2021 G5 Preview: UAB Just Keeps Winning
The Blazers have built an absurdly strong and consistent program.
ICYMI: This is a part of The Outside Zone’s full 2021 G5 preview series, which last looked at SMU. You can find a master list for all of the previews here.
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Bill Clark’s UAB is one of the most impressive programs in college football. I don’t expect I need to give a ton of background on that. The Blazers have returned from the dead, won at least 61 percent of their games in the four seasons since, and claimed the first two conference titles in program history during that stretch.
UAB nabbed its second conference title in 2020 with a 22-13 win over Marshall, returns 12 super seniors and 16 starters from that group. Basically the entire staff returns, as does the starting quarterback, the top two tacklers, three of four top receivers and a halfback that averaged 9.3 yards per carry as a heavily contributing No. 2 ball carrier.
I mean, what more can be said about the job Clark has done here? UAB looks like a conference title favorite once again, the culture is as strong as ever, there’s a distinct ideology here that permeates throughout the program and that every play understands, and UAB shows no signs of slowing down. The recruiting isn’t incredible, but it’s never been and Clark has become as anyone at picking and choosing pieces that fit out of the transfer portal.
This is a difficult team to project every year because it never looks as good as it actually is on paper, but I suppose at some point, that goes all the way around, and makes for a spectacularly easy projection: UAB is going to overachieve relative to its talent level, probably losing to Georgia, Liberty and Tulane but never falling out the game against any conference foe, while having the superior line play needed to pull out close games. I’d be stunned if it loses more than one conference matchup and almost as stunned if it isn’t representing the West once again in the C-USA title game, even with Marshall and UTSA on the schedule.
As for the team itself, I’m really not going to do a ton of breakdown on specific players, because I’m a bit more interested in trying to figure out exactly how UAB is doing this. Quarterback Tyler Johnston III is fine, not great; halfback DeWayne McBride will be excellent in replacing Spencer Brown, a new No. 1 receiver will emerge and star; an offensive line with four starters back will continue to reset the line of scrimmage on standard zone looks; the defense will be as sturdy as they come, allowing essentially no big plays and forcing opponents to play efficiently and beat them all the way down the field, which is always hard to do against one of the conference’s best defensive lines. A good secondary has four starters back, the defense will start eight seniors, on the whole, breaking only for a trio of juniors – two of which started last season.
That pretty much covers the personnel stuff you need to know here. It’s a UAB team, it will continue to be a UAB team for as long as Clark is in town.
What makes a UAB team, though?
Well, I’ve alluded to it already, but it’s really pretty simple. UAB absolutely whoops ass in the trenches, on both sides of the ball, almost regardless of opponent. The Blazers know that they can piece together skill corps out of high potential, low floor recruits and transfer portal guys because the play up front will always be aces. There’s very little investment or interest in having the C-USA’s best quarterback, or wide receivers, or anything like that. UAB just wants the most cohesive lines for zone running and disrupting whatever the offense is doing, and it works every single year.
Just look at this. Outside zone on second-and-medium, and you have three blockers well into the second-level by the time the halfback hits the line of scrimmage. There’s not a line that moves as one unit anywhere near as well as UAB’s in the C-USA and there are only a few teams in the country that can match this. It’s part of what made Coastal Carolina and BYU so good last year, and it’s been UAB’s recipe for the entire Clark era. Getting to this point is a whole lot easier said than done, but I don’t see it changing any time soon, so C-USA teams are just going to keep struggling with it.
The defensive line does the same thing. It resets the line of scrimmage, usually well into the backfield, against both the run and the pass. UAB is smart with when it decides to bring pressure to help the line, but for the most part, this is just a well-coached group that focuses on disrupting line play rather than creating havoc and hunting TFLs.
It all ties back into the idea of forcing efficiency. UAB’s offense is going to force your defense to hold up against consistently strong line play, rarely selling out to create a big gain because it knows it can generate consistent yardage with its advantage up front. The defense is operating under the same assumption, taking away the big plays and making offenses prove that they can win short-yardage battles and get any sort of push up front to move the ball consistently, even when the quarterback only has a few seconds, and the running back is operating behind a line that started the play a yard into their own backfield, because they can’t manage the UAB tackles. It’s a similar principle to that of the triple option teams, UAB is just doing it with bigger linemen and a more standard rushing attack.
All of this, though, is about ball control, dominance in the trenches and the idea that UAB will be able to win games like that better than opponents that aren’t used to it. And sure enough, it pays off every single season.