Back When: The 70-point turnaround

The first time UAB played in Lafayette, Louisiana, the Blazers found out what Division I-A football felt like on somebody else's field.

It was 1995. UAB was in its transition year from I-AA, and Southwestern Louisiana — now Louisiana — hammered the Blazers 56-21. It was a 35-point loss against a program that had been playing football since 1908. UAB had existed as a varsity sport for four years.

Two years later, on Sept. 27, 1997, the Blazers went back.

Both teams were limping into the game. UAB was 1-3, its only win against I-AA Jacksonville State. Southwestern Louisiana was 0-4, having lost its first four games by an average of 50-9. UAB was missing starting quarterback Lee Jolly to a bruised knee. USL was missing its top two quarterbacks and its best player, wide receiver Brandon Stokley — the coach's son, who would go on to play 15 years in the NFL.

UAB was 0-7 on the road since moving to Division I-A. The Post-Herald's Cary Estes picked USL 24-23.

Instead, the Blazers ran the option until the Ragin' Cajuns stopped trying to defend it.

‘One guy can't take two’

Redshirt freshman Daniel Dixon, making the first start of his career, threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Darius Malone on UAB's first offensive play. From there, Watson Brown's offense went to the ground and never came back.

Dixon ran the option behind an offensive line that, as Estes wrote in the Post-Herald, "opened gaps so large you could fit Donald Trump's ego through them." The Ragin' Cajuns sat in a 4-3 all night and never adjusted.

The option gave USL defenders a choice: take the quarterback or take tailback Lucious Foster. The Cajuns had watched Foster run for 175 yards the week before against Jacksonville State. They kept choosing Foster. Dixon kept cutting upfield.

"One guy can't take two," left tackle Mark Reaves said.

Dixon had option-keeper runs of 27, 35, 39 and 49 yards. The Blazers broke 11 runs of 15 yards or more, seven of them for 25-plus. Dixon finished the night with 154 yards on 14 carries and three rushing touchdowns — setting the UAB record for rushing yards by a quarterback and tying the single-game record for rushing touchdowns.

"That's more running than I've ever done in my life," Dixon said. "We just ran the ball, ran the ball, and put it right at them."

He had an 83-yard touchdown run called back on a holding penalty. It didn't matter.

Foster, the decoy, ran 18 times for 88 yards and didn't mind one bit. "As long as they were making big plays, I didn't care," Foster said. "I had fun watching."

UAB's defense held USL scoreless through three quarters. Linebacker Brian Smith, who led the defense with 10 tackles, said the sideline mood shifted as the game went on.

"At first, we were on the sideline ready to go back out there any second in case there was a turnover or something," Smith said. "But after awhile, we relaxed and just started watching them run up and down the field."

USL coach Nelson Stokley had no answer. "We didn't come anywhere close to stopping the option," Stokley said. "We just ran out of gas."

Late in the game, Dixon was roughed while punting and limped off with a sprained ankle. Backup Ernest Ross entered and, on his first play, ripped off a 62-yard touchdown run. The Blazers' two quarterbacks combined for 254 rushing yards. The final score was 42-7.

The measuring stick

Two years earlier, UAB had lost on that same field by 35 points. Now the Blazers won by 35. A 70-point turnaround.

"I don't want to put too much into one game, but that is amazing," Brown said. "There were a lot of guys in our locker room who remembered that game. To go back down there and win like that was a great moment for them. One of the best."

After the final whistle, UAB's players jogged to the visiting section and held their helmets high. A handful of Blazer fans who had driven to Lafayette were waiting for them.

UAB was not yet two full seasons into Division I-A football. It had just gone on the road and won by five touchdowns against a program that first fielded a team in 1908. The 1996 win over USL at Legion Field had been called "arguably the biggest victory in UAB's young football history." The 1997 trip to Lafayette topped it.

Since then

The series is tied 8-8. Louisiana has won the last three meetings. The two programs have not played in Lafayette since 2002 — 24 years ago.

Saturday night, UAB goes back.