It is the same old story - UAB plays tough but fades in the second half on the way to another disheartening loss.

What is the problem that continues to bite the Blazers?

Whatever it is, coach Garrick McGee needs to solve it fast before another complete season goes down the drain.

Since 2004 when the Blazers went to its first and only bowl game, the Blazers have suffered through seven consecutive losing seasons while posting a 27-62 record. Two of those seasons were under Watson Brown and five were under Neil Callaway and now McGee is facing a 1-5 record and a potential - make that probable - eighth consecutive losing season in his first season at UAB.

Coaches will tell you that winning is a habit but so is losing. The hardest thing a new coach has to face when he takes a new job at a school that has been losing is to change the culture of losing. McGee and his staff willingly undertook that task. McGee knew about winning and someone who has been a winner believes he can team others the secret to winning. But what he has to do is teach the new team that it can believe it can win; it can believe in itself.

That's not easy.

That is the problem the Blazers are facing right now. They don't believe they can win because none of the current Blazers have won anything since they were in high school.

"I think some of that mentality is still around from the old coaching staff," defensive tackle Connor Boyett told Drew Champion of al.com. "We just need to break it. Coach is doing everything he can to help us. It's all on us. We've got to change the attitude and I guess winning is the way to do it."

Blaming the losing attitude on previous coaching staffs is too easy an excuse. It shifts the blame from the current players to coaches who are not around to defend themselves. While the previous coaching staffs were not able to instill a winning attitude that lasted more than a season with only three winning seasons in the Blazers' 16 seasons since moving into Division I and the FBS.

There is no easy answer to UAB's problem. McGee knows that - like Boyett said - changing the Blazers losing attitude is the answer. How to change that attitude is another question altogether.


...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now for a FREE Trial