BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- It's a miserable start to the morning. All of downtown Birmingham feels empty, cold and wet. The sun hasn't come out, and the rain hasn't stopped since the night before, when tornadoes swept through the state. It's 5:30 a.m., yet Bill Clark is at the UAB football offices moving a mile a minute.
"You comin' in?" the 47-year-old coach asks in a syrupy Southern drawl, passing a BLAZER FOOTBALL COUNTDOWN clock that has been shut off for more than a year.
Mind you, he's leaving the building -- not entering it to start his day.