Trent Dilfer Talks To OutKick 360 About Taking UAB Job

OutKick 360's Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow had the chance to catch up with new UAB head football coach, Trent Dilfer.

Dilfer was gearing up for his last game as head coach of Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. The former NFL QB talked about not wanting news of his hiring at UAB to get out until he officially takes over the Blazers' program on Friday.

"It was disappointing," Dilfer said of the news breaking sooner than anticipated. "What I've been preaching to this community for four years is control what you can control, and trust the humans in this program."

Dilfer, who spent 13 years in the NFL with the Buccaneers, Seahawks, Ravens, Browns, and Giants, said he decided to take the job at UAB on Tuesday night. He talked to his team the next day to let them know what was happening.

"Yesterday was exponentially better than today," Dilfer said on Thursday.

"Yesterday was one of the finest moments of my life to see a group of people who were hurting when they heard , work through for two-and-a-half hours, and by the end of practice were all crying and hugging, the music is playing, we're singing karaoke," he said.

New UAB head coach Trent Dilfer has been coaching Nashville high school Lipscomb Academy since 2019. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)

Not According To Dilfer's Plan

Dilfer said that none of what has unfolded since he arrived at Lipscomb Academy in 2019 up until the moment he took the job at UAB has been part of his plan.

"It's never been the plan," Dilfer explained. "The plan was to retire in Austin and play golf every day, and I did that until 2019."

However, he acknowledged that his original retirement plans didn't leave him with a sense of fulfillment.

"I was empty. I wasn't fulfilled, and I needed mountains to climb and I had gone around the country and led groups and told them that 'hard things are great things and the edge of uncomfortable is where you find greatness,'" he said. "And here I am playing golf 218 times and driving around watching my girls play volleyball."

Dilfer said that Lipscomb Academy was the challenge that he needed. Now that he feels like he has accomplished everything he could there, it was time for him to move on to another mountain.

UAB is that next mountain.

The new Blazers' head coach said that he never pursued the job, but instead, they pursued him. Either way, it seems like a good fit, and Dilfer was quick to praise the school's president, athletic director, and donor base.

He also praised the community, which he noted has some lofty goals once his tenure gets underway in Birmingham.

"You need a community with a big vision, and the vision is not just to win the American," Dilfer said. "The vision is to be in the conversation for the College Football Playoff."

That certainly is a mountain, but it sounds like Trent Dilfer is more than ready to start climbing it.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle