Filling RB RooM was Priority for UAB In MOrtensen’s First SIGNING Class

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - February 8, 2026

Simply finding a No. 1 running back wasn’t the task for the UAB coaching staff when the transfer portal recruiting period opened in early January. It went deeper than that.

“We wanted to add three No. 1 running backs,” said UAB assistant coach Hindley Brigham.

Brigham knows what it’s like to build a successful running back group at UAB. Look at the career rushing yardage leaders at UAB and you reach number four before you find a running back not coached by Brigham from 2016 to 2024. He spent last season at Louisiana-Monroe before returning to UAB. No official announcement has been made yet but it appears that he will share the running back room with Danny Mitchell, who took over the position last season.

So, it was Brigham and Mitchell in charge of filling the room during the month of January.

Fast forward to the end, for a minute, and there is a new problem to solve.

“We need a bigger room,” Mitchell said. “I told Hindley we need to find more chairs.”

The room got even bigger on Wednesday’s February signing day when the Blazers added Jayson Moll of perennial Oklahoma state champion Bixby High. The 5-foot-8, 180-pound speedster put the finishing touches on an amazing month for Brigham, Mitchell and the UAB personnel staff. Moll, who was an integral part of the most recent three of Bixby’s eight consecutive state titles, accumulated 1,732 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior.

In terms of problems, needing more chairs is a nice one to face, especially considering where the Blazers were when the month began. At the time, UAB’s running back roster consisted of redshirt junior Marquise Collins, redshirt sophomore Amari Brundidge, redshirt freshman Drew Patterson and incoming true freshman Hudson Higgins. Add up all the rushing production at UAB for the group and it consists of the three carries for 14 yards that Brundidge had this past season. Collins, once a highly regarded recruit from College Station, Texas, was expected to make an impact at Duke but injuries limited him to just one carry for 15 yards in two seasons. All will certainly have the opportunity to find a role but the Blazers needed more numbers at running back.

Restocking the position began when Braylon McReynolds chose to follow Brigham from ULM. The 5-foot-7, 190-pound McReynolds, who is from McGill-Toolen High in Mobile, played three seasons at South Alabama and rushed for 673 yards with three touchdowns last season at ULM.

“When Bam entered the transfer portal, his intention was to see what was out there and what opportunities were available to him,” said Brigham, referring to McReynolds by his nickname. “You know, getting him into the fold was something that really was sort of unexpected. I did not think Bam would come to UAB when he left ULM. I know he took visits to South Florida and Toledo and he had some other visits scheduled.”

He did choose to stay with Brigham and then they moved on to the next need.

“We needed somebody that was a bigger bodied- running back,”  Brigham said. “We wanted a variety of skills and functions, body types and skill sets.”

Roderick Robinson II, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound transfer from Georgia, filled that need.

Then the final transfer portal piece was Ja’Vin Simpkins, a 5-foot-8, 180-pound former four-star recruit by ESPN, who led Coastal Carolina with 591 rushing yards last season.

All three entered the portal looking for the chance to be the first option at another school. All three accepted the chance to be part of a rotation, which is what Brigham and Mitchell stressed during the process.

“It’s extremely rare and really in the context of our offense it’s not relevant to have one guy,” Brigham said. “There is no more bell cow, workhorse type situation. It requires a group.”

Selling that meant selling the recent past at UAB. All three of UAB’s career rushing leaders – DeWayne McBride, Spencer Brown and Jermaine Brown Jr. – were part of backfields that shared the carries. Brown didn’t rise to the first option until his senior season and he still finished with 3,078 career yards. Last year, the regular rotation included three backs – Jevon Jackson, Isaiah Jacobs and Solomon Beebe – and each had their own role.

“Obviously, that was part of our pitch,” Brigham said. “We sat them down and showed them what we’ve done year by year.”

The pitch not only worked but Robinson II has already bought into the process.

“I feel like in order to be a good team, you got to be able to run the ball, you got to be able to catch the ball, you got to be able to protect the quarterback,” Robinson II said. “I feel like, in a sense, the offense runs through the running back. And I feel like we have a great group of guys that'll be able to contribute to that. It's not a one-man show. I feel like everybody's going to have a piece of this puzzle. We're all just going to be able to make each other better every day.”

The other pieces of the puzzle include a freshman class that includes Higgins, Moll and walk-on additions JR Mosley of Hoover High and Rashad Robinson, Roderick’s younger brother, of San Diego Lincoln High.

Mix it together and it becomes a special group, at least on paper.

“All of these things perfectly aligned that drew the room together,” Brigham said. “I thought this room will not only be one of the better running back rooms in the American Conference but it will hard to differentiate us on Saturdays next fall, in my opinion, with a lot of the running back rotations you’re going to see in the SEC.”

Obviously, time will tell if that is true. But the Blazers are a lot closer to chasing that goal than they were at the first of January.