College Football 2020: 5 head coaches who deserve a raise

5. Bill Clark, UAB

If no one else thinks Bill Clark is worth every penny he makes, the city of Birmingham and the University of Alabama at Birmingham does. They’ve come a long way from Bear Bryant famously saying that they already have a football team and they are the Crimson Tide.

The UAB program shut down amid what could only be described as controversial circumstances in 2014 and Clark decided to stay and lead the charge to resume playing football at UAB. His efforts were rewarded.

The team was not supposed to be very good in 2017. They were 6-6 their last season (2014), and who knows exactly how much they practiced in those years since there was no football. Clark had to recruit without knowing if there was a guarantee of a season.

Despite this, the Blazers went 8-5 and got to play a football game in the Bahamas. Clark and his squad followed their 2017 campaign with an 11-win season and a Boca Raton Bowl victory. With so many JUCO players on that 2018 team, the Blazers were supposed to come back down to earth.

Well, they found a way to win nine games and go to the postseason for the third straight year. Not bad for not having football just three years ago.

The moral of this story? Don’t count Clark out. Ever.