Ohio took an early lead and didn’t look back, blasting UAB football in an extremely one-sided affair in the 2017 Bahamas Bowl.
More: Complete 2017-2018 bowl schedule
UAB football was set up for a story book ending to their 2017 season. At 8-4 they weren’t riding off into the sunset as kings of college football, but the future looked bright. If this were a Disney movie, the Blazers would have rallied for a miraculous bowl win against the favored Ohio Bobcats. It just wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes real life doesn’t work out like the movies.
Playing in just their second bowl game in program history, the Blazers were not able to muster enough offense to defeat Ohio. The Bobcats scored on three of their first four drives. They scored their last two touchdowns on plays of longer than 50 yards. The explosiveness of the Bobcats’ offense put UAB down 27-3 at halftime, creating a deficit too large for the Blazers to climb out of in the second half.
Ohio improves to 9-4. Their win in the Bahamas bowl was their first win since an Independence Bowl victory in 2012 and just their third postseason victory in program history. The Bobcats have been a strong MAC contender over the last decade and appear to be trending in the right direction under head coach Frank Solich.
Next: Predicting all 41 bowl games and CFB Playoff
UAB ends their season at 8-5. Prior to this season the Blazers had just four winning seasons in program history. Eight wins mark the most wins ever in a single season for the Blazers, made even more incredible considering UAB did not have a football program last season. The ending did not go as planned, but all in all it was a successful season for UAB.