Blazer DEFENSE Brings the Heat In First Scrimmage
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 15, 2026
The defense won the day during the first full scale scrimmage of UAB football fall camp on a hot Saturday at Protective Stadium. But head coach Alex Mortensen said afterwards that both sides did a good job of battling against the heat during a closed scrimmage that lasted about 90 minutes.
“One, you know, I think it was a tough day,” Mortensen said. “We were out here, really kind of in the middle of the day. It's hot. We're on turf. So we took precautions to make sure everyone was safe from a heat standpoint. But I think it was challenging, one, because we're playing a lot of plays, and two we're fighting the elements. So I think in some ways it was really good to challenge guys' mental toughness and I think we'll learn a lot from the film looking at their effort. Sometimes the toughness thing doesn't just manifest itself with is the guy playing full speed? But, you know, will he focus when it gets hard? Will he still have his technique when it gets hard? I think it was a great opportunity to go do that in these kind of conditions.”
The defense showed out on a scrimmage that included regular drives along with situational and goal line work. According to stats released by UAB media relations, the Blazers were credited with eight sacks, all by defensive linemen and edge defenders, including 3.5 by junior returnee J’Quan Mason and a pair by Morgan State transfer Blanche Gold. Chris Burge, Myles Cook and Noah Nelson each took part in at least a half a sack and Tylin Jackson had a tackle for loss, forced fumble and pass breakup. Sterling Sanders and Kyle Mosley each had a tackle for loss.
Linebacker Ike Esonwune had a pass breakup and tackle for a safety, nickel Anta’Veon McKenzie had a pair of pass breakups, cornerback Courage Ugo had a pass breakup and Delvon Gulley broke up a pass.
“I thought overall, guys, especially on defense, played pretty hard and pretty tough today, start to finish,” Mortensen said. “That's something we were really looking for. Looking for guys to play hard to the last play, and I thought guys, especially defensively did that.”
Mortensen was asked what pleased him in particular on defense.
“I think, one, the coverage was tight,” Mortensen said. “I thought they did a good job playing their coverage principles and playing sound coverage and we did a good enough job shedding blocks playing the run game, being gap sound. Really it was all those things. I also thought we did a good job affecting the quarterback when we weren't blitzing. When we were rushing, we were rushing four. Those guys did a good job of pushing the pocket, winning in pass rush. So really, it was really in all phases. Pass rush, stopping the run, playing coverage. I thought those guys did a good job on defense. And especially on a day like today where the practice isn't scripted. They're out there responding, reacting to, to what's called. So that was very good. It was good to see.”
Obviously, the pass rush was the highlight, particularly after struggling in that area over the past three seasons. At the forefront was Mason, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound third-year player who had one sack in 13 games over the past two seasons. He looks poised for a breakout year.
“It's slower now,” said Mason, who is from nearby McAdory High. “Since I was a freshman, it was like way fast. It was fast paced just coming out of high school, but now it's way slower. You know, I understand the details more. I’ve been working since winter. I've been working every day, puttin my head down to work, stay silent.”
Offensively, the Blazers scored on a 15-yard run by Bam McReynolds and 5-yard pass from Nate Rogers to tight end Brayden Johnson with both coming in red zone work. The other points came on four field goals by Groza Award candidate Jonah Delange, including a long kick of 50 yards. No numbers were released from Ryder Burton and the other quarterbacks or the running backs but Mortensen praised true freshman running back Jayson Moll for having a good day. The Blazers offense was playing without running back Rod Robinson, who missed this week for precautionary reasons.
“We had planned on, you know, giving him a week here,” Mortensen said of Robinson. “You know, he has a minor soft tissue deal that we feel it's gonna be just fine. But instead of kind of getting in that game of having a setback and then letting him out there and having another setback, we just wanted to go ahead and get it healed completely and really devote ourselves to the rehab for somewhere in the ballpark of 7 to 10 days. That just so happened to overlap with the scrimmage.”
UAB concluded its second week of fall camp with the third week beginning on Monday morning. The Blazers open the season on Sept. 3 at Illinois.
MORE THOUGHTS FROM ALEX MORTENSEN FOLLOWING SCRIMMAGE
On the overall play by the edge defenders in camp: “I think we have done a good job. Our pass rushers are doing a good job and then I also think we have good schemes to do that as well. So I think it's a combination of both. But I do think that we are affecting the quarterback well. And then part of it, too, you know, it's a two-way street when you're in camp. Because you're also saying, ‘Hey, we've got to do a good job in pass protection as well.’ But yes, I do think we have the people to do it and I think we have the scheme to be able to affect the quarterback more.”
On practicing on the turf on a hot day: “We do hydration testing every day. So we do a really good job of staying on top of it. ‘Are these guys coming in to the building hydrated?’ And if they're not, they get flagged. We take precautions as to whether they practice or if we reduce or limit their practice reps. And then on a day like today, if anyone shows any kind of symptoms, we get them out pretty quick. We wanna really be careful. There’s a big picture here and we wanna really protect our athletes' safety. Then also recognize the fact that there's a lot of science behind heat, you know, getting acclimated to the heat as well. Your body does acclimate. You know, there's real physiological, biological adaptations that take place as long as the stress is applied at the right dose and incrementally. Part of our job is we want our players to be safe during the season when they're in a game and if that's their first exposure to those kind of stressors, that's not safe either. It's just important that any time you introduce a stress, whether you're lifting weights, running, or the heat, you've got to make sure that the increases in intensity aren't too sharp and too fast. That's kind of our method. And then, again, we're gonna always protect our players first. We pulled two guys out today pretty quickly just because we wanna make sure that they're okay.”
On the offensive play on Saturday: “I think we had some good young players run the ball well. I thought Jayson Moll ran the ball well and I thought our quarterbacks largely did a pretty good job of communicating. I thought Ryder (Burton) did and Nate (Rogers) did a nice job of communicating with checks and audibles and things of that nature. So that was positive. I also thought that with (having) officials out here today, if we had a setback or there was a penalty, I thought that guys generally maintained good poise and good leadership. I also think on offense, I do think we talk about this idea of like ‘Hey, when it gets hard, are you gonna concede or are you gonna conquer?’ And that's not necessarily the person you're playing against. Sometimes it's your thoughts. I do think we have more guys on offense that need to make the decision that when it gets hard, they're gonna get tougher. I think we've got some guys that are really tough, but I think the rest of them need to come with those guys. We're not gonna accept anything less than that.”
On Ryder Burton’s overall camp: “I think Ryder's very comfortable, and I think he's done a good job learning the whole offense, not just the pass reads and the RPOs and even protections, but I think also understanding the run game, the what, how, and why of the run game. Danny Mitchell's been working with us in the quarterback room, too, and I think he's also done a good job working with him in Ryder's spare time, teaching him some of those things of why we're doing (what we’re doing). Why we call a run, what we want the run against and that gives us the opportunity to get the best look. So that's where you really see Ryder's comfort level increasing beyond just the obvious of executing the passing game.”
On the backup quarterback situation: “Look, I think Nate Rogers has done a really good job. I think the big thing with Nate is we've given Nate packages in the past, which he’s executed very well. Our challenge with Nate has been, ‘Hey, let's go run the whole offense.’ We felt like he's capable of doing that. He knows he's capable of doing that and he has done that. So that's been really positive to see, is that he can operate the offense just kind of inside the normal confines of it. Then we also know that there's things we can do to play to his strengths as well. So we really feel good about his progress.
And then Adrian Posse has done a good job and really continues to progress. Cam Jennings is a guy who's really talented and has some playmaking ability (with) good instincts. I think we're just getting him to learn how to play. He's really good on play extensions. He's good when the play kind of breaks down. I think he's very capable of playing in rhythm. We just wanna get him to take some more steps there. But, you know, all those guys really have done a good job. We still have really two weeks of camp left and a game week, so there's really no finality to how the rest of those guys are gonna shake out in terms of (a rotation). But we're gonna continue to rep all of them and give them all opportunities.”
On wide receiver play: “We have some guys that are out right now so it is a good opportunity for some others to compete. I think there are a lot of guys that are out there that are trying, they're pushing themselves through where they've gotta take a lot of reps. We appreciate that and respect it and understand the challenge that it creates. But we also would like to see some of them step up and make more tough plays, make more tough catches. That's really kind of the room in general. So that, that's what we need to see there. But there are some guys out there battling.”
STATS RELEASED BY UAB ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
Scoring Plays
Touchdown, 15 yard run, Bam McReynolds (RZ)
Touchdown, 5 yard pass, Nate Rogers to Brayden Johnson (RZ)
Safety, Ike Esonwune
Receptions
C.D. Gill, 4 receptions
Ty Mims, 3 receptions
Jailen Holmes, 2 receptions
Bradley Wainwright, Kaleb Brown, Scott Isacks, Brogan McNab, Gabriel Cline and Antonio Ferguson, 1 reception each
Defense
J'Quan Mason, 4 sacks
Blanche Gold, 2 sacks
Chris Burge, 1 sack, TFL
Myles Cook, 1 sack
Tylin Jackson, TFL, FF, PBU
Delvon Gulley, PBU
Sterling Sanders, TFL
Draden Fullbright, PBU
Anta'Veon McKenzie, 2 PBU
Ike Esonwune, PBU, Safety
Kyle Mosley, TFL
Courage Ugo, INT
Kicking
Jonah Delange, Made Field Goals: 25, 35, 45, 50