You would think the first thing new UAB football coach Garrick McGee would talk about in his opening press conference as the fourth football coach in UAB history is about winning conference championships and going to bowl games. That's not McGee. McGee talked about character, graduating his kids and being the best you can be. He feels like if his players do that, the conference titles and bowl games will follow.
He said if a young man does the right things off the field: goes to class, studies, is a solid citizen, he won't fumble late in a game and will make the clutch play instead of a costly play. McGee is a man of high character and integrity and just what this program needs. UAB AD Brian Mackin, President Garrison and others asked McGee the tough questions about graduating players, instilling character in the kids and McGee was impressed by that. He wanted to be in Birmingham. Mackin and company worked hard and succeeded in landing the perfect fit for the University.
I spoke with quarterback Jonathan Perry, a highly talented player and high character young man. He said the players were charged up by McGee's speech to them in the lockerroom before McGee spoke to the media and the UAB fans. He impressed Perry and motivated him even more than he already is. Most of the team was at the press conference and the players looked charged up and ready to get to work both on and off the field.
McGee said he looked in the lockerroom and saw a lot of high character guys. Neil Callaway may not have had great success on the football field, but he had a lot of success off the field reinstilling character in the lockerroom. McGee picked up on that. Callaway did a good job in a lot of areas. Unfortunately, his won-loss record wasn't enough to keep him around for a sixth year, but he's a solid coach and person and hopefully will land on his feet somewhere. McGee has inherited a pretty good team.
Four out of five starters on the offensive line will have to be replaced and the defense loses a couple of players but not many. Perry and his group of playmakers will return. If the young offensive line can come together, it should be an exciting team on the Southside. If the defense gets better, it could be a good season and a possible bowl for the Blazers.
McGee runs a quarterback-based offense. He has been the offensive coordinator at Arkansas for the last two years and developed both Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson into All-SEC quarterbacks. Mallett is on the New England Patriots right now and Wilson will be on an NFL roster in a couple of years and should be a starter in the NFL before too long. Mallett may be one one day as well. McGee played quarterback his junior and senior seasons at Oklahoma in the early, mid 90's and threw for almost 2,500 yards. He knows the position. Perry, who was quite a player this year, will flourish under McGee's guidance. McGee said he will have an attacking defense. That's exciting to hear.
Conference USA will be going through some changes as Houston, SMU and UCF have been invited to join the Big East. UAB needs to do something about their conference. C-USA can add some teams and still make it a competitive conference. We'll see what happens to those three teams. UAB may need to go to another conference. With the ever changing conference landscape, it will be important for the Blazers to position themselves well. But I like what they've done in hiring McGee. Class act, great football coach. Coached the Jacksonville Jaguars receivers for a couple of years and was Northwestern's offensive coordinator for a couple of years. He can really develop receivers and the UAB wideouts can flourish under him as well. Arkansas has had some pretty successful running backs under him including Knile Davis and Dennis Johnson, so he can do well with young ones Darrin Reeves and Greg Franklin among others. He'll hire his assistants soon. He wants to have a defensive coordinator in place by this weekend and maybe another coach, so he and they can go out and recruit. UAB has 15 commits right now and they want to solidify those guys and add 10 more.
McGee was asked if the facilities were adequate to win in conference play. He said the facilities were in place to win and once he started winning championships, he'd go back to the administration, "and ask for more."
Class guy, great hire by Mackin. Now if the Board of Trustees can just come through and give UAB the stadium it so desperately deserves, this program could excel. Conference stability will be important as well. I'm sure Mackin is studying that thoroughly. It may take McGee winning a championship at UAB before the Board, a heavily populated University of Alabama group, gets the push it needs to do the right thing and let UAB build a stadium. It's the right thing to do.
UAB's got the right guy in place. Blazer fans will be happy with Garrick McGee. His players will excel on and off the field. Congratulations to Brian Mackin and President Garrison for a tremendous hire. The Blazer Nation deserves it.
(Garrick McGee will lead the UAB football program to new heights.)