UAB struggles to keep up with navy in 41-18 loss
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 29, 2024
NAVY 41, UAB 18
WHAT IT MEANS: UAB is reeling. The Blazers began a stringent four-week stretch – vs. Navy and Tulane at home and on the road at Army and South Florida – with a listless performance against the unbeaten Midshipmen.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: It turned early – very early. UAB’s first series showed some promise, thanks to third down Navy penalty, but ended soon after with a fourth down sack. Navy followed with a touchdown drive that culminated with a 20-yard run by Blake Horvath. Tone of the day was set at that point.
WHY UAB LOST: Navy dominated all three phases of the game. Put that together and there was no mystery to finding the reason for this one.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: Navy quarterback Blake Horvath was 9-of-11 for 225 yards with a pair of long touchdown passes. Navy outgained UAB through the air (225-202) and on the ground (227-193). UAB also hurt itself, once again, with 11 penalties for 104 yards.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: Nobody on the UAB side, although Jonah Delange stayed perfect on field goals for the season and Lee Beebe (15 carries for 82 yards, TD) ran the ball well.
What did Coach Dilfer say in postgame
Opening statement: I’m truly disappointed once again, actually very surprised. Great week of preparation. Great bye week of preparation. Thought they were fresh. Locked in. Felt like we had a good plan and then, same old things bite us in the butt . I’m disappointed. But I still believe in this group. I think they’re a good group of kids. They're trying to do things the right way. It's just not going our way right now.
On the pressure of not getting a good start: It's hard. We had a plan to go in offensively to kind of play keep away a little bit. We were eyeballing runs. Didn't want to play quite as fast all the time. We're very conscious of the way you beat these teams is you kind of have to be with their own game. And then you get down and next thing you know, it's, ‘Okay, let's try to play this way, but we got score points too.’ And you got to get stops. Listen, you're never going to beat anybody if you don't get stops. So, didn’t get any stops. We can't be a football team and frankly it's embarrassing because the history of this program is built on defense. So, we can't be a defensive football team that doesn’t get stops. You're never going to win anything. I don't care what we do on offense. You can put Superman back there, Patrick Mahomes back there, we’re not going to win games unless we get stops and we're not getting enough stops. We had, what, 30, 31 plays in the second half. I mean, just not doing things it takes to win.
On fixing the problem with penalties: Yeah, I got to keep preaching making good decisions. I mean, we talk about it all the time. My philosophy, which is obviously not working right now, is teaching to make better decisions off the field and make better decisions off the field. Accountability for decision-making on and off the field and we'll continue to enforce it. I don't know what else to say. It's like, these are players that don't have these things come up in practice and they come up in the game. So, it's disappointing.
On the process after a tough game: It's a hard one, you know. I have a hot wife, but she's not as hot after a loss. I like food, it'll suck. (My grandson) is the same, he's awesome, regardless. It's hard, it's really hard, I told the team that they should have named football hard. It just really is. It's hard when you work for something so hard, you give up so many things. I'm talking about players, not us. Our players to sacrifice so much, try to do things the right way and then, all of a sudden, you don't get your way. I think a lot of you have been conditioned that if you do the right things, then good things happen, and that's just not necessarily true all the time. You got to keep doing the right things, again and again and again. Eventually, good things will come, and this can be a challenge, because you have some guys that are jumping out of the boat. You know, you can see it after the game. They don't believe in this way, because they're not getting what they want out of it. So, if you're a team, because they're not going to listen to me, tell them, hey, good things are coming. You know, you need veterans who will explain to them that, do we love football or do we just love when football brings us? Because we get to do this. We don't have to do this, we get to do this. And, you know, after I dust it off and hang out with (my grandson) a little bit tonight, I'll wake up with a hair in my arms, tingling tomorrow and I'll try to find us a way to get better. I've tried a lot of things, I'll look for new things, I'll call the people that I trust and ask them if I'm doing things the right way. And keep looking for answers.
On the second half offense: The whole big game plan was built on run football and suckering them a little bit. We were able to get in some run sets and get closer to the line of scrimmage to make some plays. We ran the ball well all day. I don't know what the stats are, but we didn't feel like we're having a hard time. I mean we have 193 yards rushing. What was our yards per attempt? We felt like we're running the ball pretty well. We need to make more plays in the passing game. So that's our point. You know, you run the ball to win, you throw the ball to score.
On the difficulties of facing Navy’s offense: Very difficult. We had some guys that just sold out this week on scout team. I told them before the game how proud of them I was. At the end of the day, to stop this, you got to get off blocks. We did not get off blocks. You're not going to out scheme them but you can out manhandle them and we were not able to do that.
On the turning the page after a tough loss: I've lost a lot of games in my life. I think today it hurt. You know, I mean it hurts, it sits with you. You learn over time to learn how to process that. There is a sign outside my door so I read it every day – ‘No problems, only solutions.’ You know so you get into solution making, trying to treat people well while I'm doing it. You know that the traditional way of doing is to go in and yell and scream, throw things and blame people and make wholesale changes. I've been part of all that. You know that leads to too much shrapnel. Could it win a game? Yeah, I could scare people into winning a game. It's not going to win championships. It's not going to win in recruiting, it's not going to win in relationships. It's an empty way of doing it. I know people who are very successful that have done it. I think they're miserable when they're old. You know I want healthy relationships. So we're trying to do it the right way. We’re going to try to teach, learn, grow, move on. We talk about flushing. We'll flush it tomorrow night with a developmental scrimmage, some corrections with the guys that played today. We’ll have Monday off, on a Tuesday, we'll come back, and my expectations and standards will be exactly the same. I hope that there's a following.
On the need to tune out the outside noise: Listen, that's impossible. I walked into the locker room after the game, and, you know, people are on their phones. It’s just what people do. You got to make a choice at some point in your life, and this is to everybody, are you going to believe it? Is that how you're going to dictate your life? Like, what other people are saying? Ninety-five percent of those people, you'd never ask for advice. Like, they got to choose that. These are young people trying to be men and very good men. They're gonna learn to tune out the garbage. I love that Nick (Saban) called it rat poison. If you’re choosing to watch, if you’re choosing to listen to it, you’re a fool. Only the foolish follow what people are saying. Have some conviction, show up, grow as a man, grow as a player and move on. If you're dictating your life based on what other people say and then you know, in my book, you’re a fool.
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: It doesn’t get any easier for the Blazers with Tulane coming to Protective Stadium next Saturday. The Green Wave is coming off a 45-10 win over South Florida.