Offensive Inconsistency Plagues Blazers in 31-13 Loss To Army
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 5, 2025
Complementary football avoided UAB once again. This time, though, it was the offense and special teams having the problem in the 31-13 loss to Army in an American Conference game at Protective Stadium.
The problems included a ragged day for quarterback Jalen Kitna and the UAB offense, a pair of missed field goal opportunities and a fumbled kickoff return by Solomon Beebe. Add it all up and it was too much to overcome on a day when the defense took a step forward.
Kitna, who entered the game as one of the top passers in the nation, never seemed to get comfortable in a game where he was 24-of-42 for 259 yards with a 1-yard touchdown to Xavier Daisy. He threw one interception but Army defenders dropped at least four other potential interceptions.
“I think there were just quite a few times where I didn’t take what they gave me,” Kitna said afterward. “And I missed here or there. You always miss here or there. I was missing too many today. I just have to continue to do what we’re supposed to do and not let outside things affect it.”
UAB head coach Trent Dilfer took some blame for Kitna’s uncharacteristic tough day.
“I think I asked him to do too much in this game,” Dilfer said. “There's no other explanation because he made mistakes today that he has not made, which tells me there's a little bit of a system overload. So, I'll completely take the blame for that. He has grown so much. I think he's going to be a fantastic player the rest of the season and play football for a long time. But I got to better understand what he's ready to do at this point and give him the tools to do that.”
WHAT IT MEANS: UAB let another chance for a critical victory slip away into a sea of penalties, turnovers and mistakes. Army is a quality team but this was a winnable game.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: Part of me wants to say it turned when UAB wasted its’ opening opportunity and Army countered with a clock-eating 18-play touchdown drive. But, frankly, UAB rebounded from that. It would be more accurate to point to the opening of the second half, which began with the UAB defense forcing a three-and-out. UAB followed with a crisp drive that opened with a 30-yard run by Jevon Jackson and reached the Army 12-yard line. But the drive fizzled out and Jonah Delange slipped while attempting a 30-yard field goal and the kick went wide right. Army followed with a scoring drive that was capped off by Cale Hellums’ 5-yard run.
WHY UAB LOST: Offensive inconsistency and special teams blunders were a big part of the recipe for defeat. The defense played well enough to win, particularly if they got more help from offense and special teams.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: UAB outgained Army, 362-295, Jalen Kitna threw for a game-high 259 yards and Jevon Jackson was statistically the game’s top runner with 89 yards on 12 carries. Stats lie.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: Obviously the losing team gets no game balls. But credit the defense for taking a step forward. Linebackers Calvin Pitcher (10 tackes) and Devin Hightower (9 tackles), defensive tackle Jonathan Allen (9 tackles) and safety AJ Brown (8 tackles) were the defensive leaders.
WHAT DID COACH DILFER SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE:
Opening statement: Most disappointed that we went backwards with the things that we felt like we're getting better at, penalties, discipline, turnovers, not beating ourselves. We preached it from the beginning, when this group got together in January that we had to first learn how to not beat ourselves. I thought we'd done a pretty good job of that up to this point. We worked hard on it over the bye week and this week of practice. It was almost like the opposite of the things we worked on happened today, especially offensively and special teams. I did think the defense showed growth, the scoreboard is not gonna show it, but they were able to get off the field a bunch times. They were put in some horrible situations by special teams and offense. I think they battled and competed at a high level. Got off blocks better than they had before and tackled better than they had before. So if you're looking for a positive, I'd say that's the positive.
On the Army pass rush: It wasn’t the pass rush. Some of their pressures, which we worked on all week long are not real complicated. We should have handled them well. We had some breakdowns in assignments. We put a lot on the quarterback. We're never gonna sit up here and blame the quarterback. But he was not at his best today and he'd be the first to tell you that.
On momentum swings in game: I think there were a lot of momentum swings that went against us. You know, we were just atrocious on special teams. You miss two relatively easy point scoring opportunities and turn it over on special teams. That's a massive L. And then offensively when you have a chance to grab momentum (and don’t it hurts). We’re one of the better avoiding three-and-out teams in the country, we just missed some very easy things that had seemed like they were not issues for us. Like we kind of take them for granted that we've been pretty good on first down, getting drives started and playing in positive yard situations. And we just got stuck making bad decisions and going three-and-out. It’s tough. You know, the penalties hurt you. Not being sharp mentally, it hurts you. So we got to figure out why that was (happening) because we really had grown offensively. We were excited about what we could become. I think we need to re-look at some things and try to get an understanding of why today we took a step backwards.
On the defense: I think all of their effort (was good). I thought Jonathan Allen, Eamon Smalls on the interior defensive line. (Calvin) Pitcher and (Devin) Hightower made a lot of plays. Jeremiah Vessel fitting the run from the safety position. There's a lot of things. I gotta watch the film, but those are the things that stood out. They competed hard, they really did. Army puts a lot of stress on you in the run game. We knew they'd kind of go back to what their mentality has been. They got a little tricky in the first couple games and hurt themselves. They went back to old Army football where they hit three yards four times and they beat you. So, we knew what to expect. I really thought the defense grew a lot today.
On Army’s opening 18-play drive for a touchdown: Well, I think we did recover. You know, I mean, we get the game to 7-7 after it. I thought that the guys on the sideline were great. They weren't hanging their heads. They weren't frustrated. They knew, offensively (for Army), that could be a possibility. We talked about maybe not playing for 10, 15, 20 minutes and how do you deal with it? I thought the big pass play to Strap (Iverson Hooks) got us going and we scored there (late in the first half). It was disappointing to give up the points at the end of the first half in a two-minute drill (against) a team that doesn't practice that a whole lot. Again, it was self-inflicted wounds and stuff that we worked relentlessly hard on trying to fix. But it's not like parenting, right? You parent your kids, you tell them a lot of things, you try to instruct them to do the right stuff, you're maniacal about addressing stuff and they don't always do it right away. So that kind of how it felt today.
On whether Jevon Jackson and the running game was a silver lining: No, I don’t think there were any silver linings. We knew we’d be able to run the ball if we kept the game close. We wanted to be really balanced at the end of it. Really the bulk of the run game was a couple plays that we busted. Stats lie. We had 100 yards we had two big runs. We were terribly inefficient offensively. I’ll take the blame for that. I’m an offensive head coach. I’m in every meeting and most of the offense is blessed by me.
On areas where the offense fell short: I thought this would be an 80 percent completion day. I thought this could be a day where we could march the ball with short (and) intermediate passes. I thought this could be a day where we could run the ball efficiently and capitalize on every drive opportunity. They're very simple defensively. Now they play really hard but they’re very simple. There should be no reason why we made the decisions we made.
On whether it was mental or physical problems with Jalen Kitna’s play on Saturday: It was a little bit of both. He was not sharp in either. And again, he's made so much growth, he's such a fantastic kid and a player that I think you have to look yourself in the mirror as a coach and say did we ask him to do too much? You know, we ask him to do a lot. He’s never shied away from that. I really believe this, the moral process in my head, I think I asked him to do too much in this game. There's no other explanation because he made mistakes today that he has not made, which tells me there's a little bit of a system overload. So, I'll completely take the blame for that. He has grown so much. I think he's going to be a fantastic player the rest of the season and play football for a long time. But I got to better understand what he's ready to do at this point and give him the tools to do that.
On Army’s long drives possibly taking mental toll on UAB offense: I mean again, I hope not. David (Crane) just asked me the same question in the post-game radio. We talked about these things. I mean, we sit in meetings for countless hours. We practiced relentlessly. We talked about how different the game can go because of who your opponent is. We talked about how there are maybe 15-20 minutes where you're not in the field. How are you going to handle it? Visualize the play, you're going to go to the iPad, throw a little bit and keep your legs warm. Offensive line, receivers, what are you doing? So we try to prepare for those things. Now, it is weird. You know, the word I would use is it's definitely a weird feeling when you don't play that often. But you do the best to prepare. And at the end of the day, you know, you still have to go out and like, Hey, you're there, he's there, the ball should go there. Or you he’s lined up there, that's where you go block him. Like if you just simplify it to the most basic form, how long you're off the field shouldn’t matter. I mean, we'll go in a practice environment and the first period of the day is after special teams, then we'll go do a bunch of stuff for 25 minutes before we run a team play. And we expect that first team play to be executed high level. So it's not like this never happens, but it does feel a little awkward and weird when it's going on.
On whether the players stepped up to practice with effort: Let me see the film a little bit more. Listen, obviously how you practice during the week does not represent itself in games. I've experienced this for two and a half years now. But their mentality for how they practiced, how they went to work each day, their enthusiasm for the grind in the battle, their sticking together in tough times, how they rebounded from Tennessee, how they handled the bye week. All that stuff is very positive. But that doesn't matter until you take that and then go apply it to the game. I'm glad as we're going through some adversity that we have that as kind of our culture. That they're going to come back Monday and get after it. So, I'm pleased by the character of this group of people. Now we just have to take what we work on during the week and have it carry over to the game.
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: The Blazers go on the road where they are 0-14 under Dilfer. They play at FAU at 5 p.m. CST next Saturday.