New UAB coach Trent Dilfer is making it clear that he will not take kindly to rival coaches making attempts to poach players from his roster.
In an appearance on the “Rick & Bubba University” podcast, Dilfer dared rival coaches to try to take his players, suggesting he would publicly call them out by name if he discovered them doing so.
“By the way, come try to get my guys. I dare you, Power 5s,” Dilfer said. “I got a pretty big platform that I can step on, and if I find you in my kids’ DMs, and if I find you talking to high school coaches about my kids, if you’re in my roster, I’m gonna call your a– out. I’m gonna say it by name to the biggest voices in television today, and it’s gonna make GameDay, it’s gonna make SportsCenter. Because by the way, those guys running SportsCenter are still my friends. So go ahead. I dare you to jump into my roster.”
Dilfer added that he believed other coaches were afraid to do the same because those coaches eventually wanted to replace those doing the poaching.
“I want this job,” Dilfer said. “I don’t want that other job, so I don’t care if you blackball me.”
Dilfer is laying down an early gauntlet to try to prevent other teams from trying to get his players to transfer, and UAB fans will probably find his stance quite admirable. That said, he would not be the first coach to do so, and it’s not clear if the callout would actually do anything.
Dilfer is inheriting a UAB team that went 7-6 last season.
More must-reads: