Feb. 9, 2006

"I'm really excited about it," UAB head coach Watson Brown said. "I think it's the toughest schedule in the short history of UAB football. It's a fantastic home schedule. Our fans should be really excited about it. There are some great travel games and we're on national T.V. twice, which we look forward to. Even though it's very tough, I'm excited about it."

UAB's home slate begins with an early Conference USA match up with East Carolina on Sept. 9 at Legion Field. Mississippi State, Troy, Memphis, Marshall and UTEP all visit UAB in 2006.

"This is a home schedule our fans will get excited about," Brown said. "With Mississippi State from the SEC, Troy, which is an in-state game for us, Marshall, which is one of the stronger traditional programs in Conference USA and two bowl teams from the league in Memphis and UTEP, we think our fans and the Birmingham community are going to be very excited about our home schedule."

Brown's Blazers open the season with a Sept. 2 visit to Big 12 member and 2005 Holiday Bowl champion Oklahoma. Bob Stoops's Sooners were 8-4 last season and won six of their last seven contests, including the Holiday Bowl upset of No. 6 Oregon.

East Carolina visits on Sept. 9 before the Blazers visit Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., to face defending SEC-champ Georgia. A three-game home stand at Legion Field follows with Mississippi State (Sept. 23), Troy (Sept. 30) and 2005 Motor City Bowl participant and rival Memphis visit the Magic City.

After a league showdown with Rice in Houston on Oct. 14, Marshall visits UAB on Oct. 21. The Blazers then play one of two back-to-back nationally-televised contests when they travel to SMU for an ESPN showdown with the Mustangs on Tuesday, Oct. 31. Ten days later, on Friday, Nov. 10, UAB hosts UTEP in a contest slated to air on ESPN2.

Additional nationally-televised contests may be added at a later date.

Brown's club will close out the 2006 schedule with road games at Southern Miss (Nov. 18) and at UCF (Nov. 25), both of which represented C-USA in bowl games last season. Southern Miss beat Arkansas State in the 2005 New Orleans Bowl while UTEP fell to Toledo in the GMAC Bowl.

"We've done a lot of that here, playing three of the last four on the road," Brown said. "In fact, we played three of the last four on the road last year. Does it concern me? Yes, but no. It just seems like that's the way it's fallen here and that's the way it fell this year. We'll deal with it. What you like to hope is that we're really good when we get to those last three or four and have something more to play for."

The Conference USA Championship game is slated for Dec. 2 at a site to be determined.

2006 UAB Football Schedule

Date                Opponent

September

2       at Oklahoma

9       East Carolina*

16     at Georgia

23     Mississippi State

30     Troy

October

7       Memphis*

14     at Rice*

21     Marshall*

31     at SMU* (ESPN)

November

10     UTEP* (ESPN2)

18     at Southern Miss*

25     at UCF*

Home games in Bold. Game times will be announced at a later date.