Trent Dilfer meets with media ahead of TULSA GAME
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 28, 2024
The UAB football team returns to the field on Saturday for the 8th annual Children’s Harbor Homecoming game. The Blazers will play Tulsa with kickoff scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Protective Stadium. The Blazers had a bye last week after falling to 1-6 overall in a 35-25 loss at South Florida. Tulsa is coming off a come-from-behind 46-45 win over UTSA. The Golden Hurricane trailed 35-7 at halftime in that game. UAB head coach Trent Dilfer met with the media on Monday morning to talk about Children’s Harbor, his team and the upcoming game against Tulsa.
Opening statement: Wow, what an awesome week in the midst of a pretty brutal season. We are honored, humbled actually, by this partnership. I think when I got this job two years ago, this was one of the things in the interview process that was really a selling factor. What Bill Clark started in 2016 -17 was a tradition that would live on forever and we would be able to continue. I think, trying to do something bigger than yourself is at the core of this program, everything I believe in and I want to build this program on. Excited about our kids' involvement with Children's Harbor. We've had multiple players go and serve there and spend time with kids this week. On Thursday as well, we’ll have about 70 families, I believe, out at practice. The players have been on the roster for a few years, Terrell McDonald, speaking to him specifically, he says this is the best part of the season, the biggest game of the season. I went back and watched the video from 2017, brought tears to my eyes. (It was) the year this game was started. Obviously, I think a mission like this is important to our family too. As we're a family that needed rescue and respite at a time of need. It wasn't Children’s Harbor but it was a similar organization that came to our families, met us in our deepest need with our son Trevin. So an important week and something that our players, I'm sure, will find even extra motivation.
On his first experience with the Children’s Harbor game: It was special. You know, it started with the press conference. You know, Ted (Feeley) and I sat down before the first press conference this week last year and really talked about the background. I wanted to know more of the history and past players and their experience so I could communicate with our team, because a lot of our team didn't have any experience with the game. To be able to educate them throughout the week, you just saw an energy and a perspective to our kids that is different than the typical week. It was even more impactful than I imagined.
On Jacob Zeno’s availability: He'll be out this Saturday. We're still kind of figuring out his shoulder situation. I don't want to rule him out for the season, but he will not play this week.
On Tulsa: Well, they have momentum, it was quite the comeback. I thought defensively they got big stops. They hadn't played very well defensively in the first half and they came with some big stops in the second half. They created some havoc on the quarterback. They get the ball back and offensively (quarterback Cooper Legas) gave them a spark with his legs. Made some big throws, you know, really created some chunk yardage outside the numbers. So, you know, it's anytime you have a team that has a victory like that, they're going to come in with great momentum belief. They played their best ball in the second half of that game and made kind of, I mean, miraculous comeback to a certain degree. Studying what they've been to this point of the year and also what they were in the second half it’s really a tale of two different stories, so try to balance out the Tulsa team that we'll see come here.
On bye week: I think we worked on ourselves primarily. I took the same rest philosophy as we did our first bye week, because I thought that was really good. But we were way more physical in the three days of practice. Block sustainability, block destruction, effort, energy, enthusiasm, you know core tenets of winning football. We really worked on those. I thought the players embraced each day in an encouraging way. I do think we got better. I met with both offensive and defensive staffs and went through players we felt like really took advantage of that. We did have a lot of guys resting. We had 29 guys on our roster that were either limited or out. It wasn't the entire football team. But the guys that were held out also took advantage of the week, had extra strength and conditioning opportunities. We still met, we still tried to increase our football IQ, address some of the issues that have gotten us in trouble this year. I thought it was a really productive week.
On the possibility of playing other quarterbacks: I think every game you're trying to prepare the entire roster to play in the game. Quarterback is a little different because there's only so many reps to give. I think both Harry Barker and Landry Lyddy have done a really nice job getting (second team) reps. Jalen gets the bulk of the reps because he's the starting quarterback. But Harry and Landry are doing a good job. Both have gotten better, both are great teammates, we're really lucky to have both of them. Adrian (Posse) is still in the developmental process, not quite ready to see the field. He did travel with us to USF, which was a sign, kind of a reward for how hard he's worked and how much he's developed. Trace Campbell has helped in the games, has a skill set that can get the defense in trouble. We're looking for every tool we have in the toolbox to try to win a game.
On the tight ends: They’ve always been a big part of our plan. We feel like it’s really a strength of our offense. We have a lot of tight ends that are versatile, we've said that from the beginning. And they've shown up. I mean, Dallas (Payne) has probably elevated himself in the passing game especially. Now we're getting Jack Nickel and J.C. Sivley, who's back from an injury, a little more involved. Terrell (McDonald) and Bryce (Damous) have obviously been staples of our offense. But our 12 personnel, 13 personnel, where we're using multiple tight end packages, has been very efficient for us. We looked closely at that in our self-scout this bye week and saw that that is personnel grouping that has been more efficient than our 11 personnel grouping. So, we want to continue to maximize all our skill sets.
On the possibility of redshirting cornerback Ricky Lee III: We're still undecided there. He had a really good bye week of practice. It's not our intent to redshirt him. It's our intent to let him get back to full playing speed. We don't go into it and say, hey, we want to redshirt this person, so we're going to sacrifice our ability to win and redshirt him. We're going to play whoever we need to win a game. But Ricky's just getting back to full speed. He really showed that over the bye week.
On the players who sat out or were limited last week: Of the 29 guys, I would say most will play, but most couldn't practice. It's also one of those things that we were pretty beat up. They needed that rest. If they could practice, they did practice. And then there's hybrid practice. A lot of them practiced the individual and then stayed out of the team drill. I think we'll be pretty darn healthy leading up to this game.
On the challenge of facing Tulsa’s offense: Any time you're facing a hot player, I think (Cooper Legas) threw five touchdowns and 300 and something yards in little over a half the play, made some big throws, used his legs really well. They used him in design quarterback runs, as well as he scrambled to create some hidden yardage. He's an older guy. You know, he's a grad transfer, veteran, so he's played. I think he played over 1 ,000 snaps before he came to Tulsa. You know, a guy's that’s played a lot of football. He'll be a challenge because he's got confidence. You know, anytime you play (against) players with confidence, they're going to play to their highest levels. So, guys make plays for him. That's everything. I can think of three of the big plays made in the second half, they're maybe called 50 -50 balls or really tight cover throws, and his receivers made a nice play for him. So that'll be a challenge. And then you have to account for him in the run game. You're always concerned with the coverages you’re playing and the fronts you’re playing because the quarterback run is always a piece of that.
On attacking the Tulsa secondary: That's always an interesting question when you're not playing well. We have talented players, we have not played to our level of talent. We like our skill position players, really every week. If you asked me that against Arkansas, I would say we had favorable matchups at times. We feel like if we do what we're supposed to do, if the players play at the fullest of their potential, if we play within the structure of the schemes that we've asked them to play in, we feel very comfortable with it.
On what it does to a team to lose an experienced quarterback: I think number one, there's a cumulative rep effect, right. Like you build something around a player that has thousands of reps that the rest of the offense has experienced with him. There's that intuitive quality, time spent under tension with the same people. So you face kind of the aftermath of that. I think there's a cultural effect where when they're used, a building's used to a certain person getting the ball every time and that's not happening, there's just a transitional period that goes on. But, again, this happens all the time. This happens all over the country all the time and resilient teams move on. They control what they can control and nobody on this team can control whether Jacob plays or not. I think that's something that's a lesson we're learning, is that you can't worry about that stuff. It is what it is and control what you can control as an individual player and a coach. I tip my hat to Jalen (Kitna), how he's handled it, he's handled it a phenomenal way. He's actually graded out at a very high level. And we expect for him to continue to get better as long as he's playing.
On Michael Moore: He's played with great effort. He's gotten better. I don't like to single out certain players in press conferences, but he's a guy that to much is given much is expected. Although he's played well, statistically he's played very well, there's still a lot more there, you know. We're still pushing him to be the player that he can be. As he continues to improve his technique, his fundamentals, pad level, he'll make even more explosive plays than he has at this point. So, we believe Mike has a lot left in his tank, and he's playing for something, not just this year, but he's playing for a future in football. So, he's a guy that is attacking every day with vigor, you know, and intention because he knows that there's a lot more in there.