Steve Irvine’s UAB vs ULM game recap
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 8, 2024
LOUISIANA-MONROE 32, UAB 6
WHAT IT MEANS: Let’s start with bragging rights. Bryant Vincent and his ULM team earned those rights. For UAB, though, it was a huge step backward. The Blazers need to find ways to learn from what was ultimately a really bad night at Malone Stadium.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: UAB opened up the second half by forcing a punt after a couple of ULM first downs. But the Warhawks turned it into a positive when punter Makenzie Ryan pinned the Blazers inside the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Lee Witherspoon slipped down in the end zone while trying to avoid a Warhawk defender. It not only cost UAB two points – moving the ULM lead to 15-6 – but it set the tone for what happened the rest of the way.
WHY UAB LOST: ULM won the line of the scrimmage, particularly the Warhawks defensive line. ULM had five sacks, eight tackles for loss and limited UAB to 92 yards rushing
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: Football games are often won by running the football and stopping the run. ULM had 209 rushing yards on 48 carries with three running backs gaining at least 56 yards. UAB had 92 yards on 35 carries with only Lee Beebe Jr. rushing for more than 30 yards. Jacob Zeno was 22 of 32 for 167 yards with no touchdown and an interception that was returned for a touchdown.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: In a loss like this, no UAB player gets a game ball. But Jonah Delange (2 for 2 on field goals), Sirad Bryant (13 tackles) and Everett Roussaw Jr. (10 tackles) did look good on the stat sheet.
WHAT DID COACH DILFER SAY IN POSTGAME:
General thoughts: We got to learn how to win on the road. I don't know how else to explain it. We thought we made the appropriate changes. We thought we were very ready to play. I did not feel any angst going into the game. I knew it was gonna be difficult. I think it just kind of got away from us. Offensively, when you make that many mistakes and not enough big plays to make up for them. That's the other thing too. On offense, if you're making mistakes, you're clunky, you usually can make up with them by making explosives. And we couldn’t make any explosives either. We put our defense in bad positions. Special teams wasn't as good this week as it was last week. I mean, it's just a poor performance overall.
On problems snowballing: You know, I didn't have that sense at halftime. I felt like we didn't play very well, but we didn't let the thing get away from us. It was in the second half offensively, where things snowballed. We got to a point, and this might have been my fault, I told (Alex Mortensen) to throw it more on the second half. But it got to the point where I didn't know if we could play balance and get back into it. Our defense played well, but their offense was holding the ball even when they didn't convert. When it became a passing game is when things really snowballed.
On offensive problems: I think it’s everything. When I say everything is everything. Now, it doesn't mean we're not gonna be a good offense. It means that right now, I think we might be trying to do a little bit too much and not have a total clear understanding of who we are. We've seen signs of this in training camp and even last week where we have these dramatic dips in execution. We have to we have to fix that and it's not all the players fault. I think sometimes we ask them maybe to do more than we should ask them to do and that's something that we'll take a look at. I mean I'll spend the whole night looking at those exact things.
On UAB’s defensive play: In the second half, they didn't play bad. They just got stuck in some terrible situations. You know you give them any short fields when our offense isn't doing their thing. Louisiana-Monroe scores on offensive play. Things got away and the defense was doing everything they could to try to hold up. It's hard to pull good things out of the games like this. But as I watch the film I'm guessing we'll see a lot of really good things defensively, when it was a balanced game.
On process of keeping one bad loss from turning into another one: Well, I think that's a million dollar question. You know, it's my job to figure it out. You know, when I signed up for this, I didn't sign up for easy. These are the hard ones. We feel like we have a very good culture, but our culture will be tested. We feel like our guys had confidence. Our confidence will be tested. We feel like we've really drawn close together as a group, that will be tested because young people get frustrated and they want to see results. Coaches do, too, so we'll be tested. But I mean, I've learned that nothing good in life happens without being tested in a severe way. And this is pretty severe.
On ULM’s offense: That's a really good offensive staff. They do what they do. They've been doing it forever. They do it very well. We knew that, like there was no looking past this game. Like we knew the challenge ahead of us. We knew they had good players. We knew they're committed to doing what they're going to do and they line up and they tell you, go ahead, we're going to do it better than you can stop it. And that’s what they did.
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: At one point, it appeared that UAB’s next opponent would be coming off a huge non-conference win. Instead, the Blazers will venture into Arkansas facing a Razorback team angry over letting one get away at Oklahoma State. It will be UAB’s first visit to Arkansas since 2014.