All of Spencer’s scoring plays from the last two years are in here. Sorry for the low quality in a couple of the clips. In 2017 especially, Conference USA did a terrible job of filming their games. 20 days left until the season!

Evan Dudley’s article.

UAB’s All-American cornerback Brontae Harris went down with a non-contact foot injury during Thursday’s padless practice, as reported by Evan Dudley. It is apparently severe, as Harris was “seen wearing a cast and boot Monday during the early morning viewing period.” Harris, his family, and the coaching/medical staff are considering their options, which may include surgery.

There is no definite information about Harris’s situation yet, but Coach Clark’s demeanor on Monday indicated that Brontae will be out a significant amount of time. From Dudley’s article: “I usually don’t talk about injuries but then you lose a guy like that, it’s heartbreaking for him. We’ll know exactly what the timetable is, but with him being out, our prayers are with him, and somebody is going to have to step up. It’s the unfortunate part of any athletics. Things happen. This was not a contact injury, it was just a step and had a pop, but we’ll get him fixed by the best, and for his future.”

Harris has been a major contributor to the Blazer defense over the past two seasons, making game-changing plays nearly every week. By Pro Football Focus, he was the highest graded corner in Conference USA this past year, edging out even Louisiana Tech CB Amik Robertson. Brontae was an honorable mention for the All-CUSA teams in 2018 and was looking to build upon that success in 2019, being named to the Jim Thorpe Award (best DB in college football) watchlist this summer.

This is a gigantic loss for the Blazer defense. It always hurts to lose an upperclassman, but especially one with as much talent and leadership as Brontae. Although cornerback is a position UAB is deep at, it will be hard to replace Harris’s coverage skills. Hopefully he’ll be back for a few games later in the year, but from Clark’s tone it seems like that might not be a realistic possibility.

A few possible candidates to take the now-open corner spot are:

Dy’Jonn Turner – Most experienced candidate by far. Played the last two seasons, but last year his role expanded. Had one interception and one fumble recovery in 2018.
CD Daniels – Rated a high three-star. Had P5 offers. Recorded 2 tackles in limited game time last year before redshirting.
Starling Thomas V – Another three-star. Had P5 offers. Same as Daniels in that he recorded a few tackles before redshirting.
AJ Brooks – Played special teams last year, but is having an impressive camp and could end up in the rotation.

There are other talented players at corner, but the four mentioned above are the only experienced ones and the most likely to win the starting job.

There’s a lot of skill behind Harris, but not much experience. If UAB wants to defend the championship, someone will have to step up behind him.

Watch the full thing from earlier today here.

Bill Clark

On how it felt to win a conference championship: “Even when we think back, we get emotional. You know, it’s – you kinda get tears in your eyes just thinking about all the work, and it’s so happy for these players and the coaches and the fans and our community, it’s still emotional today.”

On if expectations will affect the team: “We have a standard we’ve set. We thought that was our standard before, that’s the standard I’m used to having… I think it’s what we believe (about our team)… We’ve gotta live with that bullseye on our chests, which means we’ve gotta work even harder.”

On who is going to replace the 35 seniors: “That’s one of the things we’ve been working on… I think if you looked at our group you would be surprised how they look. I think top to bottom we look better than we did last year. The one thing that’s hard to replace is experience, so we’ve gotta do a great job in how we practice. Guys like this (Mofor and Dufour) that have been through the wars are doing a great job talking to those (younger) guys about what it looks like to line up in this conference. We can’t have a learning curve. We’ve gotta start like that now.”

On QB Tyler Johnston III, WRs Austin Watkins and Kendall Parham, and the receiving corps as a whole: “Tyler was one of those guys that was a winner in high school. I’ve known him for a long time. Him and his brother both played with my son growing up… He waited his turn, but was working the whole time. I think he did a lot of good things last year, but I think he’d be the first to tell you that he had a lot of things he wants to do better. From the receiving corps standpoint, we had a bunch of guys that were waiting in the wings last year. I’m really excited about this receiving corps and what they do with him. They’ve had a really good offseason of work… I’ve got high expectations for that (receiving) group. I really do. We got to practice against those guys (Parham and Watkins)… I can name those guys and can name about 2 or 3 others, including a tight end, that were there every day going against the defense, and one of the reasons I think we were great defensively last year is we had a really good scout offense that they went against every day, and I know Fitz would echo that statement about those guys. We’ve got some good talent coming at the receiving corps.

On Spencer Brown running with high expectations and a new offensive line: “Well, I’ll say two things. One of them, I’ll say that the guys around Spencer, Jonathan Haden, Lucious Stanley, Larry Wooden, that group of running backs is better than we were last year… Spencer – he’s not a guy to make excuses – I don’t know if anybody even knew he had a turf toe all of last year. I would say he was probably at about 80%. He’s at about 238 pounds right now – 236 to 238. He’s running probably as good as I’ve seen him run since we’ve got him there. He’s had a great offseason. I think you’re going to see what this guy really looks like this year.

On how attention to detail on defense has become the norm at UAB: “I think Fitz, once again, would probably tell you this, I am a stickler for every minute thing. I tell guys all the time, ‘You’ve got 70 great plays on defense, if there’s 80 snaps and you gave up 10, that’s 70 points.’ You don’t know what the play’s going to be defensively in a game that can be a score, so you’ve gotta have attention to detail.”

On if former high school teammates Fish McWilliams and Antonio Moultrie will have expanded roles: “No doubt. We had Anthony Rush, Q Thagard in front of them. Fish McWilliams was the Player of the Year down in the Panhandle a couple years ago. Moultrie, believe it or not – when you see this guy, he’s 6’4”, 300 plus – was a free safety his ninth grade year, so he’s an athlete. That group, along with – obviously, Garrett Marino coming back, who’s got a chance, I think, to keep playing on Sundays – that group may not be as – I don’t know if they’re as talented in a couple spots, but depth-wise, we may be better.

(I haven’t been able to find what radio show this is) On how they felt about a recent radio show where someone playing a Conference USA team said the only reason UAB has succeeded is their weak conference: “(Dufour starts shaking head) I think any competitor would probably get a little agitated over that… The bowl head-to-head competition, I think we won that again when we were 4-2 this year, if you just talk about what we do in the bowl games, we’ve won that 3 out of the last… what, 5-6 years? So I don’t know what else to say other than that. I do think there are a lot of similarities between all of our teams. I think we’re pretty close, and we probably beat up on each other pretty good. This is a good league, there’s really good coaches, they care, we’ve got great athletes and you see them playing on Sundays all the time, so I feel pretty good about our league, and I think it speaks for itself when you see that bowl matchup.”

Biggest takeaways:
1. The team isn’t going to let expectations shape how they play. They’re going to live up to the UAB standard and focus on playing with a bullseye on their backs.
2. Coach thinks the depth chart looks better, top to bottom, than it did last year. It’s difficult to replace experience, though, and the upperclassmen have been doing a great job of getting the newcomers ready.
3. Tyler Johnston still thinks he has room to make improvement.
4. The new receiving corps is very talented and helped shape last year’s defense.
5. Coach thinks the running back rotation as a whole is better than last year’s.
6. Spencer Brown played at 80% last year with a turf toe. According to Coach, he’s “running probably as good as I’ve seen him run since we’ve got him there” and “I think you’re going to see what this guy really looks like this year.” This is terrifying.
7. The defensive line may not be quite as talented, but it’s deeper.

Lee Dufour

On if he was motivated to come back from his injury quicker once he realized he could play in a conference championship game and a bowl game: “Absolutely. Going that far into the season, having that injury, and expecting to be out for the rest of the season, I just started crying when I got to the locker room. After they told me I broke my arm, I was like, ‘Welp. There it goes.’ But thanks to the amazing staff we have at UAB, the surgeons, the doctors, everybody on our training staff, they made sure I was in physical training, physical therapy 2-3 times a day, every single day of the week. Being able to come back and start for the championship game, that was just the perfect end to my season. Being able to start and win that game and then go to the bowl game and start that game as well with my robotic elbow brace – it was a lot of fun, it was really exciting, I was glad I was able to be there for my teammates.

On he ever expected this type of success in his freshman year, before the program was shut down: “I could have never saw that coming, honestly. I knew there was something special about UAB when I came here my freshman year, when Coach Clark and his staff had just got here. I knew the capabilities that were there. I knew what Birmingham was capable of. I knew what UAB was capable of, and it’s just been exciting, this journey that I’ve been on since 2014, the program shutting down, leaving and going to South Alabama for two semesters and coming back, you couldn’t – I don’t know if anybody could’ve – in 2014 told me, ‘Hey, you’re going to do all these things, and this is where you’re going to be at in four or five years.'”

On why he came back to UAB: “This guy right here. Coach Clark, sitting right next to me. I can’t say enough good things about this guy. Coach Clark – you know – you can’t put it into words, the respect you have for him, he’s always going to be there for you, you know he cares about you, you know he loves you – even when you’re done with football, he’s going to be there for you. It’s hard to find that in college coaches nowadays, I think. There’s a lot of relationships that you build when you’re in college football, and the one I have with Coach Clark, I wouldn’t trade for anybody else.

Fitz Mofor

On why he walked on at UAB: “Just knowing that I would have the 2016 season to improve myself and to be able to compete every day and step up into another level of competition. I just knew there was an opportunity I couldn’t let go.

On the new-look defense: “I feel like the younger guys aren’t going to miss a beat. Going through spring ball, watching those guys grow and get better every day, was just a special experience, because – honestly, in the beginning I thought it would be a stretch to try and get them to catch up to the speed of the guys before, but just going through practice everyday and seeing how hard they work and how relentless they are, I was really impressed, obviously, by how fast they’re catching up.