The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
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UAB Football Hosts Florida Atlantic on Homecoming
10/30/2023 8:42:00 PM | Football
BIRMINGHAM – Returning to the field after its bye week, the UAB football team hosts Florida Atlantic at Protective Stadium on Saturday afternoon for Homecoming. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
Opening Statement:
"It's been a good week. Got some work done. I feel like we got better in the bye week…especially on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday felt like half-inches were started for a little time away. But overall, I thought we got a lot better. I think coaching-wise we did a really good job of self-scout, self-evaluation, personnel tweaks, as well as scheme tweaks. Looking forward to the next challenge and having a better Saturday result than we've had."
On Zeno's injury update and handling of the three-quarterback situation:
"He'll be back. He practiced all last week and will be full-go and prepared to play on Saturday…He was awesome. A lot of his week was trying to get healthy. So, going through coaching protocol, you have to go through certain rigors, and he was focused on that. Towards the end of the week, he was very involved in trying to get ready to play, but also getting the other guys ready. [He was] very active behind the line of scrimmage…helping them out…fully active in meetings. The meetings never really bothered him, so he was a full-go in meetings. He handled it like a pro, like he does everything."
On what FAU does well offensively and Dilfer's preparation:
"Charlie Frye—their offensive coordinator—who is one of my dear friends, a guy I respect in college football as much as anybody, worked for me at Elite 11. He was on my list of people to hire here. I told Tom Herman at the AAC meetings [that] he hired a great offensive coordinator. They do a really good job. Charlie is a great teacher. I think you can see that with their offense. He's very creative, he's a very good scheme guy…but he's a great teacher. Their guys know the 'why' and the 'what,' and they play with a high level of football awareness. Again, it goes to his teaching. The best thing Charlie does is he finds the dude and gets him the ball. That's always been his MO. He believes the same thing I believe, which is 'get the dude the ball.' They do a great job with that…getting it to #1. I'm sure we're going to see that. And they do it in such a way [that] you really can't build your schemes around it. You can try, but he's gonna move him around so much that it's gonna be hard to find and figure out how they're trying to give him the ball."
On whether Dilfer looks at past tape of FAU's offensive transfers:
"[We look at] this year. We definitely look at personnel and do personnel studies, but it's hard to tell, because so much of college football is system fit. You have to figure out that player's skill level, their traits, and how it fits in the system they're presently in. It's just safer to watch what they do now. You watch so much tape by the end of the week that you have a pretty good understanding of the physical abilities of the players you're playing against. But more importantly, it's, 'how are the other coordinators using those players?'"
Tickets to the game against Florida Atlantic are available by clicking here. For more information on the UAB football team, be sure to follow @UAB_FB on Twitter and Instagram.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
- The Blazers enter the contest at 2-6 overall and must win out to extend their streak of bowl eligible seasons which is currently at seven years in a row (2014, 2017-22). Florida Atlantic is coming off a 38-16 victory over Charlotte to improve to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the AAC.
- UAB has played one of the toughest schedules in the country through the first nine weeks of the season. The FBS opponents UAB has played so far this year have a combined record of 41-15 (73.2 winning %) and every team is .500 or better. The Blazers' final four opponents currently have a combined record of 12-19.
- Jermaine Brown Jr. is closing in on one of the most prestigious school records as the fifth-year senior needs 268 more all-purpose yards to become the program leader in that category. Brown Jr. currently has 4,402 all-purpose yards and is approaching J.J. Nelson's record of 4,670. Brown Jr. is averaging 115.8 all-purpose yards per game this year.
Opening Statement:
"It's been a good week. Got some work done. I feel like we got better in the bye week…especially on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday felt like half-inches were started for a little time away. But overall, I thought we got a lot better. I think coaching-wise we did a really good job of self-scout, self-evaluation, personnel tweaks, as well as scheme tweaks. Looking forward to the next challenge and having a better Saturday result than we've had."
On Zeno's injury update and handling of the three-quarterback situation:
"He'll be back. He practiced all last week and will be full-go and prepared to play on Saturday…He was awesome. A lot of his week was trying to get healthy. So, going through coaching protocol, you have to go through certain rigors, and he was focused on that. Towards the end of the week, he was very involved in trying to get ready to play, but also getting the other guys ready. [He was] very active behind the line of scrimmage…helping them out…fully active in meetings. The meetings never really bothered him, so he was a full-go in meetings. He handled it like a pro, like he does everything."
On what FAU does well offensively and Dilfer's preparation:
"Charlie Frye—their offensive coordinator—who is one of my dear friends, a guy I respect in college football as much as anybody, worked for me at Elite 11. He was on my list of people to hire here. I told Tom Herman at the AAC meetings [that] he hired a great offensive coordinator. They do a really good job. Charlie is a great teacher. I think you can see that with their offense. He's very creative, he's a very good scheme guy…but he's a great teacher. Their guys know the 'why' and the 'what,' and they play with a high level of football awareness. Again, it goes to his teaching. The best thing Charlie does is he finds the dude and gets him the ball. That's always been his MO. He believes the same thing I believe, which is 'get the dude the ball.' They do a great job with that…getting it to #1. I'm sure we're going to see that. And they do it in such a way [that] you really can't build your schemes around it. You can try, but he's gonna move him around so much that it's gonna be hard to find and figure out how they're trying to give him the ball."
On whether Dilfer looks at past tape of FAU's offensive transfers:
"[We look at] this year. We definitely look at personnel and do personnel studies, but it's hard to tell, because so much of college football is system fit. You have to figure out that player's skill level, their traits, and how it fits in the system they're presently in. It's just safer to watch what they do now. You watch so much tape by the end of the week that you have a pretty good understanding of the physical abilities of the players you're playing against. But more importantly, it's, 'how are the other coordinators using those players?'"
Tickets to the game against Florida Atlantic are available by clicking here. For more information on the UAB football team, be sure to follow @UAB_FB on Twitter and Instagram.
Players Mentioned
RB
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