How Marlin Dean put it all together in Birmingham

Marlin Dean recorded 2.5 sacks in three seasons at the FBS level before he arrived at UAB. He played one game at Georgia as a redshirt freshman in 2021. He had 1.5 sacks in nine games at Utah State in 2024. He had one in 11 games at Georgia State in 2025.

In nine games in Birmingham, he has 10.5 — tied for the national lead. He has the highest pass-rush grade in college football according to Pro Football Focus, ranking first among 844 qualified edge defenders at 93.1. He has five forced fumbles, tied for the most in the country. He has won American Conference Defensive Player of the Week twice. Before this season, no UAB player had ever received the award since the Blazers joined the conference in 2023. He is a rising NFL draft prospect. Charlotte head coach Tim Albin said before his team played UAB this month: "The Marlin Dean kid is sacks. I mean, he's a first day draft guy."

Dean is 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds. He used to weigh 300. He used to play offensive line. The story of how a five-school, fifth-year player became the most disruptive defensive force in college football starts in rural Georgia, winds through five locker rooms and lands in a city where the last UAB edge rusher to generate this kind of attention became a first-round NFL draft pick.

The journey

Dean grew up in Elberton, Ga., and played both ways in high school — offensive line and defensive line. He was good enough on the offensive side that major programs recruited him as a lineman. He was listed at 300 pounds. Before his senior year, he transferred to IMG Academy, the elite training ground in Bradenton, Fla., that has produced dozens of NFL players. Something changed there.

"The offensive side started when I was in high school. I was playing both ways, and then I started getting a heavy name in the recruitment process," Dean told the American Conference podcast earlier this fall after being named the league's defensive player of the week for his performance in a win over Navy. "And then during that time when I was going to IMG, I moved to D line, and I just fell in love with it more."

He signed with Georgia as a three-star prospect and redshirted in 2021, appearing in one game with two tackles. He spent a second year with the Bulldogs in 2022 without seeing the field. He transferred to Butler Community College in Kansas, where the move to the defensive line began to pay off — seven sacks in nine games, a first-team all-conference selection, a four-star JUCO rating from 247Sports and a ranking as the No. 2 junior college defensive end in the country.

Utah State signed him. He played nine games and recorded 1.5 sacks. Georgia State signed him. He played 11 games, made 32 tackles and recorded one sack. The tools were there. The production was not.

Then UAB's staff found his film.

"I think when we all saw Marlin's film, we were all pretty excited because we felt like there was a high ceiling here — a guy that had not even come close to playing his best, not even close," UAB head coach Alex Mortensen said.

The first day

Three of Dean's teammates were asked independently when they first knew he was going to be a special player. All three pointed to the same window — the earliest moments of spring practice.

Cam Cunningham, a defensive lineman who plays alongside Dean: "The first day of spring ball with the pads on. You know, 'cause, you know, it's hard to gauge without pads. But he got out there, and he was just flying around. I was like, man, hey, Marlin's different."

Donovan Lawrence, an offensive lineman who has to practice against Dean daily, saw it from the other side of the ball: "We were, uh, just seeing him run, man. Like, he's quick and knowing, seeing, knowing his background, like, he came from a long way. Used to be an O lineman, and just to see that change and the way he moves is just insane."

Darrell Sweeting, a defensive back: "Oh, he a beast. He a beast. He like six-five. Like, he even move like it, like the way he moves and everything."

Mortensen's recognition came in the same period. "Was there a moment? First team pass period," he said. "I mean, it was like — and really we knew, frankly, in the offseason the way he was performing."

Dean had spent the summer transforming his body under director of sports performance Lyle Henley. Mortensen noted the results. "His power clean was really impressive, particularly for a guy of his height," Mortensen said. "That bar got moved a long way."

The edge he carries

Dean's offensive line background is not just a biographical detail. It is a competitive advantage. He spent years learning how offensive linemen think — how they set, how they slide, what their tendencies reveal about the play call. Now he uses that knowledge against them.

"Coming into college and using both of those sides of the ball and having the knowledge of it, it makes the game a little bit more, like, easier and slows it down during the game 'cause, like, I could pick up off tips of the O-line that, like, I remember when I was in high school 'cause the game will still be the game at the end of the day," Dean said.

Lawrence, an offensive lineman himself, said the transition from one side to the other almost never works at the college level. "Coming O lineman to a speed rusher is, like, unheard of," Lawrence said. "But, uh, definitely, 'cause when you play O line, you, you know, you know what they like to do. You know, uh, how the offense works, how they slide to you. So definitely knowing that, the offensive scheme, it definitely helps you as a D lineman for sure."

Lawrence practices against Dean regularly. His teammates call Dean "Marlo." Asked what it is like to block him, Lawrence laughed. "Sliding towards Marlo is, uh, you know what I mean?" he said. "The boy, he quick."

The coaching architecture

The production did not happen by accident. UAB hired Todd Grantham as defensive coordinator in January. Grantham, who has coached at the SEC, Big Ten and NFL levels — including a stint with the Dallas Cowboys where he coached Pro Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware — brought the system. UAB's recruiting staff, led by Brendan Donovan and Lino Lupinetti, found the players. Mortensen connected the two.

"I want to give our recruiting department, our personnel department, a lot of credit," Mortensen said. "... And then obviously Coach Grantham is a really good evaluator and has really good work ethic. Those guys worked really hard to get a good group."

Mortensen listed what Grantham saw in Dean and developed: "Let's start with his tools. I think he's talented. He's got really good physical traits in terms of the size that you want in a position like that. He's very explosive. He's very fast-twitch. He's fast off the ball."

Then came the teaching. "I think the next thing is he's really embraced the teaching," Mortensen said. "Coach Grantham's done a tremendous job. He would talk about that whole thing of the teacher and the student and your partnership working together. Coach Grantham's got an immense amount of knowledge. He's a great teacher. And I think Marlin has really embraced that."

Grantham has compared Dean to Ware. The comparison is ambitious — Ware finished his career with 138.5 sacks and a bust in Canton — but the physical profiles share traits that Grantham would recognize. Both are tall, explosive edge rushers with long frames and violent first steps who can also set the edge against the run.

Cunningham described Grantham's approach: "He's definitely a player's coach, for sure. But, like, when we get on that field, we're trying to attack everybody." Sweeting used one word: "Gritty."

The impact

Dean's numbers through nine games: 40 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss (leads the American), 10.5 sacks (leads the American, tied for the national lead), five forced fumbles (tied for the national lead). His 10.5 sacks are the fifth most in a single season in UAB history and the most by a Blazer since Larry McSwain's 13 in 2004. He has three games remaining.

PFF grades his pass-rushing at 93.1, the highest among 844 qualified edge defenders in the country. DraftTek rates him the No. 8 draft prospect in the American Conference.

His teammates describe the effect in football terms. Sweeting, a cornerback, said an elite pass rusher changes the math for every defensive back on the field: "It make it easy 'cause the ball gotta come out super fast. Without him, like, quarterback have time to sit there and hold the ball. It makes it hard for us to cover for more seconds." Sweeting said a Charlotte player told him after the game: "Yo, y'all D line so good."

"He rush, we recover," Sweeting said. "That's how I look at it."

Cunningham, who plays on the same defensive line, said Dean's production is creating opportunities for everyone around him: "Marlin keeps rushing the way he's rushing, we all gonna get paid soon. They're obviously gonna keep sliding his way, and then that's just gonna open one-on-ones for everybody else."

UAB's defense as a whole has followed Dean's arc. The Blazers lead the American in total defense at 298.6 yards per game and rank first nationally in passing defense at 122.6 yards per game.

The comparison

The last UAB edge rusher to generate this kind of NFL draft attention was Bryan Thomas, a 6-4, 265-pound defensive end from Birmingham who became the program's first-ever first-round draft pick when the New York Jets selected him 22nd overall in 2002. Thomas ran a 4.50 forty at the combine. Jets head coach Herm Edwards said after the pick: "It was Bryan. It wasn't even close."

Thomas finished his UAB career with 36 sacks — a CUSA record at the time — and 56 tackles for loss. He was a first-team All-CUSA selection, a second-team All-American and a member of the CUSA All-Decade Team. He anchored UAB's "Steel Shield" defense that led the nation in rushing defense at 57.3 yards per game in 2001. Dean's path is different — Thomas was a four-year starter, Dean is a one-year rental — but the profile rhymes. Elite physical tools on a tall frame. A pass-rushing dominance that forces offensive coordinators to account for one player on every snap. An ability to change games from the defensive end position at a school that rarely produces that kind of individual talent. Mortensen described the effect Dean has on opposing game plans: "When you deal with a great pass rusher like Marlin, it can be very limiting for you, because if you wanna call pass plays, you've gotta have a plan on how to protect him. And with everything you do, just like in life, there's trade-offs with almost every decision you make."

What drives him

Ask Dean where the confidence comes from, and the answer has nothing to do with sacks or draft boards. "It's all God, to be honest. It's all God," he said after the Charlotte game. "Every day I come out here, every week I practice, every time I'm able to step on the field, it's a blessing from God."

He knows what the five schools and the long road mean. "The player I am today is from the four to five years that I've been in college," Dean said. "... He was able to keep my head high through all those times, and I'm able to show my ability to the fullest."

UAB has three games remaining — at Temple, home against UTSA and at North Texas. The Blazers are one win from bowl eligibility for the first time since 2022. The American Conference championship race is alive. Dean's season is not finished, and neither is his story.

Mortensen said the most important thing about Dean might be what he has not done — declare that he has arrived. "Maybe the best part about him is his hunger," Mortensen said. "There's no sense with anyone in our program, defensively or with Marlin, that there's any kind of arrival here, even though he's got a pretty prominent national stat. I think he's very hungry to go accomplish more and get better and continue to press forward."