Alex MOrtensen Introduced As UAB’s Interim Head Coach

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - October 13, 2025

Alex Mortensen stepped into the spotlight on Monday morning inside the UAB football operations building. It was a situation that the UAB offensive coordinator turned interim head coach handled well. But he couldn’t help but think about how he is accustomed to spend his time on the job.

“I’m on to Memphis completely and I'm getting antsy every second I'm sitting here doing this, to be honest,” the 39-year-old Mortensen said with a smile while wrapping up his first press conference as a college head coach.

Mortensen took over the reins of the program on Sunday after UAB head coach Trent Dilfer was fired. UAB athletics director Mark Ingram made the decision to let Dilfer go midway through the sixth game of his third season. Dilfer finished his tenure at UAB with a 9-21 record, including 2-4 this season. Mortensen’s first game as the interim head coach comes on Saturday in the ‘Battle for the Bones’ game against Memphis at Protective Stadium.

Following is Mortensen’s comments from his press conference and a breakout session afterward.

Opening statement: “Hey guys, you know, one, I want to start off saying I certainly didn't expect to be in this position right now and so a lot of this will be a little bit off the cuff, bear with me. But first of all I want to thank Coach Dilfer for giving me this opportunity to be here as the offensive coordinator. Coach Dilfer really cared about our players a lot, very genuine, poured a lot into them, cared about our staff. I saw that firsthand, worked with him very closely on offense and he's a good coach. I'm really grateful to have had an opportunity to work for Coach Dilfer. Secondly, certainly want to thank Mark Ingram for expressing the confidence in me and our administration to do this for the remainder of the season, for the next six games. It's obviously not the circumstances with which I would want this to happen but I'm certainly grateful. Beyond that, getting on to this week, this is the Children's Harbor game. That’s a great tradition with Children's Harbor here at UAB. It’s something that means a lot to a lot of families and a lot of kids. And I think our players have really embraced it. Coach Dilfer put a big emphasis on it here as well, but our players have really embraced it, playing for something bigger than themselves. So certainly that's gonna be a big point of emphasis this week for us, doing a really good job interacting with those families and those children, and we're glad we get to do that. So it's a really great opportunity.

Then finally, I mean, this thing's really about the players. At the end of the day, a lot of these guys, we got six games left. And some of them this is their last stretch. They're seniors, and this is their last stretch to play college football. So it's important to us that we send them out the right way. This thing isn't about me, it's not about really anyone else but doing a really good job for the university, for the program, and for our players, and doing it the right way for them. Certainly, excited to try to take on that challenge here for the remainder of the season.”

On how it changes things for him: “Well, I think there are a variety of things that will change taking on head coach responsibilities. I think the good thing is there are certain things that are in place that we have good department heads that coordinate their respective areas. So  I'm going to try to really be involved with the offense and run the offense and then take on the head coaching duties the best I can on top of that. So time management is going to be really important. Scheduling is going to be really important here. But thankfully, we've got a lot of really good people in this organization that I really trust to help.”

On thoughts when he first heard the news: “Yeah, certainly, when Mark came in, we wish we would have gotten it done here. So it was still a surprise, still certainly a surprise. And the first thing is just felt for Coach Dilfer, our program, our players, a lot of people very close to him, you know, both players and coaches. That was the first thing. And then secondly, upon us moving on, it's kind of like, ‘OK, we've got to get to work and get ready to go.”

On calling others for advice on getting accustomed to the new role: “I think it's certainly wise to seek counsel, especially in a situation like this. And some of it is like, I think there are past experiences, past head coaches, I've worked for, certainly I've learned in my role and experience here, too. Then I've made some phone calls, and we'll make some more, certainly, to try to glean some wisdom on how best to handle this. But I've also been doing this for a while, too. So you go in with some ideas and some thoughts as to the way we want to do things. It's a little bit both of coming in with some past experience and knowledge and then some of it is the uniqueness of the situation of saying, ‘OK, how do we best handle this?’  And again, I think the biggest thing is as you talk to people, and it's really what's on our heart as a staff, is that this is about the players. How do we give them the best coaching experience, football experience possible? You know, to close out, the remainder of the season. You know, keeping it about them, it really is the most important thing to me.”

On whether he’s reached out to his former boss Nick Saban: “I've not called Coach Saban yet. When I worked for Coach Saban, I kind of use the same approach I use now is that you want to save your bullets for when you really need them. I certainly plan on calling him, but he was a guy even when I worked for him, I didn't want to be knocking on his office door all the time, bugging him so I didn't turn to the boy who cried wolf. But I really enjoyed working for Coach for nine years and you know, it was a tremendous experience. He has a lot of knowledge obviously, and is very savvy as a leader. It's certainly someone that, at the right time, I want to speak with.”

On changes that need to be made to have success moving forward: “Obviously I've been working on offense for my time here. So, you know, I've got a lot of confidence in our staff. I think we have a really good coaching staff in all three phases. We obviously have things that we need to do better and we're going to work internally to figure out how to improve those things without going into too much detail. ButI think, the one thing is we know we can control, that the players can control, the coaching staff can control, is we can control our effort. I think making sure that we play with the right kind of effort and intensity. We talked about this yesterday. That's not just Saturday. That's still Monday through Friday. There's still a price to pay during the week to play the way you want to play Saturday. That doesn't change now. I think we've got to enhance and improve that process and in terms of the way we approach our work, not that it has been bad either. That's one thing is just guys playing hard, practicing hard, the effort part. The second thing is sticking together. You know, unity right now is going to be important. Obviously guys are going to have a lot of individual goals. Some of which is trying to play in the NFL, some of these guys, want to be a UAB Blazer and they want to ensure that they have an opportunity to play here in the future. And then there are going to be some guys that, call for what it is, they want to go get in the portal at the end of the year and explore. But whatever their goals are, they're best served by sticking together right now and giving their best. So I think if we can start there, then we can deal with the football and the specificities of those other things after that.”

On whether he’s talked to the team yet: “I did have an opportunity to speak with the team yesterday and you know, it's somber because, again, a lot of these guys, myself included we're really close to Trent. I know that not everyone publicly gets to know him the way we get to know him. Like I said he really did care for the people in this program. I think he wanted to have success, not just for himself or his own competitiveness. I think he wanted it for us. When we didn’t, he hurt for the whole program and everyone involved. So it was a somber, it was a somber day. It was tough. I don't know if it was totally appropriate to go much beyond that. Obviously we'll have an opportunity to see the players again today.”

On keeping the team focused: “I think there’s a couple of things here. Again, it's not about me, it’s not about our coaches. It's not about playing hard for me, playing hard for the coaches. Yeah, maybe to a degree, playing hard for your position coach. But I think it's about playing hard for each other. You know, I think that's the biggest thing, if they can buy into each other. I think that's more powerful and more important than anything right now. All these guys fell in love with the game of football long before they ever met their college head coach. It's much bigger than that. Watching these guys work, they work very hard this off season. I watched them bond. We all watched them bond together and come together as a group. I think that how connected they are, you know, I think is going to drive them for the rest of the season.

And then I think the second part is you know I do think there's some personal pride involved too. The name on the front of the jersey matters, the UAB matters. Obviously this week is a special week with Children's Harbor, that name matters. But even when it's the name of your own on the back of your jersey, that matters too because you're representing yourself. I think every one of these players need to understand what they want their name to be associated with. I think that we have a tremendous amount to play for you know we got team goals. We can we can still go fight to win and compete to get into a bowl game. That's obviously a tall order, we can only do things one week at a time. But there's a lot to try and go accomplish both collectively and individually. To me in terms of being motivated and all, I don't think there should be any issues there.”

On his message to UAB fans: “First and foremost, we hate what happened here and we wish that we could have gotten it done and helped Coach Dilfer see this thing through. That’s the first thing. Secondly, we're going to try to represent the program with pride and with the kind of effort, toughness, discipline that reflects well upon it and go compete.”

On thinking about his late father, Chris Mortensen, during this time: “I'll say what I mentioned earlier, certainly not the circumstances with which you want to put in a situation like this one. A dear friend loses a job and someone that we're all working closely with. We were all doing this together, so that's the first thing.

As it pertains to my dad certainly have thought about my dad a lot. I think about him every day and I was very fortunate. Father-son relationships can be weird. You know, some people don't know their father. Some people don't have the best relationship. But I hit the lottery. I had an awesome dad and very fortunate to have the father I had. Every day that goes by, I go, ‘Man, what would my dad think about this right now? What would he tell me to do here?’ And so this situation is certainly no different. I've thought about him a lot in the last 12 hours or so. That's certainly not going to change.”

On his message to recruits: “UAB is a really attractive program. This is an attractive school. We've got excellent education. here. The program is very attractive. It's a very attractive place to live. There are a lot of things going on at UAB that I think should sell well to prospective recruits. I think that's really the approach a lot of prospects need to take now. You almost hate saying this but if you look at a lot of programs turnover is kind of become the norm right or wrong. I think guys have to be attracted to more than just the staff. For a long time, the relationship with the staff is a driving factor. I'm not saying that should change but I think there's a lot of other things that kids should really be excited about with UAB. Those are the things we're going to talk about itself and we're going to continue to work there to help build a future program.”

On whether he had thoughts of becoming a head coach: “I'll be honest with you I've not thought about a lot. I know that's probably not the typical answer you get but it's something I just haven’t given a ton of thought to. It's maybe a little bit cliche but I really was focused on the job I had. Nevertheless, you know here we are so I'm gonna try to do the best job I can.”

On developing more of a relationship with the defensive players: “I think I do have a relationship with defensive players but it's something that I would also say is an area that needs to grow and improve in short order. I definitely want to spend more time with them and that's not just time collectively as a unit but that's also with guys one-on-one and individual. I want to get to know more of them on a personal basis too. I think that's really important. I got a ton of confidence in Coach Russ, our defensive staff to do their job. Like I said I'm sure we'll have some conversations together about how do we you know get this thing right, close it out the right way and get better.  Obviously we need to try to do that in a hurry but certainly have a ton of confidence in him and his staff to to go do their jobs here.”

On talking to other former interim coaches: “I will and I've talked to guys that have been in head coaching seats. Look, I'm just going to say it, I've talked to Coach Dilfer. He's sat in this chair for two and a half years. He's one of the first guys to talk to of the things that he's learned on the job, things he thought he did well, things he would do different, and how to manage your day. And then I've certainly talked to people outside of him too. They've been head coaches, and then people have been through interim situations. We'll continue to probably talk to a few more people that have been in interim roles, because it is a little bit unique.

But at the end of the day, guys, we've got to go play football. And I think that someone told me a long time ago, one of the best ways to earn the respect of a player is to show that you can help them play better. We're going to try to do the best things we can Monday through Friday to help prepare them to play in the game, to play really good football. That's not to downplay leadership or bringing the group together. All those things are really important, but I think the first thing we need to do is get ready to go to work on the practice field and in the meetonig room.

On addressing the team on Monday: “I think what we spoke about earlier, in terms of what do they have to play for. The answer is a whole lot, right. Whether those are our team goals, a lot of which we can still go accomplish and buying into playing hard and playing for each other and playing for the seniors, playing for the guys that are on their way out. Then also, you know, their individual goals. I mentioned earlier, but whether they're trying to play in the NFL, whether they're looking at the transfer portal or whether they want to continue to be a UAB Blazer, the way they create value for themselves in all of those areas is to go give your very best. That's as a football player, that's also as a person and that's academically. I think those are the things that I'm going to really emphasize. Then I think the other part too here is that we've got to lead as a staff, but the players have got to lead too. It's going to be important that they band together, probably far more important than we do. The best teams I've ever been around were ultimately player led teams. So, you know, those guys need to step up too.”

On his message to the UAB fans about coming out to the Memphis game: “Well, look, I would say this. Obviously, this has happened fast. We're going to be one week away, less than a week away from playing Memphis. Memphis has got a very good team. They have a really good program. Certainly, I have a lot of respect for them. We've been working on them hard over the last day. They've got a lot of good players. They're well coached. And up front, just watching them on defense, they're physical, they do a good job controlling the line of scrimmage, creating negative plays. They've got length, they've got speed in the back end. So we're doing everything we can to prepare for them and get ready to go. And so we'll go put our best effort. This being the Children’s Harbor game, it's a big deal. Obviously, it's the Battle for the Bones. There's a lot to get excited about for a game like this and we're ready to go take it on.”

On the suddenness of the move: “Look, I was pretty shocked, for lack of a better word. I was just so focused on the next thing. Trent had already met on the last game, moving to the next one. So at that time, yeah. But then it's like, now it's just like you're so focused on just getting up and going to work the next half hour at a time. I really don't know if I have time for my head to spin. I just gotta get things done. I'm going to try as much as possible (to keep things the same). I mean, obviously like this (press conference), I don't usually have to do this on Mondays. I don't usually have to do a radio show on Monday night. But other than those things, I'm gonna try to just keep it as normal as possible and trust everyone who did their jobs. All the department heads, so maybe my head won't spin too much, if that makes sense.”

On whether he will call the offense: “Yeah, I will going forward.”

On the game management part of the job: “The game management thing, this will be new. On one hand, there’s certain aspects I feel really prepared for and there's certain aspects of it where we got some really good people on staff that really are on top of that. We'll lean on them too to help in terms of game management analytics, when to go for it, two-point plays, things of that nature. Those are things we're gonna cover as we lead up into the first game.”

On the biggest thing he learned from Dilfer: “Let me say this, I learned a lot from Trent because, you know, Trent as the head coach did a lot of things. He was the head coach, he was involved with the offense. Obviously, being an offensive coach, he did a lot offensively. He also played quarterback in the NFL for 14 years, so he's very knowledgeable when it comes to quarterback play. All those areas, I really did learn a lot from him. He was in the quarterback meetings as well. He had a lot of pearls of wisdom in those areas. To answer your question, the biggest thing I learned it'd be hard to say because it really was a lot. Trent's a very gifted guy. In terms of parting words, he really gave me a lot. He went through a number of things. He said, here's what I would do different, here's what I learned, here’s what I would have implemented sooner, here's a pitfall, here's who can really help you. He really is trying to help the program as much as he can and help me for the next six weeks.”

On what he learned from Nick Saban: “Gosh, part of the reason he's been so successful is there isn't just one thing. It’s a lot. If I had to try to boil it down to the thing that probably had the biggest impression on me, what's his time management. I think one of the biggest fallacies sometimes is we always look for, hey, what's the one thing that's gonna put us over the edge? I think the challenge with football is how can I do a lot of things really well? In order to do that, you have to manage your time incredibly well to be able to get a lot done. I thought Coach Saban was a master of his schedule. I thought he had really good self-discipline to stay on schedule. He’s such an incredibly productive human being. That's a lot easier said than done because I think you talk to anyone, and you think you've got a schedule, and then there are a multitude of surprises that are on your desk. That's one of the things even Coach Dilfer talked about too, but I think figuring out how to manage those things by watching Coach Saban do that was really helpful. So that's kind of boring, but that's probably the biggest thing is time management.”

On how he will grow during this process: “Well, that’s one thing Coach Dilfer told me is you’ll grow and you'll grow in a hurry, because you have to. I think it will probably force growth because I’m going to be asked to do some things that I haven't done. Look, I just want to do a good job for these kids, that’s really the main thing. I mean, that's really the main thing. I just want to give to them, it's really not about me, my growth, my career, my trajectory. I just want to help the kids have a really good experience and our staff have a really good experience for the next six weeks. That's really what it's about.”

On the dream of being a head coach: “Early on, I was like maybe I want to be a head coach. Then you get in, and you're like, man, those jobs, I don’t know. I love coaching football, I really do. I love being a position coach, I love coordinating. This thing, it's not something that I've been like, going, man, I got to be a head coach one day.”