UAB Defense Uses Bye Week to Sharpen Its Edge
By Steve Irvine
October 24, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, AL
Looking ahead wasn’t the focus for the UAB defense during practice over the past five days.
“Really this week has been more about focusing on us, improving and just trying to get everybody better, healthy and ready for the home stretch,” said defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.
It’s been a while since the UAB approached the home stretch with confidence on defensive side of the ball. Numbers don’t tell the entire story but when was the last time the Blazers led the country this late in the season in a significant defensive category? Heading into this weekend’s games the Blazers are tops in the nation in passing yards allowed per game. The defense also made a tremendous leap in total defense (33rd) and have become a strength despite being ranked 120th in rush defense.
While the defense hasn’t started well in most games – giving up scores on five of seven first possessions – they have largely shut down opponents in the second half. In the team’s four wins, the UAB defense allowed 13 total points after halftime with just three of those points coming in the fourth quarter.
Linebacker Muaaz Byard leads the country in solo tackles with 44 and is seventh in total tackles per game (9.9). Safety Jo’Tavion Pierce is third nationally in solo tackles with 41 and had an American Conference best 16 tackles in the win over East Carolina. Defensive end Marlin Dean is second in the American Conference in sacks with five, is tied for the conference lead with eight solo tackles and tied for second in the country in forced fumbles with four. Defensive end Chris Burge is tied for second in the nation with two fumble recoveries.
Grantham stopped by after practice earlier this week to talk about the play of his defense.
On what he wants from the bye week: “I think the biggest things with the bye week is one we self scout and try to find things we did well and things we might need to improve on. Maybe (identify) things that people are running relative to what we do. So, that’s one aspt of it. The other aspect is you have a lot of guys who have played a lot of snaps. You’ve got to get those guys fresh but you have to be intentional with what are three things they can improve upon. What we did on Monday and Tuesday, as a staff, was we went back and watched all our tape. We broke it down and kind of gave our players ‘Here are three things you need to work on to be a better player because if you become a better player our team becomes better.’ We did that with the entire group with the idea that the guys who get a lot of snaps they were going to be minimal in the work load but when they were in there they were fast. Through all the studies, talking to Lyle (Henley), the best way to approach it was, let’s say you get 30 plays in a team period in a normal practice, well let’s cut (practice reps for the high-snap players) by 40 or 50 percent. You get half of that on a day like (Wednesday). That way you’re still getting your sudden movements and things like that but you’re not overworking yourself. You have those guys and then we have other guys who are not playing a lot. They need to get better because we’re one play away from them having to go in and be a contributor for us. Those guys are getting (heavier) reps so they can improve. Those guys still need development. That’s kind of what we’ve done with this (bye week). We’ll work a little bit (Thursday) on South Florida, not a lot. We still got our normal game week.”
On the difference in self-scout in bye week and regular game week: “I think what you see is copycat league. When you play good on defense, a lot of times people will try to copy plays that were double digit plays or explosive plays (against you). How can we run that play and maybe make it look different? (You study) what is the emphasis of those teams, how are they trying to attack us and what’s our answer? Sometimes it’s just playing better, sometimes it’s just finishing a tackle, those kind of things. But if there’s something we’ve got to adjust we’ll certainly do that.”
On what he’s liked about the defense: The biggest thing I like is our grit (and) the ability to play with resilience. I think we have talent but I think we play really hard, we play together, we do a good job of communicating. We do play physical at the point of attack and we play the next play. We don’t let the last play affect the next play. We just keep playing. We don’t let a bad series turn into two bad series. And then I think the guys do a good job of working the game in the sense of, now with video you can go to the sidelines and the coach can be sitting through his players and we can go through the plays (in between series). Eventually, they’re going to run out of plays to run. It’s like here’s their game plan, here’s how they are attacking and you go over the plays. If it’s a good play they may have a complementary play to that play. You say, ‘OK, here’s the next thing that’s coming.’ And then based on what they’re doing, you may make adjustments and say ‘Hey, we need to play this technique better or we need to be ready to play these calls.’”
On why they’ve played well in the second half: “One, it’s the resiliency of the players. I think it’s a compliment to the players working the game. When they come to the sidelines we’re watching the game, we’re watching what happened. And then I think the coaches do a really good job of communicating with the players. Here’s the corrections that need to be made, here’s what we’re going to do moving forward relative to what they’re doing and this is how you‘ve got to play it. I think it’s a combination of all that. I think they do a really good job of that.”
On opening drive troubles: “It’s been a combination of things. Early, I thought we were a little nervous at Illinois. We had a couple where penalties extended drives and a couple of (drives where) people were trying to window dress things. I can’t tell you exactly what the play is going to be and how they’re going to run it so you’ve got to fit it based on your rules and a couple of those (have hurt us). Even in the last game, if you look, we had them on third down and a penalty extended the drive. More of that is more self-inflicted than what they do. We just go to clean that up.”
On whether Muaaz Byard has exceeded expectations: “I thought he was pretty good. The thing about him is he’s very serious about his job. He works his tail off, he puts time in to understand the game plan and where he fits. He’s a good communicator. He is a leader and he likes playing ball. I think if you look at his background, his brother is now with the Patriots and played with the Bears last year. You can tell he comes from a football family that understands this is work, it’s commitment and he’s put in his time to be a good player. I’ve been really pleased with him and think he’s done a great job.”
On coaching Jo’Tavion Pierce for a second season: “I knew he was going to be a good player. If you ask my son Corbin, he knew from the first scout team rep (at Oklahoma State) that he was going to be a real player. Just love the guy. He loves football, he’s got very good communication skills, he’s physical, he’s athletic. He’s what you want in a player. We’re very fortunate to have him. I hope he continues to be productive and play the way he’s played for us.”
On the hard hits delivered by Pierce: “I think any time you have an explosive hit like that it brings juice and energy to the sidelines. It can give you energy for the next play. He’s obviously a physical person and he does bring juice and energy to our defense.”