The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Football Meets With Media Regarding Game With Memphis
9/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 20, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- UAB head coach Watson Brown, along with several members of the football team, talked with the local media Monday about the Blazers' upcoming game versus Conference USA rival, the Memphis Tigers this Saturday at 6:00 p.m. (CT) in Birmingham, Ala.
This marks the seventh time the Blazers and Tigers have met, with UAB holding a 4-2 advantage in the series. The two teams last met in 2003, with UAB winning 24-10 in Memphis.
The Blazers are coming off a 34-7 loss to the Florida State Seminoles on Sept. 18 in Tallahassee, Fla. Memphis is coming off a 47-35 victory over Arkansas State. This Saturday marks the Conference-opener for both teams.
"Truthfully, I think that game makes us a lot more battle-tested," said coach Brown of the loss to the Seminoles. "Florida State is very good, and we learned a lot from them. They exposed a lot of weaknesses that we have that we can correct and if we had played an easier team, I'm not sure we'd know what those weaknesses were. I think that we'll have a better team Saturday because of Florida State."
UAB is doing its best to prepare technically for the Tigers unorthodox style of play.
"They have a fantastic offense that is hard to prepare for, and they're defense is hard to prepare for as well," said Brown. "It's not what you see every week; the things that they do are a little bit different than a lot of people in the country, so it's always been a hard game for us to get ready for, technically. They'll give you a lot of different looks, and they're going to pressure you a lot, and you have to be able to defend too. Last year, we had an open date and had a lot of time to get prepare; this year we don't because we had Florida State, so we've got a lot of work to do this week."
The Blazers have won the last four times the two teams have met, with Memphis' last win coming in 1999.
"We've beaten them in four straight games," said Brown, "But all four of them have been very close games. It's not like we've dominated the games; every one of them have gone to the wire. I don't think that those previous games have anything to do with this year's team."
PLAYER QUOTES
DEFENSIVE TACKLE SHAMAR ABRAMS
On preparing for Memphis "We are looking forward to the game this week, all the guys are excited, and we are just going back to the basics this week and are focusing more on not making anymore mistakes. As long as we take care of that and worry about what UAB has to do I do not think we will have any problems."
On the Memphis offense
"Memphis has a great running back and they run a lot of screen plays which makes them hard to defend, but I think our defense is going to be able to handle that. They are a real good offense and have put up a lot of numbers, but I think we will be ready for them."
DEFENSIVE BACK DOMINIQUE COSPER
On the Memphis offense
"Memphis has a pretty good running game. DeAngelo Williams is their star player and he is pretty good and their quarterback is real good. They have a lot of good wide receivers and they pass the ball a lot. We are going to see what we can do to stop the pass and the run. We are focusing a lot on all the screens that they run."
WIDE RECEIVER REGGIE LINDSEY
On the loss to Florida State
"There is no doubt I thought we could win the (Florida State) game. As a team I think we all thought we could go in and win the game, but some things happened like Florida State scoring early in the game. We realized that it was going to be a real tough game and the speed in the game was something that some of us had never faced before, including myself. I think some of the guys got a reality check."
On preparing for Memphis
"There is nothing more that we can do but to come out and put that behind us and come together as one and stay together. We need to work hard and stay focused and get ready for Memphis."
