Blazers hoping to avoid repeat of FSU game against UT
They’re hoping to put the lesson to good use in Saturday’s season-opener at No. 3 Tennessee.
“We’re better than we were last year,” defensive end Larry McSwain said Monday. “I think we’ll be more under control. Everybody will be ready to play, because that’s the way we are.
“We let it get to us in some ways. This year we all know what to expect.”
In that game, an offensive line with three new starters couldn’t protect quarterback Darrell Hackney, sacked eight times by the Seminoles.
The Blazers went on to their first bowl game last season, losing to the University of Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl. Unlike last year, when they played Baylor before facing Florida State, UAB doesn’t have a warmup game before facing the team favored to win the Southeastern Conference.
Coach Watson Brown doesn’t think his team will be intimidated either by either 100,000-plus fans at Neyland Stadium or a team he calls “physically the best team we’ve played in the 11 years I’ve been here.”
“I think our kids are confident,” Brown said. “They look forward to playing and they think they can win. That’s not cocky at all.
“We’re not predicting victory by any means, but I think we’ll be confident. We won’t be shocked at what we line up and see when we walk on the field. After the game, win or lose, we’ll know a lot about ourselves.”
The Blazers already know one thing: They don’t have much chance against the Volunteers without better protection for Hackney, who enters the season just 714 yards shy of John Whitcomb’s school mark for career passing yards (7,420).
The line does return four starters, and center Matt Batusic thinks that will make a difference.
“Because we’re older on the offensive line and as a team, we’ve learned to keep our composure,” Batusic said. “We’ve learned to keep doing what we need to do instead of panic so that things start to go downhill.”
Brown thinks the Florida State game last season helped drive that lesson home. The Seminoles outgained the Blazers 489 to 144 yards, including minus-24 yards rushing.
“The Florida State game last year really helped prepare us for what we’re going to see Saturday,” Brown said. “You can’t simulate something like that in practice, so that game really helped us.
“The offensive line, for example, seemed to struggle last year against Florida State, but they know what to expect now and they’re ready for it.”