Did UAB has had three straight losing seasons, but this is definitely a team that appears to be headed in the right direction.

The offense was much more dangerous in 2010. The defense wasn’t good last year, but former Memphis coach Tommy West was brought in during the offseason to help build up the defense for the Blazers.

UAB returns 16 starters from a team that was clearly playing better at the end of 2010.

The offense piled up more than 5,000 yards of total offense last year, and they should be just as good this season.

Can the defense step up and help this team reach a bowl game?

Bryan Ellis is a very good signal caller for the Blazers. Ellis has battled injuries during his career, but he is as healthy as ever going into this season. Even with some injury issues, Ellis threw for 25 touchdowns last year.

The offensive line returns four out of five starters. UAB will have one of the best offensive fronts in the conference. Expect this unit’s experience and knowledge of the blocking schemes to pay off in both the running and passing games this season.

Though the defensive numbers haven’t been good the past couple years, there are some potential stars on this defense. Marvin Burdette and Elliot Henigan are both capable of changing the game.

Burdette pursues the football extremely well, and Henigan is a great run stuffer in the middle of the defensive line.

The secondary has been a problem for the last few years, and I expect more of the same in 2011. This is a secondary that returns all four starters from a year ago, but is that really a good thing when the Blazers ranked 104th out of 120 teams in pass defense in 2010?

UAB only intercepted nine passes, so it isn’t as if they are forcing turnovers either.

Special teams were a real thorn in the side of this team in 2010, and that is likely to be the case again this season. UAB lost two or three games solely because of their poor special teams play. Finding a reliable placekicker should be high on the Blazers priority list.

The Blazers have some solid players at quite a few positions, but this team isn’t deep at all. This is the type of team that will have severe problems if some of their star players go down with an injury. Football is a rough sport, and it’s uncommon for a team to go through an entire year without losing some key players due to injuries.

Expect the lack of depth at UAB to be a problem.

I expect the Blazers to be quite a bit better than they were last year, but their 2011 schedule is a tough one. UAB travels to Florida and Troy early in the year in non-conference action.

What’s the part of the season that will really decide whether UAB has a chance at a bowl game? The Blazers will host Houston, Southern Miss, and UCF between October 22 and November 19. If they can somehow manage to pull off a couple upsets there, this team could make noise this year.

I’ll predict UAB to finish 5-7 because of the difficult schedule, but a bowl berth wouldn’t shock me.

9/10/11 1200 PM ET @FLA 9/17/11 800 PM ET TULNE 9/24/11 1200 PM ET @ECAR 10/1/11 1200 PM ET @TROY 10/8/11 1200 PM ET MISST 10/15/11 1200 PM ET @TULSA 10/20/11 800 PM ET CENFL 10/29/11 1200 PM ET @MARSH 11/5/11 700 PM ET HOU 11/12/11 1200 PM ET @MEM 11/17/11 800 PM ET SOMIS 11/26/11 1200 PM ET @FLATL

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