Injuries Open the Door for UAB’s Young Receivers
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 30, 2026
It’s come despite a few roadblocks – most of them because of injuries – but UAB wide receivers coach Kevin Garver likes where his group is heading into next week’s season opener.
“I think the group as a whole, right, like starting from January to this point, I've seen them make a lot of strides,” Garver said after a recent practice with the clock ticking down toward Thursday’s season opener at Illinois. “I'm talking about everybody in the room. We got 15 guys in there. I've seen a lot of improvement with all 15 of these guys from January on to spring into the summer and to now in training camp. I'm very proud of these guys. There's still some things that we need to fine tune but I have been pleased with the way that they've been working, their effort, their attitude, the energy that they're bringing to practice every day.”
Injuries caused some bumps in the progression. It started in the spring with Kaleb Brown and Jaylen Elder going down and others also missed some time. Several receivers have spent a chunk either missing time or wearing yellow jerseys and playing with limited contact. The number of injured players dwindled to less than a handful this week as the Blazers moved into game preparation mode for Thursday’s opener at Illinois.
In hindsight having receivers miss some time actually could have helped with depth at the position.
“I think it probably helped some guys grow,” said UAB head coach Alex Mortensen. “Now, look, I think our practice organization is, such that even when we have a full roster guys know how to play. They really do. But nevertheless, I do think maybe it gave guys opportunities to play with the quarterbacks they wouldn't play with in some cases. We really get to focus our evaluation on the ones who are healthy to see how we feel about them.”
One of the young receivers taking advantage was redshirt freshman CD Gill. The 5-foot-7, 160-pound redshirt freshman from Saraland High drew the praise of Mortensen after catching four passes in the team’s first scrimmage. That was just part of what has been a strong camp for the elusive Gill, who was one of the top receivers in Alabama while at Saraland. He played in just one game last season.
“It's always a transition for players to come in, I don't care where they played at,” Garver said. “He played at a great high school in Saraland and had a lot of success. Yeah. When I say coming in as a freshman is a transition, it’s for every single person. I've seen tremendous growth from him in all areas. I think that he's got great instincts. I think he has a really good understanding of football. I think his vision playing the game, running routes, understanding leverages, understanding how to attack DBs is a strength. Obviously, he's not a very big guy but he does a great job dropping his weight in and out of breaks. I think that also just to play strengths is something he needed to improve on. I think that he's made the commitment to do that and it's shown up in practice because he knows limitations and I think that's a part of it for any player. You got to know your strengths and you gotta know your limitations, so you're gonna play to your strengths and you're gonna work on your limitations.”
Some would say his size is a limitation. Actually, many have said that since he first started playing football at four years old. His answer to those comments had to do more with his actions than his words.
“I've always been the smallest guy on the field,” Gill said. “So it really means nothing to me now. It's been my whole life. I've always proven (the them wrong. You could say this and that about my size but if you look at the results the numbers don't lie.”
Those numbers in high school included a 51-6 record over four years, three state championship game appearances and one state title. Gill had 173 catches for 2,815 yards with 31 touchdowns in his high school career. In his senior season, Gill had 76 catches for 1,341 yards with 20 touchdowns.
Gill said he had more than 20 scholarship offers but took his time in the recruiting process. His commitment to UAB didn’t come until just before he signed in February of 2025.
“I really wanted to be somewhere where my size was embraced and wasn't held against me,” Gill said. “I felt like UAB was the best school for me, seeing guys like (Iverson “Strap” Hooks. Strap's not a big guy. He just had a great season last year. Obviously I'm small, everybody knows that. But Coach Garver, when he was recruiting me, was like, ‘I don't care. If you can play ball, you can play ball.’ That's what got me here.”
Now, he’s worked himself in position to be part of a rotation that should have the strength of numbers.