Oct. 29, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB football team continued its preparations on Wednesday afternoon for this weekend's contest at Southern Miss. The Blazers worked out for over two hours in shoulder pads and helmets, finalizing details for Saturday's game plan, among other things.

Overall, UAB head coach Neil Callaway seemed pleased after wrapping up Wednesday's practice.

"It was a good day," Callaway said. "We got a little more done on Southern Miss today. The guys worked hard and did a good job. They seem to be grasping what we are trying to do."

The afternoon's practice was an improvement from Tuesday's session, according to Callaway.

"We worked hard yesterday, but we just didn't seem to have as much carry over as I would like to have coming off last week," Callaway said. "We practiced last Wednesday and Thursday and worked on Southern Miss stuff but it seemed to take them a while to get back into it."

The Blazers are playing their first game since capturing a 23-21 victory over Marshall on Oct. 18, which was the Thundering Herd's first loss in Conference USA play. After watching Marshall defeat Houston on national television on Tuesday night (37-23), Callaway feels his team can learn a valuable lesson.

"Marshall came out ready to play and played well," Callaway said. "Houston wasn't ready to play, got behind and couldn't catch up, so I feel like it was a lesson learned both ways."

Southern Miss enters Saturday's game with a 2-6 overall mark and is 0-4 in league play. The Golden Eagles are coming off a 36-30 loss last Saturday at Memphis, which marked their fifth consecutive setback entering the UAB game.

UAB and Southern Miss will kick off on Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT and will be televised live by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS). Saturday's game will also be carried on the Blazers ISP Sports Network on WWMM 100.5 FM radio.