Postgame report UAB vs. Navy: Slam, Bam, thank you Grantham

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It took 10 seconds to flip a football game. Marlin Dean blew off the edge, beat the Navy tackle and slammed Jackson Gutierrez into the Protective Stadium turf — a hit so hard it ripped the ball free. Chris Spencer recovered at the Navy 48. One play later, Bam McReynolds took the handoff ran 48 yards to the end zone. Down three became up four, Todd Grantham's defense never let Navy score again, and UAB won 24-20 on Friday night — the Blazers' first victory over the Midshipmen in four tries.

"To be honest, not in the moment," Dean said when asked if he understood the importance of those plays. "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."

WHAT IT MEANS

UAB is 2-2 overall, 1-0 in the American and 2-0 at Protective Stadium. Navy had outscored the Blazers 110-48 in three previous meetings, never by fewer than 14 points. The Midshipmen came in as seven-point favorites, averaging 376 rushing yards per game — second in the country — and had won 27 of 40 games under Brian Newberry.

"Winning is incredibly hard, and this is a really good conference, and Navy's a really good team," Mortensen said. "Don't want to diminish the significance of getting one, and they're precious, but at the same time, it's one game. Certainly something we wanna build on and go get more of them."

THE TURNING POINT

With 10:46 remaining and Navy driving to extend its lead, Dean sacked Gutierrez for a 15-yard loss and forced the fumble. UAB recovered at the Navy 48. McReynolds scored on the next play — a 48-yard run through a hole created by a halftime schematic adjustment that Mortensen said was not in the original game plan.

"It was a huge swing in the game," Mortensen said. "Talk about complementary football, both sides of the ball really helping each other in a situation like that and capitalizing. It drives you crazy when a team gets a turnover and the offense doesn't do anything with it. So to come back and answer in one play was awesome."

"Bam had great patience and burst and ran away from everybody," Mortensen said. "It was also a halftime adjustment, something that wasn't in our plan. Good job by the staff."

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Good: UAB's defense held Navy to 249 rushing yards, 127 below the Midshipmen's season average, and registered 10 tackles for loss and six sacks against a triple-option offense on a short week. Muaaz Byard had 12 tackles. Pierce had seven stops and 2.5 sacks. The scout team offense drew specific praise from Mortensen for mimicking Navy's scheme in practice: "They had a great week. They did a great job over there, especially trying to mimic an offense that is different than what we do."

Bad: Quarterback protection. Mortensen brought it up twice unprompted in his opening statement — "We need to protect him better" — and was clear it extends beyond the offensive line: "Protection is an all-encompassing thing. I can talk about tight ends, running backs. We talk about a lot of different people, but we gotta protect better because we could've had a lot more production on offense." Ryder Burton still finished 13-of-20 for 174 yards and a touchdown, and Mortensen called him "gritty," but the negative plays limited what the offense could do. UAB managed 15 first downs.

Ugly: The third quarter. UAB gained five rushing yards on five carries, and Navy took its first lead of the night when Vic Listorti scored from seven yards out to make it 20-17. It was the only quarter in which Navy outscored UAB.

THE STATS THAT MATTER

34:22 to 25:38 — Navy held the ball nearly nine minutes longer than UAB, ran 71 plays to UAB's 54 and had 24 first downs to UAB's 15. The Midshipmen controlled the game by every possession metric and still lost because they could not hold onto the football or finish drives in the fourth quarter.

44 seconds, 78 yards — UAB's three-play touchdown drive before halftime, capped by Burton's 56-yard strike to Ty Mims with 1:11 remaining in the second quarter. It was Mims' first touchdown as a Blazer — and he caught it on ESPN with Roddy White and Julio Jones in the building. "Man, it mean everything to the world," Mims said. "Doing it in front of legends, doing it in front of people like that, doing it in front of big screen ESPN, it feels good."

47.8 yards per punt — Oliver Straw averaged 47.8 yards on four punts with a long of 53. Two of his punts were downed inside the Navy 20. Against a triple-option team that thrives on short fields, Straw's leg was a factor all night.

WHAT THEY SAID

Mortensen on what pleased him most:

"The first thing is just probably the thing I'm most pleased with is the intangibles. One of our core things that we talk about a lot is just the whole idea of what do we wanna look like. We wanna play really hard, and it's compete, fight and scrap all the way to the end. All the way to the end. And I thought that our guys showed that kind of resiliency tonight in all three phases."

Mortensen on Dean:

"Marlin also, to this point, hadn't had this kind of production yet. And we felt like we could see it in him. 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."

Mortensen on Todd Grantham:

"I'm really glad he's here. I'm glad we got him here. I think he's done an outstanding job. And we know there's more, and he knows, we know, we all know there's more work to be done, but I thought he did a great job leading on that side of the ball tonight."

Dean on the crowd:

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

3 STARS

1. Marlin Dean, DE, UAB — 12 tackles, 4.5 TFL, 2.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery. Mortensen singled him out in his opening statement: "Maybe one of his best performances. And his energy and leadership has been really cool, too."

2. Bam McReynolds, RB, UAB — 8 carries, 71 yards, 2 TD (8.9 avg). His 10-yard run opened the scoring in the second quarter. His 48-yard run won the game. "I'm somebody who thrives in big time moments," McReynolds said, "and the lights didn't affect me at all. My O-line, they came out with the grit and the tenacity that we needed. They pushed the line of scrimmage, and they were physical, and I just did what I had to do."

3. Muaaz Byard, LB, UAB — 12 tackles, matching Dean for the team lead. Byard now has 42 tackles in four games. Mortensen singled him out alongside Dean in his opening statement.

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

Offense: Burton converted third downs in long-yardage situations early in the game, and the two explosive plays — Mims' 56-yard touchdown and McReynolds' 48-yard touchdown — accounted for most of UAB's production. Mortensen acknowledged the efficiency gap: "We were not as efficient as I would've liked. We got behind the sticks a little too much." He wants the offense to reach a point where it can close out a game without the ball going back to the defense.

Defense: Dean's performance will get the headlines, but this was a staff win. Grantham built a game plan on a short week — UAB played a late-night Saturday game at Louisiana six days earlier — against a scheme most teams get two weeks to prepare for. The players executed it. "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. "The plays that we did make, they came from us doing the little things right and paying attention to detail."

What's correctable: UAB has been outscored in the first quarter in three of four games this season. The Blazers have won two of those four with fourth-quarter comebacks. Mortensen said the staff is examining everything — "Is there anything strategically or scheme-wise that we need to alter" — to start faster. He pointed to the Illinois opener, where UAB drove to the red zone on its first possession before a holding penalty killed the drive, as evidence that the slow starts are not always what they appear on the scoreboard.

The last word: Asked what message they had for the people who gave them less than a 20% chance to win on ESPN's win probability model, Ty Mims said, "I ain't got one." Marlin Dean said, "Don't doubt us." Bam McReynolds said, "Don't go against these men."

NEXT UP

UAB hosts Samford on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Protective Stadium for Family Weekend. Kickoff at 2:30 p.m. CT. The 2000 UAB football team will be honored on the field as part of a reunion weekend.