Bill Clark retires

[tulaneoutlaw]

I'm going to put this here since UAB will be a conference mate slightly over a year form now. Bill Clark, who built that program once, then revived it from the dead, is retiring for health reasons. Imo this is a big deal because UAB was one of the programs that could enter the new AAC and compete right away at the top. This may change that.

https://twitter.com/CoachBillClark/stat ... pTIZkBv-3w

[waverider]

I hope they have a plan in place for finding a coach who can keep them going. We need the incoming teams to be strong as a benefit to the conference.

Sure, beating them may be easier now, but if we are counting on UAB’s coach to retire to beat them, we have no business playing in the first place.

[tulaneoutlaw]

I hope they have a plan in place for finding a coach who can keep them going. We need the incoming teams to be strong as a benefit to the conference.

Sure, beating them may be easier now, but if we are counting on UAB’s coach to retire to beat them, we have no business playing in the first place.

Oh I agree. UAB has essentially no history of success outside of Clark, so this change matters a lot for that program. They were the one team I was ok with joining the conference that actually did join, so the fact that he won't be there strikes me as more likely to turn out to be a negative than a plus.

From our view, we should be in the mode of being able to beat any time in our conference on any weekend. Obviously we aren't there, but there's no reason we should outright fear any of the teams coming in.

[wavedom]

Hate to see that happen to him after he raised that program from the dead. They are keeping the staff together. Maybe he comes back next season if that surgery proves successful.