UAB head coach Trent Dilfer is a man of many hats but juggling the issues of the transfer portal and NIL is fast becoming one of his better talents.

And he doesn’t mind saying as much.

“You can be pissed off that there’s tampering going on and you can be totally pro-kid at the same time,” Dilfer said. “I believe I have the emotional intelligence to do both and I’ve proven that in a six-month period of time — I’m attacking this bullshit, the tampering, and I’m supporting kids.”

The first-year UAB head coach and former Super Bowl Champion made the rounds throughout the summer, defending his disdain for tampering and underhanded dealing, and expressed his entirety of concerns this week during 2023 AAC Media Days in Arlington, Texas.

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Although new to the college coaching profession, Dilfer has experienced first-hand the positives of NIL through his daughters and the negatives during a time when NIL was not even in its infancy.

“Please don’t mistake my public comments and sound bites, I love NIL and I love the transfer portal,” Dilfer said. “My daughters have benefitted from both. I love, love, love NIL and I am the biggest fan of players being able to profit from their name, image and likeness because of my experience as a player.”

A standout quarterback at Fresno State, Dilfer was the 1993 WAC Offensive Player of the Year award — eventually the sixth overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft — and could have capitalized on his own success if NIL was enacted at the time.

“I remember looking up in Fresno (State), seeing my jerseys everywhere, and then getting my scholarship check for $471,” he said. “My wife and I had to pay rent and bills and buy food, and $471 doesn’t do all that. It sure would be nice if I got $10 off every jersey of the 25,000 jerseys that are being worn in the stadium. This is 1992 and I’m realizing that players aren’t benefiting as they should.”

The combination of NIL and the transfer portal are not a threat to any single program but one of the two concerning issues for Dilfer is the portal windows coinciding with a vacuum of high-stakes decisions.

“I love the two combined,” Dilfer said. “I hate the dates that they’ve allowed because who, in their infinite wisdom, makes a decision in the two most emotional times of the year?”

Harking back to his days as a professional athlete, Dilfer explained a crucial life lesson taught to him by Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, wherein when the season ends, whether finishing with a championship or ending the year in heartbreak, life decisions are put on hold for at least two weeks.

“If you’re a loser, your wife sucks, your kids suck and your food sucks,” Dilfer said. “If you’re a winner, you’re a narcissist. You think that you just conquered the world and the whole world is there to serve you. Either perspective is wrong we’re asking 20 to 21-year-olds, in the most emotional time for them and their family, and coaches — whose wives are ugly, whose kids suck and whose food sucks at the end of the year — to make these big decisions on where you’re going to finish your college education. What’s the second most emotional time? Spring ball.”

While this problem can certainly be fixed with changes made by the NCAA, the rampant NIL collectives roaming the wastelands and besieging the Thunderdome are creating chaos amidst floating accusations of tampering — the primary issue raised by Dilfer this summer.

While more high-valued recruits are playing significant roles as true freshmen, there are even more so who are still in need of development before taking on the brunt of FBS-level football. The enticement of luring a seasoned veteran from another program — combined with the one-time transfer rule and opportunity created by NIL — is one that is hard to pass up by championship-level programs needing to fill a starter position for a season or two.

“A five-star coming out of high school is not going to help you win as much as a two-star that’s played three years at UAB, because that’s a grown-ass man,” Dilfer said. “That’s a dude that’s had to deal with life. He’s had to live on his own. He’s had to go to academic services. He’s probably had some adversity in his career. He’s in his second stage of testosterone boost in the weight room so he’s put on 15 to 35 pounds, mostly muscle, and he’s learned the discipline of the daily routine. He’s learned how to be coached hard. He’s learned to interact with people he didn’t grow up with.

“He’s a man that can help you win,” he added. “If I’m at a Power Five and let’s say, 5-star Johnny versus Johnny at UAB, who’s going to help me win next year? That Johnny (UAB) is going to help me win. Here’s the thing they can’t control, they can’t control if Johnny at UAB is in the portal or not.”

The digital age has provided the world’s knowledge at the touch of a finger but also created a backline of communication that can be used for many a nefarious purposes. As Dilfer surmises, those dirty deeds are illegal correspondences to players who are not in the transfer portal.

Unfortunately for those looking to poach, according to Dilfer, the receipts are in the threads of direct messaging apps and the IP addresses that identify any device and its physical location of the network to which it is connected.

Nothing ever leaves the internet.

“I don’t deal with problems, I only deal with solutions,” Dilfer said. “I don’t have $16 million in a collective and I’m not going to have $16 million in a collective. My solution is to go be proactive about this and say stay out of my roster.”

“I’m calling these guys, these coaches, and telling them, ‘You probably don’t know this, but it is your building. I have a WhatsApp text. I have a DM on Instagram. I have a text message on his phone. And I have IP addresses of where he’s doing his college homework, and it happens to be in your building.’ I’m not turning anyone in, I’m calling them first.”

However, as Dilfer previously stated, he is not opposed to increased opportunities for his players at other programs if the situation allows for the student-athlete to make their decision without any undue influence while still a member of the team.

“I’ve told about eight guys on our team; that at the end of this season, if your NFL opportunity is not as good as your Power Five opportunity, I will help you move on from us to the next place,” he said. “It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on us in recruiting and developing because right now we believe we have some NFL players and some guys that will probably leave us for a better opportunity in college football.”