The Florida Gators have yet to win a game under interim head coach Randy Shannon. If that doesn’t change Saturday, 2017 could mark the bleakest season in Gator football since, well, 2013. Florida will welcome a revived University of Alabama-Birmingham program to The Swamp with its eyes set on a confidence-boosting win; the two teams meet at 4 p.m. ET and their showdown will be broadcast live on the SEC Network (live stream).
UAB vs. Florida 2017 live stream: Time, TV channel, and how to watch online
What looked like a blowout in August could be a tight game in November.
UAB has been a pleasant surprise in their first season back from the college football phantom zone. The Blazers are 7-3 with quality wins over Conference-USA programs like Middle Tennessee and Southern Mississippi. The icing on their comeback cake would be a road win over a Power 5 opponent — and a slumping Gator team could be the perfect victim.
Time, TV channel, and streaming info
UAB at Florida news:
- Florida needs a new head coach, and Chip Kelly could be in play.
Aside from the obvious current college candidates for the Florida job — UCF head coach Scott Frost and Oregon head coach Willie Taggart have been in the lead, per SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey, while Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen is another obvious consideration — an old name is raising some eyebrows: former Oregon Ducks head coach and current ESPN commentator Chip Kelly.
- Injuries are piling up for the Gators as their season winds down.
Center T.J. McCoy is out for the season and Malik Zaire is day-to-day ahead of UAB. McCoy is the second starting offensive lineman that the Gators have lost for the season in the last two weeks. Feleipe Franks will get the start for now due to Zaire’s potential unavailability. Shannon also noted that Dre Massey is Florida’s third option at quarterback, not Kadarius Toney, because Massey has repped more at the position recently due to Toney’s lingering injury
- The response to Florida’s fifth-straight loss? Apathy, mostly.
The Florida Gators lost again on Saturday — this time to the South Carolina Gamecocks, this time by a 28-20 score, this time despite two prospective pick-sixes basically on the same possession getting fouled up by a fumble at the goal line and a shoestring tackle and a beautiful deep pass from Feleipe Franks to a receiver who was turned around and facing him 20 yards behind the defense only yielding a first and goal and a three-interception performance from a defense that hemorrhaged yardage but never quit for a second.
Can Spencer Brown keep rolling against a different level of defense?
Three years after giving the world Jordan Howard, the Blazers have another potent tailback driving their offense. Spencer Brown ranks 15th in the NCAA with 1,117 rushing yards this fall and has run for 477 yards in his last three games. He’ll face the stiffest test of his career against a Florida defense with talent that stretches far beyond the Charlottes and Louisiana Techs of the world. If he’s for real, he’ll find a way to gash the Gators.
UAB at Florida prediction:
The Blazers are one of the best stories in college football this fall, and the Gators only have about 50 healthy scholarship players left. UAB is a double-digit underdog, but they’ll get their screenwriter ending on Saturday by escaping The Swamp with a W.
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