Head Coach: Trent Dilfer is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Blazers with a 4-8 record. He’s a former Super Bowl winning QB for the Baltimore Ravens, overall NFL Journeyman and spent a long time as an NFL media member. This job is the first thing he’s done related to college football since he left Fresno State to enter the 1994 draft, so this was random but he’s also called out a long of things wrong with college sports such as bigger programs tampering.
Program Outlook: UAB of course has one of the craziest stories around. Politics and poor leadership led to the program being killed, only to be revived just 2 years later. Before this happened UAB had struggled a lot, the Blazers only had 3 winning seasons in their history. Things absolutely FLIPPED once the Blazers came back. UAB had their best season in program history their first year back, only to top it with 11 wins, their first ever conference championship AND first ever bowl win. UAB football had arrived and despite a few obstacles throughout the years last season was their first losing season since their return. The new conference along with a coaching change certainly didn’t help, now Blazers fans will be wondering what they return to contention.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s enough experience back to give some hope. To start QB Jacob Zeno returns, UAB’s offense was mostly comprised of short quick passes and Zeno did a great job executing that attack. They have a slew of vet receivers to throw to and they love to spread it around. Zeno will contribute to the run game as well and they have 2 solid backs, they’ll need a more experienced offensive line up front to carve more holes. This offense will be a thrill to watch and if you love offense heavy ball this is your team because… Their defense also can’t stop opposing teams from passing the ball. So much back and forth. There’s a lot of experience back so maybe improvements could come. The pass rush needs to get home more, the portal helps especially on the backend of the defense. The Blazers could win a lot more games if the defense transitions from terrible to merely bad.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: This schedule is not the worst. Alcorn State did go 7-4 last season but they weren’t competitive in their only FBS game against Southern Miss. ULM is in a major rebuild and UConn is also figuring things out. There’s also a chance for UAB to catch Arkansas down or sleeping following their game against Oklahoma State. The conference schedule isn’t the best, they draw 2 of the top contenders Tulane, USF and the Battle for the Bones against Memphis. They also draw Army, Rice and Charlotte who are all wildcard contenders so it won’t come easy for the Blazers.
Vegas Projection: UAB’s win total is set at 6.5 with the odds geared toward the under. Vegas has confidence the Blazers will improve and maybe even spring an upset.
2024 Best Case: UAB takes advantage of the early slate to go off to a quick 2-0 start but it gets better for the Blazers they catch Arkansas not embracing the Hog after they lost to Oklahoma State and they take them down for a huge victory. UAB carries the momentum to a win over Navy and upset over Tulane for a huge 5-0 start. Trent Dilfer is the toast of the college football world as people watch in amazement that he can actually do this thing. The excitement falls off a little bit as they’re taken down in the next 2 games but they rebound with wins over Tulsa and UConn. UAB finds themselves back in the headlines in the Battle for the Bones with Memphis, it’s a huge game that gets a lot of attention and it ends up being a wild shootout with Jacob Zeno leading the team down on a late well executed drive to win the bones! UAB avoids the letdown and wins out to finish the regular season with 10 wins. Unfortunately for the Blazers they get a rematch with Tulane and aren’t able to beat the Green Wave a 2nd time. Still its apparent that championship football is back in Birmingham. UAB gets a bowl matchup with Troy and takes down the Trojans for a nice in-state victory. Also Alabama misses the college football playoff.
2024 Worst Case: Maybe Trent Dilfer is in over his head. UAB wins the opener but their defense is torched by UL Monroe as they lose to the Warhawks, while Bryant Vincent asks how not hiring him is working out. UAB’s schedule quickly beats them up from there as they’re blown out by Arkansas, Navy, Tulane, Army and USF. They can’t even beat Tulsa the next game at home and UAB loses out from there going 1-11. Suddenly back to back losing seasons is bringing shades of how the program was before it’s revival. Alabama wins the national title.
Welcome to Updog Sports Talk 
Leave a comment