Alex Mortensen Gets the UAB Head Coach Job: Why the Promotion Makes Sense
UAB watched Alex Mortensen run their program for half a season and decided they liked what they saw. The Blazers handed Mortensen the permanent head coaching job, lifting the interim label and giving the 40-year-old his first real shot to build something in Birmingham.
Mortensen took over after Trent Dilfer was fired in October. Under his watch, UAB went 2-4 and knocked off a ranked Memphis team on the way. That is not a hall-of-fame interim run, but it was enough to convince the athletic department that the offensive coordinator they hired could grow into something more.
Here is why the move tracks. Dilfer left a program in shambles. He went 9-21 across two-plus seasons and never figured out how to win in the American Conference. The Blazers needed continuity, not another rebuild. Mortensen is already inside the building, already knows the roster, and already has buy-in from a locker room that watched him steady the ship in November.
The bigger question is whether Mortensen can recruit. UAB lives or dies on the back end of every recruiting cycle. The Blazers cannot outbid the Alabamas and Auburns of the world, so they need a coach who can identify three-star kids with second-gear potential and convince them Birmingham is the right place to develop. Mortensen spent six total seasons as an analyst at Alabama under Nick Saban, so he has seen what elite player evaluation looks like up close.
His pedigree is real too. Mortensen played quarterback at Arkansas and Samford before a brief stint with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent. He went into coaching in 2012 and worked his way up the analyst grind, the part of the profession that almost nobody talks about and that almost every successful coordinator goes through.
The Alex Mortensen story carries some weight outside Birmingham, too. His late father Chris Mortensen was one of the most respected NFL reporters of his generation, a 35-year ESPN fixture who passed away last year. Watching Alex land a head coaching job months later is the kind of full-circle moment the sport rarely produces.
None of that pedigree wins games. What wins games at UAB is keeping local Alabama talent home, building a quarterback-friendly offensive system, and finding a defensive identity that travels in conference play. Mortensen is going to inherit a depleted roster after a chaotic season, and the transfer portal is going to decide whether he can flip the program in year one or whether year two is the realistic timeline.
UAB also needs to figure out its identity in the American. The Memphis win was nice. The blowout losses were not. There is a path to bowl eligibility next season if Mortensen hits the portal hard and finds a competent quarterback, but there is also a path to another 4-8 finish if the recruiting board does not break right.
The bet here is simple. UAB believes Mortensen will outperform his interim numbers once he has a full offseason, a full staff he hired, and a full recruiting cycle to put his stamp on the roster. That is a reasonable bet to make on a 40-year-old whose ceiling has never been tested. It is also a low-risk bet, because UAB was not going to attract a bigger name and Mortensen was going to keep that job staying or going elsewhere.
Now we find out whether the Blazers got it right.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
