The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Polish Jacksonville State Game Plan
9/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 14, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Watson Brown and the UAB football team spent two hours polishing their game plan for Saturday's home opener against in-state foe Jacksonville State on Wednesday. The Blazers and Gamecocks kickoff at 6 p.m. CT Saturday evening at Legion Field.
"We looked much better today (against Jacksonville State's schemes)," UAB head coach Watson Brown said. "It's just a different system and this is the first time we've really worked on that. We weren't very polished yesterday, but it was better today and hopefully we'll be even better by tomorrow."
UAB is 1-1 on the season after beating fellow in-state foe Troy, 27-7, last weekend. Darrell Hackney threw for 296 yards and two scores while the Blazer defense stymied the Trojans in the victory. The only touchdown allowed by UAB was a punt return as Troy managed just 190 yards of total offense.
Jacksonville State (0-2) has suffered a pair of hard-luck losses at home to begin the season, falling on a late score to Furman, 17-10, to start the season. The Gamecocks lost another heartbreaker, 21-18, to Chattanooga last week. JSU is the two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champion and was picked to repeat as league winners in the preseason OVC poll.
"We've been talking about it since last spring," Brown said of the possibility a I-AA opponent can knock off an unsuspecting I-A school. "They are very capable of coming in here and winning the game. It's been proven all over the country (that I-AA schools aren't opponents you can overlook) and this is a good I-AA team with a lot at stake just like we have. We understand that and hopefully we're going to go back out there a third time and play just as hard as we did last week and the week before."
The Blazers will tie up loose ends in the game plan on Thursday with a helmets and shorts workout before Friday's walk-through.
Tickets for Saturday night's contest are available by calling the UAB ticket office at (205) 975-UAB1. Gates will open at 4:30 p.m. CT.
