#44 UAB

Birmingham, AL

Legion Field October 23, 2020 Louisiana 24 – UAB 20 (ESPN Recap)

I am going to write a lot. Maybe because it is the first game since last season and I wasn’t even expecting to make it to any games this year. Maybe because the game was actually really good and I was happy to be back on the stadium pursuit.

For this one, had to solve for 1) Warm weather in late October 2) A state that was allowing spectators in light of COVID-19 3) In the Southeast ideally since it was a specific trip for stadiums and rather stay close to home

4) More than one game in the trip

5) Good teams

Plan A was to fly to Charlotte, NC and drive 80 miles on Thursday afternoon to see the Arkansas St @ App St game Thursday night. Then Friday drive 6.5 hours to Birmingham. App St wasn't allowing fans so on to Plan B.

Plan B ended up being two flights from South Florida to get to BHM, arriving 3 hours before kick. Used American points for the one-way PBI->CLT->BHM. Used credit card points for the return flight and hotel rooms in Birmingham and Montgomery. Lyft for the rest of the trip as a 3-day rental car was $290 and I thought I could get under that when factoring gas, parking, and naps. More on that in #45 blog.

The mother of the woman at the Redmont Hotel who checked me in is a bartender of the suites at UAB home football games. The check-in lady recommended Southern Kitchen for dinner which was the best shrimp and grits I have ever had. Despite it being three miles from the stadium (and 100 feet from the future stadium), it had fans of both teams pregame. I chatted up the UAB fans near me who happened to be the men’s basketball head coach (Andy Kennedy) and some of his staff.

Make it to the stadium 45 minutes before kickoff without a ticket. I walked ~75% of the perimeter of the stadium looking for a ticket to the game. On the walk, I noticed hundreds of cars parked, but no tailgating because of COVID. I bump into another UAB man who is looking for a ticket. He is the Punter’s father. Said he wants a win and less than 5 punts (pointed out to me that his son punted 11 times in the U Miami game).

I buy a ticket off a scalper for $20 ($25 at the box office) and sit 7th row at the 50-yard line, sitting next to people who happened to be ULL supporters and family of #29 WR Pete LeBlanc (scored a TD against Iowa St). For those keeping score, everyone I have spoken to in Birmingham thus far has a direct connection to this game. It felt like a NESCAC game despite knowing both teams are good (ULL beat Iowa St earlier in the year).

The stadium was enormous. Legion Field has a capacity of 72,500 and at kickoff there was about 2,500 people in the stands. By halftime probably closer to 6,000. Official attendance was stated at 11,610 which is a joke. Lucky for me, they served $7 tall boy Bud Lites so I had all the friends I needed.

The game was amazing if you like defense and special teams. Betting commentary has its own section at the bottom. UAB was riding a 21-game home winning streak coming into the game and ULL was ranked and undefeated until last week when they lost at home to Coastal Carolina in OT.

13-10 UAB first half featuring three FGs and a 101-yard KO return TD by #21 Chris Smith on ULL right before half to make it a game.

Neither QB could throw the ball and both run defenses held up pretty well throughout the game.

The special teams of ULL was the difference, but I need to point out that it was all of their ST units except kickoff coverage. The kicker went out of bounds three times in the game (out of 5 kickoffs), so that needs to be called out. Punting, place kicking, and return game was strong for ULL.

(UAB TD)

(Excellent personal foul penalty)

(College football Shock Wes hype!)

Betting I was a bit all over the place on this game. I wanted to make sure I had a lot of action on the game since I was in Birmingham by myself. Early in the week I took a square line of UAB -1.5 on the thought that their defense and the home win streak would prevail. By kickoff, they were +2. I also took UAB 1H +1 , 1H U24.0, and longest TD U49.5 for game. At halftime, I had won the two 1H bets the already lost the TD prop due to the long KO Ret TD. I hedged out and went a full unit the other way on the full game line with a rare perfect hedge of ULL -1.5 2H (this decision was aided by one of the sharper people I know telling me after kickoff that he was heavy on ULL for the game). I also bet the 2H under 24.0 heavy as there was less than 225 yards of combined total offense between both teams in the first half (not counting the KO Ret TD).

Both halftime bets worked out, but there was a serious sweat when UAB got the ball on their own 6-yd line, down by 4, with 1:10 left, no timeouts, and 21 points already scored in the half (the 2H under was 24.0). It was clear they had no pass offense (finished the game with 110 yards through the air on 23 attempts), so I was curious how they were going to move the ball 94 yards in a minute without timeouts. The answer was they were not, and they threw an interception on 3rd down before their first 1st down of the series. However, the sweat was in the intercepting player trying his hardest to return the pick for a TD (despite that being a negative EV play for his team and for my bet). He was tackled at the 3-yard line on his way trying to score and the game ended on kneels. Winner! My buddy who had ULL texts me immediately with "He tried to score! Goof ball."

#6 on UAB was Mike Salerno as Linebacker

There was a #PublicKillers during the second half that really put my head in a good place: