Alex Mortensen Meets With Media Ahead of ULM Game
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 7, 2026
The UAB football team has turned their attention toward Saturday’s home opener against Louisiana-Monroe at Protective Stadium. On Monday, UAB head coach Alex Mortensen held his weekly press conference to talk about the season-opening loss at Illinois and the next step against the Warhawks.
Opening statement: “Kind of recapping our last game before we move on. Obviously, we played Illinois on the road. You look at the game, I think there are a multitude of things we did well but there are a multitude of things we need to do better and we'll be working to do better. If you were to really kind of summarize it, if you were to kind of like go back to two plays. Don't give up a Hail Mary before the half and then if we don't kind of throw a desperation interception for a touchdown return, that's a fourteen-point swing. So it's like a five-point game, you know, hypothetically in the fourth quarter. Some of the positives, I think offensively, we moved the chains a lot, had 413 yards of offense, over 50 percent on third down, 3-for-4 on fourth down. The good news is we scored in the red zone. The bad news is more of those need to be touchdowns, not field goals. It's good we made trips down there and got down there. Some of the causative things of why we (didn’t) score down there. One, we've got to execute the plays we are running better and make sure we've got a good plan. But I think the other most obviously is we had two critical penalties down there. You know, line of scrimmage, pre-snap penalties where we had false starts. We kind of preempted our guys to be ready for it. I have a ton of respect for Coach Bielema and their program, but they do a lot to simulate cadence. They stem their front, move their front. We were prepped for it. Now, you may have noticed if you watched the game, they actually called Illinois on a penalty for doing that once. Some of the other times, I guess they elected not to call the penalty on them, so hat put us back a little bit. We'd like to eliminate the penalty. If we have the penalty, we still want to score a touchdown. So that's, that's something we're gonna work on.
I think the other one too is if you take a look at our opening drive of the game, We got the ball first and we ended up right at the kick line. It was 3rd-and-6 and we had a run on. We would've have converted the third down, you know, our running back (Bam McReynolds) goes out of bounds at the 13-yard line. We would’ve had a new set of downs and then they called a holding penalty on our tight end (Scott Isacks), who I think pancaked their corner. That's another one we gotta make sure we keep our hands inside there. So those are some things in the red zone.
I think the other part from an execution standpoint, just some of the missed opportunities. One of the things we've talked about a lot is we have a lot of new players. I think everyone, every program, is working on this is trying to build chemistry in the passing game. We felt like we had three missed opportunities in the passing game on whether it's route detail, quarterback footwork, things of that nature that would've resulted in touchdowns. Those are other opportunities to turn field goals to touchdowns. So those are points of emphasis. We're confident we can improve those things. Special teams-wise, we obviously gave up a big punt return, but did some other good things. Then defensively, I touched on the Hail Mary and we gave up a couple big plays on a run and on like a little screen and go. But we actually played pretty staunchly in a lot of areas against the run. I think we got better as the game went on, so that was positive.
Moving on, it's a new week, new game, we're playing Louisiana Monroe. We've got 'em at home, 2:30 Saturday. They're led by Bryant Vincent, who, obviously, he was here at UAB. He'sbeen the interim head coach here. He's been the offensive coordinator here. I have a lot of respect for Coach Vincent. I got to know him a little bit when I joined the staff when they were transitioning and have enjoyed the conversations I've had with him. I have a lot of respect for the work he's done through his career as a coordinator and now also as a head coach. He's done a good job. And also we know a lot of the same people. We've worked with a lot of the same people and I've enjoyed working with people that have been under him for some time. I think he's got a good staff. He's got new coordinators on both sides of the ball there this year, both on offense and on defense. He's got some guys on his staff that I was fortunate to have an opportunity to work with in the past. So certainly expect a challenge and we're working to prepare for this game very hard.”
On the strategy of not rushing the passer on the Hail Mary: “Everyone's got different philosophies on these things and I think there's a good argument for rushing the passer. Without divulging too many strategic things, we've got mechanisms to do it all. You know, we've got mechanisms to rush a variety of numbers. Obviously you saw us not rush many the other night, and we've got ways to rush more than that. There are different ways to do it. Some of those things also depend on whether you feel like you need to defend the sidelines as well. I think the biggest thing is and, and the most important thing is, obviously as a coaching staff, we're always gonna evaluate like whether or not we've made the right calls and going forward, whether or not we should make a different call or should we have made a different call in that situation. So that's something that's obviously we're scrutinizing and talking through.
The other part too is the coaching of the players. We have two guys that need to box out in that situation and then the most obvious thing is get the ball down, swat it down. These are things we do work on. We work on them in spring, we work on them in fall camp, and we touch on them in game week. You know, it's both. We gotta evaluate what we're doing strategically, but also we have to execute it better too.”
On whether a coach learns more from an opener against a Power Four team: “I think you do learn a lot about your team when you play an opponent of the quality of Illinois and a lot about your players. We've talked about it a lot in the preseason, one of the big challenges has been trying to evaluate them. You hope at this point we're not learning too much in the first game, but you are. You are learning about your guys. I think it does help you going forward, as you're forming your identity and understanding, ‘OK, what directions do we wanna go in all three phases?’ I think it is helpful.”
On the team’s confidence after the Illinois game: “I think one of the things we talk about a lot, and you might think it falls in the category of cliché (though) it is not here and it's not with me. Like having this no scoreboard mentality and understanding that each play's got a history and life of its own. We have a standard of expectation of how we wanna play. So to me, even to just take the scoreboard out of it, take the concept of was it a moral victory, was it not? Did we create confidence? Did we not? Take all those things out of it. There’s a number of plays in the game where we had a lot of guys play to our standard and that is really good and that's positive. We got a number of plays in the game, a certain amount where you go, "OK, hey, if we're two more steps on this route and the quarterback's timing's right, we're piercing the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. If we clean this part up, like, we're scoring.’ I think, for me and I think for our players and our staff, we're incredibly hungry and maybe even a little bit irritated too that those things happened. (We’re) chomping at the bit to get on the practice field and work.”
On Ryder Burton taking accountability after the game: “I think it's important, you know, for players to take responsibility. Players often find when they take responsibility for their actions their play gets better. I think most people find that in life. When you take responsibility for things in your life, your life gets better. I think that's really positive for him to be that way. We want all the guys on our team to be that way. I also think when you're a quarterback, there are components of leadership that I think are important to playing (the position). I think that's a really important trait for a leader, to take responsibility. It helps the locker room, particularly because I don't think it's performative or phony with him. I think he really feels that way.”
On offensive tackle Payton Kirkland’s injury in the game and the performance of replacement Keyon Cox: “In terms of Payton, we're monitoring that. But we feel really good about Keyon and we feel great about Payton too. We'll continue to monitor Payton's recovery. It is something he can recover from. I think the timetable's the question. Then we've got a lot of confidence in Keyon. We've got a lot of confidence in Kyrik Mason. You know, Barry Walker is a guy that had an off-season injury (and) was in a really good position at one time. I think we've got really good players at that position and we'll get them all ready to go and figure out how we're gonna play the game. But I think we've got plenty of guys there that can do it.”
On what RB coach Hindley Brigham brings in his return after a year at ULM: “I got so much respect for what was done here at UAB, bringing the program back, all the work that took and the success that was had in Conference USA and all the competitive teams that they had. Bringing Hindley Brigham back is awesome. Hindley's got a great track record with running backs, both as a recruiter and a coach and developer of the position and I think he's got some really good big picture thoughts program-wide. Having him here has been a real blessing.
Then you've got Lyle Henley, who's been here a long time and there's some crossover ties (with ULM) there. Having Lyle here is excellent. Bringing Bryant Novick back here (from ULM) has been great. I think all these guys are high quality individuals that have a lot going for themselves, but also I think their history with the program helps us too. I'm really glad to have them here and we'll see what the future holds. We may have more people in the future that have ties to that time period.”
On the UAB run game vs. ULM: “I think the offensive line did a good job. There's certainly, like every position, gonna be plays in areas where we're gonna say we could have been better here or there. But they did a good job by and large getting these runs started, and we had some receivers do a good job as well, whether they're a part of an RPO or blocking. I think our backs did a good job. Bam (McReynolds), Rod (Robinson), Ja’Vin (Simpkins) had some good carries. Those guys (played with) really good vision, patience, burst. I think they were really good at the point of contact, whether it's making guys miss, falling forward (or) running through arm tackles. We tackled in spring ball, we tackled in camp, but I think that's something as you continue to play real football, I think they're only gonna get even better at. I really do. Good start for them. I'm not gonna quite say we're pleased or satisfied with anything, but it's a really good start.”
On Louisiana-Monroe: “I would expect them to be well prepared. Coach Vincent will do a good job with his team, really in all three phases. I think he's done a good, a nice job with his offense through the years. He's done different things with his identity. He did a nice job for a while, a really good job and then he had a shift and kind of changed philosophically, kind of reinvented what he did and did a good job again with a new identity. He’s got a new (offensive) coordinator (Jesse Montalto) there, who I think has got a good scheme and they look well-coached. They do some good things. Defensively, uh, you know, he's working with a guy (defensive coordinator Troy Reffett) that he worked with at New Mexico, so he's got a history with him there too. Just studying their body of work, you know, they're both quality coaches and I think they've got good players. I think that they've done a good job recruiting there. I expect a well-rounded good team. The last game's not indicative of anything. They had 4th-and-1 play (where) they had a mix-up. They thought it was first down. They threw a a ball. I think they probably wouldn't have done that. So sometimes when you have little things like that the game can get away from you fast when you're playing a really good team. I don't think it's necessarily indicative of what I would expect from them. I'm sure they'll be ready to go.”
On whether he studied the 32-6 loss at Monroe in 2024: “There's so much new now. We have so many new players on both sides and different coordinators. I watch a lot of football and I watch a lot of film. We really look at a lot. I mean where both these coordinators have been, we’ve watched (that). We’re gonna watch Monroe, we're gonna watch a lot. There's a lot more to take into consideration, I think, than that (2024) game, particularly because we're new too. Even though we've got some carryover on the staff, it's kind of everything's new here too.”
On his players response to the loss: “I want to be totally clear, we played Thursday, we've turned the page. You know, we're focused on this game. But to answer your question, I think we had a good response from the standpoint that there was disappointment. I think it hurt but yet there was not negativity. There was not finger-pointing. There was not it’s so-and-so's fault, not mine. So that was a healthy response. I don't know if this story's true, but someone told me Bill Parcells used to say that he knew if he had a quarterback after the guy threw four interceptions and then how he showed up on for Wednesday's practice. With us having a little more time, we were able to lay eyes on them over the weekend and I felt we have a fire in our eyes that I like. That's not indicative of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday that's coming up. But I, I like that part a lot.”
On the need for a good crowd on Saturday at Protective Stadium: “I really want to encourage our students, people in Birmingham, our fan base to get to the game. It certainly can help in a game. It's kind of two ways. You're thinking about affecting the opponent obviously, but our players love it too. It energizes them. We talk about not being affected by external factors. Hey, there's 100,000 people here (or) nobody's here, whatever it is, we got a job to do. We gotta bring our own energy. Don't rely on those things. But all that being said, man, we love it when our fans are there and supportive. So we would encourage them to come out, cheer and support our guys. It's a 2:30 kick and we got a great stadium. It's a great venue. We got a lot of great high quality people on this team that I think are worthy of supporting and cheering for. We would love to see as many people there as we can.”