By late November both staffs will have had a full season to figure out who they actually are. Alex Mortensen will be a full year into calling plays as UAB's head coach without ever hiring a true offensive coordinator, while Neal Brown will be trying to keep a completely rebuilt North Texas team competitive after the program's best season ever set impossible expectations.
UAB's argument for staying relevant into November is the run game. The Blazers brought in Georgia transfer Rod Robinson, Coastal Carolina's Ja'Vin Simpkins and speed threat Bam McReynolds behind a line that returns starters at guard and center, and that group is supposed to be why UAB can still put up 400-plus yards a game even with the defense in flux. North Texas leans the other way, betting that Jackson and running back Jahiem White — a West Virginia transfer replacing 2025's leading rusher — have enough starting experience to hold an offense together while the defense figures itself out.
Neither team is walking into Friday, November 27 with a settled identity, which is exactly what makes this one interesting for the neutral. Two rosters this heavily rebuilt rarely play it safe — expect mistakes, expect some big plays given how thin both secondaries project, and expect a game that tells you more about 2027 than it does about either team's ceiling right now.