Find the Extra Two

On third-and-1 in the third quarter Saturday, UAB trailing by seven, Rod Robinson — 235 pounds, former Georgia Bulldog — took a handoff, saw a ULM defender go low and jumped over him. Five yards. First down. The drive ended with a Jonah Delange field goal that cut the deficit to 20-16.

“My favorite basketball player is LeBron James,” Robinson said afterward. “The way he fly in the air — it’s mesmerizing, honestly. I just try to replicate that when it’s right there. And we got the same birthday, so.”

That was the kind of afternoon Robinson had. He ran 21 times for 114 yards in UAB’s 26-20 win over ULM, both career highs. Bam McReynolds added 16 carries for 75 yards. Together, the Blazers rushed 52 times for 266 yards, held the ball for 31:53, converted 10 of 15 third downs and never punted. Alex Mortensen got his first win as permanent head coach, and the running game is a big reason.

“Those are gritty yards,” Mortensen said. “Some of those are hard yards. We found the extra two, extra three yards a lot.”

Two paths, one backfield

Robinson was a consensus four-star prospect out of Lincoln High School in San Diego — the 2022 MaxPreps California Player of the Year who once ran for 476 yards and eight touchdowns in a game against Mater Dei Catholic. He signed with Georgia, played five games as a true freshman in 2023 and finished third on the team with 196 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He caught a touchdown reception in Georgia’s SEC Championship Game victory over Alabama.

Then he got hurt. He appeared in two games in 2024, spent 2025 as a reserve and watched his career stall behind a loaded Bulldogs depth chart. He used the time to study the game — learning to read defenses, to pick up blitzes, to see things before the snap that a California high school kid never had to process.

His father is originally from Birmingham. Robinson had a huge contingent of family at Protective Stadium on Saturday. And the kid who once scored in an SEC Championship Game got his first career 100-yard game at UAB.

“It’s just something I prayed to God about,” Robinson said afterward. “... I’ve always been a hard worker, just kept my head down, believed that my time would come. I just wanna thank my coaches for having that belief in me ... the same belief I have in myself.”

McReynolds took a different route entirely. The Mobile native played three seasons at South Alabama before transferring to ULM in 2025, where he rushed for 637 yards under Bryant Vincent — the same Bryant Vincent who spent six seasons on UAB’s coaching staff before becoming ULM’s head coach. When running backs coach Hindley Brigham returned to UAB from his own one-year stint at ULM, McReynolds followed him to Birmingham.

Saturday, he faced his former team.

“It meant a little more,” McReynolds said, “just because that was my former team.”

The contrast

Robinson is 6-1, 235 — a back who runs through defenders, falls forward and wears down a defensive front over four quarters. Asked after the game how he decides whether to hurdle or plow through, Robinson made it sound instinctive.

“You just gotta know your surroundings, know the type of players you’re going up against,” he said. “I find myself to be a slightly above average-sized back. ... Once I see him kind of chopping his feet and getting ready to get low, I just jump side to side and pray to the best one.”

McReynolds is 5-7, 190 — quicker to the edge, elusive in space, a back who makes defenders miss in ways Robinson runs through them. His 27-yard touchdown in the second quarter was the Blazers’ first touchdown of the game. It was a pitch play with a block on the edge that sprung him to the corner. Once McReynolds turned it, nobody touched him.

What did he see on the play?

“A lot of green grass,” McReynolds said.

But McReynolds finishes runs, too — driving through arm tackles with surprising power for a back his size. And Robinson, the power back, hurdled a defender. The contrast between them is real, but neither stays in his lane.

“We function as a well-oiled machine,” McReynolds said. “... Just going out and being able to produce and also watching your brothers produce is something nice to see.”

The rotation

Brigham is in his 10th season coaching UAB’s running backs. He coached Spencer Brown to 4,011 career rushing yards, DeWayne McBride to 3,542 and Jermaine Brown Jr. to 3,078 — the only three running backs in program history to eclipse 3,000 yards. He designed this room for depth, and Saturday it showed.

“Just knowing that we can go out there and throw three different guys out there and all stay fresh and do it for four quarters,” Robinson said. “We take a lot of pride in that.”

The third back, Ja’Vin Simpkins, did not factor heavily in the ULM game but remains central to the plan. A former ESPN four-star recruit who led Coastal Carolina with 591 rushing yards in 2025, Simpkins gives UAB three backs with experience and production. Mortensen made the point unprompted.

“I have a lot of confidence in Ja’Vin Simpkins,” he said.

Against ULM, Robinson and McReynolds combined for 37 of the 52 carries. The rotation kept them fresh while the Warhawks wore down. Robinson pounded the middle while McReynolds attacked the edges. The defense spent 31 minutes chasing a ball carrier who was never tired.

“I think I would get tired too if I had to chase Bam and Ja’Vin around,” Robinson said. “... Defense is out there the whole drive and we get a couple plays and rotate, stay fresh.”

The best testimony came from the other side of the ball. Jo Pierce, the linebacker who followed Todd Grantham from Oklahoma State, has spent six months trying to tackle these guys in practice.

“They’re tough backs to get down,” Pierce said. “A lot of teams struggle with them. We struggled with them in the spring and summer. ... I know what these guys put up. When we get out there on Saturday ... they’re tough. So I knew they were gonna execute and get it done, and we got to show up.”

The finish

When Ike Esonwune’s interception gave UAB the ball with 5:50 remaining and a three-point lead, Mortensen handed the game to his running backs. The Blazers ran 11 plays over 4:40 and set up Jonah Delange’s fourth field goal from 42 yards with 1:10 remaining to seal it.

“Having Bam and Rod there made me feel very comfortable that we could do it,” Mortensen said. “... Their ability to get their pads down and find the extra yardage over and over through contact is really impressive to me.”

Mortensen compared the approach to a fight.

“The anatomy of a drive is almost like a fight,” he said. “... You can win it on position. You can control a guy, you can get him on the ground, you can press him against the cage, keep him there. And I kind of felt like we did a little more of that. And maybe we can get a few more knockouts here coming up.”

Through two games, UAB has rushed 100 times for 460 yards — 230 per game. The Blazers ran for 194 against a Big Ten defense at Illinois in the opener and 266 against ULM. Three backs with different builds, different backgrounds and the same assignment: find the extra two.

“I know who we are when we’re all at our best,” McReynolds said.

Saturday was a start.