Blazers beat Bulldogs to get a win and a Wake-Up Call

By Steve Irvine

October 3 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

BIRMINGHAM, Al. –  In the bottom line world of college football, no matter how many warts it came with, UAB had a successful Saturday afternoon after finding ways to walk away with a tougher-than-most-expected 33-14 victory over Samford at Protective Stadium.

In the process, they also gave UAB head coach Alex Mortensen and his staff plenty of teaching moments as they move forward with the American Conference schedule looming.

“I've never been so sure about the saying, ‘You got to learn how to win,’ but maybe we are,’” Mortensen said. “Maybe we're still learning how to win and learning the price you got to pay every week.”

Saturday’s winning recipe began with a defense that allowed just one touchdown by the Samford offense. The Bulldogs had 230 total yards in offense with 90 of those yards coming on a nine-play scoring drive that gave Samford a 7-3 lead in the first quarter. Subtract those nine plays and 90 yards and Samford managed just 140 yards on the other 45 plays. The only other time Samford threatened to score on offense ended when Ty Ippolito missed a 47-yard field goal attempt that would have give the Bulldogs the lead at that point.

But, even with quarterback Gabarri Johnson throwing three interceptions, the Bulldogs still found a way to stay in the game until late in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs led 14-13 at halftime thanks to a 95-yard fumble return for a score by Jalen Nelson and could have carried a lead into the fourth quarter if Ippolito converted the field goal.

“It felt like we let another one slip away,” Samford head coach John Grass said after his team fell to 1-4. “We played well enough to give yourself a chance there at the end. So our guys are disappointed. No moral victories like you said but we are getting better, and that's a good thing going into this deep run in in the SoCon.”

One reason it took awhile for UAB to pull away from the Bulldogs was the inconsistent play of an offense that failed to score a touchdown in three red zone trips. Three of the red zone visits ended in Jonah Delange field goals and the other trip ended when Rod Robinson’s fumble was returned by Nelson for the touchdown.

“I thought we were very inconsistent,” Mortensen said.

But they still found a way to produce enough points to win behind a running game that churned out 248 yards with scoring runs by receiver EJ Reid and running back Bam McReynolds.

“If there's a positive in any of it, I think when we started leaning on them a little bit the second half and made it really simple, we probably played a little better,” Mortensen said.

In other words, the Blazers leaned on the running game in the second half and methodically wore down the Samford defense. Robinson did a large part of the damage in the second half and it was McReynolds’ tackle-busting 28-yard touchdown run that built some cushion – at 23-14 – with 12:37 left. UAB than iced the game with a 31-yard scoring pass from Ryder Burton to CJ Smith with 2:58 left on the clock.

WHAT IT MEANS: UAB is above .500 after five games for the first time since the 2022 season and won back-to-back regular season games for the first time since beating Middle Tennessee and Charlotte on Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 that same season.

WHEN THE GAME TURNED: Samford missed a shot at taking a lead into the fourth quarter with a missed Ty Ippolito field goal late in the third quarter. UAB responded with a scoring drive that ended with Bam McReynolds’ physical 28-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Samford never really recovered.

WHY UAB WON: Take away an early 90-yard Samford scoring drive and the UAB defense was dominant. The Blazers not only shut the Bulldogs down but also got interceptions from Jeremiah Jordan, Ike Esonwune and Delvon Gulley.

WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: UAB outgained Samford, 400-230, outrushed the Bulldogs, 248-90, and the Blazers held the ball for 33:45. Roderick Robinson II had 75 yards on 14 carries and had a 44-yard touchdown run negated by a holding penalty. Ryder Burton was 8-of-18 for 139 yards with a 31-yard touchdown strike to CJ Smith. Burton had several key scrambles on his way to rushing for 35 yards on nine carries. Tylin Jackson had four tackles, one sack and 2.5 tackles for loss.  UAB was the least penalized team on the field Saturday, which is big news for the Blazers. UAB had four penalties for 34 yards and Samford had seven penalties for 60 yards.

WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: The steadiness of Jonah Delange has been huge for the Blazers. The senior kicker made all three of his field goal attempts and ran his successful point after streak to 72. It’s hard to single out players on a dominant defense. Marlin Dean had a sack and was disruptive all night, Muaaz Byard had a team-best six tackles and Esonwune was steady as usual. Ultimately, the game ball should go to the entire defense.

WHAT DID COACH MORTENSEN SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:

Opening statement: First thing, I think Coach Grass did a good job and their coaching staff, (defensive coordinator) Mickey Conn, had their guys ready to play. I think they played hard. Give their players credit. You know, I think in regards to our performance, I thought defensively we played really well. Anytime you hold a team to 230 yards and create three turnovers, three interceptions, that's a pretty good performance. (Jeremiah Jordan), (Delvon) Gulley and Ike (Esonwune) all had interceptions. From a special team standpoint, outside of the (muffed punt by Ty Mims), which was not good, those things could be catastrophic, but (Rhett) Cofer did a good job (on coverage) and then so did (punter Oliver Straw). You don't want to have your punter out there very much, but I thought he did a really good job. Jonah (Delange) has continued to be really consistent.

Now, offensively, we did not play well. I already kind of gave our opponents some credit there, but I thought we were very inconsistent. We turned the ball over in the red zone that resulted in a touchdown on a fumble. So that's a seven-point swing. You got to hope and believe you're going to hopefully score there when you've got that kind of field position. So you give them seven and then you remove seven from us and that's a killer play. Then really, look it's good to get into the red zone, but we need to finish more red zone drives with touchdowns. We've got to do a better job there. Now, what's causative of all those things? There's just some basic fundamental things we have to do better. We talked about this after we won in week two, and then we went in week three and offensively we felt like there were some guys that were just, you can call it casual (or) whatever you want to call it.

We won a tough, gritty game last week (in a) game which we can still perform better, but we did get a win (over Navy). Sometimes guys get too focused on the scoreboard instead of measuring are we playing to the standard we need to and are we going to get better? I'm not gonna say our week of preparation was poor, but I'm not sure about our game day mentality when you've got errors like we had today. Lining up wrong on a play that's like a training camp play, not (doing an) ID properly, making sure we call a play right, whatever it may be. At the end of the day the buck stops with me. I got to get it fixed and so does our offensive staff. But we've got to respect what it takes and respect what it takes every week to play well.

If there's a positive in any of it, I think when we started leaning on them a little bit the second half and made it really simple, I think we probably played a little better. But we're capable of being more explosive and more dynamic than that. Kind of hate what we had to turn the game into, kind of turn into “wad ball” for a little bit (but) we took a couple shots. Anyway, there's some positives in there in terms of the second half performance. I guess if we don't have a the seven-point swing, maybe I’m talking a little different. But really not much because there's just too many plays in the game that we're not executing to the standard we're capable. That's kind of the quick assessment”

On whether the same red zone issues are happening week to week: “Really and truly, it's probably the same things different ways, you know? We had (bad) timing on a pass pattern that should have scored. We had one drop you guys probably saw on third down. We may have been in the high red zone. I think it's probably going to score. Then, the running game, I don't want to speak on that portion of it too quick. But, you go back, all the way back to some of these other games, there are some things that we've had opportunities to throw the ball in and, and for various reasons didn't. I think being able to run the ball in the, the red zone is really important, too. I think, I think most of the best red zone teams can usually anchor on that at least to a degree. Yeah, some of it is carryover and I'm not that patient. My patience is kind of running out. That's kind of where we're at there.”

On the mood and changes after trailing at halftime: “In terms of the mood, I mean look, I was pretty fired up and I think some of our players were too. But at the same time, pressing doesn't do you any good. Worrying about the outcome too much doesn't do you any good. Part of the issues we have is just doing some basic fundamental things. Kind of the challenge was can you just go play one play and say, ‘OK, what's my job on this play? What's my footwork? Where should my eyes be at quarterback? How do I line up?’ Just do the basic things and one play at a time and see where that gets us.

We did simplify some things in some regards. Maybe a better way of saying it is mitigated risk and probably played a little bit more conservative than we would've liked. But that's what we felt like we needed to do to ensure that we had the best opportunity to win this game at that point and get control of it. Now, look, on a positive note, I don't know if I mentioned this in my opening, someone told me this is the first time UAB has been 3-2 in four years. I think it's the first time there's been back-to-back wins in four years. I think earlier we won week two for the first time in seven or eight years. There are some positives. I've never been so sure about the saying, ‘You got to learn how to win,’ but maybe we are. Maybe we're still learning how to win and learning, you the price you got to pay every week.”

On whether they talk about reaching bowl eligibility: “It's certainly a goal of ours. We want to get to a bowl game. I want to be clear, I don't want to say that we don't have goals. We do have goals and I think there are things we talk about of, ‘Hey, what are some things we'd want to achieve?" And getting to a bowl game I think would be a great accomplishment. But it’s like my last boss or two bosses ago, Nick Saban, what he talked about a lot was this whole thing of process. I know people probably hear about it and sometimes you go, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ Kind of the way I feel about it is you do set goals and you say, ‘OK, here's the goal. Here's what I'm after." After that, you kind of got to get your mindset off the outcome a little bit and say, ‘OK, if I'm only focused on a goal but I'm not focused on practicing with the right intensity, being focused in a meeting, being prepared for the game, it only gets me so far.’ So really part of my challenge, I think our challenge as a staff is to bridge the desire to achieve into the steps that it takes to do it. I think getting to a bowl would be a heck of an accomplishment but what we've got to do first is just get guys to understand how to do the things day in and day out and that is also, having the right game day focus.”

On improving to 3-0 at home: “It's really positive to win at home and it's important for us to want to play well in every game but really want to play well here. Very appreciative of our fan base, appreciative of them showing up and having enthusiasm and energy. I think our players feed off of it. Love our UAB fan base and we want to just keep building that and growing it and and hopefully giving them a lot to cheer for. I'm going to be hard on the guys and hard on their performance, but we appreciate their positivity and encouragement. You don't know how that affects recruiting. Even the things you say on the internet, you don't know who reads those things. Our fans trying to stay positive as we win these games is good and then I'm gonna stay on our team about working to get better.”

On winning games later in the season: “There's got to be a greater sense of urgency, I think, from everybody. I've talked about it before. I think wisdom, a higher form of wisdom is learning from somebody else. Some people have to touch the hot stove and the best thing to do is have someone tell you, ‘Don't touch it.’ Or maybe you see someone else touch it and go, ‘I am not doing that.’ How do we create it? Hopefully, again, we won this game, a lot of positives, but hopefully we learn a little bit and say, ‘OK what's the kind of game day intensity, attention to detail, and focus do I need to have?’ I think if we can take that, bridge that into our practice preparation and all the way up to game day and understand what it takes. That's the biggest thing to get us going on the right track.”

On affecting Samford QB Gabarri Johnson: “I do feel like we affected their quarterback well. It's really one of the things we talk about. You may not always get a sack, but you can move him off his spot, you can make him uncomfortable if you can push the pocket or get him to change his timing. Then that can (lead to a tipped ball). I mean, all those things can affect him negatively and create some of these turnovers or create incompletions. So yeah, sometimes the pass rush isn't always reflected in what gets done in terms of sacks. (Affecting) him might mean speeding up his clock and now he's throwing on a time that he doesn't want to throw on. Maybe he doesn't give you an opportunity to sack him, but he's throwing the ball before he should. I think there's a lot of ways to affect the quarterback. That's where sack numbers sometimes don't tell the whole story. Yeah. Great question.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Quarter

• 13:04 - UAB | Jonah Delange made a 44-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted five plays and covered 49 yards. UAB opened the drive with a 54-yard pass from Ryder Burton to CJ Smith. Samford ended drive with a Spencer Conn sack. (3-0, UAB).

• 4:49 – SAM | Marquise Henderson grabbed a 4-yard scoring pass from Gabarri Johnson. Ty Ippolito made the extra point. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 90 yards. (7-3, SAMFORD).

• 1:20 -- UAB | EJ Reid turned a reverse into a 36-yard touchdown run. Jonah Delange made the extra point. The scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 75 yards. (10-7, UAB)

Second Quarter

• 7:55 - UAB | Jonah Delange made a 46-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 30 yards. (13-7, UAB).

• 3:36 – SAM | Jalen Nelson returned a fumble 95 yards for a touchdown. Ty Ippiloto added the extra point. The fumble was forced by Samford safety LaShon Young. (14-13, SAMFORD).

Third quarter

• 9:07 - UAB | Jonah Delange made a 23-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 11 plays and covered 58 yards. (16-14, UAB).

Fourth quarter

• 12:37 - UAB | Bam McReynolds scored on a 28-yard run. Jonah Delange added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 70 yards. (23-14, UAB).

• 2:58 – UAB | CJ Smith grabbed a 31-yard scoring pass from Ryder Burton. Jonah Delange added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted 12 plays and covered 68 yards. (30-14, UAB).

• 0:24 – UAB | Jonah Delange made a 26-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted five plays and covered 16 yards. (33-14, UAB).

WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: The Battle for the Bones Trophy will be up for grabs when UAB visits Memphis next Saturday night.