UAB Tops Alabama State, 52-42, In Back-And-Forth Offensive Clash
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 29, 2025
The genesis of the final big-chunk play in a night filled with big chunk plays came in a meeting room five days before UAB began the football season with a 52-42 victory over Alabama State at Protective Stadium.
Rip Scherer, whose coaching career spans the neighborhood of 50 years, including a six-year stint as the Memphis head coach, gets the credit for designing the play, according to UAB head coach Trent Dilfer. The idea came when the offensive coaching staff was discussing the plan for what to call on third down during the season opener. There was one specific Alabama State pressure package that was particularly perplexing. So perplexing, in fact, that Dilfer said it’s “virtually impossible to execute against.”
Scherer spoke up while the staff went back and forth for more than an hour on what to do.
“And then Rip Scherer, in his wise way, ‘Why don't you wham the linebacker with a tight end?’” Dilfer said. “And we're like, yeah, that's the best idea. We start flushing out, Rip kind of drew it up and then all the minds went together.”
Then, on Thursday, with UAB facing a critical 3rd-and-7 from its own 36-yard line while clinging to a three-point lead with 3:31 on the clock. Give the ball back there and Alabama State quarterback Andrew Body, who already had accounted for 421 yards and five touchdowns, would be back on the field with a chance to drive his team to the winning score.
Body never got that chance.
Instead, the Blazers ran the play drawn up in the meeting and Jevon Jackson turned it into a 48-yard gain to the 16-yard line. Five plays later, again on third down, Solomon Beebe reversed field, used a lead block from quarterback Jalen Kitna, and worked into the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown run to finally put a difficult season opener on ice.
WHAT IT MEANS: It’s wasn’t easy and certainly wasn’t pretty. But, a win is a win, even when it comes against a FCS opponent. The goal was to be 1-0 at the end of a long night and UAB reached that goal.
WHEN THE GAME TURNED: It turned when the Blazers needed just under four minutes to turn a 28-17 deficit into a three-point lead. UAB got scoring runs from Jevon Jackson (3 yards) and Solomon Beebe (5 yards) and a two-point run by Jackson to claim a 31-28 lead with 4:10 left in the third quarter. UAB scored again in less than three minutes – this time on a 46-yard run by Jackson – to build a 10-point lead. Alabama State didn’t go away quietly but UAB was able to walk away with a win.
WHY UAB WON: The win came because UAB handled adversity well. The Blazers also didn’t commit a turnover and limited penalties.
WHAT ARE THE KEY STATS: The good for UAB was a balanced offensive attack that produced 273 yards on the ground and 247 through the air. The bad was Alabama State had 312 yards passing and 202 yards rushing. Jalen Kitna was 18-of-23 for 247 yards with two touchdowns and he was not sacked. Iverson Hooks (7 catches for 73 yards, TD) and Corri Milliner (5 catches for 98 yards, TD) led the receivers. UAB’s primary running backs – Jevon Jackson, Isaiah Jacobs and Solomon Beebe - were a combined 33 carries for 217 yards with five touchdowns.
WHO GETS THE GAME BALLS: Andrew Body was the best individual player on the field on Thursday. UAB’s offensive line did not allow a sack and the Blazers averaged seven yards a carry. Jalen Kitna was efficiently good. But the game ball goes to Jevon Jackson, who opened his final college football season with 166 yards rushing on 17 carries with two touchdowns. It was a special night for Jackson, who is from Decatur, Alabama and spent his college career at Austin Peay and UTEP. He was playing in front of a large group of family, including his father, James Jackson, who had brain surgery several months ago. “So just getting him back to seeing me being able to play again, it was a blessing. It was a blessing to see him out there and see my family,” Jevon Jackson said.
WHAT DID COACH DILFER SAY IN HIS POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE: Opening statement: “I'll start with saying my heart's heavy. I lost a dear friend this morning, didn't wake up. His name's Tim Lee, who was down in Montgomery. A man's been really important to me, so it's kind of a heavy heart. Many people know him. He was a massive influencer in the state of Alabama. So that was a tough one. I wanted to recognize that because his family's in a lot of pain right now. Besides that, it's good to get a win. Any win is a great win. As I told the team, we did it. I don't want this thing to become anything else than we. Defense came out in the second half, responded really well, got some stops, able to get the offense back on the field. We were able to finish off drives, which was super important. We didn’t finish them off in the first half. But most importantly, I just think our season will be defined by how to respond to bad things. Bad things are gonna happen, a lot of them. I mean, it's just inevitable, and we got to handle them well. We got to handle whatever comes our way in a manner which is classy, which is together and moving forward and can't dwell on the bad things that happen in games. We're not gonna be perfect, be far from it, but we'll get better and better each week and we were able to get this one.”
On coming back after giving up touchdowns at end of first half and start of second half: “Yeah, I really went into this one, obviously, doing everything in our power to win. But I wanted to learn something about us. I still don't have all the answers, obviously, but I think this is a team that has character, as a team that has good self-talk. It's a team that doesn't turn on each other. It's a team that will encourage each other in tough times. And that's really important. I thought offensively, our ability to be diverse is really important. We can run it, we can throw it, run inside, run outside, get the ball on the edges. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense. We can play fast, we can play slow, and maybe the most important that we're clean, very few penalties. Again, we lost games in the past because unsportsmanlikes and personal fouls and knucklehead things and we didn't do much that tonight. The legal procedure down near the goal line was tough, it's a tough one. But besides that, I thought we were pretty clean. And I thought defensively they came out and they made good adjustments. They got beat on some plays. I thought first half, I didn't think they didn't play, obviously, to their standard. They had a lot of opportunities to make plays and didn't. Second half, they clamped down a little bit more and they just got beat by a couple of really phenomenal plays. Tight window throws, just exceptional effort by the players at Alabama State. So we did enough for us to win the game, and that's the most important thing.”
On facing a quarterback like Andrew Body in the opener: “I think the first game, you don't really know what you're going to get. And there was a lot of guesswork. We tried not to chase ghosts. The one thing we did know was that he was a very good player, and we had to do everything we can to contain him. They do a really good job with giving him opportunities to make plays in the run game and the passing game. He does a great job with his poise, that kid is so poised. He has great spatial awareness, and then can really rip the ball down the field. Tight window throws are tough for college kids to make, and he made a bunch of them tonight. So I look for him to have a fantastic season.”
On the team’s low floor: “Well, I just think as a football team, you know, we still have to raise the floor. I don't think it's just defense. I think, inability to close out drives offensively, missed assignments, obviously missed opportunities on defense. I think just in general, we've got to raise the floor. You know, I've told you guys, you're around me almost every single day, I'm not trying to get coach speak, but it's going to be how we respond and how we get better. Like, hopefully we are significantly better next week and better the week after that. In this era of college football, when you're doing your roster (changes) every year and your coaching stuff, you got to trust the process of getting better. A lot of these kids will get a lot better, we'll get better in our schemes, we'll get better as a group. So we got we got to trust that process and keep getting better every single day.”
On special teams: “Yeah, it's a huge piece of what we do. Our specialists and (special teams coordinator) John Jones just has done an incredible job with that unit. Our guys like special teams, you know, I think that's another thing too is defense primarily makes up the court your special teams. We recruited guys that in the portal that we felt could contribute on special teams. It was part of the recruiting process was making sure they bought into it, if they come here nothing's guaranteed except an opportunity and the greatest opportunities are on special teams. So you have a lot of veteran players that, you know, jump out of bed in the morning and are excited about playing special teams. So if you have that and you have great coach like we have in John Jones, you're gonna be good on (special) teams.I think we were, depends on what metrics you look at, we were anywhere between 29 and 33 last year in the country in teams. We feel like we can be better this year. You know, I think you know losing Kameron Shanks, obviously was concerning his returning. He was such a dynamic All-American returner but with Solomon (Beebe) and Strap (Iverson Hooks) and then you we have others too that aren’t quite healthy that will contribute in the return game. We think will be really good.
The other thing to note, too, I will say this, I kept this somewhat quiet but we were incredibly beat up on defense. It was like a Mash unit. We’ll get healthier too, as we get healthier we'll play better defense.”
On the offensive line: “I always like to watch the tape (first). I do think they missed some assignments. I thought we struggled in some pressure looks and condensed looks. That’s concerning. But I thought they effort was fantastic. I though their pass protection (was good). We could have thrown a lot more. I was the conservative one tonight. I’m the one who made us highly conservative. I trumped a bunch of pass calls and made them runs So everybody's mad about the conservative nature, you be mad at me not Mort (Alex Mortensen). But I thought they protected really well. We wanted to set them up for success too. We wanted to set the quarterback and offensive line up for success. I thought our protection schemes were very sound and I thought the guys executed at a high level. I Jalen got hit on the pass play. I could be wrong but I don't think he did. That’s a really good sign.”
On Jalen Kitna’s decision making: “He’s gonna turn the ball over, guys, we’re going to have turnovers. He was just very decisive. He was very clean with his reads. His eye progression was great. He started in the right place. He turned down a couple that would have been 50-50s. I thought the two batted balls at the line of scrimmage, he made actually really good reads to throw they. They were good plays, they matched hands and knocked the ball down. I thought he was really, really clean. His process has grown so much. It’s only his ninth start. I thought the last two weeks you could see it really coming. We sat down Tuesday afternoon, which is our normal Thursday, we always spend a couple hours together in the afternoon. You know, I think it's probably been 50-50 talking over the past year. This was more 75-25 him talking just about how he's really gained a better understanding of the position, what allows him to play his best. I think he's really grown into a leader. I couldn't be more proud of the kid. He just handled himself in such a professional way. Tonight was a reflection of his preparation. There'll be times we have to throw it more. The great thing about him is he doesn't care. He's not a kid that's asking to throw more. Our narrative on the sideline is next play, execute the next play, whatever it is. He handles a lot in the run game. Some of those runs were him. We do some checks, the line of scrimmage, and he gets some of the best run. We piped some big ones.”
On the coaching staff: “We have great coaches. They're humble, man, they have so much wisdom. I told the offensive coaches on the headsets late in the game. I said, I was just so proud of the poise, the composure, the conversation, the collaboration. I think everybody contributed to calling that game tonight. Everybody had a good idea. Reilly Jeffers had great four-minute ideas to help just keep moving the ball.”
On Jalen Kitna’s block on the final TD run: “Yeah, that was pretty cool, huh? His teammates were fired up. It was great effort there. I think if Solomon keeps it frontside, he walks in. But he made it a little harder than I had to be. (Kitna) is going to go by how decisive he is. When he's decisive and pulls the trigger and sees it clearly and his eye progression is on point, he's going to be tough to stop. He has really good receivers to throw to. We have a good scheme. They'll be ebbs and flows. There's going to be some tough times, and I trust that he'll handle those tough times well. It was nice to get this one under his belt where it was clean, but there'll be a lot of challenges this season and I think he'll respond well to them.
On Jevon Jackson: “You know, you're sitting there December 23rd and you have half a roster and half a coaching staff and kind of sitting like, God, please, I can't, like, you've got to make things happen here and bring us the right people. And that's where I started. J.J.'s got a lot of qualities as a runner, but he's the right kind of person. You know, I think that the collective character of this team is just so different than we've had in the past. He was a really key cog in that because when he came up in the portal recruiting cycle, I just grinded the coaches and don't bring me a prima donna back. I said, we'll play empty and we'll throw it every down. We have Solomon, Isaiah, I don't need a prima donna back. And Danny Mitchell came and said, this dude is everything you believe in a football player. I got to meet his parents and I got to know just his story and he's everything we're looking for.
I mean, that room is something special. They have a great coach in Danny, they have a great mentality. We did the off season book project, we did the ‘Power of Positive Team’ by Jon Gordon. They had chapter reviews. I did the first chapter and I showed them on a slide. Here's my standard of a book report on the slide. I'd done it and I showed them everything. I said, now you got to meet the standard. Every week. We did it and they had to turn it in by, I think it was Wednesday night. Every time I'd open them.the whole team did good, but the one every single week that bring tears in my eyes is running backs. They would present a perfect, you know, 8-point slide, summarize the chapter, give me a quote, give me a thought at the end. I knew right then, I'm like, these guys get it. They're just a really good group and I'm glad they're on our team.
Again, I think our kids have done a great job of making the main thing the main thing, their families, their relationships, and then by doing that they're able to come into the office and give us everything they have. I think they appreciate the fact that we know the main thing isn't football. It's their lives. And giving JJ that space really freed him out to do what he loves to do and he wouldn't have it any other way.”
WHERE IS UAB’S NEXT ASSIGNMENT: UAB opens play in the American Conference with a trip to Navy. The teams play next Saturday with kick off slated for 2:30 p.m. CST.