Six Seconds at a Time, Burton brings UAB Back In historic Drive
By Steve Irvine
October 16, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, AL
BIRMINGHAM – Thursday’s game-tying drive, which is now part of UAB football lore, came without a legendary pre-drive quote by the quarterback, skipped the Hail Mary part and didn’t actually win the game. But it’s still hard for the mind not to drift back to Sept. 18, 2010 at Legion Field.
On that day, the UAB offense nickel and dimed their way on a nine-play, 99-yard drive that began with 1:09 remaining and finished with a 44-yard Hail Mary completion from Bryan Ellis to Jackie Williams with no time left on the ancient Legion Field clock. After Josh Zahn’s extra point, the Blazers celebrated a 34-33 victory over Troy. Now, finding a Troy fan that believes it was actually a touchdown – to this day – is probably pretty difficult. To them, the drive was 98 ½ yards at best but the referees disagreed and the history books show UAB won the game on a game-winning march that began with Ellis walking into the huddle before it started and telling his offensive teammates “we're going to tell our children about this 20 years from now – ‘We went 99 to beat Troy.'"
On Thursday night, Ryder Burton’s message to his teammates wasn’t quite as dramatic with the Blazer trailing 17-9 and the ball sitting at the UAB 7-yard line with 1:35 on the clock.
“I kind of just told the guys, ‘Hey, six seconds at a time. O-line, let's block inside out and I'll make us right from there,’" Burton said.
The six second approach is something he borrowed from his head coach. Alex Mortensen also borrowed it.
“Saban documentary came out, right?,” Burton said. “Been watching it. Obviously, Coach Mort worked under Saban for a while. So there's some sayings that Coach Mort says, and I'm getting PTSD sitting in my room watching (the documentary) because I'm like, ‘Am I at practice right now?’ Like, it's the exact same thing, right? There's a science to this, but Saban was pretty good at the science. Just one of the things that really stood out to me, I feel like it's the first time I got it explained to me really in depth of put the scoreboard out of your mind and it's six seconds. What can you do in the next six seconds to affect the game?”
The first six seconds never started because UAB jumped offside, moving the ball back to the 4-yard line. Burton then missed CJ Smith on the left sideline before rolling right away from pressure and hitting tight end Sean Persson on the right sideline for a nine-yard gain. From there, Burton surgically moved the Blazers down the field, beginning with an 18-yard pass to Ty Mims on a crossing route. He then fit a pass on the same sideline to Smith, who went up to make the reception and stepped out of bounds at the ECU 49-yard line.
The Pirates then slowed down the drive by forcing an incomplete pass and pressuring Burton into throwing the ball away. On 3rd-and-10, after a nice blitz pickup by running back Bam McReynolds, Burton delivered a strike to Smith for a 12-yard gain on the left sideline. Burton then threw perhaps his best pass of the night, getting the ball just over East Carolina defensive back Kevon Merrell. Mims was able to twist his body to make the grab and got both feet in before going out of bounds at the 17-yard line.
Burton threw the ball out of the end zone on the next play and followed by delivering a short pass to McReynolds in the left flat. McReynolds spun away from cornerback Ashton Levells-Mitchell, outran a pair of defenders down the sideline and left his feet to tumble into the end zone. It took a replay review to confirm that McReynolds stayed in bounds to pull UAB to within two points.
The two-point conversion play began with Burton looking to pass.
“Originally, I thought I was gonna be able to get CJ the ball because when I looked out there the corner was inside leverage,” Burton said. “They burned a timeout. They were playing zero (coverage). I was like, ‘Dang it, I really wanted that look to that play." Then they took the timeout (and) came out and played some version of zone, maybe stick coverage. There was outside leverage everywhere. (On) CJ, the corner got underneath it. I was gonna play the shallow to Sean Persson, and he (was) not held but was kind of blanketed. I pushed up in the pocket and I was like, ‘Oh, there's nobody here, let's go get in the end zone.’”
Actually, ECU linebacker Crews Law was in position to possibly make a play. That possibility was taken away when Robinson pivoted and made a solid block that allowed Burton to get into the end zone and force overtime.
Now, the overtime possession for the UAB offense had a story of its own. The 18-yard strike from Burton to Smith on 3rd-and-10 was a thing of beauty and Robinson’s 6-yard touchdown reception came on a play that fooled the ECU defense. But none of that happens without the historical 93-yard touchdown drive that Burton makes sound rather simple.
“Just do what you're coached to do, right?” Burton said. “At the end of the day it's one drive. How many times have we scored touchdowns before on any given drive. So just because the moment's big doesn't mean we all of a sudden change how we approach a drive. Just go out there, execute, block inside out. And then me get my eyes in the right place, throw the ball and let the receivers catch it and do their thing. For us, it was just about doing what we're coached to do. Going out there and executing got us down there.”