All the things Trent Dilfer said during his tone-deaf postgame press conference Saturday and his unapologetic Monday morning coffee talk

Were you there?
Of all the things Trent Dilfer said during his tone-deaf postgame press conference Saturday and his unapologetic Monday morning coffee talk, that question shook down the Blazer thunder as much as either of the UAB coach’s cavalier reminders that this former underdog dynasty of a football program is not “freakin’ Alabama.”

UAB football has gone through some things in its relatively short life, death, and rebirth. The worst moments sprang from some hard heads and cold hearts on the UA System Board of Trustees, who followed the lead of the late Paul Bryant. The Bear did not believe UAB should have a Division I athletics department, let alone an FBS football program. Gene Bartow, to his ever-faithful, ever-loyal, everlasting credit, disagreed.

Since that first big-boy game at Auburn in 1996, the internal barriers to UAB football success have ranged from subtle sabotage to outright opposition. The relationship between the BOT and its most lucrative campus hit bottom thanks to the duplicitous 2014 plan to put a final, fatal stake through UAB football’s heart in the alleged service of fiscal responsibility.

The scheme worked but only briefly until, rallying around the staying power of Bill Clark, “the vocal few” found their voice and the Gang of Seven local business leaders reached for their wallets in the actual service of what was good for the university and the city.

Which brings us to Saturday, as gray a day as UAB football has experienced in its new Protective Stadium home. For the second straight year, the team was no match for Navy, the final score settling at 41-18. The crowd, even bolstered by the visitor’s supporters, was barely large enough to merit that description.

Sad fact: UAB and Navy each hired a new coach two years ago, the Blazers after six straight winning seasons, the Midshipmen after three straight losing campaigns. Brian Newberry’s Middies are 2-0 against Dilfer’s Dragons by a count of 72-24. Newberry is 9-7 overall, 4-0 this season. Dilfer is 5-11 to date, 1-3 this year.

After Saturday’s predictable defeat, Dilfer interrupted the first postgame question so his grandson could join him at the front of the room. No one would’ve paid much attention to that nice family moment had the coach not punctured it with this comment: “He can come up. It’s like two of them (reporters in the room). It’s not like this is freakin’ Alabama. Let’s go.”

Let’s not. Let’s stop and think. Let’s understand how that remark, no matter how innocent Dilfer’s intent, would land on the people who worked to birth this program and then bring it back. It hit them hard and where it hurts. Not as hard as UAB President Ray Watts telling an angry room of players on the day he announced the program’s demise, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” but c’mon.

Every UAB coach from now till the end of time – or the next time the BOT is feeling frisky – has to know. UAB football is not Alabama football, but the wounds inflicted on the Blazers by system-wide decision-makers whose default mode is “Roll Tide” are too real and recent. The UAB coach can’t joke about being less than because it’s a short trip from there to null and void.

Dilfer was made aware of the social media backlash from UAB fans and interested bystanders, which was no doubt intensified by his losing record and his unearned bravado. Given a chance to walk back his insensitivity during his Monday media encounter, he instead doubled down on his delinquency.

When a reporter asked the necessary question on the subject in the mildest way, Dilfer’s answer landed between wise-ass and horse’s ass.
“Were you there?” he said, meaning at Saturday’s postgame presser. When the reporter, who had been at the game itself, said no, Dilfer unfurled a triumphant smile and said, “There’s your answer.”
“There were two people there,” he continued, “and my grandson wanted to come up, and I heard, like, a little stirring. I said, ‘There’s two people here. This isn’t freakin’ Alabama’s press conference. My grandson can come up.’”

Again, not the point. His grandson was an innocent bystander. To the reporter’s credit, he followed up: “But you are aware of this program’s history.”
Dilfer said, “I am very aware of this program’s history.”
Are you? Were you there? Were you there in 2002 when the BOT threatened UAB Athletics with an ultimatum to pay