UAB Leans on Toughness to Beat ULM
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 13, 2026
BIRMINGHAM – Unless you count the ultimate game-winning 43-yard touchdown pass from Ryder Burton to EJ Reid, which was a thing of beauty, style points weren’t included in UAB’s gritty 26-20 victory over Louisiana-Monroe at Saturday afternoon at Protective Stadium.
It was a game that included a ton of slugging it out in the middle of the line of scrimmage and some more red zone issues for UAB. It also included a frustrating time chasing speedy ULM quarterback Austin Carlisle and a deficit for all but the final nine minutes and 33 seconds of the game. In the end, it was a satisfying first win of the season for the Blazers and head coach Alex Mortensen.
“One, you know, good to get a win,” Mortensen said in his postgame press conference after the Blazers improved to 1-1. “I think the first thing is I’m really pleased with our guys' effort, toughness, kind of their resiliency (and) overall conditioning to be able to play a game like that for four quarters. I think we won the fourth quarter today. So that was really good to see those intangibles and their character.”
Good doesn’t necessarily equate to easy.
The Warhawks scored first in head coach Bryant Vincent’s return to Protective Stadium, carved out a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter, took advantage of a UAB special team blunder to lead 17-10 at halftime and marched down for a field goal to open the second half. The rest of the second half, though, was controlled by the UAB defense and a Blazer running game that gained 266 yards on the afternoon.
“We knew what they were gonna try to hit us with,” said UAB safety Jo’Tavion Pierce of the second half improvement on the defensive side. “We was lacking on the quarterback run. We know how fast he is and put in the right situation, we just had to get it done. That was our main thing coming into the half, stop the quarterback run. We knew how important it was.”
Because they were able to do that, the UAB offense was able to chip away at the lead on a pair of Jonah Delange field goals. ULM still lead early in the fourth quarter but the UAB defense got the ball back on a stop by the UAB defense. UAB took over on its own 47-yard line and immediately got hit with a holding penalty. But the Blazers overcame that setback on a 7-yard run by Roderick Robinson and scramble of five and eight yards by Burton. On the next play, Burton and Reid connected on the big play touchdown.
“It was a well-executed play,” Mortensen said. “One, it was well-protected. You know, that's the first thing. We protected Ryder well. The offensive line and the tight end were involved in that protection and the running back. EJ ran a great route. I mean, it was almost picture perfect, you know, in terms of his technique, his depth, the speed, the angle he took. And then Ryder threw it deep and gave it great air. EJ tracked it down, did a great job tracking. Ryder felt like he threw that ball a pretty long way.”
UAB got an interception on the next series and then handed to ball to Robinson and McReynolds to run out all but 1:10 of the 5:50 on the clock when the drive started. Delange hit his fourth field goal of the night, giving ULM the ball back with one final shot. But Pierce’s fourth down pass breakup ended the suspense with eight seconds left.
WHAT IT MEANS: UAB can take a positive step forward, which was needed. It also was important that the Blazers won a close football game.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: It’s hard to pinpoint the moment that the game turned in UAB’s favor. One of the biggest moments, though, was the UAB defense forcing a 3-and-out after cutting the deficit to 20-16. Two incomplete passes and a tackle in the backfield by Que Billingsley on a quick pass got the ball back to the offense. Five plays later, Ryder Burton and EJ Reid connected on a 43-yard touchdown pass that gave the Blazers the go-ahead score.
WHY UAB WON: They controlled the ball with the running game and hit a big play when needed. But the biggest thing could have been the play of a defense that settled in and made some critical plays after struggling for much of the first half.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: UAB rushed for 266 yards on 52 carries with Rod Robinson (21 carries for 114 yards) and Bam McReynolds (16 carries for 75 yards) leading the way. ULM ran the ball for 201 yards but only 77 came in the second half with just 22 coming in the first half. Not a great day for the passing game but EJ Reid did have four catches for 65 yards and the long touchdown.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: Certainly Rod Robinson and Bam McReynolds staked their claim to a game ball. The offensive line also needs to be commended for opening up the running lanes. But the game ball probably needs to be shared by a defense that kept grinding. Linebackers Muaaz Byard (13 tackles) and Ike Esonwune (10 tackles, interception, pass breakup) were sensational and safety Jo Pierce (11 tackles, one tackle for loss, pass breakup that ended the final possession for ULM) was all over the field and fellow safety Jeremiah Jordan added nine tackles. Give a tip of the cap to defensive end Tylin Jackson, who had one of the team’s two sacks and tipped the pass that ended up in Esonwune’s interception.
WHAT DID COACH MORTENSEN SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:
On his team’s play: “From a football standpoint, I think defensively we responded really well through the course of the game. It got better and better. So really pleased with the way we played on defense. I think Coach (Bryant) Vincent does a great job, and as you guys know, they had two new coordinators there. They ended up playing quarterback that kind of came in the game late against Mississippi State. We tried to get ready for both of them. I thought the kid did a good job. He's a challenge. I thought defensively we did a good job there. I think on offense, I praise our grittiness, our toughness. I think our runners did a great job. I think we ran for 266 yards and those were gritty yards. Some of those were hard yards. We found the extra two, extra three yards a lot. So that was really good.
Now, where we've got to get better is we've got to generate more explosive plays. As an offensive coach and a guy that works with quarterbacks, man, we need to bite off more chunks. It's great we're 10 of 15 on third down. It's great we convert all these short yardage situations, but we need to have more third down avoidance and bite off some bigger plays. It was great to see the post pattern throw. Ryder made a great throw there and Ryder had some great scrambles in the game as well to keep the drives going. But that's an area we've got to improve.
You talk about the improvement part, it starts with me. There's things I gotta do a better job of from a coaching standpoint. Then we've got to score more touchdowns in the red zone or when we get in the high red zone. Look, I love we got a good field goal kicker. I'd like to see him a little less and see us put the ball in the end zone a little more. But I'll say this, not just looking for the silver lining because I don't want to get up here and talk about these things every week. Uh, But I am really glad that we showed character and toughness today. Now, you know, the other thing too, when you talk about what we believe in, we talk about, one, working hard. Two, we talk about playing really hard with effort and toughness. The third thing we talk about is we talk about playing smart and the two biggest components of that in our mind are discipline and poise. I think our poise is pretty good right now. I think it was better in some regards, but the discipline, the discipline to do your job and the discipline to play within the rules of the game, like holding, (defensive) offside in the red area to shorten the field for them. Like, those are the things I’m trying to do everything I can not to go irate in the middle of the game. It’s one of our core beliefs. That’s something we have to really improve to get our team where we need them.”
On moving the chains with the running game: “Really pleased with that part, our ability to run the ball. Obviously it always starts with the offensive line. You know, Adam Lepkowski has been here forever as a senior. But really all those guys fought really hard. Our backs, so pleased with them. They really ran the ball very, very well and ran the ball very, very tough. Whatever it takes to win a game. If it's gotta be gritty, it's gotta be like that. I just know the long tale of it is playing offense is a little easier when you generate a few more explosive plays. Sometimes we talk about the anatomy of a drive, almost like it’s a fight. There are different ways you wanna fight. You can win it on position. You know, you can control a guy, you can get him on the ground, you can press him against the cage, keep him there. And I kind of felt like we did a little more of that. Maybe we can get a few more knockouts here coming up at some point. But really pleased with the way these backs ran the ball. And I wanna give Ryder credit, too. Ryder got us into some good runs, too. You know, he, he's got some role in that as well, and the receivers. You know, we ask these receivers to get in there and block. So, a guy like AJ Johnson, EJ Reid, a bunch of these guys got dirty and they got after it, too.”
On not having the explosive plays: “I do wanna say this, we did have two drops on the first drive that I think would've helped us in that regard. I think even inside some of the play calls we had, there were some opportunities for some explosive plays. It's our responsibility to make sure we get all our players on the same page, eyes in the right place everyone's doing the right thing and we're making the right decisions. Then some of it's play calling, too. We can be more aggressive with how we call the game as well. There's a balance there. Defense playing well, we're running the ball well. At the end of the day, we just want to do whatever it takes to win. If you play the way you played today, the key to the drill is we gotta do a better job in the red zone or the high red zone. We did have some long drives that got us down there. If we could finish those drives, then we'd probably be having a different conversation right now about some of those things.”
On the play of the defense in the second half: “I wanna give (defensive coordinator Todd Grantham) and that staff a ton of credit. I think Coach Grantham's done a great job and called a great game today. He had our guys ready. And then, you know, the way we played in the second half, we were really pleased with. One of the things we talk about is we wanna win the fourth quarter every game. We won the fourth quarter today. Some of that is conditioning and making sure we're in shape, making sure we're tough and we have resiliency. Then some of that, too, is adapting during the game. Adapting to what you see. I thought our players on defense, Coach Grantham, did a great job adapting to the course of the game, really turned that thing big time in the second half and had some really critical stops. Offensively we can help them more, too. We had one turnover and then you have a special teams play that gives them the ball, too. So, like, for the defense to just not flinch and play the way they did is very encouraging.”
On running the clock down with the work of Rod Robinson and Bam McReynolds: “It's tremendous. I can't remember if it was at 5:06 or whatever it was when we started that drive. But knowing we had those guys and then maybe he didn't get as many (touches) but I have a lot of confidence in Ja’Vin Simpkins, and (Jayson) Moll. But having Bam and Rod there made me feel very comfortable that, ‘Hey, we can do this.’ Again, it starts with the offensive line, the tight ends, you know, Scott Isacks, Antonio Ferguson, those guys blocking for them. But man, these guys are great runners. They have great vision. They've got really good speed and athleticism. Their ability to get their pads down and find the extra yardage over and over through contact is really impressive to me. In that situation, you're never, never cocky but felt confident, like, ‘Man, we can go with these guys here.’”
On how the offseason shaped the ‘never quit’ attitude: “Look, you know, sometimes I'm Doubting Thomas, like, I wanna see it. But I felt going into the season, we, we did have that with this team. Se put 'em through a pretty hard off-season. I really feel if you go back to the winter with Lyle Henley and Bryant Novick, Santonio (Jones), those guys set the tone in strength and conditioning. It was important for us to have a good program and for it to be designed well to improve their performance. But two, we wanna make sure that we're testing guys mentally and physically. In the summer it changes a little bit, but we still put a huge emphasis in July on the conditioning part. There's a physiological component to that. There's also a mental toughness component to that. And then finally, the way we practice. We practice very hard. It's very competitive. I felt like our guys to this point had kinda answered the bell in most of these situations. But you're still going, ‘Hey, can we see it in real football and see it in the game.’
Look, it's one game. We didn't play particularly well in a lot of areas, but in terms of the, the intangibles, that part is positive. But, you know, one of my favorite movies is Rocky III. It's a silly movie, but what happened to Rocky? He lost the ‘Eye of the Tiger’, right? We wanna be civilized, but I remember Mick tells him, he goes, ‘Well, the worst thing can happen to you that can happen to any fighter is you got civilized.’ So it's one game. We gotta continue to go to this every week, stay hungry and have an edge about us. But to this point, we did feel going into the year that we had a group that was wired that way.”
On balancing being happy about the good times and disappointed in some shortcomings: “How do you balance it? I think you reinforce the things we did well, which again, there are some execution things we did well. Like, we did some good football things today. You guys asked a question about the run game, like, there were some really positive things. The way we played defense was really positive. But there's a bunch of things we didn't do well. Particularly, again, I'm gonna go back to core values. Work hard, play hard, play smart. We can grade ourselves on those things every week. The last (core value) is play together and that's a unity thing. Some of it is we gotta communicate and work together. The one that is sticking out to me is that playing smart part. Some of that is penalties in terms (of things like) ‘Hey we can't hold.’ Now, why do you hold? Is that undisciplined or is that because my feet got in a bad position? Which in a way kinda does go back to discipline. You know, jumping offsides in the red zone. Some of it is training. We penalize our guys in practice. We try to catch 'em. You know, we have penalty reports. In training camp it's the first thing I show in a team meeting. I'm not an actual parent yet but I feel like it could maybe be a little bit like being a parent, where a child sometimes has to touch a hot stove and go, ‘Oh, okay, like, you were right, I shouldn't touch the hot stove.’ So I'm hoping they'll come out of this game and say, ‘OK, Coach, that did put us in a bad position. Maybe we'll listen.’"
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
5:09 - ULM | CJ Phillip fought into the end zone for a 1-yard TD run. Abram Murray added the extra point. Scoring drive lasted 12 plays and covered 57 yards. The score came UAB failed on a fourth down attempt. (7-0, ULM)
Second Quarter
14:11 - UAB | Jonah Delange made a 41-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 13 plays and covered 52 yards. (7-3, ULM).
10:58 – ULM | Austin Carlisle darted into the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown. Abram Murray added the extra point. Scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 75 yards. (14-3, ULM).
6:45 – UAB | Bam McReynolds ran around right end for a 27-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-2. Jonah Delange added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 75 yards. (14-10, ULM).
0:00 – ULM | Abram Murray connected on a 32-yard field goal. The drive lasted four plays and covered four yards. The drive began after ULM safety Carl Fauntroy intercepted a Ryder Burton pass. (17-10, ULM).
Third Quarter
10:24 - ULM | Abram Murray made a 24-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 11 plays and covered 59 yards. (20-10, ULM).
7:00 – UAB | Jonah Delange made a 45-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 56 yards. (20-13, ULM).
Fourth quarter
13:32 – UAB | Jonah Delange made a 34-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 14 plays and covered 63 yards. (20-16, ULM).
9:34 – UAB | Ryder Burton connected with EJ Reid on a 43-yard scoring pass. Jonah Delange was good on the extra point. The scoring drive lasted four plays and covered 53 yards. (23-20, UAB).
1:10 – UAB | Jonah Delange makes a 42-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 11 plays and covered 41 yards. (26-20, UAB)
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: UAB is back on the road for a visit to Lafayette, La. to play Louisiana. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. next Saturday.