UAB hires Dilfer as coach
Alabama-Birmingham has hired former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer as its next head coach on the eve of his high school team’s state championship game. Dilfer, 50, won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 2000 during a 14-year NFL career. He’s making a big leap to the college ranks after leading Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tenn., to three state title games in four seasons as head coach. That includes one scheduled for this morning against Christ Presbyterian Academy, meaning Dilfer had to hustle back to Chattanooga, Tenn., after his introductory news conference. He takes his first college job with lofty ambitions for a program set to leave Conference USA for the American Athletic Conference starting next season. Even he wasn’t quite sure of the move initially, before deciding to embrace the new challenge. “I wouldn’t use the word scared. I was skeptical because I am a high school football coach, and I’m not ashamed of that,” Dilfer said. A former first-round draft pick for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1994, Dilfer retired in 2008 and went into broadcasting, working for ESPN as an NFL analyst until 2017. Lipscomb Academy, a private Christian school, is 12-0 this season and 25-1 the past two years. Dilfer has led Lipscomb to a 43-10 record overall.