In six years since the return of the program, the second week of the season has not been kind to the UAB football team.

The only taste of victory came in a closer-than-expected win at Akron in 2019 and all five losses suffered away from the friendly confines of Birmingham.

The Blazers seek to exercise those road demons as they hit the road to face Georgia Southern, Saturday, Sept. 9, at Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro.

Kickoff is set for 5:00 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

A 35-6 season-opening win over North Carolina A&T saw UAB quarterback Jacob Zeno set a program single-game record for completions but there were plenty of on-field lapses from which to right a few wrongs leading into a showdown with one of the top offenses from a season ago.

“We flushed that one,” UAB head coach Trent Dilfer said. “Made a lot of corrections and looking at a really challenging opponent in Georgia Southern, with some challenges naturally going on the road for the first time as a group, but excited about the challenge.”

RELATED: Rewinding Trent Dilfer’s Week 2 press conference

RELATED: Jacob Zeno sets UAB single-game record in season opener

In the season opener, North Carolina A&T rushed for 137 yards on 41 rushing attempts but was held to only 2-of-8 passing for 16 yards. UAB collected six sacks on designed passing plays but the overall imbalance of offensive attack is not a credible indicator of defensive capabilities.

“What showed up more than anything else was effort, core values of our defense, which was encouraging,” Dilfer said. “Missed tackles were little things — head in the wrong place, bad eye work, not executing things we do in practice on a daily basis. It got better towards the end of the game and the corrections made by (defensive coordinator) Sione Ta’ufo’ou and his staff were really good and the players obviously embraced those changes.”

The Blazers now face a proper trial in a Georgia Southern program that transformed its entire offensive identity last season under current second-year head coach Clay Helton and offensive coordinator Bryan Ellis, a former UAB quarterback.

Georgia Southern enters its 10th season as an FBS program and was powered by the triple option for decades following an epic run as an FCS powerhouse — winning six national championships and 10 Southern Conference titles. Helton and Ellis swiftly reinvented the offense for the modern era and the Eagles finished fourth nationally in passing yards (329.9 ypg) in only the first season operating a completely different system.

“(Bryan) Ellis has evolved over his time as offensive coordinator and Clay (Helton) has always liked balance, they’re striving for more balance,” Dilfer said. “They looked more physical in the run game offensively than they did last year. Tight end is playing at a high level, offensive line is playing at a high level and the runner is a really good runner. Yes, their roots, both Ellis’ and Clay’s, are in throwing the football, but you can sense a different mentality just by their formations. What their trying to do schematically tells me they want to have better balance.”

The Eagles had a balanced offensive performance in last year’s game but were held more than 100 yards below their passing average while Buffalo transfer Kyle Vantrease threw three picks in the second half. UAB bolted out to a 21-0 lead before eventually walking away with a 35-21 win over Georgia Southern.

Although Vantrease departed after his only season, Tulsa transfer Davis Brin has a handle on the offense — going 27-of-36 for 244 yards, two touchdowns and an interception against the Citadel last week — and Derwin Burgess is Georgia Southern’s leading receiver from a year ago. Running back Jalen White returns after putting up 116 yards and two touchdowns against the Blazers last year and had 125 yards and a score against the Citadel in the opener.

Similar to UAB, the Eagles faced a run-heavy offense in the first game of the season and have yet to face an offense capable of high-volume passing.

“Defensively, it was an interesting plan because they’re playing a hybrid option team, so you can take some things from the defensive film, but not everything,” Dilfer said. “When you don’t know your opponent well, when you haven’t seen a lot of evidence of what they do, there’s some guesswork there. That’s one of our challenges as a staff. That’s what we’re doing right now, trying to better understand who they are.”

The Blazers are 1-5 in Week 2 since the 2017 season, all games occurring on the road, and the only return game in a home-and-home series resulted in a 2018 loss at Coastal Carolina after defeating the Chanticleers the previous season. In an effort to break the trend, Dilfer is amalgamating various concepts from his staff and creating a functional and distraction-free environment.

“It’s routine and everybody has their own way of doing it,” Dilfer said. “I like the kids having a pretty routine 48 hours before the game. You don’t want a lot of adjustments or changes, so we’ll replicate the best we can on the road with meetings, walk-throughs and all the things that go on. I’ve always taken the approach on the road that there’s no reason to complain about it. You go play teams at their places and you try to have a set routine, so you don’t add more chaos than what’s already there.”