Trent Dilfer
Trent Dilfer went 9–21 as a head coach, 2023–2025, at UAB. Share
- Record
- 9–21 career
- Seasons
- 3
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Mar 13, 1972
- Alma mater
- Fresno State
- Best season
- 2023 4–8
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | UAB | 4–8 | T–8th | |||
| 2024 | UAB | 3–9 | T–11th | |||
| 2025 | UAB coached six of 12 games | 2–4 |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Conference games | 19 | 5–14 | 26% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 5 | 2–3 | 40% |
| At home | 15 | 9–6 | 60% |
| On the road | 15 | 0–15 | 0% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 12 | 8–4 | 67% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 18 | 1–17 | 6% |
His own 30 games on file, 2023–2025, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Newberry 2023–2025 | 0–3 | Navy | 3 |
Trent Dilfer’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Navyseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| South Floridaseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Florida Atlanticseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Memphisseries | 2 | 0–2 |
| Armyseries | 2 | 0–2 |
| Tulaneseries | 2 | 0–2 |
| Tulsaseries | 1 | 1–0 |
| Templeseries | 1 | 1–0 |
Also a player: Trent Dilfer’s playing career.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–22 | Lipscomb Academy (TN) high school | Head coach | |
| 2023–25 | UAB | Head coach | |
| 2026–present | UAB | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Assistants who became head coaches
- Alex MortensenUAB
- Rip SchererMemphis, James Madison
Coached under him, later head coaches (2)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Mortensen | UAB, 2023–25: offensive coordinator | UAB | |
| Rip Scherer | UAB, 2023: sr assistant and advisor to head coach | Memphis, James Madison |
Other assistants under him (3)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Sione Ta’ufo’ou | UAB, 2023–24: defensive coordinator | |
| Brent Vieselmeyer | UAB, 2025: secondary coach and pass game coordinator | |
| Steve Russ | UAB, 2025: defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Dilfer’s teams went for it on 30% of fourth downs and on 52% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 56% of plays and took 24.2 seconds a play, 2023–2024.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 12 g | 26 of 84 31% | 56% | 54% | 23.9 | +0.11 | |
| 2024 12 g | 28 of 94 30% | 49% | 57% | 24.4 | −0.03 | |
| All 24 g | 54 of 178 30% | 52% | 56% | 24.2 | +0.04 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.