The 2018 college football season was a year of firsts for UAB.

The Blazers secured their first 10-win season in school history, won their first division title and, on Dec. 1, won their first Conference USA championship. Every one one of those milestones is worthy of praise. But the fact UAB was able to accomplish all of it in a single season, just four years after the program was shut down, is something truly special — and something that couldn’t have been accomplished without a guiding force behind it.

For that reason, UAB coach Bill Clark is Sporting News' Coach of the Year for 2018.

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“I don’t want to sound immodest. It was a big deal,” Clark told Sporting News of his team’s season. “It was a tough effort. A lot of things went into this, from fundraising to finding players all across the country to just be competitive, and then just to have a chance to win a championship really speaks to how hard this group worked.

“The players, the coaches, the people that helped us raise the money, the city (of Birmingham): It always took a team effort, and it took every one of those things to kind of get where we are now.”

It was, as Clark says, a collective effort for UAB to achieve the unprecedented success it has in 2018, just its second year back after a two-year hiatus. But the milestones UAB enjoyed this year — which began with a tremendous 8-5 season in 2017 — demanded a new mindset and increased expectations. That started with Clark.

And so, he challenged the Blazers to achieve something more ambitious this season.

“‘Let’s raise the bar,’” Clark told his team. “I think it’s always good to have a little chip on your shoulder, and we kind of heard the, ‘Oh, well, maybe you snuck up on some people last year, and we’re going to have you circled this year. We’re going to be expecting you to be good, or better.’

“We used that as motivation to say, ‘OK, they’re going to expect us to be a good team, and we’ve got to meet that challenge.’”

The Blazers did that and more, overcoming an early stumble against Coastal Carolina to go 9-1 in their first 10 games. They were among the best defensive teams in the country, ranking 11th nationally in total defense (301 yards per game) and 10th nationally in scoring defense (17.3 points per game). UAB also pitched three shutouts.

Offensively, First-Team All-Conference USA running back Spencer Brown ran for 1,149 yards and a school-record 16 touchdowns, thanks in part to a powerful offensive line that includes fellow first-teamer Justice Powers. In all, UAB placed seven players on Conference USA’s all-conference team, and seven on its honorable mention list.

MORE: UAB wins first ever Conference USA championship

Still, UAB ended the season with consecutive losses to SEC foe Texas A&M and conference opponent Middle Tennessee State — against whom UAB had to compete in the C-USA title game the week after the Blue Raiders beat the Blazers 27-3. The only way to win the rematch and the conference championship, Clark said, was for the Blazers to play with an edge they didn’t have in the first meeting.

“And I think we did.”

UAB overcame a 13-3 first-quarter deficit with a 21-point explosion in the second quarter. The Blazers then had to hold off a furious comeback attempt by the Blue Raiders — including retaking the lead with a late field goal — that lasted till the final minutes of the game.

In the end, "relief, excitement, joy" — and a historic 27-25 victory that won’t soon be forgotten.

“To win a true Conference USA championship, in that style, in this terrific back-and-forth game at their place — our fans were so terrific, they showed up in force on a rainy day — I don’t know if you can put it into words,” Clark said. “It was that cool, and that good an experience. I don’t know if I’ll ever have anything quite like that, to come back, and then the icing on the cake to win the conference championship.”

That said, the story of Bill Clark and the 2018 UAB Blazers isn’t finished yet. For all the Blazers have accomplished in 2018, there’s still one more “first” the team wants to experience.

“This is something we’ll have forever," Clark said. ”Now let’s just take the next step. We’re going to be playing a really, really good Northern Illinois team (in the Boca Raton Bowl). And our next goal is to win a bowl game, which has not been done here.

“We’ve got plenty of goals in front of us and things we need to accomplish.”

UPDATE: UAB beat Northern Illinois 37-13 in the 2018 Boca Raton bowl, the first bowl win in program history.