UAB improves without McGee

FAYETTEVILLE -- When Garrick McGee left his offensive coordinator's post at Arkansas for the head coaching job at Alabama-Birmingham in early December of 2011, it set up a homecoming of sorts three seasons later with the Blazers scheduled to play Arkansas for the first time.

Now that matchup is here -- it is the Hogs' actual homecoming at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday -- McGee is no longer in Birmingham, and the Blazers seem all the better for it.

Alabama-Birmingham will bring a winning record (4-3) under first-year Coach Bill Clark into Saturday's 11 a.m. kickoff against Arkansas (3-4). The Blazers haven't posted a winning record since 2004, when Watson Brown led the team to a 7-5 mark and its only postseason berth, a 59-40 loss to Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl.

"Coach Clark has done an outstanding job wherever he's been," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said of Clark, who was 11-4 last season at FCS power Jacksonville State.

Clark needs one victory to tie McGee's victory count during a two-year stint that produced a 5-19 record (.208) for the Conference USA program. The Blazers were rout fodder for SEC teams, with a 49-6 loss at South Carolina in 2012 and a 56-17 loss at LSU last year under McGee, who rejoined Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator at Louisville over the winter,.

Clark's Blazers have the distinction of playing No. 1 Mississippi State to a 47-34 decision, a tighter losing margin than Texas A&M (17 points) and Auburn (15 points). Only LSU, which rallied late to close within 34-29 against the Bulldogs, has played Mississippi State closer this season.

"UAB has done some really good things, obviously played a heck of a ballgame against Mississippi State," Bielema said.

The Blazers are averaging 37.6 points per game, which ranks No. 22 in the country. They're coming off a 34-22 loss at Middle Tennessee State, a game in whch they led 22-21 early in the fourth quarter.

"You talk about consistency, our guys have competed their tails off," Clark said at his weekly news conference on Monday. "That's the thing I get compliments on, how hard our guys play, what our sideline looks like.

"The guarantee we're trying to give every week is consistently we're going to play hard. That's what we're going to do this week against a really good opponent."

Alabama-Birmingham could arrive in Fayetteville with a quarterback issue after junior Cody Clements suffered what is believed to be a shoulder injury late in the game last week.

"He got banged up at the end of the game," Clark said. "We'll see how he progresses throughout the week, see if he can go."

Clements ranks fifth in the country with 69.9 percent completions and he's No. 13 in passing efficiency with a rating of 160.5. Clements, a 6-2, 195-pound transfer from Cerritos (Calif.) College has completed 58 of his last 77 passes (75 percent). If Clements is unavailable against Arkansas, Clark said 6-3 redshirt freshman Jeremiah Briscoe would get the nod.

Briscoe threw touchdown passes against Mississippi State of 88 yards to JJ Nelson and 75 yards to Quincy Perdue. Clements threw an 81-yard touchdown pass to Josh Magee in the same game as the Blazers racked up 435 passing yards and outgained Mississippi State 548-516 on Sept. 6 in Starkville, Miss.

McGee's gone but former Razorbacks receiver Maudrecus Humphrey will be returning on Saturday. Humphrey was dismissed from the Razorbacks by interim Coach John L. Smith after Humphrey's arrest on May 12, 2012, along with Marquel Wade and Andrew Peterson. They were charged with residential burglary following a string of dorm thefts for which Wade and Peterson were sentenced to six months of jail time.

Humphrey, who is from the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, has 18 receptions for 247 yards as part of the Blazers' deep receiving corps.

Nelson has 20 catches for 446 yards (a 22.3-yard average) and 2 touchdowns, tight end Kennard Backman has 25 catches for 291 yards, and three other players have at least 10 receptions. Eight different Blazers have touchdown receptions.

Nelson was stuck at the bottom of a big pileup against Middle Tennessee and is starting the week feeling sore, Clark said.

The Blazers are trying to build up in both lines just like the Razorbacks.

"As things come along, our bodies will probably change as we're here longer [and] keep trying to get in bigger guys," Clark said. "I think the guys we've got here now are playing as hard as they can for us."

Sports on 10/21/2014