The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
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UAB Heads to San Antonio for Night Game at UTSA
10/9/2023 5:13:00 PM | Football
BIRMINGHAM – Coming off a game in which UAB put up 608 yards of total offense and defeated South Florida 56-35, the Blazers look to carry that momentum into San Antonio for a night game at UTSA this Saturday, Oct. 14. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
COACH DILFER
Opening Statement:
"I'm obviously pleased that the month of October is here. September is gone. We played better. I don't think USF played their best, which helped in the cause. The thing I was most proud of, because it was such an emotional week, was [that] I had a very short pregame speech and a very short halftime speech, and at the end of them, two different players said, 'Don't forget to play for the names on the back of the jerseys today.' I think there was something there. It wasn't just about winning the game. Probably from about Wednesday on is when it hit them that they had the opportunity to bring joy to a lot of families that were hurting, and they embraced that. I just left a service project, where 20 of our players and four of our coaches were serving food for the homeless all morning downtown. They're going to be doing that for the next three hours. Our community service hours will now be in the nine-hundreds. Our GPA is as good as it's ever been at football here. We have nobody academically on probation. Our kids are making better decisions. I say all that because it's starting to reflect itself in how we prepare and how we play. We make good decisions off the field when we're playing for something bigger than ourselves. 'Magically,' we make better decisions on the field, and we play better football."
On Coach Dilfer the day after the win:
"My Sundays don't change…I've been proud of the staff—proud of all of us—that regardless of the amount of kicks we took in the groin in September, we came up Sunday and flushed it and moved forward. [We] really prepared like champions. It didn't always show the next week, but Sunday was no different. In fact, I texted a bunch of them that night. It was funny…I texted Mort first and they had already sent out this exact text to the offense, defense, and special teams: 'No exhaling. Tomorrow, let's get better.' There was no 'pat ourselves on the back.' And I was really proud of this. I thought I might go into that locker room, and everyone would be like, 'Yeah, we just won the Super Bowl!' And instead, it was, 'No, we actually did what we were supposed to do. Now, let's enjoy it…but the next day, you've got to get better.' Next day, you've got to look yourself in the mirror. We still made way too many mistakes. But we owned it. Nobody was defensive. Not a coach was defensive. I had a couple mistakes in the game. I don't override Mort very often, but I did it on one play, and it was not a good call on my end, so there's some stuff I've got to fix. I think every coach felt that way and every player felt that way. As of last night, the guys were ready to move on and have a great [Monday]."
On how Coach Dilfer would grade the defensive performance:
"There are two grading systems. When the game was in balance, they played phenomenal. Like, phenomenal. 189 yards we'd given up at one point, and then 22 plays cost us 300 yards or something. A lot of those plays came when they were in desperation mode, and we were sputtering offensively, too. We had sputtered offensively and didn't get the 4th-and-short. [We] gave them field position another time. Didn't capitalize on the field goal, so they regained some offensive momentum late in the game, and that was a lot of their yards. In modern-day college football, you're gonna give up yards. It's so tilted toward the offense's advantage, that it's the intangible stuff. Were they running to the football? Yes. Were they fighting off blocks? Yes. Were they communicating? Yes, even when they got beat. Were they making adjustments on the sideline? Yes. Did they flinch? No. That's how I'm grading defense right now. Now obviously, you want points down, you want yards down…that's a byproduct of it. But I'm super proud of them as a group, just how they rallied against a very explosive offense."
On USF fans donating to Children's Harbor because of the team's supporting the cause:
"It was really cool. It must've been 9:30, 10 o'clock at night [on] Saturday night, and the best text I got—I got a lot of cool texts from people all over the country—was when somebody told me that. Somebody texted me and said, 'This is cool. USF fans are donating because they appreciated our team, but more importantly the cause.' What an impact, right? What a cool thing. It goes to the exposure thing. I think it goes to the way we conduct our business. But, more importantly, it goes to what Children's Harbor stands for. And the TV announcers…For that crew to make it a point to talk about Children's Harbor I think is a big deal. You have to prioritize. When you're getting ready to call a game, you can't let anything get in the way of the game. That's job number one when you're calling a live sporting event. But you have to prioritize what storylines you're going to get to, whether the score dictates it, whether it's coming out of a commercial break, whether it's a stoppage in play. For them to put Children's Harbor as the storyline speaks volumes to that crew, speaks volumes to the producer of that. They're the unsung heroes in storytelling, because they have to decide to tell the story, and they did. I think that's why the USF fans became more engaged. Even besides the cool jerseys and the different names on the back, I think the storytellers in the game have a big part to do with that."
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
- The Blazers and Roadrunners are very familiar with each other, having met each of the last six years. In what has turned into a very competitive series, UAB leads the head-to-head battle 4-3, but UTSA has won each of the last two. The previous three contests have all been decided by one possession, while the last two games have come down to the final play.
- Running back Jermaine Brown Jr. and quarterback Jacob Zeno have garnered multiple recognitions for their efforts last week against South Florida. Brown Jr. is the reigning AAC Offensive Player of the Week after tallying 18 carries for 116 yards and a career-high four rushing touchdowns. Zeno was on the AAC Honor Roll and was named to the Manning Award Stars of the Week list. Zeno was 19-of-25 for 353 yards and a career-best four passing touchdowns. Through six games, Zeno has thrown for 1,795 yards and 12 touchdowns. These two led an offensive effort that put up the most yards by an AAC team this year (608), which was just the sixth time in school history UAB has compiled 600+ yards of total offense.
- UAB's defense had its best outing of the season against the high-powered South Florida offense. UAB compiled three sacks, five tackles for loss, seven pass breakups, two interceptions, one fumble recovery and four quarterback hurries. The Blazers stifled USF quarterback Byrum Brown all day, and despite the Bulls putting up 471 yards of offense, almost half of those were in the fourth quarter when UAB had built a 35-point lead.
COACH DILFER
Opening Statement:
"I'm obviously pleased that the month of October is here. September is gone. We played better. I don't think USF played their best, which helped in the cause. The thing I was most proud of, because it was such an emotional week, was [that] I had a very short pregame speech and a very short halftime speech, and at the end of them, two different players said, 'Don't forget to play for the names on the back of the jerseys today.' I think there was something there. It wasn't just about winning the game. Probably from about Wednesday on is when it hit them that they had the opportunity to bring joy to a lot of families that were hurting, and they embraced that. I just left a service project, where 20 of our players and four of our coaches were serving food for the homeless all morning downtown. They're going to be doing that for the next three hours. Our community service hours will now be in the nine-hundreds. Our GPA is as good as it's ever been at football here. We have nobody academically on probation. Our kids are making better decisions. I say all that because it's starting to reflect itself in how we prepare and how we play. We make good decisions off the field when we're playing for something bigger than ourselves. 'Magically,' we make better decisions on the field, and we play better football."
On Coach Dilfer the day after the win:
"My Sundays don't change…I've been proud of the staff—proud of all of us—that regardless of the amount of kicks we took in the groin in September, we came up Sunday and flushed it and moved forward. [We] really prepared like champions. It didn't always show the next week, but Sunday was no different. In fact, I texted a bunch of them that night. It was funny…I texted Mort first and they had already sent out this exact text to the offense, defense, and special teams: 'No exhaling. Tomorrow, let's get better.' There was no 'pat ourselves on the back.' And I was really proud of this. I thought I might go into that locker room, and everyone would be like, 'Yeah, we just won the Super Bowl!' And instead, it was, 'No, we actually did what we were supposed to do. Now, let's enjoy it…but the next day, you've got to get better.' Next day, you've got to look yourself in the mirror. We still made way too many mistakes. But we owned it. Nobody was defensive. Not a coach was defensive. I had a couple mistakes in the game. I don't override Mort very often, but I did it on one play, and it was not a good call on my end, so there's some stuff I've got to fix. I think every coach felt that way and every player felt that way. As of last night, the guys were ready to move on and have a great [Monday]."
On how Coach Dilfer would grade the defensive performance:
"There are two grading systems. When the game was in balance, they played phenomenal. Like, phenomenal. 189 yards we'd given up at one point, and then 22 plays cost us 300 yards or something. A lot of those plays came when they were in desperation mode, and we were sputtering offensively, too. We had sputtered offensively and didn't get the 4th-and-short. [We] gave them field position another time. Didn't capitalize on the field goal, so they regained some offensive momentum late in the game, and that was a lot of their yards. In modern-day college football, you're gonna give up yards. It's so tilted toward the offense's advantage, that it's the intangible stuff. Were they running to the football? Yes. Were they fighting off blocks? Yes. Were they communicating? Yes, even when they got beat. Were they making adjustments on the sideline? Yes. Did they flinch? No. That's how I'm grading defense right now. Now obviously, you want points down, you want yards down…that's a byproduct of it. But I'm super proud of them as a group, just how they rallied against a very explosive offense."
On USF fans donating to Children's Harbor because of the team's supporting the cause:
"It was really cool. It must've been 9:30, 10 o'clock at night [on] Saturday night, and the best text I got—I got a lot of cool texts from people all over the country—was when somebody told me that. Somebody texted me and said, 'This is cool. USF fans are donating because they appreciated our team, but more importantly the cause.' What an impact, right? What a cool thing. It goes to the exposure thing. I think it goes to the way we conduct our business. But, more importantly, it goes to what Children's Harbor stands for. And the TV announcers…For that crew to make it a point to talk about Children's Harbor I think is a big deal. You have to prioritize. When you're getting ready to call a game, you can't let anything get in the way of the game. That's job number one when you're calling a live sporting event. But you have to prioritize what storylines you're going to get to, whether the score dictates it, whether it's coming out of a commercial break, whether it's a stoppage in play. For them to put Children's Harbor as the storyline speaks volumes to that crew, speaks volumes to the producer of that. They're the unsung heroes in storytelling, because they have to decide to tell the story, and they did. I think that's why the USF fans became more engaged. Even besides the cool jerseys and the different names on the back, I think the storytellers in the game have a big part to do with that."
Players Mentioned
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