UAB Travels to Hattiesburg to Renew Southern Miss Rivalry

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Playing its most common opponent in program history, the UAB football team travels to Hattiesburg to face West Division foe Southern Miss under the lights at 6 p.m. on Saturday night.

Saturday's game marks the 16th meeting between the two schools and the Blazers have won five of the last six contests.

GAME INFORMATION:
UAB (4-3, 2-2) at Southern Miss (5-2, 3-1)
Where: M.M. Roberts Stadium, Hattiesburg, Miss.
When: October 28, 6 p.m.
Watch: CUSA.tv
On the Call: Jon Cox, Lee Roberts, Bo Morgan
Listen: 100.5 FM JOX 2 (David Crane, Steve Irvine, Trey Ragland)
Official Watch Party: Iron City - Doors open at 5 p.m. (Free admission)
Twitter/Instagram: @UAB_FB

NOTES:

UAB looks for its first road win of the season at Southern Miss. The last time the Blazers traveled to Hattiesburg, they defeated the Golden Eagles 45-24 in the final game of the 2014 season to earn bowl eligibility. Current Chicago Bears running back Jordan Howard rushed for a UAB school record 262 yards in that contest.
The Blazers' first four conference games have been decided by a total of seven points. UAB is the only team in the country to have its first four conference games decided by less than 10 total points. (L 46-43 at North Texas, W 23-22 vs. Louisiana Tech, W 25-23 vs. Middle Tennessee, L 25-24 at Charlotte in OT).
A.J. Erdely's nine rushing touchdowns leads all Conference USA quarterbacks and is a team-high for the Blazers. He is just two rushing touchdowns shy of tying Joe Webb's UAB record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback and four shy of tying the overall program record of 13 which is shared by Jordan Howard and Darrin Reaves.
Freshman running back Spencer Brown enters the game with 700 rushing yards and an average of 100.0 yards per game, which ranks him fourth overall in Conference USA. Brown is averaging 137.0 yards per game in his last three games. He is 181 yards shy of the UAB freshman rushing record.
The UAB defense has four interceptions in the last two games and now has three multi-interceptions games this season (Coastal Carolina, Middle Tennessee and Charlotte). Darious Williams has a team-high two interceptions and is second in C-USA with nine passes defended, while Chris Woolbright recorded his first career INT at Charlotte.
Safety Broderick Thomas continues to lead the team in tackles with 58 and has had no less than seven tackles in six straight games. Tevin Crews is one tackle behind him with 57 and he and Shaq Jones are tied for fifth in the league with 9.0 tackles for loss.
Southern Miss is coming off a miraculous victory at Louisiana Tech in which the Golden Eagles erased an 11-point deficit in the final 1:23 of the game to force overtime and came out with a 34-27 victory in double OT.
The Blazers will have to contend with arguably Conference USA's best running back in Ito Smith. Smith ranks second all-time at USM with 5,664 career all-purpose yards. He has 20 career 100-yard rushing games and is averaging 111.6 yards per game this season which ranks second in C-USA.
This is a critical game in the C-USA West Division standings as Southern Miss and North Texas sit atop the division at 3-1, while the Blazers are one game behind at 2-2.

The Blazers have three remaining C-USA games after Southern Miss, two of which come at Legion Field. Following the Golden Eagles, UAB hosts Rice on Nov. 4, followed by back-to-back road games at UTSA and Florida. The Blazers conclude the regular season with UTEP at home on Nov. 25.

UAB Travels to Hattiesburg to Renew Southern Miss Rivalry

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Players Mentioned

Spencer Brown

Tevin Crews

A.J. Erdely

Shaq Jones

Broderick Thomas

Darious Williams

Chris Woolbright

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics