Western Kentucky coach Jeff Brohm gives his final thoughts on Saturday’s game against Alabama-Birmingham.

Jeff Brohm

    UAB practice: “We’ve had a good week of practice. I think our guys definitely got some confidence built from the last game, but at the same, we know that we had to fight hard to win – we had to have our breaks, we had to make our breaks and it’s gonna be the same way this week.

“We’ve gotta play hard, continue to improve. But definitely come ready to play for 60 minutes.”

    UAB: “Defensively they give you a lot of different looks, they try to press you up a little bit, take away the quick stuff that we like to do, so they’re definitely gonna challenge us. We gotta find ways to be physical on the outside and continue to make plays, then also run the ball strong.

“(Offensively), they got a couple good players, really good, fast receiver, good running back, good tight end, and they definitely hit a few shots on Mississippi State deep on about three post patterns that we gotta make sure we cover that. Then contain the quarterback and their running back in their zone-read, power-read type stuff that they run.

“But I think our guys have a good plan. I think they understand it’s gonna be nip-and-tuck there for four quarters and they’ve gotta be ready to compete and win.”

    Intensity of practice: “I think our guys definitely needed a win. We worked hard for it. We practiced two hard weeks for Navy and we definitely needed the two weeks and found a way to come out and get a win – they definitely feel some confidence from it.

“Now we’re getting ready to go into a long spell of conference games. We gotta find ways to win these games, definitely it starts off right here at home. We gotta take care of all of our games at home. This is a big and crucial game for us and will really set the table for the rest of the season, so we’ve gotta find a way to win.”

    Transitioning from Navy to UAB: “Well I think UAB’s gonna be a little more normal of a type of offense, something that we’ve competed against and a little more closer to what we run. I think that our guys understand it.

“To defend that triple option is tough, it’s just completely different. I think they’re excited to get out there, hopefully get into some passing situations, then we can get some blitzes dialed up and get a pass rush and make some plays.”

    UAB tight ends: “Yeah they do a very good job with their tight ends. They’ll throw it to ‘em, then they’ll max protect with ‘em quite a bit and throw the ball deep down the field. When they do that they’re gonna chuck it and either hit their guy or try and get a pass interference, so we’ve gotta defend it well, we’ve gotta be ready for it, and we’ve gotta stay on attack while we’re doing it.”

    Being 0-1 in conference: “Yeah. It’s a crucial game. We gotta win this game, put ourselves in a better position and we definitely gotta win since it’s at home.”