No one involved with the UAB offense attempts to hide that the first offensive option is quarterback Joe Webb.

UAB ran 67 plays in its season-opening loss to Tulsa and Webb either ran the ball or threw a pass on 49 of those plays. The fact that he produced 305 yards and two touchdowns is the good news. But project the number of hits he took over 12 weeks and you see the bad news.

It's up to the UAB running backs to ease some of the offensive load on Webb, beginning on Saturday when the Blazers travel to Fort Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium for a non-conference game against Florida Atlantic. UAB plays at Tennessee the following week.

"They want Joe to make his plays but they don't want him to take too much," said running back Jim Mitchell. "They want us to carry our load."

Before that happens, however, the four running backs in the mix right now have to get settled in a rotation. Mitchell, Aaron Johns and Rashaud Slaughter played in the loss to Tulsa. Justin Brooks stayed on the sideline throughout the opener but is expected to get some carries eventually. Mitchell had 10 carries, Johns five and Slaughter three with each also catching one pass.

Johns said sharing the ball takes some adjustment.

"I got the ball, what, five times?" he said. "That's still not enough to know what the defense is capable of. The more you get the ball, the more you know how hard it's going to be to make this guy miss, how fast this guy is, cutting you off at an angle. Certain things like that make you know what to be ready for in the fourth quarter."

UAB coach Neil Callaway has a solution.

"I would like to narrow it down, let them decide on the field who is the (No. 1) guy," Callaway said.

It appeared as if Brooks might have been headed toward doing that early in camp but he was slowed a few days by a leg injury. Johns impressed in the first scrimmage and appeared on his way to grabbing a firm hold on the starter's spot but he missed the second scrimmage and was limited in the final scrimmage because of a hamstring problem. Slaughter simply got a late start, moving over from wide receiver after camp started.

That left Mitchell, whose steady camp earned him the start against Tulsa.

They didn't play badly as a group in the opener. Mitchell said the goal was for each running back to average at least 4 yards per carry. They succeeded. Johns averaged 9.6 yards per carry, while Mitchell and Slaughter each gained 4.7 yards per carry.

The mixture of the three also gave the defense a different look, which Mitchell believes is an advantage.

"If all the running backs run the same style, like juking or downhill guys, I think the defense just gets used to it," Mitchell said. "If we change it up, we keep them confused."

But the objective for each of the running backs is to get the bulk of the carries behind Webb.

"I definitely want to be the guy," Johns said. "All the running backs are close friends but that doesn't keep me from wanting to be that No. 1 guy."