UAB’s spirited effort comes up short on road against arkansas
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 15, 2024
ARKANSAS 37, UAB 27
WHAT IT MEANS: In the bottom line world of college football it means the Blazers fall to 1-2 overall. Dig a little deeper, though, and it just might mean the Blazers turned a corner today. They put last week’s disappointment in the rearview mirror and went toe-to-toe with a SEC team on the road. Sure, there are lessons to be learned and a handful of plays could have changed the outcome. But UAB still has to carry some confidence on the plane home from Fayetteville.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: Arkansas built a 10-point lead in first 18 minutes of the second half thanks to quarterback Taylen Green, a rugged running attack and the inability of the UAB offense to extend a pair of third quarter possessions. UAB kept battling but that put the Blazers in a hole.
WHY UAB LOST: Dealing with Taylen Green put a ton of stress on the UAB defense. Offensively, the Blazers played well but some timely penalties stalled things at times. Overall, although they played well, the Blazers will look back on some little things that helped contribute to the loss. In the world of ‘What if?’, the final offensive play for UAB is a good example. Jacob Zeno had a receiver – Xavier Daisy – behind the defense on what could have been a 31-yard TD pass. But Zeno’s arm was hit while throwing, the ball fluttered through the air and fell into the arms of Arkansas’ TJ Metcalf at the 8-yard line.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: Arkansas rushed the ball 38 times for 266 yards with Ja’Quinden gaining 147 yards on 15 carries and Taylen Green finishing with 96 yards on 17 carries. The Razorbacks converted on 8 of 13 third and fourth downs and had 29 first downs.
UAB gained 354 yards on 62 offensive plays and held the football for 32 minutes and 37 seconds. The lone UAB turnover came in the final minute. UAB was penalized 10 times for 109 yards.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: Game balls are reserved for the winning team but UAB had some strong individual efforts. Jacob Zeno bounced back from a bad evening in Monroe to go 23-of-32 through the air for 235 yards with three touchdowns. Isaiah Jacobs and Lee Beebe Jr. combined for 27 carries for 105 yards and six receptions for 166 yards. Amare Thomas, Kam Shanks and Dallas Payne each caught touchdown passes. Michael Moore had a first quarter interception and added four tackles and a quarterback hurry. Safeties Sirad Bryant and Tyjon Jones combined for 14 tackles.
WHAT DID COACH DILFER SAY IN HIS POSTGAME RADIO APPEARANCE
On revealing his team’s character: I think it was really revealed Sunday after that gut-wrenching loss to Monroe. They came in and flushed that real quick and went to work on trying to win a game. You know that this this team, they're great kids, I said it last week. They competed really hard. You know, we talked all week long about trying to chase your best as many times as possible in this game. I thought they did that. Our best was a little short. They have some really good players. They have some guys who look like dudes I played against in the NFL. (Quarterback Taylen Green) is a special player. He has Cam Newton-type qualities (and) was the difference in the game. We did a lot of good things. We got better. As I told the team, two facts, number one we got better, number two our goals are still ahead of us.
On the dual threat ability of Taylen Green: That's why I mentioned the Cam Newton stuff. You know, he just can extend the play when you think you have them, finish a play that doesn't look likely to be finished. And then the design runs or the read options, it's just hard to account for him. He’s fast, strong, smart, slithery, just very difficult to defend. But, you know, we have to learn how to defend players like that. Again, I I'm very proud of this team. But at some point we gotta win a game on the road and once we do get over that hump, I think a lot of good things are ahead for us.
On injured UAB receiver Brandon Buckhaulter: Yeah, he's doing good. He's going to get some medical tests right now at the hospital. I called his uncle and texted his Mom from the field. He was moving his arms, he was talking, so it was a good sign on the field. And now he's just going through some tests in the hospital and hopefully joins us on the plane.
On penalties: I want to look at them (on the film). On the field, I did not feel like we were culpable of some of those. You know, we have iPads now, so you can see them post-play. Those were, at best, questionable calls. It was tough playing this team and the other thing that was going on. So that was difficult. I'm sure the fans watching on TV saw the same thing we did on the iPad. But we will address it as a team. We want to be more disciplined, something we’ve talked about since day one. We got to control what we control.
On first offensive drive of the game: Yeah, you know, we felt like we had a really good plan. We addressed our issues offensively this week. We put them more in the players’ hands, instead of trying to manipulate everything offensively. I thought Alex Mortensen and his staff had a great week of preparation. The players really responded, really converted some key opportunities, ran the ball well, did some good things. It's just stuff we got to build off of. We got to make sure, as we go into conference play, that we know exactly who we are offensively and that'll kind of give us the freedom and looseness to play our best ball.
On Jacob Zeno: Jacob played great. You know this is two SEC environments in two years where he's been clearly one of the better players on the field. He's played with great poise. The last touchdown pass (to Dallas Payne), I mean, was phenomenal. Progression, poise in the pocket. And the last one, he was going to throw a touchdown on the last (UAB offensive) play of the game and 40 (Landon Jackson) who's got unique length (and) will play on Sundays for a long time, gets those ‘Go-go Gadget’ arms up and tipped it. Tough break because that would have been nice to score a touchdown there and maybe get a chance to get an onside kick and have a chance to tie this thing up and take it overtime.
On the upcoming bye week: We are extremely beat up, today even more. We had guys in the game today playing key roles and not getting a lot of reps during the week. So we need to get a lot of rest. We'll work on getting better too, but there's other ways of getting better instead of just going and banging each other up. Our young guys need to get better. We're going to handle the bye week a little differently that we did last year and hopefully be a much better team by the time we play Navy and hopefully get to do something special in front of our home crowd.
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: Like Dilfer said, the next assignment is to get healthier and find ways to improve during the much-needed bye week. The Blazers then return to Protective Stadium for the AAC opener against Navy. Kickoff time has yet to be determined for that game.