With the opening of USF’s football season less than two months away, Green, Gold, and Bold will examine each opponent the Bulls will face in the 2025 season.
Here’s the eleventh in the series.
Team: UAB Blazers
When: Saturday, November 22, Time TBA, at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.
Head coach: Trent Dilfer. It surprised many people when UAB brought Dilfer back for his third season after he went a combined 7-17 in his first two swings as the Blazers’ head coach.
His mouth seems to have no filter, as shown last September after a 41-18 home loss to Navy.
His grandson wanted to sit at the interview table with him, and noise interrupted a reporter’s question.
AL.com reported, “Dilfer looked off camera (presumably to a family member) and said, 'He can come up. There’s two of them (reporters). It’s not like this is freakin’ Alabama. Let’s go.”
That did not go over well with Blazers Village.
Last year's record: 3-9, including 2-6 in the American Athletic Conference,
Name to know: Jalen Kitna. The former Florida Gators quarterback resurfaced at UAB and was a half-full, half-empty guy.
He threw 17 touchdown passes (half-full), but 11 interceptions (half-empty).
Still, he is a big body – 6-5, 220 pounds – and has big-play capabilities. Last season against USF, he threw for 384 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
The Bulls won that game 35-25, but trailed 19-7 with about six minutes left in the third quarter.
The biggest potential weakness: It’s on the defensive side of the ball. The Blazers gave up 34.3 points per game, ranking 11th in the American Athletic Conference.
That led to a change in defensive coordinators and a major shopping trip to the transfer portal. Joining the Blazers at this point might seem like swimming out to meet the Titanic, but Dilfer likely faces a “win or else” season, so he will throw any resource he can at this program to get it moving.
The biggest question mark: Does Dilfer make it to the end of the season?
We saw last year that AAC programs aren’t shy about making in-season changes. An astonishing six head coaches were fired before their teams had ended their seasons.
Why keep Dilfer when fans registered their verdicts by not attending games?
Athletic Director Mark Ingram explained.
“We don’t think losing is OK. I know our fans sometimes wonder or ask about it on social media, but losing is not something we’re OK with,” he said.
“We know what we’re capable of. While the American Athletic is a lot tougher league than what we’ve been playing in (Conference USA), I think we are positioned well to be successful here.”
UAB has games against Navy and Tennessee in September, and opens conference play against defending champion Army. That makes their non-conference games against Alabama State and Akron critical.
Should the Blazers lose one of those contests, Dilfer might not make it into October.
Interesting things to know: UAB actually dropped football in 2014 but reinstated it three years later following a public outcry and a considerable private fund-raising effort.
UAB and Memphis have a rivalry called The Battle of the Bones. It pays homage to the reputation both cities have for outstanding barbecue.
The winning team receives a 100-pound bronze statue of a stack of ribs.