UAB’s Mortensen Discusses Blazer Quarterback Situation
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 23, 2025
Nothing that UAB interim head coach Alex Mortensen said after Wednesday’s practice suggested that choosing a starting quarterback next week will cause any distraction.
The chatter outside the program, however, suggests something different. On one side, you have Jalen Kitna, whose streak of quarterback starts, dating back to last season, ended at 14 games when a shoulder injury kept him out of last Saturday’s Battle for the Bones victory over a then-nationally ranked Memphis team. On the other side, you have Ryder Burton, this week’s Manning Award national quarterback of the week after throwing for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the upset win over Memphis.
So what’s a coach to do?
Mortensen has time to work with this week as the Blazers are enjoying their second bye week of the season. But don’t expect to him to divulge much before the Blazers return to the field for a non-conference game at UConn on Nov. 1.
“We're not gonna say which way we're gonna do it, but I think there are multiple ways to have effective play with more than one quarterback playing in a game,” Mortensen said.
Mortensen detailed some of those ways, using the 2004 Louisville teams as an example when the Cardinals had veteran starter Stefan LeFors and youngster Brian Brohm sharing the position.
“Sometimes you say, okay, hey, these are your plays for one guy and here's a set of plays for the other,” Mortensen said. “So they can really allocate what reps they get in practice that week. There's some positives to that and you can then try to play to one’s strengths and away from their weaknesses and so on and so forth. There's other ways to do it too. If I remember correctly (in Louisville’s case), LaFors was the starter, but it was scheduled Brohm was coming in at the start of the second quarter, no matter what. It is not based on performance, so it doesn't look like you're pulling them. The whole team knows it. And now the second guy can get himself mentally and physically prepared to come at a certain time. And both were responsible for the whole game plan.
Again, we’ll have to wait to see what Mortensen and the UAB offensive staff unveils against UConn. But it does look like UAB will have both of its top two quarterbacks available.
A week ago, Kitna was in uniform and did some work in practice but did not throw the football. On Wednesday, not only was he back throwing the football but he was taking the first quarterback reps for the most part.
“Yeah I'm feeling great,” Kitna said after Wednesday’s practice. “You know, I’m out there practicing and I’m ready to go. I’m just trying to get ready, prepare like any other week and go dominate.”
Obviously, it was different role a week ago when he was serving as a mentor to Burton.
“Ryder's a great player,” Kitna said. “I was just hoping to try to simplify things. There's a lot of mental gymnastics in playing the game and just being a quarterback in general. And so, yeah, my job is just to try to help make it easier for him in his brain and go let him play, go let him be him. He did a great job of that.”
As far as what’s next, neither seems overly concerned but it’s certainly a different feel for Burton now than when he signed with UAB.
“I'm always gonna have that belief in myself, that confidence that I can come and play regardless of who I'm in a battle with,” Burton said. “But they made it clear that Jalen was a starter and that was fine. I knew what I would learn in a year with Alex Mortensen as my OC. So I was perfectly okay with that. At the end of the day, Joe Burrow played one good year and went to the league. My ultimate goal is to play in the NFL. If that means I have to sit a year or sit the rest of the year, I'm okay with that. I'm gonna do my role to the very best I can. And at the end of the day, Heavenly Father's gonna let the cards fall where they fall.”