Ragin' Dave's UAB Breakdown
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UAB is coming off a 7-6 2022 campaign, where they were up and down all season. They started off 2-0 with wins over Alabama A&M and Georgia Southern, but never could get any consistency the rest of the season, with wins over Middle Tennessee, Charlotte, UNT and La Tech as well as a bowl win over Miami (OH), but losses to Liberty, Rice, WKU, FAU, UTSA and LSU had them finish with a 6-6 regular season record and then they played in the Bahama’s Bowl vs MAC team, Miami (OH). UAB is led by first year head coach Trent Dilfer. Yes, that is the Super Bowl Champion Trent Dilfer. Trent Dilfer’s previous head coaching experience before joining UAB was as a High School Head Coach in Tennessee, no other coaching experience is listed. Dilfer’s DC is the guy who was his DC at Lipscomb Academy in Lipscomb, TN. Sione Ta'ufo'ou and while he does not have any college coaching experience, his defense allowed a stingy 5.5 points per game in the year that they won, one of their two state championships. The OC comes over from Alabama, where he was a GA, and then an offensive analyst in Alex Mortenson. Mortensen was on the Alabama staff in some capacity since 2014 before joining last season. Not much of Bill Clark’s previous staff at UAB was retained. What is really interesting is Dilfer does not employ specific position coaches, everyone on his staff is either designated an Offensive or Defensive Analyst or Offensive and Defensive Quality Control Coach.
I think the concern with UAB is what to expect from a Trent Dilfer led team. He has very little experience as a coach at any level and this is coming off of a team led by one of the most beloved coaches around in Bill Clark, who actually stayed at UAB after they shut the program down. Had it not been for health issues with his back, I believe Bill Clark may have coached at UAB until he chose to retire. Last year’s team was led by Bryant Vincent, who was an assistant coach under Bill Clark and many on the staff and team really wanted him to be named the Head Coach moving forward. Considering the turmoil, they had when Clark left so late in the offseason, Vincent did a nice job leading them to a bowl game, winning season, and bowl victory. Vincent is now the Offensive Coordinator at New Mexico. This year UAB moves from the CUSA to the AAC, which will be a little bit of a tougher task, although many of the teams they played in the CUSA move over with them, so there will be some familiarity. So far this season they are 1-1, they had a 35-6 win over FCS NC A&T and a 49-35 loss to SBC Georgia Southern.
QB—At QB, they start Jacob Zeno (6’4 215), who played sparingly in a few seasons at Baylor but did get into 9 games with 2 starts last season at UAB. He will be the full-time starter, last year he split time with Dylan Hopkins who is gone now. Zeno put up pretty good numbers last year, but this year has been very good in the new Trent Dilfer offense. Completing 71-84 passes for 676 yards with 5TD’s and only 1 INT. He is also capable with his legs, rushing for 42 yards on 13 carries with a long of 19 and a TD. Landry Lyddy, a transfer from La Tech will be his primary backup. Lyddy played quite a bit for La Tech as a freshman, so he is capable but if he is healthy Zeno will be the guy.
RB—It is a two headed attack for UAB in the backfield. Isaiah Jacobs (5’10 220) and Jermaine Brown (5’8 195) have almost identical numbers on the season and carry most of the payload for the Blazers. But they are different types of backs, as seen by their size difference. Brown has been with the program for a while and was the 2nd leading rusher last year on a team that ran the ball very well, he ended up just short of 1000 yards last year and this year he has 81 yards on 19 carries and 3 TD’s, while Jacobs who transferred in from JUCO has 89 yards on 18 carries and 1 TD. They are both explosive, just in different ways. They are also both very good receivers out of the backfield, combined they have 15 catches (8 and 7 respectively) for 74 yards on the season. This is a team that likes to get the ball to the perimeter, rather than beating you vertically, so the RBs are a major weapon in their passing game.
WR/TE—From the WR position, they love to spread the ball around a lot. This year they have 13 different players who have caught the ball, and no one has more than 10 in the season, but 7 have more than 5. Tejhaun Palmer (6’2 210) leads the way with 10 catches for 137 yards and 1 TD and Iverson “Strap” Hooks (5’10 175) with 9 catches for 94 yards and 2 TD’s is right behind him. I mentioned the two running backs who do a great job for them, but a real threat down the field is Fred Farrier II (6’1 180), who has 5 catches for 121 yards and leads the team with a 24.2-yard average. The other threat is at TE, where Bryce Damous (6’3 240) who is tied for 2nd on the team in receptions has 9 catches for 61 yards and a TD and Dallas Payne (6’4 240) both give them some nice targets at the TE position. Payne only has 4 catches for 26 yards, but between them they are a tough combo. Again TE’s and RB’s are utilized quite a bit in this offense.
OL—This is quite a bit of a reworked OL, but they do have some guys with experience. At Center will be Brady Wilson (6’2 300) Redshirt Junior, at RG will be Quez Yates (6’6 315) Redshirt Junior from Jones College, at LG will be Brennan Moran (6’4 300) Redshirt Senior from University of Sioux Falls, at RT will be Trey Bedosky (6’6 300) and LT will be Will Parker (6’5 310) Redshirt Sophomore transfer from Tennessee. Brady Wilson and Will Parker are the two guys that are predicted to be all conference type OL for UAB. But this is a very veteran and very large group with not one of them below 300 lbs. Coming into the season, this was a big question mark, but so far this group has performed very well.
DL—This is a multiple look defense that will change depending on the down and situation. They also have several players that because of their athletes can move from DL to LB or from LB to Safety and they will do that a lot. DT Fish McWilliams (6’1 305) is the best player in this group. He is expected to be a 1st team all AAC player. On the season he has 3 tackles and .5 a TFL. Next to him will be Michael Fairbanks (6’3 255), who bounces back and forth from a down lineman to an OLB and NT Kevin Penn (6’3 315) and Desmond Little (6’6 235), who is listed as a Edge Rusher, transfer from LSU. Little and Fairbanks have played very well for UAB so far this season. This is a veteran group; they are all Seniors apart from Little who is a Junior. Fairbanks is the leading returning tackler from last season with 43 including 1.5 sacks last year. Another guy having a big year is Kevin Penn (6’3 315) who will plug up the middle. This team will try to stuff the run up the middle to allow their LB’s to make plays behind them.
LB—The LB’s are veterans as well. Damien Miller (6’0 215) is a Redshirt Senior, Jacson Bratton (6’3 235) is a Jr Transfer from Alabama and Michael Moore (6’5 240) is a Redshirt Senior JUCO transfer. Moore is having a good start to the season with 8 tackles and 2 TFL already and Damien Miller, who is a hybrid Safety/LB is also having a good start to the season as well. I don’t love this LB core, but they are so versatile that it makes them hard to scheme against. They will move around so much that it is sometimes it is hard to tell who is playing what position, whether they are lined up as a safety or edge rusher or LB. Jackson Bratton is 1st on the team with 17 tackles, but 2.5 of those are TFL including 2 sacks. He has been a monster this year.
DB/S—They have a very good one at CB and that is Mac McWilliams (5’10 185). Colby Dempsy (5’10 185) will play the Nickelback position, while BJ Mayes (6’1 185) will be the other CB for them. McWilliams is 2nd on the team in tackles this season with 9 tackles, BJ Mayes has the only INT on the season. The safeties will be Keondre Swoopes (6’0 195) who plays the star position and is a really good one and Damien Miller (6’0 200) and Ike Rowell (6’0 195) RS Freshman, who has made a ton of plays this season. Keondre Swoopes and Mac McWilliams are the two that are the best in the backfield for this team.
Special Teams—UAB has not had to punt much this season, considering they score points in bunches, Patrick Foley is the punter who is a transfer from Arkansas. He has 2 punts this season for a 42.5-yard average as well as 1 of 55. He did not play much at Arkansas. FG Kicker is Matt Quinn who is 0-2 this season missing one from 20-29 and one from 30-39, but he was 11-12 last season with a long of 48. So he is a good one, even though he has not shown it this year, yet. Jonah Delange does the kickoffs for UAB and has 3 TB out of his 11 kickoffs, with an average of 59.5, so we might get a chance to return some. Mac McWilliams is the punt returner; he only has 1 this year for 19 yards. He also had one last year for 21 yards, but has been his only action as a returner, so the two he has returned have been good.
Kameron Shanks has done all of the Kickoff returns, including 3 returns for 58 yards for a 19.33 average, last year they used Jermain Brown, starting RB as the return man, but have moved away from him this year.
This is a multiple look offense and defense, they will try to confuse you with different looks both on offense and defense. On offense, as I stated before, they can go vertical, but similar to how Trent Dilfer played in the NFL, they are a team that wants to make the safe pass and get yards after catch. They want their athletes to get the ball in space and make plays. They are fast and shifty both at the RB and WR positions. The defense will give you multiple looks up front, including a 4-3, 3-4, but more importantly they will move players around that are already on the field, so allot of the time it is not changing players to give you different looks just moving players to different positions or different looks to confuse the QB and OL. This team has shown they can score, I think this is going to be another shootout to be honest with you.
Prediction
Cajuns 35
Blazers 32
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Re: Ragin' Dave's UAB Breakdown
Originally Posted by Swamp
