transcript from uab coach trent dilfer at aac media days

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - July 23, 2024

UAB head coach Trent Dilfer joined quarterback Jacob Zeno and linebacker Michael Moore as the Blazers representatives over the past two days at the American Athletic Conference Football Kickoff in Arlington, Texas.

Take a look at some of what Dilfer and the players had to say on Tuesday. 

TRENT DILFER AT PODIUM

Opening statement: I would like to thank Commissioner (Tim) Pernetti for his leadership. It's been strong from jump. Our conversations have been awesome and watching him with the coaches last night control the room and really stimulate incredible conversations. has been awesome to see.

I want to start our kids, our coaches are very committed to the city of Birmingham and we've been saddened this month. Our city took a big blow to start the month with multiple homicides, a mother, a five-year-old child, a shooting at a birthday party. Why I mention that is because our kids have fallen in love with our city. In my 18 months as a head coach, we've served over 2 ,500 hours in the community. It's part of our mission to serve, grow, launch, and it hurts our kids when they're in the community trying to unify, trying to bring people together, trying to be the hero for these young people and we see the violence that's going on. From our perspective, it’s been a tough month in that way. Although we're getting ready for a season, our kids have a maturity to them an awareness to them that it is is pretty impressive to feel for the city. We have a great mayor, he's doing everything in his power to bring healing to our city and we hope to be a big part of that.

Excited to be back. In my life as an NFL quarterback, 4-8, usually would get you fired. Somehow they held on to me. It was a tough year, humbling, which is a good thing, I think. Anytime you go through really low valleys and you embrace it, you own it, you can learn a lot from it. I did, our players did. We have two incredible players here with us these couple days, Jacob Zeno, our quarterback, who in his first year was incredibly productive. He was in the top five in completion percentage in the country, one of the more efficient passers in the country. He did a really nice job for us and is a really good human as well. Michael Moore, at linebacker for us, is physically very gifted. A position switch guy when we got there, so he’s learning on the fly last year. He finished the season banged up a little bit but has done a great job in the offseason getting his body ready to play a complete season this year. I think both of them have a chance to play professional football, but, more importantly, they're going to make a difference in the communities they live in and will be professional and be very successful.

You know, I think I get asked the question a lot about what I learned in my first year. I know I stood here last year  and I said I will learn a lot. I had not coached at this level. I had only coached in high school football. My football journey has been different than most. I learned a ton, but I think the biggest thing was an affirmation. It's the narrative of college football right now because I've heard it 50 times in the 12 hours I've been here, 24 hours I’ve been here. that this is about money. I  strongly, strongly disagree with that statement.

My long football life started on the back of a blocking sled with my dad, who was an offensive line coach, to college football, Heisman Trophy candidate, first round pick, worst player in the National Football League, Super Bowl champion, analyst, high school coach. One thing's never changed about football, it’s about connections and relationships. I don't want it to get lost that we have a burden as coaches to connect with these young people. Have relationships with them, be mentors for them and to be transparent with our mistakes, and to be able to guide them.

Many of us did not grow up with our identity and the truth about (cell phones and social media). And that's what young people are dealing with right now. That’s why mental health is such a big topic, because can you imagine having your identity shaped by the things you on Instagram. It's really easy to criticize, it’s very hard to have empathy for what these kids are going through. I have raised three collegiate athletes, all big time college volleyball players. I saw the struggles that they went through and their teammates.

 When I went into this I made sure that, although some may say they like to win more and hate to lose more, that's all horse crap. It can't override what we're doing, the burden, the responsibility we have with these kids. We take it incredibly serious as a staff, the entire building wakes up every single morning with a message on their boards that is written by me – ‘relentless engagement.’ We're going to relentlessly engage these young people. We’ll try to pull out every bit of talent on the football field, but we're also going to try to help reach their potential off the field. I will never change that. So, please as we have these discussions about money, which is very real and I applaud what's going on, I agree with Commissioner Pernetti that it's exciting that the student athletes have a chance to benefit more from the product they put on the field, it's second to the relationships that we're establishing with them and the opportunity we have to help shape and mold their lives.”

On recent UAB basketball success and NIL collectives: “Andy (Kennedy) is an incredible coach, become a really dear friend in a short amount of time. He is somebody I've learned a lot from. He's a fantastic coach, leader, builder, developer. You know, NIL is something that’s a reality we're all facing. Some of us have the opportunity to generate a lot of money for the collectives. Some of us don't. I mean, you're not going to write an article, we're not going to be judged, the rankings at the end of the year, are not going to have an asterisk that says, ‘They had this much NIL money.’ It's really nothing I can control. Do I fundraise relentlessly? Yes. Does Andy fundraise relentlessly? Yes. Are we as successful as some others?  I don't know.

You know, I really I try not to listen to what other people are saying. We're trying to work with our collective to help our student athletes be compensated in a way that is appropriate. Sometimes you can do that, sometimes you can't. I do think that, again, on this topic, a student athlete feels valued in more ways than just economically. We've been able to recruit some really fine players that were offered a lot more money elsewhere, because they felt the value, not just we were able to collect was able to help them in one way, economically, but a fraction of what they're offered other places. But they also feel valued by opportunity. They also feel valued by connection. And that's the formula that we're working off of, it's a formula that I got all my chips down on for it to work.

If a player comes to you because you paid him the most money, right, money makes you more of what you were before you got it. I would argue I probably got more money than anybody in this room at a young age and it was not very good for me. I was immature, it made me more immature. I was complacent it made me more complacent. I can go on and on and on. I lived it and I'm not about to make sure the value of a human being is simply in the economics around him or her. Yes, I do think they should be compensated. I think there’s a value attached to their skill level and the impact they can have in your organization. But I only want that to be a third of it. There's an opportunity, there's an opportunity to compete, maybe play sooner, maybe highlight it. I mean, our offense is better than most. If you're an offensive player, you're probably gonna want to come play for us. Our defense stunk. You know, it's gonna be hard to get defensive players if you go off last year. But there's opportunity there, too. If you're a young defensive player, you're a player in the portal on defense, and you see a defense that stunk. Well, I can come help build something there, there's opportunity.

Then, when you walk in our building, we connect. We don't recruit we connect. We get to know everything about the young person (and) his family. We do a very strong vetting on the type of player we're recruiting. We want to make sure they're relational as well. I ask every parent of every recruit the permission to co -parent with them, because I think that's a role that I have to take on. I've raised three, I've lost one. I have a lot of empathy again towards parents and the challenges there. I remember when I dropped my oldest off at Notre Dame to play volleyball, I had to pull over on the side of the road. I was getting ready to hit that highway to drive back to Chicago, take a flight out of Chicago, and I couldn't drive. You know, I was crying so much. I was devastated. This is my baby. Well, every one of these kids that comes to play for me, that's their baby. And it's my responsibility to co -parent with them. So, again, I'm not turning a blind eye to economics (being) a big driver of this stuff, but it can't be for us. I don't want to build this program on making kids more what they were before they got it, knowing what I went through.”

On scheduling SEC opponents and the impact it could make on becoming playoff eligible: “I have nothing to do with our schedule. I'm the newbie. I did in the interview process, ask Mark Ingram, our AD, his scheduling philosophy. He agreed with SEC opponents, obviously it's a good payday for the school which we need. I agree with that I would like to play an SEC opponent every year.

I remember as a high school coach when I took that job that team was in the dust. You know, they were scared to play their sisters. I immediately went around and started calling all the best programs in the state of Tennessee and outside the state of Tennessee. They thought I was crazy. I said, ‘No, we need to be hardened by this. If we end up being as good as I think we're going to be, we'll beat them. We'll find a way to beat them. It may not be year one, may not be year two, but eventually, we’ll beat them.’ We played the dominant program in Middle Tennessee my second year in a lightning storm, and played them pretty well, lost the game, but it's amazing what happened after that game. I want to say we lost one game in three years after that. I do think you should play great opponents.

I don't think you should be scared of them. I do think it's a flaw that you don't get weighted by the CFP for a quality loss. SMU played at Oklahoma last year, they played their tails off. We watched that game and it was like, man, I would argue that SMU was a better team that day. That should have been rewarded, in my opinion. But we'll continue to not shy away from anybody. I've told (Alex) Golesh, we'll play USF in the Walmart parking lot if he wants double header. I just think that's the way we're wired. Again, I get a little on my high horse when people avoid competition. When you live my life, you chase it. You chase hard things. You chase challenges. You face the lion face to face. You don't run away from the lion. So that's the approach of our program. I think the conference has that approach too, which I'm really proud of.”

On Michael Moore’s role this year on the UAB defense: “He's an NFL athlete. His length his athleticism, ability to bend, versatility to play inside against the run, to move on the edge, to cover, to extend versus open sets. It's invaluable. You have to have this type of player to play any type of good defense. I know when we play teams, we can extend your stiff player into space or shoulder flare, a player that lacks length we have a massive advantage there. But I think it’s more important to what we've done around them. We signed 21 players out of the portal, 14 of those are on defense. I expect all 14 to contribute. I mean, there's a possibility we'll have nine new defensive starters this year. We lost one. We lost a very, very good player (Mac McWilliams) to UCF, but was able to replace him with an equally good player, I believe. If you look at my track record in football and winning, I was never the reason we won. I was a supporting actor to a great defense and I have my mind set on building a very good defense. It may not happen this year. It may be. may be a product in the works this year. But we have been steadfast on looking at our defense very critically, owning how terrible we were last year and going to work to fix it. It was the first thing we talked about when the season was over. It's been countless sleepless nights trying to rebuild it, and we feel like we've done a good job putting ourselves in position to where we can put really good defense out there.

On challenging Jacob Zeno in video games: No way. I’m old and broken and have nothing left of the tank. The one that would play him in is golf.

On Jacob Zeno being an extension of him on the field: “He has to be. I remember when I played, the thing I missed the most from my college days, I played for Jeff Tedford in college,  and I was an extension of his mind. I thought the same thoughts, you know, like I could finish the sentences for him. I got in the NFL and I didn't really have that simpatico relationship with a play caller. I made sure, even in the high school realm, I demanded it from them. Like you have to know what we're thinking at all times. It's unfair, but it's the expectation. We expect that, prepare like pros. We take a very professional mentality to how we deal with that room specifically and it's not for everybody. I don't know if (Zeno) said this but one of the first things I told him was to be careful what you ask for because you just got it. You know, he is so excited, I get to play for Trent Dilfer and Alex Mortensen and Nick Coleman. I'm like, yeah, you think that's really cool, don't you? Just wait, because the expectation is perfection. That's what we're shooting for in our preparation, how we play. And to Jacob's credit, he has never flinched. He has continued to get better. He's never rested on the success he had last year. He was hungry to get back at it. He obviously turned down other massive opportunities to stay with us. We're really proud of him and the progression. We're looking for great things.

On playing 15 true freshman last season: “I think they performed better as rookies than I did. They weren't drinking by the fire hose like I was. I feel like finally I can digest something. They did a good job. That was intent, we knew we had a massive roster rehaul we had to do. We felt like we recruited pretty well the first couple of cycles. Part of recruiting is developing. You know, it's talent acquisition, talent development. Well, we really wanted to develop the talent and have an answer sooner, rather than later, on some of those young bucks. We got it. They exceeded expectations in many ways, and we're looking at combining their experience with what we believe was two productive portal cycles. We're a much different team, 64 of 85 scholarship turnover in my 18 months, more than 100 people in the building. So it's finally when we say ‘ODs’, our dudes. . When you got your people all going the same direction, you got a punchers chance.”

On what he learned in first year coaching college football: “I learned a lot. It would be too long. I'd waste the whole show telling you what I learned. But I will say this, I had two big things stick out. Number one, running a car business like I ran, running the elite 11, running a football team as a quarterback, running a high school program and running college football. All of it is the same principles. It's the level of chaos, disruption, change ups you get while you're running it. College football has a lot of those. I actually started a little note thing by my bed, where I go to bed that night and track how many surprises I had that day and it's usually five to twelve. You know, somewhere between five to twelve unexpected things that I wasn't necessarily going to do that day, that became something that I had to do that day. They became not just important but urgent. That was different but I think the biggest thing was an affirmation. The conversation around that economics is the most difficult thing in college football right now, I would push back on that. It's very important. I'm not diminishing. It's very important but the student athlete feels valued more than just economically.

I have three daughters that all played in Division I volleyball. They were all student-athletes, they were all very good. One is a two-time first team All-American. Her value wasn’t in her NIL money, it was also in her opportunity, it was also in how she connected and was valued by her coaches and people in the building. What affirmed to me is in 43 years of football, I grew up on the back of a blocking sled and I've seen it from all different things, it's still about connections and relationships. Yes, the economics is important and yes, we need to push hard to grow the economics. But sometimes you can't, but what you can do is invest in them. What you can do is give them opportunity to reach their potential. I have lots of flaws, I admit them to my team in team meetings. The one thing that all 120 would say is we feel valued by this coaching staff. We walk into this building and we feel like we can be co-parented. We're co -parenting withs their parents. We'll mentor them. We'll hold them accountable. The greatest form of showing love to a young person holding them accountable for their actions.

We're gonna hold them accountable. We're gonna teach them how to do it. teach them. We're providing tons of opportunities for them to grow as young people so they can dominate life. We want to make them good husbands and fathers.  I talk constantly about my parenting journeys and the mistakes I made. I have nine fathers on my team, I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I made as a father. I lean on my daughters on how I parent this team and coach this team. We take a different approach. People call me ‘Kumbaya’ coach, I really don't care. You know at this stage of my life this is what I'm 100 percent invested. I wake up every single morning with the hair in my arms standing up because the challenge ahead. I’m able to hang out with these cool dudes. I mean they're unbelievable kids and I got a bunch of them.”

On expanded playoff opportunities: “In recruiting, you talk about it a lot. We all do. We were just sitting there all last night joking about it. It's reality, like if you're young, it's like I want to go somewhere I can go to the playoffs. But, with our existing team, never (talk about it). We’re 4-8, we have to own it. I remember going in the team meeting, when we came back from Christmas and I had ‘I'm a 4-8 coach’ on the PowerPoint slide. So that's who's coaching you, I gotta get better. It starts here. At some point you got own it, players that were here last year, you’re a 4-8 player. Zeno is a heckuva player, I think he’s going to play in the NFL, he’s still a 4-8 quarterback, the same way I’m a 4-8 coach.

We owned that and our mindset from day one was ‘Can we win today? Can we go 1-0 today?’ We got a stack of victories. Before we can think we can win on Saturdays, consistently, we better start winning the weight room. We better start winning the classroom. We better start winning the meeting room. We better start winning in service. One of the things I'm most proud of is our mission. You know, I'm a big mission guy, and my mission would take too long to explain. But the mission, how you're going to do it is serve, grow, launch. It starts with serving, because I believe football is bigger than you. Our players have served 2 ,500 hours in Birmingham in my 18 months. So that's a win. They're going 1 -0 by going to the communities, reading the little kids, building houses, feeding the homeless. We made something like 12 ,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the homeless in Birmingham. We're trying to stack up those little wins. You can win enough of those 1 -0 moments, you have a better chance to win on Saturdays.”

On defensive mindset heading into camp: “I think (it started) how we recruited when we brought in 14 portal defensive players. I believe all 14 will contribute, I really do. None of them were brought in to develop, they were all brought in to contribute. There's definitely a talent piece to that. We focused on length, we had to get long. In the modern-day game, people talk about the Saban metrics, he was not wrong. He was ahead of everybody to be honest with you. There are certain metrics that truly equate to success, length is one of those. You've got to get longer on defense, we've done that. I then I think critical moments. You know, people say stop the run and that’s important, but you've got to stop critical moments. College football offenses have a massive advantage. Not a little advantage, it’s massive. You're not going to stop everyone, right. But you can't stop them from scoring touchdowns. You can steal a possession here or there, you can get them in behind the stick situations. So, we've got to play those critical moments better and take advantage of those moments when we put the team behind the eight ball.

PRESEASON MEDIA POLL

1.     Memphis (23 first place votes) 409 total points

2.     UTSA (4), 368

3.     Tulane (2), 362

4.     USF, 339

5.     Army (1), 236

6.     FAU, 228

7.     East Carolina, 219

8.     Rice, 219

9.     North Texas, 216

10.  UAB, 192

11.  Navy, 150

12.  Tulsa, 95

13.  Charlotte, 77

14.  Temple, 40