2017
UAB
College Football
Betting Preview
Schedule
After two years away, UAB football is back and unsurprisingly, the expectations are minimal. Bill Clark is still the head coach after taking the team to a 6-6 record back in 2014. A.J. Erdely looks set to start as the quarterback for the Blazers and he at least has experience. He was recruited by Middle Tennessee and made some appearances three years ago, but most recently played for Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2015. There isn’t much to go off, but he managed to go 7-of-10 for 108 yards in the spring Game and looked the part.
Elsewhere, Collin Lisa is still with the team and should be a top receiver, although he only had one catch back in 2014. Running back is expected to be a committee as James Noble won the job in the spring, yet is listed at just 5-foot-7 and 180 pounds so he probably won’t be force-fed the ball with Kalin Heath also an option. The biggest news early was that Clark went out and signed Four new offensive linemen and the hope is that a couple of them can turn into solid blockers.
Defensively, Shaq Jones is still around after being the team’s third-best tackler in 2014 and fellow returnee Tevin Crews joins him at linebacker. again, that was a few years ago so it’s a wonder what that means. Teko Powell is set to make a difference on the line as he spent multiple seasons at Illinois before missing 2015 due to injury. The secondary is filtered with transfers from lower colleges and will be a work-in-progress, especially with MTSU and LA. Tech on the Schedule in early October. This team won six Games in 2014, but it’s hard to project what these guys can do after a two-year hiatus.
The Blazers will get a couple early opportunities for non-Conference wins and would get some hope if they could challenge both Ball State and North Texas. As long as they have some home advantage, there will be two late-season opportunities against Rice and UTEP in November. The odds are long for UAB at +17500 (at 5Dimes Sportsbook) to win the conference, but it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if this team eked out two or three wins (over/under at 2.5). The Blazers will have the opportunity to get some upsets in addition to early non-Conference home Games against Alabama A&M (FCS) and Coastal Carolina (first year in FBS) so it’s not entirely crazy to take the over on UAB.
2017 UAB Blazers Football Schedule
Sept. 2 vs. Alabama A&M
Sept. 9 at Ball State
Sept. 16 vs. Coastal Carolina
Sept. 23 at North Texas
Oct. 7 vs. Louisiana Tech
Oct. 14 vs. Middle Tennessee
Oct. 21 at Charlotte
Oct. 28 at Southern Miss
Nov. 4 vs. Rice
Nov. 11 at UTSA
Nov. 18 at Florida
Nov. 25 vs. UTEP