List of UAB Blazers head football coaches

The UAB Blazers college football team represents the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the East Division of Conference USA (C-USA). The program began in the 1991 season and spent two years as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III independent before transferring to Division II. After just three years in Division II, the school entered Division I-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). During this twenty-seven year period, the Blazers had five head coaches.[1] The current head coach is Bill Clark, who has held the position since January 2014.[2] This tenure includes a two-year period during which the program was cancelled due to financial issues. However, following the end of Clark's first season, in which he led the team to its second-ever bowl-eligible record, UAB President Ray L. Watts announced the cancellation of the football program, due to financial strains.[A 1]

Bill Clark, UAB's current head coach

The school adopted the nickname "Blazers" for its sports programs in 1978, in preparation for the basketball program's inaugural season. On January 13 of that year, a campus election selected the name with about 50% of 2600-person vote of students, professors, and administration. The nickname was selected over the options of Barons, Warriors, or Titans. After two different mascots, the nickname became representative of Blaze the Dragon, the school's mascot since the 1995 season.[7][8] The Blazers have played in 286 games over twenty-seven seasons, including the two-year cancellation. Watson Brown lead the team to its first postseason game, the 2004 Hawaii Bowl.[9][10] The Blazers have appeared in one other bowl game since then, in 2017 under Bill Clark.[11] None of UAB's coaches has been enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and no coach has led them to a division, conference, or national championship.[1]

Jim Hilyer, the program's first coach, is the all-time leader in win percentage, at .683 from a record of 27–12–2. Garrick McGee has the lowest win percentage, at just .208 and a record of 5–19. Watson Brown served the longest time as head coach at twelve years, and leads in number of games coached (136), number of games won (62), and number of games lost (74). Bill Clark and Garrick McGee have served the shortest time of all coaches, at two years, and McGee has coached the fewest games (24). Among conference play, Clark leads in conference win percentage at .625. Brown leads in conference games played (59), conference games won (30), and conference games lost (29).[12]

Key
Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 2]
No. Order of coaches[A 3] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 4] C% Conference winning percentage
Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 5]

Coaches
List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records[A 6], postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 7]
No. Name Season(s) GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT DCs CCs NCs Awards
1 Jim Hilyer 1991–94 41 27 12 2 0.683 — — — — 0 0 0 — — 0 —
2 Watson Brown 1995–2006 136 62 74 0 0.456 30 29 0 0.508 0 1 0 0 0 0 —
3 Neil Callaway 2007–11 60 18 42 — 0.300 14 26 — 0.350 0 0 — 0 0 0 —
4 Garrick McGee 2012–13 24 5 19 — 0.208 3 13 — 0.188 0 0 — 0 0 0 —
5 Bill Clark 2014,
2017–present		 33 21 12 — 0.636 15 6 — 0.714 0 1 — 0 0 0 Conference USA Coach of the Year
(2014, 2017)[17]CBS Sports National Coach of the Year (2017)

Notes
  1. In December 2014, following the conclusion of the 2014 football season, UAB president Ray L. Watts announced the cancellation of the university's football, rifle, and bowling teams, citing the costs of maintaining the programs.[3] In May 2015, following widespread media and community outrage and a fundraising drive, Watts announced that the programs would be reinstated.[4] However, the initial cancellation resulted in the football program missing the 2015 and 2016 seasons. During this time, Clark remained head coach of the program and the school retained its position within Conference USA.[5][6]
  2. Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[13]
  3. A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  4. Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[14]
  5. When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[15]
  6. UAB has been a member of Conference USA since the 1999 season. Prior to then, they competed as an independent.[16]
  7. Statistics correct as of the end of the 2017 college football season.

References

General

  • Staff (2014). "Alabama-Birmingham Coaching Records". Alabama-Birmingham History. College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  • UAB Athletics Media Relations Office (2017). "UAB Football 2017 Media Guide" (PDF). Birmingham, Alabama: University of Alabama at Birmingham. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved April 26, 2018.

Specific

  1. Alabama-Birmingham Coaching Records (2014)
  2. "UAB to hire Bill Clark". ESPN.com. Bristol, Connecticut. ESPN.com news services. January 21, 2014. NCAAF. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  3. Frank, Vincent (December 4, 2014). "UAB Cancels Football: The Larger Issue Of 'Amateur Athletics' Clashing With Corporate Ideology". Forbes. New York City. SportsMoney. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  4. SI Wire (May 31, 2015). "UAB to reinstate football program in 2016 after shocking reversal". Sports Illustrated. New York City. College Football. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  5. Hinnen, Jerry (September 15, 2015). "UAB signs coach Bill Clark to new incentive-laden 5-year contract". CBSSports.com. San Francisco. NCAA FB. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  6. Wolken, Dan (June 28, 2017). "Football never really died at UAB, even after it was killed, and now Blazers are back". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Sports. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  7. "Alabama-Birmingham will be 'Blazers'". The Odessa American. Odessa, TX. Associated Press. January 15, 1978. p. 6B.
  8. "A Chronological History of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and its Predecessor Institutions and Organizations, 1831-". UAB University Archives. The University of Alabama Board of Trustees. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  9. UAB Football 2017 Media Guide, p. 99
  10. Song, Jaymes (December 25, 2004). "UAB makes first postseason appearance in Hawaii Bowl". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Associated Press. College football. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  11. "Brown leads way as Ohio runs past Alabama-Birmingham in Bahamas Bowl". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Associated Press. December 22, 2017. Sports. Retrieved April 26, 2018.
  12. UAB Football 2017 Media Guide, p. 97
  13. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  14. Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on November 24, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  15. Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  16. Staff (2018). "UAB Blazers School History". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
  17. Staff (2018). "CUSA Coach of the Year Winners". College Football at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
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