Q&A With UAB OC Alex Mortensen
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - April 23, 2025
Spring practice enters its final week at UAB. The Blazers have one more practice session before closing with the Spring Showcase on Saturday.
Offensive coordinator Alex Mortensen, who is in his third season with the Blazers, stopped by after practice on Wednesday to talk about how the Blazers offense has performed this spring and what’s ahead.
What do you want to get out of the final week of spring practice?
“Well, I think a lot of spring is about evaluating your players and then helping them with player development too. I think (the final week) is a continuation of that process of evaluating guys after we've seen them for a couple of weeks. And then there's some things that maybe we've evaluated guys doing certain things, but there's other things that maybe you want to give them some reps at to see how they take to that and then also help them continue to develop fundamentally. Spring to me, more than just getting your schemes in and all that, I think a lot of it is about individual player development. There are guys that I think that have improved over the course of spring. But I also think there are things they know they need to continue to improve and this is kind of the last opportunity for them to try to take those steps.”
In the spring portal world, how do you adjust when you lose players while spring practice is going on?
I think the biggest thing, obviously, if you lose a guy in the middle of spring and maybe you didn't account for it, really it's just about adjusting the depth chart or adjusting how we're getting reps and making sure that the right guys are still getting a healthy amount of reps. But also being in balance where you're not overworking somebody. We stay really on top of a guy has to get X amount of reps a day and is that the right number? Does it get imbalanced? You're trying to maybe put one guy in a spot, does someone else have to do extra because of that as things get shuffled around? So we just try to stay cognizant of that. But really, to me, it's an opportunity for more guys to get more work in some ways. So it's, I think there can be some, some pluses too, as the roster shrinks a little bit.”
What are you trying to accomplish in this final week of spring?
“I really think it just goes back to the two primary things for us. One, is helping players develop fundamentally. And then I think secondly, you know, we want to continue to evaluate them. I think, we've made a lot of progress in both areas. But, again, like say you've got to tight end, maybe you’ve asked them to do certain things the first part of spring. You evaluate them there, you've helped them develop there, but maybe there's some other skills that you want to help them develop. So, being mindful of those things because it’s your last opportunity to do it before you get into the summer and obviously, we got a bit of a break till fall camp. We've got a checklist of things that we want to make sure that we get to see guys do and just prioritize what we need to see.”
What are your thoughts on the quarterback position right now?
“I feel really good about the quarterback position. We've got Jalen Kitna here, who is a returning starter. Jalen played for us on the back end of last year. Jalen had not played real football in some time. I think he grew through that process. That experience helped him and we feel like Jalen's had a good spring. We're certainly excited about the progress he's made. We still have more work to do. And then we like the guys behind him, too. We feel like Jalen has earned that starting job. But then everyone else behind him, each of those guys have done really good work, from Ryder Burton to Adrian Posse, Nate Rogers, Trace Campbell, every one of them. Cam Jennings. They have all done some really good things here this spring and they're all getting better.”
Will you come out of spring with an idea of who is two, three and four at quarterback?
“I think it'll probably be an ongoing process for all of them. I think that those are things that Coach Dilfer and I will sit down here at the end of spring and determine how we want to go into camp and go into summer with that part. But I don't think we're in a huge hurry there.”
All of the guys behind Kitna seems to have different skill sets. Is that an advantage?
“Yeah, we think it can be an advantage. I mean, when you've got quarterbacks with different skill sets, there can be pros and cons to that. I think one of the pros is you can use those guys as a change of pace, even if you've got an established starter that is one way. You've got someone you can bring in that's a little different. It can almost be like a change of pace, like a Wildcat effect used to be. People still do it, throw a running back in there and snap him the ball. I think there can be some advantages to that, but now on the flip side where some coaches would argue it can be tough is now it feels like you have to have two offenses. One guy, your starter's really good at this, and you've got to invest in all these things. And then you've got another guy that's good at a whole different set of things. So, you might feel like you're trying to serve two masters at times and can you really get good enough. That's always the conversation. But our approach is we feel like it can be an advantage. We feel like we can create advantages with it by having different styles of offense with the ability to play multiple guys.”
Do you like the amount of playmakers you’ve had offensively this spring?
“I think we're like a lot of people. We put a team together as fast as we could in the portal, and we're still learning about them. I'll say this, we like our guys. I think we've got a really good group of people. I think they have good tangibles. I think there's toughness, I think there's effort. We're continuing to learn about the team in this group, but I think we're at a really good starting point.”
Back in the day, you would come out of spring practice knowing that would be your team, for the most part. How does knowing you will have some different pieces change things?
“I think with as much change as there is in college football right now with rosters, it is different than it has been. To me, I go back, I say, okay, let me think about all my experiences in football. I've been at programs where it was a developmental three, four, five-year program with guys. But I also go back to two experiences I've had that were faster, and you had to accelerate the process.
One, I coached Division II ball at a school called New Mexico Highlands. And man, I tell you, a lot of our team showed up after the 4th of July. I thought we had a great eight-week plan from there until that first game to get that team ready to play. We went out and won eight games. Our quarterback finished second in the country in offense. I give the guys I worked with a lot of credit. We had a really good plan. And so I go, ‘OK, is it a little more like that now? You go back and think, how did we install then? How did we repeat (and) review things? How did we teach under those circumstances?
And then I also think, I coached (for the Birmingham Iron) in the AAF, which was a spring league. It was also the same idea, you got to put a team together really quick. We were there with Joe Pendry, and Steve Logan, and Tim Lewis, and all these guys. But we had a very short time to take a team and get them ready. You have to maybe rethink how you install and how you teach, because there's going to be guys, even if it was someone we took in December or maybe there is someone that joins your team in May, you don't want to say, he can't learn it so he can't play for us. We've got to find a way for them to be an effective player in the offense right away. But at the same time, I think you're always trying to manage these two things (where) you got to be repetitive enough for your guys to get good at what you're doing but you've got to have enough diversity to create issues for the people you're playing against. You're trying to find that sweet spot, and now you're doing it on a different timetable than ever.
So for me, it's like I go back to some of those experiences of coaching Division 2 football and coaching the spring league of how do you teach and install. And those are conversations Coach Dilfer and I have had a lot, and I think we'll continue to have. I do think it is a little bit different. To me, you can get frustrated and say this sucks, but at the end of the day we have to adapt. As a competitor and as a leader, we've got to find a way to adapt to this instead of just throw our hands up and concede that we can't figure it out.”