3. Bryson Lucero shows promise despite freshman mistakes
Redshirt freshman quarterback Bryson Lucero from IMG Academy showed out in this game with a big arm that UAB used as an advantage against South Alabama from the first snap of the game. Lucero went 7-of-11 for 193 yards in the first half of the game, and was a huge part of the reason why UAB took a commanding 28-10 halftime lead over the home team Jaguars.
The lack of in-game experience started becoming evident as the game wore on and South Alabama started making adjustments. Lucero tries too hard to keep plays alive and hasn’t learned to end the play and not take unnecessary hits. He didn’t protect the ball in the pocket while under duress, as he fumbled the ball over in the third quarter from a long armed swipe.
The other thing to point out is that while Lucero has a cannon of an arm, his deep ball accuracy is not there yet. He was consistently far off on his deep balls while his receivers had to seriously adjust to the trajectory of the ball. It prevented Lucero from completing even more deep plays down the field as the UAB receivers could not be contained by the South Alabama secondary all night.