Trent Dilfer speaks with Steve Irvine about Blazers first scrimmage
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 12, 2024
UAB held a full-scale scrimmage on Saturday night at Protective Stadium. On Monday, following the beginning of the third week of fall camp, UAB head coach Trent Dilfer talked about his team’s performance in Saturday’s scrimmage.
On his thoughts from the scrimmage: “The biggest thing that stuck out to me was our physical strength has improved so much. It was the number one thing when I came back from Christmas break. I felt like as a team, we needed to make massive gains, and it was just our ability not just to be strong in the way, but to play strong. Transferable strength. It showed on defense, shedding blocks. It showed on offense (in) finishing. It showed by the strengths of the runners after the catch, or handing the ball off, showed in tight end play. It showed up a lot of different areas, and that's the thing that I was most pleased with.”
On what he learned from studying the tape of the scrimmage: “First group, we struggled on some mental assignments offensively down in a tight red zone on critical balance, some 4th-and-shorts that we wanted to get reps at. But also some playmaking by defense. Chris Bracy made two phenomenal plays in those situations. But mentally, if we were a little sharper in big moments, I think defensively, they did get a little tired with the tempo, in the middle of the field, especially. Struggled lining up and thinking clearly when tired, which is natural that legs are heavy two weeks in the camp. But I think the conditioning on defense against tempo teams is definitely something that we need to continue to work on. But no, I was pretty pleased, you know. I didn't have benchmarks necessarily. I was looking for more of the global picture, how we’re playing. The guys absorbed a lot of information and poured out their souls every single day and you can't ask for much more.”
On the offensive line: “I thought they did some good things. I think, in the run game, you know, both Matt (McCants) and I graded them kind of a low B, high C. There's more there, but I'll tell you, their low Bs a lot better than last year's low B. You know, they cover up better, they play square, they play with more strength. We're doing more things in the run game, but, you know, they pick up the run game better than last year. I think having Brady (Wilson), who is just such a pro, so motivated to play his best football has really helped that room. I think getting DJ (Jones) and JD (Morgan), two guys that have professional qualities, they handle the business at a high level, has helped. And then Zaire (Flournoy) and Quez (Yates) have been here a long time. So you’ve got some veterans (and) got some young guys that are pushing them every single day. I've always said this, I think you need to have 8, 9 deep on your offensive line (that) you feel good about. And I think we're developing.”
On overall depth: “Significantly better. You play all those young guys last year and you take it on the chin. One, they're gonna be hungry to play. They're gonna know their weaknesses, so they can address them. And then you have familiarity with their skill sets and where they're at in their development. Some of those guys are gonna push for starting time. Some of those guys will be really quality backups in their second year on the team. I think as much as last year was painful, I think it set us up this year between that and the portal to have a much deeper football team.
On his team’s health: “You know, we're pretty good. Dan (Springer) and I were talking about this. We have some nicks and we got a few soft tissues. We've been pretty good there. But I'm definitely keeping an eye on it. This is not the neanderthal days, see who's the toughest and who can work through injuries. I'm playing around with some ideas to hopefully keep the general health of the team better. We have some impact players that are, if I let them, they would go practice. But we're trying to hold a guy out here or there, just protecting for himself. That's a good thing. We're having to protect our players from themselves, that means they have an obsession with getting better. And they wanna be out there with their teammates. In fact, I had a couple guys out, I'd say, no, I don't want to be held out because my brothers are out there. I'm like, yeah, and they're gonna get a day too, so don't feel bad about it. We're trying to be very, play that fine line of, yeah, it's training camp and you push through some stuff at the same time, I know who you are and I know your character and I need to protect you a little bit so you feel great going into the season.”
On first chance to see QB Jalen Kitna in full-scale scrimmage: “Well, one, he's playing at 70, 60 percent with his groin, so he couldn't do any of that athletic stuff that he's so gifted doing. But he throws a touchdown, really makes a sharp read to Amare (Thomas) and Amare does all the run after the catch. But the timing of that play, location of the ball. Made one mistake on a coverage, tried to jam one in there. Now, the good thing about him, he's like Brett Favre, he throws it so hard that the defensive hands are probably not going to catch it. He handled the run game, which is a big deal for us. We do a lot in the run game, and people think you just turn around and hand it off. These guys process a lot of information, get us to the best runs, reading runs, passes to runs, runs to passes. Handled that part of it really well. And he didn't play very much. At the end of the day, I didn't want to expose him any more injury. He'll get a little more this weekend, but I don't think he'll get a lot of scrimmage time before the season.”
On true freshman running back Solomon Beebe: “He's been one of the stars at camp without a doubt of any age group. Again, I've told these guys I don't see age, I see production. But yeah, for a young player, he's not just physically mature, he's very mentally and emotionally mature. He's very coachable. He's a one rep guy, meaning if he makes a mistake, he'll fix it one rep later. He's not going to continue to make a bunch of mistakes. And I do think there's something having the brothers back there. Number one, their parents have been an amazing job raising two incredible young men, but their interaction has helped the room. They're very friendly to one another. There's not a big brother, a little brother complex. But I think their energy together has lifted all of us. I mean, we do shout outs in team meetings and Solomon was the second shoutout today. I think the whole team's recognized him, not just his play, but his juice. Like he's not shy, he encourages guys, he's competitive. He's one of our ODs.”
On the hunger for success with this team: “I talked about this morning was, you know, how bad? Do your actions dictate your words. So far this group, at least between the lines, they want to be really good. And they're doing the things that it takes to be really good and still be hungry. I want it to become obsession, like me. But we're close to getting a group that kind of thinks the same thoughts and has the same mentality.”
On handling playing in Protective Stadium for the scrimmage: “Really well. We're playing around with some tweaks in how we handle pre-game. Some of it was experimental. I thought with stuff that we're doing experimentally, they handled it well. There was a poise and a calmness. But then once it was ready to kick and their heart rates got up and they started sweating a little bit, there was, tom me, the right temperament, the right kind of fire. I always look at our team, you know, I've done this since I was a player. You go back and you think when you've played the best, it's usually that seven. There's that seven. Like, it's a razor sharp focus. There is definitely a feel of energy, but there's also a poise to the whole thing, not just waving towels and chest bumping to do it. You know, there's got to be that balance. And I thought, I think they're finding that.”
On the safety position: “One, I think you want to play multiple safeties. You know, I don't think in modern day college football, you don't want a defensive player out there the whole time. Like, no matter who he is. Because you're facing so many plays, the changes of tempos, and I think you need to kind of come to the sideline every once in a while and get your rest, but also see it from a different lens. So I think having depth of safety especially is important. They're all really close. Coach (C.J.) Cox has done an incredible job of creating kind of that, as Ryan Day calls it, the power of the unit, right. You know, that group of players, that safety-nickel position, has a sense of pride to their room and how they treat one another, how they encourage one another and teach one another. So, you know, separation. I mean, (Chris) Bracy made the most plays. So he's the one that stands out as kind of the playmaker right now. But that goes in cycles. And it wouldn't surprise me next, you know, Tyjon (Jones) is making plays or, you know, Ray (Thornton) is making plays. Or Sirad (Bryant), Kyle McKinney, like there's guys out there, AJ Brown, Donald Lee, who we got out of the portal, who's been a real nice find. Like, you're gonna see these guys taking turns making plays. Right now it's been Bracy, but I think others are coming.”