UAB Fall Camp SNAPSHOT: Day ELEVEN
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 19, 2025
UAB Fall Camp Snapshot
UAB fall camp snapshot
UAB cornerback coach Ryan Lewis is juggling a deep rotation that could very well stretch to about eight deep. It’s been an entertaining competition in camp for not only the cornerback spot but also the nickel position and safety. Lewis stopped by after practice this week to talk about his group of cornerbacks.
On competition at cornerback: “Here, we're trying to create competition on a day-to-day basis from individual drills to team drills to all the way to the end in special team drills. With us, we like to bring in a lot of talent so that the guys fight and compete and make each other better. So now we have depth.”
On how to utilize the depth by not limiting the cornerback to either field corner or boundary corner: “It's definitely with purpose because you just don't know how a game situation goes. I learned that personally from Covid. Covid, we'd lose a guy and we had to start cross training running backs and others to play different positions. So now with the depth that we have a corner, we want to have different guys playing with different people to learn each other and be able to build depth at different places. So a guy may have been playing field corner for two weeks, but I may need him at boundary corner. I give him those reps of practice to be able to be that guy we need on the field. We don’t flop. Our guys play both sides.”
On how many players he would play at cornerback if the season started tomorrow? “All of them except about probably two young freshman walk-ons. That’s about it. But a guy like Roy Williams. He's a walk-on guy that's been lighting up camp. We have so much faith in him that he can be able to get out there and step on the field and play for us, all the way up to the top of our roster with Perry Fisher and Mamba (Tamarion) Crumpley, D-Lee (Donald Lee), Tariq and all the way down. We’re comfortable with a lot of guys.”
On creating turnovers in camp: “For me it's foundation. It's fundamentals and it's foundation. That's something we preach before you can start doing it. I think it's part of my philosophy as a coach and kind of what Coach Dilfer and Coach Russ want. For me, I think the ball is the program. I don't think me and you be standing here without the football. So you kind of make them realize that and anytime you have the opportunity to catch that ball, you catch it like your life is dependent on it, like your lifestyle is dependent on it, like your family's dependent on it, like the university is dependent on it. That’s what we kind of honed in on. We start the mind before we start working the athlete himself.
On versatility among the group: “All day. I Coach Russ does a great job getting guys mixed in, him and Coach Vies (Brent Vieselmeyer) getting guys mixed in to play different positions because you just never know. We’re so big on the outside that they can come inside and play different positions and (then) go back and play outside positions. We do a good job of rotating guys and letting guys play different positions, so we're able to have that done and be able to play with them against the elite in the country.”