14-year NFL quarterback and Super Bowl XXXV champion Trent Dilfer doesn’t settle for anything less than excellence. The 51-year-old California-native is currently in his first year as the head football coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and he is off to a hot start in 2023— in more ways than one.
Trent Dilfer lost his mind AND the game.
Saturday’s game against Tulane offered UAB its best chance at an FBS win. The Blazers jumped out to a 20-14 lead at halftime but could not hold on during the second half.
The Green Wave scored 14 points in the third quarter. Dilfer’s offense did not score a single point, which gave a 28-20 lead right back to the home team entering the fourth quarter.
And then the anger struck.
Tulane had 4th-and-2 at its own 28-yard-line and lined up to punt. However, an illegal substitution called on UAB gave the home team a first down.
Dilfer was enraged. He turned to special teams coordinator Kenneth Gilstrap and let him have it.
To call it an “arse-chewing” would be an understatement. Dilfer laid into his assistant coach, to the point that he followed Gilstrap onto the field and continued to berate him over the crucial mistake.
When another assistant coach tried to chime in on what happened, Dilfer shifted his focus and ripped him too.
This is not the first incident of this nature for Dilfer. He tore into one of his players during a similar sideline rampage while serving as the head football coach at Lipscomb Academy, a private high school in Nashville, during the 2021 season.
Dilfer doesn’t settle for anything less than perfection. His attitude, though surely criticized by some, is because he cares. If he didn’t care, Dilfer would have allowed Gilstrap to go unchecked.
Instead, Gilstrap got chewed out on ESPN2 for the world to see. It is hard to imagine that UAB’s special teams unit will be called for an illegal substitution in the future. Dilfer’s tirade surely sent a message.
Fortunately, Tulane’s extended drive ended with a missed field goal. Gilstrap got lucky!
UAB still went on to lose, and fell to 1-4 in Dilfer’s first year.
The passion is there. The results are not— yet.