The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB On The Road Saturday To Meet Florida Atlantic
9/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 6, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB football team ventures to south Florida this weekend to go against the Florida Atlantic Owls in a first-ever meeting between the two schools.
The Blazers and Owls will kick off at 4:00 p.m. EDT Saturday at Lockhart Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla. This is the first of four contests UAB will play against FAU over the next several seasons. The teams will meet in Birmingham in both 2009 and 2010 before coming back to Boca Raton in 2011.
Entering Saturday's second game, both teams are coming off first-week losses. UAB dropped a 45-22 decision to Conference USA foe Tulsa last Saturday at Legion Field after leading 22-21 at halftime. Florida Atlantic fell to nationally-ranked Texas, 52-10, at Austin last Saturday.
The Blazers gained 414 yards against the Golden Hurricane but struggled to slow down the potent Tulsa offense that led the country in 2007. Quarterback Joe Webb had an impressive season debut for UAB as he ran for 136 yards and passed for 169 more and two touchdowns.
Sophomore receiver Frantrell Forrest also played an instrumental role last weekend as he caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from Webb and returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.
In FAU, the Blazers will be playing against a program that has risen quickly since playing its first season of football in 2001. The Owls were Sun Belt Conference champions last season and defeated Memphis in the New Orleans Bowl. UAB head coach Neil Callaway knows his team will have another challenge on its hands Saturday and expects to see a totally different-looking team than the Blazers did last week against Tulsa.
Owls' quarterback Rusty Smith was the Sun Belt player-of-the-year in 2007 and also earned MVP honors at the New Orleans Bowl. He threw for 253 yards in the loss to Texas Saturday.
"We are playing a team that I know will be a physical, hard-nosed team," said Callaway. "It will be a different type of ball game than what we had last week against Tulsa. Tulsa had a lot of finesse and misdirection.
"Offensively, Florida Atlantic is going to come right at us," Callaway said. "They do an excellent job throwing the football. Their quarterback is the key to their offensive attack. Defensively, they are a hard-nosed bunch that's going to get after you. We are going to have to make sure we are ready to go in all phases of the game."
The game will be carried live on the Blazer ISP Sports Network WWMM 100.5 FM radio locally in Birmingham. The pregame show begins at 1:30 p.m. CT, with kickoff coming at 3:00 p.m. CDT (4:00 p.m. EDT).
