UAB Secondary Flips Page To Face FAU Passing Attack

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 9, 2025

UAB played against an Army offense that heavily relies on the running game with the most carries per game in FBS. Seven days later, the task for the Blazers defense is a FAU team that throws the ball per game more than any team in the country.

How does a defense, particularly the secondary, prepare for such a different look in just a week?

It begins with planning ahead.

“We did a good job in spring of trying to give them a lot of different stuff and trying to have a lot of growth against what our offense does well,” said secondary coach Brent Vieselmeyer.  “Then we obviously had to practice Army before we got to that week because you don't just throw that together. Our guys did a good job, I’m proud of them. But obviously, there still is an adjustment. We're playing different personnel packages, different guys are on the field, just trying to maximize the rules.”

Even with that, though, the secondary went basically two weeks, including the bye week, working to prepare for a team that rarely throws the football. Army has 59 attempts in five games. FAU exceeded that number in the season opener, throwing 62 times at Maryland, and threw 51 times in games against FIU and Memphis. So, now, the Blazers have the task of transitioning to face FAU quarterback Caden Veltkamp, a 6-foot-6, 236-pound junior transfer from Western Kentucky, who leads the country in completions per game (28.80) and has thrown for 1,488 yards with 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions. UAB quarterback Jalen Kitna is second in FBS with 26.40 completions per game so the UAB secondary does have experience against the approach. It’s also similar to what they faced in the loss at Tennessee.

“We've been catching up on reps,” Vieselmeyer said. “I think Tennessee was a good opportunity for our guys to get to understand that style of play a little bit, what it looks like. Hopefully, we can just keep weaning off those type of things. Hopefully, we’ll get started a lot faster in this game.”

One of the challenges is putting some of the secondary players in different spots on the field depending on the scheme. For example, when UAB played Navy, starting safety Sirad Bryant spent much of the game lined up on the line of scrimmage on the edge. But that challenge is made easier because of the versatility that Vieselmeyer and the other secondary coaches built into the rotation. Most of the secondary players have lined up in different spots this season, depending on the scheme.

“(Jeremiah Vessel) has done multiple things for us, Sirad's done multiple things for us, Perry (Fisher) has,” Vieselmeyer said. “We're just trying to put them in the best opportunity for where their skills are. So there might be styles of play where it's better for Perry to be outside or inside or even matchups, right? Like just different receivers in there. Sometimes it's nice having a guy who can take away the slot, and that's the main focus of an offense, so it depends on the day.”

Fisher moved to the top of the depth chart, along with Vessel, at the nickel position during fall camp. But, just before the season opener, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Fisher suffered a hamstring injury and was forced to miss the first two games of the season.

“I ain't gonna say I popped my hamstring but my hamstring was filled with blood so it was kind of tender,” Fisher said. “It was kind of hard to handle the first two weeks so I decided just to get better. It started getting better (during) Navy week. I'm 100 percent now. If not I wouldn’t be playing. I feel like that's the injury that you can't really play with because that'll linger and stuff like that.”

He’s started in each of the last three games and five of his 10 tackles on the season came last week against Army. He started at cornerback because of the way that Army lined up. But he said he feels most comfortable in the slot.

“I feel like I'm better in the slot,” Fisher said. “Coming from Maryland, the first thing I learned when I got there was slot. When I moved out of the slot everything  kind of came kind of easy (on the outside) as well. But I say my roots would probably be the slot.”

FAU’s top receiver, in terms of total catches, lines up in the slot. Easton Messer, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound transfer from Western Kentucky, has 48 catches for 473 yards with a touchdown in the first five games. He had 15 catches for 87 yards in the season-opening loss to Maryland and 11 grabs for 110 yards last week in the win at Rice. Messer had 96 catches over the past two seasons at Western Kentucky.

“They like to get the ball to No. 8 (Messer),” Fisher said. “(Messer and Veltkamp) were roommates at Western Kentucky and they’re roommates now as well. So, they got a strong bond. I know that's that's what they're going to be trying to get the ball to.”

Fisher will certainly be part of the plan to cover Messer.

“I love going against the top receiver because if I'm locking them up, that ain't gonna do nothing but make me and my team do well,” Fisher said.