UAB Blazers:
UAB’s players rallied around former offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent when Bill Clark announced that he was stepping down. The athletic department went in a different direction, though, as Super Bowl champ and then-high school coach Trent Dilfer took over. Dilfer went 44-10 at Lipscomb Academy in Tennessee before stepping up to the college ranks, where the Blazers lost twice as many games as they won.
Everybody was learning on the job for UAB last season, as OC Alex Mortensen and DC Sione Ta’ufo’ou were both first-time FBS play-callers. Ta’ufo’ou was the DC for Dilfer at Lipscomb, while Mortensen was on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama.
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Offense
Everything starts with a good QB and UAB has that. Jacob Zeno was second to Bo Nix in completion percentage at 73.6%. He made a couple too many bad decisions with nine interceptions and four fumbles lost, but he was an accurate passer in the first year of this offense. In fact, I’m surprised that UAB had the play distribution that they did with 426 runs and 427 pass attempts given Zeno’s penchant for completions.
We’ll see if that changes this year because leading rusher Jermaine Brown Jr. took his 803 yards and team-high 12 touchdowns with him after exhausting his eligibility. Leading receiver Tejhaun Palmer is trying to make it with the Arizona Cardinals. He was the big-play threat with over 18 yards per catch. This looks like a dink-and-dunk offense without much explosiveness.
Defense
The Blazers struggled to stop the run, as they allowed 24 rushes of 20+ yards, which was tied for 118th in the nation. In fact, they were 125th in yards per carry allowed and were one of eight teams to allow at least 30 rushing touchdowns. To make matters worse, they ranked 131st out of 133 FBS teams in third-down defense. They couldn’t get off the field without a turnover.
They did have 21 of those, though, and did get bigger up front through the transfer portal. That being said, depth was a huge issue in so many ways, as the mass exodus with Clark and Vincent not being associated with the program hurt.
Outlook
As much as I don’t love this team on paper, the schedule is fairly manageable and that’s why their win total is 6.5. I have them with 6.1 wins and a bowl game would be a huge accomplishment for Dilfer and the staff in Year 2. If Zeno improves and the defense shows any improvement, going over is possible, but I truly don’t see seven wins.
Pick: Under 6.5 Wins
