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2011 Season Outlook Ugonna Amarikwa (6-0, 180, Sr.) has seen action at cornerback and safety and is listed as a No. 2 safety entering fall camp. UAB also signed a trio of junior college safeties last December and all three of the players — Johnny Cockrell (6-0, 200, Jr.), Lamar Johnson (6-2, 200, Jr.) and Calvin Jones (5-10, 175, So.) — enrolled at the University in January to begin preparing for their first season in Birmingham. All three will compete for playing time this fall. Special Teams Trey Ragland (5-11, 175, Sr.) has been the Blazers’ regular punter each of the past two seasons and last year ranked No. 5 in Conference USA with a 42.0 yards per kick average. Placekicking was an issue last season and the UAB coaching staff went out and signed two kickers in its February signing class.
Both Colin Anderson (5-10, 170, Fr.) of Stone Mountain, Ga. and Ty Long (6-2, 180, Fr.) of Roswell, Ga. come to UAB with impressive credentials and will compete for the kicker job once fall practice begins. In the return game, Shed was the Blazers’ primary return man on both punts and kickoffs and his production (738 KO return yards and 69 punt return yards) helped him rank third in the NCAA in all-purpose average. Jackie Williams and Greg Franklin are also likely to see action in the return game this fall. Schedule The Blazers have a bit of an oddity in their schedule as they’ll have an open date the first weekend of September when virtually all other teams around the country are opening their seasons. After that, UAB will play 10 Saturday games with a pair of home Thursday night games
Senior Trey Ragland returns to handle the punting duties for the third consecutive season.
included (Oct. 29 vs. UCF and Nov. 17 vs. Southern Miss). UAB will open the 2011 season on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Southeastern Conference foe Florida before opening its home and Conference USA schedule a week later on Sept. 17 with a contest at Legion Field against Tulane. The Blazers will also play home games this season against Mississippi State (Oct. 8), UCF, Houston (Nov. 5 and Southern Miss. UAB will wrap up the regular season Thanksgiving weekend with a road contest at Florida Atlantic (Nov. 26).
Cornerback T.J. Ballou (left) made a significant contribution to the Blazer secondary in 2010 in his first season at UAB.
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