The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Photo by: Ken Shepherd
UAB Travels to ULM for Week 2 Road Contest
9/2/2024 11:18:00 AM | Football
BIRMINGHAM – Coming off a 38-point victory over Alcorn State to open the 2024 season, the UAB football team travels to Monroe, Louisiana this Saturday, Sept. 7 for a Week 2 road contest at ULM. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
HEAD COACH TRENT DILFER:
Opening Statement:
"Obviously were pleased with getting a win to start the season, I don't think satisfied, but pleased… Big challenge ahead I mean, we're 1-6 in Week 2 since the program has come back and 0-6 under my tenure on the road. So, a lot working against us, and a staff at ULM that knows us intimately. Knows our schemes, knows our systems, knows our terminology, knows our philosophies… A staff we respect a lot. They've done a really good job recruiting since BV (Bryant Vincent) has been there, getting longer players, more athletic players. They had a good win; I think we have our work cut out for us."
Dilfer on his relationship with former UAB interim head coach and current ULM head coach Bryan Vincent:
"It was an uncomfortable start for both of us. We were sharing this office for two and a half weeks and he was great, the first day I was here he said "I'm getting out of here, I'll go work somewhere else" I'm like "no, this is your football team until after the bowl game" and I sat right there in that corner and he sat at his desk and we spent hours together talking about the history at UAB, his experience, the football team that he was leaving, things he wanted to accomplish but didn't get the chance to, went through the roster player-by-player, went through coaches. So, he was extremely helpful with onboarding. I'd say, he gave me a couple months head-start with that. I have a great deal of respect for him as a man, as a person. His coaches that he, I don't want to say took from us but, were on our staff are great coaches, guys that I felt like I was going to be with for a long time, so he obviously can identify coaching talent. So, again, no hard feelings that those coaches are with him, I don't blame him. They were elevated and that's part of this business, but it all adds up to a unique challenge.
Dilfer on the importance of matching opponent's emotion in a game:
"You have to match it the right way. If it's who can scream the loudest and break the most chairs in the locker room, I don't know if that's the right type of emotion. We're still learning our emotional peak performance as a football team. I think it's a really important thing to learn as a unit, and there's a lot of research behind that, it's not just my opinion, there's a lot of research in the human performance world around what is peak emotional performance. I think one of the things I did at Lipscomb was really search for that with those teams, you know, you're doing it with a different demographic but it's still important. And then once we found that, you know, we knew every week: road, home, big game, cupcake, it didn't matter. When you find your peak emotional performance spot you're going to play your best ball."
Dilfer on challenge of game planning against a quarterback with limited film:
"Early season game planning is difficult because you got to, well one, you have one game of this group together. So, schematically, this is what they're doing with this group of people and then you go back in their coaching career and kind of figure out what they do schematically with different personnel and you're trying to piece it together, but at the end of the day it's a guessing game. I think you have to be prepared for everything, and then ultimately you got to make sure players and coaches are focusing on them. If we take care of what we want to take care of we're going to play our best football. If you get so caught up in what could happen, you lose sight of what you need to do which is go execute the plays that are called and do what you've done in training camp. You know, you look at training camp as a pretty good barometer on how you react to different looks because every day is different. You're not getting the same looks every day. This is very much like a training camp practice/game where you just go trust your rules and trust what you do and whatever they present to you, you should have an answer be pretty well prepared."
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
- The Blazers put up 517 yards of total offense in the season opener against Alcorn State, and dating back to last season, UAB has had over 500 yards of total offense in three straight games. In 13 games under the direction of Trent Dilfer, UAB has gone over 500 yards of offense five times. Prior to his arrival, UAB had 500 yards of offense 35 times from 1991-2022.
- UAB looks to tackle its Week 2 woes and is 1-6 during Week 2 games dating back to the 2017 season, all of which have come on the road. UAB's lone win during that span came at Akron in 2019. Dilfer also looks for his first road win as a Blazer after dropping all six games on the road last year. With a win, it would come against former UAB interim head coach Bryant Vincent, who has a total of 18 coaches/support staff/players who were on UAB's roster in 2022 or prior.
- Redshirt freshman Kam Shanks had a standout performance against Alcorn State with 171 all-purpose yards, highlighted by his 57-yard punt return for a touchdown. Shanks led UAB receivers in catches (6) and yards (73), which were both career highs, and also had three punt returns for 98 yards. It was UAB's first punt return for a TD since 2013, and his 98 punt return yards (and 32.7 average) were the second most nationally in Week 1.
HEAD COACH TRENT DILFER:
Opening Statement:
"Obviously were pleased with getting a win to start the season, I don't think satisfied, but pleased… Big challenge ahead I mean, we're 1-6 in Week 2 since the program has come back and 0-6 under my tenure on the road. So, a lot working against us, and a staff at ULM that knows us intimately. Knows our schemes, knows our systems, knows our terminology, knows our philosophies… A staff we respect a lot. They've done a really good job recruiting since BV (Bryant Vincent) has been there, getting longer players, more athletic players. They had a good win; I think we have our work cut out for us."
Dilfer on his relationship with former UAB interim head coach and current ULM head coach Bryan Vincent:
"It was an uncomfortable start for both of us. We were sharing this office for two and a half weeks and he was great, the first day I was here he said "I'm getting out of here, I'll go work somewhere else" I'm like "no, this is your football team until after the bowl game" and I sat right there in that corner and he sat at his desk and we spent hours together talking about the history at UAB, his experience, the football team that he was leaving, things he wanted to accomplish but didn't get the chance to, went through the roster player-by-player, went through coaches. So, he was extremely helpful with onboarding. I'd say, he gave me a couple months head-start with that. I have a great deal of respect for him as a man, as a person. His coaches that he, I don't want to say took from us but, were on our staff are great coaches, guys that I felt like I was going to be with for a long time, so he obviously can identify coaching talent. So, again, no hard feelings that those coaches are with him, I don't blame him. They were elevated and that's part of this business, but it all adds up to a unique challenge.
Dilfer on the importance of matching opponent's emotion in a game:
"You have to match it the right way. If it's who can scream the loudest and break the most chairs in the locker room, I don't know if that's the right type of emotion. We're still learning our emotional peak performance as a football team. I think it's a really important thing to learn as a unit, and there's a lot of research behind that, it's not just my opinion, there's a lot of research in the human performance world around what is peak emotional performance. I think one of the things I did at Lipscomb was really search for that with those teams, you know, you're doing it with a different demographic but it's still important. And then once we found that, you know, we knew every week: road, home, big game, cupcake, it didn't matter. When you find your peak emotional performance spot you're going to play your best ball."
Dilfer on challenge of game planning against a quarterback with limited film:
"Early season game planning is difficult because you got to, well one, you have one game of this group together. So, schematically, this is what they're doing with this group of people and then you go back in their coaching career and kind of figure out what they do schematically with different personnel and you're trying to piece it together, but at the end of the day it's a guessing game. I think you have to be prepared for everything, and then ultimately you got to make sure players and coaches are focusing on them. If we take care of what we want to take care of we're going to play our best football. If you get so caught up in what could happen, you lose sight of what you need to do which is go execute the plays that are called and do what you've done in training camp. You know, you look at training camp as a pretty good barometer on how you react to different looks because every day is different. You're not getting the same looks every day. This is very much like a training camp practice/game where you just go trust your rules and trust what you do and whatever they present to you, you should have an answer be pretty well prepared."
Players Mentioned
WR
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