UAB's Story Is A Tragedy

They were just starting to become respectable.

They finished the regular season with a 6-6 mark, good enough for their first bowl bid since 2004, when they finished 7-4 through eleven games.

They played C-USA champion Marshall down to the wire at Legion Field, and turned in dominant wins over conference opponents North Texas and Southern Miss by a combined score of 101-45.

Sophomore tailback Jordan Howard finished second in the C-USA in rushing with 1587 yards and 13 touchdowns, leading the way for offensive production of 431 yards and 33 points per game.

For the first time in over ten years, UAB football was on the rise.

First year head coach Bill Clark, whose swift, astronomical rise through the coaching ranks landed him an FBS job not two years after being the defensive coordinator at South Alabama, had brought a renewed sense of energy and optimism to the Blazers’ program that had been absent for a decade.

Clark believed in his players, and they believed in him. It showed on the field, as the Blazers displayed the most toughness they had shown in recent memory.

Between 2005 and 2013, UAB never had a better season than 5-6. The Blazers went 2-10 and 3-9 more than once, and had nothing more to show from its football program than Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White.

But this year was different. UAB was competitive in its conference, and eligible for postseason play. The Blazers were on the rise, things were going to be different.

And the reward for players and coaches?

The green and gold rug being pulled from under their feet by school president Ray Watts and the University of Alabama Board of Trustees.

As most of the nation has been swept in the race for the College Football Playoff, one team is being completely dismantled and tossed aside.

A team who came together in a hopeless situation, under the lights of a decaying Legion Field, is now witnessing firsthand the demolition of the cause that assembled it to begin with.

And it’s sad.

There’s really nothing else that needs to be said about this horrible set of circumstances. What we’re witnessing in Birmingham, Alabama is nothing short of tragic.

And frankly, it’s not fair.

It isn’t fair to the players and the coaches who committed to the UAB football program in an attempt to make it better place than how they found it.

It isn’t fair to those 15,000 fans who braved the rotting corpse of Legion Field to see their Blazers do battle.

It’s not fair that this team, bowl eligible for the first time in over ten years, will not be able to participate in any postseason play. No bowl games want to get wrapped up in the controversy.

What we’re witnessing appears to be the culmination of twenty years’ worth of attempts by Alabama’s board of trustees to squash any football program at UAB.

In the past, the board (which includes Paul Bryant Jr., son of legendary Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant) has stonewalled attempts for the Blazers to cease playing in Legion Field, and they even prevented UAB from hiring Jimbo Fisher.

It’s a well-documented fact that the University of Alabama Board of Trustees has made it a nightmare for UAB to run a football program. And now, it seems, they’ve finally gotten their wish.

No more money flowing into a football program that is “not sustainable.”

The board of trustees is probably the most hated group of people in the state of Alabama right now, and Ray Watts isn’t viewed in a much more positive light.

Photo courtesy of AL.com

UAB football was shut down because as Watts claims, it was costing too much and not bringing in enough revenue. But do you know what does bring in revenue?

Bowl appearances. Do you know what could bring in more revenue?

Two bowl appearances in a row. And as the Blazers continue to make bowl games under Bill Clark, maybe even win a couple of them, a few more big-name recruits start taking a second look at UAB.

As the overall level of talent increases and the team improves, attendance numbers (or in financial terms, ticket sales) rise. Cha-ching, cha-ching, right?

And by all appearances, Clark had his Blazers headed in that direction. Who knows what would’ve happened in the next two to three years?

It could’ve been exactly the same as the past decade, but then again, what if it wasn’t?

Sadly, all we can do now is play the “what if” game.

There just had to be another way.

Call up former and current donors. Beg if you have to. I’m sure that through all of the donors and former athletes, president Watts could have scrounged up enough money to keep the program afloat.

He should have started by approaching Don Hire and Jimmy Filler, two very generous supporters of UAB who would have gladly done all they could to keep UAB football alive.

But he didn’t, and UAB football is dead.

You can’t help but feel sorry for those affected by this termination. Yes, the decision made was grounded in financial principle, but real human lives were greatly affected by one of the saddest stories in FBS history.

And they were headed bowling. Did it have to happen now?