{"id":299917,"date":"2025-10-13T12:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T12:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/299917\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T12:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T12:37:20","slug":"uab-fires-trent-dilfer-after-awful-start-as-polarizing-hire-backfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/299917\/","title":{"rendered":"UAB fires Trent Dilfer after awful start as polarizing hire backfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trent Dilfer didn\u2019t last long as a college football head coach.<\/p>\n

UAB fired the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Sunday night after just two-plus season in which he amassed a 9-21 record.<\/p>\n

The Blazers are 2-4 and have lost three straight games by 32, 18 and 20 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made a decision to part ways with Head Football Coach\u00a0Trent Dilfer,\u201d UAB athletics director Mark Ingram said in a statement<\/a> posted to the school\u2019s website. \u201cWe agree that \u2014\u00a0unfortunately \u2014 our on-field performance has not lived up to the standard of winning we have for the program. This decision will allow us to move forward in the best long-term interest of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish Coach Dilfer the best and thank him for his class, tireless work and commitment during his tenure at UAB. While his efforts did not translate into a winning record, each young man who played for him will be a better person as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UABTrent Dilfer before the loss to Tennessee on Sept. 20. Randy Sartin-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

UAB made the outside-the-box move to hire Dilfer in November 2022 despite having zero collegiate coaching experience.<\/p>\n

Dilfer had previously coached Libscomb Academy in Nashville for four years after his nine-year run with ESPN ended in 2017 when the company had mass layoffs.<\/p>\n

The 53-year-old inherited a team that went 7-6 in 2022, and he guided UAB to a 4-8 record in his first season before going 3-9 in 2024.<\/p>\n

While the Blazers triumphed against Alabama State and Akron this year, they lost by at least 14 points to Navy, Tennessee, Army and, most recently, Florida Atlantic, falling 53-33 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"UABTrent Dilfer calling timeout against Navy on Sept. 6. Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s defense is allowing the most points in the sport, surrendering 41.3 points per game.<\/p>\n

Before he entered the coaching and media ranks, Dilfer had a solid run in the NFL that included a Super Bowl win.<\/p>\n

The former Fresno State star played in the NFL for 14 seasons from 1994-2007 after being selected by the Buccaneers with the No. 6 pick in the 1994 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

His crowning achievement came when he helped the 2000 Ravens \u2014 a team remembered for having one of the greatest defenses in NFL history \u2014 win the Super Bowl with a 34-7 victory over the Giants. <\/p>\n

UAB is now turning over its program to another individual with ESPN ties. Alex Mortensen, the son of late ESPN reporting legend Chris Mortensen, being promoted to interim coach.<\/p>\n

He had been serving as the offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have asked\u00a0Alex Mortensen\u00a0to serve as interim head coach to lead the team for the remainder of the season as we continue as a department and university to provide the support our student athletes need to compete,\u201d Ingram said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Dilfer didn\u2019t last long as a college football head coach. UAB fired the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":299918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1428,1318,1317,1315,1316,62,152693,103705,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-299917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-trent-dilfer","15":"tag-uab-blazers","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115366897377387601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}