It is the time of year when disappointing college football programs start to make big changes and go on the market for new head coaches.
UAB will not be one of those programs, announcing on Tuesday that head coach Trent Dilfer will be returning for a third year in charge of the program in 2025.
It is a surprising move given how disappointing his first two years on the team’s sidelines have gone.
In his first two years, Dilfer’s team has gone just 7-17, with two of those wins coming against FCS teams.
Had UAB decided to fire Dilfer, it would have had to pay him a $3M buyout.
UAB took a huge gamble on hiring Dilfer prior to the 2023 season because he had zero coaching experience above high school. That risk has not paid off and if anything has brought a lot of embarrassment to a program that in recent years had at least been competitive.
In the six years prior to Dilfer, UAB had six straight winning seasons, a .656 overall winning percentage and appeared in five bowl games, winning three of them. The only year in that stretch the program did not appear in a bowl game was the 2020 Covid year when it still went 6-3. The fact that came after the program was on a two-year hiatus makes it even more impressive.
It seemed like a program that at least had a chance to become a consistent Group of Five contender, and Dilfer has undone all of that in two years and turned the program into a laughing stock.
Either UAB leadership has the belief that Dilfer can change and turn the program around or it simply did not want to pay the $3M buyout and pay a new head coach on top of that. Neither one seems promising or encouraging if you are a UAB fan.