Mortensen Meets With Media Ahead of East Carolina Game
By Steve Irvine
October 12, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, AL
It’s a busy week for Alex Mortensen and his UAB football team. The Blazers are quickly preparing for the American Conference visit from East Carolina, which will kick off on ESPN at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Mortensen held his weekly press conference on Monday. He talked about last Saturday’s Battle for the Bones loss to Memphis, answered a question about the play of Ryder Burton, discussed the second half struggles of his offense against the Tigers and looked ahead to what should be an interesting Thursday on national television. He also talked about Monday’s announcement that UAB Medicine and UAB Athletics are beginning a five-year partnership that includes UAB Medicine branding on uniforms and competition equipment. UAB Medicine branding will be placed on the helmet bumpers for UAB football, baseball and softball and patches will be featured on game jerseys in men’s and women’s basketball.
On the Memphis loss: "Just kinda reflecting on the last game. We played Memphis. They have a good team, good program. They've obviously made a significant investment into their team and their program and I think Coach (Charles) Huff is doing a good job. Disappointing game in a lot of areas and also there were some bright spots. The bright spot, I think obviously the largest one was just kind of the totality of the first half. Definitely not perfect first half, but we were very productive on offense. I think we had north of 250 of offense in the first half, which is really, really good. And then defensively, we held them to 10 points, an offense I think that at the time is leading our conference in a lot of categories. So that was really positive. The second half, not productive enough on offense and then defensively had a hard time at points getting off the field on third down and gave up a few big plays. I think if you look at the first half, one of the positives is we are steadily trying to work towards more early down balance and more early down diversity on offense. And I think, without getting into too many strategic or specific football reasons why that is a process, I think that was positive to see some of that start. Now, we're not where we wanna be in terms of the balance and diversity on early downs yet.
I think when you look at the game, you're playing a good team. Self-inflicted issues I think is probably the first thing you have to look at. And there were two things that jump out to me. One, there were three turnovers where we gave them the ball and then the second thing is we had a short yardage situation where we ran the wrong play. I'll just leave it at that without going into a lot of detail. So those were kind of four things in the game where we hurt ourselves to an extent. The turnovers, we had two fumbles, one of which was inside the 10-yard line, really right around the five. So at worst, we're coming out with a field goal there in the first half and then we had another fumble on a third down where we're working to convert there. Then we had an interception on a third down. So those were hurtful. Anytime you look at the things that correlate with winning and losing games, we talk about it a lot but the explosive play battle is right there near the top, and then the turnover margin is too. So play a good team, you give it to them three times, they don't give it to you any, it's difficult to overcome that. But again, there were some positives early in the game.
On partnership with UAB Medicine: "Where I would actually like to start before we get into the matchup with East Carolina, just some bigger picture things that are going on with our program that we're really excited about. One, just talking about UAB Medicine — we've got a helmet here that I'll show, but you can see the branding there on the back of it. We're really excited to expand our partnership with them. Having their brand represented in our program is something we're really proud of. UAB's obviously has a world-class medical school and then to have UAB Medicine associated with us is really exceptional. It's an example of really the support and the overall momentum we've got behind UAB Athletics. We're trying to squeeze every drop out of the 2026 season and the team we've got now. But also we're working very hard to build the longevity of the program. We're trying to create a program that's sustainable and improving and growing. And so this is a really positive step, one that I'm really excited about."
On ESPN SportsCenter being in Birmingham and UAB’s homecoming: "It's starting to get publicized with SportsCenter on campus. We're playing this game Thursday night here in Birmingham at Protective Stadium. SportsCenter is going to be on campus. There's a lot of energy around that this week. Number one, it's homecoming, which is really exciting for a lot of people. And then two, it's a national TV game (on ESPN). We get a lot of publicity from that standpoint. Then three, SportsCenter on campus. We just want to encourage everyone again to get out to the game. I think it's going to be a really exciting environment, (American) conference game. We're 1-1 in the conference right now and we're looking to build momentum and go compete well."
On East Carolina: "We're playing East Carolina. They've got a really good team. They've got a really good defense. Blake Harrell is their head coach. Got to know Coach Harrell a little bit just through the recruiting trail and then seeing him at some of our conference events. He's kind of a defensive coach by trade and is known for having very good defenses. He's hired Jordon Hankins as their defensive coordinator. Jordon was at Memphis last year, really for a few years, where they had one of the top defenses in our league. So familiar with him. I think he does a great job as well. They're doing a great job at East Carolina right now. And then Jordan Davis is there on offense, who was at North Texas for several years. North Texas has been really effective on offense for the last three or four years. So they've got a really strong staff, really put a good roster together. It'll be a challenge, particularly on a short week coming off a road game playing at night. But we're really excited about it. I think our players are excited to play and we're excited to put the work in as a staff and do the preparation."
On the status of injured center Adam Lepkowski and what UAB loses without him out of the lineup: "In terms of an update on him, we're getting a little bit more information this afternoon. I think it's very fair to say he's going to be questionable for this game and probably going to be tough to get him back. But we really like Cooper (Young), who came into the game and Coop is a really good player. And I think having a week under his belt to take all those one reps is going to really help him. But yeah, in the middle of the game, that's tough. Adam Lepkowski is a really good player. He's a great player and he's a great team guy too. But beyond that, he's kind of like the quarterback of the offensive line. The center has got to make a lot of decisions, has to be a great communicator. Then also there's a comfort level even of the quarterback taking snaps. We get under center a little bit too beyond the shotgun snaps. So those things can definitely disrupt you in the middle of a game. I think we tried to manage it the best we could, but there were some times that it probably hurt us a little bit. That's no shot at Cooper either. Cooper's really good. It's just the chemistry and having to deal with that in the middle of the game."
On whether Cooper Young was expected to play center when recruited: "No, we knew that (he could play center). I mean, one, we would have taken him if he didn't have center experience. We really liked him a lot, but that was a factor, a big factor in us taking him was his experience at center (at West Virginia). So that's something we've known for some time and we've gotten him a lot of reps there."
On why the second half was different offensively than the first half at Memphis: "It's a great question. Obviously, we had a significant drop off. It was probably as good offense as we played all year in the first half against a really good team and then really dropped off fast. It would be a major oversimplification just to say they just went into halftime and adjusted. I think from a coaching standpoint, I do think we probably had a really good plan coming out, frankly, probably better than we did in the second half to be totally transparent. I think that's a factor. You got to give our players credit too. They executed the plan well in the first half. Then I think there are things in the second half that from a coaching standpoint, I think we can do a better job. I think there were some execution related things as well. Again, having multiple turnovers too is really killer in a game that is challenging. I think when you get behind a little bit, not that we're uncomfortable from playing like that, but it can make it hard when you're playing against a good team."
On preparing during the short week: “It is different, playing on a Thursday, but both teams have to deal with it. I think there are multiple things you look at to get your team ready to play. There's a physiological component. One, you got to maintain your physical conditioning and you got to be in shape, but you also need to minimize fatigue going in the game and deal with any injuries you've got. There's a balance there of doing enough work and then also making sure we're fresh.
There's a tactical or schematic component too, because in a short amount of time, we still have to get our guys ready to go. We got to get them the best plan we can. We got to get them familiar and intimate with the opponent, know them really well and get them enough reps to understand how to execute those things against them. You're trying to strike a balance because you would think to do that you need to do a lot of work. But sometimes a lot of work on a short week can create a lot of fatigue. I think it's important to figure out, and we've done a lot of research on it in the off-season too on do you walk through a little bit more. Those are some things we may do. We will balance all of those things because we're trying to balance the physiological and also the schematic and tactical as well."
On whether the work on East Carolina started on the bus ride home from Memphis: “We did both. We all kind of did independent work on the bus back, but I had my computer, so I was able to watch the Memphis game a few times and make notes on that and then started watching East Carolina. Of course, they played Rice on Saturday, so didn't have access to that game, but had every other game, so got going immediately.
On Ryder Burton's confidence and whether he thought about making a quarterback switch: "No, I think, look, one thing people on TV don't have access to a lot of times is the all 22. We got to get some people to play better around him too. Now, he's got to take responsibility for areas he needs to do better, particularly the things that are going to jump out are the fumble and the interception on third down, which was not a good decision by him. I also think we're playing a pretty good team (that has) a really good D line. I think there are points early in the year where we let him get hit too much too. One of the best coaches I've ever been around, he said part of the key to getting your quarterback to play well is to get the 10 people around him to play well first. It's a group effort. It's a unit thing.
We got a ton of confidence in Ryder Burton and he's got a chance to have a great year here. We got a lot of football left. So no, the answer is no on that. And (I) love Nate (Rogers). We've got a lot of confidence in Nate too. We've obviously played him in packages. He's been effective there. We have confidence in Nate's ability to throw the ball and run the offense too. We've actually called passes with Nate in games. It's funny, he scored a touchdown on one of them because they covered everybody and he ran. So we've called throws with him. We're willing to run a balanced offense with him. I think the other thing too with Nate is you can even be a little more run heavy when you're running the option because you don't have to block everybody. I mean, Navy beat Tulsa the other night, their quarterback threw seven passes in the game. You think Tulsa didn't know they were going to run the ball? But when you add the quarterback in the run game, you gain a number back. Then you gain one more number if you choose to read somebody. So that's part of why Nate's stuff has been so effective. I'm not going to say it's been 1,000 percent efficient, but we have confidence in Nate's ability to come in if the situation required him to just play and run the whole offense and then also to use these packages.
"But yeah, there's zero doubts about Ryder for us as a program and not worried about his confidence in the least. But yeah, I mean, I can understand why after a game like that where we have a rough second half, why you'll ask a question like that. I get it."