(Editor's note: Latest in a series of opponent previews that looks at more than just what occurs on the field.)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Question: What does it mean when your college football coach utters the following: "We're a Division I-A football program. That's right, this is not junior varsity. This is Division I."

A) The first step in changing things is believing it yourself.

B) You've been hearing too many comments from boosters that go something like this, "What? We have a football program?"

C) "Wait a second, you mean there's a college junior varsity?"

D) All of the above.

Welcome to the world of Garrick McGee, first-year head coach at Alabama-Birmingham, who brings an 0-2 record into the Horseshoe for what -- full ticket price aside -- is just another Athletic Department Coffers Bowl for the designated punching bag Blazers.

McGee, 39, took over the Blazers program after the football team managed just 18 wins over five seasons with coach Neil Callaway. Not that the losses were all Callaway's fault -- UAB has just three winning seasons since moving to the FBS in 1996, and none in the last eight seasons. On the other hand, they're consistent -- since 2005 the Blazers have never won more than five games or fewer than two in maintaining doormat status in Conference USA's East division.

In a state famously insane about college football, UAB is the basketball school that is nearly invisible to Alabama fans from September to early November. McGee initiated all the obligatory gestures of a program determined to be taken seriously -- new paint and carpet in the offices, a dress code for coaches -- assistants must wear collared shirts during the school year? How stuffy! -- and claims that being dwarfed in the state by the last three BCS champions (Alabama twice) is really a good thing for recruiting.

"We're fortunate that football is so important in this state," he told The Associated Press.

Well, not UAB football. The Blazers play in legendary but decaying Legion Field (capacity 71,000) and mustered just 28,612 for the home opening loss to Troy.

What hasn't changed is the school's focus on basketball, not football. The Blazers are a legitimate hard-court peer to state sister schools Alabama and Auburn -- hardly surprising considering that longtime coach Gene Bartow was the athletic director at UAB and led the basketball program for 18 seasons.

Bartow, who could have gone down in Trivial Pursuit history as simply The Guy Who Replaced John Wooden at UCLA, instead created his own legacy at Birmingham by building an athletic program from scratch. The school's athletic Web site features several pages of testimonials to Bartow, who passed away in January at 81.

A former quarterback at Oklahoma who threw for 2,449 yards in two seasons, McGee was offensive coordinator at Arkansas when hired by the Blazers, and knows Ohio State from four years as offensive coordinator at Northwestern (2004-07). He's provided some big-time pizzazz to the coaching staff by adding four assistants with NFL playing experience (Jeff Brohm, Jimmy Williams, Richard Owens and Brandon Sharp) along with former Ohio State tight ends coach Jeff Peterson, who coaches the Blazers' offensive line.

That line had a few problems protecting quarterbacks Jonathan Perry (14) and Austin Brown (11) against Jadeveon Clowney and South Carolina's potent defense in last week's 49-6 loss at Columbia, S.C.

Six South Carolina sacks against UAB

The Blazers moved the ball occasionally against South Carolina, but were overwhelmed defensively, giving up 501 yards in offense while seeing mistakes quickly and thoroughly punished -- a 65-yard fumble return for a touchdown and a 94-yard TD reception.

"If you really study the film and study the way the team played ... there's a lot of small wins that happened," McGee told reporters this week, "especially in the first 2.5 quarters of that ballgame."

Ah, why don't the multitudes appreciate a good 37 minutes the way they should?

The Blazers can't run the ball -- they managed 27 net yards in 42 attempts (including those six sacks) against South Carolina. Six receivers with double-digit career receptions returned this season, and Jacki Williams (11 catches, 18.4 avg.) seems to be the most consistent.

Defensively, well ... McGee had his own little Butch Davis moment in detailing how well his team has performed.

"I think there were maybe nine snaps in the game that they had maybe 300-plus yards in offense," he said.

Now ... wait for it ...

"The rest of the time, I think they did a really good job with it."

Not that any of this really incisive football analysis matters in a mismatch of this size.

Prediction that doesn't mean a thing: Ohio State 52, UAB 10

Odds and ends

• Some folks weren't thrilled about McGee's legal past.

• The campus is 58 percent female and some students willing to study invertebrate zoology get trips to the Bahamas and Costa Rica! To study! Really!

• UAB's nickname is a tribute to ... the Portland TrailBlazers?