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(10-16-2013 07:28 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  Well as far as I know, Nixon's staffers weren't running a train on a child prodigy.

I find these references even less funny now that I have a daughter on campus.

(10-16-2013 02:10 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(10-16-2013 02:02 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  I have always been of the opinion that the main reason Watson Brown was given so much time was because the UAB administration had promised him at the beginning new FB only facilities which never materialized.

Do you have information to that affect, or are you speculating.

I am of the opinion means that having lived in B'ham and been a fan of UAB football from its beginnings, paid attention to what was happening around the program, I got certain impressions of what things were going on. Watson was the UAB FBHC for about 15 years without consistently winning. My take on that situation is that the administration lacked "clean hands" in what was happening so they were reluctant to fire him just on his record alone. Keep in mind they did not ever fire him - he left when TN Tech offered him their job. I believe they felt complicit in his failures as well.

(10-15-2013 08:14 PM)Shrack Wrote:  Well, I think the difference the past 5-6 years is we are just hoping that we can win games against virtually win-less teams (and we still manage to lose a lot of those). With Watson's teams we were at least beating teams who had 5-8 wins a piece for many years.

But I guess the whole academic requirements being raised is really hurting us in recruiting in comparison to when Watson coached, so it's probably a good bit harder to get talent.

most of the wins during the brown era came against teams with losing records

(10-16-2013 08:29 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(10-16-2013 07:28 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  Well as far as I know, Nixon's staffers weren't running a train on a child prodigy.

Well there was Ben Stein.

Unless I missed something Stein was never accused of sexual misconduct. He just defends it.

Never mind. It was a bad attempt at a poorly constructed joke.

(10-17-2013 05:43 AM)bladhmadh Wrote:  

(10-15-2013 08:14 PM)Shrack Wrote:  Well, I think the difference the past 5-6 years is we are just hoping that we can win games against virtually win-less teams (and we still manage to lose a lot of those). With Watson's teams we were at least beating teams who had 5-8 wins a piece for many years.

But I guess the whole academic requirements being raised is really hurting us in recruiting in comparison to when Watson coached, so it's probably a good bit harder to get talent.

most of the wins during the brown era came against teams with losing records

Better than losing those games against teams with losing records, which is what UAB does now.

Brown sucked but he still put better teams on the field than we have since he left. Most of his teams would beat this year's team by two touchdowns.

That's the one thing UAB has not consistently done in the past decade, win games they are supposed to. UAB will pull off a win against a team they were supposed to lose to and then proceed to lose to Tulane or Memphis or a similar opponent the next week. I'd be happy to see UAB consistently win the games it is supposed to. That would be a great starting point for the program. Why our players would ever go into a game thinking it will be a cake walk is beyond me.

(10-17-2013 07:13 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Most of his teams would beat this year's team by two touchdowns.

They'd have to have played for somebody else, because they might not have enough who could get into UAB to field a team.

(we have reached the point in the thread where we sidetrack & talk about how Watson did it or Callaway did it, for those trying to keep up)

(10-17-2013 08:39 AM)the_blazerman Wrote:  (we have reached the point in the thread where we sidetrack & talk about how Watson did it or Callaway did it, for those trying to keep up)

See Post #88. If people don't want to discuss old history, quit trying to revise it. The "Watson is to Blame" meme is as tired as the classic "Callaway built a Foundation" routine.

(10-17-2013 09:02 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 08:39 AM)the_blazerman Wrote:  (we have reached the point in the thread where we sidetrack & talk about how Watson did it or Callaway did it, for those trying to keep up)

See Post #88. If people don't want to discuss old history, quit trying to revise it. The "Watson is to Blame" meme is as tired as the classic "Callaway built a Foundation" routine.

Watson didn't leave us in an APR crater that now our second coach is trying to claw his way out of?

Good to know.

(10-17-2013 09:12 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 09:02 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 08:39 AM)the_blazerman Wrote:  (we have reached the point in the thread where we sidetrack & talk about how Watson did it or Callaway did it, for those trying to keep up)

See Post #88. If people don't want to discuss old history, quit trying to revise it. The "Watson is to Blame" meme is as tired as the classic "Callaway built a Foundation" routine.

Watson didn't leave us in an APR crater that now our second coach is trying to claw his way out of?

Good to know.

Sure he did but it's 2013. I don't think Watson Brown has much to do with UAB being 2-4 and working on its ninth consecutive losing season. The current athletic director that has been in place since 2007 might bear a little more responsibility or maybe administrators like Richard Margison that allowed the Callaway Error to happen.

It's just very convenient for some people to blame Brown.

(10-17-2013 07:13 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Brown sucked but he still put better teams on the field than we have since he left. Most of his teams would beat this year's team by two touchdowns.

That last team he fielded probably would have had a hard time with us, but I definitely like our 2013 team against his in an Alabama High School Graduation Exam Showdown.

(10-17-2013 10:09 AM)thebernreuter Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 07:13 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Brown sucked but he still put better teams on the field than we have since he left. Most of his teams would beat this year's team by two touchdowns.

That last team he fielded probably would have had a hard time with us, but I definitely like our 2013 team against his in an Alabama High School Graduation Exam Showdown.

It is generally accepted that Watson Brown's last two years (following Hackney and White) were terrible for UAB since he continued to try to do what he had been able to do with that team's leaders. (that "last two years" is what I was referring to in comparing his to Nixon's commonly perceived "legacy") His early teams benefited - as did those we had to play - from such things as "Prop 48" (one was Brian Thomas) and other "breaks" which were later ended.

Brown's assistant coaching choices and recruiting choices during those last two years handicapped the UAB program which was made even worse by the early actions of his successor who failed to comprehend the significance of the then new APR standards when he "ran off" additional players after many had transferred. It would be 4 seasons before Coach Callaway would be able to field nearly a full team of scholarship players.

Now we are with coach #3 and hoping for improvement of the record even though we have not improved our FB infrastructure a whit since 2005-06. All UAB has been able to do since then is to "rearrange the deck chairs" on the "Costa Concordia". Trying to improve our team's record while dealing with diminishing state funding since 2008 has been a great challenge since we lack the great list of million dollar donors that have come to the aid of our state's BCS school's athletic programs.

(10-17-2013 09:37 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 09:12 AM)Smaug Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 09:02 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-17-2013 08:39 AM)the_blazerman Wrote:  (we have reached the point in the thread where we sidetrack & talk about how Watson did it or Callaway did it, for those trying to keep up)

See Post #88. If people don't want to discuss old history, quit trying to revise it. The "Watson is to Blame" meme is as tired as the classic "Callaway built a Foundation" routine.

Watson didn't leave us in an APR crater that now our second coach is trying to claw his way out of?

Good to know.

Sure he did but it's 2013. I don't think Watson Brown has much to do with UAB being 2-4 and working on its ninth consecutive losing season. The current athletic director that has been in place since 2007 might bear a little more responsibility or maybe administrators like Richard Margison that allowed the Callaway Error to happen.

It's just very convenient for some people to blame Brown.

Brown is the reason we have higher academic requirements than others in cusa and it does negatively impact recruiting

(10-17-2013 09:37 AM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Sure he did but it's 2013.

Yep, and the academic restrictions are still in place.

(10-17-2013 11:51 AM)bladhmadh Wrote:  Brown is the reason we have higher academic requirements than others in cusa and it does negatively impact recruiting

It would not be fair not to mention some of what happened under XCMD as well. He had a share in our APR adventures that we are still paying for today.

No, Watson Brown is not the reason we are where we are... but the arc that ended us up here started under him, and since he was both football HC and AD he bears more of the blame for it.

(10-16-2013 07:28 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  Well as far as I know, Nixon's staffers weren't running a train on a child prodigy.

Not that it matters...but you're throwing around the term "prodigy" very loosely

(10-17-2013 05:40 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  

(10-16-2013 07:28 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  Well as far as I know, Nixon's staffers weren't running a train on a child prodigy.

Not that it matters...but you're throwing around the term "prodigy" very loosely

As I recall that mess, it resulted from the administration "forgetting" to assign the girl to a dorm situation her parents had been promised but instead placed her in a dorm without a "shepherding upper class standing woman room mate" to "protect her". The coaches only found out about the situation AFTER the "mess hit the fan" of news media coverage as she was in the same (or nearby) dorm with the players and may have "had a thing " for athletes. That "weakness" is not an uncommon frailty among some girls in "Football mad" Alabama.