The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Continues UTEP Preparations
11/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 16, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB's football team practiced for just over two hours Wednesday afternoon in a helmets and shoulder pads work out leading up to Saturday's road contest at UTEP. The contest with the Miners kicks off at 5:15 p.m. CT/4:15 p.m. MT at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The game will be broadcast locally by the i network. UAB (4-5, 2-4 Conference USA) must win its last two games to become bowl eligible.
"We're practicing hard and I think we'll play hard Saturday," said UAB head coach Watson Brown. "We don't have all of the game plan in because this has been a normal week. We haven't had as long as we've had to prepare the last three weeks. This is the first `normal' week we've had in a while. We're not through yet. We've still got some stuff to do tomorrow, but we're on par, we're on schedule and we're getting back into a regular routine. We'll be fine."
UAB is coming off another close loss last week, this time to C-USA East-leading UCF, 27-21. The Blazers had a 21-10 lead in the third quarter, but committed four turnovers in the fourth quarter, allowing the Golden Knights to rally. Prior to the UCF contest, UAB played on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at Memphis and Friday, Oct. 21 at home against Southern Miss, taking 21 days to play two games because of the mid-week television contests.
Despite the UCF loss, senior quarterback Darrell Hackney continued his outstanding final campaign for the Blazers. Hackney became the No. 4 all-time passer in Conference USA history with his 240-yard performance against UCF. Hackney now has 9,424 passing yards in his career. Running back Marculus Elliott had the best performance of his career last week as well, rushing for a career-high 116 yards on just eight carries while scoring the first two touchdowns of his career.
UTEP (8-1, 5-1) will be looking to clinch at least a share of the Conference USA Western Division crown Saturday. The Miners are 5-0 at home this season and 10-1 in the Sun Bowl under head coach Mike Price. UTEP is ranked 24th in the Associated Press poll this week and 25th in the USA Today poll. The Miners lead the league with 35.4 points per game and only 21.2 points allowed this season. Quarterback Jordan Palmer threw for four touchdowns in the first half in the Miners' 45-0 win over Texas Southern last week.
In addition to being televised on the i Network (formerly PAX), the game will be carried live on the ISP Blazer Sports Network on the flagship station, WYDE-FM 101.1.
