Defense rules the day at annual UAB spring game
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBMA) — Thursday night kicked off the unofficial start of the Trent Dilfer era at UAB. Blazer fans had the chance to see the Super Bowl champion quarterback roam the sidelines for the first time in the annual green and gold spring game.
"Although it was a spring game it was designed to be more of a practice setting to work on fundamentals and the basics", said Dilfer.
All eyes Thursday night were squarely on presumptive starting quarterback Jacob Zeno, who looked calm, cool, and confident for much of the night.
"We have been in the system for 3 or 4 weeks during spring ball but we were learning plays since January so it didn't feel new out there", said Zeno.
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"I though overall, I though he played pretty well but unfortunately when you're a quarterback you have to make, and he knows this, if he was standing right here he'd be nodding his head because we've had these conversions so many times, the standard is just so high on decision making and he can really operate this offense at a high level. What he's been able to digest on a daily basis is pretty remarkable", said Dilfer.
No question the big winner of the green and gold game was the Blazer defense, whose dominate front paired with ball hawking playmakers in the secondary certainty stole the show.
"I feel like our secondary will be a strong point of this team. We got a lot of play makers, a lot of ballhawks on the defensive side, especially at defensive back, and we got some aggressive guys all-around, our defense is probably going to be one of the strong points of this team" said Blazer defensive back A.D. Diamond.
The green and gold game is not the end of spring ball for the Blazers, choosing to hold their spring game earlier in the month, they’ll have four more practices as a team. They continue to prepare for the fall, and their eventual week 1 opponent in North Carolina A&T on August 31st.