Trent Dilfer inherited an ascending UAB program, but it’s taken him less than two years to crater it

It took one play for UAB’s defense to throw in the towel against Army. 

The Blazers lined up offsides, and then watched Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily blow by them for a 29-yard touchdown. After that first defensive play for the Blazers in a disastrous 44-10 loss, CBS Sports Network sideline reporter Tina Cervasio took stock of the situation. 

“Right as Army scored the touchdown, I looked at the UAB sidelines,” Cervasio said. “A lot of downtrodden faces. They just looked sad.” 

With the state of the program under Trent Dilfer, who can blame them? 

Two years ago, this was one of the truly ascendent programs in the Group of Five. UAB put together six straight winning seasons under coach Bill Clark and rode the wave from Conference USA to the AAC. The Blazers captured two conference championships, won three straight division titles and opened the brand new Protective Stadium.

That’s the UAB that many of these players committed to represent. Instead, the Blazers are perhaps the biggest disappointments in college football. 

Against Army, the Blazers kicked a field goal early in the first quarter and then gave up a 27-0 run to end the first half. Seven of Army’s first eight drives ended with points, and the Black Knights averaged 8.0 yards per play with 413 yards on the ground. UAB’s few promising first-half drives ended with an interception and a turnover on downs near the goal line. 

But really, UAB’s 34-point loss to Army was only the latest embarrassment. In three AAC games, the Blazers have been outscored 156-48, including a 71-20 loss to Tulane. Amazingly, all five touchdowns UAB has scored in AAC play were in the second half while trailing by at least four touchdowns. This is a team that has been competitive for essentially zero seconds against FBS opponents. 

The loss brought the Blazers to 5-13 under Dilfer, which amounts to more losses than Clark had in his final three full seasons. UAB is 1-5 in 2024, including 0-4 against FBS opponents. This is a program that quite literally survived being shut down by the Alabama Board of Trustees and came back even stronger.

It took less than two years for Dilfer to bring it back down. 

Dilfer can’t even do the bare minimum of complimenting his own program. He created a wave of blowback after offhandedly saying “it’s not like this is freakin’ Alabama” in September. Dismissing the stature of your own programs is a bizarre own goal. A few days later, he doubled down, dismissing UAB as a place where high-level players would want to play volleyball while talking to his own athletic director. At $1.3 million per year, Dilfer is paid more than enough to save a kind word for his own employer. 

Granted, UAB has played three of the top teams in the AAC to start. After a road trip to South Florida, the schedule opens up with home games against Tulsa, Rice and UConn. UAB probably won’t get locked out of the win column from here. At the same time, Dilfer’s staff has not proven it can outcoach a broom closet. 

It didn’t have to be like this at UAB. When Clark unexpectedly retired before the 2022 season, longtime assistant Bryant Vincent was elevated to interim. He led UAB to another winning season and bowl game. Maybe athletic director Mark Ingram simply didn’t like feeling pressured by Clark to hire Vincent, or maybe he just wanted a splash. 

Instead, Vincent went on to take over at ULM, one of the toughest jobs in college football. In his first season, the Warhawks are out to a 4-1 start, the best since the program moved to FBS. In Week 2, ULM played UAB and won 32-6, its biggest margin against any FBS opponent since 2018. Again, that’s Game 2 Vincent against Year 2 Dilfer. 

UAB swung for the fences when it hired a three-year high school coach to lead a FBS athletic program. Unfortunately, the Blazers historic whiff could leave the program crippled.