Trent Dilfer Meets With The Media Ahead of Memphis Rivalry Game
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 11, 2024
UAB and Memphis are preparing for another Battle for the Bones. On Monday, UAB head coach Trent Dilfer met with the media to talk about the upcoming game and look back at last weekend’s come-from-ahead loss to UConn.
Opening statement: Battle for the Bones week, fired up. Disappointing loss on Saturday (to UConn). I thought we had the game in hand and found a way to lose it in the fourth quarter, which is disappointing. But we showed a lot of signs of improvement. Kids played hard throughout the entire game. I’m proud of them for that.
On the Memphis rivalry: The short time I’ve been here you can feel the intensity of it. Last year it was something that our kids got excited for. We had a lot of adversity going into that week and they still rallied, practiced their tails off and played really well for half of the football game. Turnovers got us in the second half. And then the basketball, this offseason, watching the hoops play. We brought our boys to that game. We were all fired up. It was just an awesome atmosphere. We’re excited to play in another one.
On pop pass that was called a fumble: As expected, the thousand times that play is run in college football, it's been an incompletion a thousand times, except for Saturday. The refs reviewed it and said it shouldn’t have been an incompletion. I mean, if the ball is completed, it would have gone for passing yards, correct? It's pretty simple. It's the first time in the history of that play being called a fumble.
On reviewing the tape to see if there were more second half opportunities to run the ball: There really weren’t. We had three first down turnovers. You take, conservatively, five plays per drive and we’re actually higher than that. We’re actually 7-plus plays per drive for that (game). So 21 plays that we would have had in the second half, when we were around 50-50 run-pass. Actually, we were heavy second down run in this game, on purpose. If you don’t turn it over on the three first down plays, you’re looking at least another 10 runs. There really wasn’t (an opportunity) in the second half. You had the good drive that you throw the interception, down near the goal line, on a first down play. We’re heavy run in the red zone, those would have been some more opportunities. You have an incomplete pass that’s ruled a fumble on the third drive. You’re going to have an opportunity to run the ball on that drive. Then you have the screen pass that goes for 10 that’s ruled a fumble and that’s a first down play. Typically, we’re going to get more runs called there, we’re on the plus side of the field.
I was wondering if there were more opportunities to run it as I watched the film. It was really the lack of plays because of the turnovers that stopped us from running the ball in the second half.
On the 2nd-and-goal from the 2 situation where UAB ran the ball twice before kicking a field goal: If I regret any play call in the game, it’s the 2nd-and-two. It was open, you know, it was a good call and it was open. It was a tough throw. But if I had to do anything all over again, the real regret in that game is not going run, run, run there, probably four-down territory too.
On whether that process is predetermined, flow of game or how the defense lines up: Yeah, it's a balance. You know, we had a really good drive getting down there and kind of felt like we had or I had felt that we had suckered them into kind of a run profile defense. We did get the safety to play really low on the run on that play and pop the tight end in the back corner. The play call was a play action that was designed for that area of the field. But I wrote on my call sheet before the game, ‘Best call in those situations’, not momentum call. We had three other better calls that were runs that we should have gone to.
On Memphis: They’re a really good team. Very talented, quarterback's a really good player. They've invested a lot on both sides of the ball. They have players that have been highly successful both there and other places. They're traity, meaning they have all the traits you're looking for, and they really well coached. Surprised they've lost two, to be honest with you, with as talented as they are. So, it'll be a great challenge, gotta go to their place, rivalry game, night game which I think is awesome. You know, I think being able to play those night games on ESPN2 should be an incredible environment. But they're very talented.
On what he’s learned about himself and his leadership during a tough season: I try to be very consistent, try to be faithful in what I believe in, treat people well. I've pushed back against some common beliefs that if things don't go well, you blame others, ride them harder. I like these people, I like the building, I want the treat them well. I want them to feel valued whether we're winning or losing, I've tried to stay consistent there. I think one thing I've learned about my leadership style in the two years I've done this is I probably try to do too much, you know, so I need to push for simplicity. I got a pretty vast football background and sometimes I try to boil the ocean. And I think I've done a much better job the last six, seven weeks of not doing that, but I do think a flaw of mine early has been to try to do too much, both with the staff and with the players. So, try to keep it simpler, more direct, more consistent. And then ultimately just treat people well regardless of circumstance, whether we're winning or losing or things are going poorly on one side of the ball, try to treat people with respect and value them for the investment they make.
On his definition of loyalty: I saw that (Florida State firing coaches) late last night, when I got home. You never know what that was motivated by. I don't know if that's (administration) or the head coach. I don't know, I've never seen it work where the interim guy comes in (or) consultant comes in to fix everything. You blow up everything on one side of the ball and all of a sudden that's the secret sauce (to) make you play better this year. Sometimes it gives you a spark for a week or two. But this is all of our fault. There's not one person's fault. If anybody, the majority of the blame should go on me, not the rest of the staff. I've just never seen it work, so I wasn't gonna do that. I do think when the offseason comes, you need to evaluate everything. But in the season, I've never seen a reason to make dramatic changes.
On team morale: I haven't met with them yet. I will see them tonight and I'll be better (feel) on their morale. They've been fantastic this year bouncing back. Obviously, we've had a lot of opportunities to bounce back from defeat. Unfortunately we’re getting good at this. The morale has been good at this point. I think there's always something to play for. It is very disappointing to be out of bowl contention, but this is a bowl game. It's a bowl game atmosphere. It's a bowl game venue. It's a bowl game team. It’s a bowl game network. It's a rivalry game. So for all intents and purposes, this is a bowl game for us. But I think even beyond that, there's so much to play for as a young student athlete. One, you get to (play) and I will try to remind them of that, this is a privilege that they get to play college football. That alone should be enough motivation. But they get to represent the institution, and they represent their family's name. They get to create value for themselves in an open market (in) college football. So there's still a lot to play for. There's a lot to coach for and we'll approach it that way.
On the difference between enduring a tough season as a player and a head coach: I feel more for other people. You know, it's like I hurt for them. As a player, you tend to probably be a little more caught up in your own disappointments. As a coach, you're responsible for so many people. And you wonder, did I do this right? Did I do that right? You know, did I set us up for season. success here? What things could I control? Can I not control? But I, I hurt for people that have invested a lot and aren’t getting to experience the fruit of their labor. That's why last week was so exciting. You know, last week, I felt a lot of joy for players that pushed through and coaches that pushed through and they got to experience some of the fruit. But, when you're not as successful as you thought you were going to be or you want to be, as a coach you feel responsible for a lot of people. As a quarterback you kind of do too because you touch the ball every play. But there’s not a lot of things you can do as a quarterback in terms of defense or special teams, there’s stuff you can't control. As a coach, you feel like you have some control over everything.
On Jacob Zeno’s playing status: He will be out.
On Amare Thomas: I thought he's played better this year. He's been more versatile. He hasn't just been a slot receiver for us. He's been challenged to be able to play on the edge of the defense. To be a complete receiver, you have to be able to do that. He's been able to do that at a higher level. I feel like he's played faster, I think he's been more physical when he hasn’t had the ball. He has played better without the ball, which is important. He's obviously been very productive. He's had a great attitude, whether he's getting the ball or not. He's had a really good attitude. He's worked really hard in practice. He's really a joy to coach. He wants to get better. He's always working on something. He takes input, he doesn’t have all the answers. He wants to be great, so I've been proud of his development this year and he hasn't let external circumstances affect his preparation.
On Jalen Kitna’s throwing motion: There's some commonalities that are very traditional. His sequencing of his ground force becoming a rotational force, the right hip release, the arm going from extended to vertical. Like there's these things we've studied over time, it doesn't matter whether you're Philip Rivers, Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers, whoever and that are consistent. He does need to do a better job of setting his ankle eye. What you guys call setting your feet is more getting your ankle eye and your back foot in position to throw the ball. There's a couple, especially in this game, there's a couple plays that he would have been more successful if he did that. The length of his stroke going back doesn't concern me as much as when it drops. The thing we've worked on the hardest is not allowing it to go below its waist. That's something we'll address this offseason. We've been addressing during the season. There's only so many changes you can make in season. You can make tiny little tweaks. But, he's super twitchy. He makes up for whatever untraditional movements he has with his right arm with how twitchy he is. The speed of his delivery, if you were to put a stopwatch on it, would be an elite what we call load to arrival, which is when you start to load the ball to when it arrives. (It’s) really the only thing that matters. There's guys that have really strong arms but really slow releases. You guys have really quick releases and really bad arms. The only thing that really matters is from the time you load it, which is kind of hard to recognize unless you have film, but the ball starts to go back, the right leg is planted until the time it arrives at target. Because that's what a DB is also breaking on.