UAB Football: From Nothing To Nassau

BIRMINGHAM, AL - With so much going on the state of Alabama in the college football world over the weekend - a hard-fought Iron Bowl victory for Auburn, playoff implications for Alabama and Auburn both - perhaps one of college football's best stories of 2017 continued in Birmingham with UAB. The Blazers accepted an invitation to play Ohio in the Bahamas Bowl Dec. 22 after completing a highly improbably 8-4 season in its first year back from two years of non-existence.

Predicted to finish the season last in Conference USA, and expected to win maybe two games, UAB finished 2017 with the best record in its program's history, thanks in part to an undefeated home record, and record-breaking attendance numbers. To think that the University of Alabama Board of Trustees terminated the program after the 2014 season, UAB's success in 2017 has to be one of the best sports stories of the year.

"I remember people telling me when I took my job that I had the worst job in the country," said UAB athletics director Mark Ingram in an interview with WJOX Monday morning. "Pretty sure I don't feel that way today. We are elated to be going to the Bahamas Bowl."

UAB coach Bill Clark is a favorite to win national Coach of the Year honors, and several UAB players are set to make all-conference teams and manky national lists - including true freshman running back Spencer Brown, who ran for nearly 1,300 yards this season.

The Bahamas Bowl will be only the second bowl game in the history of the football program. The Blazers lost to Hawaii in the 2004 Hawaii Bowl.

Photo of UAB Head Coach Bill Clark by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images