UAB Offense Still Looking For Identity Heading Into Arkansas Game

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 12, 2024

Arkansas head football coach Sam Pittman watched the first two games of the UAB season. Pittman is a bit confused on what to expect when the Blazers come to town on Saturday. In a different way, UAB head coach Trent Dilfer has a similar feeling about what to expect from his offense.

We’ll begin with what Pittman saw from the Blazers.

“Well, I think if you look at it, the first game, Alcorn, they were what I thought they were going to be from last year,” Pittman said during his Monday press conference. “Three and four wides, bunches, jet sweeps. And then going against Monroe, they were more of a power running team. Big sets, tight ends, multiple tight ends. And then, after that didn’t seem to work as good, they went back to their dink-and-dunk, and screens and bubbles. I felt like, watching the game, it was almost two separate types of offenses. One from the first game, and one from the second game.”

The numbers tell us that UAB actually threw the ball 32 times in each game and, thanks to a larger snap count, had considerably more rushes and yards against Alcorn State (53 rushes for 298 yards) than at ULM (35 rushes for 92 yards). But the approach did seem different against ULM, particularly in the first half. Dilfer said after the Monroe game that he told UAB offensive coordinator Alex Mortensen to throw the ball more in the second half because “it got to the point where I didn't know if we could play balance and get back into it.”

Obviously, that plan didn’t work. So where does the UAB go moving forward?

It begins with learning from back-to-back weeks of not playing up to the capabilities that this offense possesses. Some of the problems were masked by the scoreboard against Alcorn State, even though the Blazers didn’t score an offensive touchdown in the second half. But they were exposed in Monroe, when the Blazers didn’t score an offensive touchdown in the entire game for only the second time in Dilfer’s 14 games as the program’s head coach.

“That sense of urgency to fix your flaws isn't always there until they're fully exposed,” Dilfer said. “I thought they were fully exposed Saturday night. Hopefully that will create more sense of urgency. I would hope it doesn't take something like that again moving forward. But in my experience in football, that's usually what it takes unfortunately. So, yeah, there are some things that we had gotten away with, I would say. We didn't get away with them Saturday night.”

Through two games, UAB quarterback Jacob Zeno is 45 of 64 for 382 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He threw one interception in each game, including one that was turned into a pick-six in the loss to ULM. He was sacked five times in the ULM game. His completion of 70.3 percent isn’t much different than a year ago when he completed 72.3 percent and was second in the country in that category. But that doesn’t hide the fact that Zeno and the offense hasn’t been nearly as crisp.

Zeno remains confident that the offense can get things turned.

“Well, I think for me, it's easy just because of my position,” Zeno said about remaining confident. “You know, it's a constant roller coaster with emotions, with plays and everything. So I can flush it up pretty fast. It's just trying to get everybody else to put this in the past, you know. No matter what happened, we can't change it. So now we just have to focus on the future and continue to go on.”

Turning things around will be difficult on Saturday against an Arkansas defense that allowed seven points in the first six quarters of the season before allowing 30 points in the second half and two overtimes of a 39-31 loss to Oklahoma State. Dilfer said on Monday that he believes that his offense will begin clicking at some point.

“I know we're going to play well offensively,” Dilfer said. “I don't know when, right. But I know we're going to. I trust these players and I trust our coaches. There are some things that are alarming in our time here that we have to go work with fixing, but at least we're aware of them. Here's the easiest way of saying it. We're not turning a blind eye to our flaws. We're recognizing our flaws and we're going to work on fixing them.”