Oct. 17, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB football team returns to Legion Field Saturday, this time in its Homecoming Game against the Marshall Thundering Herd.

The Conference USA contest will kick off at 3:00 p.m. CDT.

The Blazers (1-6, 0-3 C-USA) are hungry for a win, having dropped their past three games, including last week's 45-20 decision at Houston after they led 20-3 at halftime. In their last home game, UAB fell in a 33-30 thriller as the Tigers got a last-second field goal to claim the win in the "Battle for the Bones."

Marshall (3-3, 2-0 C-USA) comes to Birmingham with a 2-0 mark in league play for the first time. The Herd has posted C-USA wins over Memphis (17-16) and Southern Miss (34-27). Marshall was idle last weekend after falling to Cincinnati Oct. 3 in its most recent action, 33-10.

The Thundering Herd ranks No. 11 in Conference USA in total offense (327.0 ypg) and ninth in total defense (426.8 ypg). UAB, meanwhile, has averaged 381.6 yards to rank No. 6 in the league in offense while ranking in 11th in defense at 473.9.

Quarterback Joe Webb continues to lead the Blazer offense and has had an outstanding season to date. The 6-4, 220-pound junior has averaged 299.6 yards in total offense per game and ranks No. 11 nationally in that category.

He has passed for 1,509 yards and eight touchdowns. His 588 rushing yards are the third-highest total in the nation among quarterbacks. Webb needs only 112 yards to break the Conference USA single-season record for quarterback rushing.

Running back Darius Marshall paces the Herd in rushing with 481 yards and four touchdowns. Darius Passmore is averaging 93 receiving yards per contest to rank No. 5 in the conference.

Mistakes, both penalties and turnovers, have hampered the Blazers significantly in the past two games.

"We have to learn about adversity and how to handle it better," said UAB head coach Neil Callaway. "It's no different than life. You are going to have adversity your whole life in whatever you do. How you deal with and overcome adversity is going to determine how successful you are going to be. It's the same thing with this football team.

"When things are not going well, we have to keep fighting and keep scrapping to do things to win football games.

"We have to make every play we can make on both sides of the ball," said Callaway. "We don't need to take anything for granted. We have to score when we have opportunities to score, and just make the plays that are there. We have to expect to win, prepare to win and then go win."

Marshall and UAB have played three times with the Herd winning all three but none by more than a touchdown. Last year's meeting -- the season finale for both teams - ended in a 46-39 Marshall victory at Huntington. The Blazers piled up 496 yards of offense in the loss.

Saturday's game will be carried on the Blazers ISP Sports Network. It can be heard locally on WWMM 100.5 FM radio in Birmingham.