Trent Dilfer’s game one press conference

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 27, 2024

UAB head coach Trent Dilfer held his first press conference of the 2024 season on Monday. Dilfer talked about fall camp and previewed Thursday’s season opener against Alcorn State, which kicks off at 7 p.m. at Protective Stadium.

Opening statement: Pretty simple opening, we've got a lot to prove. I've been encouraged by the growth of the team, but I think every coach probably feels pretty good about their team right now, it's that time of year. We've got to prove it on game night and our first opportunity to prove is Thursday night against an opponent that is picked to win their side of the division in (the SWAC). (They have) some really good returning players. I understand it's a level below, but they present some challenges. We haven't proven anything yet, so we've got to play well.

On his thoughts about his team: It's a fun group to coach. They bought in since day one of the winter program, and then the new guys that came in May bought in quickly. There was a lot of, as I've said this offseason, there were some risks there with being that heavy in the May portal. But they bought in, they're fun to coach, they like each other, they do all the things we ask them to do and you know because of that they're a joy to coach. I think every one of our coaches would say that. There’s an energy in the building because I think we all enjoy being around each other and that's probably the best thing I could say to this point because we haven't proven anything on the field.

On the UAB running back room: Yeah, we're really excited about this group and they're no secret. I don't want to say three, we have five really talented backs. I don't know if there will be a number one and two to be honest with you. They have different skill sets, but all of them can do everything. That's something you usually don't get with a full backfield, is guys can do a lot of different things. It helps with our versatility, helps what we can do offensively. They're tough, they're smart, they're great teammates, they root for each other. So yeah, it's an exciting part. Now, I think the danger there is you're like, ‘Oh we're just going to be ground and pound.’ I've never been around an offense that’s great, that’s ground and pound. I think you have to be able to do everything offensively. But I do believe that one of the things you have to establish early in the season is the ability to run the ball and stop the run. So we'll definitely try to run the football.

On his thoughts on defense improvement going into the season: The two biggest things would be defensive line and safety position. You know, defensive line, we've invested a lot into developing and getting new defensive linemen. So that's a position that needs to play at a very high level for us to be successful and they've had a very good camp. And then the safety position, especially, more depth, better ability to fit what we want to do, system fit guys, versatility. So I think the more again, the more versatile your safeties are, the more you can do defensively. So we're really excited about those two levels. Now, I can say a lot of good things about the linebacker position. I think we're better everywhere, but those are the two that just jump out at you.

On the rebuild of the team: One of the things you try to do in the portal is obviously find players that can immediately contribute. You don't want to recruit a former player and say, hey, you're gonna come here to be depth. Now, I think in the upper divisions, they target that. They may not tell the players that. But we want to be authentic with what we tell the portal players. Every single one of them had a chance to compete for a starting position. And a lot of them have won it. But the other thing you do when you bring portal players is you light a fire in some younger players. And that definitely happened. We have some younger players that feel like maybe they're trying to replace me, that are like, well, look at me now, like you can't replace me. That's what you're looking for. Chris Bracy is one that jumps out the most. Chris is a player that played well as a freshman, had a good spring, but has had a great summer so far. So now he's gonna go prove that on Thursday night.

There's a lot of good about the portal. People talk about the bad things about the portal. There's a lot of good things about the portal if you handle it the right way. And I think we have handled the right way. I think it's helped our football team because we brought in players that can start or contribute, but we've also brought in players that have pushed younger players to chase the best.

On special teams: To me, special teams, I think there's three key factors in special teams. Number one, is it important? And that's usually the job of that football coach, to make sure they understand that it's very, very (important), it is truly a third of the game. Everybody says it, very few make it a third of their game. We devote more time to special teams than I've ever been around. I've purposely devoted extra time to teams. The second thing you need in teams, you need the right kind of athletes. You can have all the try hard you want. If you've got a bunch of try-hard Johnnys running down, trying to cover kicks, you're not gonna cover kicks. You need really long, athletic, spatial athletes playing on teams. We recruited those types of players, so we have the right kind of players. And I think the third thing is pride, and it's different than it's just mattering, right? Things can matter, but you don't have pride in them. I think when a group has pride in something, special teams has pride in what they're doing and if you feel that sense of pride and practice, then you're gonna be good on special teams.

That's the hardest period of the day. There's nobody that is on teams that wouldn't tell you that's the hardest period of the day, it's in the sun. We always do it outside, in the heat of the day. It's the most running, it's the most back-to-back running. It's the shortest intervals. And there's a lot of tactics in special teams. It's not like just, hey, run down and hit somebody. There's a lot of things you're thinking about. We've had all those things look really good on teams. We have good specialists. Our punter, I really believe is a NFL punter. So we'll be able to flip the field that way. The kicking competition has gone really well, especially the kickoff portion of it. Now we're able to boot the ball in the end zone and do things like that. So we're much improved on teams in practice. Again, we gotta prove that we'd be better on teams in the games.

On the program winning over the community: Well, I think we definitely need a friendlier fan experience, right. I think we've worked on that the best we can. I've said to the team day one, we got to earn the respect of this community, earn the commitment that's going to take for family to purchase tickets and come in that stadium and sacrifice their family time. You do that in a couple of ways. You do it by how you serve them in the community. And I've said this a million times. We'll say it in a million more, 2,500 hours of community service from our building, which I think is pretty remarkable. And then how you represent this community on and off the football field. We need a certain countenance to us. I think not only just how we play, but how we play, if that makes any sense. Like there's the play, the execution, but how you play, how you represent. Do you do it in a classy way? Can a 12 -year -old look down there and be like, oh, I want to be like him, because he not only plays well, but he acts like a pro, so to speak.

So that's been the message. Again, we got to prove that we can do that starting Thursday night. I think there's a lot of reasons that this community will want to come out and support us. You know, I don't expect them to until we give them that reason to want to, but I think they will want to.

On the offensive line: We'd feel really good about playing eight guys right now. You know, I think that we're close to feeling better about even more than that. But, you know, Zaire (Flournoy) being healthy has really helped. Quez (Yates) has made massive improvements. Brady (Wilson) is as good a center as there is in our conference. I think getting the two tackles in the portal) helps. It's hard to do, right? It's the most coveted position in the portal, even more than quarterback, because you're going to read about, the 10, 12, 14 quarterbacks, but there's a run on tackles in the portal that's amazing to watch happen on the wire. So to be able to end up with two of them (JonDarius Morgan and DJ Jones) that we feel are really good players allows now for some developmental guys that would really think highly of to continue to grow and earn time in the rotation, I think they have. My guess is we'll play eight. No, we'll probably play seven on Thursday night, possibly eight, and we feel good about those guys that will be in there. There's some others that are very close.

On the offense influences for Dilfer and OC Alex Mortensen: I'd say people ask me all the time who inspired me the most. From a teaching standpoint, (Mike) Holmgren. From run game, play action, Norv Turner. And really where I got my most creative ideas was studying the game when I was at ESPN, because I was studying all three levels. I was doing Elite 11, so I was studying high school. I can't tell you how much cool stuff I found in high school. And then I would watch it get to college, and then I'd watch you get is the pros. And I would say on TV, you know, this concept that you're so excited that Andy Reid is running, I saw that four years ago in Texas High School football. Like the game has evolved from the bottom up from the schematic stand up. You see the best stuff at the high school level. So I got to see the high school level, I got to see the college game, I got to see the pro game. I was studying a lot of offenses. Alex has an incredible pedigree, who he coached with, his input into that Alabama offense. His year at (New Mexico) Highlands is one of his greatest creative processes because he had to do it differently. So yeah, we have a lot we draw from. And then again, we have others now. Alex and I get a lot of credit for this and we lean heavily on others on the staff too. I mean, Nick Coleman, Danny Mitchell, like go on and on. We have really good offensive coaches.

 More this year, I mean, yeah, we're always trying to find the best ways of getting our best players in the ball. You know, I don't try to sound like Bill Belichick here and not answer the question, but I'm also not gonna answer the question. Like we spend countless hours trying to find the best ways to get our best players in the ball the most ways possible. So hopefully you'll see a lot of that. This year, people call it an innovative grade, we just want to be successful.

On Alcorn State: The quarterback (Tyler Macon) is a heckuva player. We coached the quarterback in Elite 11. He's one of the favorite kids I ever coached. Mentally, physically, super tough, an incredible athlete, very talented, very smart. So he's a challenge. They have a couple of skill position guys on their offense that can give you some matchup problems if you're not careful. High weight, speed guys that can play inside and outside. Defensively, their scheme is a challenge. Their defensive coordinator (Deion Roberson) is kind of a mad scientist and that's a compliment. He knows what he has and he keeps you eating your soup left handed. You never really know what's coming. You ever try to eat your soup left handed? There's actually a better term than that, it's not appropriate. But if you're ever trying to eat your soup left handed, it's very hard if you're right handed. And that's kind of what he tries to do to you offensively. He wants to take you out of your game and make you uncomfortable. A lot has gone into this week. This was a week that some said, ‘Oh, you've got an FCS point, week one.’ No, we're sitting there watching the film going, oh my goodness, what a way to start just because it's a schematical challenge. We're pretty tired because we've been up to the wee hours trying to find answers for our kids. And that's a credit to Alcorn State. I think any time an opposing staff can ruin the other staff's week, they're a pretty good staff.

On approach to making sure his team stayed healthy:  One thing I had to grow as a coach was, you know,I came from a certain mentality that I still believe in by the way. I'm going kind of against my core beliefs on some things but I think it's wise to do so. I think you have to change some of your core beliefs based on the type of team you have. You can't coach every team the same. You can't parent every kid the same right. My wife had to teach me that one. I had a cookie cutter way of parenting the girls when they're younger and my wife sat me down saying you know their personalities are totally different. You know this one listens to you, this one doesn't. Like, she had to coach me up on every kid's unique with how you coach them and communicate with them. Teams are the same way. I think this team when I realized especially in when we when we went all in on the May deal and took some chances there I had to really sit back and go okay there's got to be the right way to coach this team and it may not be my way.

I sought counsel on it, I thought hard about it. I really talked to some coaches about it and one of the things was we have some guys with some mileage on them. Once they prove that they are tough guys and will play hard, which they proved very quickly, then you have to protect them from themselves to a certain degree. That's really all I try to do is protect the players that have mileage on their tires but need protecting from themselves. For instance, Isaiah Jacobs. The guy would go run through anything else and run through whether his knee was healthy or not. So, hold him off a little bit. L .D. Cox same way. O .C. Brothers same way. Calib Perez, you guys don't know even about yet, but you will, the same way. They have such great temperaments. They have the physical traits to do it. They're like, let's go. I want to compete. I want to be part of my team. I don't want some of my teammates out there going through the hard stuff and I'm not. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you’ll have a chance to do that once you're healthy or once you've built up your game tolerance.

Also to look at this (Thursday’s game) as the day, not beginning a training camp. I think a mistake I've made before is you go into the first thing you're doing, spring ball, training camp (and) you're like, ‘OK, this is the most important moment.’  When, really it's not. The most important moment is the football game that you're getting ready for five weeks from then. So I've had to look at it that way. I think we've done a good job with it. I think every team is a little nicked up right now. We're a little nicked up but nothing concerning. The plan has worked to this point.