What Bryant Vincent said before ULM's game vs. UAB

Bryant Vincent knows UAB as well as anyone on the opposing sideline ever will. He was the Blazers' offensive coordinator under Bill Clark when the program was shut down in 2014, came back in 2018 and helped build a team that won two conference championships and earn the program's first bowl victory. He went 7-6 as interim head coach in 2022, ending his tenure with a win over Miami (Ohio) in the Bahamas Bowl.

Now in his third year at ULM, Vincent returns to Protective Stadium on Saturday for UAB's home opener — and he made clear during his weekly press conference that he sees a UAB team that is better than its opening-week loss to Illinois suggests. "They beat them in every stat but the scoreboard," Vincent said. "They ran 86 offensive snaps and had the ball for over 41 minutes. UAB dominated the stat lines." Vincent praised the entire UAB roster, from a defense featuring linebackers who followed coordinator Todd Grantham from Oklahoma State to a physical offensive line and what he called "explosive receivers." He singled out Blazers quarterback Ryder Burton. "He makes them go," Vincent said. "He's tough. ... He's accurate. He's smart. You can tell that Mort's done a really good job with him.

Read our early look at this matchup and Vincent's return to Birmingham

Vincent's Warhawks are coming off a 0-1 start at Mississippi State, where ULM went just 3-for-16 on third down — a number that dominated his opening remarks. Self-inflicted penalties, a dropped snap and a botched freeze play accounted for most of the damage. But Vincent pointed to second-half fight as evidence of his team's maturity, noting ULM outscored the Bulldogs in the third quarter and put together a 15-play drive in the second half. He also provided a positive injury update on defensive end Marvin Hall, who left the Mississippi State game with a strain but is expected back.

Full transcript

Opening statement — film review from Mississippi State

Bryant Vincent: "Coming off of last Saturday night's game, a lot of situational football. Offensively, your first two drives come to third and one, third and two — illegal procedure, false start on the first drive, and then we didn't get it on the second drive. Then you get a 13-play drive into the red zone, first and 10 on the 20, and we get a 15-yard penalty that really stopped that drive."

If you look at first and second down, I thought we really did good staying ahead of the sticks. We just didn't execute the third-down situations. That's where we were 3-for-16. It's hard. And then you're throwing your defense right back out there and they're going tempo.

Even situationally on defense, we won a lot of first downs, got them into a lot of second-and-longs. But the third-down situational deal didn't fit. A ton of positives, too — as we were able to settle down and get some drives going. An eight-play drive, touchdown. Seven-play drive, field goal. Then we had a 15-play drive where we missed the field goal in the second half.

Really proud of the fight and the effort to the end. Some bright spots in the kicking game — being able to win field position from the jump with four touchbacks. I thought Mack (Makenzie Ryan) punted the ball well. Obviously we've got to clean up the two penalties on running into the punt returner — they really flipped the field position. But overall, to be in that environment and play against that caliber of team, I think we found a lot of things we've got to clean up. We're ready to move forward and focus on being 1-0 this week. We've got a quality opponent coming up with UAB.

On the offensive bright spots at Mississippi State

Bryant Vincent: "There were a lot of bright spots. I thought our offensive line did a really good job. They fought, they battled. We were against a really physical front. We really gave up one sack — it said three, but two of them were draws that we should have popped one out of. I was really proud of that group."

I thought our tight ends played well. They were physical. I thought we blocked on the perimeter. I thought we caught the ball when it was thrown to them. The receivers — I thought we had a very productive night on first and second down.

You go back to that third and one, false start. Third and two, had an opportunity, didn't get it. Punt. Then you've got the 13-play drive all the way down to the 20 and the penalty that made it first and 25. Third and four, we got it — we didn't execute. We did a freeze and we jumped. Then it goes down to another third and two and we dropped the ball on the snap.

Just situational football. We've got to take big steps in the execution. It wasn't necessarily things they did — we did it to ourselves with penalties or snaps or lack of execution. But I thought our kids played tough. They played hard. Did a lot of really good things. Our running backs ran hard. We got vertical.

When you're 3-for-16 on third down, you're just putting your defense right back out there. But I thought in the second half, the mentality of our kids coming out of halftime — it's not about the score, it's really about who we are and getting back in it. We outscored them in the third and then had an opportunity with that field goal in the fourth.

Really proud of Abram (Murray) in our kicking game. That was something we missed sorely last year. To be able to have a guy like Abram right now and Mack (Makenzie Ryan) and even Nolan (Wilson), it just gives us an opportunity to win the kicking game.

Defensively, we fought. First down, second down situational football — they were 5-for-11 on third down. And they were extended downs. A ton of positives, but still a long way to go.

On evaluating with the level of competition in mind

Bryant Vincent: "When you're playing Mississippi State, an SEC team, our plan going in was to play a lot of guys because we've got more depth than we've had and this is a marathon, not a sprint. I think we played around 24-25 guys on defense and around 22-23 on offense. We were able to play a lot of guys that needed not only experience but experience in that environment and against that competition. I thought that was great for us."

On the quarterback evaluation — Aidan Armenta, Austin Carlisle and Landon Graves

Bryant Vincent: "If you look at Aidan (Armenta) and those first eight drives — he got the first eight — the third and one, false start. We were really good on first and second down. Then the second drive, we get to third and two and get stopped. The third drive, we go 13 plays all the way down to the 20, down to the red zone. We're down 21-0 at that moment and we get the penalty that sets us back. A 21-7 game right there kind of changes things. We lost that opportunity. It's hard to recover against a quality opponent on first and 25."

Then the fifth drive, we get a really good first-down call, really good second-down call. It's third and two. We freeze them, we jump. Now it's third and seven and we didn't execute. Overall, I thought Aidan did a lot of good things. He got us moving. We didn't execute the critical third-and-shorts.

Austin (Carlisle) comes in the second drive of the second half. We were able to go down and punch it in — it's fourth and two, fourth and three, we have a drive down there and hit Derrick Jameson and he was able to stay in bounds and really show some speed and get us our first touchdown. Then we come back with another seven-play drive, kick a field goal. I thought he executed and extended a couple third downs to extend the drive. That last drive was 15 plays. I thought Austin did a good job of moving the football and extending drives to give us opportunities to score. That's where we missed that field goal at the end.

Then Landon (Graves) came in. He's had a really good spring and fall camp and we were able to get him two series. It's a long season, and to get quarterbacks, receivers, tight ends, O-linemen, D-linemen, linebackers — to get all those guys reps and experience was pivotal for us moving forward.

On the injury report

Bryant Vincent: "Obviously Marvin (Hall) got banged up a little bit, but he's going to be okay. Just a strain. We wanted to take precaution at the first game of the season. He's going to be back. Really overall, we came out healthy."

On what he sees from UAB

Bryant Vincent: "You watch UAB and you see Coach Mortensen's done a great job, man. He's a great coach. He's a great man. Outstanding offensive coach. You look at that game — they go to Illinois on a Thursday night and they beat them in every stat but the scoreboard. They ran 86 offensive snaps and had the ball for over 41 minutes. They controlled the game. UAB's defense had 43 snaps. So, 86-43. I think it was 10-of-19 on third downs, 2-for-3 on fourth downs."

Time of possession — the thing that hurt them, I think, was late in the game, the turnover. You're sitting there and it's 14-13 and Illinois throws a Hail Mary to end the half to make it 21-13. I think it was like 437 yards to 322. UAB dominated the stat lines, but the score kind of pulled away and made it look a little different there at the end with the pick-six.

I see a good football team. Defensively — big, long edges. Athletic, big-body interior D-linemen. Linebackers that have been with Coach Grantham at Oklahoma State, solid players who know the system. In the back end, guys that can run, guys that can cover. This is a good football team.

Offensively, their offensive line's physical. Tight ends are big and physical. They've got big running backs and guys that can really run on the outside. I think Ryder Burton, their quarterback, makes them go. He's tough. You can tell he likes it — he likes playing the game. He's accurate. He's smart. You can tell that Mort's done a really good job with him from his growth and development. They've got a solid kicking game. They've got explosive receivers. This is a really good UAB football team, and I think they showed that going on the road against Illinois and going toe-to-toe with them.

On preparing for another physical game

Bryant Vincent: "I don't think — I know we won't see the talent, the team that we played Saturday. That'll be the most talented, best team we'll see all year. They are physical, they are fast, they're a good, well-coached football team. I don't see a whole lot of difference this week. It's going to be physical. It's going to be fast. They're well-coached. It's their home opener. We're going back-to-back on the road and that's fine. We're looking forward to it."

At the end of the day, it comes down to execution. Being efficient on offense, executing situational downs, not turning the football over and scoring touchdowns when you get in the red zone. Defensively, we've got to get takeaways. We've got to tackle. We've got to work on tackling. We've got to be better at tackling. You can always improve on tackling. We've got to be able to cover better. Being in that fire Saturday night is only going to get us more ready for this next game.

On the team's energy and maturity heading into Week 2

Bryant Vincent: "This team's mature. This team has good player-driven leadership. It doesn't matter who our opponent is, who we're playing — it's how we play. It's doing the things it takes to win a football game. That's winning the turnover battle, winning the situational battle, being the most physical team and being able to execute those critical downs in games to win games. When you get to that fourth and one or that fourth and three or that third and two and you need to stop, or you've got to execute on offense, or you've got to line up and kick a field goal to win it — it's those situations this team's got to continue to get better at."

On returning to UAB and Protective Stadium

Bryant Vincent: "Obviously, you go back to 2014 — UAB had been to one bowl game ever and hadn't won it, and we get bowl eligible the first year and they shut the program down. Bring it back, I'm able to go back in '18 and we won our first conference championship ever, first bowl game ever. Then you win the West again, and you win the West again in '20 and you win another conference championship. And then being the interim head coach in '22 and winning the Bahamas Bowl — there was a lot of history that was made there with Coach Clark."

It's the same things that we're working here to do. Very similar situation. There was a lot of history there, a lot of relationships. But that's not what it's about. It's about this team and the next step we've got to take as a team and as a program to be able to go on the road and have a shot to win the game in the fourth quarter against a really quality opponent.