Bill Clark

UAB head football coach Bill Clark react to the action in the Blazers' 40-24 loss against Louisiana Tech Saturday Nov. 8, 2014 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. (Hal Yeager/AL.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- For one reason or another, people were talking about UAB football all week, heading into the Blazers' matchup against Louisiana Tech today.

On the field, UAB was was a game above .500 in November, an oddity in recent years.

The Blazers were two games out of first-place in Conference USA's eastern division and needed just one more win to become eligible for bowl competition for the first time in a decade.

Off it, former players expressed their concerns that a university-wide planning initiative could lead to the elimination the football program, which prompted both the UAB President Ray Watts and the Athletic Director Brian Mackin to release statements, addressing the issue.

Following the Blazers' 40-24 loss to the Bulldogs, first-year head coach weighed in on the issue when questioned by a reporter.

"I think they handled it as good as you possibly could," Clark said of his players. "I don't want to say it would not be a distraction because there's no way it wasn't with the Twitter world we live in and media. Shoot, they know stuff before I even know it, sometimes. But I'll tell you what I've told many people about it. It's very humbling and I told our players that. There are people that love them and love what we're doing and how they're playing and want to fight for them."

Clark said he sees the concern about the long-term future of the program as a response to speculation but hopes people see the improvement the team has made this year and appreciate the product on the field every Saturday.

"I have not heard that from any of our people," Clark said about the possibility of ending the football program. "I think that's just speculation, the fact that maybe they(former players and supporters) didn't get the answers they were looking for. My job is to really coach the team and motivate them and I'm just glad we got people that care."

Clark said the formation of the UAB Football Foundation is a step in the right direction to upgrade the team's facilities, putting them on a level playing field with Conference USA member institutions.

"I think everybody knows our facilities aren't up to where our conference is, really anybody in our conference," Clark said. "We've got this great school and a school with great facilities. Hopefully, ours will come up to that."

Mayor William Bell was on hand Saturday as were other civic leaders, indicative of the support from local government the UAB has has mustered under Clark.

Regardless of the hubbub surrounding the program this week, Clark said, it wasn't the reason the Blazers lost. "We talk all the time about playing for more than yourself and that's why this game was really special to us," he said. "But we knew it would be special for them (LA Tech). Maybe we were tighter. I don't know. I can't say that. A lot of that sounds like an excuse to me."

Ultimately, Clark said, he's proud of the support and looking forward to a resolution.

"I would say this and not to knock anybody but I wouldn't have come here for a program that wasn't gone be here," he said. "I wouldn't have left a great job, my alma mater (Jacksonville State) for that."

Having a shot at a conference title game appearance late and bowl-eligibility are only the beginning, the way Clark sees it.

"This is just the first step for us," he said. "We came and we said were going to have nothing but big-time goals, whether we got the depth, whether we got all the players. We don't care. We owe it the seniors. We're going to fight and I would think that we're going to be 100 percent better down the road."