Trent Dilfer looked like he was either going to strangle or kiss Jon Sumrall after UAB’s most recent ugly blowout loss. The former Super Bowl champion got handsy during a heated postgame exchange with Tulane’s head coach that reached uncomfortable levels of awkward.
It was yet another blemish on a bad day for the Blazers.
Dilfer was hired by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in December of 2022 despite a plea from its players to remove the interim tag from Bill Vincent instead. To say that his (less than) two-year tenure has not gone well would be an understatement. He is firmly on the hot seat and may not even make it through the regular season without being fired.
On-field results are one thing. UAB went 4-8 last season and dropped to 1-4 on Saturday. Yikes.
The Blazers went down 37-6 at halftime. The Green Wave went on to win 71-20, which would have been 71-6 without a pair of late touchdowns long after the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter.
To make optics even worse, Dilfer called a pair of timeouts while down by 51 points with less than 90 seconds left. All Tulane had to do was take a knee. Stopping the clock only delayed the inevitable.
Sumrall did not seem to appreciate the timeouts. He and Dilfer got into it during their postgame handshake. The latter got uncouthly close to the former and at one point caressed his face, which was not appreciated.
What was #Tulane HC Jon Sumrall questioning #UAB HC Trent Dilfer about after the game?
— Bleacher Brothers (@BleacherBrother) October 5, 2024
UAB called 2 timeouts trailing 71-20 when Tulane could have kneeled it out 👀 pic.twitter.com/PPr1IgOqS4
It was a super weird moment, regardless of the context.
Trent Dilfer is toast.
To the 52-year-old’s credit, he actually took responsibility for the loss. Dilfer asked for criticism to be directed at him, not his players.
What I told the players was, you know, this is there’s no manual for this as a head coach But I do know I’ve been through a lot of storms, have been booed out of stadiums and outbacks and other places, that what they can’t do is blame each other. If they need somebody to blame, they can blame me. You know, I apologize to the team for not getting them ready for that type of, physical nature of football.”
And, I’ll say to the fans like, you deserve more. City of Birmingham deserves more. If you’re going to be angry, please be angry at me. don’t be angry at our kids. Our kids are giving us everything they have. And it’s my job to, make sure something like this never happens again.
— Trent Dilfer
His postgame comments on Saturday presented a stark contrast from a bizarre exchange with a reporter earlier in the week, which was refreshing. It likely will not help to save his job. UAB drew an embarrassingly small crowd for the game against Tulane as fans boycott Trent Dilfer’s employment.
Every loss is just one step closer to unemployment.