Trent Dilfer slept on office furniture with his dog in the UAB football facility for the first few months he was in Birmingham.

Ideas would come to Dilfer at 2 and 3 in the morning. Wild stuff as football goes. They were the half-crazy notions that gather in that place between awake and dreams. Obsessions never truly rest, do they? Well, Nala would know. She was there for it all.

Dilfer would wake up in the middle of the night, pet his dog, roll off the couch in the big office overlooking UAB’s practice field, and then write down his thoughts on a huge, wall-sized dry-erase board.

There is a balcony attached to the office, too. It’s a great set up. During practices, Nala hangs out and watches from high above like a canine Paul Bryant.

With a dog by his side, Dilfer is learning to be a college football coach in Birmingham, Alabama. It’s a great story and on Thursday night it got even better. UAB kicked off the 2023 season at Protective Stadium with a 35-6 victory against North Carolina A&T. No one knows how this season is going to turn out for UAB with a first-time college coach, but after one game it’s plain to see that Nala and her couch companion have put in a remarkable amount of work over the last many months.

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Welcome to Birmingham, Coach Dilfer, the keys to the city are yours.

Long gone are the days of UAB’s boring, bewildering, old-world offense. The Dilfer Effect is real and this ride is going to be fun to watch. What we saw in the home opener was nothing short of a revelation to long-time UAB fans and a proclamation to the American Athletic Conference. The Blazers are coming.

If you don’t have plans to go see UAB this fall, then rectify that situation as quickly as possible. Something special is happening on the Southside, and if people haven’t recognized it yet then they soon will.

This new-look UAB couldn’t prove much about itself against an FCS opponent, but Dilfer’s Blazers showed without a doubt that this team has the potential to put up massive offensive numbers. UAB quarterback Jacob Zeno set a school record for completions, going 38 of 41 for 291 yards and three passing touchdowns.

Zeno wasn’t a transfer. He was on the roster at UAB last season, but he was on the bench. Go figure.

How much has he improved since last season? Zeno said he feels like he’s 10 times better, and it’s thanks to Dilfer and his coaching staff.

Some people called Dilfer the worst hire in college football over the offseason. I can say with authority that those people don’t know much about football. There are so many elite players on UAB’s offense that some SEC schools will be envious of these Blazers by the time the season is over. From seeing them play in just one game, I can say that running back Isaiah Jacobs (younger brother of Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs) and receiver Tejhaun Palmer are future pros.

Dilfer is a former NFL quarterback who coached at the high school level for four years before taking over at UAB. He’s not in it for the money and he’s not in it for the fame. He’s an idealist like Gene Bartow was an idealist and that’s exactly what UAB needs out of a football coach to unlock its true potential.

“I just keep pushing the envelope of what young people can learn,” Dilfer said. “Our game plan was bigger than any game plan I had in the NFL…You just saw a glimpse of what we can do.”

In the weeks leading up to his first game, Dilfer told me that he thinks UAB can win the American Athletic Conference in the Blazers’ first year in the league. It would be one of the biggest stories in college football if that happened, and after the first game I’m beginning to see why Dilfer is so excited.

Dilfer looks like a genius for hiring Alex Mortensen away from Alabama. Mortensen was an offensive analyst for all of Alabama’s best offensive coordinators. In his first game as a coordinator, Mortensen proved that Nick Saban should have promoted him long ago.

Dilfer has two first-time college coordinators. Sione Ta’ufo’ou is coaching the defense. They’re all learning together. There are going to be setbacks, and there are going to be disappointments, but this madcap science experiment might just work.

Dilfer moved out of the football facility after his first three months in Birmingham. He’s now living in a loft downtown. Nala protected the pad during the first game and it was probably the longest she’s been away from Dilfer in months.

“She’s going to lick me all over when I get home,” Dilfer said.

Say what you want to say about UAB’s new football coach, that he didn’t deserve the opportunity, that he didn’t pay his dues, that he didn’t become a FBS-level coach in the traditional way, but don’t ever say that Dilfer, owner a 1-0 career record as a college coach, went into this crazy plan of turning UAB into a national power without an ever-faithful, ever-loyal friend by his side every step of the way.

To be a college football coach, Dilfer had to leave his family in Nashville and devote all of his waking moments to figuring this thing out. He didn’t do it alone, though. He had help, and he had support. A lot of people took a chance on UAB this offseason and believed, but who spent more time in the UAB football facility than anyone in the program? It wasn’t a person. It was Dilfer’s dog, UAB football’s most loyal supporter.

Nala never doubted Dilfer for one minute, that’s for sure.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.