A day with Trent Dilfer: An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at UAB’s preparation for Arkansas in Week 3

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – It’s a little after 7:15 a.m., and Trent Dilfer is sweating profusely, breathing heavily and basking in a high he has been chasing for months.

“I almost just killed myself,” Dilfer says, still trying to catch his breath after a Peloton ride he calls the hardest workout of his life. 

His Peloton workout score puts him in elite territory, and the 6-foot-4 former NFL quarterback will later tell his quarterbacks that pushing himself to his limit and finally accomplishing it brought him to tears.

It’s an apropos message for what’s in store for Dilfer’s UAB Blazers in a few days when they head into SEC country to play Arkansas in Fayetteville. Dilfer expects the Razorbacks, coming off a heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma State, will be angry and ready to go for their first home game of the season. It’ll take everything UAB has just to have a shot to knock off Arkansas. 

In preparation for UAB’s road trip, CBS Sports spent more than 13 hours behind the scenes with Dilfer and his Blazers staff as they prepared against a team no one gives them any chance of beating. 

‘Death by a thousand cuts’

“I never played a game I didn’t think we could win,” Dilfer tells his team during its 7:40 a.m. Tuesday meeting. “We can win this game.”

Now in his second season in Birmingham, the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback sounds like a mix of a thought leader and inspirational speaker. He starts this talk with a story about the challenges of parenting as he prepares his underdog squad for what’s coming in a few days. He speaks openly and candidly with his team, believing his mission is as much about helping them become quality men as quality football players. 

This week’s message is “You versus You.” He’s practically begging his team to buy in, to become unshackled by everything holding them back and become the best versions of themselves. He focused on getting each player to do his individual best. He hopes it will collectively be enough because UAB isn’t going to win many one-on-one matches against an SEC program like Arkansas. He reiterates again that he thinks they will win the game if the team can embrace “You versus You” and make it “Us versus Us”, but he’s not asking his players to link arms as they take the field like this is “Remember the Titans.” 

“If we go in with all that kumbaya, they’ll kick our ass,” Dilfer says matter-of-factly. 

It’s a quick team meeting to set the stage for the rest of the week, and then Dilfer is off to a quarterbacks meeting. Joining him in the room are offensive coordinator Alex Mortensen, quarterbacks coach Nick Coleman and special assistant Rip Scherer, who coached Dilfer with the Cleveland Browns. Dilfer starts laying out his big strategy against Arkansas in what he dubs “death by a thousand cuts.” He wants quarterback Jacob Zeno and the rest of his Blazers offense to be precise in attacking the more athletic and physical Razorbacks. UAB had to fend off at least one Power 4 program to keep the redshirt senior Zeno after he threw for 3,126 yards and 20 touchdowns last season. If UAB can beat the Razorbacks, it’ll be through Zeno. 

“Nick them, and before you know it’ll be a puddle of blood,” Dilfer tells the room. ‘If we go in with a machete, they have a samurai sword.” 

Dilfer learned the idea from former San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turner: steal three explosive plays against a superior opponent. On Saturday, Dilfer wants to frustrate and annoy Arkansas before dropping an explosive play to rattle his opponents’ sense of confidence. UAB’s offensive coaches see an Arkansas defense that plays downhill and aggressively but can also be loose, especially out in space. There’s opportunity there. 

Mortensen, the son of the late legendary sports reporter Chris Mortensen, noticed a play Boston College ran six times in a win over Florida State the previous week that he thinks could work against Arkansas. The 38-year-old offensive coordinator is low-key, even soft-spoken at times, as he calmly explains the strategy, but that demeanor belies his incredible mental recall. 

Mortensen’s mind is like one big college football plays database, where every look he sees reminds him of something he might have seen before. This is Mortensen’s first coordinator job, but he arrived in Birmingham with a strong reputation after eight years on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama. His recall from his time in Tuscaloosa is impressive — at one point a play reminds him of something Lane Kiffin ran in 2014 at Alabama — and one reason why bigger programs have already shown interest in stealing him away from Dilfer. 

An outpouring of civic pride 

Sirens blare as UAB begins installing its normal plays ahead of Arkansas. No, the coaches aren’t trying to stimulate the crowd noise the Blazers will face inside Razorback Stadium. These are fire truck sirens, a frequent occurrence when your practice facility is across the street from Birmingham Fire and Rescue Station No. 2. It’s not ideal, but it’s a a miracle in itself that UAB even has a football-dedicated practice facility, which opened in 2017.

UAB languished for years, desperate for even a sliver of the resources its sister campus in Tuscaloosa used on football before the school made the stunning decision to disband its program in 2014. A decade later, it feels like a fever dream that a university set in Birmingham, Alabama — a city that consistently ranks at the top for college football TV ratings — could decide it didn’t need its football team anymore. 

That initial decision to kill off UAB football sparked intense civic pride within a city that never seemed to care all that much about the Blazers. Still, it recognized their importance to Birmingham’s long-term dreams. It prompted a collection of prominent Birmingham businessmen, some whom weren’t even fans, to put up millions to bring UAB football back. It was a process that took two years before the Blazers’ triumphant return in 2017.

The return was more successful than anyone expected as Bill Clark guided a program once left for dead to five consecutive bowl games. That success put UAB on the national radar and elicited an invitation to the American Athletic Conference, which it officially joined in 2023. 

Clark stepped down in the summer of 2022, paving the way for his offensive coordinator, Bryant Vincent, to be the interim head coach. Vincent went 7-6 in that role, but UAB athletic director Mark Ingram ultimately wanted a name to galvanize the fanbase. He chose Dilfer, who had never coached at the college level before. The decision led to immediate curiosity and skepticism.

A polarizing figure 

Dilfer arrived in Birmingham after four seasons coaching at private high school school Lipscomb Academy in Nashville. Dilfer had other coaching opportunities after he retired from the NFL in 2008, but instead pursued the television path and worked at ESPN for a decade. After ESPN laid him off in 2017, Dilfer spent nearly two years playing golf, traveling and having fun before a conversation with his daughter jolted him back into reality. After a lifetime of preaching hard work to his three daughters, who all played college sports, one of his daughters plainly told him, “You don’t do anything hard now.” 

In an era marked by name, image, likeness, and the transfer portal, Dilfer’s first season at UAB was plenty hard. There were highs, like a convincing win over a good South Florida team, but the Blazers finished 4-8 and missed a bowl for the first time since 2017. 

The 2024 campaign started with an easy win over Alcorn State before a letdown against Louisiana Monroe, the program Bryant Vincent now leads. The game was clearly personal for Vincent and his ULM staff full of UAB expats and the Warhawks easily won 32-6. 

Dilfer faced a bombardment of texts from player parents after that loss, including a few with some choice words about what happened in Monroe. With a career record of 5-9, Dilfer says based on the results if you ranked every head coach, he should be in the 120s. He knows there’s been outside criticism, though he claims he doesn’t pay much attention to it. He’s willing to make subtle adjustments but steadfastly believes his program is still on the right course. 

UAB’s record by season since return 

“You either get fired or everyone gets on board,” Dilfer says. “I’m not going to change.”

Like Colorado’s Deion Sanders, Dilfer evokes strong reactions in college football. He has his supporters, but when UAB loses a game like the one to ULM, there seems to be a unique delight in his struggles among some. 

I asked Dilfer why he believes he’s so polarizing. Never short on opinions, Dilfer says he’s stumped himself. 

“I have no idea,” he says. “I’ve been nothing but incredibly kind and gracious to everybody in the college coaching community. Not one person have I not been incredibly kind, gracious to and humble with and never have come off saying ‘I think I know more.’ In fact, I’ve said I’ve got a lot to work on where you guys are way better. I have no idea.”

The wheels keep turning in Dilfer’s head as he considers all the possible answers. He mentions his history of giving strong opinions on ESPN. He thinks it might be because of his work with the Elite 11 quarterback camp. He made the event his baby for more than a decade and ruffled more than a few feathers along the way. As much as he says he doesn’t care and that the opinions of his players are what actually matter, you can sense some frustration. 

“It’s pretty comical in the college coaching community how many of them are ‘Oh Trent, you do such a great job, so happy for you,’ and I know what they’ve said behind my back,” he says. “But I’m a quarterback, I’m used to that. That’s how we grow up; that’s our whole life.” 

‘They don’t know we’re scared’

It’s a little after 2:30 p.m., and it is time to get into the weeds on UAB’s third-down offensive strategy. Mortensen’s offensive coordinator office is packed with on-field coaches, analysts like former Tampa Bay Buccaneers receivers coach Kevin Garver and other off-field personnel. Scherer, the former Memphis head coach, is the 72-year-old elder statesman of a young and enthusiastic offensive staff. Mortensen (Arkansas), Coleman (Middle Tennessee State) and receivers coach Austin Appleby (Florida/Purdue) are all former Division 1 quarterbacks now in their 30s. Tight ends coach Riley Jeffers, who arrived at UAB after two years as an Ohio State analyst, was a long snapper at Kansas. 

They start by going over Arkansas defensive coordinator Travis Williams’ third-down defensive tendencies. 

“If I were them, I’d come after us,” Mortensen tells the room as he takes a sip out of his Celsius energy drink.

Leaning back in his chair, Dilfer lets Mortensen run the show, though he interjects here and there to offer a play suggestion or a tweak of an idea the rest of the staff likes. He explains his role as head coach is to shape the team’s DNA, but doesn’t want to get too in the weeds that he takes autonomy away from his coordinators. It’s a collaborative effort as the room’s collective brainpower tries to devise a strategy that could work against the Razorbacks. There is little room left on a whiteboard full of play designs up for consideration this week. 

Can tempo runs work? Is it lots of pre-snap movement and deception? Should UAB line up in the pistol and use its running backs as battering rams to steal a couple of yards each play? What about a wedge push on 1st-and-10 to catch Arkansas off-guard? 

These were all ideas thrown out during an hours-long film session as the coaches made their cases for what plays should be included for different third-down scenarios. 

“We need to talk about the runs that will go two and won’t go back,” Dilfer says. 

Mortensen gets excited when he finds one that he thinks could work well against Williams’ tendencies. 

“Part of the reason I like this play — and I didn’t design it, I just really like it — is I think every time you run it, there’s like two other people open,” Mortensen tells the room. “Even watching the Georgia one (Jermaine Brown) is wide open, and we didn’t complete it. You watch all the practice reps, someone’s open. I think it’s a legitimately darn good pattern.”

“I think quads, in general, is underused,” Dilfer says back. “Now it’s scary as hell to protect.”

How UAB performed last season against Georgia is referenced multiple times during this session. The Blazers racked up 336 yards and 20 first downs last season on the road against the No. 1 Bulldogs. And while an upset was never a realistic possibility, the UAB coaches heard after the game how frustrating it was to try to defend their offensive game plan. Those comments give the staff confidence against Arkansas this week. 

The meeting gives a peek into how college football teams come up with their play names. The terminology flies around fast and loose, like a foreign language known only to the coaches in the room before certain context clues start to open it up. One type of play is inspired by a former coach’s nickname that Mortensen worked with at Alabama. After one variation of a play is designed and needs a name, one coach suggests “Kass,” a nod to the play but also Dilfer’s wife Cassandra. 

Mortensen mentions that former Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, now the head coach at Maryland, was superstitious and believed naming a play after a loved one was bad luck. Dilfer is undeterred. 

“She’s never had a play named after her,” he says as he takes a photo to text his wife.

The game plan is a tough balance of what the UAB coaches want to do versus what they are capable of doing. The group ultimately slashes away about 75 percent of the playbook that either wouldn’t work or isn’t worth using this week. 

Still, there’s excitement that they have plays that can be successful. It’ll ultimately come down to execution, but there’s a belief that they have the right mix to keep Arkansas off-balance and catch them by surprise a couple of times. 

“They don’t know we’re scared,” Dilfer tells the room. “They should, but they don’t know.”

The third-down strategy meeting finally wraps up at 7:30 as Dilfer leaves Mortensen and the rest of the group to put together the finalized third-down game script. 

In his office, which includes a replica of the Lombardi Trophy the Baltimore Ravens won in 2000, Dilfer explains the big-picture reasoning behind the offensive strategy. He likens it to “Rocky IV” in focusing on going for body blows and not trying to go for too many knockout swings against a team that can make you pay quickly on any mistake.

“Death by a thousand cuts mitigates risk,” he says. “I think it frustrates them because they want to be on the field, they are an offensive-minded team. You don’t go and hire Bobby Petrino, the ex-head coach who left in controversy, and take on all that weight just to be good on offense.” 

He likens Petrino to the ultimate puppetmaster, an offensive play-caller he puts on his personal Mount Rushmore. He believes Petrino’s NFL experience gives him an edge with the new helmet communication, allowing him to have even more sway over quarterback Taylen Green, and Dilfer knows it’ll be incredibly challenging to stop him. Petrino lives for the chess match, and he’s the best at it, but even Petrino might have a weakness.

“If you’re looking for a trend over the years that have slowed Bobby down — Lamar (Jackson) is an exception to this — complex NFL-type pressure packages have given his offense trouble,” he says. “Doesn’t stop it, but it gets in trouble. We’ll have a lot of creative pressures that are designed to give us a chance.” 

Less than 100 hours from his team taking the field against Arkansas, Dilfer has contingencies if things don’t go well early. His players are already banged up and he and won’t risk the team’s season-long potential for one game. There are triggers in place if it gets ugly early, not an outright waving of a white flag, which Dilfer says he’d never do, but more of an emphasis on a conservative offense that would hopefully allow the Blazers to leave Arkansas without any major injuries. 

But if things go well, Dilfer will lean more into his “let it rip” philosophy. The base plan is 70 percent “death by a thousand cuts” and 30 percent “let it rip,” but if he sees a sign his team isn’t as overmatched physically as he believes, he’s ready to strike. 

No moral victories

On UAB’s first offensive play, Isaiah Jacobs ran for six yards. After game planning just to get a couple of yards at a time, this is better than anyone could have anticipated.

Mortensen is hot early on, tapping into his bag of third-down play possibilities, and going 3 for 4 on third down on the first drive. UAB’s offense is stymied in the red zone, but the Blazers take a 3-0 lead on the road after a Jonah Delange 27-yard field goal is a good start.

Three plays later, Michael Moore intercepted Taylen Green and returned it to the Razorbacks’ 15-yard line. This time, UAB wouldn’t miss on the scoring opportunity. Zeno hits Kam Shanks for a 15-yard touchdown pass. 

UAB 10, Arkansas 0.

Leaning into the let-it-rip section of the playbook, Dilfer opts for an onside kick. He believes the look was there, but Arkansas recovers, takes it to UAB’s 23-yard line, and eventually scores on a field goal. 

After a Zeno to Amare Thomas 34-yard touchdown pass, UAB has stunned Arkansas with a 17-3 lead. This is everything UAB could have hoped for and more.

“Physically, we held up even better than I thought,” Dilfer would say after the fact. “If you just look at one-on-one matchups, we actually held our own, if not won a bunch of them.”

But UAB knew it would always be challenging with Petrino dialing up offensive calls on the other sideline. By halftime, the Razorbacks had fought their way back to a 20-20 tie. 

The game comes down to a third-and-goal from UAB’s 9-yard line. Down 30-27 with a little less than four minutes left in the game, UAB’s coaching staff believes if they can hold Arkansas to a field goal here, they’ll win the game with a touchdown on their next possession. In these moments, you rely on your opponents’ tendencies to try to guess what they might do in a pressurized spot. Dilfer and defensive coordinator Sione Ta’ufo’ou bet on Petrino dialing up a pass play. 

Instead, Petrino calls a designed quarterback run to the boundary, and Green takes it in from 9 yards out for a touchdown. “We have the perfect pass defense called, like perfect,” Dilfer laments. “Bobby was Bobby. He was a maestro.” 

Any hopes of an improbable comeback ended on an intercepted pass. Arkansas survived at home, 37-27, and UAB’s best effort of the season came up just short. 

There are no moral victories in college football, and watching UAB give Arkansas all it could handle a week after a blowout loss against Louisiana Monroe is confounding to those in and outside the program. In the second year of the Dilfer era, UAB is still searching for consistency and a return back to the land of annual bowl trips. 

In reviewing the final result, Dilfer saw a team and coaching staff that came close to executing the “death by a thousand cuts” plan but made the wrong mistakes at the wrong time.

“We did an admirable job of nicking them up, but they didn’t bleed out,” he says. “We nicked ourselves, unfortunately.” 

He’s encouraged, though, by what he saw and heard at Arkansas on Saturday. What he calls the “audio of the team” was as good as he had ever experienced. Team leaders stepped in to calm down tense situations and wouldn’t allow mistakes to completely derail the Blazers. He wanted to win the game, of course, but he also wanted to see how his team matched up against an SEC program — mentally, physically, emotionally. The fact UAB was still in the game deep into the fourth quarter reinforces his belief he’s on the right path. 

For a program desperate to elevate up, Saturday marked a step in the right direction. However, if UAB is ultimately going to succeed under Dilfer, how it fares in the coming weeks against challenging conference opponents like Navy, Tulane and Army will ultimately have the greater impact. 

After a week where minimizing risk was paramount, Dilfer hopes his Blazers will be ready to deploy more aggression. 

“This team will be better the more they are unshackled, the more they are free, that focused looseness,” Dilfer says. “We need to prepare in such a way that by the end of the week it’s ‘Let’s go let it rip.'”