{"id":331046,"date":"2025-12-05T00:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331046\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:51:10","slug":"uab-working-to-hire-alex-mortensen-as-full-time-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/331046\/","title":{"rendered":"UAB working to hire Alex Mortensen as full-time head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

UAB<\/a> is working to finalize a deal to hire Alex Mortensen<\/a> as its full-time head coach, On3\u2019s Pete Nakos<\/a> and Chris Low<\/a> reported. He served as the interim head coach following Trent Dilfer\u2019s<\/a> departure.<\/p>\n

Mortensen took over as UAB\u2019s interim head coach after a 2-4 start to the season. He won his first game, leading the Blazers to a victory over then-No. 22 Memphis<\/a>. UAB then won its final game of the year, taking down Tulsa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mortensen \u2013 the son of the late former ESPN NFL insider Chris Mortensen \u2013 took over as UAB\u2019s offensive coordinator in 2023 before his elevation to interim head coach. He previously worked as an analyst under Nick Saban<\/a> at Alabama<\/a> from 2020-22, his second stint with the Crimson Tide. He was with the program as a graduate assistant from 2014-16 and as an analyst from 2017-19.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Mortensen served as the wide receivers coach for the Birmingham Iron in the Alliance of American Football (AAF) prior to his return to Alabama. He played quarterback at Arkansas<\/a> and Samford<\/a> during his college career before briefly playing for the Tennessee Titans in 2009. That\u2019s when he got into coaching as the quarterbacks coach at Division II New Mexico Highlands in 2012.<\/p>\n

Mortensen was a Broyles Award nominee as the nation\u2019s top assistant coach upon his arrival in 2023. That year, UAB averaged 450 total yards per game in its first season in the then-American Athletic Conference, and the Blazers averaged nearly 30 points once again in its new conference.<\/p>\n

UAB\u2019s season-ending victory over Tulsa this year marked the program\u2019s first road victory in more than two years. Alex Mortensen reflected afterward on not only that achievement, but also the emotions of the last few weeks. The program worked through a stabbing incident<\/a> prior to its game against USF<\/a>, and multiple players were excused from that game as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win will be one that ranks right up there near some of the best wins I\u2019ve been a part of,\u201d Mortensen said on WJOX radio, via AL.com<\/a>. \u201cBecause when you think about what this group went through \u2013 I mean, one, let\u2019s talk about the significance of it. No road wins for really two and a half years or whatever it amounts to. \u2026 And then after what we\u2019ve been through this past week, we were without about 30 players this week at practice. To think about what it took to go on the road and win this game is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UAB is working to finalize a deal to hire Alex Mortensen as its full-time head coach, On3\u2019s Pete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[159510,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-331046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-alex-mortensen","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}