The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Photo by: Ken Shepherd
UAB Football to Honor Seniors on Saturday vs. Rice
11/18/2024 4:36:00 PM | Football
BIRMINGHAM – The UAB football team will honor 19 seniors who are playing their final home game this Saturday, Nov. 23 against Rice. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
HEAD COACH TRENT DILFER:
Coach's opening statement:
"I appreciate you guys taking time on a Sunday. Tomorrow I'm having a procedure so I couldn't do it (tomorrow). Another disappointing loss. Disappointed that we had a chance there, (we) get the ball in the second half, and try to make it a game, and then it kind of fell apart on us quick. Another game with self-inflicted wounds, not making plays when we need to make plays, and incredibly disappointed, but excited about this week. (We are) honoring 19 seniors. These guys mean a lot to us. Although our record doesn't reflect it, they've been really good players and really good people in our program. So (now I'll) take some questions."
On what goes wrong in the second halves of games:
"No idea. I've tried everything, we've looked at nutrition, we've looked at meetings at halftime, we've looked at hydration, we've looked at workloads during the week, we've looked at anything. The data is remarkably bad on how bad we've been in second halves. So (it's) not something we're unaware of, (we're) just looking for solutions and we haven't found them yet.
Coach on what goes into halftime adjustments:
"They're different everywhere you know, sometimes they're fixes, sometimes they're what you're doing moving forward, you know you've seen something in the game that you think you can expose moving forward. A lot of times it's individual matchups, a guy is doing this, you know you can beat him with that, they're thick on their double teams, linebackers can run through, just the observations from the first half that you can get better at, we've done all those things. We haven't had any success whatsoever taking some things that we want to implement in the second half and applying it, but that's been common for a lot of our things this year is that, you know, there's a lot of things that we want to do that we think we can do that we get in the game and we're not able to execute."
Coach on ending the season well and what he would like to see from the team and setting the foundation for next year:
"We have to win this one. The message really hasn't changed from the offseason, it's not worked, but go 1-0. You're trying to go 1-0 each week and you can't just abandon your messaging because it hasn't worked. You keep their focus locked in on this week, I'm sure a lot of guys will have one foot in and one foot out. That's the nature of a college student athlete when things aren't going well and you have to find a way to get both feet in the boat each week. I do think playing for their seniors is an important thing if they need a little bit of extra motivation but really the motivation is "this is the next challenge" and as a competitor you're always trying to win the next one whether you're 8-2 or 2-8."
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
- UAB is 2-3 at home this season and is 14-8 overall at Protective Stadium since it opened in 2021. The Blazers own a slim 6-5 series lead over the Owls, but Rice has won each of the two previous contests over the Blazers in 2021 and 2022.
- Amare Thomas and Kam Shanks have combined for 107 of UAB's 238 catches this season (45 percent). Thomas has 56 catches this year which is currently sixth most in a single season at UAB, and he needs three more this Saturday to move up two spots into fourth place. With 51 catches, Shanks needs three more receptions to set the UAB freshman receptions record, which Thomas established last year with 53.
- Senior linebacker Michael Moore ranks fourth in the AAC in tackles per game (8.2). Moore has 82 total tackles and has turned it on of late as 60 of his total tackles have come in the last six games. He is coming off a career-high 13 tackles at Memphis and has three games of double-digit tackles this season.
HEAD COACH TRENT DILFER:
Coach's opening statement:
"I appreciate you guys taking time on a Sunday. Tomorrow I'm having a procedure so I couldn't do it (tomorrow). Another disappointing loss. Disappointed that we had a chance there, (we) get the ball in the second half, and try to make it a game, and then it kind of fell apart on us quick. Another game with self-inflicted wounds, not making plays when we need to make plays, and incredibly disappointed, but excited about this week. (We are) honoring 19 seniors. These guys mean a lot to us. Although our record doesn't reflect it, they've been really good players and really good people in our program. So (now I'll) take some questions."
On what goes wrong in the second halves of games:
"No idea. I've tried everything, we've looked at nutrition, we've looked at meetings at halftime, we've looked at hydration, we've looked at workloads during the week, we've looked at anything. The data is remarkably bad on how bad we've been in second halves. So (it's) not something we're unaware of, (we're) just looking for solutions and we haven't found them yet.
Coach on what goes into halftime adjustments:
"They're different everywhere you know, sometimes they're fixes, sometimes they're what you're doing moving forward, you know you've seen something in the game that you think you can expose moving forward. A lot of times it's individual matchups, a guy is doing this, you know you can beat him with that, they're thick on their double teams, linebackers can run through, just the observations from the first half that you can get better at, we've done all those things. We haven't had any success whatsoever taking some things that we want to implement in the second half and applying it, but that's been common for a lot of our things this year is that, you know, there's a lot of things that we want to do that we think we can do that we get in the game and we're not able to execute."
Coach on ending the season well and what he would like to see from the team and setting the foundation for next year:
"We have to win this one. The message really hasn't changed from the offseason, it's not worked, but go 1-0. You're trying to go 1-0 each week and you can't just abandon your messaging because it hasn't worked. You keep their focus locked in on this week, I'm sure a lot of guys will have one foot in and one foot out. That's the nature of a college student athlete when things aren't going well and you have to find a way to get both feet in the boat each week. I do think playing for their seniors is an important thing if they need a little bit of extra motivation but really the motivation is "this is the next challenge" and as a competitor you're always trying to win the next one whether you're 8-2 or 2-8."
Players Mentioned
Coffee with Coach | 2025 Week 4
Tuesday, September 16
UAB Athletics Live Stream
Monday, September 15
UAB Football Postgame Press Conference | Akron
Sunday, September 14
Coffee with Coach | 2025 Week 3
Tuesday, September 09
