Mortensen, the son of longtime ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen, took over when Trent Dilfer was fired after Week 7.
UAB pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2025 season with a 31-24 stunner over No. 22 Memphis in interim coach Alex Mortensen’s first game in charge.
The Blazers entered the game as 22.5-point underdogs and somehow held on as Memphis had multiple opportunities to be an extra point away from a tie inside the last minute.
Memphis RB Greg Desrosiers broke a 41-yard run with just over a minute to go and appeared to have scored a touchdown. But Desrosiers was taken down a yard short of the goal line by Tariq Watson.
A touchdown with 1:03 to go wouldn’t have been a terrible thing for UAB. The Blazers still had all three of their timeouts and would have had plenty of time for a game-winning drive. Memphis realized that, and immediately started running time off the clock after a replay review ruled that Desrosiers was down at the 1-yard line.
That’s when things went haywire for the Tigers. As Memphis was letting the clock roll, the Tigers committed a false start that backed them up five yards. A short pass to Desrosiers got the Tigers back to the 1 yard-line, but Memphis again backed themselves up with another false start.
After two incomplete passes, the Tigers then committed a delay of game penalty on fourth down to back themselves up to the 11-yard line before AJ Hill’s pass to Cortez Braham Jr. was incomplete as Braham couldn’t keep a toe down in the end zone.
Hill was in the game for starter Brendon Lewis, who was injured on a third-quarter sack. Lewis was 9-of-10 passing for 68 yards before leaving the game. Hill was 13-of-25 passing for 175 yards and a TD and an interception.
Category: General Sports
