Alex Mortensen meets With Media Ahead of Trip to Illinois
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 31, 2026
Alex Mortensen’s first full season as the UAB head coach kicks off on Thursday night against Illinois. Mortensen held his first game week press conference on Monday.
Here is what Mortensen had to say to assembled media members:
Opening statement: Finally we're in season. We're excited to get going. I think we've had a good training camp. We've put a lot of work in, going all the way back to last winter, spring, summer, fall camp. Like a lot of programs, you know, we're dealing with a lot of new players as many of you know. So it's been fun getting to work to bring them together from a camaraderie standpoint but also from a football standpoint and then also work to develop a lot of the new players that we have as well. This is our first year in the program, so really excited to, continue to work to get our guys to understand our standard and our expectation of how we do things. That's still a work in progress, but that's something we're teaching constantly. As we've approached a game week that continues.
Obviously, we're playing Illinois this week. Illinois definitely presents a challenge. We're looking forward to taking that challenge on. Have a ton of respect for Coach Bielema. You know, he did a great job really at every stop. You go all the way back to Wisconsin, you look at the job he did at Arkansas, which I think people can appreciate probably more now and then also the job he's done in Illinois. Ton of respect for him. I actually remember when I was starting my coaching career at New Mexico Highlands, a Division II program, he actually let me come visit a couple practices when they were at Arkansas, so really impressed with the job he did there.
And then, you know, Barry Lunney Jr., their offensive coordinator, is someone I've known for a long time. Barry's father is a kind of a legendary high school coach in the state of Arkansas. I went and played my college football there and got to know his father a little bit. I think his dad, Barry Sr., has won eight state titles, and then Barry Jr. had a good playing career (at Arkansas) and got into coaching. We've known each other for some time. Have a lot of respect for the work he does. I think he's done a good job there. He was a good coordinator at UTSA as well. Then Bobby Hauck, who is their defensive coordinator, comes from Montana. He did a great job at Montana. They had a great program there, and they're a challenge to prepare for. They do a really good job. He also had some time at San Diego State under Rocky Long. So ton of respect for their staff, their program, uh and the challenges they present.
They're all a lot like a lot of other people. They have a lot of new players, too. I think first games are always tough to get ready for, for everybody, because you're dealing with trying to work off last year's film and then you're also trying to piece together in this day and age film of players that are coming from a multitude of other places to get an idea of their personnel. What you don't get is examples of them necessarily playing in the scheme they're gonna play in currently. But our challenge to our guys, like it will be most weeks, is make it about us. Obviously we have to study our opponent and do a great job preparing for them and then adapting as the game goes on. But first and foremost, we need to prepare in a manner in which we make sure we're controlling the things we can control to the best of our ability.
On what he hopes to learn about his team on game day: “We've tried to create as many competitive situations as we can, stressful situations in practice, if you will, and also in scrimmage settings. So, you know, you hope that the learning about guys is actually limited (because) we've got a pretty good idea at this point. But I think sometimes people do psychologically respond different to competitive circumstances from one person to the next. I think seeing how we respond and handle those things is important and seeing if also guys have the discipline to just do their job and play within themself and not try to be something they're not.
On what he’s learned about himself since taking over as full-time head coach: “You know, it's a good question. What have I learned about myself? I mean, look, I, I can say this. I really love this job. I love being here at UAB, love being in Birmingham, love the group of players we have. I think one of the things about football is it's a challenging game. It's a competitive game. If I've learned anything, it's that I still love it. It's a lot of fun. But beyond that, I can't say that I've had a lot of time for self-reflection either, so I haven't thought much beyond that.”
On Ryder Burton’s growth as a quarterback: “I think Ryder, really from the time he got on campus, has done a great job here. One, I think he's a talented player, both physically and intellectually and I also think he's got leadership skills. So there are a lot of things that we really like about Ryder. That was apparent from the moment he got on campus and in the way he prepared even last year when he went into the season not as a starter. He had an opportunity to start last year, he really, he really played, frankly, like I expected him to play based on his performance in practice. I think when Ryder plays within himself he’s a great player. In terms of his growth beyond that he is very intense in his preparation. Really even going back from the way he approached spring football, I think he's wanted to own every aspect of the offense. You know, earning fronts, learning coverages, learning the run game, learning protections, understanding our passing game. He's really tried to master all of it. I think that's probably the biggest thing. One of the guys I used to work with, he used to say, ‘You want a quarterback to have the game of a player, but the mind of a coach.’ I think he really embodies that. He's grown in a lot of areas. I think too, when he got here, I thought he had a live arm. But sometimes we forget these guys are still maturing and developing physically. Like, I think I've even seen him develop physically in the last year. I think he's gotten more explosive. I think Lyle Henley and our strength staff has done a great job and I think Ryder's been very diligent in the way he's trained and the way he's prepared. So I think he's even a better athlete, a better thrower of the football, more skillful. I've even seen the physical things improve as well.”
On preparing the snap count at a deep running back position: “We do keep track of touches in a game. You know, we have a touch chart, and there's a fine line there. I think there's a way you can manufacture touches for someone. There's no question about it. I think the game, the longer I'm around it, you really understand it is about the players first and how they fit into a scheme, often not the other way around. If we feel like a guy maybe has not been involved in the game to the degree which we would hope or plan, we'll try to adapt during the game by looking at the touch chart. I think that's important. And then even having some areas on your call sheet or having things marked for a certain guy I think can help as well. At the same time, as a quarterback, there's another saying that says, ‘Hey, you need to take what the defense gives you (and) eventually they'll give you the game.’ I think there are times to be aggressive to get the ball to a guy, but you can't be hard-headed either if the coverage dictates that you shouldn't. You have to give the defensive coaches at this level credit. They do a good job too of trying to take away players. We're certainly gonna try to do things from a formation standpoint to move people around to help them create opportunities, but we don't want to be hard-headed either.”
On Illinois’ personnel: “They've got a lot of good players and I think they've got good size, good length, good athletes over there. Again, there's another saying in coaching, and this is probably my third one I've mentioned today, but ‘You never say the hay's in the barn. You prepare up until game, you learn as the game goes on.’ We feel like that is as much the case this week as ever because again they have a lot of new guys. We've got film of them, but we haven't seen them play for Illinois in their scheme the way they're gonna use them. We'll be observing and analyzing early in the game to try to get a feel of that.”
On the UAB running back room: “I feel very good about our running back room. I think we've got a lot of depth there, a lot of guys that can help us and a lot of guys that can play. There are three guys that are a little bit older in Rod Robinson, Bam McReynolds and then Ja’Vin Simpkins and then also Jayson Moll is a young guy that I think can help us this year. We do think that room is deep and talented. It's been competitive, but even if you go back to our time at Alabama, we've always played a lot of backs. We're kind of used to doing it by committee. I think that can help them. And, also we have ways to get them in the game, more in the game at one time too. We really do like the room there. They've done a good job.”
On wide receiver Kaleb Brown’s recovery from a lower body injury in the spring: “Kaleb is coming back in a really good way from a health standpoint. We'll continue to monitor him as we get to game day. We expect him to be able to help us and I think we've got enough depth in the room to be able to play a lot of players at receiver. Kaleb brings a lot to the table because he's been here a year. He knows our offense, and I think him and our quarterbacks have good chemistry. Despite him missing some time here, they've got a history of throwing to him. They understand his body language, the timing, anticipation. I think there are a lot of good things there. Kaleb is a good competitor that also has got a good amount of poise to him, too. No moment is really ever too big for him. I really, really have a lot of confidence in him, if he's healthy and ready to go.”
On the UAB defense: “First of all, really excited to have hired Todd Grantham here. I think Todd has done a great job on that side of the ball and his leadership. I also think he did a good job in recruiting and I think our personnel department, Lino Lupienetti, Brendan Donovan, I think those guys did a really good job in helping recruit that side of the ball. In terms of how have they come together, I think they've done a really good job in camp. You know, they've been a challenge to practice against for the offense. There's really been some iron sharpening iron there where it's been very competitive every day. The thing I've been pleased with is just their intangibles. It's a hardworking group. They're tough. They've been competitive. They love football. They bring enthusiasm every day. I think they've responded really well to the demands of the coaching. It's been a good group, and then, as we talked about earlier, there are gonna be things we learn as we go to adapt in the game. We do tackle in camp. You know, most people do, but you have to limit it to a degree. That's the one thing, real football, when you get to a game that you can finally really evaluate. That's obviously gonna be a big part of it, the tackling component.”
On the depth of the offensive line, which has “or” listed on every OL depth chart position except for center: “I think the offensive side of the ball, the offensive line is very competitive. We probably will play a lot of guys on Thursday and through the course of the season. Some of those guys were beat up but have been gaining ground as they've been back and probably haven't accumulated enough reps to play more just yet. But maybe they are trending that way. Then some of those spots, it's really competitive and it's close. So we wanna give multiple guys an opportunity to play.”
On whether he grew up knowing he wanted to be a head coach: “I think pretty early I got interested in coaching. I was a competition junkie when I was a kid. I mean, without giving my life story, I loved sports. I played baseball competitively when I was a kid. My dad coached our teams and he was a really good coach. We had a bunch of championship teams. Every chance I had to compete, man, like if it was recess, I was playing a game or I wanted to run a race and see who the fastest guy was. I was such a nut, I actually enjoyed the presidential fitness test. I still remember how many pull-ups (14) I did in second grade and I remember who tied me to be the top in my class. I love competing. But then I think I didn't play football until I was in seventh grade. When I finally played football, something about the game of football combined like all the elements that I love. The other thing I actually enjoyed when I was a kid, I enjoyed strategy. I enjoyed playing chess and so I felt like football like brought it all together. I loved the components of strategy that the game had. I loved the components of competing, which was something I always loved, and I loved being a part of a team. That was one of the great things about playing a sport. I wrestled a little bit when I was a kid. That's an individual sport. Baseball was a team sport. Well, football, hey, it's a team sport. It's like chess. It's a game of strategy. It kind of brought it all together. And I think one of the beautiful things about football, too, even though people don't huddle as much as they used to, but just the figurative huddle. You get in the huddle, there's big people, there's small people, there's fast people, there's strong people. I think it brings all kinds of people together. I think it's like the ultimate game. So anyway, when the strategy of football and all those things kinda got in my blood, I go, ‘Man, I think I wanna play this game as long as I can, and when I'm done, I wanna get into coaching.’ That probably started as early as 13 or 14. I actually tried to do work to be a good student but I think my parents would tell you that if you looked at my school notebooks next to some of the equations and some of the outlines in history, there was a football play drawn in there sometimes.”
On kicker Jonah Delange and special teams: “Jonah's a really good player, been very consistent for us. Really glad to have him here and I think he's had a good off-season. And then, in terms of the return game, we do have a variety of guys and we'll do it a little bit by committee. You know, last year, really the last couple years, UAB's had really good returners. That's something that, frankly is still competitive for us to be transparent with you.”