UAB Fires Trent Dilfer After Just 30 Games As Head Coach

Alex Mortensen will take over after the Blazers started the season 2-4.

UAB has fired head football coach Trent Dilfer after 30 games in charge. / Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

Trent Dilfer is no longer a college head coach.

The former Super Bowl champion quarterback was fired by UAB on Sunday after a rocky three-season tenure. The Blazers have opened the 2025 campaign 2-4 and have lost three games in a row, leading to the school firing its head football coach. UAB lost to Florida Atlantic 53-33 on Saturday, which appears to have been the last straw.

The school's athletic director, Mark Ingram, issued the following statement announcing the move.

We have made a decision to part ways with Head Football Coach Trent Dilfer. We agree that—unfortunately—our on-field performance has not lived up to the standard of winning we have for the program. This decision will allow us to move forward in the best long-term interest of the program. I have asked Alex Mortensen to serve as interim head coach to lead the team for the remainder of the season as we continue as a department and university to provide the support our student athletes need to compete. I wish Coach Dilfer the best and thank him for his class, tireless work and commitment during his tenure at UAB. While his efforts did not translate into a winning record, each young man who played for him will be a better person as a result.

Dilfer took over as the head coach at UAB in 2023, and in two-plus seasons went 9-21 and 5-14 in conference. He also had some controversial moments.

The 53-year-old was hired after coaching Lipscomb Academy, a private high school in Nashville, for four seasons. He was 44-10 overall at Lipscomb, and 26-1 in his final two seasons.

Mortensen will take over as the interim head coach. If that name sounds familiar, he is the son of late ESPN NFL analyst Chris Mortensen. The younger Mortensen played quarterback at Arkansas in college and has been a coach at various levels since 2012. The 39-year-old was UAB's offensive coordinator under Dilfer.

The No. 6 pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1994 NFL draft, Dilfer played 13 seasons in the NFL and led the Baltimore Ravens to a championship at Super Bowl XXXV. After retiring in 2008, he worked as an analyst for NFL Network, ESPN, and Fox Sports 1 before getting into coaching. He also helped establish the Elite 11 Academy in 2009, which continues to train some of the top high school quarterbacks in the country.

His three-season stint at UAB is now over.

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