UAB’s MOrtensen MEets With MEdia Ahead of Memphis Game

By Steve Irvine

October 3 - BIRMINGHAM, AL

UAB turns the page from last weekend’s non-conference win over Samford to this Saturday’s Battle for the Bones rivalry game at Memphis. UAB head coach Alex Mortensen held his weekly press conference on Monday to talk about both games.

Opening statement: “Overall, certainly glad we won. I thought our defense played really well through the course of the game. I think we held them to 220 yards or somewhere in that ballpark and shut them out in the second half. I thought that was really positive. I thought special teams we had some real positives, minus the punt we fumbled (and) gave them the ball. So, there was some good things there. Offensively, felt like we need to play better, clearly play better. Felt like we need to be more consistent. There were a lot of things we could have done better offensively. I also think, a game like that feels sometimes worse than it is. We were hopefully going to go up 20-7 going into the half. We got the ball inside the 10 and we fumble. It’s really like a 14-point swing because we fumble, they scoop and score and now it’s 14-13 when it’s about to be 20-7. That certainly made it worse. Anytime you give somebody points on offense like that it gets uphill. You got to do a lot to overcome that. The positive is we won the second half 20-0, so that’s good in terms of how we responded. Definitely not to our standards in terms of offense in a multitude of areas. But it wasn’t all bad.

We’re working on taking the next step as a program. It’s still very early in the year but I think it’s the first time we’ve been 3-2 in four years, first time we had back-to-back wins in four years. I think the other thing that happened early in the year, it’s kind of a weird, we won in week two for the first time in 7 or 8 years. There are some good things happening, culturally, but far from where he need go as a program. Even beyond the long term projection of the program (but) far from where we want to be with this team. We still need to step on the gas and improve. I think that is the big message to our players. We talked about development a lot and at their age they can accelerated development and improve in the season. That’s something we are going to keep stressing.

Playing Memphis this week. Memphis has a really good team, certainly excited about the opportunity to play them and play them at their place. I’ve known Coach (Charles) Huff for some time. Coach Huff and I worked together at Alabama for two years. I had a great relationship with him there and we have some great memories together. We were part of some great teams there. He’s done a great job at Memphis (and) did a great job at his prior stops. They’ve got Kevin Decker running their offense, he did a phenomenal job at ODU last year. Lance Guidry is there on defense (and) is doing an excellent job there with that Memphis team. Good team, well coached, have a lot of really good players. We’re excited to go up there and play another conference game.”

On what areas need to be fixed offensively: “I think maybe one of the more frustrating things, and it probably sounds like coach speak when you hear it, is like it kind of feels like popcorn. Like there might be 10 guys doing everything right and it's just one guy on one play that puts you behind somewhere. That's part of it, I think, is just having a level of consistency with all 11 people on the field at the same time. And you wish you could say it's always this person. We'll just fix that person. But sometimes it might be someone different. That's one thing. The other thing is if you were to say, ‘OK, is there a commonality of the errors?’ They do kind of pop around from a quarterback to a receiver to an offensive lineman. One of the things we always want to talk about is having the right intensity on game day and having a mentality to compete at a high level, set an intensity that the opponent can't match. You know, beat them to the punch, all those things.

There are a couple times I'm not sure we started the game with that kind of intensity we need to. Then there's another thing, it sounds crazy, but there's an anxiety thing that sometimes happens. Whatever it is, the players put so much pressure on themselves to be perfect, to perform perfectly, that they get to a mental state they don't practice with. When you're looking at a disconnect of ‘OK, why does the guy practice a certain way (and) why does he play a certain way?’ Sometimes it's just anxiety. You know, they get too anxious. I think some of our guys, it's not the intensity thing, it's like getting them to trust themselves a little bit more. Particularly on offense, we have a lot of guys that have not played a lot in college and haven't been starters a lot in college. Now, that's exciting to me because that means we should be getting better through the course of the year. I think it's kind of both of those things that create some of the things we're talking about. And then always as a staff, you have to say, ‘OK, are we doing the things that our players are capable of doing? Are we playing to their strengths or are we not?’ That's something we're going to ask every week. I think all those things can be factors.”

On the halftime mood on Saturday: “Normally at halftime, you know, we get together as a coaching staff and we let the players initially start doing the things they need to do physically to get themself ready, whether it's hydration, nutrition, things of that nature, and then we get with them. But I wanted to go ahead and grab them right away. Look, I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make, everyone's frustrated, we know we're way better than that. And again, a ton of respect to Samford Coach John Grass, they did an outstanding job. Mickey Conn on defense and their players. But we know we're better than that and we know we're capable of playing better than that. You should be a little bit fired up and go, ‘Man, we, we gotta be better.’

But at the same time, I think there's a balance where one of the worst things you can do is press. It's why we say, again, yeah, we want to win on the scoreboard, that's part of the idea, but if I'm so focused on just the result, that can sometimes create the anxiety and the pressing and doing things outside the realm of the technique that we coach. So that's why it was like ‘Guys, just settle in. Just go do our job one play at a time. And if you do that we're probably gonna end up in the end zone. We're probably gonna end up with a better result on the scoreboard.’ So we grabbed them right away and talked. Because what I didn't want to happen is the coaching staff goes together to talk about adjustments. I trust our player leadership, but we don't need to press the panic button right there either. So wanted to make sure that they understood that.”

On the good band bad of the offensive line playing more than five players: “I think you hit kind of the dichotomy right there (when) you play a lot of guys. I think one of the positives I like is when as many guys on the team can create a role for themself, provided they've earned it. I think that's a good thing. We want more guys to be able to play and to practice the way they need to play, so they can get out there and we can trust them. I think that's a good thing. And I think the other part you mentioned is guys being fresh. If you will, to be able to come out there and spell a guy. That's positive. But the other side of that is are you creating the chemistry you want of the same two guys working a double team together, the same two guys communicating together? So there is some trade-offs there. Right now, as you pointed out, we've had some injuries and this goes back to training camp. More guys are getting available and are putting themselves in position to be able to help us. We're trying to help them play and create a role for them.”

On the new rosters on both sides not knowing what The Battle for the Bones is all about: “I think the players do a pretty good job a lot of time of getting to know the history of the school and the program. I think a lot of them are aware of what those games mean to our fans. I think games like that are great. I think it's great for the fan bases. I think it generates excitement and can draw interest into the game. We enjoy things like that. And at the same time, you know, for our players it's not a great point of emphasis for us or for me when we talk about the game because we want to bring a great intensity and focus and energy to every game we play. But I do think games like this are great for the program.”

On last year’s win over Memphis in his first game as the interim head coach: “One, I'm really incredibly appreciative of all the players. I think the first thing that happened a year ago. It's like ‘OK, where do I put my focus?’ It’s really not me or our coaching staff or anything like that, it was really going, ‘OK, let's go help our players the best we can.’ Then in turn, really appreciative for the way they responded and the way they played and competed and had a great week of practice and went out and just let go. Man, they played hard and they really let it go. In terms of memories, it was my first game and I said this last year, I have to admit getting thrust into a position like that in the middle of the year when you're not expecting it, I had some nerves. I think one of the things I remember is when we finally ran out on the field the nerves were gone. You know, it's like, "OK, this is time to go compete and play.’ That was one of my favorite moments of the week was finally when we were at about 60 minutes to kickoff. But, yeah, incredibly just appreciative of the players and the way they really handled all six weeks there. The last game of the year, we won the first road game, I think, in three years or so and they really rallied. That's a credit to them.”

On what jumps out about Memphis: “They’ve got a good roster. I think they've got a lot of good players and they're well-coached. You know, there's not a lot of times where you're seeing guys and saying, "OK, they're out of position. They're doing something that's unsound.’ So they're just a well-coached team (with a) really, really good roster. I think they've done a nice job recruiting. Those are the things that really jump out to me.”

On the response to the fumble late in the first half against Samford: “I thought the response in the second half was really good. I mean, it was a little bit of a freak play. Doesn't mean it's OK that we had it. I didn't love the initial response. It did not spiral into negativity, that's good. Been a part of that. It did not spiral into negativity, complaining, none of that. But I did feel like we could have used more positive energy. It's a little bit more I felt like the air came out a little. I don't think that's indicative of our team. Now, the good thing is we talked about the half, we reset and they were good to go. The idea is next time something like that happens, it needs to be immediate.”

On Ryder Burton’s decision making: “I think Ryder's playing very well, and I think he's doing a lot. Or let me say this, I think he's playing very well in a lot of areas and I have the utmost confidence in him. I think he's doing a very good job running the offense in many, many areas. There are things that you don't know and you don't see where he helps us with things in the run game or communication. He’s outstanding in all of those regards. It's been a little bit of a weird year. I know we had a few games where we had short games. You know, the games got shrunk. Illinois, eight drives, ULM, I think eight real drives in the game. You played Navy, who possesses the ball a good bit. ULM, it rains for a quarter. Ryder will probably be mad I say this but he's very sick in that game. So not real worried. The number one thing we're trying to do is get the ball in the end zone and we're trying to win. He knows that. I think over time, the numbers will reflect what kind of player he is. Are there things he wants to improve and get better at? Yeah, and he will as long as he's playing. You know, that's just the way he is. I think the other part is it's his first real run as a starter, too. So there are certain things, just getting game snaps is going to help him. I'm very confident in him and the couple or three things that he needs to improve, I think are all things that are very doable.”

On not concentrating on the rivalry aspect of the game during the week of preparation: “I've been around some situations where you make a lot of it. I've been around some where you don't. My experience has typically been better when you don't. We definitely respect the game, respect the opponent, respect the intensity that's going to be around it. But, we're focused on the job we got to do. I also don't want to diminish what other games mean by doing that. I don't want our fan base to think in any kind of way we don't think the game's important. We think it's incredibly important, but we think they're all important. But I love that our fans get into it and the alums and everyone around the game. I think that's great.”

On how much he’s studied Ryder Burton’s play in his first start last year against Memphis game: “Not much. I think it's a good off-season study or something like that because I do think of his mindset and his demeanor. I thought he did a really good job with his approach to the game. Ryder is a fiery competitor by nature. So am I, I’ve just got a little bit of life experience on him. I thought that he found a real sweet spot in that game of like he had that fiery competitiveness and yet there was also a steadiness to his mindset that allowed him to have really good judgment and make great decisions through the course of the game. I think there's something for him to study about himself there. As it, pertains to Memphis, totally different. It's a different defense, different coaching staff, lot of different players. So from that standpoint, just tactically, it's kind of a different deal.”