By Evan Dudley, special to AL.com

The early signing period, set this year for Dec. 20-22, is going to be a new challenge for coaches across the country as they begin bowl preparations and UAB head coach Bill Clark is no exception.



The unique challenge for Clark and his staff is the entire team will be a thousand miles away in the Bahamas as the signed letters of intent start rolling in for the early signing period. Although they are in an entirely different country, Clark has ensured the necessities are there to prevent any complications in the process.



"We do have phone service, that was checked on last week, and so we'll be dealing with that along with practice," he said. "We practice mornings so it's going to be interesting."





The Blazers are in a somewhat fortuitous position - relative to the sorting of JUCO and high school players - heading into the early signing period despite currently ranking eighth in Conference USA according to 247Sports team rankings.



They have three commitments from junior college products with the addition of Jones County Junior College offensive tackle Colby Ragland, who committed last week. He plans to enroll early along with the other two Blazers' JUCO commits, Butler Community College receiver Myron Mitchell and Dodge City Community College receiver Austin Watkins.



Depending on the recruiting service, the Blazers have between eight and eleven high school recruits committed - three times the amount of JUCO players - heading into the early signing period. UAB has also added a string of high-profile transfers in the last week including Jarrion Street from Ole Miss and Kingston Davis from Michigan.



Clark, like many of his peers, is intrigued by what will actually happen this week as he goes through the early signing period for the first time.



"With these high school guys there's such a connotation with that first Wednesday in February, that's a big deal, and I think there's some trepidation there on signing early and what does that mean to them," Clark said. "I know that's a big day and maybe in some of their minds it's almost like it's been taken away from them so I'll be interested to see, even guys that we know are coming here, if some of them don't sign. I hope they do, a guy that's truly committed should go ahead and do it."