The prominence of the UAB football program is built on the back of Birmingham and its people and is something not easily forgotten by the administration and its head coach.
A generous effort from the UAB fanbase helped to revive the program following its initial death and in turn the program continues to give back by honoring those who also need a hand in their own battles against childhood diseases.
The Blazers finish their season-opening eight-week run with the fifth-annual Children’s Harbor game against Rice, Saturday, Oct. 23, at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CST on ESPN+.
RELATED: Grayson Cash named C-USA Special Teams Player of the Week
RELATED: Grayson Cash punt block return powers UAB to 34-0 win at Southern Miss
UAB (5-2, 3-0 C-USA) owns a 6-3 lead in the series and is 4-0 under head coach Bill Clark. The Owls started the season 0-3 but have won two of their last three games heading into the matchup with the Blazers.
“Coach (Mike) Bloomgren has done a really good job there and coming off a tough loss against a good UTSA team,” Clark said. “For us, we are not looking at records or what happened in the last game. We know that Rice is very well-coached.”
Clark and Bloomgren are quite familiar with one another, dating back to the late 1990s and early 2000s when the latter was a graduate assistant at Alabama.
While Clark was the head coach at Prattville, he and Bloomgren struck up a friendship as the Crimson Tide frequently recruited Clark’s players, such as current UAB defensive line coach Kyle Tatum. Bloomgren spent time in the NFL and six years at Stanford before taking over the Rice program in 2018.
“Coach Bloomgren and I go back a long way,” Clark said. “They do a lot of things offensively and defensively. They are probably one of the toughest teams in our league to prepare for. Their offense has about 40 different formations and defensively they are very multiple and solid in the special teams.”
Despite offering multiple looks and schemes for opposing teams, Rice is ranked 121st in total offense (309.7 ypg), 126th in scoring offense (16 ppg) and defense (39.7 ppg), and 107th in total defense (438 ypg). The Blazers have ramped up their defensive prowess in their last two outings and have an offense capable of taking advantage of opponent mistakes.
There is also the added motivation of playing in the annual Children’s Harbor game for homecoming. UAB is 4-0 in those games, including a last-second game-saving field-goal block against Louisiana Tech in 2017 and a fourth-quarter rally against North Texas in 2018
“It’s a big game this week, it’s homecoming for us,” Clark said. “As I told our players today, homecoming is not what you may think of. This is not where you pick some opponent to go beat. We’ve played some of our toughest opponents that have been this Children’s Harbor game.”
“This game is probably one of my favorite things that we’ve done at UAB,” he added. “You’re talking about some really special things – bringing our program back, the new stadium, the new facilities – all of the things that have happened here, this stands out to me as one of my favorite things that we do.”
This year’s event marks the fifth-annual Children’s Harbor game and the program recently unveiled a banner above the practice field at the UAB Football Operations Center with the names of more than 50 children the Blazers have represented on the back of their alternate grey and lime homecoming uniforms.
It’s inarguably one of the best new traditions in college football and speaks to the renaissance the UAB program has enjoyed since it was reinstated more than six years ago. The Blazers are an ever-evolving program and the importance of the Children’s Harbor game is not lost on the team.
“We talk a lot about being 1-0,” Clark said. “I see that when I’m speaking and the guys are giving me head nods. Every game is important and now we add the Children’s Harbor element this week.”
“To me, when we start talking about playing for somebody other than ourselves, this is really what it is all about,” he added. “We are a product of people believing in us and fighting to bring us back. With this game, we are playing for the names on our back, even more so than the name on the front. It’s been something that our guys have embraced.”