Mortensen Meets With Media to Recap UCONN and Look Ahead to Rice
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 3, 2025
UAB interim head coach Alex Mortensen met with the media on Monday to talk about the Blazers loss at UConn last week and look ahead to Saturday’s visit to Rice for an American Conference game. Mortensen discussed his team’s quarterback situation and what the Blazers need to do for a successful afternoon against the Rice option attack.
Opening statement: Obviously a tough loss on the road and difficult loss to UConn. Certainly, they've got a very good team, they’re well coached, they've done a great job with their roster. You know, they're 6-3 at this point and got some good wins under their belt. That being said, definitely disappointed in the way that we played in a lot of areas. I would say we had a lot of unforced errors early in the game that put us behind. I was pleased with the defense, they came out and they got a stop on the first possession. And then offensively, we actually drove down in the red zone pretty quick, clipped off a number of runs for substantial yardage and got into high red zone. Then we had a really costly turnover on a second down, poor judgement. I think based on the way we were running the ball, we probably had a chance to stay in the driver's seat to a degree. Then two series later we have another turnover on a play where we have a guy that is a good player for us that ends up not completing a route totally. So later another series after that, we miss a snap that puts us on the minus-one. We had a lot of guys that played really hard, played tough, played competitive in this game. Solomon Beebe averaged well over six yards a carry, Jevon Jackson probably was in that five and a half ballpark. But we let the game get away from us way too quick with unforced errors. I think that was really kind of the story of the day. We certainly tried to fight our way back into it after that happened. I think defensively, maybe there's some opportunities to get off the field on third down. But I think offensively, we've got to put our defense in a better position. When you talk about turning the ball over twice early and then having to punt from the minus-one. I think we had an opportunity to keep that game tight or potentially be playing with a lead early on in the game. That's just really the way we look at that.
Anyway, moving on to this game, playing Rice this week. Excited about that opportunity, another conference game, going on the road. They're a good team, good program. They have a new coaching staff. They've adopted a new offense, you know, that has some unique elements to it. It has some triple option type components to it but with some bigger bodies that you would traditionally see out of some of the other teams that have run the triple stuff. They definitely present some challenges and then defensively they've been good there. They're still doing a good job and have good people. So we're excited to take on the challenge.”
On missing a chance at an early explosive play vs. UConn: “Yeah, I think those things can set the tone a lot. I think no matter how much you try to coach your team on, and it's still something we're working on, it's trying to develop an emotionally tough and resilient team. But you're still dealing (with) a human element there. So I think when you can generate a big play early like that, it can really help in some ways that are difficult to measure in terms of just the spirit and attitude of everyone on the team. Then the other thing too, we talk about this a lot, two things that correlate with winning and losing. You talk about the turnover margin, which I already addressed, kind of in that opening statement. The other thing is our explosive plays. And so you have an opportunity to have an explosive play early in the game. Your odds of scoring on that drive go way, way up. So definitely a missed opportunity. Now we were still able to overcome it and had some big runs on that drive and on the following play converted a third down. But yeah, it still is a missed opportunity.”
On the running game: “I think one, our offensive line is doing a good job in the communication process, making the IDs, getting targeted to the right people and playing with physicality and toughness and good technique. We have good backs. I think we have really good runners that we thought going into the season were good. I think they continue to get better through the course of the year, their vision, their decision making improves as well. Those are certain things and I think our RPO game too complements it well. You force the defense, hopefully, to have to defend all your eligibles. the two things kind of go hand-in-hand or maybe create some space (with) the use of the formations into the RPO. That's been positive to see and of course we still want to build on that run game too. But the last two weeks, it's definitely been improved.”
On sticking with Ryder Burton at quarterback for most of the game: “One, Jalen Kitna, without disclosing too much specifically, had some pretty significant injuries coming out of that FAU game. He is an absolute warrior, competitor and really battled his way back. I pointed out he did convert that third down early in the game. But that being said we felt like Ryder earned an opportunity to play some of the game. I sought counsel on this too but we were going to let Ryder go in for the third series so he had an opportunity to play some. It was scheduled. Then, getting to that point, UConn does do a good job of rushing the passer. They've got some exotic pressures they use on third down. Here’s Jalen coming off injury (and) Ryder had showed the ability to escape. So just keeping Jalen out of harm's way and we felt like Ryder maybe gave us an opportunity to extend some plays if we needed to. We ended up going that way the rest of the game.
I think Ryder, you know, is a good athlete. So, as I mentioned, some of the escape ability showed up and I think too he largely did a pretty good job in the game, battling and competing. I think he would probably tell you that there were things from a command standpoint and his eyes were probably a little cleaner in the Memphis game. Sometimes when you prepare as a starter for most of the week, that preparation can help you. Maybe you play a little bit cleaner. But at the same time as quarterbacks, we've got to take on the challenge of can we take the mental reps and turn them into physical reps when we get them. He understands that too. So he did a lot of good things, but I also think he would tell you like, hey, there are a couple of things where his eyes could have gotten him somewhere quicker that maybe would have prevented a sack or maybe he doesn't have to scramble. And we're going to have a chunk play or an explosive play on some of those too. You know, he’s a young player. He’s only started one college football game. I think he’s got an incredibly bright future and we’re still very excited about him.”
On the quarterback plan moving forward: “We're still discussing exactly how we're going to handle that situation. There's going to be some health things taken into consideration too. We’ll handle that as we get more information on that in the coming days.”
On Jalen Kitna’s confidence: “I would say Jalen's got a pretty large body of work and he did not have a large body of work in this game. I think he only threw five passes. So I think it's kind of hard to say a lot about just five passes in one game. There have been a lot quarterbacks that have started games, maybe turned the ball over and battled back to play great games. I think, particularly for a guy that's dealing with two pretty significant injuries, his confidence should be in good shape. Going into the FAU game, this is a good conference, and he's leading this conference in passing. He's at the top of the country in a lot of categories. He's a very physically gifted guy, so I think Jalen Kitna has got every reason to be very, very confident.”
On learning a lot in first three weeks as interim head coach: “One, going into a situation like this, I’ve been involved in this game for a long time. Fortunately, I've been around good people and good mentors. So a lot of situations that occur, you know, I've seen them occur before, even if I wasn't always the primary decision maker having to handle them. So I think a lot of it, I feel pretty prepared for and, but certainly if you're not continuing to try to learn in this profession, you're not going to last very long. So trying to use every opportunity as a chance to grow and learn. I think one of the biggest things if I've learned anything, people always want to ask me, hey, what did you learn from Coach Saban or have you asked him anything? He obviously was a very intelligent, smart man and a great leader. But he also I saw him seek counsel too, even at the stage he was at when I was around him. I think that says a lot. You know, being a good listener to wise people and people you trust when you have to make some of these decisions.”
On his team’s tackling against the option attack this season: “We're working on tackling a lot. Even going into this last game in the bye week, we were spending a lot of time on that. I know it's a fundamental, that's really important. Guys have to learn, even in practice, we're still learning in practice. We've got to thud runners in practice. I mean, we don’t tackle our guys at the ground all the time. But we got to learn how to thud the runners, how to wrap up and play with the right kind of (fundamentals). We do have guys in position a lot and those are things that ultimately, a lot of times, the game's a reflection of practice habits. I think we're still trying to create the right kind of practice habits that are going to show up in the game, regardless of whether we're playing a service academy or somebody else. And then to be clear, these guys (Rice), it is an option-oriented offense in some respects. But it's not truly all of the under-center or triple option. Of course, Navy and Army have evolved to a degree, too. They're not always under-center. So it does present some similar challenges, but there are some differences, too. So I don't think it's totally apples to apples.”
On linebacker Calvin Pitcher, who had a combined 17 tackles vs. Navy and Army: “Calvin was very helpful in the run game. I think he had a lot of guys play well. Eamon Smalls, he was another guy that's coming on and having a good year. So I think for a game like this, we have to still be prepared for a balance attack. But having a guy like (Pitcher) really helps us if it's a heavy run team.”
On the two-minute drill: “Actually it wasn't the first time because the Memphis game we had a two-minute going into half on which we had to make some management decisions in regards to timeouts. I think that touchdown we had at the end of the half against Memphis helped us win the game, in terms of how we managed the clock there. That last touchdown that we called it was seven seconds left. So we had some decisions to make, especially kind of in that field goal. I think, even as a coordinator or even going back to playing quarterback, you're always kind of playing the game mentally, as to OK, how do we manage time? How do we use the clock here? When's the clock going to stop? How many timeouts do we have? Is it wiser to kick a field goal or go for a touchdown? So a lot of those things, I think particularly again, when you grow up playing quarterback, those are conversations you have in those meeting rooms a lot. It didn't feel that new to be honest with you. Of course, nowadays everyone is knee deep in analytics too, so we've got all that information through the course of the game as well.”
On Rice’s option attack: “I think a lot of it, when you talk about option football, people always talk about force of play, assignment, being sound on defense. It's a little bit what even the RPO game can do as well, you've got to kind of account for all the eligibles. That can spread you thin a little bit. When you're coaching defense, one of the basic fundamentals of defense is we need 11 hats to the ball, right? We need to get 11 people to the football. Now, we've got to have someone that's got the dive, that's got the pitch, that's got to be ready to take force blocks and lead blocks and you still have the quarterback. In a way, it's a way of creating space and creating one-on-ones. When you create space and one-on-ones, if you have one miss, if they can make one guy miss, sometimes there's no deep help or no secondary help. I think that's one of the ways you can generate explosives when you run a system like that. And then again, the talent, the players, the quarterback, (Chase) Jenkins and (Quinton) Jackson. Both of those guys are a part of that too, because they're really good players.”