'We're making big strides': UAB head coach Trent Dilfer on loss to Navy, taking on Tulane

Well, good morning. Um, disappointed obviously, but excited about our future. Um The one thing is not gonna happen under my leadership is the skies are gonna be gray and everything sucks in life because you lose *** football game. Um I, I do believe we're making big strides. Um I thought the response of our players yesterday, uh watching film and getting out to practice was phenomenal. The side conversations I had with them. Um, you know, we talked about how there's *** journey to becoming *** champion and, and you don't always get what you want right away. I think that's *** life lesson too. I mean, too many people stop in life because they've worked hard for something but didn't get what they thought. Think of all. Everybody's trying to lose weight, you know, the first month, six weeks, two months, you're killing yourself and you're not losing anything and happened. I think winning building champions the same thing. So, um we're not getting the results we want, but we're seeing the progress uh in the midst of the storms and uh for that, I'm super excited about, we have cool things going on in the building we have baptisms tonight. Coaches and players being baptized. We have guys gathering outside of football, um, to do service projects. We have guys coming to watch an extra film Oaks and, you know, all these things I've seen coaches do for years. Uh, instead I'm gonna celebrate the people in our building and, and, um, uh, there's nobody else I'd rather be with like I would take this group would not trade this group for anybody. I, I, I'm not sure what the, what the numbers say, but offensively it doesn't seem like through four games that you're kind of flowing like you did last year. I mean, kind of, is that accurate and, and what's going on? I think, I think we should be criticized harshly for all the things. Like I'm not gonna get defensive about anything, um, offensively, we have not met expectations in any area. Um, and, you know, I talked to the coaches yesterday and I was like, hey, you know, like, have you ever met *** kid that woke up in the morning game day and said, you know what, today I'm gonna choose not to balk that guy or you know what, I'm gonna get tackled by that guy. Well, I'm gonna purposely not have my eyes in the right place where I've been told to put or I'm gonna miss an open receiver or I'm gonna drop *** ball. Like I, I've never been around *** player that wants to not do his best. Um, so we have to look ourselves in the mirror as coaches, as coaches every single week and, uh, keep looking for ways to put our players in more advantageous situations and to help them be the best they can be. And I'm an offensive guy, so, like, I don't blame me. This isn't Moore's fault. This isn't Nick's fault. This isn't Matt's fault. It's my fault. And, uh, you know, I don't want these kids to feel as if they're man, we should be so much better on offense and we're not, is that *** me thing? You know, it's *** you thing if you've done something repeatedly in practice and then game day, you don't do it right. But we got to do *** better job of making sure they're doing the things in practice and it carries over to the game. I need to do that. I'll just say I, it ain't more, it's not that I need to do *** better job offensively of making sure we're doing the things that explosive offenses do on *** daily basis. And, um, that's, that's where my mind's been my mind since after the game until this moment will probably the rest of this day until we get to practice tomorrow is what can I do better? You know, I think so often it's, he needs to do this. He needs to do that. Oh, gosh, I thought that was gonna happen and at the end of the day. It's, it's *** me thing. I, I gotta, I gotta be better coach. When I walked in the building today I saw *** sign that says today's hard, good. I believe that's what was the quote, *** hard day? Hard day? Great. Yeah. Great. I nailed that quote. Um, but what does that mean to you, you know, adversity? Because that, that's something that's interesting. Right? When you walk in, you're kind of letting your guys know, hey, I've been through this before. Everyone's been through this before. But how do you, how is that kind of what you're trying to tell your guys? Absolutely. It's *** thank you for t me up to get my soapbox. Um, hard things equal great things. If you do the hard things, well, it's *** math equation. You're gonna be challenged. *** lot of hard things in life. Football especially, I think I said after the game she doesn't name the game hard instead of football. It's just hard. It's hard when you win. It's just, it's hard, but life's hard and, you know, when you do things, well, in the midst of hard, great things are on the other end, you don't know when there's no guarantee when, but they're coming. And the problem is, and I've done this in my life so many times is something is so hard. You just feel beaten and broken and I can't and exhausted. So you stop doing it. Well, well, that delays, the great thing from coming and then we'll pick ourselves up, we'll dust ourselves off and we'll try to do it again. But you're just delaying the great things that are coming when you say great. Like it's hard. Awesome. Let's go. Let's get after it. Now you're speeding up the great things coming. And I don't know the timeline. I'm waiting on the timing. I don't know the timeline, but I'm trying to get *** group of people that just wake up every morning and want to chew glass for breakfast. It's hard. Let's go. And uh we're getting there, I'm telling you, we're getting there. Yes, I thought yesterday was gonna be brutal. I thought today was gonna be brutal. And guys, guys have *** pep in their step, they get it. They know that part of the greatness of football is what we're in right now, which is the suck, right? Which is the heart. And I, that's, that's why I'm not excited about the people I hired and about the people who were recruited because they're not so keen about not getting what they want right away. They know they got to keep working hard and what they want will come during the postgame presser. You quoted, uh this is not freaking Alabama. What would you say to UAB fans who may have perceived? This is something that you didn't mean to say? Or could you just elaborate on what you meant to say? Were you there. I was not there. There's my answer. There were, there were, there were two people there, ok. And my grandson wanted to come up and I heard like little stirring and I said there's two people here. This isn't frigging Alabama's press conference. My grandson can come up, but you are aware of this program's history. I am very aware of this program's history. Right? Coach moving on *** two lane, another team that can run the ball pretty well. What do you guys have to do better to match up against another good run game? They do everything. Well, they throw the ball, well, they run the ball. Well, um, man, they're explosive. Um I it's like I said, last week, every challenge is *** great challenge. Um They, uh when you're not playing very good football, it exasperates those challenges, you know, because you're like, oh, gosh, this has been *** problem for us. We gotta stop this. Oh, that's *** challenge too. You know, like you're, you kind of feel like you're going backwards sometimes you're not playing good football. So I think the key is identifying what makes them do what they do so well, uh and try to at least take away the things that have been most successful for them. And if they, if they beat you, if they, if they're successful, they, they find another way to do it than the way they've been doing it with, with them. They, they it looks like they've gone to their freshman quarterback who seems pretty dynamic and kind of what, what jumps out about him and did, did you have any previous knowledge of him before, before this? We saw warming up last year and we said, man, it's *** talented kid. Um I did not. Um ST Luis Obispo. Right. Yeah, I think he's from out west. That's, that's near where I grew up and played *** couple of hours. So, um, man, *** diamond in the rough. Uh, I, I'm impressed with this journey. I'm impressed with how he won the job. You know, they, the kid they brought in from Oregon is super talented, *** great kid, uh, coach him in elite 11 in the opening. Um I thought we all were like, oh, this, wow, t just got *** great one and then the one they already had was so good in practice and, and has the qualities both on and off the field that he was just too good not to play. So I appreciate his competitive traits as much as his physical traits. Um But yeah, he's, he can, he can get in all areas of the field. He's tough, he's athletic, he sees it well. Um, he's *** really impressive player coach, I'm looking at the numbers, Zeno, what's your evaluation so far of him through *** few games? And I mean, every time I look at this record, this record that I know, you know, as much as everyone who goes as far as the quarterback and some, some team. So, what do you, what have you seen so far today? I think Jacob played solid football. Um I think he'd be the first to tell you he, you know, as all of us, right? So I don't want to single out him. He'd be the first to tell you that he probably hasn't played to the standard. Um I've been coached to my standard. So, you know, it's, it's an ongoing thing. He is battling *** little bit of *** shoulder too. So, um you know, I don't want to disclose too much, but he's, he's battling an injury. So, um you know, we'll see how that progresses and, and continue to try to get him, uh give him the answers to the test so he can play his best. Um Coach short and intermediate passing game has kind of been your guys' bread and butter, but there hasn't been *** lot of deep shots, especially as often as last year with uh Tajan leaving. Do you guys, are, are you feeling the hurt without *** true ex receiver or do you even feel like you really need one on this? No, I mean, listen, you lose *** six round draft pick. It obviously has an impact, right? Um So yeah, I think Tajan really developed as the season went on and if you look at our passing game last year, it, it evolved as well. Um I, I do feel like our receivers are getting better, they're getting more confident. I think strapp getting healthy has really helped. Um, he, you could see his explosive qualities in the game. He played really good football on Saturday. He's played really well. He, he played really well against Arkansas too. You know, the ball didn't find him, uh, but he played very well against Arkansas. We have some young players that continue to get better in practice. Um, that we see as being, you know, um people that can create some explosive plays for us. But uh yeah, listen, we, we know our faults and uh one of our faults is that we have not been as explosive offensively as we'd like to be. You've talked some about this already. But when, when you're going through *** tough time as *** program, how do you gauge whether the players, you know, I mean, are there way, is it, is it sometimes by actions, is it by what they say, kind of gauge where they are and, and, and whether you're losing them *** little bit, that type of thing, how do you gauge that actions over words? You know, it's, it's been just *** huge thing I've learned over my course of football is, uh we can get really easily fooled by words. Um And, you know, I words are pretty empty whether they're positive or negative and what you really tested *** team's character by is how it responds with its actions. Same thing with coaches, um, same thing with everybody, like show me, don't tell me. And uh it starts with the leaders, right? You know, as leaders, we have to show up and do the things that we've said we're gonna do and then, um, as players they learn that they're like, oh, ok, the people that I look to lead me are actually doing it and uh maybe I should try doing it instead of just saying it. So like I'll give you an example, you'll stay in the weight room. Um, you know, Sundays aren't like heavy metal getting after yelling and screaming, but they're, they're pretty good workouts, man. Like you're throwing some weight around and your body hurts and, and I cruised down there just to kind of see the temperament and I would understand if it was kind of somber and ok, going through the emotions and, and I'm watching groups like get fired up and try to put more weight on the bars than they did last week and push themselves to the limits and focus on that day. Now, what happened the day before and that was gonna happen today, but focus on that day. I saw guys that were banged up. We're, we're, you know, we're banged up that game. Um, we were pretty healthy going in but, you know, we got beat up *** little bit guys that are beat up and bruised and dealing with an ankle or *** knee or *** shoulder or wrist or *** hand and toes and, and they're in there and, and they're getting after it, you know, they're, they're lifting with boots on and, and, uh, finding supplemental lifts that they can do because one part of their body won't let them do another lift. And then we go out to *** practice, um, guys are bought in and, um, guys that play in the game or are working on flexibility and speed and, and some route running and, and you're like, ok, this is not just going through the motions. They're, they're actually trying to get better. So, and it's not everybody, you know, you definitely, I think there's some guys that are trying to decide if they wanna go to this lonely island with us or not, but, uh, we got enough that are on the island and, uh, that's why I'm excited today. Coach and you look at T LA, uh Coach Summerall took the job. Uh, it was *** good job to take. He's one of the top coaches going into this coaching cycle. Um, from Troy. Do you look back at Troy? Do you look at the tape of what he did? I mean, did some really impressive stuff down there, um, and at his time in Kentucky as well, what, what do you see out of that team? Fantastic coach. I got to know him *** little bit, uh, really enjoy getting to know him through our meetings and actually called him last week on *** random thing um that I needed advice on. He was awesome. Um Yes, we, we actually studied Troy this off season um for other reasons. Uh and we're extremely impressed with uh not just their schemes but just the, the temperament of their players. Um the organization, the um detail aspect of it. Uh He definitely knows how to do this thing and, and I think, you know, one of the things you're always trying to do is you're trying to beat your opponent, but you're always trying to learn, right? Um, and I think watching, studying him at Troy and now getting ready to study him at Tulane, I think there's things we can learn, uh, from him and how he runs his program as well. Uh Trey Butowsky has obviously been through *** lot here injury wise over the years and, and, you know, he was kind of thrown in there Saturday, you know, and, and had to play *** lot, you know, can you just sort of talk about sort of his journey here since you've been here and just kind of what, uh, you know how he played in that type of thing on Saturday. Yeah, he's been such *** pro. Um, he has, he's dealt with different things. Um, this, this year especially, you know, he's, he's dealt with some stuff and, uh, he really hasn't flinched. He's been *** guy that shows up every day when he couldn't practice when he was coming off the injury. You know, he, he earned so much respect because he approached every day as if he was getting ready to play *** game. Even though, you know, he knew he was in *** rehab situation, it wasn't gonna go through spring ball. So he didn't have the, the carrot dangling out there. If something cool is about to happen that I'm working towards, he just worked. He has really good leadership qualities. He's ***, you know, he was *** coach on the field when he wasn't playing, really helping our, our new guys out and our younger guys out. Um, and we've sat and talked, you know, we, we came up with *** plan for his practice routines that would help him maintain his weight and help him stay fresher. And, um, you know, I think he appreciated that. I let him kind of come up with it, you know, it was not like, hey, you're gonna do this. It's like, hey, what, what's best for you? Let's let's find the best solution for the things you're struggling with. And, um, we really feel like we found the best solution for that. Um, and then he played pretty darn well, Saturday, you know, he, he jumped into *** tough situation and, and graded out pretty darn well. Um, so we have confidence in him. We don't know what the status of DJ is gonna be yet. Um but we feel confident if Trey you know, gets to start. All right, thank you guys. Appreciate it.