UAB’s offense is still searching for 60 minutes

Alex Mortensen was told before the season that his offense ranked in the bottom 10 percent nationally in returning snaps played. He didn't take it as a warning.

"I don't look at that as woe is me," Mortensen said during his weekly press conference before his Blazers play South Florida (11 a.m. CT Saturday, Tampa, ESPNU). "I look at that as, hey, let's get them as ready and as prepared as we can to start the season, but let's also push and anticipate that we're going to improve a lot."

Seven games into his first full season as head coach at UAB, the numbers show growth in individual players. What they don't show — not yet — is whether this offense can put together 60 consistent minutes.

The numbers

PFF's game-by-game grades for UAB's offense read like an EKG — spikes and valleys that confirm what the scoreboard has shown all season.

Ryder Burton's passing grades through seven games: 55.5, 65.9, 67.1, 74.8, 80.8, 49.6, 75.6. That's a clear upward trend through the first five games — from below average at Illinois to high quality against Samford — followed by a crash at Memphis and a rebound against East Carolina. His season passing grade sits at 71.0, above average on PFF's scale. But the range between his best game (80.8 against Samford) and his worst (49.6 at Memphis) is more than 31 points. The talent is there. The consistency is the gap.

CJ Smith played at three schools before arriving at UAB — Georgia, Purdue, Memphis — and never posted a season offensive grade above 63.8. This year he's at 68.4, the best mark of his career. But his week-by-week grades tell the same story as Burton's: 66.4, 57.4, 60.3, 60.4, 68.7, 59.0, 75.0. The ECU game was his best. He's played below 61.0 in four of his seven games.

Scott Isacks has been a central figure in the tight end room after UAB lost Antonio Ferguson to injury. His receiving grades: 66.4, 82.3, 56.6, 56.8, 63.8, 53.5, 77.0. The ULM game (82.3) and the ECU game (77.0) were high quality. Memphis (53.5) was his worst. His season offensive grade of 68.3 is by far the best of his career — he played 33 combined snaps across two seasons at Florida.

And then there's Cooper Young, the transfer who has become the fulcrum of the offensive line's development. His snap counts tell the story of a player being asked to do more each week: 27, 11, 17, 33, 34, 54, 72. He moved from right guard to center in Week 6 at Memphis after veteran starter Adam Lepkowski was injured, and by Week 7 against ECU he was UAB's starting center. His pass-blocking grades at right guard were strong early — 72.1, 74.8, 80.5 through the first three games — before cratering at 34.7 against Navy. At center, he's still finding his footing: 69.2 at Memphis, 56.9 against ECU.

"Cooper is making huge strides every day," Mortensen said. "I think all that has probably improved exponentially from the first snaps he took against Memphis. And that's not really about his play or his ability, but just getting the reps and getting the experience."

The traditional numbers tell the same story as the grades — an offense still finding its identity. Burton has completed 91 of 167 passes for 1,184 yards and six touchdowns at 54.5 percent. Rod Robinson leads the ground game with 436 yards on 101 carries. McReynolds has 335 yards and four touchdowns on 72 attempts. The receiving production is split almost evenly between Smith (19 catches, 350 yards, 18.4 per catch) and Ty Mims (20 catches, 349 yards, 17.5 per catch) — one yard separating the top two targets through seven games.

What Memphis showed

UAB led 13-10 at halftime in Memphis. The Blazers had outgained the best offense in the American 254-139. They rushed for 121 yards in the first quarter. Jonah Delange's program-record 57-yard field goal gave them the halftime lead.

Then the second half happened. Memphis scored 28 unanswered. UAB managed 56 yards after the break and went 0-for-9 on third and fourth down. Three turnovers to zero.

Context matters. Young was thrown into his first game at center against a Memphis team that had taken the lead and could pin its ears back. When the run stalled, the pass became predictable. When the pass wasn't a threat, Memphis sold out to stop the run. That cycle — structural, not situational — is what UAB spent the bye week trying to break.

Memphis was not the story of an offense that couldn't compete. The first half proved it could. The second half exposed what happens when the pieces stop working in concert and a young offensive line faces a good front with the game tilting away from them.

What ECU showed

The East Carolina overtime win was UAB's most encouraging offensive performance of the season — not because of the final stats but because of when the plays came.

Trailing with the ball at their own 3-yard line, no timeouts and under two minutes, Burton and the offense drove the length of the field to force overtime. Bam McReynolds scored the tying touchdown on a play that was "a little bit of both" design and instinct — "me and Ryder have this little thing that we do to let us know where he wants us to go after we catch the ball," McReynolds said.

The PFF data from that game is the best collective offensive performance UAB has produced this season. Burton graded at 75.6 in passing. Smith posted his best game of the year at 75.0 overall. Isacks graded at 77.0 as a receiver — his second-best mark. Three of the four offensive skill players tracked posted their best or second-best game in the same week.

Smith's traditional stat line matched his grade. His eight catches for 119 yards were both career highs — the first 100-yard receiving game of his career across five seasons at four schools. He added a 22-yard carry in the fourth quarter. Two of his receptions — gains of 21 and 12 yards — came on the tying drive.

"That win gave us a great sense of confidence to finish off the rest of the season on a high note," McReynolds said.

That confidence didn't come from a shootout. It came from an offense that found its footing when there was no room for error.

The bridge

UAB's defense is the reason the offense has had the time to develop. The Blazers rank No. 1 in the American in total defense and lead the FBS in passing yards allowed at 126.0 per game. In a season where the offense has been inconsistent, the defense has kept UAB within striking distance in every game.

McReynolds was asked what it means to have the conference's best defense playing alongside you.

"It keeps us into the game," he said. "It still gives us momentum when we feel like we're not performing to the best of our ability. And how the defense performs, it also pushes us to perform better. I think that's very important as a team that we feed off of each other."

He said he has trusted this defense since the winter workouts.

"I never not trusted my defense," McReynolds said. "I talk to the whole team. So I talk to the offensive guys, I talk to the defensive guys, especially before the game, and I look to see if you had that look in your eye. And for basically every last one of our games, they always come out with that energy, and they're looking at me like they're ready to go."

That dynamic between the offense and the defense has produced four comeback victories this season — ULM, Navy, Samford and ECU. UAB keeps falling behind and keeps fighting back. The defense keeps the margin manageable. The offense, eventually, finds enough.

"Our defense playing the way they've played has allowed us to stay in games, to win these games that we've won," Mortensen said.

The bye week

Mortensen used the open date to self-scout. What he found was encouraging — not because the offense was better than he thought but because the problems were fixable.

"There are really a lot of technique and discipline things, as it pertains to quarterback, receiver, tight end play, that are all very correctable," Mortensen said. "So it's actually pretty exciting. We think there are things that we can clean up and have made strides in cleaning up in the bye that can really create more consistent performance on offense."

He likes what he sees from the receivers, even if the production hasn't always shown it.

"CJ, but there's a handful of others that I think we have not seen their best football," Mortensen said. "And that's exciting. I think they're all on an arc that gives them an opportunity to really make significant progress down the stretch."

On Kaleb Brown, the heralded transfer who spent time at Ohio State and Iowa but has battled injury throughout his time at UAB: "We haven't seen everything he's capable of, not even close."

On the tight ends, who lost Ferguson but have found production from Isacks and others: "I have a ton of confidence in that group, and they're only going to get better."

And on the play-calling, which Mortensen acknowledged could have been more aggressive: "Maybe we've been a little too conservative knowing we got Jonah there (17 of 19 on field goals). So that's, again, having a bye week, that's something that we're able to look at too."

The theme across every answer was the same: the pieces are there, the experience is accumulating, the corrections are within reach. What Mortensen has not said — and what the data does not yet show — is that the offense has arrived.

"Our mindset is to step on the gas and see if we can make our most progress here down the stretch," Mortensen said.

The stretch run

UAB hosts South Florida on Saturday in a game that will test everything the bye week was supposed to address. The Bulls are giving up 15.1 points per game — 13th nationally. Their defense has size, length and scheme at all three levels.

"They do look the part," Mortensen said, "in terms of what you would expect or would like a defense to look like."

This is the hardest defensive matchup remaining on UAB's schedule. After South Florida, the remaining games offer potentially more favorable matchups for an offense looking to build momentum. The window Mortensen has been talking about — the stretch run where a young offense makes its most progress — is here.

But Saturday comes first. And Mortensen is aware of the risk that 16 days between games creates.

"Steve Young said something like, he felt like when they went on a bye, it took them a half to get back in rhythm," Mortensen said. "I also think if you think and talk about and worry about those things too much, they can be self-fulfilling prophecies."

Mortensen has spent the bye week on technique and discipline — the correctable things. The data supports him. Burton, Smith, Isacks and Young are all grading higher than they did in September, and the defense has held up its end. Whether those corrections survive first contact with USF's front seven is a question the bye week can't answer.