Tulane Green Wave Will Likely Face UAB Blazers' Former SEC Backup Quarterback
The Tulane Green Wave are expected to face the UAB Blazers' backup quarterback as their starter is still dealing with an injury to his non-throwing shoulder.
Jacob Zeno suffered the injury in the Blazers' 41-18 loss to the Navy Midshipmen a week ago.
"In NFL terms, he’d probably be listed as questionable and I’d have to give it a questionable/doubtful [Thursday],” said UAB Head Coach Trent Dilfer per Joseph Goodman of Alabama.com.
Zeno has a 69.5% completion rate with 819 yards with six touchdowns to five interceptions this year as the Blazers passer. He's also a mobile threat, adding 161 yards on 27 attempts when not accounting for sacks.
It would be a huge blow to a UAB offense that already has plenty of struggles this season, ranking in the bottom half of the country in most statistics.
If their starter doesn't play, that would turn attention towards backup and former Florida Gators quarterback Jalen Kitna, the son of former NFL journeyman Jon Kitna.
Kitna was dismissed from the Gators football team after he was arrested with child pornography charges. Those charges were later dropped after he agreed to a non-contest plea deal down to two misdemeanor counts of breach of peace.
After the charges were dropped, he found himself with a chance to play again with the Blazers.
He was a three-star quarterback both coming out of high school and as a transfer player. The former Burleson star was the 200th overall player out of Texas in the 2020 recruiting class.
The 21-year-old only played in four career games while he was at Florida. He's 10-for-14 in his career with 181 yards passing and one touchdown. Most of those stats came in garbage time of a blowout win over Eastern Washington University.
In his lone career rush, he picked up six yards against the Florida State Seminoles.
He's a bit of an unknown as a player, which could make it harder for the Tulane coaching staff to prepare. Not only does he not have any tape of him in the UAB offense, but he hasn't attempted an in-game pass since November of 2022.
The Green Wave coaching staff will have to get creative in their study of him, as opposed to Zeno who has played in some capacity in every season since 2019.
It's unlikely that the Blazers come out of nowhere to become an offensive powerhouse, but crazy things can happen with a backup quarterback.
