Cornerback goes from position of need to strength for uab’s 2024 recruiting class
Photo by Ken Shepherd
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 30, 2024
On paper, cornerback looks to be a UAB football strength heading into summer workouts. Not long ago, cornerback was perhaps UAB’s biggest concern when it comes to individual positions. The transfer portal is largely responsible for both statements.
Trent Dilfer’s team lost their top three cornerbacks – Mac McWilliams, Colby Dempsey and BJ Mayes – to the transfer portal since the conclusion of the 2023 season. McWilliams and Dempsey, the team’s cornerback starters in the spring, announced their intention to leave on April 30, which was the final day that non-graduates could enter the transfer portal. Mayes left in December and landed at Texas A&M.
“On paper, it looks bleak,” UAB head coach Trent Dilfer said of the feeling after McWilliams and Dempsey said they were leaving.
Now the paper says something different.
How did it reach that point?
It began with adding transfer portal cornerbacks Troy Jakubec (Youngstown State), Tariq Watson (Minnesota) and Donald Lee (Grambling). Perhaps the best place to start in answering that question, though, is starting at the end of the process. In this case, the final piece of solving the dilemma was welcoming Dempsey back to the program.
“I think it’s massive,” Dilfer said. “We started recruiting other corners after we got Troy. There was really only one other kid we thought would be maybe an upgrade of equal to Demps. The portal, in the corner list, as we were going through it like every other team, we valued Colby a lot. We understood why he went into the portal, too. I never once was mad. We were talking while he was in the portal. We were trying to do what was best for Demps, as with all these kids. Like I said when this thing first started, I want to do what’s best for the kid.”
Dilfer said he noticed while talking Dempsey through the process that staying at UAB was a strong possibility.
“It just became obvious that he wanted to be here and he never really wanted to leave,” Dilfer said. “He needed to be compensated to a certain degree and we were able to pool some resources to allow that to happen. Now, we feel like we have a starter back, which is good. And we’ve gotten better overall in the secondary.”
Obviously, the UAB coaching staff knew what they were getting with Dempsey. How did they quickly identify the other targets?
“You always keep a running tab on everybody in the country, whether it be (players with a previous) relationships (or) a guy from the region we recruit,” said UAB recruiting coordinator Tristan Henderson. “You always keep tabs on them. When the (spring) portal opens April 15, you’re literally in it every second of the day and you’re vetting these guys as much as you can. As soon as their name hits the portal, you vet the film and if he fits what we’re trying to do, then it’s all hands on deck trying to get this guy on the phone. Get the position coach on the phone with him and, from there, it’s kind of up the chain.”
Dilfer said the evaluation process of a transfer portal player – particularly one in the spring period – is unique.
“You know that the data suggests that May transfers are less successful than December transfers,” Dilfer said. “There’s a lot of data to show, with limited sample size, that May portal additions have been less productive overall than December portal additions. They don’t get to go through spring ball, they don’t get to culturally adapt, they don’t get to learn the systems. We knew that. It goes to being realistic about your situation. I think one of the main things I’ve learned is you have to be ultra-aware of all the information that’s out there, the realities of the past few years on how the system has worked.”
Analytics are a big part of the evaluation.
“We identified a certain type of player,” Dilfer said. “They have to be football savvy. They had to have played. They had to have played in big moments. They had to have been thrown out there. There is data, statistical evidence, through modern technology that allows us to say, ‘OK, there were ‘X’ amount of throws at this guy.’ (You know) quarterback rating against, completion percentage against (and other key stats). You’re not just recruiting talent, you’re recruiting a player. In high school, many times you’re recruiting talent.”
UAB coaches were able to close the deal on three players who fit the criteria. Dilfer said he would also include Youngstown State transfer safety Tyjon Jones to the group that made the secondary better. Put each of their careers together and you get 115 games of college football experience coming into this season. Add in Dempsey and that number grows to 148 games.
“These guys have played a lot of football, they’ve seen a lot of football,” Dilfer said. “They’ve learned a lot of systems, they’ve had different coaches. And then they had this professionalism, which I kind of made the focus. We’re looking for kids that have a certain degree of professionalism already instilled in them.”
Dilfer said the Blazers now enter summer workouts in good shape in both depth and talent at the cornerback position.
“I don’t want to discount what we already had,” Dilfer said. “We feel really good about Ricky Lee (and) hope Trey Miles comes back from injury strong and be ready to compete. Nashir (Basir) and T’sai (McDaniel) had really good springs, two young corners that are trying to make a mark. We felt good about all the young guys. But, then to bring in a professional habits type guy that’s very talented in Troy, an elite athlete that’s played good football in Tariq and you get Demps back, we feel like we’ll be better in the secondary, significantly better than what we were last year.”
Cornerback wasn’t the only position on defense in need of bolstering during the spring. In fact, Dilfer said the “No. 1 point of focus” after spring was adding some help on the defensive line. The objective wasn’t necessarily to solely get better but just as importantly to get veteran help. Dilfer said they did that with the addition of Cincinnati transfer Derrick Shepard Jr. and Ole Miss transfer Demarcus Smith.
“Everybody knows, one of the biggest things we didn’t do last year was stop the run,” Henderson said. “We got two guys that can absolutely plug gaps. We got two guys that can get off the line. On third down, those guys can wreak havoc on the inside so that quarterback can’t just be sitting in the pocket and not get flushed out. I think we did a lot with the d-line. I think we turned the d-line around and the deal was we got older. We’re extremely young in a bunch of places. We got older. So, now, those younger guys, who played a lot last year, it gives them that much longer to grow, mature and kind of fit into the system the best they can. That’s how you get the best out of those guys.”