UAB WRs Doing What It Takes To Win As Receiver Room Potentially Grows

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 27, 2025

UAB receivers Iverson Hooks and AJ Johnson each did what was asked of them during what could have been a season-altering win over Memphis.

One of them had a contribution easy to spot. You had to look a little closer to see the critical contribution made by Johnson. The truth is, though, UAB might not win that game without both of them chipping in.

“I think most receivers just think, ‘Hey, (give me) targets, throw me the ball. I want to score,’” UAB wide receiver coach Kevin Garver said. “But I think the true testament of a teammate is whatever it takes to win. And if that means I got to block someone, I got to dominate this block, then that's what I got to do.”

Cue up Johnson’s contribution. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior, an East Tennessee State transfer in his first season at UAB, played just five snaps at receiver during the game and wasn’t targeted for a pass on any of those plays. However, he found a way to help UAB win the game by making a critical block on the outside that helped Solomon Beebe run 81 yards for a touchdown on the opening series of the second half.

“I think you look at receivers, there's guys that hate blocking, there are guys that block just because they have to and get in the way and then there's some guys that love it,” Garver said. “(Johnson is) one of those guys that has really embraced it, enjoys it. Obviously, he has some size to him, some strength. There's a lot of times out here in practice in fall camp – the DBs are probably gonna hate that I say this - but they were like running away from him. I think it's important to him. It's something that he knows that he brings to the table. It's something that he values and knows it's a way to help the team. At the end of the day, these guys really just want to have opportunities to impact the game.”

Obviously, Hooks’ opportunities against Memphis came by catching the football. He caught 11 passes for 172 yards and scored three touchdowns to earn American Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors. He was Ryder Burton’s first option against Memphis and will probably continue to be the first option for UAB quarterbacks, beginning with Saturday’s visit to close out the non-conference portion of the schedule at UConn.

But Garver points out that, even though Hooks has a team-high 41 receptions, the plan is for the targets to be spread out and the leader in catches for each game to be unpredictable.

“I'm going to go back and really it's going to sound the same, as far as what we talked about before,” Garver said. “I think it's a testament to the group, I really do. I think if you guys look at our games, there's kind of been a different guy step up in every game and a different leading receiver every game. Guys kind of accepting their role and accepting their role for that week. They all enjoy each other, they're all for each other. Really that's going to be the way that we are out there.”

That’s part of why the receiving corps has still produced during the extended absence of Corri Milliner, who had a team-best 17 catches for 268 yards with three touchdowns through three games. Since that time, the Blazers had four different players – Hooks, Brandon Hawkins Jr., Xavier Daisy and Solomon Beebe – lead the team in catches during a game.

Milliner, who is still fourth on the team in catches and second in touchdown receptions, was asked to step away from the team after being sidelined for conduct detrimental to the team during the road loss to Tennessee. He did not make the trip to Knoxville. Trent Dilfer, the program’s head coach at the time, said Milliner would be gone for an undetermined amount of time. On Monday, interim head coach Alex Mortensen said Milliner, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound redshirt sophomore, has “a path” to return to the team.

“Corri has a path back that we're working through and right now there's not a timetable on it,” Mortensen said. “There's a path for him to be back, he’s going through that process and doing a good job with it, but there's no date on it. It's just kind of how he moves through it. As right now, he'll be at practice this week. Or at least that's the current plan, that he’ll do something in practice this week.”