UAB Looks to Cure Road Woes In Second Half of Season
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 7, 2025
Realistically, UAB’s chance at maximizing success this season hinges on the Blazers winning football games on the road. Historically, at least under Trent Dilfer, that’s not good news for the Blazers.
UAB carries a 14-game road losing streak on the road to FAU this weekend. Twelve of those losses have been double-digit defeats. The lone one-score losses were in season ending games at North Texas (45-42) and Charlotte (29-27). North Texas hit a final play field goal in 2023 and Jonah Delange missed a final-play field goal last season at Charlotte. There have been a handful of competitive games sprinkled into the road trips but the average margin of defeat over the 14 losses is nearly 19 points per game.
“The middle of last year, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” Dilfer said. “So we started changing how we do things and tweaking. We would see growth at times. Then this year in the offseason talking through how to get them ready to play better on the road, how to travel better, how to perform better on the road. I mean it's obviously a huge point of emphasis. We're not blind to the road record. We've tried to do as many things as possible to give them the best chance to play the best on the road. And we'll make some tweaks this week as well.”
As strange at is sounds, considering the road troubles, UAB’s best chances to win moving forward are away from Protective Stadium. The three home games remaining are against Memphis on Oct. 18, North Texas on Nov. 15 and South Florida on Nov. 22. Those three teams are a combined 15-1 overall and among the four American Conference, along with Tulane, thought to have a chance to work toward legitimate consideration for the Group of Five spot in the College Football Playoffs. The lone loss among those three is USF’s setback at currently No. 2 ranked Miami. The four remaining road opponents are a combined 11-12.
However, at this point, UAB will probably be underdogs in every game left on the schedule and the Blazers still haven’t proven they can win any game on the road.
“I think at the end of the day, I think I said this before Navy, there is a formulaic way of winning on the road,” Dilfer said. “If you just go back and look at teams that go and win on the road, consistently they play really good defense. It's very hard to win on the road if you don't play good defense. You got to get the ball back, you got to steal the ball. Offensively, you run football, you play clean, you don't make a lot of stupid mistakes. You’re gonna have some, right, but you don't define the game with dumb mistakes. I think poise is a big part of it.”
Dilfer said it’s not just on-the-field issues that need to be handled.
“You got to handle that adversity, probably from the time you leave the facility to the time the game's over,” Dilfer said. “You face all kinds of different little adversities. Food's not ready on time, room's not right, bus broke down, plane got delayed, whatever it is. So it's kind of like water off the duck's back approach, like you kind of know what to expect. And then when it happens, you deal with it better and not let it bother you. So I think all those are part of it.”
Back to his thoughts about the on-the-field formula that prominently includes playing defense and winning the turnover battle. In the 14 road games, UAB is allowing 453 yards and 41 points per game and lost the turnover battle by a combined 27-14. UAB had five turnovers and two takeaways in two games thus far this season and is facing a FAU team that is last in the country in turnover margin on Saturday. FAU has 12 turnovers and two takeaways in five games. The Owls have thrown 10 interceptions and don’t have an interception defense. UAB hasn’t been much better. The Blazers are tied for 121st, out of 134 FBS teams, in turnover margin with eight turnovers and three takeaways.
“I think ultimately, when you start playing in that game, you have to play with a mentality and a formula to a certain degree that gives you the best chance to beat a team at their home place,” Dilfer said. “We just have not been able to do that. We played really bad defense in my tenure here on the road. We’ve turned it over on the road. Those two things alone are gonna get you beat. So it doesn't matter what tweaks we make during the week if we play bad defense and we turn it over, we're probably not going to win. So I think if you just want to make it super simple, we got to play better defense and we got to not turn it over. And that will give us a chance to win the game on the road.”