UAB football: Birmingham’s Team

For awhile now, some UAB football fans have needed to quit worrying about whether the Blazers do or don’t get the same Birmingham media coverage as Alabama and Auburn and do what they finally did in 2018: Ramp up the money and attendance to support the program. Coach Bill Clark, who remarkably chose to stay at UAB despite the shutdown of the program, deserves every piece of praise for producing the most amazing story in college football this season. Hear my December 4, 2018 interview about UAB’s season with WBHM public radio station News Director Gigi Douban. Gigi, a former colleague at The Birmingham News, asked excellent questions, which was no surprise. She’s a terrific journalist who is one of the best examples I’ve seen of how a good journalist can learn and excel on different platforms.

WBHM STORY / INTERVIEW

Rooting for my student-athletes

After years of profession-mandated detachment and objectivity, it’s just not in my nature to fervently root for any particular college sports team, not even the Crimson Tide. I’d prefer that Alabama wins everything, but it’s not that big of a deal if it doesn’t. I do, however, fervently root for the student-athletes who’ve been students of mine. I root, for instance, for Jalen Hurts — to play well, which he has, to graduate, which he did, and to play for whatever freakin’ college he wants to regardless of what anyone has to say about it (kinda like, you know, the way coaches go to whatever freakin’ school they wish). After Jalen’s you-wouldn’t-dream-of-this-even-if-you-were-writing-fiction comeback tale in the 2018 SEC Championship Game, I mentioned Jalen in the same large lecture class that Jalen took in a previous semester. Jalen, I told them, always sat in the front row. Jalen, I told them, didn’t even use all the free class absences that I allow. They applauded. To which I offer a fervent “Yay.”