North Texas Pounds UAB 53-24, Blazers Out Of Bowl Contention
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 16, 2025
NORTH TEXAS 53, UAB 24
WHAT IT MEANS: Yet another frustrating afternoon for the Blazers, who are now officially eliminated from bowl contention for the third consecutive season.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: North Texas (9-1 overall, 5-1 American) sped down the field on its first possession. UAB (3-7 overall 1-5 American) turned the ball over on its first possession. The tone was set.
WHY UAB LOST: Two turnovers led to the Blazers falling into a 21-0 hole in the first quarter. Digging out of that against an offense that never punted is impossible.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: It doesn’t start and end with the turnover category but it sure feels that way. UAB had a lost fumble and three interceptions. North Texas didn’t come close to turning the ball over. Ball game. But UAB was able to run the ball well with Jevon Jackson compiling 159 yards on 16 carries. And it was a career day for Brandon Hawkins Jr., who had six catches for 127 yards, including a 32-yard scoring reception from Jalen Kitna. Speaking of Kitna, who saw his first extended action since Oct. 11, was 26-of-45 for 281 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. North Texas had 506 yards on 59 plays and UAB had 478 yards on 82 plays. Both teams were successful on conversion downs. UAB was 9-of-17 on third down and 4-of-6 on third down. North Texas was 6-of-10 on third down and 2-of-3 on fourth down.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: North Texas true freshman running back Caleb Hawkins had 189 yards on 27 carries with a school-record five touchdowns. It was the first time UAB allowed that many rushing touchdowns to a single player.
WHAT DID COACH MORTENSEN HAD TO SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:
Opening statement: This is a very disappointing loss. Not pleased, obviously, with the outcome or the way we played. We knew we were playing a really good team. North Texas came in here 8-1, they're 8-1 for a reason going to this game. We know that they have a really good offense. So one of the things we've talked about is we need to learn how to not beat ourselves first. And I think that's where I'm probably most disappointed is the two turnovers we had early put us in a hole and I think put our defense in a difficult position. So we can't do that, if we want to give ourselves the best opportunity and best chance to win. You come out of a game and we had, I don't know approximately 250 yards at the half, maybe a little bit less than that. You come out of the game with 474 yards of offense. You convert over half your third downs, your 4-for-6 on fourth down. There should be a lot more points to show for that. But we gave the ball to the other team, one of which is we had a good drive going and on the other one was to start a drive. So that's just really, that's not the kind of football we believe in, it's not the kind of football I believe in. So that, to me, is the most disappointing part, regardless of what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. Now, I would say this, I do think there are a couple things when you’re playing a team, they do a good job field position wise. They had a couple of kickoff returns and they do a good job on special teams. I know the special team coordinator, Drew Svoboda, real well. We worked together for a few years. But that's, again, when you're playing an offense that good that (field position) also makes it difficult for you.
On a positive note, I think our penalties were reduced today. I think we may have had three penalties on the day. So that's closer to the kind of football we want to play. I think the other positive too is I do think we have a lot of guys playing with the kind of effort and toughness that we want to see. I do think we have enough good players on this team too. I think the biggest thing is, again, just going back to technical execution. Football is a is not a game without error. You want to keep your errors to a minimum but we got to keep the errors out of the catastrophic category. I think that if anything hopefully our guys can can learn from that first and foremost. Anyway, no matter what we're gonna show back up, speaking for myself, with our hands up ready to swing and fight next week.”
On the thought process of bringing Ryder Burton in four plays into the first series: “I think we've got a really good quarterback room. We had a package for Ryder. There were some things that we wanted to do with him today. We didn’t get to all of it but I know it's obviously gonna be a question because we turned the ball over there. I still have a ton of confidence in Ryder Burton. I think he's a really good player. He's a smart player. You know, he thought he had a free play there when we manipulated the cadence, the defense jumped. We obviously didn't, so he needed to work the ball down. He was really hard on himself after that. But that was a little bit of a thought process. We didn't want to run him in and out every play. You guys might remember, some of you that are old enough, 1997 Steve Spurrier playing Florida State, literally switched quarterbacks every play. You know, and they won the game, by the way. That's not something that we were looking to do today. But we did want to give him a package. And he played at other points in the game. One of which, you know, he went in and on his own read, handed the ball off and we scored a touchdown. He managed a quarterback sneak well, too. So he did some other really good things from a management standpoint.”
On big statistical days for some UAB players: “I know we had a couple guys statistically really jump out. You know, Jevon Jackson had 163 yards on the ground. And I'll say this, like he has been just the type of team guy you want. You know, he doesn’t say a whole lot, he works really hard, he's a very productive player, he's all about the team. And then the other guy, too, that's sitting on my right, (Brandon Hawkins) I know he's disappointed with our team result today. But he's another guy, a lot of production for him today. Like you just said, he had 127 yards, made a lot of big plays in the game. But he's another guy, too, like the consummate team guy, practices hard, works hard, unselfish. I was really despite how angry and upset I am right now and disappointed, I'm happy to see those two guys have some individual success.”
On the running game after falling down so early: “Yeah, we felt like we could run the ball and I think that's when I say I got a little bit upset and angry, that's part of it. We felt like we could, if we could keep the game in reach, we could play a balanced game or maybe even lean towards the run a little bit. So, yes, the short answer is yes. Now, that being said, even despite falling behind, we didn't want to forsake the run game completely. I think if you look at the total stats at the end of the game, it’s still a pretty balanced game. We talked about Jevon Jackson's rushing numbers. We tried not to totally go away from the run even on some of those third downs, you know, third and medium, we still used the run game effectively. We probably would have tilted it that way even more if the game didn't become a 3-score game so quick, all because we gave the ball away.”
On Jalen Kitna: “One I want to say I think we've got a very good quarterback room. I still have a really love Ryder Burton. I think Ryder is a really good young player that's going to be a great player and really excited about his future. In terms of Jalen, I think the one thing that I probably, and we have not really disclosed is just how injured he's been. He battled through a pretty significant, actually multiple significant upper body injuries that have affected his power and his ability to throw. He's a very tough guy and he probably pushed himself back too quick if anything. Prior to those injuries, I do want to remind people, quarterback a lot of times gets too much credit, too much blame. And I'm as hard on him as anybody, believe me. But Jalen was leading the American Conference in passing yards at the time of his injury. There was a point of the year, and I'm being redundant, but the guy was second in the country in completions per game. I think he's a really good player. We felt like his health was getting back, we wanted to play him. This is guy who threw for almost 400 yards against the University of Tennessee. Felt like he earned that and deserved that and gave us the best chance or gave us a really good chance to go win today.
I think, again, not a perfect game. The stats are going to say what it says. It’s going to come down to two interceptions. The last one, I'm not going to put on him. You know, we had a guy, I don't want to single anybody out, but there were, it was the last play of the game. I'll just leave it at that. In regards to the other turnover, he's kicking himself about it. We're in the red zone and he had a big part of the reason to do with us being down there. He'd done a good job and he's trying to throw the ball away. When you get out of the tackle box, man, you got to throw it in the first row, you're not worried about grounding. So he's very disappointed about that play. Now the rest of it, he played a pretty good game, he played pretty darn good. He made a lot of big throws in the game. And again, like I said, I mean, we were over 50% on third down. Those were all third-and-shorts and we converted 4-of-6 on fourth down. A lot of that was him making good decisions, making really big throws, some of them to BJ Hawkins. I thought Jalen, for his first full performance back, played pretty darn good. Again not perfect though and he'll you know he's gonna go to work on those things too. Overall like he gave us a chance to be in that game.”
On the North Texas offense: “North Texas does a great job on offense. Coach Morris does a really good job. They do have balance, they can manipulate tempo. They can go fast, they can slow it down. They do some things to manipulate their cadence to see what you're in. I think they do a really good job and it is a difficult offense. Obviously give the players credit too, so really they present a lot of challenges. You use the word balance, they are balanced enough to make you defend it all. You got to defend the whole field, you got to defend run and pass and you know to me that's how you get really good on offense.”
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: UAB plays its final home game of the season. South Florida, which saw its playoff hopes ended on Saturday, comes to Protective Stadium for an American Conference game against the Blazers.