With Cleveland Browns fans questioning the future of HC Kevin Stefanski, college football saw some huge coaching news. Penn State University had fired its head coach, James Franklin. The Big 10 school
was picked in preseason polls to become one of the final 12 schools that would compete for the National Championship, as they opened at a #2 ranking initially. Instead, Penn State fell to 3-3-0 and 0-3 within the conference.
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Last season, Penn State finished 13-3-0 and lost 45-37 in the Big 10 Championship Game and then 31-14 in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal against Boise State.
Another major college program was in the news regarding its head coach.
Oregon State fired head coach Trent Bray. The Pac-12 school fell to 0-7-0 after losing to Wake Forest at home in front of 29,710 patrons. Just three weeks ago, they were beaten badly by their in-state rival, Oregon, 41-7.
While these two programs hogged the headlines in college football after the air had cleared from this past weekend, one other head coach lost his job. And this one once played for the Cleveland Browns.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) announced that it had released its head coach, Trent Dilfer. Two of the last three games UAB had allowed over 50 points on defense as they began their season 2-4-0 and lost on Saturday 53-33 to Florida Atlantic.
Dilfer was the starting quarterback for the Browns in 2005.
Two weeks ago, UAB lost to #15 Tennessee 56-24.
Dilfer had been the head coach of UAB for three seasons. Before that, he had coached Lipscomb Academy High School in Nashville for four years. During his head coaching history with Lipscomb, the program went to the playoffs all four seasons and won two state championships in Class 3A, and were runners-up another season.
Dilfer parlayed that success to the UAB position beginning in 2023.
UAB won its first game under Dilfer with a 35-6 victory over North Carolina A&T. They finished 4-8-0 in Dilfer’s first season and landed in ninth place in the American Athletic Conference standings. Last year, UAB again won its first game of the season, and then finished with a 3-9-0 record with a mark of 2–6 in conference play, tying for 11th place in the AAC.
This year, they defeated Alabama State 52-42 in the opening game, making this all three years getting Dilfer a win in Week 1.
The issue was an insufficient offense and a lack of consistency in critical moments. The offense was stagnant, which was where Dilfer’s experience excelled. Negative yardage and failure to convert third downs were listed as issues from the university.
UAB had lost 15 straight road games. Dilfer went 9-21-0 with UAB.
Dilfer’s offensive coordinator, Alex Mortensen, was named interim coach. Browns defensive end Alex Wright was drafted out of UAB two years before Dilfer was hired.
Dilfer only played one season for the Browns. He had been the starting QB with the Seattle Seahawks when starter Matt Hasselbeck injured his groin. After the 2004 season, he was traded to Cleveland to mentor rookie QB Charlie Frye.
Dilfer started 11 games for the Browns in the 2005 season. He went 199-333 for 2,321 yards and tossed 11 touchdowns with 12 interceptions, along with 100 first down conversions and a QB rating of 76.9.
While with the Browns, it became known that Dilfer had a dispute with Cleveland’s OC, Maurice Carthon. The result was that Dilfer asked to leave Cleveland after a 6-10-0 finish. In 2006, he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, who had just drafted rookie Alex Smith and wanted an experienced mentor.
Dilfer came into the league after he was selected sixth overall in the first round of the 1994 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He went to the Pro Bowl in 1997.
After six seasons in Tampa, where he had been injured several times, he signed with the Baltimore Ravens for the 2000 season. The Ravens had that ferocious defense, and Baltimore defeated the New York Football Giants in Super Bowl XXXV 34-7. Baltimore allowed only 152 yards of offense by the Giants (the third-lowest total ever in a Super Bowl), forced five turnovers, along with four sacks. New York had 16 possessions that all ended with either interceptions or punts.
While he was the starting QB at Baltimore, it has been well noted that the defense instructed him to score just enough points to win, and that their group would win the game.
After he hung up his cleats, he became an analyst with ESPN for nine years before going into coaching.
Dilfer completed 55.5 percent of his passes for 20,518 yards in his career. He threw 113 TD passes and 129 interceptions.
