Head Coach Trent Dilfer Recaps The Loss To Navy And Previews Akron

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 8, 2025

UAB football head coach Trent Dilfer met with the media on Monday morning to recap what happened in the American Conference opening loss at Navy last Saturday and look ahead to this week’s visit from Akron at Protective Stadium.

Opening statement: “Well, good morning. I actually mean that. It's a good morning. We're extremely excited to get their players back in the building. We're excited about the chance to get better this week. We're excited about some of the things that went well up at Navy. And then obviously realistic and extremely disappointed that we lost the game and disappointed that we didn't handle our emotions the way we should have after the second (weather) delay. Really every mistake we made that was catastrophic came after that. But overall, we're extremely excited to be with this group and bring them back in the building and get after it. We spent a lot of time as a staff yesterday looking at the things and trying to figure out are these systemic issues or these issues that can't be fixed or these things that we feel this group can fix quickly. And we believe they're all things this group can fix quickly. We're continuing to better understand our players and how they fit into what we're trying to do. Then how we can better maybe change some things to fit what they do. We knew going into this thing, it was gonna take some time to really know who we are and we're excited about what we're finding out about this team and also realistic the things we need to fix.”

On the defense after two weeks: “I think we have to destroy blocks better. I think the number one thing that's come up over two weeks is not destroying blocks, getting off blocks fast enough and then making plays when they're there. I think they kind of go hand in hand. Sometimes you're so consumed with getting off a block and there's a play to be made (and) you don't finish. Maybe that's an easier word is finishing. Even in the Navy game, tons of opportunities to tackle the quarterback at the line of scrimmage, behind the line of scrimmage. Now he's a very good player. But we don't finish their opportunities on a very, very good running back to hold him to three or four yards and said he gets you know 12,13 yards. You know finishing on some of the sweep plays that we have chances to finish on and we don't. In general, finishing. Finishing off blocks and finishing with tackles. But a lot of effort, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of buy-in, a lot of accountability and ownership. Guys want to get better. I'd rather coach that than guys making excuses and blaming other people and all those other things. So the character of this team continues to grow and we're excited about what we can become.”

On some missed chances to get off the field in the first half: “Game of finishing, game of inches. It's easy to say after the fact, but I see the same thing, we’re close. I mean close isn't good enough, but we're close and that's where we're choosing to be optimistic about it and believe that our players can finish on some of the things they haven't finished on at this point.”

On whether they took a defensive step forward in second half: “That's what I'm saying. I think the character of the team. We imploded offensively in the second half. There's no two ways of talking about it. Like it's just a fact. However, when that has happened, in previous years, which half this team is not culpable for, it would have had a spiral effect. That did not happen on Saturday. It was ‘OK, we gotta go get a stop, it’s on us.’ Offensively it was not making excuses like I see that better, I can't try to do too much. No, there's ownership. Now, just saying I gotta fix it, doesn’t fix it. But at least there's a recognition of , hey in bad times, I'm gonna do everything I can to try and not let it happen again. If you do that often enough, I think you can learn from those mistakes and the bad things happen less often and more good things happen more often.”

On his assessment of the offensive implosion in the second half: “(Navy) did nothing different. You know, we didn’t run the ball nearly, nearly as effective coming out of the second delay. We really felt like we could run the ball on that team and we need to run the ball. I think we want to be a balanced offense and we got to be able to run the ball effectively when we call runs or when we call RPOs and it gives us a run look. That hurt and I think we had guys try to do too much. They just didn't play emotionally and mentally as clear as they had prior to those turnovers. When that happens, you try to do too much (and) things go sideways. They went sideways on us real fast. We were having a tremendous amount of success offensively before the second break and then post-second break what do we have a punt and three turnovers. It's bad football. And we're moving the ball on two of those drives. So it's disappointing, but if you can identify the why behind it, hopefully those players and as an offensive unit, we can fix it.

I think you have to be realistic. You know, if you look at our offense, and I keep saying this, and I think people just kind of brush it over.
I think we have 20 career starts on the offensive line. We have 10 career starts as a quarterback, nine going into that game. You do have some starts at running back, so you got some experience there. You have hardly any career starts at tight end and you have hardly any career starts at wide receiver. So you're looking at an offense that is very inexperienced with real game starting experience, big moment experience. The only way you get that experience is by playing and there's going to be some growing pains in that. Again, I've been called Mr. Kumbaya optimistic, I was the most skeptical, pessimistic going into the season of anybody. Coach, player, anybody, because I recognize there's going to be growing pains. That was part of the growing pains. And I knew they were coming, and if you know they're coming, then one, you're not scared of them, and two, you're not going to overreact to them. So I wasn't scared of them happening and I'm not going to overreact to them. They are part of the growth of this football team and if we continue to grow, we have very talented players, we feel like we have solid schemes, we'll get better. And that's the thing that I am steadfast on and truly believe in my heart is we’re not even close to what we're going to become if the character of the team continues to be what it has been. If we continue to take a growth mindset to this thing and we continue to get better, we'll play better football. But what happened on Saturday is part of the natural growth process when you have inexperienced players and then putting together a new team.”

On improving tackling without doing that in practice during season: “That's a great question and it's something that every coaching staff in America wishes they have the answer to, because it's very hard to get better at tackling in season without jeopardizing the ability to stay healthy. But I think like we did in camp, we will push the edges of that. We'll be on the fringe of being as physical as we possibly can be in practice so that those things can get better.”

On Jalen Kitna: “You know, he's played, I don't know how many total snaps, it's got to be 125-ish total snaps. And he's graded out really well on 90-plus percent of those. But unfortunately, the floor is still too low. You know, you can't turn it over. Both of his interceptions are inexcusable in the realm of how he's been trained. He'll tell you the same thing. Both were trying to do too much. That's really what has got him in trouble over his short career. He’s so talented, he's so smart, he cares so much, he's so competitive that he tends to try to put on a cape and do more than he needs to do. He's got open receivers on both plays that he should be going to and he doesn't. And I did the same thing.

You know, I don't use myself very often, but I remember being in his shoes. I remember my second year (at Fresno State), I had started like five games my redshirt freshman year, and then my redshirt sophomore year, I was the starter. Early in the year, I made a lot of mistakes like that. You know, I thought I could just do anything. I ended up throwing, I think, 14 interceptions that year. And then the next year, I threw four. And they're all in one game. I broke an NCAA record on not throwing interceptions. So it's part of the growth process, you have to emotionally regulate in a game. You're like, you know, I don't have to do the hard thing here, sometimes I can just do the easy thing. You make good decisions more often than not and good things happen. Again, it's frustrating for him, for us, for the fans, for everybody else. But there's a lot of signs of him playing very decisively and making very good decisions. Unfortunately, there were three in this game. He got away with one that wasn't intercepted, but he made three decisions in this game that were uncharacteristic of what he's been like the last few weeks. But they're part of the growth process.”

On the importance of winning home games: “It is massive. I will answer that question by talking about something I am most proud of. I think the hardest touchdown in football is the answer touchdown. I have been saying this forever and I started looking at this when I was playing. It is amazing how many teams do not answer offensively when their defense allows a touchdown. When you get the answer touchdown, it is an amazing dynamic to your football team. We had three straight answer touchdowns in that game. Our defense gave up a touchdown, our offense scored a touchdown. You hardly ever see that. I say that because that is a really encouraging thing that we have the ability to do that. We have to show that same resolve and that same character as it comes to answering a loss. We cannot let one game affect our week of preparation, the next game, and the season. This is a complete reset, it is a completely new opportunity, that is why we are so excited to get them back in the building, in front of our fans, and our city that we love. It is massively important because it is the next game, it is a home game, and because it is coming off a loss. It is massive.”

On Corri Milliner and Iverson Hooks: “I mean, coming out of camp, we felt like those were the two that would probably get the bulk of the looks early on. We really like both those guys, but we really like some of the other guys that are on this roster too, that have not caught a lot of balls yet. So I think the one thing that we're in a position to do to get better offensively is have competition every single week. If you ask me who the starting lineup is this week. I would say most likely what you saw last week, but there's four or five guys in other positions nipping at their heels. Don't be shocked if somebody has a great week of practice and a starter last week isn't the starter this week.
I think that's one of the things we liked about how we've handled recruiting. We have a lot of talented players that haven't started two games but may start a lot of games after this. (Guys) practicing at a high level also makes practice more competitive. It gives us the ability to truly put our money where our mouth is, which is everything you do in practice matters. There's accountability in that. I think position battles in the season are important. But those two have done a nice job.”

On wide receiver Kaleb Brown still being limited: “He's just starting to come back to where he needs to be. He's one of those players. You saw him in the game a little bit more, just trying to get him accustomed to the operation in game. But yeah, he is finally starting to look like himself in practice.”

On the status of injured defensive players: “I think we're really close on three of the guys that have missed and then one we’re not close on. We should be getting healthier defensively.”

On Solomon Beebe’s role in the passing game: “Well, I think he's a versatile player. And when you have that type of versatility, you want to maximize all the things he's good at. He's still a very good running back too. So we want to give him the ball in the backfield as well. But yeah, he's a guy that can break the backfield and be a threat in the passing game, as you saw. I think we've got to continue to build his repertoire as a runner. There's a couple runs that, with a little bit more experience, he probably makes a different decision and they’re better runs. But it's hard to second guess running backs, too, on their instincts. I played with a guy named Shaun Alexander, who went to the wrong hole half the time and made it right. Guys with great instincts, you tend to not overcoach too much. Solomon fits into that. You want to trust his instincts. But there's also just things he's learning as a young runner that I think with more carries the better he'll get at those things.”

On this possibly being a get-right game: “Other teams look at us as the get-right game. I would be surprised if this team takes anything lightly. It's a pretty desperate building, if you want to use a word. It's a pretty desperate building for success. So we know we play next week, too. I don't think there'll be any different approach to this week and next week. Right? On paper they're two dramatically different opponents but not to us. You know they're equally important, equally challenging.

The one thing I'll say about this opponent (Akron) is they've struggled offensively, they've also played against two very, very good defenses. So let's not forget that and (Akron) defensively has some dudes. They have some really, really good players defensively. Nebraska, obviously from a talent (standpoint), there's a big talent gap overall. But even their dudes defensively for Akron played well against Nebraska. The score doesn't represent that but if you look at individual battles and winning one-on-ones, they have some players that can play at a really high level and mess up your game real quick if you're not careful.”

On using a desperate building to your advantage: “I like it. I will be shocked if when the kids show up at 5 p.m. (Monday) that there's not massive enthusiasm, massive excitement, optimism, ownership. Like I, this is not a group that you're gonna watch film and be like, hey, you know, this needs to be better. And they’re like, oh, I'm making excuses. (They’e like), yep, I gotta go work on that right away and get better at that. I think we're desperate to get better. You know, we did a lot of exercises in training camp and offseason about who we want to be. And a lot of the feedback was, we want to be a team that grows. We want to be a team that gets better. We want to be a team that grows closer together. We want to be a team that's better the next week than they were the week before. We want to be a team that's process driven. Like these kids, most of them really, I believe understand that this is a journey and you got to look at it that way. Like, every week it’s massively important that you do everything you can to win the game. But you can't let one week's experience, performance, results affect you either way the next week. Let's say we would've won that game and we're coming back, we finally won a road game and we beat a conference opponent, wow big win for UAB. Would that change today? It shouldn't, like it should be the exact same approach. We roll into the building, win or lose. And I think that's what I'm excited about seeing in a handful of hours.

On the UAB offensive line playing with the same five linemen the entire way in both games: “I think we got three guys that are pushing really hard in practice. Baron Franks, Barry Walker and Payton Kirkland are really pushing hard in practice. Again, I talk about position battles. I definitely think there's ongoing position battles on the offensive line. You have to practice at a high level to start, and fortunately we practiced at a high level last week. That's why you didn't see any changes, but this week it'll be the same thing. We're very honest about it with them. If you're Barry and you're Baron, you're sitting there chomping at the bit because you know you've practiced well, you know you may get a chance to play and then your heart's broken because you don't. But you've got to come back the next week and continue to push the guys in front of you like you did the week before. Again, you just got to trust the process. If I keep taking care of what I can take care of and getting better and growing, I got a chance to see some playing time.

On Akron quarterback Ben Finley being better than his current numbers: “Much better. You know, we're not looking at the scores we’re looking at tape. When you just look at the tape and you don't get caught up in what the score is or the circumstances, you're just like, OK, that's talent, we got to defend this. There's some things where they should be more productive than they've been. And it's the challenge on us to not allow this to be a week that they start being productive.”

On defensive position battles: “Well, there has been, if you've noticed, by who going in at different times in the game. I think you've seen people subbed in and out. You're seeing different lineups in practice. Now, last week's unique because you played a different structure of defense. You played Navy. This week we'll be going back to a more traditional structure of defense. So there'll be nickel competition. Like, Jeremiah Vessel, I don't know if he played the other night. He's a huge contributor for us. But he didn't fit as well into this structure as he does normal football. So, you know, Perry Fisher should be getting healthy and should contribute. Your safety rotations change. I think defensive line wise, you know, you go back to your traditional, more traditional 4-2. So, you know, if Jamichael (Rogers) can come back, that changes the defensive end position. There are just things that going back to a normal structure are naturally going to create more position battles as well.”