Trent Dilfer meets media ahead of usf game

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 14, 2024

UAB head coach Trent Dilfer held his weekly meeting with the media on Monday. He took time to talk about last week’s loss at Army and look ahead to Saturday’s visit to Tampa for an AAC game against South Florida.

Opening statement: Well, I don't know, again, if there's a whole lot to say, another incredibly disappointing game, a game that did not reflect our week of preparation, against a very good opponent, but that's, that doesn't matter. We did not play good football in any of the three phases. I'm disappointed, I feel like I've let down a lot of people and it's my job to get us to play better football and I have not done that to my expectation. My mindset is to change the ways I do things, to hopefully get a better response from our building.

On the changes that need to be made: Change is always difficult, but I'm open. This is a term I think is a little esoteric and people cringe at to some point, and I agree, but it's true, like I have a growth mindset. I did not come in thinking that I had all the answers. I think I've learned from really good people. I've tried to be a good listener, learner. I applied some things that others had told me were the right things to apply. They've proven not to be the best way of doing things. That's my fault. And then I have some core beliefs that I think need to adjust, not change, but adjust. And I think we're also all learning the modern day dynamics of college football and what motivates a player and a coach. I think you can't be an old curmudgeon and say well,everybody needs to do it this way. I think you have to be, well here's the reality, and years of training to get the most out of your people.

I think some of that stuff isn't permanent and people will understand how to explain it, just because it's not as easy as saying it. It’s not as easy as saying ‘Oh, we're going to go from morning to afternoon or we’ll hold them more accountable.’ We always hold them accountable, it's one of the foundational principles. I think the biggest disconnect that I have seen is I've never been around in my history in football something that is so different from the practice field to the game. As I said last week, I've been part of bad teams and you know you're bad and you practice bad and you go play bad. I’ve seen that, been a part of it. I've been part of teams where you just know you're better, you practice at a really high level and then you go out and you play just like you practice. This is the first place I've been around where we practice at a very high level and then don't come close to playing anywhere near that. So i'm asking myself are we practicing the right way. So I’m asking questions like are our drills transferable, are our practice sessions transferable, is the messaging transferable? Obviously no, right, because we're not getting the results that we want and we're not putting our players in a position to where they can do what they do in practice on the field on Saturday. I think that's the easiest way to explain it is taking the time, you’re  with the players the four hours a day, and saying ‘OK, how do you reshape that, so it's more transferable to the game. So when they get to the game, it almost feels easier than practice.  Because something's happening where it's harder. Like, basic things that we do not see happen in practice are happening in games. Again, I I don't blame the player a lot of times because as I told them, as i've told people before, I've never met a player that wakes up in the morning says, you know what today i'm purposely not going to do what I was taught to do. Today, I’m going to choose to miss a tackle, today I'm gonna choose to miss a blocking assignment, I'm gonna choose to drop the football, today I'm gonna choose to make the wrong read. I don't believe players do that. So if they're making those mistakes, but they're not making them in practice, then it's my job to make sure we change how we practice. It’s not just practice, prepare. Because it's four hours of preparation a day. It's two hours out there. Does that make sense? I'm trying not to get too out of the clouds, but that's probably the easiest way.

On asking the coordinators to change also: Yeah, and I think, you know, this coach dynamic is interesting in college football. You hire people that you believe have the same values as you, and I believe both my coordinators do, and they're both problem solvers. That's one of the things that I look for. And they have actively worked on problem solving. They're frustrated, too, because they feel as if they keep trying to address the problems, trying to make the corrections, doing what they have in their tool belt to fix what is plaguing us. I think they're like I am, like okay well then help me grow and find better ways to do it because obviously our ways are not working. I think we're all in this kind of growth mindset of we're willing to change any way we need to change to help our players be more successful on Saturday. that's really what this comes down to is taking all agendas aside like, our job, as I've defined it in this building, is to help them reach their potential on and off the field. We're seeing growth off the field but we're not seeing that growth on the field. So therefore we need to change our ways of how to try to pull that out of them on game day. As Coach Saban said, I think he said it brilliantly, was create value for themselves. You know that they have to understand that we want them to create value for themselves. Not just the NIL value but value as players, like value as people, value as learning lessons that will help carry them into their future lives whether that be football or something else. It's on us to make sure we're doing the right things to get them to play their best.

On seeking advice from coaching mentors: I'm wrestling with a couple things. The health of your team is always something you've got to be concerned with too. Some of this is how physical can you be in a in the middle of the season? Let's take tackling. You can't tackle a practice. You can't expose your running backs, your wide receivers to full tackling during the week. So what kind of (approach) do you use to learn better tackle? What as we call thud, is we’re going to come up and we're gonna be in a great form to tackle, but we're not going to tackle you, we’re going to thud. Well, how do you thud better? You know, I think one thing with tackling is that I've never seen a bad athlete that was a good tackler. You know, a lot of tackling is an athletic index. So how do we help them get more flexible? How do we help them get stronger? How do we increase their athleticism in the season? You know, Lyle (Henley) does an incredible job. One thing we did last year and we’re doing this year, is we actually get faster as the season goes on. One of the few teams that the GPS numbers get better during the season. We're doing that from the speed aspect, but it's not translating into some of the things that speed and athleticism should be able to produce. So that's, you know, obviously we're racking our brains on that. I'm looking through data, I'm talking to coaches. I'm literally trying to turn over every stone there is to try to fix this. But in terms of a practice profile, there's only so many things you can do without exposing your players to injuries that you wouldn't want to have happen during the week.

On early mistakes setting the tone: It’s the thing that hurts my soul as much anything. One of our core values is life bringing energy and I think that has been off. That’s my fault. Anytime your core values, they're not signs, they're not t -shirts, they're not things that you say in press conferences, although many times that's what a lot of coaches do. They should be your fabric. You know, you should be weaved at the core values of your program. And we've done a pretty good job on a couple of them, but I think that is one we absolutely whiffed on. You know, the final E (in our core) is life bringing energy. Regardless of circumstance, regardless of situation, you need to bring life to others. And we literally suck the life out of others. Body language is terrible. Audio is terrible. You know just everything that you're looking for good football teams to have, something bad happens to us. And you got kicked in the groin 30 times. I'm searching for how to change that.

 It's not who I am, you know, I'm passionate to a fault sometimes. But I find myself on the sideline, it’s interesting, I'll give you an interesting example. When we get on the plane, we have iPads. It gives you four views of a play. It gives you the wide, gives you the tight, gives you a hybrid and then it gives you a tight TV copy. I'm sitting there on the plane and I'm watching. I'm grading the film - offense and defense. And then about six times during the game the TV showed me.  I can't hear what they're talking about, it’s no audio on the iPad. So they just show me randomly. And I watch myself, I'm like, that's not me. That I'm sitting there and look academic. Trust me, I'm not real academic, you know? Like, where's my passion? Where's my enthusiasm? Where's my fight? Now, internally I'm doing that, and there's times that I'm trying to do that. But I own the fact that I haven't been the best version of me on the sideline, from an energy standpoint either. So, you know, that's just another self-growth that I need to look at and say, well maybe they're feeding off my lack of passion, my lack of intensity. Now, I don't still want to be the guy that runs around and jumps up and down high-five just at the camera season. That's not the intent. But if they need more of that for me, then I need to be that for them. So, it’s another thing I'm looking at to try to hopefully inspire our group to have more passion on the sidelines, because that's really what it is. Like, I feel it, you know, I see it and you can't, you know, football has so many ebb and flows whether you're good, you’re bad (or) indifferent, right. The game is just a roller coaster. And you can't let that suck the life (out of you). Your energy has to be independent of circumstance. If you ever think you're going to turn the corner and I think that's a message that our players not just need to hear, because words are cheap, they need to see. And maybe they need to see it more for me.

On when he spotted the different sideline demeanor: (Against Army was) the first time I saw it. Other games that I watched, maybe I didn't notice. I don't watch the games on TV. I just see these copies, these clips. This is the first time it jumped out. It was, one, you've gained weight, and two, where's your passion?

On the health of this program and recruiting in the AAC: This cannot come off as an excuse. Our job is to win regardless of opponent, whether it's Arkansas, whoever, but our conference is very difficult. I don't think anybody understood, myself included, was the jump that this program was about to make. I think we need own that. It is the level of coaching, resources, players is exponentially better than the other, I'm not even going to say a name, but other G5 conferences. The person that set it in the building before anybody else was (Alex Mortensen), who had just come from Alabama. But he understood that the gap isn't as big as everybody thought it was and he warned us. We listened. It’s not like we came into this thing thinking, oh, we're going to run (over everybody). That was never the approach. We're very realistic of what a rebuild looks like. But it has been eye-opening how good some of these teams are and how well coached they are.

How do I feel about recruiting, I think we're in a tough situation recruiting. I think it's very hard to compete in an NIL landscape that others have millions of dollars. That’s  going to be one issue, is can you compete at that level? That's uncomfortable for me to talk about because I don't know what our future is there. I've been grateful for the little (NIL money) that we've had to this point. But we may be in a position where we're recruiting the majority of high school players and playing young players on a consistent basis. When your record is what it is, kids want to be part of the winner and I understand that. So I think relationships again and connecting with the kid and trying to get them to understand the vision, the core values, how they'll be treated, the level of coaching and development they'll get here. It has to be communicated constantly and it's very difficult to do while you're reeling and trying to find solutions on how to turn the season around. So it is very delicate about this. It's about as honest as I can get.

Listen, my brand is not very big. Let's be real. You know iyou're not sitting here talking to Prime (Deion Sanders). You're talking to a guy that nobody, not one player we recruit, knows anything about anything I've accomplished in football. The Elite 11 is probably the thing they know more than anything about. My relationships, my networks I think are valuable to our building, I don't think they are valuable to a recruit. I don't think that's what a young person is looking for. One of one of our ODs, what we call our dudes needs to value action needs value, relationship needs value, growth, development, opportunity to get a great education, be treated well, valued. I think that's a big thing we talk about is there's different forms of value besides economic value. They’ll be valued, that has to be part of what they're looking for and what their parents are looking for. If they're looking for money, if they're looking for something that is not process driven, journey driven, then it's going to be hard to recruit that player.

On South Florida: Well they're wildly talented. Alex (Golesh) is a tremendous coach. Tremendous. I think he will be a Power 4 coach very soon. His reputation is impeccable. He's a great teacher, he's a great leader. He's hired good people. They've recruited their tails off. They've invested a lot in recruiting and it shows. So they're very talented. They're not playing their best football. They'll be the first to say it. They lost one of the best players (quarterback Byrum Brown) in the conference, which is hard to move on from. You see some plays against Memphis (and) Tulane, both those games could have been very different. They're in position to make the plays, they just didn't make them. I'm sure that's his messaging is, hey, we're there, we just got to make the plays. It’s a lot like what we say a week in a week out. I think it's it's a great challenge But it's two teams that are playing very well going against each other and one of us has to find a way to play well.

On Jalen Kitna: Going back to the what I talked about myself, I do justify a little bit, my lack of maybe my so-called enthusiasm on the sideline because I was trying to teach so much through the moment, with Jalen specifically. With hey, I've been in these moments, you gotta learn how to play in these games, too. Not every game is gonna be simple. These are hard games to play in when it's a must-pass game almost every down, when defenses are giving you different looks that you worked in practice. We give practice looks and base in the even game and defenses change when they have big lead. So, you know, there's a lot of education in learning how to play in that type of game, a lot of teaching, a lot of understanding what he was going through. One thing I try to do is put myself in the quarterback’s shoes. Listen, I've lived this, I bet you I know what you're going through mentally and what your eyes are seeing. Tell me if I'm right on this.

I will say this about Jalen, outside of the first interception, he played tremendously well. He gave us a chance to move the ball in a very difficult situation when he's getting a softer shell coverage that's harder to throw the ball downfield (against). But he made some tremendous plays in that game and we didn't support him enough to have it look better, so to speak, or be more productive.

On Jacob Zeno’s health: I don’t (have an update). I'm talking to Jacob today. I don't have an update as we sit here.

On Isaiah Jacobs’ season-ending foot injury: Isaiah had surgery Friday (and) will miss the rest of the season. It’s devastating because he’s the moral authority in our locker room. He’s our team captain, very, very good player. But injuries are part of the game and he's handled it tremendously well as I expected he would. Yes, we're hoping and praying for (a medical redshirt that would give him a final year of eligibility).

On the injury to USF QB Byrum Brown and not knowing for sure if he is out: My understanding and again this is very hard in college football. I kind of appreciate what the SEC is doing with injury reports. But we have we don't know. We don’t know if he’s out for the year, we just know he's hurt. So, we'll prepare for both. The starter is one of best players in the conference. He has the ability to do everything, so you have to prepare for everything. Now, the backup is talented kid. I'm not saying he’s not talented. It just he hasn't played as much. It'd be like saying, preparing for Jalen, like, you watch the talent, like, wow, but he had two starts in four years. So, yeah, it's a challenge to prepare for both guys.

On returning to Tampa: I think number one, I do think it's our responsibility to make sure people in Tampa understand that the gravity what they're going through this far greater than any football game. Hopefully Raymond James (Stadium) will be some sort of escape for what's going on. You know, one of the first things I did as Milton approached was reach out to Alex (Golesh) to make sure him and his people were good and safe. I think he appreciated that. We have a lot of friends still in Tampa, checking with them, my wife's done a great job of just making sure she's checking in with all of our folks there. I think when we land it will be somber because what they've gone through, I don't expect, you know, when Helene and Milton hit back-to-back, it's not like it's gonna look pretty. I think that's gonna be the first thing.

I'm not real nostalgic. I remember going there for the Super Bowl. I just played there for six years. We landed and everybody was worried, ‘How’s Trent going to handle this?’ I am somebody that gets very locked in on the next challenge.  I don't really have a great rearview mirror. If you use a car analogy, my rearview mirror would be not even up there, it would be hanging and kind of by the dash and I'd have to like pick it up to look in my rearview mirror. I have to consciously look in my rearview mirror in life. I just kind of block some of that stuff out. I'll be focused on trying to find a way to get this team to win a game more than anything that has to do Tampa. I have been very well supported by the people in Tampa over my career and when I go back. I don't know if that will be the case this time. I don't know how they feel about me as a coach, I don't think many people feel real good about me as a coach. That'll be interesting. My experiences in Tampa call it  five, six, seven times since I played there have all been very positive.

On what another win would mean for his team: I think it's huge. You're desperate. I think desperate is a very honest term right now. We're desperate to go 1-0. Man, it would be massive, because it would be affirmation of all the hard work and months and months and months of what we've tried to do to go 1-0. I try to reflect, I try not to use too much of my playing stuff because I don't know if it's all relevant. But I do remember being (1-8), I believe, in Tampa in ’96. I can't remember who we beat, but it was like ‘Ok, this does work. You know, I think everything that Coach (Tony Dungy) has been saying does work.’ We just experienced two years of it not working, but the one time it worked you're like ‘OK, this is how we do it.’ We ended up winning (5 of the last 7) games and it launched us to a wildly successful ’97 season. I was talking to Jeff Tedford last night and they were 1-4, he said, in one of his last years, in one of Jake Haener's years, at Fresno. And they ended up winning 14 in a row after that. He goes, but it started with the first one. You know, like it was just a grind and a fight and pulling teeth and, just making sure they understood that there's still hope there. And you win one. You don’t win 14 in a row, you win one, and you start linking those chain links together. And I think that's what we're looking for. We're looking for the first link. You know, we're looking for the first link and that's all we can really hope on.