Trent Dilfer hadn’t been a college coach before he took over at UAB. But considering he was a former NFL quarterback and a successful coach at the high school ranks, one could see why he would get an opportunity at some point.
But so far, things haven’t been smooth for Dilfer. UAB went 4-8 in 2023, and the Blazers were 3-9 in 2024 with a 2-6 mark against American Conference teams. Fans quickly turned on him for myriad reasons, and it didn’t get better when UAB started this year 2-4.
That led to Dilfer being fired on Sunday. Now that UAB will need a new head coach in 2026, here’s some names they should consider.
ULM Head Coach Bryant Vincent
Would this happen? Maybe. Maybe not. Should UAB at least try? I think so.
Vincent was UAB’s interim head coach in 2022 after also being an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach there. The Blazers went 7-6 overall with a win in the Bahamas Bowl that season. In his five years at UAB, he helped his players break several school records on offense.
But instead of making Vincent the long-term head coach, UAB went with Dilfer. If Vincent were open to it, hiring him makes plenty of sense.
After all, he’s been solid as ULM’s coach thus far. ULM was 2-10 in 2023. But then in Vincent’s first season leading the team, the Warhawks nearly made a bowl game at 5-7 overall and are 3-3 in 2025. He’s proven he can turn a program around quickly.
Vincent was New Mexico’s offensive coordinator in 2023. While he was at UNM, the Lobos made great improvements on offense. They scored 27.3 points per game, which was more than double their production from the previous year.
Maybe too much has happened at this point for Vincent to go back to UAB, but he absolutely should be considered by the Blazers.
Western Kentucky Head Coach Tyson Helton
Helton has a good amount of experience at UAB. Not only did he coach there, his father, Kim, was once an assistant there.
Helton went into this season with a 48-32 record as WKU’s head coach. His background primarily involves offense. He began his coaching career at Hawaii as a graduate assistant in 2000 and worked with special teams the following three years.
He then coached tight ends and special teams at Memphis from 2004-06. The next five seasons, he coached quarterbacks at UAB and then focused on running backs there in 2012.
In 2013, he was a tight ends and special teams coach at Cincinnati. He coached at WKU for the first time from 2014-15 as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
He was also a QBs coach and a passing game coordinator at USC from 2016-17. He then became the offensive coordinator and a quarterbacks coach at Tennessee for one year before going back to WKU to be a head coach.
SMU Offensive Coordinator Casey Woods
Woods is a successful coordinator at a current Power Four school who has experience at UAB.
He was a tight ends coach, run game coordinator, and recruiting coordinator there for three years after the football program came back in 2016. The Blazers set several school records and put together some highly-regarded recruiting classes during his time there.
As for his tenure at SMU, the Mustangs were eighth in the FBS in scored points per game (38.7) and 16th in yards per game (454.9) in 2023, their last year in the AAC. SMU, in its first year in the ACC, helped the Mustangs reach the College Football Playoff in 2024.
Woods has also been a tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Missouri. He coached wide receivers and was a recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State in 2012 when the Red Wolves went 10-3, earned a Sun Belt title, and won the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
If Woods is interested, UAB would be smart to consider him.
Chicago Bears Assistant Anthony Blevins
Blevins is a special teams assistant in the NFL in Chicago, but he has ties to the program and the area and has a good coaching resume.
A former XFL player, Blevins played at UAB and was a cornerbacks coach there in 2012. Since then, he was an assistant in several roles for the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants focusing on special teams and defensive secondaries. He coached players like Pro Bowlers Justin Bethel, Budda Baker, and Michael Thomas.
In 2023, he took an offer to be the head coach of the XFL’s Vegas Vipers, but he never led the team during a season due to the UFL’s merger. He was a defensive assistant with the Birmingham Stallions before going to the Bears.
Blevins’ knowledge of the program and ability to recruit in the area should make him a potential candidate.
Lamar Head Coach Pete Rossomando
Rossomando hasn’t been at Lamar very long, but his tenure there has been impressive. He’s also been an interim head coach at a school that’s currently in the American.
In 2023, his first season as head coach of the Cardinals, the team had won a single game the previous year and just five games in the three seasons prior. Under Rossomando’s leadership, Lamar put together the fourth-biggest single-season turnaround in the FCS by going 6-5 overall. The Cardinals kept improving and went 7-5 last year, and they started this season 5-1 overall.
Rossomando has also briefly been an FBS head coach. He was an interim head coach at Charlotte in 2022, and the 49ers went 2-2 during that time. He was also an offensive line coach there.
Before that, he was an O-line coach at Vanderbilt in 2020 and at Rutgers in 2019. He was also a head coach at Central Connecticut State. He led that program to its first FCS playoffs appearance. He was also a head coach at the University of New Haven, which made the Division II playoffs twice during his tenure and was ranked as highly as No. 3 in the country.
Rossomando has the head coaching experience and FBS experience to be a candidate for any G5 program, including UAB.
