The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazer Football Enters Final Week Of Regular Season
11/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 23, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB head coach Neil Callaway, along with several Blazer players, sat down with the media Monday for their weekly press conference as the football team prepares to host UCF in its regular season finale.
The Blazers, coming off a 37-21 loss this past Saturday at Conference USA East Division leader East Carolina, will kick off against the Knights on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. CT at Legion Field.
UAB (5-6, 4-3 C-USA) enters the game with positive thoughts after shutting out UCF, 15-0, the last time the teams met in the final game of the 2008 season. The Knights, however, had won the previous five meetings in the series.
This season, UCF (7-4, 5-2 C-USA) enters the contest with wins in four of its past five games. The Knights shut out Tulane, 49-0, this past Saturday.
"UCF is a very good defensive football team and a much-improved offensive football team, and I think they do an excellent job on special teams," Callaway said. "They held Tulane to approximately 50 net yards on offense. That's almost unheard of this day and time in college football. That gives you some indication about how good their defense is."
Saturday will serve as senior day as the Blazers honor 17 seniors who will be playing their final home game. A win Saturday would secure a .500 season for UAB for the first time since 2004 and would also make the Blazers eligible for a bowl game.
The game will be carried on the Blazers ISP Sports Network and can be heard in the Birmingham area on flagship station WUHT-FM 107.7 with David Crane (play-by-play) and Jake Arians (color) on the call. The pregame show will begin 90 minutes prior to kickoff.
Head Coach Neil Callaway
On the loss at East Carolina
"The East Carolina game is a game that's still kind of hard to wrap my arms around exactly what happened. The biggest things we still need to correct are the turnovers and not being able to score inside the red zone. Defensively, we gave up too many big plays again. We have struggled against big plays all year. In the kicking game, we had a couple of areas that were not good for us, that being the kick coverage team and the punt return in particular.
"All in all, I thought our guys played well and competed until the end. We were able to move the ball well on offense. Defensively, if you take out their big plays, we limited them on what they were able to do. Unfortunately, you can't do that. The bottom line is we didn't get it done. We made too many mistakes. I am proud and thankful that our guys played hard and competed. Even in the locker room at halftime, it was an attitude of finding a way to get it done. Obviously we didn't, but I am still proud of our guys."
On this week's opponent, UCF
"UCF is a very good defensive football team and a much-improved offensive football team, and I think they do an excellent job on special teams. They held Tulane to approximately 50 net yards on offense. That's almost unheard of this day and time in college football. That gives you some indication about how good their defense is.
"Offensively, if you remember back last year, they really struggled. They brought in a new offensive coordinator in Charlie Taaffe, who I have known for a long time. He has done an excellent job of getting them back on track offensively. Looking at them, you have to start by defending their running game. They are capable of doing some things throwing the football. I think (UCF head coach) George (O'Leary) has done an excellent job at UCF."
On senior day
"This is the last home game for our seniors. The last time they will play at Legion Field. It's senior day and a day that will be very important for us, so we are excited about it and excited about getting ready for it."
On keeping emotions in check with so much to play for
"I don't think it will be hard to keep our emotions in check. Anytime you play, you want to win, whether it's the first or last game. That's just part of the drill. At some point in time during the course of the game, it will start sinking in for the seniors that this will be their last home game. It probably is something that has not sunk in yet. I think the main thing, and any player will tell you, is to focus on preparation and that's what we are going to do this week."
On concerns over special teams
"We are going to make a few personnel changes and work extra hard on it this week. We've discussed that in meetings this morning. The biggest concern is our kick coverage team. We have to have some guys take ownership and take pride in doing it right. Up until last week, that was our only problem. A little of it last week was I thought we had some personnel out of place, which is really my fault. We've got that adjusted, so hopefully we are going to be better, but we are going to work on it awfully hard this week."
On the positive direction the team is taking
"I am excited about it. We want to win, and I think all of our guys are excited about what's going on. We have made progress every year since we've been on campus, but we still have a lot of work to do. I am excited about what's going on now, as well as the future of our program."
Senior QB Joe Webb
On losing to ECU despite having more yards of offense
"It's a hard one. If you take UAB's numbers from the offensive side of the ball, we should have won, but we just didn't capitalize in the red zone when we needed it. There were multiple scoring opportunities that we missed that hurt us in the long run. So this week we want to get the same drives going, but just finish this time."
On playing at Legion Field for the last time this Saturday
"You never thought this day would come. It came so fast, in the blink of an eye your senior year is over. It's a very emotional game. I'm from Birmingham so I've been rooting for UAB all my life. I've been playing at Legion Field for a long time including high school, so this will be the last time that I'll play there, and there will be a lot of emotions going on for me."
On Saturday's contest versus UCF
"It's a big game for the program. If we win, we're bowl eligible. However that goes, whether we get in or not, it would be a good way to end the season on a high note. Finishing 6-6 is better than 5-7. The team is just going to rally around and I'm sure they're going to play hard for all the seniors so that we can get that win."
On his time at UAB
"I'll remember all the good times I had even when things were going bad, just being with the guys, rallying around them and working hard together. There are a lot of memories that I'm going to take with me. I've enjoyed my career at UAB. Hopefully these guys can do what they can to continue to build up the program."
Senior C Jake Seitz
On the loss at East Carolina and moving on to UCF
"It's a tough pill to swallow for sure. We know what's at stake, one more win and we're bowl eligible. I don't think we're going to have a problem getting focused for this game, especially since it could be our last game of the year. I don't think we'll have any trouble getting ready for it."
On the effect of last year's shutout win over UCF
"I think they're a much improved offensive team. They're defense was stout last year, and they're stout again this year, especially up front. So we've got a big challenge in front of us, and hopefully we'll be ready."
On his college career winding down
"I think it really hit me Saturday in the ECU locker room. I was like, this could be the last time I'll be wearing the white jersey, and next week could be the last time I'll be wearing the green jersey. I've given a lot to UAB football, I've enjoyed every minute, and I'm certainly going to miss it when I'm done."
On the possibility of a bowl berth with a win against UCF
"It's just one of those things you can't control. You just have to go out there, and if we win and it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. We just have to take care of it on our end. That's all we can do."
On the program's growth over his four years
"It's probably the thing I'll be happiest about. Getting this program on the right path and seeing things improve and knowing they're going to keep improving, that means more to me than anything."
Senior DB Brandon Carlisle
On his time at UAB
"I've learned a lot, whether it be academics, athletics or just in my personal life. Since I've gotten here, I've grown a lot and learned a lot."
On the senior class leaving the program better than when it came in
"We pay attention to that a lot. A couple of weeks ago we had some of the guys from past teams come in and talk to us about where they are in their lives now. They still talk about UAB and brag about UAB and check the scores and stuff now. It's important for us to build upon it because they invested a lot in us and the program, and they want to see us succeed, and that's the same thing for the senior class."
On not letting emotions affect the seniors Saturday
"I don't think it will be hard. We still have a lot on the line. We're just going to try to go in and practice this week. We'll get prepared and try to come out with a win and then see where everything lands."
On facing UCF Saturday
"They do a lot of things the same offensively as they did last year. We just have to
come out in practice this week and get prepared for them. We've spent a lot of time watching film and seeing what we did last year that was effective, so we'll try to duplicate that performance this year."
