The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Football Team Travels To Marshall
10/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 23, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB football team returns to Conference USA play on Saturday when the Blazers travel to Hunington, W.Va. to take on the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Gametime is set for 12:07 p.m. ET. The contest will be televised regionally by CSS (Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast).
The Blazers (2-4, 2-1 C-USA) and Marshall (4-3, 2-1 C-USA) are currently tied for second place in the East Division. UAB is in the midst of three consecutive games away from home. The Blazers played at Ole Miss last Saturday and will travel to UTEP next week.
Other than a Nov. 7 home game vs. Florida Atlantic, UAB has five of its remaining six regular season games against C-USA opponents. Head coach Neil Callaway know the next few games will go a long way on how this year's Blazer team is measured.
"We talked about it earlier this week," said Callaway. "What I told our players, and I think they know this, is that these next few ball games are going to be the defining moment for our season. Obviously, we are going to take it one game at a time and not look ahead, but it's going to be critical to do well these next couple of weeks."
Like the Blazers, Marshall also played outside the conference last weekend as the Herd fell at West Virginia, 24-7.
UAB and the Thundering Herd will be meeting for the fifth time with Marshall holding a 3-1 series advantage. The Blazers rallied last year for a 23-21 win at Legion Field. The series has featured all close games thus far with the margins of victory being 1, 7, 7 and 2 points.
The Blazers enter Saturday's game with one of the nation's top rushing averages per game. UAB is ranked 10th in this week's NCAA statistics at 229 yards per contest. QB Joe Webb leads the offense and the rushing game with 115.2 yards per contest.
He is No. 2 in Conference USA rushing statistics, trailing only Marshall's Darius Marshall who averages 136.5 yards and has scored nine rushing touchdowns.
Marshall also features one of the league's top tight ends in senior Cody Slate. Slate has 38 receptions and a pair of touchdowns through the first seven games.
