is that the offenses in the pro game are the same every week, while in college the offenses are usually different. What Army does is totally different than what Georgia does, but practice went pretty well today."
UAB (3-5, 2-2 Conference USA) heads into Saturday's contest looking to rebound from a pair of three-point losses versus top-15 ranked opponents. On Oct. 18, the Blazers fell on the road against No. 13 TCU, 27-24, prior to narrowly losing on Saturday to the fourth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, 16-13, in Athens, Ga.
Army (0-8, 0-6 C-USA) is also coming off of a pair of close defeats. The Black Knights lost a 38-32 decision at home against East Carolina on Oct. 18, and then fell to the Cincinnati Bearcats, 33-29, in last week's matchup.
"We have a lot at stake in these last four games," said Brown. "There's only one way for us to get to a bowl game and that's for us to win at least three of these next four games. I think that we're going to need to win our last four and there's only one way to win four, and that's by taking them one game at a time. As much as we have at stake in this game, I can't imagine us not being ready to play."
UAB is currently in the midst of a five-way tie for fourth place in the conference. The Blazers own a 2-2 mark against C-USA opponents and share the fourth-place position with Memphis, Houston, Cincinnati and USF. Earlier this season, UAB defeated Memphis, 24-10, and downed Cincinnati, 31-14, at home.
The Blazers possess a 3-0 lead in the all-time series against Army, but needed to come from behind to defeat the Black Knights, 29-26, last season.
"Our players know how tough this Army team is," Brown said. "Two of the three games that we've played against them have been tight and they don't ever give up. They are a very smart team. They don't give up big plays and they force you to play mistake-free football to beat them."
UAB will play its first home game in three weeks on Saturday as the Blazers square off against the Army Black Knights at 3 p.m. at Legion Field.
