Tennessee Football: Vols Can't Overlook UAB Trap Game, Just Ask Saban and Dooley

The Tennessee Volunteers take on Alabama this week in Knoxville—well, sort of.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers make their fourth trip into Neyland Stadium for the Saturday showdown, and kickoff is set for 12:20 p.m. ET. The "other" Alabama team, with the nation's No. 1 ranking and the 2009 national championship trophy, has its date with the Vols on Oct. 23.

UAB started the 2010 season with losses to Florida Atlantic and SMU, but the 1-2 Blazers, led by coach Neil Callaway, come into Knoxville fired up off their 34-33, come-from-behind win over the Sun Belt's Troy Trojans.

The Vols can ill-afford to overlook the Blazers, who seem to have found a quarterback in junior signal-caller Bryan Ellis. Ellis came off the bench with UAB trailing Troy by 23 points and ignited the Blazers to victory by going 23-of-37 passing for 360 yards and three touchdowns.

The winning 99-yard drive began for Ellis and the Blazers with 1:09 remaining and no timeouts, and it was capped by a 44-yard "Hail Mary" touchdown pass to freshman receiver Jackie Williams to finish the remarkable comeback. UAB will try to build on their momentum from their most recent shocker. 

The Blazers, from CUSA, are 0-3 all-time versus the Vols but played Tennessee close in 2005, with Vols prevailing by a 17-10 margin. The Blazers' signature program win came in 2000, when they shocked UT's next opponent, LSU, and first-year head coach Nick Saban, 13-10, in Baton Rouge.

Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley hasn't forgotten either, as he was on Saban's staff at LSU, handling the role of recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach.

When asked about that game at Monday's press luncheon, Dooley replied, "I think about it every minute." That loss followed a loss at Auburn a week earlier and probably caught LSU looking ahead to its next game at the time, coincidentally against Tennessee.

This was what football fans refer to as a "trap game," and that's just what Tennessee faces this weekend. A seemingly easy and otherwise meaningless game sandwiched in between games of high priority and importance.

Tennessee enters the contest with a record of 1-2. The Vols' losses have come at the hands of the fifth-ranked Oregon Ducks and ninth-ranked Florida Gators.

So I guess you could say that the Vols' 1-2 record looks better than the Blazers'. But the Vols cannot afford to overlook UAB in a season that has already seen Jacksonville State knock off Ole Miss and, more recently, James Madison's upset at Virginia Tech.

For Tennessee fans, do you remember these losses—Wyoming in '08, Memphis in '96, Rutgers in '79, and North Texas in '75? How could we forget, right?

Yep, you guessed it—all "trap" games. The latest, on Homecoming to Wyoming in 2008, became former coach Phillip Fulmer's Waterloo.

Tennessee and Coach Dooley need this game, and they need it badly. Sure, Tennessee is a two-touchdown favorite and is at home, but the Vols need to establish a consistency on both offense and defense.

Throw out the 50-point season-opening win against UT-Martin and the Vols have averaged only 15 points per game on offense and have given up an average of nearly 40 points per game on defense against their top-tier opponents, Oregon and Florida. With a schedule full of powerhouses lined up for October, it is time for the Vols to put it all together this week against UAB. 

With the Florida game now in Tennessee's rear-view mirror, the SEC schedule goes full tilt for the Vols in October, with road trips to LSU, South Carolina, and Georgia leading up to the aforementioned Oct. 23 date with Alabama in Knoxville. 

But let's not get too far ahead. We've got business to take care of this Saturday. Let's not forget about the "trap" game.

I'm sure Coach Dooley hasn't forgotten—he thinks about it every minute.