After a long three months of practicing for no games this fall, UAB is in its home stretch.

With construction taking over UAB's practice fields for the future football operations building and covered pavilion, UAB moved its Tuesday practice to Carver High School in Birmingham. The Blazers will practice away from campus on Thursday and Saturday to close out the fall on the field.

The construction is expected to finish before the 2017 season begins.

UAB could have practiced through the end of November, but elected to slow it down in order to get everyone healthy for winter workouts.

"We've got a lot of guys we've got to get well," UAB head coach Bill Clark said. "With not having games, we've done pretty well. I don't know of a coach in America that's ever totally happy."

UAB also had three days a week of conditioning workouts, and had two "off weeks" spent away from the practice field and geared toward conditioning and academics.

"We've pushed these guys hard and they've responded," Clark said. "From that standpoint, I feel good. They've come every day and really worked like we were playing. That's easy to say and sometimes harder to do. For the most part, I've been really pleased."

The Blazers have had two open scrimmages, with the first team offense showing better on Aug. 29 and the first team defense rebounding on Oct. 20.

"Organizationally, I was pleased," Clark said. "I thought we caught the ball better. We see some spots that we've got to fill in and get better at. We'll have a few more guys coming in before we play. For the most part, the whole group has done well."

Clark and his staff will target some midyear transfers to fill needs. The midyear signing period begins on Dec. 14, and UAB will have some official visit weekends leading up to that date.

"Last year, we were almost all junior college (signees) with a few high school," Clark said. "This year still a good number of junior college, but a bigger number of high school

"We've still got some immediate needs. When you start looking at the offensive line, guys are banged up. We need a few more secondary guys and a few more defensive linemen to get numbers up to where they need to be."