Mortensen Meets With Media To Discuss Bye Week Progress
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 23, 2025
Rest and relaxation have not been part of bye week for UAB interim head coach Alex Mortensen. He spent a good part of the week visiting with national and regional media after leading UAB to a 31-24 win over then-22nd ranked Memphis last Saturday at Protective Stadium.
Mortensen has also been handling the business of transitioning the Blazers from the turmoil and satisfaction of last week to what is ahead. After Wednesday’s practice, Mortensen met with some of the local media for the first time this week.
On what it’s been like for him since the win over Memphis: “Yeah there's been a lot more media than I'm certainly used to. I've probably had more anxiety about media and press conferences than playing the game. I think even last week we experienced every range of emotion up to that game from being heartbroken and disappointed and sad. Then leading up to the game really anxious about all the media stuff we were having to do. And then finally when I got on the field I was like ‘Alright, finally get to compete. But I’m starting to get a little more comfortable with it, a little bit.”
On Jalen Kitna’s health: “Jalen's definitely recovering. We didn't feel like he had a season-ending injury but it was pretty debilitating last week. But he is getting better day by day. He's been able to throw a little bit this week and has thrown pretty well.
I would expect he'll be ready but it’s still day to day right now. Even prior to this you know we've liked to play a lot of quarterbacks when we can. We feel like they're all talented and we want to try to use all their talents. You’ve seen we used Nate Rogers. Of course Ryder played last week and played well and Jalen. It's a really talented group and we want to find ways to use all of them.”
On whether the offense changes with different quarterbacks: “I do think they probably are a little bit different but there's enough overlap. We didn't have to make significant changes last week. But they do have a slightly different skill set and we we want to tailor to what they're good at when they're in there. They're both very good. I will say this, there's not a lot of things either one of them can't do, so I don't particularly feel limited with them.”
On whether he saw Ryder Burton’s success coming: “Was not surprised at all. Really, I kind of fell in love with Ryder when we recruited him. He had a really good spring, good summer good fall camp and it's cliche to say you prepare like you're the starter. He really does. He does every week, I mean, every week. So really had a lot of confidence that he was gonna go out and play at a high level.”
On Ryder Burton helping the running game: “I think it does help and I think it helps with Nate Rogers too. I mean, you see when Nate goes in, I think they've gotta try to honor him, which I think can help the backs too. I think all things, a quarterback run can complement the run game, but so can your ability to throw too. If you can make them defend all your eligibles and defend every blade of grass, I just think that's why balance is so important. I think there's different ways to help the run game, but that's one of them certainly is if your quarterback can run a little bit.”
On not using the deep ball without Jalen Kitna on the field: “They both throw a really good deep ball. I mean, Jalen throws a exceptional deep ball, a very, very good deep ball and so does Ryder. That part is really more about how we wanted to play that game. Staying ahead of the sticks, trying to shrink the game a little bit, getting manageable third downs and then being calculated when we took our shots. We did throw deep some, it was measured. We're trying to help our offensive line too.”
On how this carries over: “I think the biggest thing is, hey, it’s 24 hours, celebrate it and it is just one game. We've got to ask ourselves, do we want to be a one hit wonder, or do we want to try to build on this? Really, part of it too you think about going into the game, we weren't even focused on just winning the game. It was like, hey, let's play the way we want to play. What's our standard of play and how do we get closer to that? I think we've got to take the same approach going forward. We have five regular season games left. I think if we can keep our focus on what does relentless effort look like, what does competitive look like, what does unity look like? What are those things and how do we recreate that? And then we'll see where that gets us. I think if we can stay focused here, I think that's the closest we can come to trying to capture lightning in a bottle.”
On playing two quarterbacks: “Well, there are a lot of ways to do it when you play multiple quarterbacks. Sometimes you say, okay, hey, these are your plays for one guy and here's a set of plays for the other. So they can really allocate what reps they get in practice that week. And that 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. Like I remember when Louisville had Stefan LaFors. He was a senior and then Brian Brohn was a freshman. If I remember correctly, LaFors was the starter, but it was scheduled Brohn 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.
I think there are different ways to do it. 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.”
On coaching for a chance to be a candidate for the head coaching job at UAB: “Again, it's only been one game here. Really, we're just focused (on the present). The main thing is when this happened, and it was like, ‘okay, we've got a steward this responsibility well.’ What goes on the next five weeks affects the future of a lot of players, a lot of other people too. The biggest thing is just trying to do a really good job for the players and make sure that we're coaching them to a high level, helping them still develop. They're still young, they can get a lot better and really thinking about trying to serve them the best we can and then see where that takes things.
On the thought they caught Memphis off guard: “I can't say you know whether or not they felt like they were caught off guard or not. It’s a little bit speculative but I do think I do think we had a very clear vision as a staff of what do we need to do to try to win this game. They went out and they executed really, really well obviously. Not to perfection but well.
On how many guys were on Nick Saban’s staff for nine years: “I don't know that there were that many. Coach (Kirby) Smart was there, cumulatively, especially if you go back to LSU. I think he had a year at the Dolphins with him. Derek Dooley was with Caoch m you know Dooley was the next one out you know Derek Dooley was with Coach Saban a good bit. If you take the LSU years and then then he joined us at Alabama for two years at the end. I don't know, there was a time we kicked this around at the end. I think there are a few guys that you were probably there a little bit more than me or with him longer. But I think I'm giving them a run for their money or I did give them a run for their money.”
On whether he talked to Nick Saban after the win: “No, I have not. I do want to call him. I've got about a thousand questions I want to ask him. Last week I felt like I didn't really come up for air, I mean minute to minute, but I'm certainly hoping to give him a call. I'll tell you this, I thought about him all week on what would he do here and what did I observe him doing.”
On his history with quarterback competitions: “Well, I think sometimes you've got to acknowledge that I think everyone gets so binary like it's either or, like one guy's good, one guy's not. I think we were in a situation there where multiple times we had multiple really good players. I think starting with that and acknowledging that and then finding a way to use all their talents. I think is the second thing, to me it's a plus. I think it's I think it's real positive and that's the way we approached it back then.”
On getting sleep last week: “I didn't get a lot of sleep last week, I really didn't. But the positive is we have a really good staff. And some of the advice I got. Like, right away I even talked to Coach Dilfer when everything happened. He was like hey you've got good people around you can delegate, they can help you. They helped me get a little bit of sleep too, which I really appreciate We have good people, we have good coordinators in Steve Russ and John Jones and good department heads and a great strength coach like Lyle Henley. You can trust them if they've got something to do they're gonna do it. That allowed me to lay my head down at some point. I did not sleep in the office.”
On superstitions: “I'm not superstitious but I do think you reap what you sow and I think there's cause and effect. If there's something equipment related that we feel like helps us then we'll look at that. We'll look at everything that we think can help us but try to avoid superstition. Maybe there's something to do that one.”