Bill Clark may be Alabama's version of Art Briles.
Briles spent 20 years as a Texas high school coach, 15 as a head coach, before going to Texas Tech as an assistant for two years and then getting his break as the head coach of the University of Houston. He was 18-8 in his last two years with the Cougars, and before their third consecutive bowl game he accepted the job at Baylor.
Briles has turned the Bears' offense into something that seems to run on jet fuel. It took him two seasons to get his type of players, and since the 2011 season Baylor is 35-11.
Clark, the head coach of Alabama-Birmingham, spent 17 years as a high school coach, nine as a head coach, before getting his shot at South Alabama as the defensive coordinator, but he definitely earned a shot at college coaching.
He posted a 107-11 record and won two state championships in eight seasons as the head coach of Prattville High. He had a 30-game winning streak and a 55-game regular-season winning streak that started in 2002 and was ongoing when he left for South Alabama.
After five seasons with the Jaguars he got the call from his alma mater, Jacksonville State, to replace Jack Crowe, the former head coach and offensive coordinator at Arkansas. He led the Gamecocks to an 11-4 season that ended in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs, which prompted UAB to call him.
He replaced Garrick McGee, a former Razorbacks assistant who was 5-19 in two seasons.
Clark, the son of a high school coach, needs one victory to tie McGee's two-year mark. That also would equal the most victories in a season since 2009.
No one is calling him "High School."
Most notably this season, the Blazers lost 47-34 to No. 1 Mississippi State.
If you are into comparing scores, the Bulldogs beat Texas A&M by 17 and Auburn by 15. They should have beaten LSU by 12, but a fumble with less than two minutes to play was turned into a final touchdown by the Tigers.
The Blazers trailed the Bulldogs 26-20 at the half before giving up three third-quarter touchdowns. They actually had more total yards, 548-516, but three of their touchdowns came on completions of 88, 81 and 75 yards.
In Clark's first season, the Blazers mirror Baylor in that they are almost all offense and not enough defense. They average 37.6 points per game but give up 28.4.
They have passed for 1,876 yards and 12 touchdowns while rushing for 1,469 and 19 touchdowns. Jordan Howard and D.J. Vinson are the main rushers and have combined for 1,192 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Arkansas will have to have lots of answers in the secondary as 14 players -- including running backs -- have caught at least one pass. Kennard Backman, J.J. Nelson and Maudrecus Humphrey (yes, the former Razorback) are the primary receivers.
What all of this means is it may be homecoming for the Hogs, but this is not your usual homecoming opponent.
The Blazers' balanced offense keeps defenses honest and they know they need to score a lot of points to win, but Bret Bielema doesn't have a high-scoring game in mind.
The Hogs will line up and play smash-mouth football in hopes of keeping the UAB's offense on the sideline.
It was obvious last week against Georgia that the Razorbacks came out of the Alabama game with some aches and pains. That's not making an excuse, it's a fact. Besides, the Bulldogs were much better last Saturday, especially in the second quarter when they scored 31 points.
UAB is well-coached by an overnight success story who spent 17 years cutting his teeth as a high school coach.
Sports on 10/23/2014