UAB turns desperation into Defining Win over East Carolina
By Steve Irvine
October 16, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, AL
BIRMINGHAM – For the record, the UAB football game won by double digits on a Thursday night when the Blazers never led when the clock was running and aside from the scoreless first four minutes and 52 seconds the game was tied for just 35 seconds.
Yep, on a night filled with defense there was some quirkiness to UAB’s 30-17 overtime victory over East Carolina on a day filled with homecoming festivities and a first time visit from ESPN SportsCenter on campus. Perhaps fittingly, the game ended with Delvon Gulley’s overtime interception and return for a touchdown but the late game heroics by Ryder Burton and an offense that sputtered most of the night also grabbed a bit of the spotlight in the nationally televised game on ESPN.
The Blazers ultimately won the game by first putting together a historic game-tying drive that was officially listed as a 10-play, 93-yard drive but actually covered 96 ½ yards after a first play false start. It ended with Burton swinging a pass to Bam McReynolds, who tight roped his way down the sideline for the 17-yard score to pull the Blazers to within 17-15 with 35 seconds on the clock. Burton then provided the tying points by stepping up in the pocket, recognizing the open field in front of him and bursting into the end zone for the two-point conversion.
UAB got the ball first in overtime and converted on 3rd-and-10 with an 18-yard pass in the middle of the field. After two rushes gained a yard, Burton found Roderick Robinson II open in the left flat and Robinson turned it into a 6-yard touchdown pass. Gulley then ended things on the third play of the ECU possession by stepping in front of a Pirates receiver and intercepting the pass thrown by quarterback Emory Williams.
“Awesome game and I'm sure for people from an entertainment standpoint it was a great game,” said UAB head coach Alex Mortensen after his team improved to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the American Conference. “It was not very entertaining for me for a while. I was talking to Landrum Roberts, who does our radio show, and he said he was so nervous he was gonna throw up. I said, ‘I was just gonna throw up watching the first half.’ But I can appreciate the drama and how hard we fought and the ending. Really, really a neat, neat game. Of course, the football coach in me and the analytical part is just my wheels are turning on, ‘OK, here's all these things we got to do to get better.’"
WHAT IT MEANS: For now, it means the Blazers are finding ways to win at Protective Stadium and still basically in control of their own destiny in American Conference play. In the big picture view, it means Alex Mortensen’s team is taking huge strides forward as a program.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: Finding the exact moment it turned is difficult. Truth is there might not have been an exact moment. One possibility is that the UAB defense gave the Blazer offense one final chance to get the game into overtime. Obviously UAB’s offense took advantage of the opportunity.
WHY UAB WON: The defense kept the Blazers in the game and Ryder Burton, CJ Smith, Roderick Robinson II and Bam McReynolds came through with some clutch plays in the final moments of regulation and the overtime period. Oh, Delvon Gulley also had a key role with his game-ending pick six interception.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: ECU gained 139 yards on 28 first quarter plays. Over the next three quarters and overtime, the Pirates gained just 178 yards on 49 plays. ECU was 5-of-7 on third down in the first quarter and 4-of-14 the rest of the way. UAB won the turnover battle, 2-0, with Gulley’s interception and a fumble that was forced by Jeremiah Jordan and recovered by Chris Burge. Burton finished 19-of37 for 262 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Burton was sacked three times but none of those came after halftime.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: Ryder Burton deserves kudos for his clutch play late in the game. CJ Smith was outstanding with eight catches for 119 yards and key touchdowns were provided by Rod Robinson and Bam McReynolds. But UAB is not in position to win this game in the final moments without a gritty defensive effort that was led by safety Jo’Tavion Pierce (16 tackles, 10 solo tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, pass breakup, quarterback hurry, forced fumble) and linebacker Muaaz Byard (15 tackles, six solo tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss). Give them a game ball and let them share it with their defensive teammates. It’s also appropriate to throw a game ball to kicker Jonah Delange, who accounted for 10 points in the overtime win.
WHAT DID COACH MORTENSEN SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:
Opening statement: First of all, awesome win, great win for our program. Really proud of our players. I thought they played incredibly hard and tough. It was a tough game, a gritty game. That was a good team that came in here. Ton of respect to Coach Harrell and that team. We expected it to be hard. Their defense, I think was leading the country in tackles for loss going into this game and leading our conference in tackles for loss. We expected it to be a tough game. But, man, they really brought it out. What I’m so pleased and proud with our players for is fight to the end, don’t quit, stay together. There was a period where I think the offense sputtered a little. There was no negativity and there was no negativity defense to offense. We stayed as one team and guys just stayed focused and we played the next play. So, those intangible are really positive to see and that character is really positive to see. That’s what we’re working to develop in our program.
From a football standpoint, I thought our defense played really well. I thought East Carolina did a really good opening the game. They drove the ball and moved it a little bit early. But we did defensively play winning football most of that game. We had some big stops in short yardage situations (and) I thought adapted well to the game. I thought our players settled into it well. I thought Coach Grantham called a good game, had a great plan. Guys competed really hard.
Offensively, it was obvious, man we were struggling, especially at the half. There were points of it that were really rough. We had a dropped ball that was going to score. We had another big play that we got penalized on that went 80, 90 yards (and) put us inside the 5. A couple of times we had chances at explosive plays (and it) got taken from us. Would have been easy to maybe lose your poise or panic or press. We did feel like we had to light a fire under some guys but man great bounce back. Down the stretch, I thought a lot of guys came up with some big plays. Kaleb Brown had a huge catch. CJ Smith had a few big plays. Ty Mims shows up. And then Ryder Burton played awesome tonight. I mean, he got pressured some early. First of all, I'm gonna talk about the demeanor a little bit. His demeanor was great through the game. Kind of that sweet spot of being the tough, fiery competitor that he is and then also keeping his poise when everything wasn't perfect around him. Then made some big throws. I mean, made some really, really big throws at points in critical situations. Also took some shots while he did and kept his eyes in the right place. So just awesome performance by him.
Love this group. We have a lot to get better football-wise to be what we want to be. We have a long bye here in front of us. It's kind of a unique bye to play on Thursday and then go into a 17-day stretch. I think the only other thing I'd say from an opening statement standpoint is those that maybe paid attention during the week got to see this, but UAB Medicine partnering with us, really excited about that. You guys may have seen it on the helmet tonight. So, that's a big, big step and we have other areas in that department we want to keep growing.
I do wanna say one more thing. Our specialists, I think Jonah (Delange) and Ollie (Oliver Straw), those guys have done a really good job. It kind of felt like an old time football game tonight. It was like defense and field position. Those guys really helped keep us in it. I think our defense and our special teams kept us in it and then our offense kind of and played really well down the stretch.
On what was different offensively in the final part of the game: “It's two parts. Some of it, it’s gonna sound like coach speak, some of it is execution. I think I mentioned we had a couple things early. One of them was probably glaring to everyone where we had a play that was going to go a long way. And we had a couple other plays where, without getting into specifics or pinning certain things on certain players, for whatever reason, we just did not execute at the level we needed to early. Secondly, we probably did tilt a little bit scheme-wise. We didn't totally swing the pendulum completely. But we did throw the ball more. We threw it more because this group was tough to run against, they really were. You know, I mentioned that one of the things we wanted to try to stay out of was 3rd-and-long in this game. Where East Carolina thrives is they've won early downs. I mentioned they led the country in negative yards, in creating tackles for loss, and they're also near the top of the country in creating 3rd-and-long. You're going, ‘Well, OK, well, we can't let that happen.’ Well, we did. I think getting away from maybe being a little bit stubborn with some aspects of the run game where we were struggling was good for us. The players responded well to it as, too.
On the defense keeping UAB in the game: “The defense kept us in it. We had some touchdowns late in the game and were really finishing drives. But there are a few times where you're going, ‘OK, should we go for it on fourth? Should we look at it at like we're in four down territory and call the whole sequence that way?’ It just felt like our defense was playing just well enough, enough confidence in Jonah as a field goal kicker and then gosh, I mean, I hate punting. I hate doing it, but knowing you got a good punter too. So I think all those things helped us stay in the game. Again, our defense played their tail off and that was huge to allow us to play that way and make some of those decisions. Then the offense finished strong.”
On the decisions made by Ryder Burton in the final part of the game: “I think in the crunch time he played very well, made some outstanding decisions. Some of them were on schedule and then some of them were off schedule. His instincts and his decision-making really kept us alive and helped us win that game. I mean, it really was heavily causative of us winning the game. I think what the best quarterbacks can do, is they can play inside your system, and then they've got some ability to extend plays and kind of play outside of it too and have some of what I like to call good playground instincts. I think he showed both of that tonight.
I want to say Ryder, but I also want to just say the whole offense, too, really had excellent poise. You know, there were moments of frustration, of course, but no one really turned on each other. Didn't get to a state of panic and that was awesome. As it pertains to Ryder, you know, in a game like that, you get rushed a little bit. You do some good things and then maybe you do a couple things you could've done better. Then you got to go try to win the game kind of and do it in a hurry. It can be a psychological challenge for some people. He was great. You know, he's a fierce, tough competitor. He also had tonight, I thought, a real steadiness about him too, that allowed him to make really good decisions and have good judgment. It's one of the things that I thought was one of Bryce Young's best traits. And I think about that Iron Bowl in '21 where it was like, I don't know, the game may have been 10-10 and we were backed up inside the five. We were not playing well on offense. And we converted multiple fourth downs. I think one, there's kind of a little viral image of Bryce smiling before one of the fourth downs, just unflappable. I think that's a really special trait in quarterbacks. I thought tonight Ryder kind of showed some of those type qualities, where he just had a great look in his eye in stressful situations.”
On Ryder Burton’s swag: “Yeah, that's, like, my alter ego. Look, my dad was a huge Muhammad Ali fan. So he used to make me watch all of his fights. That was before I finally started to settle down a little bit. But I can appreciate Ryder's personality a little.”
On stopping the Tush push on consecutive plays: “One, I mean, gosh dang, our defense did a great job. We had a good call, great call on and then those interior D linemen are stout and played with great pad level. There's a little bit of technique and all those things, there's scheme, but man, there's also will. You know, there's will to win, will to fight. That showed up big time.”
On his thoughts when the game was over: “Awesome game and I'm sure for people from an entertainment standpoint it was a great game. It was not very entertaining for me for a while. I was talking to Landrum Roberts, who does our radio show, and he said he was so nervous he was gonna throw up. I said, ‘I was just gonna throw up watching the first half.’ But I can appreciate the drama and how hard we fought and the ending. Really, really a neat, neat game. Of course the football coach in me and the analytical part is just my wheels are turning on, "OK, here's all these things we got to do to get better."
On Jonah Delange: “It's really important to have Jonah. It allows us to call the game a certain way. Jonah's just been so steady. He's had a great year and he's been so clutch and he's helped us in so many situations. I can't say enough about him. I really can't. It helped us win this game. I mean, this was not a shootout, right? I mean, those field goals mattered. I think we want to score touchdowns in the red zone, but there's value in getting the ball down to the red zone, too. Sometimes you got to drive it down there to get it there. Those points add up. So, um, yeah, Jonah is making a tremendous contribution to our team in a really big way.”
On Delvon Gulley returning the final interception for a score instead of falling down to end the game: “I think everyone was (telling him to get down). We'll talk about that one. But it's a great play. It was a great play by him. He played with great technique there, trapped it and finished on the play, got the ball. It was awesome play by him.”
On everything that surrounded the game: “This has been a big week for us, homecoming, Thursday night game, nationally televised game, UAB Medicine being announced. Lot of positive things going on with the program. To punctuate it with a win of that is great. And the other thing, I can just tell you, you lose a game going into a bye it's pretty miserable. That was good to get a win. And this is gonna be a long bye because we played on a Thursday. It's 17 days. Now, at the same time if you get comfortable, that can lead to complacency. I think we have the kind of team, I believe, that tastes a little bit of a good result but is also mature enough to say, "OK, here's all the things we need to do to improve and finish the season the way we want and let's go be focused as we go into this bye with clear objectives to try to step on the gas as we go down the stretch.’
On missing on 4th-and-2 late in the game and the defensive response: “We, we thought about (kicking a field goal). There was another fourth down in our own territory at a certain point where we thought about going for it. It was like inches and we ended up punting. We could have executed that play better, even with kick it or not kick it. We had a way to succeed on that play without going into too much detail. But thankfully, to your point, the defense really, really answered big time.”
On the play of the offensive line without injured Adam Lepkowski: “They played well. I know that there may have been a little bit of pressure at certain points. Again, I want to give East Carolina credit, too. They've got good pass rushers. Like I said, they're leading the country going in this game in tackles for loss. And some of that is their ability to affect the run game. Some of it's their ability to affect the quarterback. Having Cooper (Young) in there at center, I mean we love Coop. And Coop, the more reps he gets, he's just gonna keep getting better. As you guys know, when you're playing center, it's not just you doing your job, but getting everyone on the same page, too. I think the offensive line will continue to grow. I think one of the interesting things about us, if this is true, I've been told going in this year that our offense as a whole was like bottom 10 percent in the country in terms of snaps played in college football. I think you could definitely say our offensive line, a lot of those guys have not played a lot of college football. What you got to believe a little bit, too is there's opportunity to get better and grow through the year. That's the other thing I'm excited about with that group as we go into the bye and then down the stretch, they should keep getting better.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
10:07 - ECU | Ray Ray Roberts Jr. turned a pop pass from Emory Williams into a 3-yard touchdown. Noah Perez added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted 14 plays and covered 75 yards. ECU converted all three third downs on the drive. (7-0, ECU).
Second Quarter
14:13 - ECU | Dawson Quartman recovered a fumble by teammate Ismael Smith-Flores in the end zone. The play is officially a 16-yard touchdown pass from Emory Williams to Quarterman. Noah Perez added the extra point. The scoring drive lasted nine plays and covered 60 yards. (14-0, ECU).
6:00 – UAB | Jonah Delange made a 41-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 12 plays and covered 61 yards. (14-3, ECU).
Third quarter
6:44 - UAB | Jonah Delange made a 26-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 38 yards. The drive came after UAB’s defense kept ECU from gaining a yard on third and fourth down near midfield. (14-6, ECU).
1:26 – UAB | Jonah Delange hit a 50-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted seven plays and covered 50 yards. (14-9, ECU).
Fourth quarter
9:24 - ECU | Noah Perez made a 43-yard field goal. The scoring drive lasted 13 plays and covered 50 yards. (17-9, ECU).
0:35 – UAB | Bam McReynolds grabbed a 17-yard scoring pass from Ryder Burton. Ryder Burton scrambled into the end zone on the 2-point conversion attempt to tie the game. The scoring drive lasted 10 plays and covered 93 yards.
Overtime
0:00 – UAB | Roderick Robinson II scored on a . Ryder Burton scrambled into the end zone on the 2-point conversion attempt to tie the game. The scoring drive lasted 10 plays and covered 93 yards. (24-17, UAB)
0:00 – UAB | Delvon Gulley scored on an 80-yard interception return. The extra point was not attempted. (30-17, UAB)
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: Hitting the practice field, taking a breath and visiting the training room takes precedent for UAB as the Blazers enter their lone bye of the season. UAB doesn’t return to the field until taking a trip to Tampa for an American Conference game against USF on Halloween.