Some traditions never change but there’s always room to build upon what was already a commendable sacrifice of personal acclamation.

The Blazers are expanding their customs and, for the first of two games this season, will honor Birmingham’s Smile-A-Mile with alternate uniforms against Louisiana, Saturday, Sept. 16, at Protective Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

UAB is coming off its first loss, a 49-35 setback at Georgia Southern, but no one is pressing the panic button only two weeks into the season

“Well, obviously a very, very disappointing loss,” UAB head coach Trent Dilfer said. “It wasn’t even close to our standard in any of the three phases. If you handle losses well, they can be great learning experiences. We dealt with it that way yesterday. Nobody was upset and nobody freaked out, but we definitely used it as a learning opportunity for all of us — coach, player, everyone on the staff.”

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The Blazers have presented obvious deficiencies through two games and the Ragin’ Cajuns present a much different challenge than the first two opponents faced this season.

Louisiana does not spread the field as much as modern offenses are prone to do and primarily operates out of tighter sets and formations featuring double tight ends. The throw-back approach has resulted in a balanced attack averaging 443.5 yards — 189.5 rushing and 254 passing — and 34.5 points per game.

“Really good opponent this week in Louisiana,” Dilfer said. “Really well coached. Very physical. They have great diversity in their schemes and the types of players they use — size, speed and explosion. But we’re at home and that’s a huge thing. Playing in front of our home crowd, we’ve made it a point that we want to be a source of pride to our community.”

“The biggest way we do that is playing for something bigger than ourselves,” he added. “The boys had a glossary understanding of Smile-A-Mile, and then yesterday was really able to paint a picture of this for them. They’re super jacked about that and it’ll be a theme throughout the week.”

UAB is set to debut new alternate uniforms against the Ragin’ Cajuns and is inspired by traditions founded by former head coach Bill Clark, who made it a primary goal of the program to serve the community that brought it back to life. Dilfer took the mission further, dedicating the entire season to community service, and the UAB football team already has 700 combined hours for a bulk of the athletic department’s service hours.

The black and lime uniforms are similar in nature to the Children’s Harbor uniforms in that players will honor patients of Smile-A-Mile — a Birmingham-based program for those dealing with childhood cancer diagnoses — with the names on the back of the jerseys.

“I do believe in mission statements, they’re kind of the lighthouse in the distance — the thing you’re aiming for,” Dilfer said. “To have ‘Serve. Grow. Launch.’ as one isn’t just a sign on a wall. Service is the primary thing that I want to run this program on and to get our kids, our players and our coaches serving the community, serving those in need and serving mankind, in general, will only help them serve each other more and serve the program.”

On the field, UAB enters the third week of the season leading the nation in third-down conversion rate (69.6 percent) and quarterback Jacob Zeno leads the nation in completions per game (35.5) and is second in completion percentage (84.5 percent). The offensive “revelation” is in full effect but the Blazers also gave up three turnovers and failed to convert two short fourth-down attempts against Georgia Southern.

“Yes, he’s playing well. Yes, he’s been efficient. Yes, the numbers represent that,” Dilfer said. “He also threw an interception in a critical moment, which is just not to our standard, and he knows that. It doesn’t matter how many good things you do if you turn the ball over. I’d rather be last in the nation at offense and be 2-0 and have zero turnovers. Now, am I mad at Jacob? No, I think he’s playing at a very high level. But for us to meet our standard as a program, that needs to be the headliner.”

Defensively, UAB allowed the Eagles to drive the field at will, scoring on all but three possessions, and gave up 462 yards of offense with the majority coming through the air. Additionally, the Blazers have given up long kickoff returns in both games this season and senior placekicker Matt Quinn is 0-for-2 on field-goal attempts.

“That was losing football in all three phases,” Dilfer said. “We lost the field position game, we got gashed on defense and we turned the ball over on offense. I mean, that is lose, lose, lose. That can’t happen.”

Although Zeno is on pace for the best passing season in UAB history, the running game is still a work in progress despite the immense talent of Jermaine Brown Jr. and Isaiah Jacobs, which was displayed by both on long touchdown runs at Georgia Southern. The Blazers are averaging only 129.5 ypg on the ground, far removed from their average of 235.6 yards a year ago, and youth is not an excuse Dilfer is willing to accept.

“We have to be more physical with the line of scrimmage,” he said. “We lost the knockback game again. That’s two weeks in a row we lost the knockback game and that just can’t happen. And again, people are going say, ‘Well, young offensive line, inexperienced offensive line.’  You have a job to do — knock ‘em back. We’ve got to do a better job at that.”

The loss to Georgia Southern exposed a myriad of issues for the Blazers but early-season overreaction is not infecting the program. The learning curve for the first-time college coaches on staff will eventually flatten, along with most transfers and underclassmen, and nothing is out of the realm of correction before entering the league schedule in a few weeks.

“There’s not a single thing that isn’t fixable and that isn’t fixable quickly,” Dilfer said. “These are not long-term developmental fixes, these are immediate tomorrow fixes. There’s equal burden to be shared and we have to do a better job as coaches. We have to give them better information. We have to coach them better. We have to find more creative ways of getting the messaging through. But then players need to respond more and they need to do their jobs in a more highly detailed manner. Those are very doable things and the want-to is there.”