UAB Notes For The TCU Game

THE GAME: TCU at UAB, Saturday, Nov. 10

KICKOFF: Set for 4:00 pm CST at Legion Field (83,091/Grass) in Birmingham.

THE TEAMS:? UAB is 4-4 (3-2 C-USA), the Blazers had an off week (Nov. 3) following a 17-14 win at Memphis on Oct. 27.? TCU is 4-4 (2-2 C-USA) and coming off a 37-30 loss to East Carolina at home on Tuesday, Oct. 30.

THE COACHES: TCU's Gary Patterson is 4-5 in his first season as head coach of the Horned Frogs (including the loss to Southern Miss in the 2000 Mobile Alabama Bowl). UAB's Watson Brown is 35-39 in his seventh season at UAB (67-116-1 in his 17th season as a collegiate head coach).

THE SERIES: Saturday's game will be the first meeting between UAB and TCU in football.

TELEVISION: None in the Birmingham viewing area. The game will be televised live in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area (satellite coordinates: KU Feed, SBS 6, Transponder 17).

RADIO:? The game will be broadcast live on the UAB Blazers Radio Network on stations throughout the state of Alabama and in Birmingham on the Blazers' flagship station, WAPI AM 1070.? Gary Sanders is in his 23rd season as the play-by-play voice of the Blazers (and his 11th broadcasting UAB football games).? Sanders will be joined in the booth by color commentator Matt Coulter (now in his fifth season with the UAB Broadcast crew), as well as producer/engineer and jack-of-all-trades Jon Gentile (now in his fourth year with UAB) and spotter/sideline reporter/legal advisor Bill Lewis. Saturday's broadcast will begin with the pre-game show at 3:30 pm CST live from the Legion Field.

UAB FOOTBALL RADIO NETWORK

Radio Affiliates?

Birmingham (Flagship)...WAPI-AM 1070

Mobile...WKSJ AM 1270

Florence/Muscle Shoals?...WZNN-AM 620

Roanoke...WELR-AM 1360

LaGrange, Ga. ... WLAG-AM 1240

All games will be broadcast live, beginning with the "Blazers Gameday" pre-game show 30 minutes prior to kickoff.?

GREAT DEFENSE CONTINUES:? The UAB defense has the following national rankings this week:

Total Defense - 2nd (allowing 250.13 yards per game)

Rushing Defense - 1st (allowing 58.00 yards per game)

Scoring Defense - 17th (allowing 18.00 points per game)

Pass Efficiency Defense - 17th (opponents have a 102.25 rating)

Pass Defense - 34th (allowing 192.13 yards per game)

BLAZERS ESPECIALLY TOUGH vs. THE RUN: ?The UAB Blazer defense has traditionally been very tough vs. the run.? UAB opponents rushed for 100+ yards as a team only five times in 2000 and six times in 1999 and have done so once thus far in 2001 (Florida State's 135 net yards, Sept. 8), UAB has held opposing teams under 100 net rushing yards in nine of its last 10 games, dating back to the 2000 season.? No individual opposing player has broken the 100+-yard barrier since Louisville's Frank Moreau did so vs. the Blazers during the 1999 season (Oct. 30, 1999 in Louisville) -- that's 21 straight games.? Southern Miss' Tim Blackwell came as close as anyone has since then, Blackwell finished the game with 97 net rushing yards on 24 carries (he actually had 100 yards but three negative yards brought him back to 97 for the game).

VERY TOUGH: C-USA opponents have averaged 58.4 net rushing yards in the Blazers' five league games this season.

?"THE STEEL SHIELD": A nickname that originated with Coach Watson Brown, given to the team's defensive front four -- seniors Bryan Thomas (DE), Eddie Freeman (DT), Rodney Jones (NG) and Marlon Bush (DE).? Of late, the nickname has also come to be used in reference to the entire defensive unit, which has been brilliant this season.

SENIORS PLAY FINAL HOME GAME: 22 Blazer seniors will be playing their final home game at Legion Field Saturday vs. TCU.

BROWN vs. TCU: UAB is playing TCU for the first time, but Blazer head coach Watson Brown knows the Horned Frogs well from his days as head coach at Rice (1984-85). Brown's Owls faced TCU twice during his tenure at Rice, losing 45-24 at Fort Worth in 1984 and winning 34-27 in Houston in 1985.

SULLIVAN VERY FAMILIAR, TOO: UAB Offensive Coordinator and Quaterbacks Coach Pat Sullivan is extremely familiar with the TCU program, Sullivan was head coach of the Horned Frogs for six seasons (1992-97), and led TCU to a share of the Southwest Conference title and an Independence Bowl appearance in 1994.

ANOTHER TCU CONNECTION: One of the members of the Blazers' original coaching staff in 1991, the late Billy Tohill, was head coach of the Horned Frogs from 1972-73 (as well as on an interim basis for part of the 1971 season).

AND ANOTHER: Former Horned Frog player Mikyha Martin (1992-95) was a graduate assistant coach on the UAB staff in 1999.

COX DOES IT AGAIN, cont.: Redshirt junior Thomas Cox improved his record as the Blazers' starting quarterback to 4-0 in the Oct. 27 win at Memphis. Cox, who started the 1999 upset victory over #17 East Carolina at Legion Field and the 2000 upset of LSU in Baton Rouge, filled in for the injured Jeff Aaron in the Oct. 20 game? vs. Tulane and led the Blazers to a 34-27 Homecoming victory. In the process, he set a new UAB single-game marks for quarterback rushing yards (177) and attempts (26), and ran for two touchdowns, including a 45-yard scamper on an option play in the first quarter (Cox also scored two rushing TDs in the 1999 East Carolina win). Against Memphis, Cox rushed for what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown, a two-yarder in the third quarter.

AARON RETURNS: Senior quarterback Jeff Aaron returned to practice on Tuesday, Oct. 30 after missing two weeks of action, Aaron sat out the Tulane and Memphis games with a high sprain of the left ankle (technically known as "syndesmosis"), suffered vs. Cincinnati (10/13).? Aaron did not dress out vs. Tulane, but did dress for the Memphis game.

"B.T." GETS THE RECORD: Senior defensive end Bryan Thomas' two sacks in the Tulane game (10/20) gave him 30 for his UAB career (1998-? ), and made him the Blazers' all-time sack leader, breaking the previous mark of 29 set by Rodney Foster (1991-94). Thomas led UAB with 10 sacks in 2000, and leads the team again this season with nine.

SO DOES NICK: Nick Hayes' 48-yard field goal at Memphis (10/27) is a new UAB Division I-A era record. The previous mark was 47, co-held by Hayes, Rhett Gallego, and Jake Arians.? The mark for longest field goal in UAB history -- 52 yards -- was set by Kevin Thomason vs. Mississippi Valley State in 1994.

GUYS NAMED `NICK' STEP UP vs. TULANE: Redshirt freshman placekicker Nick Hayes kicked field goals of 46 and 47 yards, and was 4-4 on PATs,? senior linebacker Nick Stewart had five tackles (three solo, two for loss), three pass breakups, and sealed the victory with an interception of a Patrick Ramsey pass on the Green Wave's final possession.

FOUR SCORE: The Blazers rushed for four touchdowns in the Tulane game (10/20), that's the second time UAB has scored four times on the ground in a game this year -- the previous time was vs. Army on Sept. 22.

?ALL-TIME AT LEGION FIELD: The Blazers are 41-17-1 (.703) in 11 seasons at Legion Field (1991-? ). UAB is 21-10 (.677) at Legion Field in the school's NCAA Division I-A era (1996-? ), and 4-5 (.444) all-time at home vs. C-USA opponents (including a 1996 non-league loss to Cincinnati).

BLAZERS STINGY vs. C-USA OPPONENTS:? UAB has allowed five C-USA opponents an average of 15.6 points and 227.4 total yards per game this season.

FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTE: Although the Blazers can generally be considered a veteran team, there are several true freshmen who have worked their way into roles as either starters or significant backups.? They incude running backs Theron Dudley and Kendal Gibson, tight ends Sam Dudley and Chico Cleveland, receiver Roddy? White and defensive back Carlos Hendricks.?

"SHORT YARDAGE SPECIALIST": Running back Kendal Gibson has seen most of his playing time in the team's short-yardage package, that makes sense, considering the fact that Gibson, who rushed for over 3,000 yards and 38 touchdowns at Aliceville (Ala.) High School as a senior (2000), weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 pounds (a conservative estimate) and has a running style reminiscent of a Mack truck that has lost its brakes. Gibson has scored four rushing touchdowns in six games (25 carries) -- twice on one-yard runs (vs. Central Florida and Tulane -- both on fourth-and-goal), once on a two-yard run (on third-and-one vs. Memphis) and once on a seven-yard run (vs. Army).?

"THE TIGHT END OPTION": Sam Dudley was part of a very unusual play in the Tulane game (10/20), late in the third quarter, with the score tied 24-24, UAB faced a third-and-seven situation at its own 23-yardline. Quarterback Thomas Cox took the snap and rolled to his right, looking to set up running back Jegil Dugger for a possible pitch on the option play. A Tulane defender forced the action a bit sooner than the Blazer quarterback expected, and Cox pitched the ball to the first available Blazer -- tight end Dudley, who had lined up in the backfield and was the lead blocker on the play.? The 6-4, 260-pound Dudley calmly took the pitch and barreled ahead for nine yards and a UAB first down, extending a drive that later resulted in a Kendal Gibson touchdown.

RODDY GETS ONE: Receiver Sharod "Roddy" White caught his first career touchdown pass as a collegiate player in the Cincinnati game (Oct. 13), a? 24-yarder from Jeff Aaron in the third quarter.

BIG NUMBERS: UAB's 55 points vs. Army (Sept. 22) is the most ever by the Blazers vs. an NCAA Division I-A opponent. The UAB all-time record is 61 points vs. Knoxville College in? a I-AA game at Legion Field in 1995, the previous scoring high in the I-A era for the Blazers was 48 vs. Tennesssee-Martin (at the Hoover Met, 1998).?

DUGGER WATCH: Senior running back Jegil Dugger has 595 net rushing yards this season on 157 carries (3.8 average) and 1,735 career rushing yards (he's UAB's career leader in the Division I-A era) on 392 carries (4.4 average).? Dugger, who is UAB's all-time rushing leader in the school's Division I-A era (1996-? ) and second on the Blazers' all-time list (Pat Green leads with 2,817 yards, 1991-94) , has 12 career rushing touchdowns - ranking him second in the UAB Division I-A era and third all-time in Blazer football history.

A NOSE FOR THE BALL: Senior linebacker Rod Taylor was credited with 20 tackles in the Southern Miss game (including 17 solo), that is a UAB Division I-A era record, and ties for second all-time in Blazer history. The feat was even more remarkable considering the fact that Taylor played the game (and has done so most of the 2001 season) on a sore ankle that was badly sprained in the Florida State game (Sept.8).? Taylor leads UAB with 76 total tackles this season (46 solos), he also has three sacks and two interceptions. Taylor's interception in the Memphis game (10/27) set up what proved to be the winning touchdown, a two-yarder by quarterback Thomas Cox late in the third quarter.

SPEAKING OF LINEBACKERS NAMED TAYLOR: Walk-on linebacker Darrius Taylor (Cherokee, Ala./Cherokee HS) -- no relation to Rod -- has developed into a terror on special teams. Watch for no. 40 on kickoff and punt coverage, he's usually the one putting a big hit on the ballcarrier. Taylor has 14 total tackles this season (9 solo), virtually all on special teams.

SOUTHALL IN THE RECORD BOOK: Jason Southall's 93-yard kickoff return at UCF (Oct. 6)? is the longest? in UAB history, scoring or not.? Here is a partial list of the top Blazer returns:

93 - Jason Southall at UCF (2001)

85 - Cedric Thatch at Wake Forest (1999)

82 - Darrin Reaves at Hampden-Sydney (1991)

70 - Cedrick Buchannon vs.? Southwestern Louisiana (1995)

59 - Jason Southall vs. Tulane (2001)

54 - Cedric Thatch vs. Louisville (2000)

54 - Cedric Thatch at Northeast Louisiana? (1998)

52 - Omar Parker vs. Jacksonville State (1997)

SOUTHALL, cont.: The former Midfield High School star has nearly broken two kickoff returns for touchdowns this season (93 yards at UCF, 59 vs. Tulane), as of Nov. 4, he was ranked 14th nationally in kickoff return yards, averaging 27.82yards per return.

STEWART SHINES: Redshirt junior punter Ross Stewart had a career-high 11 punts for 47 yards at Memphis (10/27) -- both UAB single-game records. Stewart also had a great game earlier this season at Florida State (Sept. 8), the Blountsville, Ala. native punted six times for 285 yards (a 47.5 average), and had a long kick of 68 yards -- a personal best.? Stewart's season average is currently 43.02 yards per punt, good enough to rank him 28th nationally.? Eleven of Stewart's 43 punts this season have been downed inside the opponents' 20-yardline -- three of those came vs. Tulane (10/20), including one on the Blazers' final offensive possession.

MULTIPLE INTERCEPTIONS: UAB's (four) interceptions in the Army game equals the school's I-A era record, set vs. LSU last season (Sept. 23, 2000) when the Blazers picked off four Tiger passes en route to a 13-10 victory in Baton Rouge.? The all-time UAB mark for interceptions in a single game is five (5), set vs. Morehead State in a I-AA game at Legion Field in 1993.

IT'S A FACT: UAB has intercepted at least one pass in 24 of its last 30 games (and in six of eight games this season).

ANOTHER FACT: UAB has blocked four kicks this season three punts, one field goal).

ODDLY ENOUGH: There were two blocked kicks (both field goal attempts) in the UAB-Southern Miss game 9/ 29), but both were apparently inadvertently blocked by the kicking teams, not the defenders.

PITTSBURGH GAME RESCHEDULED: UAB will make up the game at Pittsburgh on Saturday, Dec. 1 at Heinz Field (1:30 pm EST).

STRONG SCHEDULES: The Blazers have ambitious non-conference schedules over the next few seasons that include dates at Florida (2002),? at South Carolina (2003),? at Florida State (2004), and Tennessee (2005), as well as a home game vs.? Pittsburgh (2002), and home-and-home series with Baylor (2003 in Waco, 2004 in Birmingham) and UNLV (2005 in Las Vegas, 2006 in Birmingham).

?THOMAS PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTION:? Senior defensive end Bryan Thomas was named to the Preseason All-Conference USA Team in July.?

AARON, GALLEGO RECEIVE C-USA HONORS: UAB quarterback Jeff Aaron and placekicker Rhett Gallego were honored by Conference USA for their performances in last Saturday's 55-3 win over Army at Legion Field. Aaron, who completed 17 of 23 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another score - all in just over one half of play - was named C-USA Offensive Player of The Week.? The senior from Montgomery, Ala. (Jeff Davis HS) led scoring drives on all six UAB possessions in the first half.? Gallego, a senior from Birmingham (Hueytown HS), earned C-USA Special Teams Player of The Week honors.? He made both of his field goal attempts (from 45 and 34 yards) and hit six of six PAT attempts for 11 points in the game.? Gallego was named C-USA Player of The Week three times during the 2000 season.

TEAM CAPTAINS: UAB Head Coach Watson Brown selects game captains -- always seniors -- shortly before kickoff each week. Permanent captains are designated following the season.

NUMBER CHANGES: There were several jersey number changes among veteran Blazer players between the 2000 and 2001 season, primarily among the receiver corps. Those changes include:

Player/Old Number/2001 Number

Maurice Gallery/20 (1998-00)/1

Travis Johnson/19 (1997-00)/3

T.J. Simmons/11 (1999-00)/9

NUMBER CHANGES, cont.: One newcomer, junior receiver Brandon Seabrook, has changed jersey numbers? three times since the Montana State game (Aug. 30), Seabrook, a junior college transfer from Atlanta, Ga., wore no. 40 (a duplicate number, shared with linebacker Darrius Taylor) vs. the Bobcats, no. 8 at Florida State, was scheduled to wear no. 84 at Pittsburgh(Sept. 15), and was assigned to no. 26 for the Army game.? Two other number changes for the Army game included placekicker Will "Gimp" Morthland (no. 33), and receiver Brian Buckner? (no. 84).

BROTHERS:? The 2001 Blazer team has no less than three (3) sets of brothers on the roster. The most high profile are freshman twins Kendal and Randal Gibson (Aliceville, Ala.). The Gibsons are not, however, the first set of twins to play for the Blazers,? Terry and Perry Collier (Munday, Texas) were members of Coach Watson Brown's first UAB team in 1995. Other brothers on the 2001 team include redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Artavious Williams and redshirt freshman noseguard Tony Williams (Montgomery, Ala.), and sophomore receiver Lynorse and sophomore defensive back Anthony Garrett (Cottonwood, Ala.). There was almost another set of brothers on the 2001 team, freshman defensive lineman Ernest Repress (Barnesville, Ga.) and brother Clarence (also a lineman) both signed with the Blazers last spring, but Clarence did not enroll this fall.

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UAB Notes For The TCU Game

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