When UAB’s Trent Dilfer was introduced as the Blazers’ sixth head football coach in program history, the former Super Bowl championship quarterback was eager to answer concerns regarding his recruiting acumen after only coaching at the high school level.

He made a vow and carried it through with zeal and joyfulness.

“I said we would figure it out,” Dilfer said. “Well, we figured it out.”

The Blazers lost 21 seniors from the final team of the Bill Clark era, including a handful of portal entries, early graduates and the nation’s leading rusher DeWayne McBride to the 2023 NFL Draft, but recouped those losses in Dilfer’s first official signing class for UAB.

“This is a great class,” Dilfer said. “I don’t want to get into superlatives, but it would be tough to argue that it’s not the best class in the history of UAB football and I deserve very little credit for it. It starts with Tristan (Henderson), Connor (Koch) and Abbye (Brunson), on top of that, have been invaluable assets.”

“The three of them together running this (recruiting) department, along with their interns and support staff, allowed this to happen,” he added. “I’m more impressed with the people in the building and I really believe that’s what the kids saw. They love the fact that a strong foundation has been laid here. We have nice facilities. We have great resources, but more importantly than any of that, they’ve all spoken about how they saw the staff really getting along and how it felt like a family.”

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At the time this article was published, UAB ranks 95th in the 247Sports Composite and 83rd in the On3 Composite. However, neither recruiting service has fully updated UAB’s class nor performed evaluations on a handful of signees.

With a partial staff, Dilfer signed 16 players during the early signing period and added 17 on National Signing Day with a complete staff, including 9 via the transfer portal.

On the day he was formally introduced as UAB’s head coach, Dilfer was adamant about recruiting the trenches and made good on his promise by signing eight defensive linemen and six offensive linemen.

“The mentality of this program will be built on our defensive mentality,” Dilfer said. “We have really good defensive linemen here. We brought in all these new cool toys and we forgot about the toys we have. I don’t want to forget about the guys here. We love the veteran defense we have. We don’t like them, we love them. But they’re all getting older so the priority was to make sure that we added, not just depth, but become difference-makers with really good development. We also had to find a handful of true freshmen that can contribute from a depth standpoint.”

Along with big bodies, the coaching staff went heavy on offensive playmakers, signing eight receivers, two quarterbacks and a running back, and earned the services of four linebackers and three defensive backs.

The majority of UAB’s signees are high school prospects (19) and the Blazers supplemented transfer portal losses with their own gains in the college football version of free agency. Of its 33 signees, only three were junior college players.

Arguably two of the most important transfers were Louisiana Tech quarterback Landry Lyddy and Ole Miss tight end Trace Campbell, the latter of which will play quarterback for the Blazers. With both Dylan Hopkins and Mehrotra finding new homes on the other side of the portal, the acquisitions of Lyddy and Campbell were paramount with a room that had only two scholarship quarterbacks in Jacob Zeno and Damon Stewart.

“There’s great competition in that room,” he added. “We like all their traits and the personalities in there as well. You want a certain character, you want people that are highly competitive, that are trying to chase their best but also can be cheerleaders. They have to be cheerleaders for the team, and be cheerleaders for the other guys in the room.”

Among the portal signees were six players who played in their high school career in the state of Alabama: Fairfield’s Malachi Holt-Bennett (Indiana), Central-Phenix’s James Smyre (Marshall), John Carroll’s Demetrius Battle (West Alabama), Blount’s Armani “AD” Diamond (Auburn), Vigor’s Desmond Little (LSU) and Hewitt-Trussville’s Dazalin Worsham (Auburn).

“The energy in the city is great,” Dilfer said. “People want to live in Birmingham. They want to come back to their families. They want to be part of this great city. Because of that, we’re going to have really neat opportunities around the portal because of bounce-back kids.”

Overall, Dilfer and his first coaching and recruiting staff focused on in-state prospects and regional talent, as well as reaching across the country for a few players to expand their national scope. Of UAB’s 33 signees, 14 are from Alabama, 14 from the southeast region and the remaining five hailing from California, Arizona, Michigan and Maryland.

“We want to recruit Alabama really well,” Dilfer said. “You don’t have to go far to get really good people in players. Now saying all that, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas are places — Tennessee, obviously, where we’re from — we’re going to have a presence. People are seeking us out. When you look at some of these states, I think they like the vibe that’s going on. We’ve done a really good job and the excitement around the program with the staff has become a national conversation. I don’t want to give away all our secrets, but that’s also a strategy.”

UAB 2023 signees (33)

Landry Lyddy, QB (6-0 / 198) Louisiana Tech | Shreveport, La.

Trace Campbell, QB (6-5 / 235) Ole Miss | Ellicott City, Md.

Demetrius Battle, RB (6-2 / 240) West Alabama | Birmingham, Ala.

Dazalin Worsham, WR (6-1 / 177) Auburn | Birmingham, Ala.

Malachi Holt-Bennett, WR (6-3 / 190) Indiana | Birmingham, Ala.

Brandon Hawkins, WR (6-0 / 185) Navarro College | Waxahachie, Texas

Jamarcus Jones, WR (6-4 / 220) Mississippi Gulf Coast | Union, Miss.

Jaylyn Ferguson, WR (6-3 / 160) Southwest | Fort Worth, Texas

Amare Thomas, WR (5-10 / 180) Pinson Valley | Pinson, Ala.

Kameran Shanks, WR (5-9 / 175) Prattville | Prattville, Ala.

Corri Milliner, WR (6-2 / 170) Benjamin Russell | Alexander City, Ala.

William Parker, OL (6-5 / 310) Tennessee | Nashville, Tenn.

Jalen Nettles, OL (6-4 / 300) Northeast Mississippi | Canton, Miss.

Mason Chorak, OL (6-5 / 265) Saguaro | Scottsdale, Ariz.

Delano Townsend, OL (6-4 / 300) Hamady Community | Flint, Mich.

Logan Moore, OL (6-7 / 255) Lincoln | San Diego, Calif.

Alfonzo Leomiti, OL (6-4 / 310) Los Alamitos | Los Alamitos, Calif.

Emmanuel Waller, DL (6-4 / 250) Oak Mountain | Birmingham, Ala.

Conner Knight, DL (6-3 / 285) Hewitt-Trussville | Trussville, Ala.

Eamon Smalls, DL (6-2 / 295) Beaufort | Ladys Island, S.C.

Daniel Harris, DL (6-6 / 190) Palm Bay | Melbourne, Fla.

Jonathan Allen, DL (6-1 / 270) Jackson-Olin | Birmingham, Ala.

Tyler Thomas, DL (6-4 / 230) Cottage Hill Christian | Mobile, Ala.

Guerlens Milfort, DL (6-1 / 275) Lakeland | Lakeland, Fla.

Miquan Merriweather, DL (6-1 / 295) Carver | Columbus, Ga.

Kendall Johnson, OLB (6-6 / 237) Tennessee State | Jackson, Tenn.

Desmond Little, OLB (6-5 / 230) LSU | Prichard, Ala.

Everett Roussaw, LB (6-2 / 215) Cedar Grove | Ellenwood, Ga.

James Smyre, LB (6-2 / 220) Marshall | Columbus, Ga.

Armani (AD) Diamond, CB (5-11 / 171) Auburn | Mobile, Ala.

Brian (BJ) Mayes, CB (6-1 / 183) Incarnate Word | Houston, Texas

Ricky Lee, CB (5-11 / 170) Cedar Grove | Ellenwood, Ga.

Christopher Bracy, S (6-1 / 185) St. Paul’s Episcopal | Mobile, Ala.