One of our players confirmed a reporter's statement that UAB refused to shake hands with USM players at the coin toss.

I "get" smack talk and because of geography and conference affiliation would enjoy having a nice rivalry with UAB. However, there must be something else to this that I am not hearing, as refusing to shake hands before a game is poor sportsmanship.

Please share the rest of the story.

There's been a lot of talk about "the rivalry" in the last few days. McGee alluded to negative recruiting tactics by USM, blah blah blah. I don't get it--but that's interesting that they refused to shake hands. I don't think that's called for. I also thought the last TD run was uncalled for, but maybe that's why Monken did it. McGee said he didn't have a problem.

Oh well--congrats on a good win yesterday! I am hopeful that we keep this game the last week of the season, but due to the Iron Bowl, I would have rather played it Friday.

(12-01-2013 02:48 PM)Eagle in the gym Wrote:  One of our players confirmed a reporter's statement that UAB refused to shake hands with USM players at the coin toss.

I "get" smack talk and because of geography and conference affiliation would enjoy having a nice rivalry with UAB. However, there must be something else to this that I am not hearing, as refusing to shake hands before a game is poor sportsmanship.

Please share the rest of the story.

Since no one on this board played in the game, I think you are asking the wrong people.

(12-01-2013 03:47 PM)FNblazer Wrote:  There's been a lot of talk about "the rivalry" in the last few days. McGee alluded to negative recruiting tactics by USM, blah blah blah. I don't get it--but that's interesting that they refused to shake hands. I don't think that's called for. I also thought the last TD run was uncalled for, but maybe that's why Monken did it. McGee said he didn't have a problem.

Oh well--congrats on a good win yesterday! I am hopeful that we keep this game the last week of the season, but due to the Iron Bowl, I would have rather played it Friday.

I can only guess that this one is about Nick Mullens. After MSU flipped Damian Williams from us fairly late after we had been recruiting him for a long time, we in turn flipped Mullens from UAB. It wasn't as if we had just started recruiting Mullens, but he just wasn't looking to go to us with Williams already here in the same class.

Also, that weekend is rough for us and you guys both as there is the Golden Egg on Thursday, the Golden Boot on Friday, and the Iron Bowl on Saturday.

Kids would still rather play at USM than at most SunMACusa schools. We've got to make something out of that. Yesterday we did, and that's good news.

All season long teams have been doing chicken **** things against us that betrayed the fact that they expected to win. I'm thinking of fake field goals, trick plays, and the like. UAB tried their own little stunt and it just pissed off our team, and UAB got their asses beat. It was bound to happen eventually.

Unless I'm mistaken, Mullins wasn't the only one that "flipped' in his commitment, 6-8 players that time of year did the same, most of them eluded to the lack of quality, modern facilities. Most recruits want that "full college experience" meaning, they want to play their games on campus. All UAB has to "showcase" is a septic tank of stadium owned by the city, who ought to be ashamed that after all these years, this is the best they have to offer anyone wanting to play "big time" football here.

Recruiting is a battlefield and if you don't have the right "artillery"(facilities, fan base, etc.), you're going to lose more times than you win. Southern Miss has an on-campus stadium and top notch facilities to hone their gridiron craft as well as a dedicated, zealous fan base. UAB has legion field. UAB is going to lose to USM in recruiting overall, it's like bringing a knife to a gun fight... Enough said. As for the alleged snub, I didn't notice that before the game, and afterward, most of our players did come to midfield to shake hands. I looked for McGee, but couldn't find him in the crowd, that's not to say he wasn't there to offer congratulations.