How Jo'Tavion Pierce became the heartbeat of UAB's defensive turnaround

Jo'Tavion Pierce hit South Florida quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. early in the second quarter on Oct. 31 at Raymond James Stadium. Van Buren did not come back. Officials reviewed the play for targeting for what Pierce said felt like a long time before ruling no penalty.

"It was pretty long," Pierce said. "That scared me a little bit. But I mean, it's football, stuff happens. Just gotta be, you know, tackle level, tackle the correct way and keep everybody safe. That's all it was."

That hit — hard enough to end a starting quarterback's night, clean enough to survive a two-minute review — is what Pierce has been all season. Physical, controlled, consistent. A safety who hits with force and rarely misses, whose Pro Football Focus tackling grade of 90.9 ranks ninth nationally among all safeties, whose 5.2% missed tackle rate means when he puts his hands on a ball carrier, the play is almost always over.

Pierce is not just a hitter. He is arguably the defensive player most responsible for what has become the defining story of UAB's season: a defense that went from one of the worst in the country to one of the best in the American Conference — carrying a team while the offense figured itself out.

The next opportunity to put it all together comes Saturday. UAB (4-4, 2-2) hosts Charlotte (1-7, 1-3) at 2:30 p.m. CT at Protective Stadium on ESPN+.

What it was

What Trent Dilfer left behind was a defense that got worse every year he coached it. By 2025, UAB allowed 38.3 points per game in conference play — the third straight season of decline. ESPN SP+ ranked the unit 132nd nationally heading into 2026. The Blazers generated no pass rush, gave up yards on the ground and could not take the ball away.

When UAB hired Alex Mortensen, he brought in Grantham to rebuild it. Grantham has 35 years of coaching experience and nine seasons as a coordinator in the SEC — at Georgia, Florida and Mississippi State. He has coached defensive linemen in the NFL for the Cowboys, Colts and Saints.

Mortensen was blunt about what he wanted.

"We are going to be demanding," Mortensen said at the American's 2026 Kickoff media event. "And we tell them, look, man, if you don't like that, this is not the place for you."

Of UAB's 41 portal additions, Grantham claimed 27 for the defensive side — players from nine programs at every level of college football. Three came from Oklahoma State, where Grantham had been the defensive coordinator before Mike Gundy was fired after the third game of the 2025 season. Grantham was fired after the fourth game. Linebacker Ike Esonwune and defensive back Draden Fullbright followed Grantham to Birmingham.

So did Pierce.

The road to Birmingham

Pierce grew up in Montgomery. He played at Montgomery Catholic, where he was a two-time All-State defensive back and part of two state championships and a 29-game winning streak. He originally committed to Tulane but backed off before signing day and signed with Oklahoma State.

At Oklahoma State, Pierce did not play. He was a redshirt freshman — a practice player and special teams contributor.

"I knew he was going to be a good player," Grantham told the Birmingham Banner's Steve Irvine. "If you ask my son Corbin, he knew from the first scout team rep that he was going to be a real player."

When the Oklahoma State staff was dismantled, Pierce had options. He chose UAB. Grantham was a major factor, and so was Mortensen.

"Coach Grantham was a big part of me coming here, too, because I know the system. I can play fast," Pierce told the Birmingham Banner in September.

The numbers

Through eight games, Pierce has 70 tackles — 11 against South Florida, where he tied Jeremiah Jordan for the game high. His PFF overall defensive grade of 81.2 ranks 49th nationally among 746 safeties. His run defense grade of 87.4 ranks 18th. His tackling grade of 90.9 ranks ninth.

He has three sacks — fourth nationally among all safeties — six total pressures, 18 defensive stops and a forced fumble. He has allowed six receptions on 13 targets in coverage, surrendering only 49 yards with three pass breakups.

Pierce lines up everywhere. Of his 480 defensive snaps, 252 have come in the box, 107 at free safety, 62 on the defensive line and 56 in the slot. Grantham moves him based on the game plan, and Pierce's understanding of the system — built during those invisible scout-team reps at Oklahoma State — allows him to play fast regardless of where he lines up.

"I've been playing football since I was five years old," Pierce said. "... I always been, you know, that hard hitter. That's just high level my motive, and I wanna be known as that."

"All safeties, I wanna separate myself from the rest of the safeties in this league by physicality and the way that I play, so just play hard."

His teammates hear it before they see it. Muaaz Byard, UAB's senior linebacker who leads the team in tackles, said Pierce's hits carry a different sound.

"Jo P. is an amazing player," Byard said. "Just being around him, his energy and everything he does every day, just the way he works every day is inspiring to me. Even though I'm an older guy and he's a younger guy, it's the way he works and the way he just, I just see it in his eyes every time we go out there and practice it in games. ...

"And the way he hits, I just feel like ain't nobody hit harder than in the conference for sure. It's a little thing we say around our team. We be like, 'Steam.' And I'm like, 'He the only person who has that right now.'"

Getting better

Pierce's season started slowly by his current standard. His PFF defensive grades through the first five games — 68.5, 70.0, 61.0, 67.1, 54.9 — reflected a player adjusting to a new system with new teammates around him. He showed flashes, including 2.5 sacks against Navy's triple option in Week 4, but the overall consistency was not there yet.

Then it clicked.

At Memphis in Week 6, Pierce posted a defensive grade of 81.2 with 12 tackles and two pass breakups. Against East Carolina the following week, he recorded a career-high 16 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry. His defensive grade of 85.5 was his best of the season.

"Since January, man, I done seen a lot of growth," Pierce said. "Not just the defense, this team. We still doing a lot of growing. You know, we're not done with the season yet, so just building off of mistakes and learning as this game goes on and throughout the season, just trying to build off that."

"During this time, a lot of teams, you know, they start to fall down, they start to go downhill, but that's something that we told ourselves we're not gonna do. We wanna keep the standard high and keep moving forward and keep stacking wins."

Against South Florida, the overall PFF grade dropped to 68.7, but the impact was undeniable — 11 tackles, five defensive stops and the hit that changed the game. The irony is that Pierce's biggest hit produced an unintended consequence. Van Buren was a pocket passer. Backup Luke Kromenhoek was a runner. Kromenhoek entered with South Florida trailing 10-0 and rushed 15 times for 92 yards, leading a momentum-shifting drive that helped turn the game in South Florida's favor.

Not alone

Pierce is the heartbeat. He is not the whole body.

Muaaz Byard leads UAB with 76 tackles through eight games — 9.5 per game. Marlin Dean has 7.5 sacks and four forced fumbles through eight games. Delvon Gulley's pick-six in overtime sealed the East Carolina victory, and he has two interceptions and four pass breakups on the season. Esonwune — another Oklahoma State transfer who followed Grantham — has 57 tackles and two interceptions through eight games.

Together, they turned a defense that allowed 38.3 points per game in conference play into one allowing 116.0 passing yards per game through eight games and 306.6 total yards per game. They held South Florida to 46 passing yards.

While the offense spent the season searching for consistency — the offensive line has been the team's persistent problem, and UAB's offense has scored 10 or fewer points in two of its four losses — the defense kept the Blazers within striking distance in every game. After the South Florida loss, Mortensen put it plainly.

"The offense gave them 14 points," Mortensen said. "We had two turnovers that not only were they turnovers, they were turnovers for touchdowns. And that's completely unacceptable in a game where our defense played really well today and pretty darn dominant to be frank."

Byard refused to let the defense claim the moral high ground.

"You don't wanna point fingers because if you look at USF, their defense scored 14 points and held us to two missed field goals, so that's a 20-point swing," Byard said. "So they helped their team score 20 points. So you can't just look at it as, 'Oh, we did our job.' We didn't do enough 'cause we didn't win."

Ryder Burton, who has been on the wrong end of those difficult afternoons behind a struggling offensive line, acknowledged before the Charlotte game what the defense has meant.

"I'm extremely grateful for Coach Grantham and for those guys," Burton said. "I mean, heck, I see it every day, so I'm glad somebody else is finally feeling it besides me. It's a great feeling to know as a quarterback that you don't have to be perfect in order to win the game."

'New Blazers is coming'

Mortensen calls Pierce out by name when he talks about the character of this team.

"We have a lot of high character players," Mortensen said before the Charlotte game. "Muaaz Byard sitting right here. Jo Pierce is in here. These guys are incredibly high character. When it's not going well, sometimes they'll grab me and say, 'Coach, we got you. We got this. We're good.'"

Pierce said the defense's job extends beyond stopping the other team.

"Of course, man," Pierce said. "You know, they need our energy. We need they energy. We also got, man, a lot of players that leads the team. Not just me, but multiple guys that lead the team, and during those times, we need each other. You know, those are the hard times. Those are the times where we need each other to get through those times."

Pierce comes from a football family. He counts Alabama's Dee Milliner and Robert Chancey, who played for the Chicago Bears, among relatives who played at the highest level. He said he has always measured himself against them.

"I got some people in my family that done played at a high level, and I always told myself I wanna be better than them," Pierce said. "So anything that I can do to be better than them, which is hit somebody, I'm down for it."

After the East Carolina game — a Thursday night overtime victory in UAB's homecoming game — Pierce had a message for Birmingham.

"I just tell the people in the city of Birmingham, we're trying to make a change, and we want you to be here," Pierce said. "And whoever come out, we appreciate y'all, but we want the city of Birmingham to come out, 'cause new Blazers is coming."