The Rise -|Tyler Yates|-

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Blazers lose Conference USA membership

It's unknown territory for a program that compared to some could be considered in it's infancy, the program which started in division three of college athletics in 1991 blossomed in only five years they would jump from division three, to two, to one, despite not posting a winning record in their first three years, having competed in the Conference USA in non-football athletics, the conference ultimately extended an offer to the fledgling football program, at it's height, the Blazers won seven games, losing in their only bowl game appearance, a shoot out against the Hawai'i Warriors in the Hawai'i bowl during the 2004 season, the Warriors led by Timmy Chang.

Now the UAB Blazers program was never dominant, having played in D1 across other sports, an NCAA ruling forced a fledgling football program forward through the ranks culminating in a premature birth into the FBS, which has largely been unsuccessful. The caring hand of the Conference USA turned cold as the race to stay alive and grow in reputation comes to the forefront,the message was cold and clear, the Blazers were dead weight. After a vote of eight to four, the conference USA opted to remove the Blazers, with only four teams available in independency to join the conference on short notice, the Navy Midshipmen having an impending invitation to the Big East, left the Army Black Knights to join the Conference USA.

A cold smack to the face to the school, the Black Knights aren't an imposing threat, a rising mid-major or even consistent. The service academy simply skidded in to be a fill-in, a scab for a deep wound that was the Blazers program on the brand name of the Conference USA. The fall was hard and when they hit bottom, the Blazers arose in the Sunbelt.

The news isn't entirely bad, at the very least, the level of talent is much more similar in the Sunbelt than it was in the conference USA which had extremely talented teams like Tulsa, Houston and Southern Miss which almost always spelled out a loss for the Blazers. The Blazers join South Alabama as not only instate rivals but as new comers to the Sunbelt, where as the Jaguars are rising from the FCS ranks, the Blazers fall to the Sunbelt. The Jaguars had their bid for promotion pushed through when news passed down that Penn State had been given a death penalty which required a disbandment of the football program.

Obviously this news led to the firing of Neil Callaway, the head coach whom compiled a meager .300 win percentage over five seasons. Callaway was a controversial hire and many saw it as a way to keep the Tide as the top team in the state, with such a massive difference between the two talent wise, the same can almost be said for their latest hire, yet at the same time it was a very sound hiring.

Tyler Yates, at age 34, has been coaching since he was 20. The Illinois native was an assistant high school coach from 20 to 21 while he finished classes at a local community college, transferring to Georgia Tech, he found a job offer to be the offensive coordinator for a near by high school and until his graduation at age 24, he was the offensive coordinator. Graduating with a degree in Business wasn't ideal for his coaching career but his resume shined enough for the Georgia Tech alum to be named offensive coordinator at the university of West Georgia. As the coordinator for the Wolves he posted conference highs across the board and instilled a new mentality for the team, despite a pro styled approach, the tempo was up-paced and firey. He pushed his players for the best and ultimately when the incumbent head coach left for another coaching job, only at 28 he would take them to back to back conference championships, at thirty he would be traveling to the FCS, Jacksonville State in Alabama was his next destination.

The rise in competition and lack of successful recruiting showed, yet he drew the best from his players compiling a .657 win percentage over the next three years, the Alabama school became known for it's offensive strengths and swarming defensive mentality, his 3-4 started to gain steam and culminated in the call up to the Blazers. Yates is described as intense and passionate about the sport, something a decaying fan base and a football program on life support needs, the only problem is, how far gone is this football squad? Can UAB rise from it's ashes and potentially even reach higher under Yates?

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Saved for misc stats and info

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Ignite the fanbase

"UAB has a lot of potential, I realize Tuscaloosa and Auburn are both locked up as college towns and are fighting for real estate in Alabama, but there is no reason why we cannot. Legion Field has a lot of history to it, the rest of our athletics have been fantastic and we have a fan base here they can get wild. For the Blazers, our first goal is to ignite the fan base.." Head Coach Tyler Yates

Tyler Yates has been talking up the football program to just about anyone with ears, especially around campus he has been aiming to raise the dismal turnout at Legion Field to help support the Blazers on Saturdays. Some are taking notice but many more care more about what happens on the field rather than the words of a man whose job depends on their turnout. This season won't be anything special, projected as the last place school in the Sunbelt, they definitely won't be competing with Florida International or Troy for the Sunbelt title this year.

It also doesn't help that one of the hardest out of conference schedules in the Sunbelt belongs to the Blazers. Opening up on September first is their first conference game, a home matchup against the Troy Trojans, the following week after the FCS program they were scheduled to play had to remove the Blazers from the schedule, the Memphis Tigers will be visiting Legion Field in the Battle of the Bones, the rivalry game that Blazers fans love to show up for, one of the few aspects of the football program that is positive, as the Blazers hold a 10-4 advantage on the Tigers. UAB has actually won the last three matchups and seeks to extend that total to four, this will be the first year that these teams have not been in the same conference since before the '90's.

Than the weekends of the 15th and 22nd are when things get really uggle, traveling to #11 South Carolina to take on Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks, than traveling up to #18 Ohio State to take on Braxton Miller and the Ohio State Buckeyes, it won't be a pretty matchup in either game and preseason estimates have both teams winning by at least five touchdowns, beating the spread would help bolster the confidence of the program at the very least. Then a four week stint against the middle and bottom of the Sunbelt, featuring away games against UL-Monroe and North Texas, while welcoming Florida Atlantic and Mid Tennessee State to Legion Field in two very winnable matchups.

The final four games feature three of the top tier of the Sunbelt and one solid out of conference matchup, traveling to Florida International to take on Mario Cristobal coached Panthers, than a two game home stint against a Marshall squad that has definitely fallen off as of late but still much stronger than UAB, than a UL-Lafayette squad that has surfaced over the past few years as a serious contender in the Sunbelt. Closing out the season, the Blazers travel north to take on the Hilltoppers, whom in the few short seasons of football membership in the Sunbelt have begun to turn heads.

It isn't expected that the Blazers get anymore than four wins, but the four is definitely possible, they get a fairly favorable home schedule this season and should turn it into a strong push towards awakening the anemic fanbase. Offensively the team runs a pro-style offense with fourth year junior, Jonathan Perry under center, his top target will undoubtedly be Jackie Williams,the true junior has solid speed and good hands, with senior Nick Adams starting opposite Williams, posing a threat with decent hands but lackluster speed. Halfback Greg Franklin will be expected to carry the ball a lot and will be needing to surpass over 1000 yards on the ground on the year for the Blazers to have a successful season.

Marvin Burdette, the fifth year senior is the clear impact starter on the defensive side, as one of the two starting inside linebackers, his job will be to sniff out plays and head hunt, a serious job considering how weak the secondary is, he will be expected to do more than he should need to, but the defensive success falls upon his shoulders.

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Jaguars stun Hoosiers to kick off 2012

"The sad thing is you can't even call this an upset" - Kirk Herbstreit

The Hoosiers are coming off one of the worst seasons in school history and it's not looking much better this season for the Big Ten program to open up with a loss to South Alabama, the 27-13 affair was an embarrassment to the Big Ten program, which is quickly trying to distance it's self from it's pitfalls of a year ago. As the kick off game of 2012, this was national televised and the whole nation watched as the Hoosiers dropped an easy win.

Indiana was smothered on offense, 96 rushing yards was a decent total, but their 117 passing yards was embarrassing, where as South Alabama nearly outgained the Hoosiers with purely only ground yards (175) while adding 211 more yards through the air in this blow out, both teams lost a single fumble and Indiana held the advantage on kick return yards, but otherwise the Jaguars simply dominated all sides of this game, a true embarrassment to the Indiana football program.

Baker earned player of the game honors, rushing for 123 yards on 36 attempts, as well as picking up a lone score on the ground for South Alabama.

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UAB punishes the quarterback resulting in the game winning sack

UAB survives late rally to take the game in overtime

Larry Blakeney likened the Troy Trojans to the south Boise State, claiming they were a few years from achieving the same level of success the Idaho school had. (Obviously disregarding TCU as a Southern school) Despite these brash words, that was said prior to the opening of the 2011 season, which saw the Troy Trojans fall off the face of the earth and 2012 showed no hope that this would be any different. The Trojans looked helpless for most of the game, the Air Raid attack gave away from the run game which put up an embarrassing total of 38 yards.

The problem was, by all means the Trojans should've won this game. When they were running their offense they had the Blazers scrambling to even bring the Trojans down, the issue was turnovers and bad play calls, running the ball on third and long, short passes late in the game, running a pass play under center on the goal line when facing a goal line set, the list goes on. Suddenly the seat gets very hot in Troy, especially when coaching error is responsible for so much of what's wrong.

Troy outgained the Blazers 277 to 437, nearly doubling the passing yards and even managing an interception on their own. The problem lies in the three turnovers including the forced fumble on the games final play that killed off the Trojans for good. Jonathan Perry was extremely efficient, 11-17 with 208 yards and three touchdowns with only one interception, while Franklin only had 37 yards on 21 attempts, an embarrassing 1.7 yards per carry.

Everyone expected the offense to carry this Blazers team through the season, no one expected the defense to step up like it did. Robinson was sacked twice, hurried six times and intercepted twice, he only completed 51% of his passes but did manage 399 passing yards,while Taylor would be held to 32 yards on ten attempts which was a respectable 3.2 YPC.

The Blazers pick up win number one under new head coach Tyler Yates, with Memphis on the horizon at Legion Field in a rivalry matchup with a key recruit (Lott - WR) making his official visit, the game has implications for the now and the future, the Trojans lose in game one, starting out their sun belt schedule with a tough loss, they have a tough matchup ahead against the Cajuns and look to rebound in the Sunbelt.

Troy Trojans at UAB Blazers
Sep 1, 2012 1 2 3 4 OT F TROY (0-1) 0 7 3 10 20 UAB (1-0) 6 7 7 0 7 27 Top Performers PASS: Robinson (TROY) - 399 yards 2 TD RUSH: Taylor (TROY) - 32 yards REC: Reeves (TROY) - 156 yards 1 TD	Team Stats Comparison TROY UAB First Downs 16 9 3rd Down Efficiency 7/16 5/13 4th Down Efficiency 1/4 0/0 Total Yards 507 403 Passing Yards 399 208 Rushing Yards 38 69 Penalties-Penalty Yards 1/10 4/15 Turnovers 3 1 Time of Possession 13:18 14:42
Troy Trojans PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Robinson 25/49 399 2 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Taylor 10 32 3.2 0 Robinson 4 10 2.5 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Albert 8 105 13.1 1 Reeve 4 156 39.0 1 Worth 3 52 17.3 0 UAB Blazers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Perry 11/17 208 3 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Franklin 21 37 1.7 0 Perry 6 24 4 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Adams 4 73 18.2 0 Williams 3 55 18.3 1 Backman 2 41 20.5 1

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Jonathan Perry breaks out a long run for the score

Jerrel Rhodes breaks 200 yards and Memphis still loses

On a day where the rain was pouring and Rhodes was pouring it on, it was difficult to comprehend a scenario where the Memphis Tigers managed to lose, even doubling up the yardage on a weak UAB defense couldn't even help stem the tide. Special teams, and special teams alone did the Tigers in. Senior Paulo Henriques missed a pair of field goals (one of which was brought back 48 yards) and an extra point, which if he had managed to convert atleast one field goal and the extra point the game would've been in overtime. He didn't the Tigers instead of celebrating that they recovered the onside kick and managed to drive downfield had to take shots into the endzone and two incompletions would close out the game.

Rhodes broke 200 yards, breaking seven tackles and averaging a team record in yards per carry. Jerrel had a very successful day on the ground where as a receiving corp that has been featured in ESPN's 'Bottom 10' will be looking for a return appearance, dropping seven passes in the pouring rain, forcing the load onto Rhodes who shouldered it as well as he could. It was tough though, the Tigers were shut out through the first half and the opposition responded to all of their late scores.

Big plays late helped the Blazers close out with a win at Legion Field.

UAB came out in the fourth early, only up by one score and the Tigers offense hot, the Pro style offense they had been utilizing hadn't been overly successful in the second half so they ran an unorthodox play, an option. Jonathan Perry took the option outside and the linebacker broke inside to take out the halfback, leaving a wide open running lane, a key block in the second tier by a wide out had the Blazers quarterback going over fifty yards for a score.

Down by a touchdown, the Tigers kicked it deep to Cornelius Richards, the corner who missed a tackle on Rhodes whom scored, Richards returned the ball for a 99 yard score, fielding the ball just outside of the goal line and turning it up field following some inside blocking than cutting to the outside and running up the sideline for the score, essentially closing out the game with over two minutes remaining.

The Blazers improve to an extremely rare 2-0 start which with South Carolina and Ohio State looming on the horizon is almost guaranteed to be knocked back down to .500, coupled with drawing a few of the tougher teams in the Sunbelt, they can think about a bowl game, but it wouldn't be crazy for them to not get into one either.

Memphis Tigers at UAB Blazers
Sep 8, 2012 1 2 3 4 F MEM (0-2) 0 0 14 12 26 UAB (2-0) 3 7 7 14 31 Top Performers PASS: Jonathan Perry (UAB) - 180 yards 1 TD RUSH: Jerrel Rhodes (MEM) - 232 yards 2 TD REC: Jackie Williams (UAB) - 81 yards 1 TD	Team Stats Comparison MEM UAB First Downs 19 10 3rd Down Efficiency 7/14 4/10 4th Down Efficiency 2/2 1/1 Total Yards 484 498 Passing Yards 156 180 Rushing Yards 276 118 Penalties-Penalty Yards 0/0 0/0 Turnovers 0 0 Time of Possession 14:14 13:46
Memphis Tigers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Eric Mathews 13/29 156 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Jerrel Rhodes 23 232 10 2 Eric Mathews 7 15 2.1 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Keiwone Malone 4 61 15.2 0 Kevin Wright 3 30 10.0 0 Marcus Rucker 2 37 18.5 1 UAB Blazers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Jonathan Perry 13/20 180 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Greg Franklin 11 47 4.2 0 Jonathan Perry 6 66 11.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jackie Williams 5 81 16.2 1 Sam Accursio 2 39 19.6 0 Kennard Backman 2 28 14.0 0

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Robbie Rouse ignites Fresno State to 17 point 4th

"The quack attack couldn't stop the 'Dawgs from pulling through when it mattered, when it comes down to it, the Ducks are a better team, the Bulldogs just played with more passion and always fought for the extra yards" - Fresno State commentator

Oregon Duck fans watched in awe as the opposing offense pulled out to be the stronger squad. Fresno State improved to 2-0 on the season behind Robbie Rouse's four touchdowns in a 40-30 win over one of the top ranked schools in the nation, defeating the Oregon Ducks in a stunning fashion. The Ducks held a small lead heading into the fourth to the tune of 24-23, which was erased early in the fourth by a field goal. Yet it was the Bulldogs who were incapable of bouncing the Ducks early on and DeAnthony Thomas punched the ball in from the goal line. The two point failed and from then on it was all Bulldogs.

The bulldogs whom were down 30-26 ended any drama well outside of the two minute drill, with Robbie Rouse breaking two long runs before finally punching the ball into the end zone, after an interception off young quarterback, Marcus Mariota, the Bulldogs turned up the intensity to score in the final minute further humiliating the Ducks on their home turf, ultimatley winning 40-30.

"I can't think of anyone who deserves the game ball more than Robbie [Rouse]. He was the key on offense today and he turned it up to another level, I just made what reads I could and tried to turn in the best possible performance" Spoke Derek Carr, the junior quarterback, the younger brother of David who has followed fairly successfully in his elder brother's footsteps.

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Jadeveon Clowney takes down Jonathan Perry for a sack

Despite losing two key starts, South Carolina sends UAB home with 17-3 loss

The offense sputtered repeatedly, Steve Spurrier was fuming on the sidelines, joined by Connor Shaw [dislocated elbow] and Marcus Lattimore [sprained ankle]. The head coach watched as his team struggled as two backups took the spots of key starters, Dylan Thompson stepping in under center finished 2-5 for 16 yards while managing a touchdown strike, while Kenny Miles (47) and Brandon Wilds (44) split duties when Lattimore went down, neither was overly effective but both did well enough.

The defense came up huge for the Gamecocks, losing no starters in an injury riddled game, Clowney (pictured above) had two sacks, Brison Williams added one more sack and Byron Jerideau added two as well, not only were the sacks abundent, there were eleven tackles in the Blazers backfield resulting in UAB finishing with a tiny 152 offensive yards despite holding onto the ball for slightly longer than the Gamecocks, neither team had turnovers but the Gamecocks had several opportunities for interceptions.

Jonathan Perry whom has been extremely efficient dipped below 50% completion rate for the first time this season, going 10-21 for 113 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions, while also taking the before-mentioned five sacks, third year sophomore Jay Davis was his top receiver with four catches for 90 yards, tight end Kennard Backman was the only other player with multiple catches and three Blazers finished with negatives in the yardage column.

Greg Franklin, the junior back finally got a solid amount of yards per carry and managed to break six tackles but still only logged 42 yards on eleven carries, while Jonathan Perry whom after rushing 7 times and being sacked five more would finish at -3 on the day. An overall embarrassing showing for the offense that had carried the Blazers to a 2-0 record thus far.

The Gamecock's offense wasn't effective and it was only 10-3 heading into the fourth, a touchdown in the fourth seperated the two for good, but the beat down the Blazers offense received matched the mantra of the luck the Blazers defense had received, missed opportunities cost the Gamecocks' points, it ultimately won't matter as they won, if they had lost though, the mechanical errors would've been troublesome, before leaving the game Connor Shaw had a 60% completion percentage and a touchdown pass of his own.

The #9 Gamecocks improve to 3-0 although not covering the four touchdown spread, while the Blazers fall to 2-1, coming back to reality after a quick start to open the 2012 season. The Blazers travel to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes next week, another multiple touchdown favorite against the Blazers.

UAB Blazers at South Carolina Gamecocks
Sep 15, 2012 1 2 3 4 F UAB (2-1) 0 0 3 0 3 #9 SCAR (3-0) 0 3 7 7 17 Top Performers PASS: Jonathan Perry (UAB) - 113 yards RUSH: Connor Shaw (SCAR) - 48 yards REC: Jay Davis (UAB) - 90 yards	Team Stats Comparison UAB SCAR First Downs 8 13 3rd Down Efficiency 4/13 4/10 4th Down Efficiency 0/1 0/0 Total Yards 262 303 Passing Yards 113 105 Rushing Yards 39 158 Penalties-Penalty Yards 0/0 0/0 Turnovers 0 0 Time of Possession 14:06 13:54
UAB Blazers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Jonathan Perry 10/21 113 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Greg Franklin 11 42 3.8 0 Jonathan Perry 12 -3 -0.2 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jay Davis 4 90 22.5 0 Kennard Backman 2 20 10.0 0 Jackie Williams 1 11 11 0 South Carolina Gamecocks PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Connor Shaw 6/10 89 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Connor Shaw 11 48 4.3 0 Kenny Miles 10 47 4.7 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Davis Moore 3 57 19.0 0 Justice Cunningham 2 20 10.0 1 Brandon Wilds 1 7 7.0 0