The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazer Football Looking To Build On Third Straight Win
11/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 16, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The UAB football team rides a three-game winning streak into this weekend's final road game of the regular season at East Carolina.
Saturday's kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT) in Greenville, N.C. The game will be televised by the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, and the broadcast will be picked up locally in Birmingham by ABC 33/40.
Coming off this past Saturday's 31-21 win at Memphis, UAB head coach Neil Callaway held his weekly press conference on Monday. He was joined by senior defensive back Brandon Carlisle, junior defensive end Bryant Turner and junior tight end Jeffery Anderson.
The UAB-East Carolina game will have major ramifications on the Conference USA East Division race. The Pirates (6-4, 5-1 C-USA) currently sit in first place, while the Blazers (5-5, 4-2 C-USA) are in a three-way tie for second. Both teams control their own destiny to get to the league's championship game.
"(East Carolina does) an excellent job of winning football games," Callaway said. "Going back to our game last year, it was a nip-and-tuck game, but they won it at the end. I think they've consistently done that better than probably anybody else in our league over the last three years that I've been here."
In last year's meeting, UAB held onto a 13-10 lead until the 2:20 mark in the fourth quarter when East Carolina's Brandon Simmons scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to lift the Pirates to a 17-13 win.
The ECU victory evened the all-time series at 4-4. UAB won three of the first four meetings, but East Carolina has won three of the past four. The Pirates own a 3-1 advantage in games played in Greenville.
Saturday's 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 win over Memphis
"It was a game we're mighty happy to win. I thought we did some good things, but I think we made a lot of mistakes, particularly in the kicking game. I thought it was our worst performance of the year as far as our whole kicking game goes. We have to make sure we get that corrected and do a lot better job there.
"Defensively, we've given up some big plays, but the good thing is we've made a lot of big plays. I thought the two plays Brandon (Carlisle) made causing the fumbles Saturday were huge as far as the outcome of the game. Offensively, I thought we did a nice job with our passing game. I think we struggled in the running game. But again it's a game we're happy to win, but now we're going to put that behind us and move on."
On the upcoming game with East Carolina
"I watched some of the East Carolina game last night on TV and watched the rest of the film this morning. They have a very balanced offense, and they do an excellent job of winning football games. Going back to our game last year, it was a nip-and-tuck game, but they won it at the end. I think they've consistently done that better than probably anybody else in our league over the last three years that I've been here.
"They're sound in everything they do. I think they have one of the better players in our league in (Dwayne Harris), who is a receiver for them. They have a big, strong, physical running back. Their defensive line is as good as anybody we'll play against. It's going to be quite a challenge; we have to go up there to Greenville. Traditionally, in my opinion, they have probably the best home crowd advantage in our league. It'll be a big day for us, a big challenge, but we're looking forward to it."
On being in the race for the C-USA East Division title
"We're all in kind of a playoff deal where we win and we're in, we lose and we're out. But the biggest thing we have to do is focus on East Carolina. We're not worried about anything else."
On the strength of the East Carolina defense
"Defensively, they start with their defensive front. They're big, physical guys. They're going to try to dominate the line of scrimmage whether you're running the ball or throwing the football, so that makes it critical for you to execute the other parts of your offense. They're a very good defensive football team, particularly up front."
On the need for everyone to contribute offensively
"We're glad to have (Joe Webb) on our football team and he's going to make his plays, but I really feel like for us to be successful, we have to have other guys stepping up and doing their part. We rely a lot on Joe, but we can't put it all on him."
On recovering from the Marshall loss to win three straight games
"We were very disappointed in the Marshall game, particularly the way we lost. Offensively, we had close to 450 yards of offense, but every time we made a play, we had a penalty or did something that wasn't smart, and we didn't give ourselves a chance to win. We talked a lot about it as a team and challenged the guys to start doing things the right way, and so far they've responded. For us to have a chance, we have to continue to do that. We're not a football team that is so talented that we can make mistakes and be successful. We have to make sure we're doing all the little things right."
On the chance to become bowl-eligible with a win at East Carolina
"(A win at) ECU would put us bowl-eligible, and again, we're looking forward to playing them. But I don't want to be distracted by all the other talk about whatever. We take care of our business and we're fine."
Senior DB Brandon Carlisle
On what has changed with the team since the Marshall game
"I think that guys started doing the little things right that coach talked about. We had a lot of seniors step and start being bigger leaders for the team and having a sense of direction instead of letting stuff get away from us."
On the current three-way tie for second place in the C-USA East Division
"Everybody is very focused on the game at hand. We're not worried about UCF or anything else outside of East Carolina. We are in control of our own destiny if we win these next few games."
On the team's current winning streak
"I think we're turning the page in this program aside from the two losses we have in the conference. If you look at those two games, against SMU we didn't play very well and we barely lost. At Marshall, we did all the things we needed to lose the game. But, aside from those few games, we've beaten Southern Miss and all that. I think we're headed in the right direction and we just have to keep going."
On increased senior leadership following the Marshall game
"Coach challenged us as seniors to take accountability for the whole team and have everybody step up. By doing little things we are getting there. We're having more meetings as a team now just to get everybody going."
On the team's record of 5-5 boosting morale
"Like I said, we were disappointed that we were 2-5, but we knew that we could have been way better than that and that we shouldn't have lost two of those games for sure. We knew that if we just eliminated mistakes and came back and took care of things that we needed to take care of that we'd have a shot."
Junior TE Jeffery Anderson
On the team controlling its own destiny
"We are happy about our last three wins. Coach has always talked about if we win out, we'll play in the conference championship game. We are taking it one game at a time. We're not trying to look ahead."
On focusing on just one game at a time
"You have to. We look back to the Rice game where we had SMU next, but most of us were looking past them to the Troy game because Troy is one of our rivals. Then we lost. Now we're more focused on just taking it one game at a time."
On what's been clicking with the offense the past three games
"Offensively, all of us are on the same page. The line is communicating better to pick up blitzes. We're catching the ball better now and all the receivers have stepped up."
On going up against ECU's defense
"It's a huge challenge for us. The last three games our offense has been clicking. If we're facing somebody whose defense is really good, we want to see how well our offense will do."
Junior DE Bryant Turner
On the possibility of being bowl-eligible
"That's something everybody's excited about. We heard so much about the last team that went to the Hawaii Bowl for UAB. It sounded like so much fun, so we're really trying to get there."
On wanting a bowl for this senior class
"It seems like we're in this situation and everybody feels like they're seniors because you never know what your chances will be next year. You could go 0-10 next year, you never know. While you have this chance you take advantage of it, that's what everyone's thinking. Hopefully we can do that."
On how the team is performing
"We are very confident. We're executing more and making more plays on both offense and defense, but we're still making mistakes. We're confident that if we get those mistakes down, we could be great. Right now we're doing pretty well, but if we get our mistakes down we could be great."
