The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Looking To Bounce Back With Road Trip To Tulane
11/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 10, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Following its second open date in three weeks, the UAB football team is continuing preparations this week for Saturday's game at Tulane. The Blazers will travel to the Louisiana Superdome for a 2 p.m. CT kickoff Saturday against the Green Wave.
On Monday, head coach Neil Callaway met with the media at his weekly press conference, addressing the Tulane game and recapping the Blazers' bye week practices.
"Tulane is a much-improved team," Callaway said. "Defensively, they are a lot more aggressive and better tackling team than they were a year ago. Offensively, they're a team that is going to run the ball first and try to get the big play in the passing game off the run fake.
"All in all, they are a much improved football team. It's a game we are looking forward to playing. Our guys are hopefully excited and want to get the ship righted and get back on the right track."
UAB and Tulane enter Saturday's game with identical records. Both teams stand at 2-7 overall and 1-4 in Conference USA. After a 2-2 start, the Green Wave has lost five in a row, including a 42-14 loss at Houston in its most recent outing.
The Blazers are 3-3 in the all-time series with Tulane after winning last season's meeting, 26-21, in Birmingham. The Blazers are 1-2 against the Green Wave in New Orleans, with their lone win coming in 2001 by a 34-27 score.
The last time the teams met in New Orleans was in 2004 when Tulane earned a 59-55 win in the second-highest scoring game in Conference USA history.
UAB will be looking to bounce back from a road loss at Southern Miss in its most recent contest on Nov. 1. The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the game on their way to a 70-14 victory over UAB.
"I'm anxious to watch us play against Tulane," Callaway said. "I think we will respond the right way. If we respond the right way and accept the challenge we will benefit and learn from it."
Joe Webb threw two touchdown passes in the loss at Southern Miss and now owns 10 scoring tosses on the season to go along with seven touchdowns on the ground. Webb, who has already broken the Conference USA record for single-season rushing yards by a quarterback, ranks fourth in the nation among signal callers with 736 yards on the ground.
Saturday's game will be carried on the Blazers ISP Sports Network. It can be heard locally on WWMM 100.5 FM radio in Birmingham.
Head Coach Neil Callaway
On the Southern Miss game
"Any time you lose a football game, it's not good. But when you lose one like we lost the other night in Hattiesburg, it's awfully embarrassing. Looking back at it, actually during the game you could tell the things that were wrong. The missed assignments on defense that gave up all of those big plays didn't give us a chance to win. With six turnovers, you don't give yourself that chance to win.
"Certain parts of the kicking game were good, but parts of it were equally as bad as what we were doing offensively and defensively, particularly in the kickoff return. We did a poor job performing against Southern Miss. I'm anxious to watch us play against Tulane. I think we will respond the right way. If we respond the right way and accept the challenge, we will benefit and learn from it. I'm anxious to see if we will come out and want to do something about it."
On Tulane
"Tulane is a much-improved team. Defensively, they are a lot more aggressive and better tackling team than they were a year ago. Offensively, they're a team that is going to run the ball first and try to get the big play in the passing game off the run fake. Coach Toledo is doing a nice job down there with having to deal with what he's had to deal with. All in all, they are a much improved football team. It's a game we are looking forward to playing. Our guys are hopefully excited and want to get the ship righted and get back on the right track."
On the Southern Miss loss being a setback to the team
"Well, you can look at it two ways. If we will respond in the right way and learn from it, I think it will be a positive. Obviously it hurt. You could see it in the players' eyes all the way up into the middle of last week. If we will respond the right way, we will be fine. But if not, then we will have to go back and figure out what we will do next."
On whether or not it was hard to get the team ready last week
"I don't think it was. I told somebody, when we went into that meeting Sunday after the Southern Miss game, I could tell they were hurt. I could tell they were mad. I could tell it bothered them. We went out on Tuesday and Wednesday and had two good practices... I think it made them realize that if we are going to compete at this level, we have to do what we are supposed to when we are supposed to. Hopefully something good will come out of it."
On the team's motivation
"I think Joe Webb said it best on Sunday morning after the Southern Miss game. All we've got left to play for is each other. It's a chance to build some momentum going into next year. We'll see how much we care about each other now, whether we want to win and send these seniors out on a good note. We still have a chance to finish 5-7, and that's a lot better than 2-10. We'll see what we mean to each other right now at this point."
On getting a quick start against Tulane
"I think every game we go into, whether we are ahead or behind, we have to play hard and stay focused. Obviously, you like to start fast in every ballgame, but for whatever reason, that may not happen. We've proved we can do it. We just have to prove we can do it more than one time a year."
On the bye week
"Any time you can get a bye week this late in the season it's good. I think we have gotten a lot of good out of this past bye week because of the way we have approached practice. The first bye week I still think it was the right thing to do. We had been at it eight weeks in a row, and we backed off them a little bit to let them get recuperated and refreshed. I didn't think we needed to do that this week, even if we had won the ballgame. We had a different approach this week."
Sophomore OL Terence Edge
On the mentality of the team after the loss to Southern Miss
"Our mentality right now is to stay focused. Coming off of a loss like that was hard. We just have to move on to the next week and play as a team and play better. We can't worry about what has happened in the past."
On wanting to win for the seniors
"Right now that is a big motivation because all we have is each other. We are going to try to win the rest of our games, not only for our seniors, but also for momentum going into next year."
On Tulane
"Defensively, Tulane is better than they were last year. Their defensive line has improved a lot. They are a good tackling team, and our offensive line will have to play well against them."
Sophomore DL Bryant Turner
On playing for each other the last three games of the season
"For the seniors that have been here four years, they deserve to go out with more wins. Also, if we can win these last few games, that is great momentum going into next season."
On whether last year's win over Tulane helps the team's confidence this week
"I think that will help. I just hope that we don't get complacent and take it for granted that we beat them last year. We still have to work hard in practice all week to prepare for Tulane."
On how hard it is for the young players not to look ahead to next season
"We are still focused on winning games this year. That issue is not really going through our heads right now. We are still playing for this season."
