UAB's loss to Charlotte could be the end of the Dilfer era

November 30, 2024 – CHARLOTTE, NC – the UAB Blazers football team picked up their ninth loss of the year to Charlotte 27 to 29. UAB led late but Charlotte mounted a furious comeback in the fourth quarter to come away with the victory.

UAB led 20 to 19, before Charlotte scored ten points to lead 29 to 20 with five minutes left. UAB added a late touchdown to narrow the score; but UAB kicker Jonah Delange missed a field goal that would have given the Blazers the comeback win.

Charlotte had already fired their head coach and were playing Saturday's game with an interim HC.

UAB head Coach Trent Dilfer is just finishing up his second season with the Blazers, but there is wide speculation in the national media that this could his last year leading the Blazers. The Blazers were 6 and 6 and in a bowl game under an interim coach before Dilfer was hired. Since then he has coached UAB to a 4 and 8 and a 3 and 9 season. Dilfer, who had never coached college football before was a curious hire and time has not made it look any less of a reach.

Dilfer was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He quarterbacked the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl. He played 14 seasons in the NFL with the Buccaneers, Ravens, Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, and San Francisco Forty-niners. From 2007 to 2017 he was an NFL analyst for the NFL Network and then ESPN. After being let go by ESPN, Dilfer coached high school football in Tennessee amassing a 44 and 10 record before being named the UAB head coach.

Dilfer is almost universally liked and he is good with the media; but under Dilfer's tenure the Blazers have been the dregs of the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 2 and 6 in conference. The decision to leave Conference USA and move up to the more competitive AAC now looks like it was a serious mistake, at least in a football centric perspective, but that can't be easily undone. Dilfer in his press conference last week acknowledged that there are media reports that a large number of UAB players are looking at entering the transfer portal when it opens on December 9.

."Very, very few group of five players move up to the power four and make an impact," said Dilfer. "The one thing I am not going to do is beg players to be here that don't want to be here."

Dilfer said that, "There are a lot of good football players out there," predicting that he plans to pursue replacing any talent that leaves through the transfer portal. "We have already been wildly successful in high school recruiting. We are also going to be very active in the portal if we absorb the losses that people are projecting."

If UAB is going to make a change at head coach it needs to happen very soon so that they can get somebody in place by around the time that the portal opens to both recruit players on the roster and get the best players available in the portal to replace the ones that leave.

One player that both UAB and other programs will want to have on the roster is standout wide receiver Corri Milliner. Milliner had seven catches for 126 yards and a touchdown in Saturday's loss. The freshman from Alexander City has played in only the last five games for the Blazers, but he has amassed 385 yards in the month of November.

UAB Quarterback Jalen Kitna had 26 completions on 40 attempts for 280 yards, 3 touchdowns, and an interception in the loss.

UAB Running Back Lee Beebe Jr. had 82 yards rushing and a touchdown in 19 carries on the day.

Less than 20,000 people attended UAB's last home game. Many in the Blazer community did not like the hire of Dilfer when it was made and are calling on the administration to make a change. A decision on whether or not Dilfer will return for another season will likely be made in the next couple of days.

"Nobody hurts more than me when we lose," said Dilfer last week. "No one is more surprised than me when we don't have success."

"I have been embarrassed by what has happened in my tenure," said Dilfer.

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