This is an opinion column.
Let me just begin by saying that I’m an enormous fan of new UAB football coach Alex Mortensen.
Mortensen, who was previously the interim coach, was given the permanent gig on Thursday night.
That’s the good news.
Now for the bad.
Apparently no one else would take the job.
UAB athletics director Mark Ingram tried to find someone — anyone — to replace the mess left by former coach Trent Dilfer. Ingram had two months to get it done. He failed miserably.
But I can’t say I’m surprised.
Why the doom and gloom? There is plenty of blame to go around, and it’s not just Ingram.
UAB football, in its current state, looks like a no-win situation to anyone with a brain. It’s an unsolvable riddle. It’s inoperable cancer.
The problem is that everyone with any amount of experience knows that coaching UAB football is a death sentence. Who in their right mind would want to kill their careers by jumping in front of UAB’s runaway train?
And yet under those circumstances, Mortensen is willing to take on the challenge. It’s admirable, but college football’s Don Quixote is going to need some help.
Let’s start with the obvious.
Ingram, the athletics director, needs to go. He should be fired today. UAB football isn’t winning anything with him around. The fans loathe him and many will simply boycott UAB football until he’s gone. If Ingram is fired, fans will start supporting the program again. Until then, games are going to be a ghost town.
But Ingram is not the root of the problem.
It’s much deeper.
A few weeks ago, a tragic and bizarre stabbing occurred at the UAB football facility. How does a culture exist where a football player stabs two of his teammates before one of the biggest games of the season? Well, it all starts at the top.
It happened because the athletics director is terrible and should be fired, the school president doesn’t care enough to do anything and the UA System Board of Trustees either refuses to step in and help or simply enjoys watching it all burn.
University president Ray Watts doesn’t know anything about collegiate athletics and doesn’t care to learn. But the stabbing happened on his campus, so it’s on him. The UA System Board of Trustees is to blame, too.
Unfair? That’s one perspective, sure, but wasn’t it the Board’s negligence that led to an environment where something like that could happen?
Together, Watts and the Board killed UAB football back in 2014. They were forced to bring it back, but it’s clear by the state of things that they can’t stand having it around.
How is a college football team in today’s modern era of the game supposed to exist without the Board and the university president doing everything in their collective power to help out?
You know how football coaches are always talking about alignment being the key to a team’s success? What they mean by that is the trustees have to be ready to lend a hand, the president has to have a clue and the athletics director must be able to raise a lot of money.
At UAB, none of those things are happening. The Blazers are the laughing stock of college football and everyone is to blame.
I have to be completely transparent. As a proud alum of UAB, and former editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and a three-time UAB intramural champion, and father of a UAB grad, most days I’m just happy that UAB football is allowed to exist.
That’s a pretty low bar, right?
Sad stuff.
Despite all of that, I think Mortensen can do a good job. After all, he’s got Nick Saban in his corner, and that should count for something.
Mortensen coached with Saban at Alabama for nine years. If anyone is ready for this opportunity, then it’s Coach Mort. He knows how to run a program, and he can win big at UAB with help from UAB’s administration, the Board, the city and, most importantly, the fans.
Mortensen was the offensive coordinator for Dilfer last season. When Dilfer was finally fired, Mortensen was elevated to interim coach and UAB quickly delivered a passionate victory against rival Memphis. The Tigers were ranked in the Top 25 at the time. For UAB, I’ll take that as a sign of good things to come.
Mortensen is smart and hard working. The players like him. He can win the AAC and take UAB to the college football playoff with the proper support. Sound ludicrous? UAB football has the potential to be great. Just look at the all-time records against its conference peers.
UAB leads Memphis 11-7. UAB only trails Tulane 7-6 and South Florida 3-2.
There is no question that UAB could dominate the AAC with meaningful, earnest help from the administration. Birmingham loves UAB, and wants to love the football team, too, but the city isn’t stupid.
They know that something isn’t quite right.
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