The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I know feelings are raw right now. I feel you, I turned the game off after the third quarter myself.

I saw someone on social media referring to our coach as DiLLLLLLfer and it reminded me of what i posted on here earlier in the year: This staff is going to need time to learn.

We were a thin team with some serious question marks before the season started, and injuries have only exasperated that. Yes this staff has made some mistakes. Yes, Coach Dilfer has made some mistakes, and he would be the first to say that he has, but there is no reason to give up on him or the team. There is room to grow, and the schedule sets up for us to end the season stringing a couple of wins together if the team just keeps fighting and improving.

Go Blazers!

True. Hopefully we get enough good players to compete for 6 wins next year and can compete for the conference in year 3.

Dilfers thought process of win the roster and not just looking at the portal was commendable, but we had some glaring hole we didn’t attack and I think this off season will be very important.

When do we get to have a staff and team that doesn't need time to learn? Maybe when it came time to hire a new coach going into a new, better conference hiring someone literally out of high school was the opposite direction Marky Mark and Ray Ray should've gone

Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

(10-21-2023 03:13 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  When do we get to have a staff and team that doesn't need time to learn? Maybe when it came time to hire a new coach going into a new, better conference hiring someone literally out of high school was the opposite direction Marky Mark and Ray Ray should've gone

No ****. It's still hard to believe. Feels like 2006-07 (and 1994) all over again. The program goes in coaching search mode and fans get their hopes up for The Guy that's gonna take us into the Top 25 and energize this market. Instead we get a WTF hire that's followed by an immediate drop in attendance and a consistently bad product on the field.

Sure, Dilfer might be decent over time. From what I've seen the learning curve looks very steep. 2/3rd's of our team is flat awful so his staff already needs an almost a total rebuild. Why did we have to hire a staff with training wheels with all the investments in facilities since The Return was announced?

In less than 24 months this program has been set back 10 years on the field and in the stands. This is totally on Mark Ingram. Thanks Mark. Please fire yourself.

(10-21-2023 03:35 PM)uabblazer2012 Wrote:  Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

who honestly were our other offers?

Vincent and who.

Didn't one offer literally stand our AD up and never showed to their INVITE interview

Herman went to FAU and turned us down

Correct me if I'm wrong, who were our other serious choices not fan wished and fantasy hires.

The reaction to this game is hilarious. As soon as I found out Zeno was out, I knew what this result would be. Honestly just happy we hung around for as long as we did.

I'm still on board with Dilfer. If we can get to 4-8, that builds a foundation imo.

(10-21-2023 03:45 PM)rook360 Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:35 PM)uabblazer2012 Wrote:  Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

who honestly were our other offers?

Vincent and who.

Didn't one offer literally stand our AD up and never showed to their INVITE interview

Herman went to FAU and turned us down

Correct me if I'm wrong, who were our other serious choices not fan wished and fantasy hires.

Maybe Skip Holtz? Woof, I'd have been pissed if we went that route.

(10-21-2023 03:45 PM)rook360 Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:35 PM)uabblazer2012 Wrote:  Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

who honestly were our other offers?

Vincent and who.

Didn't one offer literally stand our AD up and never showed to their INVITE interview

Herman went to FAU and turned us down

Correct me if I'm wrong, who were our other serious choices not fan wished and fantasy hires.

If Dilfer was the best option available to UAB after all the $ spent on facilities then something went terribly wrong. Bill Clark was more qualified for the job when he had only one succesful season as an FCS coach and we had zero facilities.

Mark Ingram botched the biggest hire of his career. The stands are all the evidence anyone should need.

Sione needs to be gone - or at least not calling defense.
Gilstrap needs to be gone - he’s both Special Teams and Secondaries coach. Gotta let the safeties be ball hawks and playmakers, instead they give everyone the biggest cushion.

Starting to think we should have hired WKU’s Tyson Helton instead, if he was our last resort.

I’d love for Godfrey of Split Zone Duo to do a deep dive into the coaching hire mishap. Mullen ghosted, Herman said he was too good for us and ended up at FAU, Fuente was supposed to be a finalist and done deal (according to SZD) and we ended up with the wild card Dilfer.
Would be different if he hired a more experienced coaching staff.

(10-21-2023 04:00 PM)Frank Grimes Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:45 PM)rook360 Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:35 PM)uabblazer2012 Wrote:  Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

who honestly were our other offers?

Vincent and who.

Didn't one offer literally stand our AD up and never showed to their INVITE interview

Herman went to FAU and turned us down

Correct me if I'm wrong, who were our other serious choices not fan wished and fantasy hires.

Maybe Skip Holtz? Woof, I'd have been pissed if we went that route.

Those were the 3. Herman “im bigger than you. No thank you”
Skip holtz and Vincent.

Tyson Helton wasn’t given the time of day, but was probably the best of the options. He was certainly inquiring.

Nobody outside of those 4 were consistently linked.

(10-21-2023 04:04 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:45 PM)rook360 Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:35 PM)uabblazer2012 Wrote:  Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

who honestly were our other offers?

Vincent and who.

Didn't one offer literally stand our AD up and never showed to their INVITE interview

Herman went to FAU and turned us down

Correct me if I'm wrong, who were our other serious choices not fan wished and fantasy hires.

If Dilfer was the best option available to UAB after all the $ spent on facilities then something went terribly wrong. Bill Clark was more qualified for the job when he had only one succesful season as an FCS coach and we had zero facilities.

Mark Ingram botched the biggest hire of his career. The stands are all the evidence anyone should need.

Who do people think we should've/could've hired? This program isn't nearly as prestigious as this fanbase makes it out to be. We've never finished in the Top 25, we haven't beaten a P5 team in the regular season in what, nearly two decades? We play in a stadium that, while nice, doesn't provide a significant homefield advantage at the moment. We're a very distant third fiddle to Bammer/The Barn.

(10-21-2023 04:05 PM)blazerblazer Wrote:  Sione needs to be gone - or at least not calling defense.
Gilstrap needs to be gone - he’s both Special Teams and Secondaries coach. Gotta let the safeties be ball hawks and playmakers, instead they give everyone the biggest cushion.

Starting to think we should have hired WKU’s Tyson Helton instead, if he was our last resort.

I’d love for Godfrey of Split Zone Duo to do a deep dive into the coaching hire mishap. Mullen ghosted, Herman said he was too good for us and ended up at FAU, Fuente was supposed to be a finalist and done deal (according to SZD) and we ended up with the wild card Dilfer.
Would be different if he hired a more experienced coaching staff.

Helton as HC and Jeff Ellis as OC would have been better than what we have now but that's really not saying much. Rich Rodriguez from JSU would have been better than Helton or Dilfer IMO.

I would trade HC's with JSU, South Alabama, or Troy in a second right now.

(10-21-2023 04:17 PM)Frank Grimes Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 04:04 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:45 PM)rook360 Wrote:  

(10-21-2023 03:35 PM)uabblazer2012 Wrote:  Still think Trent is a better hire than any of the other options.

who honestly were our other offers?

Vincent and who.

Didn't one offer literally stand our AD up and never showed to their INVITE interview

Herman went to FAU and turned us down

Correct me if I'm wrong, who were our other serious choices not fan wished and fantasy hires.

If Dilfer was the best option available to UAB after all the $ spent on facilities then something went terribly wrong. Bill Clark was more qualified for the job when he had only one succesful season as an FCS coach and we had zero facilities.

Mark Ingram botched the biggest hire of his career. The stands are all the evidence anyone should need.

Who do people think we should've/could've hired? This program isn't nearly as prestigious as this fanbase makes it out to be. We've never finished in the Top 25, we haven't beaten a P5 team in the regular season in what, nearly two decades? We play in a stadium that, while nice, doesn't provide a significant homefield advantage at the moment. We're a very distant third fiddle to Bammer/The Barn.

None of that stuff matters. There's just one thing that matters, and I'll leave it up to the peanut gallery to figure it out

Agree that Dilfer and staff need time.

Everyone is acting like we had this great team last year, when in reality it was a 6-6 team that beat 1 decent team (North TX) all season. The defense was slipping and the offense was antiquated. From that defense, only 13 players remain from the 36 players listed on the 3 deep at the end of last season and most of those 13 were the 3rd stringers.

All of that while playing the toughest first 8 games to start a season since the Watson Brown era…. I have hope for the last 4 games, but either way, we have to give them time to recruit and build the program back up.

(10-21-2023 04:48 PM)BlazersCPA Wrote:  Agree that Dilfer and staff need time.

Everyone is acting like we had this great team last year, when in reality it was a 6-6 team that beat 1 decent team (North TX) all season. The defense was slipping and the offense was antiquated. From that defense, only 13 players remain from the 36 players listed on the 3 deep at the end of last season and most of those 13 were the 3rd stringers.

All of that while playing the toughest first 8 games to start a season since the Watson Brown era…. I have hope for the last 4 games, but either way, we have to give them time to recruit and build the program back up.

Ding! There is a lot to like here. I do think there needs to be a couple of staff changes made though.........it would not hurt my feelings any to make them over the open date.

This needs to be said on the Save UAB Football page on Facebook lol.

Dilfer will have all the time in the world. UAB makes sure coaches get plenty of time to bury their programs as deeply as possible. It takes at least four years to properly gut a fan base and crush all momentum and expectations although it looks like it already happened in less than two.

This is when we were supposed to be positioning ourselves for further realignment, with new facilities and a tradition of winning. Instead we're basically back to pre-Return status. Seriously revolting developments.

(10-21-2023 05:08 PM)BlazerGreen Wrote:  Dilfer will have all the time in the world. UAB makes sure coaches get plenty of time to bury their programs as deeply as possible. It takes at least four years to properly gut a fan base and crush all momentum and expectations although it looks like it already happened in less than two.

This is when we were supposed to be positioning ourselves for further realignment, with new facilities and a tradition of winning. Instead we're basically back to pre-Return status. Seriously revolting developments.

Were we selling out Protective with Clark? I must've missed those games.