It goes without saying but it has not been the season the UAB football team envisioned.

Dropping all four road games played this year and essentially removing themselves from league title contention, the Blazers have an opportunity to turn their season around by hosting league-leader UTSA, Saturday, Nov. 5, at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.

Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on Stadium.

“We’ve got the best football team (we’ve faced) up to this date coming to Birmingham,” UAB interim head coach Bryant Vincent said. “They’re defending league champion, they’ve got a lot of guys back, and they’ve won five football games in a row. We know it’s going to be a tremendous challenge, but it’s a challenge this team is going to prepare for and is going to be ready for Saturday.”

UAB is coming off another heartbreaking loss on the road, allowing a second-half rally in a 24-17 loss at FAU. The Blazers did not turn the ball over but importune mistakes resulted in the Owls taking an early lead and eventually surging ahead in the second half.

“A lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Vincent said. “We’re frustrated. This team is frustrated, but we’re together. There’s no division, there’s no negativity. We prepared extremely hard, we fought to the very end, but we have to pull out a win at the end. We’ve got to find a way to finish.”

The Blazers are 4-4 on the season and all four losses have come in one-possession games, a total of 21 points separating UAB from an 8-0 record heading into a home matchup with the defending league champion.

“We had the opportunity to win three of them at the end, and we didn’t finish,” Vincent said. “That falls on me as the head coach. I’m proud of our players, proud of their effort, proud of their attitude, proud of their fight, and proud of their togetherness. We’ll fight to the very end together and we’ve proven that over and over.”

The inability to win on the road has not affected UAB’s dominance at Protective Stadium, going 4-0 this season at home and averaging an 18.3-point margin of victory against its three FBS opponents. However, UTSA enters the contest at 12-1 in its last three conference outings, including the 2021 C-USA title game, and brings a physical mindset that matches that of the Blazers.

“I’ve gotten to know Jeff Traylor well the past couple of years,” Vincent said. “We played them three years ago in 2019 and you could see the toughness that he brought to the team and the mentality that he brought. They’re tough, they play together. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Traylor and what he does, and really, what he stands for.”

The Blazers and Roadrunners match up strength for strength, UTSA employing the seventh-best passing attack in the nation while UAB ranks fourth in pass efficiency defense (104.69) and ninth in passing yards allowed (171.4 ypg).

UAB has played four high-volume passing offenses this season and forced each attack into a season-low performance. The Blazers held Georgia Southern’s fourth-ranked passing game to 204 yards and one touchdown, collecting three interceptions, Western Kentucky’s 11th-ranked passing offense to 128 yards, Charlotte’s 33rd-ranked passing attack to 214 yards and a touchdown, corralling two interceptions, and MTSU’s 51st-ranked passing game to 196 yards and a touchdown and interception.

While each offense had a solid quarterback directing the offense, none impact a game more so than UTSA’s Frank Harris.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for him,” SAM defensive end Michael Fairbanks said. “He’s able to move around and extend plays. That’s been a big emphasis this season for a lot of quarterbacks. A lot of quarterbacks are able to move around and extend plays. (We have to) stay disciplined and stay in our rush lanes. We have to make sure to contain him and keep him in the box. It’s a big emphasis this week.”

Harris has seen the overhaul of the UTSA program the past three seasons and has the Roadrunners in position to host a second straight conference title game. The senior has completed 68.9 percent of his passes for 2,538 yards and 17 touchdowns and six interceptions, adding 319 yards and five touchdowns on the ground, and has spread the vast majority of his targets to a senior trio of receivers that all have at least 50 catches, 675 yards and three touchdowns each.

“He’s an experienced quarterback, he’s won a lot of big games, he won a conference championship last year,” Vincent said. “He’s a guy that’s been in those moments. It doesn’t faze him, and he’s found a way to win games. He does a great job extending plays, he’s very accurate, and he’s got three receivers that are 6-foot-3 plus that have put up a lot of big numbers this year. Traditionally, the last two years, you’ve seen more of a run-first offense and now they’re more of a pass-first (RPO) offense with him making a lot of really good decisions.”

The Blazers fell 34-31 last year at UTSA, allowing the Roadrunners to march the length of the field for a game-winning touchdown to clinch the C-USA west division crown. UAB took a 31-27 lead with less than two minutes remaining and opted to punt on its final drive rather than seal the game on fourth and inches inside their own territory.

“We knew we had to come in and beat those guys to win the west and play for the conference championship,” Vincent said. “It’s one our guys remember, without a doubt. To have those guys come back to Birmingham this year, it’s a great opportunity for us to go out there and play the defending league champions at home when they’re playing their best football of the season right now.”

Although the Blazers are not mathematically eliminated from conference title game contention, it would require a bit of chaos in the last four weeks of the season. Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky would need to lose two of its last three league games, Rice would need to lose two of four to end the season and North Texas would need to lose two of three games, one of which would need to be a loss at UAB next week.

With fate out of their hands, and considering the mayhem needed to punch a ticket to the conference championship game, the Blazers are concentrating on a lesser but important goal of achieving bowl eligibility for a seventh straight season.

“Our goal and our focus is to get this senior class and football team to a bowl game,” Vincent said. “This class has done a lot for this program; they’ve done a lot for this city. We set the standard high at UAB. We embrace those standards. We do not back down from those standards. Our goal and our mission are to play for a championship year in and year out at UAB. Right now, we’ve got to adjust our goals for the rest of this season.”