What Alex Mortensen said ahead of the Navy game

UAB head coach Alex Mortensen did not sugarcoat the offense's performance in Saturday's 21-14 loss at Louisiana, calling it one of the poorest he has been involved with. He said he confronted the offensive players after Thursday's practice about getting casual and noted that breakdowns on game day reflected habits he saw late in the practice week.

"Offensively it's one of the poor performances I've ever been involved with in some ways," Mortensen said. "I thought we had practice habits that had been slack at certain points in the week, and I thought it was really bad on Thursday, and we talked about it afterwards."

The defense drew praise. Mortensen said the unit shut out Louisiana in the second half — the second straight week the defense dominated after halftime, following a three-point second half against ULM. He said the defense played well enough to win the game and credited the unit's adjustments, toughness and a forced turnover.

The Blazers (1-2) now turn to Navy (1-1, 0-1 American), which visits Protective Stadium on Friday night for UAB's American Conference opener on ESPN. Navy had a bye week to prepare after losing its conference opener 38-30 at Florida Atlantic. The Midshipmen lead the all-time series 3-0. It is a short week for UAB after playing Saturday, and Mortensen said the staff began game-planning on the flight home from Lafayette.

Mortensen had extensive praise for Navy's program and pushed back on a common narrative about the Midshipmen's roster.

"It's one of the biggest fallacies going that they don't have good players," Mortensen said. "They have very good players."

He called Drew Cronic's hybrid wing T offense a significant preparation challenge, tracing the scheme's roots from the traditional flexbone and Delaware wing T to the quarterback power reads and gap schemes that Navy now layers on top. Mortensen also praised head coach Brian Newberry, who is calling the defense himself this season after losing his defensive coordinator to the Baltimore Ravens.

Full transcript

On the defense's performance:

Alex Mortensen: "Our defense played very well. I thought they definitely played well enough to win the game. I know some people would probably look to some early penalties. We held them to three points in the second half, which I think is pretty remarkable. Look at the first drive — I think it took Louisiana 14 plays to score. I think we gave them 45 yards in penalties. So you can point to that, but at the end of the day, they played well enough to win. That guys played with really good heart, toughness, effort, speed, made adjustments during the game. Also created a big turnover in the game as well. So that was good to see."

On the offense at Louisiana — one of the worst performances he has been involved with:

Alex Mortensen: "Offensively we did not play well. We played very, very, very poorly. It was very disappointing. Gotta do a better job. Starts with me. I gotta do a better job. Our staff, collectively. I think Thursday, after Thursday's practice, I did confront the offense about getting casual. I thought we had practice habits that had been slack at certain points in the week, and I thought it was really bad on Thursday, and we talked about it afterwards. I don't think it's an indictment on every guy on the unit, but we do have some that have gotta understand that you reap what you sow, and we have to work hard and consistently every week. Every week. You gotta pay the price and do what it takes."

On trusting technique and training:

Alex Mortensen: "We have another category of guys that, one of the things we've talked to them about is trusting your technique and your training. There are things that rear their head in a game that we don't do in practice, and we actually went back and showed them practice clips of, 'Hey, here we are. It's the first play of the game, right? We practice this play against this exact look. We had it up for a reason. Here you are doing it right multiple times.' Then we get to the game, and you do something you're not coached to do. So what's that the product of? Is that discipline? Is it self-control? Is there something psychological there? But at the end of the day, guys have to trust their training and trust their technique.

"There's that old comparison — if you walk across a two-by-four, you walk across a two-by-four a certain way, you put it a thousand feet in the air, are you gonna change how you do it? Or are you gonna get nervous because of the stakes, just because the stakes are higher? The technique's gotta be the same, and you gotta trust the way you've been trained and trust the habits that hopefully you're creating."

On offensive development and correctable mistakes:

Alex Mortensen: "We do have a lot more guys on offense that have not played a lot of football, and football's a developmental game. We're gonna continue to work with our guys to help them develop through the year and help them get better. I have confidence that they can, and I'm very confident that we can. So it was a step back, but these are things that we can correct. Like a lot of things, on a failed play a lot of times it's one guy. It's not 10, it's not six, it's one. And there are some commonalities that show up, and we believe we can work to get them fixed.

"Finally, we gotta do a good job planning and plan to do things that our players are good at and help play to their strengths. Ultimately we gotta do a better job, and offensively it's one of the poor performances I've ever been involved with in some ways."

On the team's competitive spirit despite the offensive struggles:

Alex Mortensen: "We did have a lot of guys continue to fight and play to the end, and I was kind of amazed at the end of the game that we still had a chance to be in it, as far as certain aspects of it had gone. It was a tough game, a game that we didn't execute the way we need to, but I think anyone that's watching us play is gonna say, 'Man, that team competes. There's heart, there's toughness, they're playing together.' Hopefully that shows some progress, and we're working internally to get this team where we want it to get and get our program where we want it to get, and I think that part is a real positive."

On Friday night — Salute to Service, the American Conference opener and ESPN:

Alex Mortensen: "We're playing Friday night, so obviously it's a short week for us, but there are some neat things going on and I wanna make sure we have an opportunity to promote. We're doing a Salute to Service, so we wanna honor the men and women that serve our country. Our university wants to do that as well. We will have military members in our tunnel as our team takes the field, so we're really incredibly appreciative of them and what they do. Our Tickets for Troops promotion has gone great. Just again, want our university — we want them to know our university greatly appreciates them.

"The next thing is that it's the American opener for us at home. We're gonna have some things going on there — the Little League World Series team out of Phenix City is gonna be at the game, so that'll be neat. They're gonna be a part of our Blazer Walk. Really wanna encourage Game Green, our entire student body to really come out and support them. And then with it being a home game on ESPN on a Friday night, just wanna encourage our community, our fans, alum, everyone that can get there and make a great showing. It's a great opportunity for us to be on the stage of this magnitude, so certainly excited about that opportunity."

On Navy — respect for Newberry and the talent fallacy:

Alex Mortensen: "In terms of Navy, ton of respect for that program. I think Coach Newberry does a great job. Have been familiar with him for some time and have gotten to know him a little bit more at some of our conference meetings. They've got a great program. They've been able to create a culture and have continued success. I think you see it in the way their kids play. I think they don't have a lot of turnover, and I think they're able to create certain habits through retention that definitely show up on film.

"Coach Newberry's a defensive coach. This year, to my understanding, he's calling their defense for the first time in a little while as he lost his defensive coordinator last year to the Baltimore Ravens. But he does a fantastic job. Coach Cronic is there on offense, Drew Cronic, ton of respect for him. I think he's done a really good job with their offense as they have kind of evolved a little bit over the years beyond just the components and aspects of triple option you always expect. It's diversified significantly, really the last three years, and presents preparation challenges.

"I think the one thing for sure-certain is as much as people talk about the intangibles of their players and the character of them, they have talent. They have good players, too. I think that is one thing that certainly should not be overlooked. I think they have good talent on both sides of the ball at all three levels. It's one of the biggest fallacies going that they don't have good players. They have very good players."

On preparing on a short week against a bye-week opponent with a different scheme:

Alex Mortensen: "Anytime you're playing a team on a short week, you have to adapt and problem-solve on how to deal with that. Obviously we're also on a short week playing a team coming off a bye week, and it's a different scheme. But excited about it. We already got to work on it right away after the game. Got to work on it on the plane home. This is a great opportunity."

On the state of the passing game through three games:

Alex Mortensen: "I have confidence that we can execute it going forward through the rest of the season, but I would say it's below the standard with which we expect. It needs to be better in every component of it. We've got to protect the passer better first and foremost, and I know I've said this a lot, but there are multiple components to pass protection that involve, yes, first and foremost the offensive line, but some protections involve backs, some protections involve tight ends, and then the timing of the passing game too is another important component of protection.

"Timing a lot of times is the product of disciplined route running — whoever's running the route, whatever position they come from, running the routes on time with the correct space and the correct technique. And then the quarterback — decision-making being right and their feet, their eyes get to the right spot at the right time, playing on time, being a quick processor, being able to process information quickly. I could go through all of those. All of those things are not where we need it to be yet.

"There's a component of trust sometimes in the passing game as well. I didn't wanna say this in our preseason camp, but one thing that did concern me is some of the receivers we have playing didn't really get available till the first week. Privately I had to admit, I did have some concerns about when a guy's at the top of the route, is our quarterback gonna play with the anticipation we need him to, or is he gonna wait to see the angle and the body language because the bank reps aren't there?

"The flip side of it is football is a developmental sport. These are young men that are developing. The positive is I really believe we can have an outstanding passing game. I think we have all the makings of it. I think we got the players to do it. We're working very hard to improve all of those things. To answer your question, it's not where we want it to be, but there's no finality to that. We're three weeks in, and we can improve those things. Part of what is frustrating and disappointing sometimes is when you get people open and you can't get it to them for various reasons. But we're working to enhance and improve that with urgency."

On tight end production through three games:

Alex Mortensen: "Our tight ends have typically caught the ball a good bit by the end of the year and typically are fairly productive. This goes back years. Sometimes the read doesn't take you there. Sometimes it's what you're getting defensively. And then sometimes we should be getting it to them. So it's a little bit of all the above.

"One of the biggest mistakes — skill players can't be focused too much on your stats. You need to be focused on playing well and helping the team win. Let's just say a guy at the end of the year has 60 catches or whatever — it's usually not gonna divide by twelve and average it out. It kind of comes in lows and highs. Definitely don't wanna be overreactive to that."

On offensive injuries and whether the short week helps turn the page:

Alex Mortensen: "In terms of the injury thing, some of these guys, to be frank, are still day by day, and so we're still trying to evaluate where they're at. I can't say for sure that some of the guys that are banged up will be back Friday. Maybe they will be, maybe they won't. I'm not trying to be deceptive, but that's just — we really don't know yet.

"In terms of having a short week when you have a game like that — look, there are a lot of good things in the game. Not good enough, but I felt like defensively there's a lot of good things. But yeah, maybe it helps to turn the page faster. Even if it was a normal week, if it was a bye, we'd evaluate it, we'd move on. I think that's a really important thing to do."

On Ty Mims' play-making ability:

Alex Mortensen: "I think Ty has been outstanding. He's really competed incredibly well in games, made a lot of plays in special teams. He's a really good returner. I think he's got courage. He's tough. He's explosive, fast. He's a really good athlete. The moment's not too big for him.

"I talked earlier about some of our guys still learning to trust their training, trust their technique. Just play the way you play. Some just need to carry over practice habits to a game. Ty's a guy that does do that. And if anything, maybe he's even better on game day. Been really pleased with him and excited about continuing to build on the success he's had early."

On the significance of beating Navy at home on national television:

Alex Mortensen: "I respect and understand the question, and there's no secret about the success that they've had there, which I kinda talked about in my opening. In terms of what it means for us — look, every game's important, every week's important. We understand the challenge that's presented this week. But it's one game, and they're all important to us. They really are."

On Nigel Tate's injury status and the importance of interior defensive linemen against Navy:

Alex Mortensen: "Waiting on Nigel. Nigel's a guy that hopefully we're getting close with. It is overdue relative to the time of the injury and what the projected return would be. But we have reason to believe the rehab he's going through is going well. Hopefully Nigel's still hungry to get back out there, and I think he can help us. I like the guys we got too, the guys that are in there playing well. But it would certainly help us to get him back.

"In terms of playing a team like this — I mentioned earlier, it is a more diverse, balanced operation than maybe it was X amount of years ago. That being said, you certainly have gotta be prepared to play the runs and play them well. When you have good interior defensive linemen, it can really help a lot — guys that are stout in there that can eat up double teams, get off blocks. I think it can calm the game easier for the play caller in addition to helping everyone on the second and third level play. I think it's really important."

On offensive flexibility against Navy's run defense:

Alex Mortensen: "It is important. Offensively, we always wanna have an identity. We wanna have things that we do well and things that we're invested in. And then at the same time, with that identity, you couple it with some flexibility to be able to adjust week to week and do whatever it takes to try to win that game. If you're balanced, you have the ability to pivot a little bit. Whatever it takes each week.

"I don't anticipate us veering too far from who we are. Some of it is we just gotta do some things we do better. Going back to last week, there were some basic things that we didn't do well that largely related to execution. Unfortunately, I felt like I could see some of it coming on Thursday in the practice week. Whatever it takes to win this one, we'll try to do and be flexible if needed."

On past performances against Navy — last year's strong start that unraveled:

Alex Mortensen: "Last year we had 24 points at the half. I think our quarterback started off like seven for seven on completions and threw for touchdowns on our first three drives. We were pretty productive. I think it was 24-24 at one point. So I think we played pretty good offense last year.

"We were pretty good through about six drives, and we had a third down where we completed a pass, spun out, would've been an explosive play, and we fumbled. I think we didn't handle that well, and there was also a rain delay. One of the things is I thought there was an emotional maturity thing there, without getting into a lot of detail, but we didn't handle that well. Where we started, I thought we had a really good plan. We executed it well.

"That's one of the things we talk about — we wanna play hard. We also wanna play smart, and that's playing with discipline and poise. Some of that poise part is having emotional maturity. There's a rain delay. Somebody fumbled. Play the next play. Just play. My feeling is to this point we have a group that has an emotional steadiness about them. That's positive.

"In terms of looking at the past, every team is different. Our dynamic on how the offense has run over the last three years has been variable without going into a lot of detail. It's a new year. It's a new group of players for us. Kind of relatively fresh from that standpoint."

On what makes Drew Cronic's hybrid wing T unique:

Alex Mortensen: "It's funny — I don't know that I ever met his father, but I grew up in Georgia, and his dad was a really successful high school coach not far from where I grew up, kind of on the south side of Atlanta, and they were a wing T operation to my knowledge. I think one of my coaches actually went and listened to him speak one time. When I was in ninth grade, I had two years of wishbone football when I was in middle school, and then we ran the Delaware wing T one year when I was in ninth grade, and we kind of went to a multiple I formation shotgun offense after that. My ninth-grade coach, Dennis Wilson, I think spent some time listening to his father talk. So I've been pretty familiar with the offense or some of the ideas behind it for a long time.

"Ton of respect for Coach Cronic and the job he's done. Prior to him getting there, it felt a little bit more traditional triple option and flexbone. When he joined them, I think he had already been in the gun a little, had some wing T components, but then also been in the gun more and played with some speed and tempo, and also had a lot of aspects of some of the more trendy quarterback run read game. So now he's got this triple thing that was in place, he's got a background in the wing T, and then he's also evolved to get in the gun and run the quarterback power reads and the gap scheme opposites and — it's a lot.

"The one thing that's interesting about the wing T — at one point the wing T was the T formation, and then you put one of those guys in a wing, that's the wing T, and then you can create a double wing out of it. That formation marries really well to what all the flexbone people have been doing. Flexbone started in the wishbone, where you had all three backs in the backfield, and then you take those two backs and Paul Johnson and those guys at some point started flexing those guys out. Where the wing T went and the flexbone went, those two formations married pretty well. So here you are now, Coach Cronic at Navy, and you've got this triple thing that was in place. He's got a background in the wing T, and then he's also evolved to get in the gun and run the quarterback power reads and the gap scheme opposites.

"It's a lot to get ready for. You've gotta prepare for all of it, and they do it all really well. The players do a good job of executing it. He's done an outstanding job there."

On Navy linebacker MarcAnthony Parker:

Alex Mortensen: "Really good player. I think one of the things their guys do a really good job of is recognition. They recognize things really well. I think Coach Newberry does a great job. I think he sees it well. I think he trusts what he sees. I think he's got really good instincts, and he'll pull the pin and go and gets the ball in a hurry. I do think he's got good athletic ability. He's fast and explosive. But I also think part of playing fast is having really good recognition and seeing it fast and then reacting to it. He's a great player."

On preventing a bad offensive performance from lingering — the Saban influence:

Alex Mortensen: "Talking about some of the guys that haven't played a lot — I do believe practice can get you ready to play. One of my concerns at a certain point was some of the guys that are here, I go, 'I really like them a lot, even if they haven't played much, but they do need practice.' And some of them were banged up that are playing for us now. That goes beyond the receiver position and really to some other spots.

"I do believe the way we — we believe in working hard. Our practices are tough. We get a lot of reps. I think that alone can help guys continue to develop and get better through the course of the year. That was one of the things when I got around Coach Saban that really impressed me — players develop there. Part of it I thought was the way practice was organized and structured. You talk about being process-oriented — it doesn't mean the result and score don't matter, but what are the things that cause the result? From a focus standpoint, we get focused back on that. If we won the game, it'd be the same thing. We would be back focused on what did we do well, let's reinforce that. What did we not do well, we need to fix that and have an urgency about it.

"Dr. Watts talked about striving for excellence. Regardless of the scoreboard, we're gonna try to strive to reach a standard that we think we're capable of, win or lose."

On Navy's explosive comeback ability after trailing 38-7 at FAU:

Alex Mortensen: "I think they have the ability to put together drives, but they also have the ability to be explosive and score in a hurry. They've diversified, they have good athletes, fast players, and they have good schemes. They do have the ability to bite off chunks and big plays. That is something they're very capable of."