Bryant Flipping The Page After On-Field Incident Against Tennessee
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 1, 2025
Sirad Bryant made a mistake. The UAB safety doesn’t hide from that fact, even if he could.
Obviously, it’s impossible for Bryant to hide from the decision to stomp on Tennessee kicker Max Gilbert’s right foot after an extra point early in the Blazers 52-24 loss to the Volunteers on Sept. 20. After all, the mistake came in front of more than 100,000 spectators and a television broadcast that replayed the moment in slow motion. It also got plenty of attention on social media.
Bryant’s mistake definitely came in plain view.
Bryant can control his response to what happened. He sent out an apology on social media after the game, formally apologized to his teammates and willfully accepted the one-game suspension without complaint. What he can’t control, however, is the outside response.
“You got hecklers on the internet that think you play like this all the time and stuff like that,” Bryant said after Wednesday’s practice. “It's pretty hard, I’m not going to lie. But mostly I just filter through all the bad comments. I did something dumb, I'll take it at what it is. Whatever somebody has to say, I'll just let them say it. I know I'm not that person for real. I just continue to let every day speak for itself.”
Bryant spent last week working with the UAB defensive scout team and continued that this week. His purpose during practice is helping the UAB offense get ready for Saturday’s American Conference game against Army. It’s an unfamiliar role for a player who started 14 of the 16 games he’s played in over the past two seasons at UAB and is clearly one of the team’s emotional leaders.
On Monday, UAB head coach Trent Dilfer praised Bryant for his scout team efforts last week.
“I’ve just been going through the week trying to get better, even though I'm not gonna play this week,” Bryant said. “(Some) would try to get time off or something like that. But I'm just trying to get better, come to practice, help some of the guys. Like right now I'm on scout team, so I'm trying to give the offense the best look they can for Army this week. That's really been my whole philosophy from what I did in Tennessee.”
But it’s still been a difficult week.
“Yeah, it's been real hard, especially for my mental health,” Bryant said. “Not being out there with my brothers on Saturday, game day, especially a big game, conference game. I feel like I'm letting them down by letting my emotions get to me and then my actions speaking bad. I shouldn’t have (done) it. I really wish I could be out there with them. I'm just taking it every day, one day at a time, and just trying to uplift everybody, get everybody’s positivity going. And just trying to show them, I'm still with you guys.”