UAB football had the biggest stunner of the college football coaching carousel with news theyāll hire Super Bowl-winning QB Trent Dilfer as head coach.
Despite numerous Power Five head coaching vacancies needing to be filled and even with Auburn forgetting history and hiring Hugh Freeze, perhaps the wildest hire of the early coaching carousel came from UAB football on Tuesday night.
The Blazers, who played the season under interim head coach Bryant Vincent this season en route to going 6-6 after longtime coach Bill Clark retired in June due to medical reasons, are reportedly set to hire former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl-winner Trent Dilfer, per Ross Dellenger of SI.
A deal has not yet been finalized, but the move is expected to be done soon.
Dilfer, who spent 14 seasons in the NFL and won a Super Bowl as the Baltimore Ravens quarterabck in 2000, has spent the past four seasons coaching high school football in Nashville atĀ Lipscomb Academy where he accrued a 38-8 record and won a state championship. He also came under fire during that job after video came to light that showed him yelling at and shoving a player. Dilfer has no college coaching experience.
UAB football hiring Trent Dilfer as head coach: Best memes and reactions
The news of Dilferās hiring sent shockwaves through the college football world, which prompted some pretty great reactions.
Ross, did you get hacked?
ā Mark Etheridge (@marketheridge) November 30, 2022
Trent Dilfer is the new coach at UAB. What a time to be alive. pic.twitter.com/pqSNT8eU3C
ā Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) November 30, 2022
Just speaking from the perspective of living about 4 minutes from where Dilfer coaches now, uh, yes.
ā Allan Bell (@AllanBell247) November 30, 2022
He has crushed it from the minute he arrived. https://t.co/fjKs4xuhwd
The Jeff Saturday and Trent Dilfer hires have us thinking š pic.twitter.com/Ptql4GsEi2
ā Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) November 30, 2022
Say what you want about him, but you all know that Trent Dilfer will definitely swing as hard as he can while heās at UAB. pic.twitter.com/6FYtUFvKBi
ā RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) November 30, 2022
UAB in 4 years when Dilfer sends that team to the bottom of the conference pic.twitter.com/HdUPfy3A0z
ā Chris Moxley (@ChrisMoxley19) November 30, 2022
āYou canāt lose games in the CUSAā¦and still win.ā -Trent Dilfer, probably https://t.co/B888FQ2SRu
ā Greg (@GMZ5034) November 30, 2022
Earlier on Tuesday, some UAB football players had written to university president Ray Watts after they were unable to meet with him in order to try and advocate to retain Vincent as head coach.
https://twitter.com/fish_mcwilliams/status/1597665280708464640
This is a fascinating development, especially with conference realignment looming that will see UAB join the American Athletic Conference, which could be perceived as an elevated level of competition from Conference-USA where the Blazers have been residing.
Dilfer will now have his first college head coaching job and all eyes will be on the former Super Bowl-winner to see how he fares in Birmingham.
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