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Trent Dilfer Hires Alabama Analyst to be UAB Offensive Coordinator

New coach hires Alex Mortensen, son of NFL analyst Chris Mortensen, to lead Blazers' offense.

On his first official day as the new head coach at UAB, Trent Dilfer hired his offensive coordinator Friday, and he didn't have to look far to find his guy.

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, Alabama Crimson Tide analyst Alex Mortensen has accepted the job. The 37-year-old is the son of legendary ESPN NFL reporter Chris Mortensen.

Dilfer, the seventh head coach in UAB history, spent nine years as an analyst for EPSN before getting into coaching.  

Mortensen has been doing his second stint with the Crimson Tide after previously serving as a graduate assistant (2014-18). He's been an analyst for Nick Saban since 2019. 

As a player he was a quarterback at both Arkansas and Samford. His first coaching job was overseeing the quarterbacks and serving as the passing game coordinator for New Mexico Highlands (2012-13). He was an assistant for the St. Louis Rams (2013) and the Birmingham Iron (2019) in the Alliance of American Football.

Dilfer was a 14-year NFL veteran quarterback who was on the winning side of Super Bowl XXXV with the Baltimore Ravens. 

Dilfer was selected sixth overall out of Fresno State in the 1994 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and threw for 20,518 yards and 113 touchdowns. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1997 and was the recipient of the Bart Starr Award and Ed Block Courage Award in 2003.

Most recently he spent the last four years as the head coach of Lipscomb Academy in Nashville where he led the Mustangs to back-to-back TSSAA D2-AA state championships, including Thursday night's 42-0 victory over Christ Presbyterian Academy. 

He finished with a 21-game winning streak, and 44-10 overall record. 

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