Trent Dilfer preaches renewed focus on toughness
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 10, 2024
Toughness has not been a strength for the UAB football team thus far this season, according to head coach Trent Dilfer. Never was that more evident than this past season against a head coach that Dilfer said builds his program around toughness.
“The message was sent very clear,” said Dilfer, whose team is 1-4 heading into Saturday’s visit to Army. “I've said it and I’ll say it again, everything to this point is my fault. I'll own every piece of it and I mean it authentically. The biggest mistake I made was assuming certain things. I’m no longer assuming anything. So, we’re starting with how football was invented. If that means we do less, if that means we have less bells and whistles, if that means we sacrifice something, we can’t sacrifice the foundation of football. I watched it live with Jon Sumrall, who I admire deeply, he's one of the top 10 coaches I admire in college football. I watched what toughness is live and in person. From here on out, I’m going back to my roots. … Toughness, physicality, toughness of mind, resilience, grit, all this other stuff is fluff unless you have that.”
In some ways, reintroducing the toughness aspect to a football team comes in subtle ways. For the first time this season, Dilfer had his team practice in full pads on Tuesday and Wednesday. But toughness is not always about lining up and punching the guy across from you in the mouth, even though that’s the approach that UAB will face on Saturday against an unbeaten Army team. Dilfer said toughness is often an equal amount of mental and physical, which has been emphasized this week in practice.
“It's a resolve, not everything has to be, you know, knock each other around,” Dilfer said. “But, if you lost focus, you're breakable. If you fell asleep in a meeting, you're breakable. If you had self-pity because you're tired, you're breakable. If you jumped offsides because you're thinking about something else. because you're tired, you're breakable. If you didn't use your hands to punch somebody, strike somebody and lost that one, you're breakable. I go on and on and on. But those things show up in practice and you got to make sure that when they're tired, when they're feeling sorry for themselves, that they have a mechanism inside that says that is not going to make me breakable. Regardless of circumstance, regardless of how I feel, I'm going to do the right thing, not what I want to do.”
Dilfer said several players stepped up to keep the Blazers together during the four-game losing streak where the Blazers have been outscored, 181-71. He mentioned running back Isaiah Jacobs, quarterbacks Jacob Zeno and Jalen Kitna, tight end Terrell McDonald, safety Sirad Bryant and center Brady Wilson as examples. Dilfer said he’s also challenged coordinators Alex Mortensen and Sione Ta’ufo’ou to deliver the message.
“They are assistant head coaches, by title, they need to embrace the same values that I have,” Dilfer said. “They need to message the same way I do. They need to hold accountable their players the same way I do. I love them both like brothers, I want them to be with me forever. But listen, none of us have done our jobs to the level that it takes to win. And again, the biggest thing I said to the coaches, players, recruiting, student assistants, you name it, is if you're getting defensive on this message, you're breakable, too. It's one of the greatest signs of insecurity and weakness. The lack of toughness is being defensive about things. So as I’ve (accepted responsibility) in front of everybody, and I mean it, and I'll continue to (accept) it, I'm not gonna get defensive. I have nothing to be defensive about, nor should I.”