Mortensen Wants More Urgency as UAB Camp Moves Into Week Three

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 17, 2026

The calendar turned the page to the third week of fall football camp at UAB on Monday. UAB head coach Alex Mortensen, which was coming off Saturday’s first full-scale scrimmage of camp, held a shortened practice on Monday in shorts and helmets.

Afterward, Mortensen stopped for chat with The Banner on his thought about Saturday’s scrimmage and other subjects. The Blazers are 17 days away from opening the season at Illinois.

On thoughts about first scrimmage thoughts following film work: “Really not a whole lot different (from what I thought Saturday). I think that defensively top to bottom we played pretty well. I thought guys were pretty assignment sound, minus a thing here or there. I thought they also played hard and tackled pretty well, too. So that was good to see. And that's with us holding a few guys out on the defensive line, guys we expect to do a good job for us. And then, on the offensive side we are absent a few receivers, too. Some of the guys who were in there at receiver did a good job and really stepped up. Then, you know, there are a few guys that probably are capable of competing better than they did. There’s a sense of urgency but there’s no finality to that. We still have two more weeks of camp. There's a lot that can happen day to day. Obviously, the heat was a challenge. It was hot out there and it was hot on the turf. We did take precautions but, I thought we did a good job of challenging and pushing them just from a capacity standpoint, I think they responded well to that.”

On the play of the offensive and defensive line in terms of sacks: “I think it was a little bit of both. I think our pass rushers and our defensive line did a good job and we're rotating a lot of guys on the offensive line. So guys are playing next to guys they don't always play with. Some of them might may even be playing out of position at this point because we’re trying to give them all a look. And then we also try to create tough conditions in practice where we want to create some obvious passing downs to evaluate the offensive line. But, also on the flip side, we're doing things defensively sometimes where we're not rushing a lot of people to see if guys can win without us trying to win on scheme. I say all that to say, I think there are some guys that are doing a really good job in pass rush. And I think Coach Grantham and that defensive staff have done a good job of teaching the techniques of pass rush. On the flip side, yeah, there are a few things offensive line wise, just from a technique standpoint they could've been better on. But I think our coaches are doing a good job. It provides a really good opportunity for them to kind of teach off that because what they're seeing is challenging.”

On whether any young players have stepped up in wide receiver position that includes several players seeing limited time while in yellow jerseys: “CD Gill is a guy that has probably taken the most advantage of it. I think, one, his overall toughness and competitiveness has really risen. If you even go back over the course of last year I think that has been really exciting to see. He also has some play making ability, too. I think even at points in the scrimmage where it's getting hard, he's shown the toughness and the concentration to still execute his technique and finish plays. He would be the primary guy to me that right now is kind of taking advantage of the situation.”

On the prognosis of the receivers who have missed some contact work: “We expect them to be back, the guys at the receiver position that are banged up. They're guys that have had a good spring and a good off-season. But there are a couple things that we felt it was smarter to address now than to let it linger.”

On how young players have helped the depth of the running back room: “We do have some good young backs. Hudson Higgins has done a good job in camp. Jayson Moll has really shown up as well, as being a really good runner and very instinctive and has some physicality about him. JR Moseley, an instate kid (from) Hoover has really done a good job. All those guys are doing a good job and and there's others. I think our depth in there is definitely a strength. I think some of those young guys are gonna help our team this year. The young guys.”

On the focus moving forward as Week 3 of fall camp begins: “I think the biggest thing right now, one of the big things, is we want to really impress upon them is to continue to focus on improvement and have a sense of urgency about it and greater attention to detail. I think here at this point, you're not in a game week, and yet kind of the newness and freshness of starting (practice) starts to wear off. I think psychologically, that's the challenge, kind of focus on just going out and competing against myself every day and getting a little bit better. I talked to a few of them about it this morning to really kind of reset their focus on that this week, and I think that they're prepared to do that.”