He has tried to downplay it, but Bill Clark isn’t tricking anyone.

The reigning Associated Press national college football coach of the year takes his UAB Blazers up the road and into the hills on Saturday to face an opponent from the SEC, but he has tried this week to convince people a game against the University of Tennessee inside Neyland Stadium isn’t that big of a deal. He said earlier this week that he’s not rushing anyone back from injury because Southern Miss is a week away.

Meh, just Tennessee.

Upon hearing that bit of coach-foolery, I had to ask myself (with my best Cousin Eddie impersonation), “You serious, Clark?”

These days, when UAB plays an SEC opponent in football, the city of Birmingham stops to watch, and hope. That’s how it was last year against Texas A&M, and it’s even more important now. This town likes its Tide and it likes its Tigers, but everyone has a special place in their hearts for UAB.

No.2 Alabama is off this Saturday as it prepares for No.1 LSU, and that’s great for the Blazers, but it’s not why this is one of the biggest opportunities in the history of UAB football to send a message.

And, no, there will be no comparing Alabama’s closer-than-expected victory against Tennessee to anything the sister school does against the Volunteers. No one is comparing UAB to Alabama ever. Period. Get that through your conspiratorial craniums once and for all.

UAB operates in its own little Group of 5 world, and in that world Memphis has the rare national stage on Saturday.

Memphis, UAB football’s old CUSA rival, is hosting ESPN College GameDay. What a great honor for the Tigers, who will welcome college football’s signature pregame show to Beale Street on a cold Memphis morning. No.24 Memphis then plays No.15 SMU at 6:30 p.m. in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

Across the state, UAB (record: 6-1) kicks off at 6 p.m. with Big Orange, the flagship college football program in Tennessee.

This isn’t the Battle for the Bones, that glorious rivalry of smoke off the field and salt on it, but for UAB it can be something almost better. UAB can upstage old buddy Memphis on its big day and in its own state, and deliver a reminder to the American Athletic Conference that it’s not reaching its full potential as a league without the resurrected Southside Dragons.

More than likely, resurgent Tennessee (record: 3-5) will take care of business, but there’s always a chance for a team coached by Clark.

None of this should be lost on Clark and UAB director of athletics Mark Ingram, who have been making strong pushes to increase UAB’s booster club with the Ignite UAB initiative. As an institution of higher learning, UAB is on par with universities in the American Athletic Conference, but UAB athletics needs more annual donors to be taken seriously by the AAC.

UAB athletics reports having 1,862 donors while Memphis, according to UAB’s website, has around 2,700. Oh, and Memphis has corporate friend FedEx, too.

Houston, another peer metropolitan university, has 4,300 athletic donors, according to UAB. So, there’s a lot of work to do.

On the field, there is already plenty of proof UAB can thrive in the AAC and make it a stronger league, and that means one with more exposure and a bigger television reach. To begin with, UAB is 10-5 all-time against Memphis, and all of those victories came when UAB football was being run out of an old, stale dentist’s office.

The Blazers are a different program now, with a new headquarters and practice facility, and won Conference USA last season in just its second season back from the dead. Clark was named national coach of the year for the championship, and UAB then crushed Northern Illinois 37-13 in the Boca Raton Bowl.

Currently 6-1, UAB is bowl eligible for the third consecutive year since The Return after only playing in one bowl game in its entire history before being shut down. It’s amazing, really, that Clark can recruit anyone to play at Legion Field, but UAB hasn’t lost there since restarting the program.

The new downtown stadium is on the way, or course, but there have been other impressive moments for UAB lately.

Homecoming this year featured the band Weezer on the Campus Green, and I bring this up only because having events like that every year are how you build a strong donor base. It should be a no-brainer for UAB President Ray Watts to do it again. The Campus Green was packed with thousands of people, and it felt like the start of a great tradition.

Winning games against Power 5 football teams is another way to grow support. UAB lost to Texas A&M last season, and Tennessee is the only Power 5 opponent in 2019.

This isn’t the biggest game in UAB football history on Saturday, but it is one of the greatest opportunities. Best of all for UAB, it has nothing to lose. The Blazers are a 12-point underdog, and, in case you’ve forgotten, this is technically a rebuilding year for Clark.

No better time than to make a huge statement.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.