It took one play for UAB’s protection to throw within the towel towards Military.
The Blazers lined up offsides, after which watched Black Knights quarterback Bryson Day by day blow by them for a 29-yard landing. After that first defensive play for the Blazers in a disastrous 44-10 loss, CBS Sports activities Community sideline reporter Tina Cervasio took inventory of the state of affairs.
“Proper as Military scored the landing, I seemed on the UAB sidelines,” Cervasio mentioned. “A number of downtrodden faces. They only seemed unhappy.”
With the state of this system underneath Trent Dilfer, who can blame them?
Two years in the past, this was one of many really ascendent applications within the Group of 5. UAB put collectively six straight successful seasons underneath coach Invoice Clark and rode the wave from Convention USA to the AAC. The Blazers captured two convention championships, gained three straight division titles and opened the model new Protecting Stadium.
That is the UAB that many of those gamers dedicated to signify. As a substitute, the Blazers are maybe the largest disappointments in school soccer.
Towards Military, the Blazers kicked a area aim early within the first quarter after which gave up a 27-0 run to finish the primary half. Seven of Military’s first eight drives ended with factors, and the Black Knights averaged 8.0 yards per play with 413 yards on the bottom. UAB’s few promising first-half drives ended with an interception and a turnover on downs close to the aim line.
However actually, UAB’s 34-point loss to Military was solely the newest embarrassment. In three AAC video games, the Blazers have been outscored 156-48, together with a 71-20 loss to Tulane. Amazingly, all 5 touchdowns UAB has scored in AAC play have been within the second half whereas trailing by at the least 4 touchdowns. This can be a staff that has been aggressive for primarily zero seconds towards FBS opponents.
The loss introduced the Blazers to 5-13 underneath Dilfer, which quantities to extra losses than Clark had in his ultimate three full seasons. UAB is 1-5 in 2024, together with 0-4 towards FBS opponents. This can be a program that fairly actually survived being shut down by the Alabama Board of Trustees and got here again even stronger.
It took lower than two years for Dilfer to deliver it again down.
Dilfer cannot even do the naked minimal of complimenting his personal program. He created a wave of blowback after offhandedly saying “it is not like that is freakin’ Alabama” in September. Dismissing the stature of your personal applications is a weird personal aim. Just a few days later, he doubled down, dismissing UAB as a spot the place high-level gamers would need to play volleyball whereas speaking to his personal athletic director. At $1.3 million per yr, Dilfer is paid greater than sufficient to avoid wasting a sort phrase for his personal employer.
Granted, UAB has performed three of the highest groups within the AAC to start out. After a highway journey to South Florida, the schedule opens up with dwelling video games towards Tulsa, Rice and UConn. UAB most likely will not get locked out of the win column from right here. On the identical time, Dilfer’s workers has not confirmed it will probably outcoach a brush closet.
It did not should be like this at UAB. When Clark unexpectedly retired earlier than the 2022 season, longtime assistant Bryant Vincent was elevated to interim. He led UAB to a different successful season and bowl recreation. Perhaps athletic director Mark Ingram merely did not like feeling pressured by Clark to rent Vincent, or perhaps he simply needed a splash.
As a substitute, Vincent went on to take over at ULM, one of many hardest jobs in school soccer. In his first season, the Warhawks are out to a 4-1 begin, the most effective because the program moved to FBS. In Week 2, ULM performed UAB and gained 32-6, its greatest margin towards any FBS opponent since 2018. Once more, that is Sport 2 Vincent towards Yr 2 Dilfer.
UAB swung for the fences when it employed a three-year highschool coach to guide a FBS athletic program. Sadly, the Blazers’ historic whiff may go away this system crippled.
As Dilfer advised CBS Sports activities’ John Talty for an all-access UAB story in September, “You both get fired or everybody will get on board. I am not going to vary.”
Sufficient mentioned.
