Faith, Frustration and the Fight Back for UAB’s NIGEL TATE

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - April 3, 2026

Closing his eyes is unnecessary for Nigel Tate to imagine the next time he plays football.

The UAB interior defensive lineman sees it clearly with open eyes. He sees it clearly with each weight room rep and each step on the treadmill. He sees it clearly before he closes his eyes to go to sleep and the moment he wakes up. He sees it clearly when he charts in his mind how close he is to being ready to play. Officially, Tate says, he is around 80-85 percent right now but what he sees is the moment he’s back at full strength.

It won’t come until UAB is on the Legacy Pavilion practice field for fall camp but the day he visualizes is coming.

“Even just seeing the other guys out there, like, it's really exciting to see the other D-linemen, especially at my position, the noses and the three-techs,” Tate said early in spring practice. “And seeing the (offensive) guards and such, I’m just envisioning the moves I’m doing and all that. I plan to hit the road full speed in that first practice back.”

As a reminder, the 6-foot-3, 330-pound Boston College transfer showed up at UAB in January of 2025 with a big body and big expectations. He was expected to become a defensive anchor in the middle of the defensive front and showed he was just that during spring practice. Big things were ahead.

“Guys like that are extremely hard to find on our level,” said UAB Director of Sports Performance/Assistant head coach Lyle Henley. “I think a guy that can put pressure up the middle is extremely hard to find. He changes the defense completely. It changes the (offensive) game plan. He's a guy that's a strong, athletic kid. He’s not only going to put pressure in the middle, but he's going to be a guy who's going to anchor down and make it hard to run the ball in between those guards in the center there, which is huge, especially with all the triple option teams that we play.”

The plan changed in the first week of fall camp when Tate’s first season at UAB ended before it began because of a torn Achilles. It occurred during a non-contact drill where the defensive lineman were hitting a series of pads. He planted his left foot while hitting the final bag, felt pain in his foot while hearing a noise that “sounded like a gunshot.”

“Oh, it was so loud,” Tate said. “I knew it. I've never had an Achilles or anything like that but I knew it.”

He looked at the teammate behind him and asked if he had kicked him. Then he tried to put his foot down and “it felt like my heel was the only thing on the ground.”

He then sat down on the field.

“I started tearing up because I was expecting really big things,” Tate said. “Everything was moving in the right direction. But you know, setbacks happen. I'm a big believer, too. At the end of the day, whatever happens, I know ultimately God got a plan.”

He was taken to the locker room where he took a moment to question why it happened. Eventually, he went back on the practice field using crutches. About 24 hours, he had surgery. Soon after that, he headed home to Washington, D.C. to rest before school started.

The drive home took around 13 hours total with an overnight stop in between. His father drove while Nigel tried to relax in the passenger seat. He had a lot of time to think about what was ahead.

“We listened to a few podcasts and stuff,” Tate said. “There wasn't much talking. I was kind of in my own head like ‘Alright, you’ve had surgery, it’s real now. You can’t go back from this. You just got to recover.’ I knew I couldn’t move around much. That was the biggest thing, losing you autonomy, especially as a man, not doing the basic little things. That was probably the biggest struggle for me. And then ultimately, you know, losing football.”

One thing he decided on the ride and while at home was that when he returned he would do so as a leader. He was going to pout while in the building, even on his toughest days. The smile stayed on his face. He could encourage teammates. He could give tips to young players. That began when he came back on campus to begin classes and continues today.

“I think it says a lot because guys sometimes respond (poorly) to injuries,” said UAB head coach Alex Mortensen. “Everyone's different. Some guys go in the tank or they get distant or they get disengaged. If anything, he's kind of gone the other way. He's stayed engaged. He's been a leader. He's continued to work at a high level. I think it's just a lot about his character.”

It certainly wasn’t easy.

“Toward the beginning of rehab, especially with an Achilles injury, you can't really do much,” Tate said. “It's really just kind of doing the same thing. You just move your ankle up and down, you know, curling your toes. It's repetitive. I'm doing that for two, three hours a day. You’re sitting in the training room, you know, and then the walls kind of start talking to you. It helped to have headphones and the trainers definitely motivate you. But, it’s a You vs. You battle in that moment.”

Tate said he remembers the precise moment when his body told him that everything was eventually going to be good.

“I’d say when I got back up here in January and I started running on the treadmill, the gravity treadmill,” Tate said. “The treadmill has a screen. The screen's not on, so it's basically a mirror. I was looking at myself and I was smiling. I even got emotional. I called my homeboy up in Nebraska. I was like ‘I was running today and it felt good. Like, you know, it really felt good.’ It was nice to feel that bounce again.”

While he’s not on the field this spring, he does spend practice time with the group of players working to get back on the field. Mortensen said there is a shot at getting Tate back on the day fall camp begins in August but said they won’t rush it if he’s not quite ready to go. In some ways it’s hard to believe but Tate works his way toward that day with an appreciation for what this journey has meant to him.

“What I say, it definitely made me take a step back and make me realize who I am without football,” Tate said. “At that point, I wasn't doing football as much. I was just doing kind of physical therapy. I wasn't traveling to the away games and all that. During that time, it really, really grew my faith. I know that's kind of cliche. A lot of people say that when it turns to hardships, but that's really the time you should turn to God. You turn to him at all times, but during hardships you better go that way.”