Oct. 27, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Coming off its first open date of the season, the UAB football team returns to action this week with a Conference USA matchup at Southern Miss.

The Blazers travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., to take on the Golden Eagles on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT in a contest that will be televised by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS).

On Monday, UAB head coach Neil Callaway previewed the upcoming game at his weekly media luncheon.

"We are coming off an open week, which I think was much needed and much appreciated not only by the players but by the coaches," Callaway said. "UAB has never beaten Southern Miss. It's a game we would like to win. We have a tremendous amount of respect for their program and what they've done."

UAB and Southern Miss enter Saturday's game with identical 2-6 records. The Blazers are coming off their first C-USA victory Oct. 18 against Marshall to improve to 1-3 in conference play, while the Golden Eagles are in search of their first league win at 0-4.

In UAB's 23-21 win over Marshall, quarterback Joe Webb posted 352 yards of total offense. His 135 yards on the ground moved him into first place on the C-USA chart for single-season rushing by a quarterback with 723 yards. Webb's performance helped the Blazers overcome a 14-2 deficit against the Thundering Herd.

"It was good to win a ball game," Callaway said. "We need to still correct some mistakes. Turnovers are still an issue to me. We have to do a better job with that. I was proud to see how the guys competed to the end. We fought through some adversity and were able to win the football game."

Southern Miss has lost five consecutive games, but four of those losses have come by a touchdown or less. The Golden Eagles suffered a 36-30 setback Saturday at Memphis.

UAB and Southern Miss have met eight times with the Golden Eagles winning each of the previous meetings. The first seven contests in the series were decided by nine points or fewer before Southern Miss won last year's affair, 37-7, in Birmingham.

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.

Head Coach Neil Callaway

Opening Statement
"We are coming off an open week, which I think was much needed and much appreciated not only by the players but by the coaches. We've been going at it for quite some time now. Just to get the down time and get away a little bit, it was very nice. It allowed us as coaches to go recruiting on Thursday and Friday to get a leg up on that. It was good to have Saturday off and relax a little bit with the grind that we've been through."

On Southern Miss
"I think their record is not where they want it to be. I really don't know why. They've got some very good players. Their tailback is an outstanding running back. I thought going into the league this year he was the best returning guy. They have an outstanding linebacker, who I think won defensive player of the year in Conference USA last year. You scratch your head and ask yourself why their record is where it is. You see them still making plays. I've been impressed with how hard they play. The fact that they play hard to the end impresses me.

"It's a game in which UAB has never beaten Southern Miss. It's a game we would like to win, obviously, but it's a game where we understand what we are going against. We have a tremendous amount of respect for their program and what they've done. But like I told our players, to me, it's all about us. It's how we play and what we do, whether we win or lose."

On coming off a bye week
"I think we played hard and have had several hard fought ball games. The last three really were all games that were emotional for us. To be able to get the off week was good. We worked last week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All were short. We wanted to do enough to stay sharp, but we did want to get our rest and get our bodies feeling better."

On coming from behind against Marshall
"The Marshall game was a long time ago. I may not remember everything. We've watched a lot of film since then. But it was good to win a ball game. We need to still correct some mistakes. Turnovers are still an issue to me. We have to do a better job with that. I was proud to see how the guys competed to the end. We fought through some adversity and were able to win the football game."

On Southern Miss' struggles
"Looking at them offensively, you have to wonder why they aren't winning more ball games. I think their receiving corps is very good, including the tight end. They have the best running back in the league. Defensively, they have done a good job. I'm sitting there watching film and wondering why have they not won any more ball games than they have, because they are very impressive on film."

On UAB's improving defense
"We've made a lot of progress, obviously, from the first two games where I didn't think we could stop anybody. We are getting to a point now where we shut Marshall down in the second half. We've made a lot of improvement all the way around. We are playing a lot of freshmen, and I think they have gotten better. The older guys like Matt Taylor and Joe Henderson have stepped up and taken on leadership roles, saying we don't want to lose any more ball games. That's been a big factor also."

On being 0-8 against Southern Miss
"We've talked about. We'd certainly like to beat Southern Miss at some point in time. I'd just assume it would be this year."

Senior Safety Matt Taylor

On the improvement of the defense from the beginning of the season to now
"We've taken it as a challenge. It was a hit to our heart that people thought that we couldn't stop anybody, that we weren't big enough or strong enough. We have stepped up, especially the seniors, to make it our motivation to hold teams. We've been making it our goal to gang tackle and fly to the ball. We take it one play at a time and one game at a time to get that win."

On the hopes of beating Southern Miss for the first time in UAB history
"It would be great to beat Southern Miss. It's my fifth year here, and we haven't beaten them yet. It would be great for me, as a senior, to beat Southern Miss before I leave. It would be another accomplishment for us."

On the matchup between UAB and Southern Miss
"If you look at it on paper, it's pretty much even between the two teams. It could go either way. It depends on who shows up and who doesn't. It's going to be a battle of who wants it the most. It's a rivalry game, so they are going to prepare well the rest of this week, and we're going to work hard, too. Hopefully, we can come out with that win."

Freshman Linebacker Drew Luker

On whether the bye week came at a good time this past weekend
"I think it came at a perfect time. Like Coach Callaway said, we had three straight games that were really emotional games in Memphis, Houston and Marshall. The bye week came at a good time for us so that we could rest our minds and our bodies too."

On the possibility of losing momentum with a bye week after the Marshall win
"I don't think that we've lost any momentum. We have gotten a chance to rest our minds and bodies, and I think that will really help us. We got a chance to rest, and now we are ready to go."

On how important a win over Southern Miss would be
"It would be good for us to get a win over them, especially since we've never beaten them before. They are definitely going to be ready to play, and we're going to be ready to come out and play our hardest too."

Sophomore running back Justin Brooks

On the importance of the bye week
"The bye week was very, very important to us. We were coming off that win against Marshall, and we had expended a lot of energy in the past three games. We needed to rest as a team, both the offense and defense, to be able to perform our best for Southern Miss."

On the offense feeling less pressure since the defense has been playing better
"With the defense playing much better than they were in the beginning of the season, it allows the offense to be more consistent in what we do as far as not being so one-dimensional. We can be more balanced now, which allows bigger plays both running and passing. The defense is playing great, and that is letting us be more balanced and successful lately."