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mark schlabach
Like in my first few days uabInterim football coach, Alex Mortenson quickly earned the respect of athletic director Mark Ingram, who was impressed by Mortenson’s composure, professionalism and steady leadership amid a challenging transition.
Mortenson, the 39-year-old son of late ESPN reporter Chris Mortenson, was tasked with replacing former Blazers coach Trent Dilfer, who gave him his first big break in coaching by hiring him as the team’s offensive coordinator in 2023.
According to Ingram, when Mortensen first met UAB players and assistant coaches he was calm and confident. Dilfar was fired from his job October 12. When Mortensen faced the media the next day, he was fully prepared and prepared.
“You’re talking about a group of people who were very emotional about that news and I thought Alex handled it beautifully,” Ingram said. “He met with the staff and I thought he handled it beautifully. His performance on the podium was fantastic.” [the media]I hate to say I was surprised, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did it all considering he hadn’t done it before.”
Mortenson had the same calm and measured demeanor when he made his head-coaching debut last week, leading UAB, a 21½-point underdog, 31-24 upset Of then-no. 22 memphis At Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama.
With the Blazers leading by seven points and less than two minutes left to play, the Tigers forced a quarterback turnover on fourth down and seven. AJ Hill Completed a 21-yard pass to Cortez Braham Jr.,
Then it looked like Memphis had a touchdown, with the potential to tie the score with a PAT or take the lead with a 2-point conversion, when Greg Desrosiers Jr.Broke a 41-yard run. But replay officials ruled that Desrosiers’ left knee was down on the 1-yard line.
That’s when things fell apart for the Tigers. A false start penalty dropped them to UAB 6. Desrosiers almost scored on first and goal, but was fouled on the 1st. Then another false start, two incompletions and a delay of game forced the Tigers to go on fourth-and-goal from the 11 with 19 seconds remaining.
What was going through Mortensen’s mind in the biggest moment of his first game in charge?
“Do we need or want to use timeouts in any of these situations?” Mortensen said. “If we don’t feel good about how we’re aligned or maybe what set they come down to, what do we do? I’m thinking about, obviously, if they score we have to be ready to run a 2-point play for them. If they tie it, I’m also thinking about how we want to handle overtime.
“So, you know, just going through all that stuff. There was a point where you were going, ‘Okay, if they score with enough time on the clock, how do we want to handle the two-minute situation?’ “No matter how much time is left, whether we want to try to score or whether we want to take it to overtime.”
On fourth-and-goal, Lewis threw to the left side of the end zone to Brahms, who caught the ball out of bounds. Once replays upheld the call, the Blazers celebrated ending a three-game losing streak and winning for the first time in more than a month.
with backup quarterback rider burton I am starting my career (starter) jalen how much (was sidelined with a shoulder injury), the Blazers gained 470 yards of offense and went 9 of 13 on third down to end the Tigers’ 10-game winning streak.
“Obviously, the result was great to see our guys work really hard and play balanced to the end,” Mortensen said.
It was UAB’s fifth win over an AP Top 25 opponent in the program’s 28-year history and its first since defeating No. 13 BYU 31–28 in the Independence Bowl at the end of the 2021 season.
“In keeping with the feelings of not just the week but the season, and really the feelings of last year, it was encouraging,” Ingram said. “It’s like a positive emotional afternoon to see the faces of the players and coaches and fans and how excited they were. God, oh God, it felt really good.”
Mortenson called Ingram Thursday night and said, “Memphis is really good.”
Mortensen told them, “My plan is to try to slow the game down as much as I can to slow down what they’re doing.” “You know, if they don’t have the ball, they can’t score. And even if we don’t score, we can hopefully keep it away from them. We can keep it close to where we are in the game, because if it’s a low enough score, we’re never really out of the game.”
Instead of running the fast-paced offense that was a trademark under Dilfer, the Blazers were more thoughtful and patient. They still didn’t hang around most of the time, but they also didn’t catch the ball as quickly, allowing more time to drain off the game clock.
Mortensen’s plan yielded unexpected benefits. UAB’s offense was more disciplined and made fewer mistakes that had troubled it in the past. The Blazers were penalized 13 times for 110 yards in a 56–24 loss at Tennessee, 11 times for 73 yards in a 31–13 loss against Army, and 15 times for 128 yards in a 53–33 loss at Florida Atlantic.
He only had six penalties for 47 yards against Memphis.
“They were all probably a little more confident in their work on offense,” Ingram said. “When you hurry, you know better what you’re doing. There’s no room for error; your margin for error really goes down. And slowing down, I think that was just, like, ‘Okay, everyone, take a deep breath.'”
Ingram made the decision to fire Dilfer after the Blazers’ record dropped to 2–4 the day after a loss at Florida Atlantic.
Dilfer, a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback and ESPN analyst, had a 9–21 record over two seasons at UAB.
“After the FAU game, Trent told the team, ‘I don’t think you’re a bad football team. You’re just not playing good football,'” Ingram said. “I agree with that because there were moments where we scored or had a good defensive series, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, if we keep playing like that, we’ll win a lot of football games, you know?’ And then we couldn’t sustain it.”
During a meeting with Ingram on the day he was fired, Dilfer recommended Mortensen to be the interim head coach. Before Dilfer hired him, Mortenson was a position coach for only one season, in 2012 when he was the quarterbacks coach at Division II New Mexico Highlands.
Mortenson, who played quarterback arkansas And SamfordSpent nine seasons as a graduate assistant and analyst alabama From 2014 to 2022. While he was there the Crimson Tide won three national championships and went 115–12.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban said, “I thought he was one of the smartest guys we ever had in our program.” “He really understood football, he had great knowledge and good progress in teaching. He was a quiet guy, which I always talked to him about. He needed to be more sociable and more assertive with the players and his teammates.”
During his nine seasons at Alabama, Mortensen was exposed to several offensive coordinators who are now head coaches in college football and the NFL: Lane Kiffin (ole miss), Steve Sarkisian (texas), Brian Daboll (New York Giants), Mike Locksley (maryland) and Bill O’Brien (boston college,
Mortenson worked primarily with quarterbacks while teaching NFL starters at Alabama jalen hurts, tua tagovailoa, mac jones and Heisman winners bryce young along the way.
“Technically he had a really good knowledge of the position,” Saban said. “He was just made of the right stuff. He didn’t have a big ego and never got affected by all that stuff. He was a really good teacher and helped develop a lot of good players.”
Saban said Mortensen stuck with him for nearly a decade because other schools were unwilling to give him a chance until Dilfer arrived.
Saban said, “He never could succeed and never get the opportunity because everyone always said, ‘Well, you need experience.’ “But he’s an example of a guy who had tremendous resiliency to persevere and persevere despite ups and downs professionally. He believed in himself and prepared himself so that when he got his opportunity, he could take advantage of it, and he certainly did that.”
One person who wasn’t surprised by Mortenson’s ability to remain steadfast and focused in the final minutes of UAB’s win against Memphis was NFL reporter Adam Schefter, who worked with Chris Mortenson for 15 years at ESPN.
Schefter, Alex Mortenson and ESPN analyst Chris Berman delivered the eulogy at Chris Mortenson’s funeral. Mortensen died on March 3, 2024. He was 72 years old.
“I could barely handle it,” Schefter said. ,[Alex] Got there – and this was his father and the most important person in his life – and he was as calm and patient as anyone could ever hope for. I have never been as calm and collected as he was that day.”
Chris Mortenson joined ESPN in 1991 and was a regular contributor to the network’s NFL show and “Sportscenter.” In 2016, he received the Dick McCann Award from the Pro Football Writers of America and was honored during the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony in August of that year.
Chris Mortensen was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer in January 2016. He stepped down from his role at ESPN in 2023.
Schefter said, “There was nothing that made Mort happier than Alex.” “When he stepped back a little [from work]He wanted to watch Alex’s teams, and he wanted to see Alex coach. This was the hope. This is what he wanted to do in his spare time. “I can’t explain how much he loved Alex.”
Schefter, who remains in close contact with Alex, watched UAB’s win over Memphis on TV with his family on Saturday. As Schefter watched his late friend’s only child guide his team to one of the season’s biggest upsets, he messaged with some ESPN colleagues.
At one point during the game, Schefter wrote, “I can’t believe how much I care about this game.”
Someone replied: “That’s what love does to you.”
“We love Mort, and we love Alex,” Schefter said. “We’re very proud of him. And in a way, we feel like we’re representing Mort, taking care of Alex and cheering for him and supporting him from a distance.”
Alex Mortensen also thought a lot about his late father Saturday.
“I think about my dad every day and think about what he told me to do,” Mortensen said. “I look to his advice on a lot of things, and so I’m always wondering what he would say to me. Saturday was certainly no different.”
As Burton took a knee in preparation for the win to cap off UAB’s surprise upset, Schefter sent a text to Chris Mortenson’s widow, Mickey, congratulating her on Alex’s win and telling her how much it meant to many of Chris’s former teammates.
Her reply: “Tears of joy,” along with heart emojis.
