Alex Mortensen Reveals His Plan to Build UAB Football After Alabama

The Next Round

Sports, Football, News, Basketball, Sports News

4.9 • 890 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

UAB head football coach Alex Mortensen joins The Next Round for an in-depth conversation on building the Blazers, recruiting in Birmingham, and how his time at Alabama under Nick Saban shaped his coaching philosophy. Mortensen explains why connecting with the Birmingham community is critical to growing the UAB fan base and why the Blazers’ facilities — including Protective Stadium, the football operations building, practice facilities, and weight rooms — are major selling points in recruiting. He also breaks down what he learned from spring practice, including why UAB’s defense is becoming longer, faster, more competitive, and more relentless. Mortensen discusses the next step for his players: moving beyond knowing what to do and learning the how and why behind elite execution. The conversation also dives into Mortensen’s nine years at Alabama, what he learned from Nick Saban, and how working around offensive minds like Lane Kiffin, Brian Daboll, and Steve Sarkisian helped prepare him for this opportunity. Plus, he shares why he is excited about hiring Todd Grantham as defensive coordinator and how his network of coaches continues to guide him. Can Alex Mortensen build UAB into a winner in Birmingham? #AlexMortensen, #UABFootball, #UABBlazers, #CollegeFootball, #TheNextRound, #AlabamaFootball, #NickSaban, #Birmingham, #ToddGrantham, #GoBlazers SUBSCRIBE: @NextRoundLive - / @nextroundlive FOLLOW TNR ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7zlofzLZht7dYxjNcBNpWN FOLLOW TNR ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-next-round/id1797862560 WEBSITE: https://nextroundlive.com/ MOBILE APP: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-next-round/id1580807480 SHOP THE NEXT ROUND STORE: https://nextround.store/ Like TNR on Facebook: / nextroundlive Follow TNR on Twitter: / nextroundlive Follow TNR on Instagram: / nextroundlive Follow everyone from the show on Twitter: Jim Dunaway: / jimdunaway Ryan Brown: / ryanbrownlive Lance Taylor: / thelancetaylor Scott Forester: / scottforestertv Tyler Johns: /TylerJohnsTNR Sponsor the show: sales@nextroundlive.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	British gas have this thing. We call it home care. We'll fix all sorts and its unlimited repairs.
0:06.0	Expert engineers will solve the upset of boilers not boilering or taps that won't wet.
0:12.0	Electrics playing tricks or a pipe that's broke. We're there for everyone. Even blue furry folk.
0:19.0	Your home won't feel booby-tra trapped. It'll feel just like new.
0:23.4	British gas taking care of things and looking after you. T's and C supply excess options available per
0:29.5	repair. Busy routines can make it hard to focus on your health goals, but MedExpress offers a simple
0:34.9	way to explore weight management treatment online.
0:38.0	Complete our short eligibility consultation with no need for face-to-face appointments or travel.
0:43.0	If eligible, treatment is delivered discreetly, with UK-registered clinicians offering support along the way.
0:49.2	VisitMedexpress.co.com.uk slash podcast to get started today.
0:53.1	Appreciate you donating your time coming out here and helping out the kids at the Children of Alabama for this charity event. Yeah, it's cool. It's one, I mean, I'm grateful to have an opportunity to be here and it's a really neat event. I mean, you go all the way back. Someone was telling me back in 93, you know, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley played here and then all of the things that are done for charitable causes and seeing these kids
1:11.5	that were so really neat to be involved with it um we were just talking to alice golish and i had a
1:17.6	chance to talk to pete golding earlier um you're you're pulled in so many different directions
1:23.0	i know you're you're starting to lay the foundation and build your program uh are you comfortable when you carve out this amount of time to be away from the office or
1:31.6	away from your phone or do this many interviews where you're not looking at tape or you're
1:35.2	not recruiting?
1:36.3	Yeah, barely comfortable.
1:39.7	It's a good way to describe it.
1:41.6	I think the to do list is long and every time, you know,
1:45.7	I look up and time's gone by having to mark something off, it, my anxiety goes up a little bit.
1:51.0	But, but no, this is part of it. I enjoy doing this. To me, you know, one of the things we really
1:55.5	want to do at UAB just as a program, a coaching staff players engage the community more.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Next Round, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Next Round and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.