After having their program ripped away from them violently after becoming bowl eligible for the first time in years, UAB fans watched as university president Ray Watts declared their home town program dead on the scene.
There was confusion, there was anger, there were tears, but most of all there was rebellion. The fans, alumni, and community of Birmingham absolutely refused to sit by and watch the UAB football program be buried alive after showing the first signs of life in years.
So what did they do? They rallied, they protested, they had votes of no confidence in Watts passed by the alumni, faculty, and students, and most importantly they put their money where their mouth is. So with all that in mind, it seems like the decision to bring the programs back was pretty simple.
Pretty awesome to see, right? UAB fans deserved that after what they have been through over the past several months.
When Watts passed the decision to terminate the football, bowling, and rifle programs, he cited financial reasons as why it had to be done. Well, as off this week UAB supporters and boosters have put together almost $30 million dollars together to show that money isn’t the issue.
Despite Watts announcing that the terminated programs were in the process of being reinstated the way he ducked and dodged questions like Floyd Mayweather has still left many people uneasy. Like how we were never given a straight answer on WHEN exactly the football team would take the field again, or how there are still monetary thresholds put in place that must be met going forward.
How about when Watts made the comment during his open remarks that the studies done by CarrSports Consulting and CSS were “apples to apples” when it came to the findings despite that not being the case at all? It was things like that that continued to infuriate those watching and UAB supporters.
Watts essentially tried to take credit for something that could have completely been avoid months ago, and still just doesn’t seem to understand that he will never be able to dig himself out of the proverbial hole that he has dug for himself.
So where does the UAB football program go from here? Your roster from this past season has scattered all over the country to various programs due to the actions of Watts, but you still do have head coach Bill Clark ready to start picking up the pieces and putting them back together.
There are several hoops to jump through when it comes to building a roster completely from scratch, so it has me wondering if those hoping for UAB football in 2016 is little ambitious at this point.
The first hurdle is being able to put together a coaching staff top to bottom to the specifications of Bill Clark. Several of the coaches from last year’s staff have naturally moved on to new jobs, so they will have to be replaced. Then you have to completely rebuild the roster from scratch, which will be in uphill battle in itself as now you will have to battle the elephant in the room on the recruiting trail.
All of these wounds were self inflicted by Ray Watts when he decided to prematurely terminate the programs rather than seeking other solutions before dropping the hammer. At this point unfortunately, Clark and whoever makes up his staff will have to pay for Watts’ previous transgressions, but I’m sure they will tell that they are just fortunate to have the program back at this point.
I am anxious to see how Coach Clark goes about rebuilding the fallen program of Birmingham, and I am excited to see what is done with the facilities since pledges have been made and will be made to upgrade them in the future.
One this is for sure, today will not only go down as a victory for UAB football and UAB athletics, it will go does a victory for the entire city of Birmingham.
There is a long rebuilding project ahead for the Blazers going forward, but with Bill Clark at the helm and support stronger now more than ever, I am very optimistic that they will eventually rise from the ashes.
Go Blazers!
#FREEUAB