Trent Dilfer Meets With Media Ahead Of Home Game Against UCONN

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 4, 2024

UAB head coach Trent Dilfer met with the media on Monday to talk about last week’s win over Tulsa and look ahead to Saturday’s game against a surging UConn team at Protective Stadium. The Huskies reached bowl eligibility last week and are playing on the road for the first time since a Sept. 14 visit to Duke.

Opening statement: Obviously pleased with our team's performance, really happy for the boys. They've been so resilient, so easy to jump off the ship when you're not having success. This group's been really resilient in their approach. I kept telling you, I know nobody believed me, I stopped to believing myself at some point, that we were practicing at a really high level. We just weren't seeing the fruit of our labor on Saturdays. And then we finally saw the fruit of our labor in all three phases. So pleased to see that. I think it's affirmation for them. You can even sense that some voluntary stuff yesterday in the weightroom, you could sense the energy, enthusiasm. We'll get ready to get back to work tonight when we meet and have some walk throughs.

On the offensive line rotation and the role played by center Brady Wilson: I think that's why we can do it. I would never even consider without Brady. Brady's command of the offense , his ability to communicate, his leadership and his play. He's played at a very high level for two years now for us. Unfortunately, he doesn't get a lot of recognition for it. But we watch centers around the conference and he's as good as any center in the conference. We had confidence knowing we have good offensive linemen that just haven't played a lot. We wanted our offensive line to be a little fresher. This was not the case Saturday, but we've had a lot of long drives this year that have not resulted in touchdowns. As I went back and looked at them, a lot of it was fatigue up front, physical and mental. One game we had a 16-play drive that ended in a field goal, a 13-play drive that ended in a field goal. Army we couldn't finish. Multiple games we haven’t been able to finish. The thought there was give us a better chance to finish in the red zone.

It didn't really come up because we kind of scored from the strike zone more than marched it in. That was not, you never know when that's going to happen, right? It wasn't like we went and say Oh, we're going to score a bunch of long touchdowns. That really wasn't the thought. I'm glad it happened. But anyways, that was thought behind it. I think we'll continue to get those guys playing time and his competition. You know, I'll point out Calib Perez. Calib Perez played at an incredibly high level in his 12 to 14 snaps that he played. So he'll have a chance this week to earn more playing time if he continues to practice like he practiced last week and played.

On Jalen Kitna and the success of the offensive line in pass blocking: I think it's all around. You know, Jalen played at an incredibly high level. He made five to seven plays in that game that were NFL starter quality. But better than that, he saved us from some bad calls. We had some calls. The bad ones are usually mine, the good ones usually (Alex Mortensen). I made a couple of bad calls into the wrong defense and he really saved us on those. But yeah, the offensive line, the ability to change the launch point, change the protections, I think helped our receivers play at a high level. They got open early. The little we ran the ball, our backs actually ran really well. We knew that was a team that their number one mentality is create a wall with line of scrimmage, don't let the other team run the football. So we weren't going to bang our heads up against the wall against them. So that's why we led with the pass and everybody kind of rallied and responded.

On bottling emotions after a win: Well, I think, like I said, I think it's affirmation to the process. You know, it's hard to buy into the process when you're not seeing the results. I mean, it's hard for all of us. Luckily, some of us older people have done it long enough to know that you do winning things enough over time it equals winning. You can say it all you want to. Young people are like I want to win now. I want my hamburger now, that’s why I’m going through the drive-through because I'm not grilling it. So, I think it was a payoff, you know, the payoff for a lot of hard work, a lot of resilience, a lot of stick-to-it-ness. I've always been a flush guy, you know, whether you win or lose, you have 24 hours to kind of sit in it and then you flush it and you move on. So I flushed this one really early. Yesterday I got in here after church, watched it again, graded it, and I was probably down by three with the game and moved on to UConn. We're already deep in the UConn prep and not really thinking much about the last game.

On what would be a successful finish to the season: I'm just trying to win this one. You lose this much, you're really just focused on trying to find a way to win the next one. You know we still have our warts that we're trying to cover up. We're trying to get better with a lot of young players that are still in the developmental stage. They're really trying to get better each week. I’m trying to become a better coach. I've made so many mistakes and trying to limit those, learn from them. I would just say this growth mindset has helped us stick to the process, we’ll continue to  do that. You know I don't know how to answer that question, I’m just trying to win this one.

On whether the style of a win matters: I know Jalen is going to get a lot (of attention) and the records that Jalen and Kam have. But I really think that thing started with defensive stops and special teams. I mean if you look at the game, yeah okay we took the ball down scored in I think it was five plays. That obviously help, it helps to get that lead, the momentum, energy. I don't want to discount that but then you get those consecutive stops on defense and then you get the punt return and get the field position and it kind of felt like you were always going downhill offensively, where a lot of times this season it felt like you're going uphill offensively. I told the team after the game, I said ‘Listen, the offense,  any time you score that many points and guys have big days, a lot of credit is gonna go there, as it should.’ But I want the team to understand that it only happened because the stops on defense. It only happened because defeating blocks on the defensive line, they get no credit, right, unless they get sacks. And they're defeating blocks and getting penetration or the secondary, how many contested passes did we break up, you know there's a lot of contested passes.

Then the special teams, decision-making as much as blocking. If you look at A.J. Brown and Adrian Maddox, making two of the best decisions on those punt returns that you could possibly make, that up until this point, we've not been making good decisions. And I've been preaching, you know, making decisions off the field, you make them on the field. We're finally starting to see really good decision-making. One of the keys to the game, I don't think anybody talks about, our defensive staff didn't recognize it. I had somebody come up and tell me this. Everett Roussaw after a third down when the game was still close, well close-ish, gets cheap-shotted and he goes to react and get in a scuffle with a guy, which has been an issue for us. And A .J. Brown comes sprinting across and gets in between them and then kind of gets him away. You know, what's happened to us this year, we've extended drives with personal fouls. So A .J. saves it. The next play is when A.J. does the shield block that springs Kam. So those little things are winning things that we've been talking about over and over again, now we're starting to see them. And I hope that we continue to see them moving forward.

On the play calling process between Dilfer and Alex Mortensen: It changes (each week). Mort and I have a great relationship, I think he would say the same thing. We think the same way. Our preparation is relentless as an offensive staff. So, by the time the game comes, we have a pretty good idea of the style of which we want to the play, how we want to direct the ball, what our danger ranger plans are. It doesn't always work. We’ve played poorly on offense, so obviously it doesn't work all the time. But we feel comfortable with the process. And then going into the game, we both, we co-call it, that's how I say it, you know. It always comes out of his mouth to the quarterback. That's the thing we keep consistent. Mort’s voice is the voice to the quarterback. I can't remember what game it was, but Nick Coleman chimed in in the third quarter of the game with a play that we kind of doctored up and it goes for 60, Riley Jeffers will have input. It's kind of a democracy in between series, looking for the best plan of attack. And then as we get into the rhythm of it, Mort and I are communicating constantly on the rhythm of the play calling. USF was the one exception to that. USF, I did not have a whole lot of input, I kind of laid out.

On UConn playing on the road after a long home stretch: I think it's always an advantage to play at home, whether a team's been six in a row at home or whether they've gone back and forth. We love our home environment, we love our process at home. We've been more successful at home, not that we've been wildly successful at either spot, but we've been way more successful at home. I think for that reason, it's an advantage. It's a weird scheduling thing on their part. I'm sure Coach Mora has done a good job of prepping them to go on the road and anticipating a change of scenery after being there for two months. But they're a challenge. I'll tell you what, they have not got enough credit nationally. A lot of these group fight teams hear people say, look, they're a surprise. UConn has really, really played at a high level. Their defense is, I'd say it's one of the top defenses we've played all year long. They're number five in the country in third down defense, they present a ton of issues. If I look tired, I haven't slept much thinking about how to find a way to move the ball against it them.

On the UConn running game: I mean, that's been our Achilles heel defensively. So, it's a great challenge. They do it a little different than the Army and the Navy. They're more like Tulane in how they run the football. They're very pro-style in their approach. Their offensive line works really, really well together. You know, you've heard me say, I think great offensive lines think the same thoughts. They can kind of read each other's minds. That's kind of how this offensive line plays. They work their combos really well, a lot of nonverbal communication in their run game. The play caller does a really good job with the run game, liike he gets you thinking one thing, he pops you on another thing. They have formation flexibility. So, yeah, they create some real issues in the run game. You can't just play it one way. You know, you can't just line up and say, ‘Oh, we're going to blitz it, or we're going to play soft or we're going to read and react.’ I think you've got to give them different looks in how you defend the run game. We'll try to do that and at the same time try to keep it simple for our players. I do think the other thing, when you play teams that run the ball like this, you have to do your share of offense. If you don't score, you at least need to flip the field. You know, you don't want to give an offense like this short fields, where they feel they can run it. It's team football. You know, you haven't seen us do it, and we haven't been real successful, so you haven't seen real complementary football. But we attempt to play complementary football and we'll attempt to do it again this week.

On flushing the previous game:  Well, it's something we've preached since day one, you know, is you invest into everything you have. You pour yourself out. You empty it out on Saturday and then you let it go, win or loss. You can't dwell on it. I think it's actually more important when you're winning. When you're losing, you know, we're naturally pretty resilient people, right? People say, oh, I'm a winner, I always win. Everybody loses. Everybody takes L's and you got to brush yourself off. I think we're kind of conditioned to do that. I think the thing we really struggle with as humans is handling success. You know pride and hubris and you know all those things really get in the way, complacency is a huge thing in sports. I really started buying into it during the successful stages of my career. Like you can't start thinking better of yourself after a win. Again you got to put it aside and start from scratch. I think the best players, the best the most successful people I know have a unique ability to do the next thing well. It's right on my board right over there. How can you make it better? You know how do you make the next thing better? And when you can kind of start from scratch that's your mentality. Last week was successful how do I make it better? You know last week wasn't successful okay how do I improve it? And if you're focused on that all the time then you don't get caught up in the scars and pain of losing, you don't get caught up in the false perception of security when you win. I've been through both so I just think that the best way to handle it is just start over, reset and start over.

On Kam Shanks and Amare Thomas:  Both have some similarities. They're both very smart. I try to say that all the time, there's this perception of college athletes that they're not smart, these two are very, very smart kids. They work really hard, you know, they come to practice every week as young kids and just get after it. They're both trying to chase their best daily. I think with Kam especially, he has spatial awareness. That's the thing that jumps out. Two things, he can change speeds and he has spatial awareness. He really feels intuitively the space around him, he feels angles. If you look at his catch-and-carries, whether it be in the punt return game or in offense, guys have angles on them and he false accelerates or accelerates to change the angle and is able to win after that. If you take the touchdown catch, the catch-and-carry the other day on fourth down, three guys have angles and he kind of stutters and they stutter and then he explodes to the middle and now they're playing catch up. They both finish, you know, both of them have very sure hands and finish on the ball. We're very lucky to have them. We were excited when the season started that those two could have a big impact on our passing game and they have.

On sideline energy and the role that Cole Peterson plays: Captain Juice. We call Cole ‘Captain Juice.’ It's in his DNA. I knew the hiring of (director of football operations) is one of the biggest things you had to do it in college football. I had really good list of candidates and I had gone through some initial interviews and when I met with Cole, I remember him sitting right where you're sitting and just the energy, the enthusiasm jumped out  and his love for the kids. We've done something really cool in the building. It's not why we won the game. It's been a really neat exercise last few weeks. We challenge everybody to really write a letter to football and the letter starts, ‘Dear football, I play you because or I love you because.’ We've got our coaches or everybody in the building doing it. It's been really revelatory with the players. But for the coaches and staff members, it's been really neat to hear too. Cole shared it at the staff meeting last week. I don’t want tell his secrets, but it was obvious he cares so deeply for the people in this building. That is what fuels his enthusiasm and energy.  So none of its fake or rehearsed, it’s authentic juice, fuel to who we are. And it was there when we weren’t winning. When you win a game you always look around like okay who's changing. Cole never changed. He’s the same the day he arrived and he's the same today. He just is going to be a guy that rolls in this building every morning he's going to give you everything he has. He's going to stay positive, he's going to stay energetic. We feed of him. One of our core values is life bringing energy and he models that daily.