Head Coach: Trent Dilfer is entering his 3rd season with the program with a 7-17 record. It was an aggressive move to bring him in as he was previously a high school coach and a prominent TV personality before that. Dilfer also won a Super Bowl in his playing days. His time at UAB hasn’t been smooth and it’s impossible to avoid that he’s lost the fanbase at this point. His infamous public comment “this isn’t Alabama” enraged the fanbase because he had no awareness of the situation. UAB and Alabama might be the most hating off field rivalry in the sport, I mean Alabama in the past actively tried to kill this program. Dilfer enters 2024 with only one way to win them back, winning and even that may not be enough.
Program Outlook: UAB had the wildest program arc in the last decade. This point 10 years ago they had terminated the program, UAB football was done but it was met with great outrage from their fans. Eventually a massive campaign brought it back and turned their absence into essentially a death penalty given to them by their own president (he’s still holding this position somehow!) UAB football returned with little expectations on the field in 2017, but immediately won 8 games their best ever FBS season to that point. They took a step above the next year, winning 11 games and a conference championship, and by 2020 they had 2 more conference championship appearances, 1 of those being a win. The renaissance of UAB football led to them getting into the AAC but it’s proven to be tough sledding in recent years.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: UAB ranks 114th in the country returning 40% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players starts with QB Jalen Kitna, it’s been a long road for him but he’s proven to be a solid player that needs to cut back on the turnovers. He will have a nice big play threat in WR Corri Milliner who really became a factor in helping the offense take a step forward in November, and Kaleb Brown will hopefully be a factor as well. Jevon Jackson comes in after being really solid at UTEP, he will instantly make an impact. On the defense, Safety Sirad Bryant is the most impactful player still around from last year’s defense. The portal has been utilized to revamp the rest of the defense. Some of the more intriguing players they added were corner Perry Fisher (Maryland), LBs Eli Ennis (Nichols) and Devin Hightower (Rhode Island). The biggest question mark for this team is in the trenches on both sides. The offensive line was a swinging gate for both run and pass plays, while the Dline couldn’t get after opposing QBs nor could it provide much resistance against the run. It will be a completely new offensive line this year and the Dline has been revamped by the portal as well.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: UAB’s schedule provides some opportunities but it’s not going to help them overall. The Blazers non-conference starts out with a cool in-state game against Alabama State who went 7-5 at the FCS level last year and then the Blazers have a critical swing game against Akron. A game at Tennessee will be rough and going on the road in November against a UConn team that won 9 games last year won’t help. The AAC schedule features 5 games against contenders and 3 against rebuilding programs so that doesn’t cut them many breaks either. It would require a lot of improvement to reach bowl eligibility against this slate.
Final Thoughts: This is a critical season for Trent Dilfer and UAB. If this is ever going to work they need to win games and it shows with the complete portal overhaul that happened. There’s a lot the Blazers could clean up that will help, they were one of the worst teams in the country with turnovers finishing with -12 and they gave up lots of ground with penalties. Fixing both issues could go a long way toward making a bowl.
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