UAB Fall Camp SNAPSHOT: Day ThRee
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 1, 2025
UAB Fall Camp Snapshot
Physical competition was the theme of the day for the UAB football team during Thursday’s practice in shoulder pads, helmets and shorts. It wasn’t a full pad practice but there was plenty of hitting. UAB head coach Trent Dilfer stopped by afterward to talk about what he saw from his team.
On the first day wearing shoulder pads: I’m seriously not trying to say anything, I just don't know a lot right now about this team. And I think every day we're in pads and it will reveal more. Like I'll tell you a guy that stood out was (linebacker) Eli Ennis. You know, he has instincts. He gets in pads, he plays faster. He's played a lot of football. I thought our veteran guys that played a lot of football got faster in pads today, which is positive. A lot of times, skill position guys struggle with pads because they've played the whole off-season without them, running routes, catching balls. I thought our skills still played fast, which is a positive. I thought our quarterbacks, you know, you put shoulder pads on quarterbacks (and it’s an adjustment). That’s why you saw (Tom) Brady and (Drew) Brees always work in the offseason with pads on. So quarterbacks put pads on sometimes they struggle a day or two to get back into the throwing mechanics. I thought they did a good job carrying over where they left off, throwing the football. And I thought the offensive line is playing with a little more juice and that showed on some runs today. Our running backs, I thought got faster too with pads. Like that's just a general observation without seeing the film.
I hated losing our temper. One of the things that got us beat for two straight years is not being able to emotionally regulate in games and in practices. You know, you can talk about it until your blue in the face, but you need your team to embrace that no matter what happens. You can't flinch and you can't react in anger. It costs you players, it costs you penalties, it costs you field position, it costs you points, it costs you games. I was disappointed that we had that (because) that’s not a sign of toughness. The sign of toughness is actually be mentally tough enough not to react. I’m trying to fix that.
I do like this more condensed practice setting. I've always looked at the last couple periods of practice, whether I was a player, whether I was an analyst going to practices, whether I was a high school coach to now, really defines what you’re going to be. The last two years I was scared to death of that because in practices we’d be so much worse at the end. Today, you know, it’s one glimpse, two late periods, I did think it looked pretty good. It was a different speed that didn't taper down as practice went along. So, it's something that I keep a close eye on.
On potential changes in the offensive line as camp progresses: (There will be) a lot (because) I’m going to force it. It is hard, we had some guys that are just still learning the basic stuff, because they got here late. I want to give the coaches a week to just kind of get them settled, get them used to the drills, get them used to the rotations and then I'm personally going to start shuffling it. I want to see different people at different positions. I want to see different combinations. We don't have a starting line, you know what I mean? So give some guys that have been running with the 2s and 3s some 1 reps. We'll get them next to a different player, see if they play differently.
But you need a body of work. You need a Beta test. So the Beta test are these three (current) lineups we got. And then we can take that, (after) we have five days of understanding what this looks (with) three days in pads, and then go and say, ‘OK let's do three new days.’ I think we can do that three times in camp and really get a good feel for this. And there's going to be some natural stuff, too, right? Big guys get banged up a little bit. They bang their elbow, bang their knees or an ankle or something. So, you know, I do think that is going to be something that's a massive priority. Defensive line is already doing it, but we wanted to let the new offensive linemen settle in.
On what the linebacker rotation might look like: “Well, I tell you what it’s gonna be is who gets them to the ground. Who gets the offensive player to the ground. We haven’t tackled for two years. So, I don’t care what you look like, I don’t care what your length is, I don't care what your metrics are. Can you get that player to the ground? Right. Because that's your job. You know, we need linebackers to do their job to get the guy to the ground. That will reveal itself.
My plan on tackling is to take the NCAA rulebook and take every single tackle period allowed and maximize it. I don’t want to go more but I won't go less. As soon as we get the full pads on we’ll do the most we are allowed (The rules) are very smart. They don't make it like you can barely tackle. They're just like, if you tackle you can only have so many periods a day. And then if you tackle you can only do certain days in a row.