Hopefully it’s only a matter of time until the University of Alabama at Birmingham makes a football coaching change.
UAB’s 44-10 road loss to Army on Saturday was yet another deflating moment in Trent Dilfer’s tenure as Blazers head coach, and it’s fair to wonder how long Dilfer has to fix the team before administration has seen enough.
CBS Sports Network sideline reporter Tina Cervasio delivered a tough read of the UAB sideline early in its game against Army that makes you wonder if Dilfer has lost the locker room.
“Right as Army scored that touchdown, I looked to the UAB sidelines,” Cervasio said on the game broadcast. “A lot of downtrodden faces. They just looked sad.”
A Tina Cervasio sideline report in the UAB-Army game: "Right as Army scored the touchdown, I looked at the UAB sidelines. A lot of downtrodden faces. They just looked sad." Followed by discussion of Jason Riles Jr. staying pumped up. (H/T @edsbs.) pic.twitter.com/b38I44bmwb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 12, 2024
Cervasio did point out Blazers linebacker Jason Riles Jr. trying to pump up his teammates, and kudos to him for fighting the good fight despite almost everything going wrong for UAB this season.
However, Cervasio observation is devastating for Blazers fans. If the team really looked that dejected on the sideline after a single touchdown, Dilfer’s future at UAB looks even murkier than it did last week.
UAB was 7-6 in 2022 after interim coach Bryan Vincent replaced Bill Clark as the team’s head coach. Rather than let Vincent build on his progress, the team decided to poach Dilfer from Lipscomb Academy, a high school in Nashville.
UAB hadn’t had a losing season since 2013 before Dilfer’s arrival, the worst being a 6-6 record during Clark’s first year with the program in 2014.
Dilfer has only known losing records, going 4-8 last season and sitting on 1-5 in 2024. The team’s only win came against Alcorn State, and four of its five 2024 losses have been blowouts.
For comparison, Vincent is 4-1 with Louisiana-Monroe this season in his first head coaching job since UAB, one of those wins coming against the Blazers. Not hiring Vincent and going with a splashy name like Dilfer instead has proven to be an absolute disaster for the school.
Ending things now with Dilfer might be what’s needed to salvage the season if the Blazers can’t get this turned around.
