Memphis Pulls Away From UAB to Win Battle for the Bones
By Steve Irvine
October 11, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, AL
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The final 20 minutes have belonged to UAB over the past four weeks. On Saturday, though, with the Battle for the Bones trophy at stake, the Blazers were whipped in the second of a 38-13 Memphis victory at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
When it was over, UAB headed back to Birmingham to get ready for a visit from East Carolina while Memphis hung around to celebrate the return of the Bones trophy. All because of went down over the final 20 minutes on the game clock, as well as two critical first half plays.
“Obviously, a tale of two halves,” UAB head coach Alex Mortensen said on his postgame appearance on the Blazer Sports Network from Learfield. “I think the bigger thing though, I certainly don't want to overlook the (second) half part, but the turnover margin. You're playing a really good team, it was a tough game and you give the ball to the other team three times and we don't take it away any.”
Two of the turnovers came in the first half, including quarterback Ryder Burton’s third down fumble inside the 10-yard line. Burton also threw an interception on the next series. Take the turnovers away and the 13-10 UAB halftime lead could have been by a more comfortable margin. As it was, the Blazers settled for the three-point lead built on an 11-yard run by Ja’Vin Simpkins and field goals of 49 and 57 yards by Jonah Delange.
The final turnover came in the second half on a fumble by Rod Robinson to came early in the fourth quarter. By that time, Memphis had carved out some momentum with third quarter touchdown drives of 81 and 86 drives. Memphis (5-1 overall, 2-0 American Conference) took over at the UAB 28-yard line after Robinson’s fumble and eventually scored on a 1-yard run by Hunter Tipton.
“I did not sense from my perspective that the air came out at any point with our guys,” Mortensen said in his postgame press conference after his team fell to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in American Conference play. “I think we do challenge them to have more positive energy, more juice, more intensity through the course of the game. That’s something we’re always going to talk about. But it did not feel to me that we let one mistake lead to two tonight. I don’t think that was causative of some of the mistakes. But, again, we did have some errors on critical conversion downs and the turnovers are incredibly challenging when you have three of them in a game. It’s statistically the number one thing that correlates you winning and losing a game. That and the explosive play battle. Not to say there aren’t other important things but that’s a tough one.”
WHAT IT MEANS: UAB loses the Battle for the Bones trophy for at least a year. For now, that’s the most important thing.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: UAB’s offense couldn’t capitalize on a great series by the UAB defense at the beginning of the second half. From that point, it was all Memphis, largely because the Tigers had running game success and UAB did not.
WHY UAB LOST: There are certainly a few more layers to the loss but turnovers and the lack of a running game in the second half were the biggest problems. UAB was minus-three on turnovers and Ryder Burton’s lost fumble in the red zone was huge. UAB had 167 yards on 31 first half carries before halftime. The Blazers managed 12 yards on 18 carries in the second half.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: UAB committed three turnovers. Memphis did not commit a turnover. One of the key stories of the game. Conversion downs were also a big story. UAB was 3-of-15 on third down and failed on both fourth down attempts. Memphis was 1-of-5 on third down in the first half and missed on its first 3rd down in the second half. From that point on the Tigers were 6-of-8 on third down and scored 28 points.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: It’s really all about who gets the Battle for Bones Trophy. But UAB did have a couple of noteworthy performances. Jonah Delange set a school record with a 57-yard field goal, was also good from 49 yards and came up short on a 53-yard attempt. Safety Jo’Tavion Pierce had 12 tackles and two pass breakups. Ty Mims also had a productive night with three catches for 79 yards and two punt returns for 17 yards.
WHAT DID COACH MORTENSEN SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:
Overall thoughts: “Very disappointing game overall. We obviously went into halftime with a lead. I thought we were very productive in the first half and really would have liked more points to show for it. I think if you would step back and look at this game, you had two good teams playing in a big game. The turnover margin is hard to ignore here. We gave it to them three times and they did not give it to us any. That’s very challenging to overcome. I think the second thing is I think there were some big conversion downs, where we have to perform better on offense. I think the (next) thing is we have to do a better job coming out of the half. We’ve been a pretty good second half team to this point. But this week we did not play well in the second half on offense. Some of that is you look at schematic things and whether or not we need to adjust things. Some of that we just got to make sure that have the right mentality coming out as a team, particularly offensively.”
This one is very disappointing, kind of sick about it. But we’ve got a short week coming up so we can’t wallow in self pity. We have to turn the page pretty quick to get ready for East Carolina. It’s a big game, it’s another conference game. We’re 1-1 in the conference so we got to really reset and refocus on that.”
On first drive: “We put a big emphasis on it. We didn’t overstate it but we worked really hard to come out fast with the right mentality. We tried to plan a good opening sequence but ultimately guys executed really well. I’m not going to say it’s the first time we’ve done it either. The Illinois game we also came out really fast. We just kind of had an unfortunate holding penalty late in the drive when we were driving in the red zone. I think we’re capable of starting fast and we need to do it more.”
On kicker Jonah Delange’s school record field goal: “Jonah has done a great job. We had confidence in him that he can do it. He really helped us there. We felt like he could get it done. He’s been really consistent all year so we’re really grateful to have him. Despite us (being) frustrated, a great moment for him.”
On the play of the UAB defense: “I thought our defense played well. This is a really good offense. This is statistically the most productive offense in the league. They put up pretty big numbers. I thought our defense played pretty darn good. Again, we gave them the ball three times. You got to think if we don’t do that, what does that do for the offense in terms of extending drives. It probably leads to more points, certainly does when we fumble in the red zone. Secondly, you think about the challenging position that puts the defense in. When you think about the defense played really well despite some really difficult circumstances. I know people see the points but I think some of that is a product of three turnovers, a short field and things of that nature.”
On the tempo used by the Memphis offense: "We were prepared for it. They use a variety of tempos going into the game. They go fast some and they go slow some. That was kind of consistent with what they've done to a degree. I thought (defensive coordinator Todd Grantham) and our defensive staff had a good enough plan for all of it. It's just a shame that, like I said, we give them the ball three times. One of those was in the red zone, and on another, we're in field goal territory on a third down. I thought our defense was good enough to win this game despite the points on the scoreboard. They got some advantageous positions."
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
10:49 - UAB | Ja’Vin Simpkins ran 11 yards around left end for a touchdown. Jonah Delange added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted eight plays and covered 75 yards. Biggest play of the drive was a 29-yard run by Bam McReynolds. (7-0, UAB).
8:03 – MEM | Jaylin Carter burst 14 yards for a touchdown. Phillipe Laforge added the extra point. The scoring drive last nine plays and covered 75 yards. (7-7)
Second Quarter
10:42 - MEM | Phillipe Laforge made a 33-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 20 yards. (10-7, Memphis).
6:37 – UAB | Jonah Delange nailed a 49-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 44 yards. (10-10).
0:44 – UAB | Jonah Delange set a school record with a 57-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 10 plays and covered 52 yards. Punter Oliver Straw extended the drive by drawing a running into the kicker penalty on 4th-and-5 from midfield. (13-10, UAB).
Third quarter
9:33 - MEM | Jaylin Carter scored on a 24-yard run. Phillipe Laforge made the extra point. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 8 yards. (17-13, Memphis).
6:07 – MEM | Tychaun Chapman got open for a 45-yard touchdown pass from Marcus Stokes. Phillipe Laforge made the extra point. The scoring drive last five plays and covered 86 yards. (24-13, Memphis).
Fourth quarter
10:22 - MEM | Hunter Tipton scored on a 1-yard run. Phillipe Laforge added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted eight plays and covered 28 yards. The drive was set up by Rod Robinson’s lost fumble. (31-13, Memphis).
5:04 – MEM | Aidan O’Callghan caught an 11-yard scoring pass from Marcus Stokes. Phillipe Laforge added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 53 yards. (38-13, Memphis).
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: It’s a quick turnaround for the Blazers as they play host to ECU on Thursday night at Protective Stadium.