Sept. 7, 2009

Coach Callaway Press Conference

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - With the first week of the 2009 football season in the books, UAB head coach Neil Callaway and three members of the football team attended Monday's media luncheon to recap the Blazers' 44-24 season-opening win over Rice this past Saturday and look forward to their upcoming matchup with SMU.

Callaway was accompanied by sophomore safety Chase Daniel, redshirt freshman quarterback David Isabelle and junior defensive end Bryant Turner at the weekly luncheon.

The Blazers moved to 1-0 on the year with a 44-24 route of Rice this past Saturday. Callaway saw many positives in the win, however, he noticed some things that the Blazers have to continue to get better at.

"We're very happy with the win," said Callaway. "We're excited for the players, the staff and the University. At the same time, I think there were a lot of things we can learn from.

"The most disappointing thing to me was the kicking game. Nobody has spent as much time on the kicking game as we have, but I thought we were poor in that area as far as covering kicks and the return game.

"We also had four false start penalties, offensively, and two offsides, defensively, which are inexcusable. We had a couple issues defensively getting the right personnel in the game, and offensively at the end of the game, we couldn't get lined up right, had to call a timeout, and then got called for a delay of game penalty."

UAB enjoyed the win for a brief moment and is now onto focusing on the upcoming task at hand, which is the Blazers' second straight Conference USA game on Saturday when they host SMU. The Mustangs will enter Legion Field with a 1-0 mark after topping Stephen F. Austin, 31-23, this past Saturday.

"Saturday's win is behind us," said Callaway. "We'll move on to the next game. It's a home game again and another conference game. I think you would prefer not to open with conference games so you have a chance to get some of the kinks worked out, but we're excited about playing SMU at home at Legion Field."

UAB and SMU will go face off on Saturday, with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m. CT at Legion Field. The UAB/SMU game will be carried on the Blazers ISP Sports Network and can be heard in the Birmingham area on flagship station WUHT-FM 107.7. The pregame show will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Head Coach Neil Callaway
On the upcoming game with SMU:
"Saturday's win is behind us. We'll move on to the next game. It's a home game again and another conference game. I think you would prefer not to open with conference games so you have a chance to get some of the kinks worked out, but we're excited about playing SMU at home at Legion Field."

"SMU has a four-wideout offense where they throw the ball a good bit. They have a running back (Shawnbrey McNeal) that transferred from Miami who has made them a little more potent, offensively. June (Jones) does a great job. They're always going to be demanding on you, defensively. Our defense is going to have quite a challenge.

"Looking at their defense, they've changed gears. They've gone from a four-man front to primarily a three-man front. They're bringing more pressure. The first thing I noticed when I turned on the film was their defense was flying around and swarming to the football."

On Saturday's win over Rice:
"We're very happy with the win. We're excited for the players, the staff and the University. At the same time, I think there were a lot of things we can learn from. The most disappointing thing to me was the kicking game. Nobody has spent as much time on the kicking game as we have, but I thought we were poor in that area as far as covering kicks and the return game.

"We also had four false start penalties, offensively, and two offsides, defensively, which are inexcusable. We had a couple issues defensively getting the right personnel in the game, and offensively at the end of the game, we couldn't get lined up right, had to call a timeout, and then got called for a delay of game penalty."

On defensive stands in the first quarter against Rice:
"They go down there and knock on the door twice. Bryant Turner blocks a field goal, which was huge, and the next series down there, Chase Daniel intercepts a pass to keep them out of the end zone. Starting off like that defensively gave us a lot of momentum and really got us going.

"Just because someone gets in the red zone doesn't mean they have to score. I think it was huge for our defense to stop them from scoring. It felt like a big momentum shift to me when we blocked that field goal. Our first drive offensively, we were three and out, had a bad snap on the punt and a bad punt. But, defensively, we stepped up and answered the bell."

On Joe Webb being named C-USA Offensive Player of the Week:
"I think it's a great honor for Joe. Obviously, he's a great athlete, a great guy and does a lot for this football team. We ask a lot out of him, and he responds. I'm not only happy and proud of him for the type of football player he is but also for the type of young man he is. He's a first class guy, and we're extremely happy for him. He's very deserving."

On finding more offensive weapons:
"It was a good start for Joe. He wound up with over 400 yards of total offense. We still have to get better at the running back spot to help him. If we can do that, I think we'll be a hard offense to deal with. But if we continue to rely on Joe Webb for everything, people can do things to shut that down."

On the contributions of newcomers:
"I'm happy that a lot of them played well. Hiram Atwater at safety made some plays. Darrion Wilson made some plays as did Derek Slaughter and Patrick Bastien. There were a lot guys defensively that contributed. Offensively, Nick Adams had a big play on the long catch, but he had one heck of a block, too, on a run play that was probably the highlight of the game for me. So the new guys contributed well, and hopefully we'll continue to get better and better."

On the confidence level of his team:
"I certainly think Saturday's win helped. Going back to last year, we kind of did some things late to get on a roll, so hopefully we're continuing on from that. I think the confidence of this football team right now is pretty good, but we better be careful because you're only as good as your last outing. Saturday's game is over, and we have to get ready for the next one."

Sophomore Safety Chase Daniel
On the performance of the defense in UAB's 44-24 win over Rice:
"I think our defense did really good, better than people expected. We are better than we were last year. We were able to make some plays and force some turnovers that came at the right time. We made some big stops at key times in the game and helped the team get a win."

On UAB turning the corner this year and having a successful season:
"I feel good about this year. The things that didn't happen for us last year, which we were so close to but couldn't quite get there, are happening for us this year."

On enjoying the win over Rice, but also looking forward to SMU:
"You have to enjoy the moment for a day or so, then move on. We can't keep looking back on the win over Rice, we have to keep looking forward. We know that we have another game right ahead of us and we have to prepare for that game. Anything can happen, so we always need to be prepared."

On the win over Rice giving the team confidence heading into Saturday's game versus SMU:
"It helped with our confidence and momentum heading into another conference game on Saturday. We know that we can win. We are excited about the upcoming game and hopefully getting another win."

Junior DE Bryant Turner
On winning their first game:
"We started off pretty good. It is a confidence booster, but people should not be content. I think that getting content with just one win would not be smart. Hopefully we come to practice tomorrow, practice hard and try to keep the wins coming."

On how the coaches help prevent the team from being content:
"They tell us to never settle for average and always try to do better. Don't be satisfied with making one play; try to keep making more plays. It's just little stuff like that and staying on your teammates. Your teammates are good players, but you know they can do better, so we stay on each other to keep ourselves from flat lining."

On how it could be possible to be content after just one win:
"I guess it could happen because after all of the hard work during the summer, and all of the hard work during camp, we got the win over Rice. The hard work paid off and we felt good. We can't be content though because we have a lot of games left to play."

On how starting off the season 1-0 is different than 0-1, and how they could see that carry over to more fan support:
"Hopefully it will give us more fan support. Maybe with more wins, we'll have more fans come to our games. Also, we are starting traditions, like we're starting to sing the fight song after home wins."