Trent Dilfer remaining UAB's head coach proves Blazers aren't interested in winning football games

The UAB Blazers announced that head coach Trent Dilfer would remain with the program on Tuesday, despite the team's persistent struggles with him at the helm over the last two seasons.

It's move that is equal parts baffling and frustrating for Blazers fans, and sends a message to the college football world that the university clearly has very little interest in building a winning program in Birmingham.

Dilfer took over at UAB before the 2023 season, and was inheriting a program bursting with hope for the future. Remember, the Blazers' program was killed in 2014; shuttered and sent packing despite first-year head coach Bill Clark going 6-6. Clark worked tirelessly to bring them back to life, and between his efforts and those of fans, the Blazers returned to football in 2017 and had posted nothing but winning seasons since.

Clark guided the program until just before the 2022 season, and stepped away due to health concerns. UAB was well-positioned in the group of five, with a burgeoning recruiting base in the fertile lands of Alabama, and coaches in place who not only understood that landscape, but also the university they were working for. Interim head coach Bryant Vincent took over, and the Blazers went 7-6, and he seemed like a shoe-in for the full-time gig.

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Unfortunately for the Blazers, athletic director Mark Ingram had other plans.

Enter Dilfer. A former NFL quarterback and Fresno State alumni, Dilfer had spent most of his post-playing career on ESPN, as an analyst. He got into coaching in 2019, taking over at Libscomb Academy in Tennessee. It's a small private school, and Dilfer had a decent amount of success there, winning two state titles in three years, but had zero experience in any sort of college coaching. He did have some ties to the Elite 11 quarterback camp, but outside of that, Dilfer lacked any real ties to any college program.

But that didn't stop Ingram from hiring him to lead the Blazers, and Dilfer repaid the favor by running the program directly into the ground. He took a 7-6 team from the previous season and immediately went 4-8, putting the proud Blazers on the same tier as Florida Atlantic in terms of record. It was the team's first losing season since the football program returned, and Dilfer looked frequently outmatched schematically for most of the season.

The 2024 season was even worse than last year. Dilfer's Blazers squad was frequently non-competitive in games, going just 3-9, with their lone wins coming against FCS Alcorn State, a Tulsa program helmed by the equally incompetent Kevin Wilson, and a Rice team playing under an interim head coach, en route to a 4-8 season.

Okay, so the on-field performance hasn't been great. But surely Dilfer is doing great things to bolster the program on the recruiting trail, right?

Not even a little bit; Dilfer's two classes have ranked 86th in 2024 and 124th for next season, which puts UAB in roughly the same spot they were in under Clark, who routinely landed around 90th in recruiting classes.

But maybe Dilfer's a great ambassador for the program and the university? Not even a little bit. He called the program a "rebuild" when he took over, despite the team having posted a record better than .500 every season since returning to the sport. He's treated the program as lesser than throughout his tenure, talked down about the college repeatedly, and generally acted like he was too good for the Blazers.

But maybe Dilfer's a good guy, a likeable fellow who deserves one more crack at the job. Behind closed doors, he might be charming and funny and kind, but during his coaching career, his public-facing persona has been one of an angry blowhard who goes out of his way to antagonize opponents.

Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall confronted Dilfer after the Green Wave stomped UAB 71-20 earlier this season, because the Blazers head coach called two timeouts when Tulane attempted to kneel out the clock.

Last season, Dilfer went viral for erupting on the sideline against Tulane, and the coach could be seen berating multiple assistant coaches after the Blazers were called for an illegal substitution, which gave the Green Wave a crucial first down to help them ice the game. Dilfer apologized for the eruption the following Monday, saying he regretted the way he expressed his frustration.

And when he was a high school coach in Tennessee, Dilfer went viral once again, this time for shoving a player during a tirade on the sideline during a game. Once again, Dilfer apologized after the fact, but the pattern of behavior here is clear.

In short, we have an unqualified coach who has looked overmatched in both of his seasons on the field, who doesn't understand or particularly like the environment he's working in, who alienates fans and boosters with his comments, and has a history of being both an annoyance to other coaches and a hothead who explodes publicly when things don't go his way. And he was hired instead of an interim who knew and loved the program, who had a proven record of success in Birmingham, and who is now orchestrating an incredible turnaround at Louisiana-Monroe, one of the most moribund, underfunded, under-resourced programs in all of FCS. It begs the question: what on Earth are we doing here?

How exactly does UAB benefit by keeping him around? What value does he bring to the university or the football program at this point? They are demonstrably worse in every aspect of the game right now than they were when he took over two years ago, the fans hate him, the players were described as "sad" during a game against Army (a game they lost very badly), and the incredible recruits that are tied to the Elite 11 program that Dilfer has connections to has produced exactly...zero new recruits for UAB. If they had any interest in building a successful team and winning football games, they'd end this woeful experiment now, but Ingram is clearly more concerned with being right than with getting it right.

Ingram told fans that Dilfer "has learned a great deal" since taking over the program, and lauded his "commitment to UAB" as a big part of why Dilfer is staying. But is it commitment? Or just the fact that no other program who Dilfer sees as superior to the Blazers would touch him with a 30-foot pole right now, because he's hopelessly out of his depth? What in Dilfer's public-facing words or actions would lead Ingram to think that the coach wouldn't bolt from Birmingham at the first chance he got?

Despite all on-field evidence, and all off-field evidence, it's clear that Dilfer thinks he's better than UAB, deserves better than the Blazers' historically solid, consistent program. But the quarterback who only won a Super Bowl because the Ravens had one of the most terrifying defenses of all time has it all wrong.

The Blazers, with their fiercely proud fans and football program saved from the dead, deserve far, far better than him as their head coach. Unfortunately for them, they'll have to wait a little longer to get what they deserve: a coach who actually wants to be there.