UAB Defensive Coordinator Steve Russ Previews AAC Opener Against Navy

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 4, 2025

UAB gave up 514 yards and 42 points in its first game of the season. Navy gained 556 yards and scored 52 points in its opener. On Saturday, the teams will meet in the American Conference opener on Navy’s home field.

UAB defensive coordinator Steve Russ stopped after practice on Wednesday for  look back at the opening game win over Alabama State and look ahead to Saturday’s challenge.

On what he learned from the opener: “We, believe it or not, I think we are a resilient bunch. You know, they hung together through a lot of different adversity. We just gotta be able to clean up things in a lot of areas, obviously. We'll get at it, we'll keep working at it. We've preached the spirit of perseverance, and that's not just where things are going good. We've gotta be able to clean up our tackling first and foremost, our execution, and then our situational football obviously has gotta get a lot better. So we've got a lot to learn, but I think there's a lot of things that we can clean up and guys are having a really positive attitude. Obviously this week's a different challenge.”

On tackling against Navy: “Yeah, there's no doubt it’s a different kind of execution. Still tackling is tackling. Fundamentals are fundamentals. Execution is execution. You're just executing what your responsibility is against a vastly different offense. But it still boils down to execution, tackling, and fundamental football. You know what I'm saying? And situational football as well. It's a different packaging, completely different packaging. But those foundations and principles will still have to be improved for us to be able to have some success.”

On Navy’s offense: “It’s a different animal. So, they've retained the element of the traditional and then added the extra element of the modern with the gun stuff. But the gun stuff is very unique because they're doing a lot of things that people don't do out of the gun. So they have the modern newness to their package to go with the old school lost art of triple option football. So that's what I think makes them very, very unique and they are very, very skilled. This is as skilled of a service academy team that I've seen over the years I’ve been playing service academies, as far as their speed, their athleticism, their quickness, their ability to throw the ball, their ability to attack you on the perimeter and still run it inside. They've got a fine group that's got a lot of veterans coming back. Great challenge, we're excited for it, especially on the road. But yes, they do present different challenges for us. But at the end of the day, we've got to be able to go out, and control what we can control. And that's playing fast, executing, tackling, swarming, and minimizing the big plays. It's a big-play outfit that's hunting big plays. You don't figure that triple option teams are more three yards in the cloud of dust. And Army's kind of in that mode. Air Force can be in that mode, but these guys hunt big plays. And when they're big, they are big. You see the guy (QB Blake Horvath) going 98 against Oklahoma. I mean, there's a lot of eye catchers on there. (It’s) lonely feelings when you're watching the guy run down the field like that.”

On game adjustment against the Navy offense: “The first thing you've got to adjust to is the speed, you know, because you cannot simulate it. You know, outside of the service academy, this is the first time I've ever had to do this on the other side of the fence. I've always tried to stop triple option where you play it every day. You play it every day in the spring, in the fall and the scout teams know exactly how to run it. And the guys are very comfortable. That's why you see a lot of low-scoring games typically with the service academies (playing each other) because they know how to defend it so well. But it's always, I always heard it's the look, the look, the look, the problem of getting what it's supposed to look like because their linemen are super fast and the skill and the execution, the quarterback, the pull pitch. So you really have to play fast and execute right off the bat. You can't wait to catch up to the speed of the game, but there's always that.”

No matter where you are, you're not gonna be able to replicate it offensively. That's not dogging on our guys. That is not what they were recruited to do, that’s not what they understand how to do. It's a different animal. It's a different skill set that these guys have. And they do an excellent job. I mean, they're one of the top offenses in the country for a reason.”

On coming back from big plays: “We stressed going in against Alabama State and it did happen. You have to be that spirit of perseverance. You really need to have that resiliency that they get one (you move on). The big thing is when they get one, you gotta down it and fight again or minimize it. They're gonna get out. I mean, they get chunks on every day. You gotta down it. And that means you gotta swarm, you gotta play fast, you gotta tackle. If it's just one guy flailing away and you don’t have other guys there trying to overlap and get to the ball, it's gonna be a long, long day.”

On where coming back mentally from big plays was a problem vs. Alabama State: “No, we didn't tackle well. Okay, so it was the same thing. I mean, when the ball got out, we didn't tackle it. Or when we had a chance to hit him in the backfield, we didn't tackle well. That was the biggest thing during the game. We had our chances, not just when the guy got out, but we had several guys running through the backfield and not looking at key areas. We just got to make plays.”

On the balance of playing free and playing technical: “We've said it all week. You play fast and you execute. You can't play fast and not execute. If you don't play fast and execute, that ain't going to be good. You've got to be able to put the and in big, bold letters – play fast and execute.”

On Navy playing both quarterbacks: “They want to see some things that they want to try to exploit. They already have enough in their package, but there's obviously some things in there that they're going to say, yeah, let's see what they can do with this, that, or the other thing.”