College football Week 5 thread: Shout at the Blue Devil

[Songbird]

Now that's a hit.

 

[BTExpress]

Spencer Rattler on last night's loss at Tennessee: "It's their Super Bowl."

He must think he plays for Alabama.

 

[Neutral Corner]

The interview at the end could be measured on the Scoville Scale.

Funny how people want to snipe at Dilfer for blowing up when a bonehead by his coaching staff wastes a desperately needed defensive stop and a chance to tie the game with eight minutes left when Saban has done this countless times now on the 'Bama sideline, chewing both players and coaches. I *know* it was a bad look and better handled in private, but I also know that UAB's special teams have been very poor and a point of emphasis.

The general take I have seen among the UAB fans is that it's good to see a coach show some emotion and get fired up when things go poorly, which the now departed interim coach and former OC never did. There is also a general feeling that there are a lot of people piling on who didn't like the Dilfer hire and look for reasons to find fault with the guy.

UAB played seven true freshmen against Georgia. Dilfer is playing the best guys he has, guys who step up and show effort, the players he perceives to have the drive and desire to win regardless of their age and class status. We're even playing some walkons. That's going to pay dividends over the coming years but it makes things tough now. heck, WR Amare Thomas, who had eight catches for 99 yards against Tulane, is 17 years old.

Dilfer won a Super Bowl and he also played on losing teams. He hates losing. He blew up, but half of what you saw was after the ST coach responded. I don't know if he made an excuse, what he said, but it was just a butt chewing until he threw gas on the fire.

 

[Neutral Corner]

One more thing, Pat McAfee is a tool, Desmond Howard too for taking Wazzu's and Ohio State's coaches to task for answering back to stupid shirt said by Lee Corso and Lou Holtz last week. They compared it to "elder abuse."

fork them. Old or not, if you don't want criticism, don't say stupid shirt. Imagine WSU answering back to the network which helped break up the Pac-12 and calling out Corso for taking a pot shot at one of the most exciting teams in football this year. And I am no Ohio State fan, but calling them "soft" and "not physical" on national TV is some stupid shirt.

David Pollock was an SEC honk but he was much better than McAfee, who didn't even know about the Wazzu flag tradition at Gameday.

"Ah, who cares! Who cares! Were you guys showing this flag when they were 1-11 in 2009? How about 2-10 in 2010? You were? That's wild. So when they SUCKED, you guys were showing them every single week on the biggest college football show? Wow! Handle success, Ryan Leaf! Geez… I want a West Virginia flag flying up there every single time. We don't get it, Washington State gets it, and all of a sudden, Washington State's going, 'Now Big Beav's up there!' Like, shut up! Washington State, about sick of you! Waste of time on this show…"

McAfee is a deck and a huge waste of money.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Ole Miss Security Guy does a good impersonation of the defenses that were on the field tonight.

He hit that woman harder than any Ole Miss defender would have.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Spencer Rattler on last night's loss at Tennessee: "It's their Super Bowl."

He must think he plays for Alabama.

Has anyone outside of Furman or The Citadel considered South Carolina their "Super Bowl" game? That might be the dumbest thing I've heard all season, from a player.

 

[goalmouth]

@Neutral Corner UAB's "we beat ourselves" whining after the Tulane loss reminded me of USC's similar whining after losing the Cotton Bowl to Tulane.

So you're ready for a NY6 game!

 

[Neutral Corner]

Team's 1-4. They've played the hard part of the schedule. Every game from here is winnable, especially if the defense gels even a little bit. First year starting QB Jacob Zeno (Jr), behind a completely new OL, is currently ranked 17 if you go to ESPN, individual stats, passing.. (75% comp, 1442 yds, 8 td, 4 int, 11 sacks) #15 is Bo Nix and 16 is Sam Hartman. This is going to be a pretty good team next year. This is a rebuilding year. 51 new players who were scramble recruited after the late hire of a coach who was not recruiting college players at the time of the hire.

I had called a five win floor preseason and there is no reason that still can't be done. Remaining are S. Florida, at UTSA (a darn good team having a rough season)., Memphis, FAU, at Navy, Temple, at N. Texas. The tradition here is tough defense. If that gets sorted out things will improve. Dilfer is going to recruit, and he and OC Alex Mortenson can game plan. No one here is sold on the current DC who came with Dilfer, but the jury is still out. The coaching staff is five games in.

Dilfer does not have a dedicated special teams coach. Kenneth Gilstrap, who coaches DB's, is the ST coordinator. He came from Middle Tennessee, and had a couple of very good years coaching ST. Frankly, I hope he does not get fired, because I saw an extended interview with him and really liked what I heard. We'll see if anything comes of this beyond a sideline blowup. At this point I have heard nothing at all about the aftermath, but it's really early still.

 

[SixToe]

If the UAB ST coach chirped back, further enraging Dilfer, and the ST play has been poor-spotty-sucky, perhaps Dilfer should send him packing? Or is this just first-year squabblyshirt getting aired out because "we're competitive" and all that?

Saban blows off at his guys but do they spray gas on the fire? Kiffin did, occasionally. The chirpy assistant doesn't always get the last chirp, though.

 

[Neutral Corner]

From his bio on the UAB staff page:


"Gilstrap comes to Birmingham after having spent the four previous seasons (2019-2022) coaching cornerbacks at his Alma Mater Middle Tennessee. In February of 2022, he was also given the responsibilities of special teams coordinator.

Gilstrap turned the cornerbacks at Middle Tennessee into one of the disruptive units in all of college football over the last two seasons as the Blue Raiders ranked second nationally in passes intercepted in 2022 (20) and fifth nationally in 2021 (17). Additionally, Middle Tennessee was third nationally last season in blocked kicks (6) and fifth nationally in blocked punts (4) under Gilstrap's tutelage. Middle Tennessee was 15-11 over the last two years and won back-to-back bowl games.

Gilstrap's punter and long snapper earned First Team All-Conference USA honors in 2022 and he also had three defensive backs and one kick returner earn postseason accolades last year. Along with the postseason honors, Gilstrap helped Decorian Patterson lead the nation in interceptions (7) in 2022."

I think he made an excuse. He certainly said something that made things worse. As I said above, I kinda hope that he is not fired, or that if so it happens after the rest of the season and that he is judged by the season's ST performance. I think it was just a bad moment that got out of hand while televised. There was no question that it would blow up on Twitter, and without the context as to why Dilfer lost it.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Well, heck. It wasn't Gilstrap. This article identifies him as "Assistant Coach Beau Dawson". UAB does not list a coach by that name. I've seen him listed as a former player and the son of a former player, but I don't know him. Might be the son of someone Dilfer played with? I don't know the guy. The article also states that Dilfer was angry over UAB's repeated penalties when they had 3 penalties for 12 yards. We were good for an average of 100 yards a game in penalties under Bill Clark. This is an area that the new staff has done a great job of cleaning up.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/uabs-trent-dilfer-tears-assistant-coach-crucial-penalty

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Well, heck. It wasn't Gilstrap. This article identifies him as "Assistant Coach Beau Dawson". UAB does not list a coach by that name. I've seen him listed as a former player and the son of a former player. I don't know the guy. The article also states that Dilfer was angry over UAB's repeated penalties when they had 3 penalties for 12 yards. We were good for an average of 100 yards a game in penalties under Bill Clark. This is an area that the new staff has done a great job of cleaning up.

UAB's Trent Dilfer tears into assistant coach after crucial penalty

I suspect that in the last 24 hours one or more of those coaches has had a sit-down with Dilfer to explain that he gets one of those and that was it. If it happens again, one of them needs to beat him unconscious on the sidelines.

I've never had a job I needed so badly that I would let a boss treat me the way Trent forking Dilfer treats his staff.