What Alex Mortensen said Monday ahead of the Louisiana-Monroe game

UAB head coach Alex Mortensen provided a positive update Monday on offensive lineman Payton Kirkland, who left Thursday's 42-23 loss at Illinois with an injury. Mortensen said the injury is recoverable but that the timetable for his return remains unclear. He expressed confidence in the Blazers' depth at the position, citing Keyon Cox, Kyrik Mason and Barry Walker Jr. as players who can step into the role.

"We feel really good about Keyon, and we feel good about Payton, too," Mortensen said. "It is something he can recover from. I think the timetable's the question."

Mortensen framed the Illinois loss as a game that hinged on two plays — a Hail Mary touchdown before halftime and a late interception returned for a score — calling it a 14-point swing that obscured an otherwise competitive performance. The Blazers generated 413 yards of offense, converted over 50 percent of their third downs and went 3-for-4 on fourth down, but too many red zone trips ended in field goals instead of touchdowns.

"We're incredibly hungry and maybe even a little bit irritated" by the missed opportunities, Mortensen said. He pointed to pre-snap penalties and a passing game still building chemistry among new players as the primary areas the staff is working to correct.

UAB (0-1) hosts Louisiana-Monroe (0-1) in its home opener Saturday at Protective Stadium (2:30 p.m., ESPN+). The Warhawks are led by former UAB interim head coach and offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent, who returns to Birmingham for the first time as an opposing head coach. Several current Blazers staff members have ties to the Vincent era, including running backs coach Hindley Brigham, assistant head coach Lyle Henley and assistant strength and conditioning coach Bryant Novick — connections Mortensen said he values.

Full transcript

On recapping the Illinois game:

Alex Mortensen: "You look at the game, I think there are a multitude of things we did well, but there are a multitude of things we need to do better, and we'll be working to do better. If you were to really kind of summarize it, if you go back to two plays — if you don't give up a Hail Mary before the half, and if we don't throw a desperation interception for a touchdown return, that's a 14-point swing in two plays alone. So it's like a five-point game, hypothetically, in the fourth quarter."

On the offensive performance at Illinois:

Alex Mortensen: "Offensively, we moved the chains a lot — had 413 yards of offense, over 50 percent on third down, 3-for-4 on fourth down. The good news is we scored in the red zone. The bad news is more of those need to be touchdowns, not field goals. It's good we made trips down there and got down there."

On red zone execution and penalties:

Alex Mortensen: "Some of the causative things of why we need to score down there — one, we've got to execute the plays we are running better, and make sure we've got a good plan. But the other part, most obviously, is we had two critical penalties down there. Pre-snap penalties where we had false starts. Illinois does a lot to simulate cadence. They stem their front, move their front. We were prepped for it. You may have noticed if you watched the game, they actually called Illinois on a penalty for doing that once. Some of the other times, I guess they elected not to call the penalty on them. So one, we'd like to eliminate the penalty. Two, if we have the penalty, still want to score a touchdown. That's something we're gonna work on.

"If you take our opening drive of the game, we got the ball first and ended up right at the kick line. It was third-and-six, and we had a run on — running back goes out of bounds at the 13-yard line. Would've had a new set of downs, and then they called a holding penalty on our tight end, who I think pancaked their corner. So that's another one. We've got to make sure we keep our hands inside there."

On building chemistry in the passing game:

Alex Mortensen: "One of the things we've talked about a lot is when you have a lot of new players, we're trying to build chemistry in the passing game. We felt like we had three missed opportunities in the passing game — whether it's route detail, quarterback footwork, those things of that nature — that would've resulted in touchdowns. So those are other opportunities to turn field goals to touchdowns. Those are points of emphasis. We're confident we can improve those things."

On the defense and special teams:

Alex Mortensen: "Special teams-wise, we obviously gave up a big punt return, but did some other good things. Defensively, I touched on the Hail Mary, and we gave up a couple big plays on a run and on a little screen-and-go. But we actually played pretty staunchly in a lot of areas against the run. I think we got better as the game went on, and that was positive."

On looking ahead to Louisiana-Monroe:

Alex Mortensen: "It's a new week, new game. We're playing Louisiana-Monroe. We've got them at home, 2:30 Saturday. They're led by Bryant Vincent, who obviously was here at UAB. He's been the interim head coach here. He's been the offensive coordinator here. I have a lot of respect for Coach Vincent. Got to know him a little bit when I joined the staff when they were transitioning, and have enjoyed the conversations I've had with him. I have a lot of respect for the work he's done through his career as a coordinator and now also as a head coach. He's done a good job.

"He's got new coordinators on both sides of the ball this year, both on offense and on defense. And he's got some guys on his staff that I was fortunate to have an opportunity to work with in the past. So certainly expect a challenge, and we're working to prepare for this game very hard."

On defending the Hail Mary and his philosophy on those situations:

Alex Mortensen: "There are a lot of different philosophies on these things, and I think there's a good argument for rushing the passer. Without divulging too many strategic things, we've got mechanisms to do it all. We've got mechanisms to rush a variety of numbers. Obviously you saw us not rush many the other night, and we've got ways to rush more than that. Some of those things also depend on whether you feel like you need to defend the sidelines as well.

"The biggest thing, and the most important thing, is obviously as a coaching staff, we're always gonna evaluate whether or not we made the right calls, and going forward, whether or not we should make a different call in that situation. We're gonna after-action that every week. That's something we're scrutinizing and have talked through. But then the other part is the coaching of the players — we had two guys that need to box out in that situation. And then the most obvious thing is get the ball down, swat it down. These are things we do work on. We work on them in spring, we work on them in fall camp, and we touch on them in game week. We've just got to evaluate what we're doing strategically, but also we have to execute it better."

On the value of opening against a Big Ten team rather than an FCS opponent:

Alex Mortensen: "I think you do learn a lot about your team when you play an opponent of the quality of Illinois, and a lot about your players. That's one of the big challenges we've been trying to evaluate, and you hope at this point we're not learning too much in the first game — but you are. You are learning about your guys, and so I think it does help you go forward as you're forming your identity and understanding what directions we want to go in all three phases."

On confidence and his "no scoreboard mentality":

Alex Mortensen: "One of the things we talk about a lot — and it might fall in the category of cliché, but it is not here and it's not with me — is having this no scoreboard mentality and understanding that each play's got a history and life of its own, and we have a standard of expectation of how we want to play.

"Even to just take the scoreboard out of it, take the concept of 'was it a moral victory, was it not' — take all those things out of it. There are a number of plays in the game where we had a lot of guys play to our standard, and that is really good and positive. And then we've got a number of plays where you go, 'Okay, if we're two more steps on this route and the quarterback's timing's right, we're piercing the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.' If we clean this part up, we're scoring. So for me and for our players and our staff, we're incredibly hungry and maybe even a little bit irritated, too, that those things happened, and chomping at the bit to get on the practice field and work."

On Ryder Burton's accountability after the loss:

Alex Mortensen: "I think it's important for players to take responsibility. Players often find when they take responsibility for their actions, their play gets better. I think most people find that in life — when you take responsibility for things in your life, your life gets better.

"I think that's really positive for him to be that way. We want all the guys on our team to be that way. And when you're a quarterback, there are components of leadership that are important to playing quarterback, and I think that's a really important trait for a leader — to take responsibility. I do think it helps the locker room, particularly because I don't think it's performative or phony with him. I think he really feels that way."

On Payton Kirkland's injury and offensive line depth:

Alex Mortensen: "In terms of Payton, we're monitoring that, but we feel really good about Keyon, and we feel good about Payton, too. We'll continue to monitor Payton's recovery. It is something he can recover from. I think the timetable's the question.

"We've got a lot of confidence in Keyon. We've got a lot of confidence in Kyrik Mason. Barry Walker (Jr.) is a guy that had an offseason injury that was in a really good position at one time. So I think we've got really good players at that position, and we'll get them all ready to go and figure out how we're gonna play the game. I think we've got plenty of guys there that can do it."

On the UAB-ULM staff connections:

Alex Mortensen: "There are a lot of connections this week between the programs. I've got so much respect for what was done here at UAB — bringing the program back, all the work that took, and the success that was had in Conference USA and all the competitive teams that we had here.

"Bringing Hindley Brigham back is awesome. Hindley's got a great track record with running backs, both as a recruiter and a coach and developer of the position, and I think he's got some really good big-picture thoughts, too, program-wide. So having him here has been a real blessing. And then you've got Lyle Henley, who's been here a long time, and there's some crossover and ties there. Having Lyle here is excellent. Bringing Bryant Novick back here has been great. I think all these guys are high-quality individuals that have a lot going for themselves, but also I think their history with the program helps us, too. I'm really glad to have them, and we'll see what the future holds. We may have more people in the future that have ties to that time period."

On the running game at Illinois:

Alex Mortensen: "The offensive line did a good job. There's certainly, like every position, gonna be plays and areas where we're gonna say we could have been better here or there. But they did a good job by and large getting these runs started. We had some receivers do a good job as well, whether we're asking them to be a part of an RPO or blocking.

"Our backs did a good job. Bam (McReynolds), Rod (Robinson), Ja'Vin (Simpkins) had some carries. I think those guys showed really good vision, patience, burst. They were really good at the point of contact, whether it's making guys miss, falling forward, running through arm tackles. As you continue to play real football, I think they're only gonna get even better. I really do. Good start for them. I'm not gonna quite say we're pleased with anything or satisfied with anything, but it's a really good start."

On scouting ULM:

Alex Mortensen: "I would expect them to be well prepared. Coach Vincent will do a good job with his team in all three phases. He's done a nice job with his offense through the years. He kind of reinvented what he did and did a good job with a new identity. Now he's got a new coordinator there who has a good scheme, and they look well coached. Defensively, he's working with a guy that he worked with at New Mexico, so he's got history with him there, too. They've done a good job recruiting there. I expect a well-rounded, good team.

"The last game's not indicative of anything. They had a fourth-and-one play — they had a mix-up, they thought it was first down, they threw a ball. I think they probably wouldn't have done that. Sometimes when you have little things like that, the game can get away from you fast when you're playing a really good team. I don't think it's necessarily indicative of what I would expect from them."

On how much he studies the 2024 meeting between UAB and ULM:

Alex Mortensen: "There's so much new now. We have so many new players on both sides and different coordinators. I watch a lot of football and I watch a lot of film, but I would say there's a lot more to take into consideration than that game, particularly because we're new, too. Even though we've got some carryover on the staff, everything's new here, too."

On the team's response to the loss:

Alex Mortensen: "I want to be totally clear — we played Thursday. We've turned the page. We're focused on this game. But to answer the question, I think we had a good response from the standpoint that there was disappointment. It hurt. But there was not negativity. There was not finger-pointing. There was not a 'so-and-so's fault, not mine.' It was a healthy response.

"I don't know if this story's true, but someone told me Bill Parcells used to say that he knew if he had a quarterback after the guy threw four interceptions, and then how he showed up for Wednesday's practice. With us having a little more time, we were able to lay eyes on him over the weekend. And I felt like we have a fire in our eye that I like. Now that's not indicative of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday that's coming up, but I like that part a lot."

On fan support for Saturday's home opener:

Alex Mortensen: "I really want to encourage our students, people in Birmingham, our fan base to get to the game. It certainly can help. It's kind of two ways — you're thinking about affecting the opponent, obviously, but our players love it, too. It energizes them. We talk about not being affected by external factors — whether there's 100,000 people or nobody's there, we've got a job to do. We've got to bring our own energy.

"But all that being said, man, we love it when our fans are there and supportive. We would encourage them to come out and support our guys. It's a 2:30 kick. We've got a great stadium, great venue. We've got a lot of high-quality people on this team that are worthy of supporting and cheering for. We would love to see as many people there as we can."