Good morning. Mark here.

Trent Dilfer went on the OutKick podcast this week and told the world he never wanted the UAB job. Said Mark Ingram "waterboarded" him into a meeting. Said Lipscomb is "exponentially better." Then blamed the players for his 9-21 record.

Meanwhile, the guy who replaced him just signed 41 portal players and hasn't taken a day off since December. Today we ask the question everyone in Birmingham is debating: Is Alex Mortensen a good hire for UAB — or was he just the last man standing?

The answer is more interesting than you think.

We're also digging into Tennessee fans spending $4.3 million on booze at Neyland Stadium last season (they drink more when the Vols lose, and the university cashes either check), NFL front office staffers quietly panicking about AI replacing scouting and quality control jobs at the Combine, and Kirby Smart making the business case for a 24-team playoff — which sounds like a TV rights negotiation but is really a pressure conversation that affects every coach we rank.

Busy week. Let's get into it.

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That's the highest single-season total since the SEC lifted its alcohol ban in 2019. It works out to nearly $615,000 per game. And over seven years, the Vols have generated $19.2 million in football alcohol sales - with Tennessee and concessionaire Aramark splitting the revenue 50-50.

The wildest stat?

Vol fans drank the most during Tennessee's most painful losses. The Georgia and Oklahoma games alone generated nearly $1.7 million in combined alcohol sales. More beer was sold in the first half of the 2025 Georgia game than during the entire Georgia game in 2019.

Losing hurts. Drinking helps. The university cashes either check.

Why this matters to you:

This is the revenue model every AD in America is watching. Tennessee has banked roughly $9.6 million in its share of alcohol sales since 2019 - money that goes directly toward keeping programs competitive in the NIL era. If your school isn't selling beer yet, it will be. And if your coach is losing big games, at least the concession stand is winning. (link)

During off-camera conversations, team personnel told Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio that AI could soon eliminate entry-level quality control and scouting positions entirely. GMs are already admitting that AI-generated evaluation reports are "eerily thorough and accurate." The technology compiles film clips and data instantly—work that used to take a QC assistant an entire week.

Here's the part that should concern college football fans:

Those quality control jobs aren't just grunt work. They're the entry point for every future coordinator and head coach in the sport. Lane Kiffin was a quality control assistant. So was Kirby Smart. So was Alex Mortensen at Alabama. If AI eliminates the bottom rung of the coaching ladder, the pipeline that produces the next generation of head coaches shrinks—or disappears.

Why this matters to you:

The NFL figures this out first. College football copies it 18 months later. If AI can scout, cut film, and generate game plans faster than a 25-year-old making $45,000, every athletic department with a tight budget will notice. And the programs most likely to replace human analysts with AI tools? The same ones already struggling to pay competitive salaries. The gap between the haves and have-nots isn't just about NIL money anymore. It's about who has humans and who has algorithms. (link)

And his reasoning has nothing to do with football.

Speaking at the FWAA Awards show in Gainesville, Smart laid out the business case for expansion. More playoff teams means more fan bases with something to play for. More fans buying tickets. More beer and popcorn sold. More revenue flowing through athletic departments to fund every other sport on campus.

His exact framing tells you everything: "I'm hearing some athletic directors scream and yell that they can be much more financially efficient if their fan base is rewarded with the playoffs."

Translation: Bowls are dead. Playoffs sell tickets. ADs need the money.

Smart admits the tradeoff. A 24-team field means giving away "free inventory that maybe hasn't been earned" and watering down the competition. But he called it "the cost of doing business." The SEC and Big Ten still can't agree on a format—12, 16, or 24—and the Big Ten recently floated a 24-team model that would eliminate conference championship games entirely.

SEC Network's Chris Doering thinks expansion helps the SEC most. With a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2026, he argues the league is "involved in cannibalism" and could place eight to ten teams in a 24-team field.

Why this matters to you:

This is a coaching pressure conversation disguised as a TV rights negotiation. If the playoff expands to 24 teams, the definition of a "successful season" changes for every coach in the country. Making the playoff becomes the floor, not the ceiling. And every coach who misses it—at a program that "should" make it—just bought himself a seat on our rankings. Expansion doesn't reduce pressure. It multiplies it. (link)

Trent Dilfer just told the world he never wanted the UAB job.

He said Mark Ingram “waterboarded” him into meeting. He said he was “vehemently opposed” to leaving Lipscomb. He said his high school gig is “exponentially better” than coaching in the AAC.

Then he blamed the players for his 9-21 record.

Three years. Three losing seasons. Zero road wins. Zero accountability.

Now Alex Mortensen has the job. And the most important thing about this hire has nothing to do with his résumé—though nine years under Saban, a Broyles Award nomination, and school-record offensive numbers don’t hurt.

Mortensen beat No. 22 Memphis in his first game as interim. He won at Tulsa with 40 players sitting out after a teammate stabbed two others at the team facility. He signed 41 portal players in January. He told The Banner he’s been working “basically every day, pretty long hours most days.”

Nobody forced him. Nobody “waterboarded” him into a meeting. He stood at the podium and said, “I love Birmingham, UAB, and this team.”

Dilfer treated UAB like a pit stop. Mortensen treats it like home. After everything the Blazers have been through—the Dilfer disaster, the stabbing, the empty stands—they don’t need a bigger name.

They need a coach who gives a damn.

They finally have one.

Read the full analysis here.

This week, we close with one quote that tells you everything you need to know.

"My job at Lipscomb is exponentially better than my job at UAB. It's not even in the conversation of comparison."

— Trent Dilfer, OutKick Hot Mic, on the job he went 9-21 in before being fired

We'll let that one sit.

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And while you're at it: Who do you think is the most underrated coaching hire of this cycle? Best answers run next week.

See you Friday.