I’ve watched 35 years of UAB football. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a defensive performance like Marlin Dean’s.

As I watched the replay of UAB's Marlin Dean wrecking Navy to earn American Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors, I couldn't help but go back in time to get some perspective on what I'd just witnessed.

I was there on the sidelines the day Josh Evans, who would go on to start in a Super Bowl for the Tennessee Titans, had 21 tackles against Tennessee Wesleyan in 1992.

I was there, too, when Rod Foster sacked the Washington & Lee quarterback four times, helping UAB notch the first NCAA win in program history in 1991. No one has topped the mark, set in UAB's third game ever, since.

I was calling the game on radio when Robert Leslie had a half-dozen tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and fumble recovery in a destruction of Morehead State in 1994.

And I listened on radio when Marvin Burdette made 24 tackles at Tulane, still the program record, in 2012.

I've seen great performances from most of the players whose names still live in the UAB record book, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a performance at UAB — or very few other places, from high school to the NFL — like what Dean did to Navy at Protective Stadium.

Dean finished with 12 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery — career highs across the board — in UAB's 24-20 win over a Navy team that entered with the second-best rushing attack in the country. The American Conference named him its Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.

Most of the damage came in the fourth quarter. Navy had taken a 20-17 lead in the third. The Midshipmen's option offense — averaging 376 rushing yards per game — was grinding forward again with just under 11 minutes left when Dean buried his helmet into the chest of Navy quarterback Jackson Gutierrez, driving him backward for a 15-yard loss. The ball came loose. Chris Spencer fell on it at the Navy 48.

One play later, Bam McReynolds went 48 yards for a touchdown to give UAB a 24-20 lead.

Three minutes later, Dean forced another fumble on a Navy run and recovered it himself at the UAB 44. On the game's final snap, he forced a third, and then he ran down the offensive lineman who tried to run with it.

"To be honest, not in the moment," Dean said when asked whether he understood how big those plays were. "I just realized like it's, we're in the middle of a game that we need to win. And so just staying focused and staying within the game and not focusing on the play, just staying in the game."

Dean came to UAB as a sixth-year player from Elberton, Ga., with stops at Georgia, Butler Community College, Utah State and Georgia State. He was recruited to Georgia as an offensive tackle before dropping weight to move to the defensive line. UAB head coach Alex Mortensen said Friday night that Dean had always shown the ability but had not put together a game like this one.

"It is part of the reason we brought him in," Mortensen said. "Really very high on Marlin. Liked him when we were recruiting him. But Marlin also, to this point, and we felt like really talented guy, and we really like a lot of his personality and character traits. But hadn't had this kind of production yet."

"We felt like we could see it in him," Mortensen said. "... We are not giving up on development and seeing what a guy, not for just what he is, but what he can be. And we felt like Marlin has an incredibly high ceiling, incredibly high. Something that Coach Grantham and I have talked about a lot, like, 'Hey, if we can get everything out of him and help him grow, he can really help his future and also bring a lot of value to our team.'"

Through four games, Dean has 18 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss, four sacks, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

"I think Marlin in a short time period is really developing in a lot of areas," Mortensen said.

The defense around Dean has been just as good. UAB through four games ranks second nationally in pass defense at 113 yards per game and leads the American in both pass defense and total defense. Their six sacks against Navy were the most by UAB since the 2023 season opener and the most against an FBS opponent since 2021. They held the second-best rushing team in the country 127 below its season average and shut Navy out in the fourth quarter.

For a program that has not played much defense since 2021, there's a new swagger on that side of the ball. Players and fans are starting to believe as the evidence validates the improvement.

Dean is the second Blazer to earn the American's weekly defensive honor this season. Linebacker Ike Esonwune won it in Week 2 after a 15-tackle, one-sack game against ULM. Before 2026, no UAB player had ever received the award. Two Blazers have earned it in four weeks.

Dean credited defensive coordinator Todd Grantham's game plan for the Navy win.

"Coach Grantham had a scheme for us this whole week and it was more on physicality and making sure the details of the little things are done," Dean said. "And so I felt like we executed that the whole game and it played in our favor. Like once again, the plays that we did make, they came from us doing the little things right and paying attention to detail."

Grantham was hired in January. In nine months, the defense has gone from a unit opponents attacked at will to one producing takeaways in bunches and ranking nationally in pass defense.

"I give Coach Grantham a ton of credit, our defense players for understanding the plan," Mortensen said. "And ultimately, too, you know, it's like, man, just playing with their hair on fire, getting off blocks, shedding blocks, getting guys on the ground."

"I'm really glad he's here," Mortensen said. "I'm glad we got him here, and I think he's done an outstanding job."

The crowd at Protective Stadium fed off the defense's energy Friday night, but Dean said it ran the other way.

"They played a part, but we already came in with our own mindset, with our own energy and focus," Dean said. "So we just kept that energy within the sideline. The crowd felt that and so that played off us really. They felt our energy."

After the game, a reporter told the players that ESPN had given UAB less than a 20 percent chance to win.

"Don't doubt us," Dean said.

UAB (2-2, 1-0 American) hosts Samford on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 2:30 p.m. CT at Protective Stadium.