Great athlete. What we were doing when we signed Gary was a little more of using our quarterback in a run-pass way.

He's lost about 25 pounds from last year, so he's made it past nose guards and now he's being confused with linebackers. He's so well put together.

He's probably as celebrated a player that's ever been here in any sport. It's been neat so far that he's been able to play the last two (seasons) because we only had him half a season the first two. You can look at his stats, and see he's one of the better quarterbacks in the country, and he has been the past two seasons.

I think our kids are confident. They look forward to playing and they think they can win. That's not cocky at all. We're not predicting victory by any means, but I think we'll be confident. This will be the best team we play all year long by far, so we'll know our strengths and weaknesses.

I'm so proud of him. I just want to see him finish strong. He lost about 20 pounds in the summer, and that was with a bad leg. He just ran, watched what he ate. He took it as a challenge and made it work.

I'm really excited about it. I think it's the toughest schedule in the short history of UAB football. It's a fantastic home schedule. Our fans should be really excited about it.

I'm really excited about Ron joining our staff. He has been a head coach, a coordinator and has coached all defensive positions. I wanted to bring in a strong person with a solid background and we found that in Ron.

I'm excited to see two of the best players in Conference USA history lining up against each other for the last time. They've gotten to know each other, and that's an extra piece of this. They get to line up against each other for the last time on national television.

I've got a bunch of winners in that locker room and it's my responsibility to teach them how to win games. The effort is there and we didn't give up.

Every one of them has just been to-the-wire, nail-biting games, and we've been lucky. They've all been very close. It hasn't been like we've been dominant or anything in any of the games.