Miscues Doom Blazers In Loss To Charlotte
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - December 1, 2024
CHARLOTTE 29, UAB 27
WHAT IT MEANS: The sour taste of finding another way to lose a game will carry into the offseason. The Blazers also take a step backward with the 3-9 final record.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: It literally didn’t happen until Jonah Delange’s final field goal attempt slid wide left. It was a cruel ending to what had been an individually successful season for the sophomore kicker.
WHY UAB LOST: Games aren’t won or lost on one play. UAB had plenty of opportunities to be either in control or at least be ahead in the final minutes. What if the defense didn’t give up a field goal drive that began with just 20 seconds on the clock at the end of the first half? What if UAB didn’t have costly penalties or untimely mistakes? What hurts, though, is it that, ultimately, the Blazers found a way to lose instead of finding a way to win.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: Charlotte quarterback Deshawn Purdie was far from efficient but he did make an impact with big chunk plays. Purdie was 9-of-26 for 215 yards with a touchdown. He averaged 23.9 yards per completion. UAB quarterback Jalen Kitna was 26-of-40 for 280 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. UAB wide receiver Corri Milliner had seven catches for 126 yards and a touchdown. Neither team took full advantage of a defense that struggled against the run. Charlotte had 140 yards on 35 carries and UAB had 128 yards on 35 carries. Lee Beebe Jr. had 82 yards on 19 carries and added 20 yards on four receptions, including an 11-yard touchdown. The bottom line stat is UAB finishes 0-6 in road games for the second consecutive season.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: No coach or player from UAB receives a game ball.
WHAT DID COACH DILFER SAY IN POSTGAME APPEARANCE ON BLAZER SPORTS NETWORK FROM LEARFIELD
On the message to his team: Devastating loss for them. I started with just making sure it’s understood it's not Jonah's fault. He, unfortunately, missed a couple tonight, missed one there at the end. But he's been a great player for us. He's been a great person on and off the football field. He's a great Blazer, and everybody in the locker room agreed. There was no moaning, there was no blaming. They're hurting, and from there, don't let the scoreboard define you. They really did compete at a high level. Unfortunately, we continue to find new ways of losing, beating ourselves, especially on the road. I'll take responsibility for that. I really believe we're close. I know it sounds crazy, and it doesn't make a lot of sense. In my experience, when it doesn't make a lot of sense, God's up to something. And we got a bunch of young players that are really good players, that have stayed bought in, that continue to work really hard. This team's had every reason to point the finger and be bad off the field, and be bad on the field, and lay down, and they haven't done that. It's not a victory, but it shows a lot about their character. If you can build a team full of high character guys that are getting better, we play a lot of young players, they come back, and they get in a little bit better, and we get better, we're really close to winning a lot of football games. They all believe that and that's the thing that matters the most. Not if I believe, but they believe it.
On the competitive game between two non-bowl eligible teams: It mattered to both teams. That's the beauty of college football. These narratives, it doesn't matter, you're not playing for anything, all that crap. These kids love to play football. We love to coach it. We love to compete. You know, anybody that's a competitor wants to wake up and have something to play for. We talked about all we want, how we get to do this, how lucky we are to get to do this. And I think they have the same message. You can tell them when they won, how excited those kids are. I mean, to have an opportunity to come out and play college football is a big deal. There's a lot of people who wish they could go play college football. Our kids get to do it, we get to coach it and that's what you saw when those two teams competed at a really high level.
On using an offensive package with Harrison Barker: You know, we run a lot of stuff. We just have a lot of offense. And we wanted Jalen to not have to run the whole, you know, call it 100 things. So, Warren, Harry gets to now run 15 of them. So, that's less on Jalen's plate. Harry has a unique skill set. He's a dynamic athlete. He can still throw. He's super smart. He's one of our team leaders, one of the greatest kids I've ever been around. He's a winner. We felt like we had a better chance of winning if he was on the field at times. He did a really good job for us. It was a successful package for us. We did a lot of good things tonight. Unfortunately, again, we found a new way to lose. But there's a lot of things to build off.
On Corri Milliner: Really the last four, five, six weeks, he’s probably been the best skill position player on the field. I’m really proud of Corri. He's grown up a lot. He's matured a lot. He's been through some struggles. But he continues to, when he messes up, hold himself accountable, discipline himself, move forward, not let it compound. He practices at a really high level, which has not always been the case since he's been here. It shows the model we have to use moving forward to win. We have to have the developmental model. We have to develop young players that aren't highly recruited and work with them as they grow on and off the football field. Corri is a great example of that.
On what’s next: We've got to make sure we get better. When you don't go to a bowl game, you lose a month opportunity to get better. You've got to find other things to get better at. We'll do a lot of evals. Personal evals evals of a lot of high school players, junior college players, portal players (who) are already starting to jump in. Make sure we evaluate why we've lost at this clip. It's disgusting. Nobody's more humiliated than I am. Try to keep finding out the why. Go to work at correcting those. We have to make sure that if you're going to be a Blazer next year, you’re going to want to be here, you know what I mean? We're only going to go to bat with guys that are dying to be UAB Blazers and be part of our great city and part of our great institution. So, exit meetings and get a real clear understanding for who wants to be part of winning next year and who wants to move on to something else.
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: UAB’s on-the-field work is done for the 2024 season. It will be interesting to see what it looks like moving forward.