Trent Dilfer MEETS WITH MEDIA AHEAD OF GAME AGAINST Charlotte
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 25, 2024
Trent Dilfer met with the media on Monday to talk about the win over Rice this past Saturday and look ahead to the regular season finale at Charlotte. The Blazers are 3-8 heading into the road trip. UAB has not won back-to-back games this season and haven’t won a road game under Dilfer. It will be the 100th game for the UAB program since the return to the football field in 2017.
Opening statement: Nice to get a win, obviously, they’ve been few and far between. Really happy for our seniors. You know, not just Senior Day, the importance of that, but just to be able to send them out in their last home game as seniors with the win. Did some things that we hadn't been able to do all year long, overcome adversity, respond instead of react, regain momentum, which is something that has really been hard for us to do this year when we lose it. So some things to build on for the future and hopefully have a great week of practice and do them again next week and go get our first road victory.
On Jacob Zeno not taking part in Senior Day: I think he's going to apply for medical redshirt and that’s why he was not a part of that. That’s the player's choice. My understanding is he's going to apply for medical redshirt and try to play another year of college football.
I’ve been really honest since day one, it's been a shoulder injury, a non-throwing shoulder (injury). I’ll let him talk about the rest of it, but it bothered him going into his last game that he started and got worse in that game. And then, you know, we felt from that period on that it was not best for him to play, at least immediately after that.
On Trey Bedosky, Kevin Penn and OC Brothers also not taking part in Senior Day: Trey, I believe, has another year of eligibility and then (I’m) unaware of the why behind the other two. Again, not my decision. Those are not my decisions whether they walk or not.
On keeping a team together in the new world of college football: I don't know if I have an answer. It's something I think about constantly, pray about, talk to mentors about, trying to figure out is it the same for everybody? I honestly don't know. I know that everybody's motivated by something different these days. And that's okay. Like I'm not an old curmudgeon that says you have to be motivated by X, right? There are a lot of different motivations. As soon as those motivations become bigger than a common goal, now you have a team issue. The greatest thing about team sports is that it takes everybody, regardless of their motivation, at least to do it for one another. And when it becomes more about yourself than it does the collective good of the team then it's very hard to build great teams. I think every coach in America would say that. Now some coaches are finding the secret sauce, I have not, how to balance that. I'll be excited for some of our players that have opportunities to move on and make a ton of money in college football if that is indeed the case. But I think where it gets (muddy), and the data shows this, I wish players would listen more to coaches. This is not my team, because I don't know on our team who's leaving or who's staying.
But I'm looking around I'm seeing guys announce that they're going in the portal and there's still 3,400 players in the portal from last year, that were never signed. If you look at the level of Group of Five players that have gone up, playing time, production, starts is rare. Like it just doesn't happen. It's a very, very small number. You look at (Power Four) players that go down that hadn't played, that's not very successful. What we're starting to see after a couple years, the data is that there are certain players the portal was very good for, but they're the minority. And I think these players need to listen to people who actually really care about them. I don't know if they're always listening to the people care about them most. Part a caring about a player is understanding that his journey through college football and the ebbs and flows of it and the difficulties of it and the frustrations of it are what make it great. That is a narrative is not being talked about.
On if other coaches are already reaching out to players: We, in the American (Athletic Conference), have a really good relationship as coaches. Now, unfortunately, six of us are no longer with us. But we've had open communication about this even though we're competing against one another. We all kind of feel the same that we would ideally like to build our teams from the high school ranks. But as you're looking at roster turnover, and now a couple of years of this cycle, you don't have the old-school way of where you have the right amount of players, young players, in each age group. So, for instance, when I got here, there was a huge gap in one of the recruiting years. So we had to fill that age group, right? We couldn’t go and stack below it all the high school classes. You might have 36 in one class and seven in another class. So you're constantly trying to get those numbers balanced out and you can't always do it through high school.
The other challenge is, at this level, let's take Kelvin Hill (as an example). Kelvin Hill started every game as a true freshman. He's had a fantastic season, probably one of the more underrated players in our conference. He's gonna have great opportunities out there. But when you do help a young player have success early, it hurts you as well because you're gonna lose that player. Do you go recruit another freshman to take his place? If the guy taking his place, he beat out, well, then did you get better over the offseason? I'm not complaining, there's just a lot of dynamics that go with it.
Unfortunately, this conversation can't be done in a soundbite. I've lived your life. I've lived all your life. You can't truly explain it. You can talk about it in print. You can try to give people a general understanding of it. But ultimately, they're going to whatever Instagram and Twitter says to create an opinion on the state of the portal and NIL and all these different things. And people don't see the broader picture, the bigger effect that's happening to young people and coaches and programs.
On whether there have been conversations with current players on their plans for next year: They have not (had conversations). I'm trying to keep the main thing, the main thing, as I said last week. I thought last week was the most important game in the history of my tenure here and I'll say the same thing this week. It is all hands on deck. It is everything in our power, in our control to try to win this one. And then we'll start exit meetings on Sunday since we're not in a bowl game. I'm sure some of those conversations will come up with players, even though the portal doesn't open until (Dec. 9). I'm assuming I'll have players tell me in those exit meetings what their intent is. And I'll bring it up to some of them as well.
The one thing I’m not gonna do is beg for players to be here that don't want to be here. You can't build what we're gonna need to have with people that have one foot in and one foot out. If they have one foot out, then I'm not going to be mad, but this is not going to be groveling to keep them. There's a lot of really good football players out there, especially in this region. You know, like Coach Saban used to talk all the time about the 500-mile radius that is just loaded with some the greatest football prospects ever. We're in that same radius, although we're not recruiting the same type of players that Nick recruited at Alabama, or Hugh is recruiting at Auburn, we're still recruiting a high caliber player. And there's a lot of them around here. There's a lot of them that have gone off to school elsewhere and want to come back to Birmingham, because it's a great city. We'll be active in both. We’ve already been wildly successful in high school recruiting. Sometimes I don't know why, considering our record, and we'll be aggressive in the right kind of portable player too, if we absorb the losses that people are predicting.
On the effect of the momentum of finishing with two consecutive wins: I don't know if it's going to matter (with keeping players that are on the fence). You know, if you're on the fence as a player, you're probably both feet out. If you don't want to be part of fixing this, then you've probably already made a decision that you want to take an easier road somewhere else. Now, I'd hope that those players would listen to data. They're gonna get the data put in front of them on what that may mean for their careers. For most players at our level, I’m saying my team, don't hear me say my team. At our level, for most players, if they choose to go up it'll be a terrible, terrible, terrible decision for their careers, unless they just want to rush the field at Auburn, (like they did) two nights ago. They want to be part of that, but not be part of in between the lines, cool, I get it. (Go) have this big glamorous pageantry college experience. Very, very few Group of Five players go up to the Power Four and are impact players. If some want to go down because they want to play more, I can understand that maybe to a certain degree. But I would also wonder if they have the competitive edge to get up every single morning and chase their best, if they're looking for an easier road of playing time. Again, that is our level (in general), it's not my team.
I think what this week means is one more opportunity for those of us who want right to ship to learn how to become winners, because we have not been winners. You know, your pedigree doesn't make you a winner, what you've done in the past doesn't make you a winner, what you do this week makes you a winner. And how much I'm going to try to be a winner this week. Cole (Peterson’s) going to be a winner this week. We have enough guys, hopefully, who want to be winners this week. If we get enough of them, we can go to Charlotte and get our first road victory. I don't know if it means much more besides that.
On the support from the university: Fantastic. You know, Mark (Ingram) has been fantastic through this process. It’s been brutal on him, obviously. He hired me. It has not gone the way either of us had expected. So it's been very tough on him, but he's been nothing but supportive to me. And I appreciate that. The one thing that I've tried to make people understand is nobody hurts more than me when we lose. Nobody hurts more than me when we don't meet expectations. Nobody's more surprised than me, to be honest with you, of the failures of this season. But I also dust myself off each week and go back to work and do the things I know are winning things and trust that over time you do enough winning things and you get enough people doing winning things with you that you will become a winner consistently. Based on the fact that I still have a job sitting here today, Mark believes the same thing.
On Charlotte playing without fired coach Biff Poggi: Very good recruiter. We did the same thing last week with rice. Coach Blomgren built Rice (for seven years), had done a fantastic job. We thought Rice on film was one of the better, more physical teams we're gonna face all year long. Tough position for Pete (Alamar) to be in. We talked about before the game. So we're playing another team with an interim coach. I don't know what that means. I also try not to comment on other people's programs. You know, every scenario is different. I've reached out to all the coaches that have been let go in our conference. I call them all friends. I feel badly for them. But at the same time, I got enough things here I got to worry about. Sorry to hear about other people's situations.
On Saturday being the 100th UAB football game since the return: I spend a lot of time in the mornings reading, quiet time, praying. I was reading some stuff this morning and I saw that, I was unaware of that, and I actually was taken aback by it. I was like, wow, that's a big deal, like this is a big monumental type milestone. I've said it from the beginning, I had nothing but respect for Bill (Clark). I call him a friend. I thought what he did, what everybody did to bring the program back, was pretty spectacular. So, again, I've said this publicly, I've said this to Bill, I've been embarrassed by what has happened in my tenure here. But I am also steadfast in wanting to fix it and build upon something really good that Bill built.
On Isaiah Jacobs: One, it's very hard to be a leader when you're hurt and Isaiah has done a great job finding that balance. I've had to live that. I've been a team captain twice and lost the year because of injury. It's really hard to lead when you're in the training room, when you're not doing the hard things that your teammates are doing. You have to learn what that niche is. I think Isaiah has done a really good job of finding that. And I think one of the ways is his (position) room. Sometimes the best thing to do is just focus on the micro and the micro is the running back room. Hindley (Brigham) is already a great leader as the coach, but every coach needs player leadership too. Isaiah has done a really good job being an encourager. There's a standard there to be met each day. The Beebes and the other Lee, Witherspoon, and the other backs that are in that room still value his voice. You almost sense that they know he's out there and he's watching and we better not take a play off type thing. That room has never flinched regardless of our circumstances. When Lee (Beebe) fumbled twice in the first game, he didn't flinch. He didn't go in the tank after the call against UConn. The whole room has practiced hard every day. They don't complain, there’s no maintenance, they work hard in the weight room, they andle the business off the field. I think all of that is a product of Isaiah's leadership. I know Isaiah has had a personal influence on Lee (Beebe’s) growth as a man, too. So to me, that's as important as the football stuff.
On Corri Milliner: Corri’s a great example of what the developmental model looks like in college football when done well. We have not done a lot of things well, I think we've done that very well. We have taken young players that were not highly recruited, that we saw something in. We've coached them up on and off the field. We've endured with them through the struggles of growing as people and players. And now you're starting to see the fruit of that labor. He was a raw, talented athlete that has become a very productive wide receiver.
Corri, I think has a very good heart. Corri and I get along very well. We connect very well. Even when I'm hard on him, I think he knows he’s growing emotionally. I think there's times that his emotions get the best of him and we saw that on Saturday. We've seen it other times during the season. I'm willing to work with players if they're willing to grow. I’m willing to work through the growing pains. I'm a father first, what if I would have abandoned my middle daughter when she was a knucklehead or my oldest daughter when she was a knucklehead? Kids are gonna grow. They're going to need to learn from mistakes, they're going to need to learn how to emotionally regulate, they're going to need people in their lives that are going to be patient with them but also hold them accountable. I tried to do that with Corri and will continue to try to do that with Corri. I appreciate the fact that he's been willing to work with me on that process. I think he's starting to see when you combine both the off-the-field growth and the on-the-field growth what that could mean to you as a player.
On Chris Bracy returning from injury: It gives me the warm and fuzzies, it really does. Like, he is a fantastic football player. He's a fantastic kid. He's a fantastic worker. He would be up for offseason MVP, you know, had an unbelievable training camp and was playing at an incredibly high level. Then has a very difficult situation with an injury. I appreciate how he attacked the rehab process. He never got disengaged. Chris is everything you're looking for, that's the easiest way to say it. He's an Alabama kid from a very good program with high recommendations from a very, very successful, renowned high school football coach, with a great mom, with a great pedigree, that has been a great Blazer to this point. To see him back on the field, I actually yelled two things at him. He was on kind of our side playing our half of the field and I yelled at him. I said, ‘You're giving me the warm and fuzzies seeing you out there.’ He kind of giggled and then I said ‘But I haven't seen you make a play in two months, can you make a play?’ He kind of giggled at that. I love Chris Bracy. It's nice to have him back. He makes the whole secondary better, makes the whole defense bette. He played well. Like, he didn't play bad. He triggered, he had good eyes, he was physical. I think there was one tackle that I think he would like back. It wasn't a terrible mistake but I could think if he had it over again he had a chance to make a little more dynamic play. I love the way he practiced all week too. He practiced like he had never missed a beat.