The postgame report: UAB 33, Samford 14

UAB's defense held Samford to 230 total yards, intercepted Gabarri Johnson three times and shut the Bulldogs out after halftime as the Blazers pulled away for a 33-14 victory Saturday afternoon at Protective Stadium in front of 22,126.

The Blazers trailed 14-13 at the break after a 95-yard fumble return wiped out what should have been a go-ahead touchdown drive. The second half was a different game. Samford's five possessions after halftime produced an interception, a missed field goal, a punt, a turnover on downs and a two-play end-of-game drive. UAB outscored the Bulldogs 20-0 over the final 30 minutes.

The offense leaned on the ground game — 248 yards on 51 carries split among five backs — while Jonah Delange connected on all four of his field goal attempts to account for 15 of UAB's 33 points. It was the second time this season UAB carried the ball 50-plus times and the second time it rushed for more than 200 yards.

WHAT IT MEANS

UAB is 3-2 for the first time since 2022 and has won consecutive games for the first time since the 2022-23 season. The Blazers are 3-0 at home under Alex Mortensen. The Blazers now turn their attention to Memphis and the renewal of the Battle for the Bones on Oct. 10.

THE TURNING POINT

With UAB trailing 14-13, Delvon Gulley intercepted Johnson on the Bulldogs' first possession of the third quarter — a two-play drive that went 4 yards before Gulley stepped in front of a pass at the UAB 37. It was Gulley's first interception as a Blazer. The Blazers drove the length of the field, and Delange's 23-yard field goal put the Blazers back in front 16-14. Samford managed one more drive past midfield the rest of the game — a 13-play march to the UAB 30 that ended with a missed 47-yard field goal attempt from Ty Ippolito — and never scored again.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Good: Five different backs carried the ball and each one left a mark. Roderick Robinson II led the way with 75 yards on 14 carries. Bam McReynolds added 46 yards on 10 carries, including a 28-yard touchdown run that extended the lead to 23-14 early in the fourth quarter — McReynolds now has 1,566 career rushing yards and 260 yards with four touchdowns in his first five games at UAB. EJ Reid, primarily a receiver with 16 catches for 140 yards through five games, broke a 36-yard touchdown run on just his second carry of the season. Ja'Vin Simpkins contributed 37 yards on 10 carries and Burton added 35 rushing yards on nine attempts, including a career-long 20-yard run in the fourth quarter.

The clinching drive was a 12-play, 68-yard march that drained 6:53 off the clock. Burton capped it with a 31-yard touchdown pass to CJ Smith — a play Burton said the coaching staff designed specifically for this game. "We kind of had a feeling Samford especially at the corner position a lot of times — I don't know if this was a coach thing but we felt like they had their eyes on (No.) 2 a lot and they were getting a little flatfooted," Burton said. "... Once the corner got flatfooted CJ ran right past him and I just put it in a spot where he could go get it."

Oliver Straw averaged 54.3 yards on three punts, including a 58-yarder that was UAB's longest since Patrick Foley hit one against Alcorn on Aug. 29, 2024. He put two inside the 20. Owen Simpson handled kickoffs efficiently — eight kicks at a 65.0-yard average with seven touchbacks and zero out of bounds.

Bad: The red zone remained a problem. UAB reached the red zone four times Saturday and scored one touchdown, settling for three Delange field goals. For the season, the Blazers have converted just 4 of 13 red zone trips into touchdowns (30.8 percent) while opponents have scored touchdowns on 73.3 percent of their red zone opportunities. "My patience is kind of running out," Mortensen said. "That's kind of where we're at there."

The passing game was a tale of two halves inside a half. Burton went 5-for-8 for 91 yards in the first quarter, then completed just 3 of 10 passes the rest of the way. He called a play the wrong direction. He took a bad sack. Receivers had drops on third down. "There's not like dramatic changes that need to happen," Burton said. "We just need to do what we're coached to do. I got to get my eyes in the right spots. Receivers got to be where they're supposed to be at the right times and we got to finish on the ball."

Ugly: Leading 13-7 with the ball at the Samford 5-yard line late in the second quarter, Robinson was stripped by LaShon Young. Jalen Nelson scooped the fumble and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown, giving Samford a 14-13 halftime lead. "That's a seven-point swing," Mortensen said. "You got to hope and believe you're going to hopefully score there when you've got that kind of field position. So you give them seven and then you remove seven from us and that's a killer play." Ty Mims also muffed a punt in the second quarter that Samford recovered, though Rhett Cofer limited the damage on coverage and the Bulldogs could not convert the field position.

THE STATS THAT MATTER

UAB has allowed 24 second-half points in five games — The Blazers have now shut out opponents in the fourth quarter in four consecutive games. Saturday's second-half shutout was the second of the season. Samford did not convert a third down in the final two quarters. The defense has recorded five tackles for loss in four straight games, and Marlin Dean's sack for an 11-yard loss in the third quarter was the kind of disruptive play that does not always show up in the box score but changes the rhythm of a drive.

Jeremiah Jordan, Delvon Gulley and Ike Esonwune each intercepted Johnson — It was the first time UAB recorded three interceptions in a game since Nov. 23, 2024, against Rice. Jordan's pick in the second quarter was his first Division I interception and came in his 45th career collegiate game. Esonwune's interception set up the drive where Robinson fumbled at the goal line — without the turnover-for-turnover exchange, the Blazers likely lead by double digits at halftime. UAB's defense generated 6 points off the three takeaways while Burton threw zero interceptions on 18 attempts.

Seven different receivers caught passes for the fourth time this season — Smith led the way with two catches for 85 yards and a touchdown. Mims added two catches for 27 yards. Gabriel Cline, Scott Isacks, McReynolds, KJ Daniels and Reid each hauled in one reception. The distribution matters less than the context — when Burton finds rhythm, the targets are there. His first-quarter connection with Smith for 54 yards on UAB's first play from scrimmage set up the opening field goal and was the longest catch of Smith's career.

WHAT THEY SAID

Alex Mortensen, on the halftime adjustments:

"Kind of the challenge was can you just go play one play and say, 'OK, what's my job on this play? What's my footwork? Where should my eyes be at quarterback? How do I line up?' Just do the basic things and one play at a time and see where that gets us. We did simplify some things in some regards. Maybe a better way of saying it is mitigated risk and probably played a little bit more conservative than we would've liked. But that's what we felt like we needed to do to ensure that we had the best opportunity to win this game at that point and get control of it."

Alex Mortensen, on affecting Johnson without sack numbers:

"You may not always get a sack, but you can move him off his spot, you can make him uncomfortable if you can push the pocket or get him to change his timing. Then that can (lead to a tipped ball). I mean, all those things can affect him negatively and create some of these turnovers or create incompletions. So yeah, sometimes the pass rush isn't always reflected in what gets done in terms of sacks. (Affecting) him might mean speeding up his clock and now he's throwing on a time that he doesn't want to throw on. Maybe he doesn't give you an opportunity to sack him, but he's throwing the ball before he should."

Ryder Burton, on the team's mentality at 3-2:

"For sure we don't want to take any wins for granted. You know, it's hard to win, especially in the conference play that we're about to head into. We understand that. We understand the challenge. And we're extremely grateful, but at the same time, we don't think we've scratched the surface of what we can do as a team and especially on offense. I know that for a fact."

Delvon Gulley, on his third-quarter interception:

"We really was down going to halftime and coach came in said we need a playmaker, somebody to make a play. We came and I made a play."

3 STARS

1. Jonah Delange, K, UAB — 4-for-4 on field goals (44, 46, 23, 26 yards), 3-for-3 on PATs, 15 points. His 44-yarder in the first quarter made him the sixth player in UAB history to reach 40 career field goals and the seventh to reach 200 career kicking points. Now has 43 career field goals and 201 career points and is 11-for-12 on field goals this season. The 46-yarder was his season long.

2. Tylin Jackson, DL, UAB — 4 tackles (3 solo, 1 assist), 1.0 sack, 2.5 tackles for loss, tying his career high set Sept. 19 at Louisiana. Anchored a defensive front that held Samford's rushing attack to 3.6 yards per carry and forced Johnson into rushed throws all afternoon.

3. Delvon Gulley, CB, UAB — 5 tackles (4 solo, 1 assist), 1 interception. His pick on Samford's first possession of the third quarter flipped momentum and set up the go-ahead field goal. Muaaz Byard led the team with six tackles, but Gulley's interception was the play that broke the game open.

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

The offense remains a work in progress, and Mortensen made no effort to sugarcoat it. Burton finished 8-of-18 for 139 yards and a touchdown — bringing his UAB career totals to 1,499 passing yards and 11 touchdowns through 14 games — but his first-quarter efficiency vanished after the opening 15 minutes. Backup Nate Rogers saw late action and completed his only attempt, a 13-yard pass. Burton acknowledged the issues are fundamental: "It's really just doing routine things. That's all it is. We just got to clean. We got to be more assignment oriented and be better at our fundamentals. And I really think that this whole offense can flip on its head."

CJ Smith's two-catch, 85-yard afternoon is worth tracking. His receptions of 54 and 31 yards were the two longest plays of the game for either team, and his fourth-quarter touchdown was the first receiving touchdown of his UAB career. When the Blazers found a way to stay ahead of the sticks in the second half, Burton explained why it mattered: "You can be very balanced on offense. Your whole playbook's wide open, right? So, he has to respect the ability that we can run the ball and anytime a DC has to respect that defenses are typically a lot more sound on that side of the ball. There's less exotics, right?"

The defense is becoming the team's identity. Mortensen's explanation of the pass rush — moving Johnson off his spot, speeding up his internal clock, forcing throws before he was ready — described exactly what happened Saturday. Johnson completed 17 of 29 passes, but just 9 of 18 after the first quarter. Samford's Marquise Henderson caught five passes for 57 yards and a 4-yard touchdown on the Bulldogs' opening scoring drive, but the defense adjusted and Henderson was held to two catches for 17 yards after the first quarter. Samford was penalized seven times for 55 yards; UAB was flagged four times for 34.

Mortensen was asked about bowl eligibility and invoked a familiar name. "It's certainly a goal of ours. We want to get to a bowl game," he said. "... But it's like my last boss or two bosses ago, Nick Saban, what he talked about a lot was this whole thing of process. ... Kind of the way I feel about it is you do set goals and you say, 'OK, here's the goal. Here's what I'm after.' After that, you kind of got to get your mindset off the outcome a little bit." UAB now faces its biggest test of the season when it travels to Memphis for the Battle for the Bones on Oct. 10. The Blazers will need the defense to keep performing and the red zone offense to start finishing drives with touchdowns instead of field goals.

NEXT UP

UAB visits Memphis on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in the Battle for the Bones.