The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Photo by: Ken Shepherd
UAB to Host UConn at Protective Stadium on Saturday
11/4/2024 2:40:00 PM | Football
BIRMINGHAM – UAB and UConn will meet on the gridiron for the first time this Saturday, Nov. 9 at Protective Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
HEAD COACH TRENT DILFER:
Opening Statement:
"Thanks for being here. Obviously pleased with our team's performance. Really happy for the boys. You know they've been so resilient, (it's) so easy to jump off the ship when you're not having success and this group has been really resilient in their approach. I kept telling you, I know nobody believed me, I stopped believing in myself at some point that we were practicing at really high level, we just weren't seeing the fruit of our labor on Saturdays and we finally saw the fruit of our labor in all three phases. (I'm) pleased to see that. I think it's affirmation for them. You could even sense they had some voluntary stuff yesterday in the weight room and you could sense the energy and enthusiasm getting ready to get back to work tonight when we meet when we have some walkthroughs. So with that, any questions?"
On the offensive line rotation on Saturday:
"I think that's why we can do it, Steve, you know I would never even consider it without Brady Wilson. Brady's command of the offense, his ability to communicate, his leadership, and his play. I mean he's played at a very high level for two years now for us. Unfortunately, he doesn't get a lot of recognition for it. But we watch centers from around the conference and he's as good as any center in the conference. So we had confidence knowing, you know we have good offensive linemen that just haven't played a lot so we wanted them to play, we wanted our offensive line to be a little fresher, we've had long drives this year, and this was not the case Saturday but we've had a lot of long drives this year that just haven't resulted in touchdowns. As I went back and looked at them, a lot of it was fatigue up front, physical and mental. I think one game we had a 16-play drive that ended in a field goal, a 13-play drive that ended in a field goal, at Army we couldn't finish. We had multiple games where we were unable to finish. So really the thought there was to give us a better chance to finish in the red zone. It didn't really come up because we kind of scored from the strike zone more than marching it in. You never know when that's going to happen. It wasn't like we went in saying, "oh, we're going to score a bunch of long touchdowns.' That wasn't really the thought. I'm glad it happened. Anyways, that was the thought behind it, I think we'll continue to get those guys playing time, and there's competition, you know, I'll point out Calib Perez. Caleb Perez played at an incredibly high level in his 12 to 14 snaps that he played, so he'll have a chance this week to earn more playing time if he continues to practice like he practiced and played."
On the offensive line attributing to Jalen Kitna's success:
"I think it's all around. Jalen played at an incredibly high level. He made five to seven plays in that game that were NFL starter quality, but better than that, he saved us from some bad calls. We had some calls, the bad ones are usually mine, the good ones are usually Mort's. I made a couple of bad calls into the wrong defense and he really saved us on those. But yeah the offensive line, the ability to change the launch point, change the protections I think helped. Our receivers played at a high level. I think they got open early. The little we ran the ball, I think our backs actually ran it really well. That was a team, you know their number one mentality is to create a wall at the line of scrimmage and don't let you run the football. So we weren't going to bang our heads up against the wall against them so that's why we led with the pass and everybody kind of rallied and responded."
On bottling up the emotions of winning going forward:
"Like I said, I think it's affirmation to the process, you know, it's hard to buy into the process when you're not seeing the results. It's hard for all of us. Now luckily for some of us old people have done it long enough to know that if you do winning things enough over time it equals winning. But you can say that all you want to young people, and they're like, "well, I want to win now, you know, I want my hamburger now, that's why I'm going through the drive-thru, you know, I'm grilling it." I think it was a payoff, it was a payoff for a lot of hard work, a lot of resilience, a lot of stick-to-it-ness so that's the biggest thing. I've always been a flush guy, whether you win or lose, you have 24 hours to kind of sit in it and then you flush it and move on. I mean I flushed this one really early yesterday. I got in here after church, watched it again, graded it, and I was probably done by 3:00 with the game, and then moved on to UConn. We're already deep into the UConn prep and not really thinking much about the last game."
Ticket's to Saturday's game are available by clicking here.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
- Both teams are coming off wins following UAB's 59-21 victory over Tulsa, while UConn defeated Georgia State 34-27 to earn bowl eligibility. UConn brings a 6-3 overall record to Birmingham and the Huskies are playing their first road game since Sept. 14 after six consecutive home games at Rentschler Field in Hartford.
- Quarterback Jalen Kitna and wide receiver Kam Shanks are coming off record setting performances and are the reigning AAC Offensive and Special Teams Players of the Week. Kitna was 25-of-32 for 404 yards and six passing touchdowns, while Shanks had 311 all-purpose yards and four total touchdowns (153 rec., 3 TD – 139 punt return yards, TD – 19 rush yards). Kitna's six touchdown passes established a new FBS school record, while Shanks' 311 all-purpose yards are the most in the FBS this season and his 139 punt return yards are a new single game school record.
- Not to be overshadowed, the UAB defense had its best performance of the season. The defense helped the Blazers build a 45-0 lead late into the second quarter, and was up 59-14 until Tulsa scored a touchdown with 24 seconds remaining in the game. The Blazers compiled three sacks, 10 TFL, four pass breakups, an interception and Michael Moore recovered a fumble on special teams. Moore ranks eighth in the AAC in tackles per game at 7.63.
HEAD COACH TRENT DILFER:
Opening Statement:
"Thanks for being here. Obviously pleased with our team's performance. Really happy for the boys. You know they've been so resilient, (it's) so easy to jump off the ship when you're not having success and this group has been really resilient in their approach. I kept telling you, I know nobody believed me, I stopped believing in myself at some point that we were practicing at really high level, we just weren't seeing the fruit of our labor on Saturdays and we finally saw the fruit of our labor in all three phases. (I'm) pleased to see that. I think it's affirmation for them. You could even sense they had some voluntary stuff yesterday in the weight room and you could sense the energy and enthusiasm getting ready to get back to work tonight when we meet when we have some walkthroughs. So with that, any questions?"
On the offensive line rotation on Saturday:
"I think that's why we can do it, Steve, you know I would never even consider it without Brady Wilson. Brady's command of the offense, his ability to communicate, his leadership, and his play. I mean he's played at a very high level for two years now for us. Unfortunately, he doesn't get a lot of recognition for it. But we watch centers from around the conference and he's as good as any center in the conference. So we had confidence knowing, you know we have good offensive linemen that just haven't played a lot so we wanted them to play, we wanted our offensive line to be a little fresher, we've had long drives this year, and this was not the case Saturday but we've had a lot of long drives this year that just haven't resulted in touchdowns. As I went back and looked at them, a lot of it was fatigue up front, physical and mental. I think one game we had a 16-play drive that ended in a field goal, a 13-play drive that ended in a field goal, at Army we couldn't finish. We had multiple games where we were unable to finish. So really the thought there was to give us a better chance to finish in the red zone. It didn't really come up because we kind of scored from the strike zone more than marching it in. You never know when that's going to happen. It wasn't like we went in saying, "oh, we're going to score a bunch of long touchdowns.' That wasn't really the thought. I'm glad it happened. Anyways, that was the thought behind it, I think we'll continue to get those guys playing time, and there's competition, you know, I'll point out Calib Perez. Caleb Perez played at an incredibly high level in his 12 to 14 snaps that he played, so he'll have a chance this week to earn more playing time if he continues to practice like he practiced and played."
On the offensive line attributing to Jalen Kitna's success:
"I think it's all around. Jalen played at an incredibly high level. He made five to seven plays in that game that were NFL starter quality, but better than that, he saved us from some bad calls. We had some calls, the bad ones are usually mine, the good ones are usually Mort's. I made a couple of bad calls into the wrong defense and he really saved us on those. But yeah the offensive line, the ability to change the launch point, change the protections I think helped. Our receivers played at a high level. I think they got open early. The little we ran the ball, I think our backs actually ran it really well. That was a team, you know their number one mentality is to create a wall at the line of scrimmage and don't let you run the football. So we weren't going to bang our heads up against the wall against them so that's why we led with the pass and everybody kind of rallied and responded."
On bottling up the emotions of winning going forward:
"Like I said, I think it's affirmation to the process, you know, it's hard to buy into the process when you're not seeing the results. It's hard for all of us. Now luckily for some of us old people have done it long enough to know that if you do winning things enough over time it equals winning. But you can say that all you want to young people, and they're like, "well, I want to win now, you know, I want my hamburger now, that's why I'm going through the drive-thru, you know, I'm grilling it." I think it was a payoff, it was a payoff for a lot of hard work, a lot of resilience, a lot of stick-to-it-ness so that's the biggest thing. I've always been a flush guy, whether you win or lose, you have 24 hours to kind of sit in it and then you flush it and move on. I mean I flushed this one really early yesterday. I got in here after church, watched it again, graded it, and I was probably done by 3:00 with the game, and then moved on to UConn. We're already deep into the UConn prep and not really thinking much about the last game."
Ticket's to Saturday's game are available by clicking here.
Players Mentioned
QB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
OL
/ Football
WR
/ Football
OL
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