Friends, your Army Black Knights have gotten off to an abysmal 1-3 start, making this weekend’s contest at UAB an unlooked for do-or-die moment in the 2025 season’s early going. Either the Army Team gets itself sorted this week and gets a win on the road, or they can all but kiss their hopes of a bowl berth goodbye.
In fact, because bowl berths go out ahead of the Army-Navy Game, this team must now go 5-2 over their next seven games in order to reach the postseason. Maybe they can do that, but only if they can somehow get their offense righted and stop beating themselves.
Alabama-Birmingham Blazers
UAB Blazers Head Coach Trent Dilfer has been on the hotseat seemingly throughout his tenure with the program. Never a popular hire, Difler has gone 9-19 as Blazers Head Coach, and he’s never won a road game.
Still, he and his team might have improved this season. UAB started 2-2, having beaten FCS Alabama State soundly and FBS bottomfeeder Akron in what eventually became a shootout. The team then lost at then #15 Tennessee — no shame there — but they hung with Navy at their place in yet another shootout before extended lightning delays allowed the Mids to make defensive adjustments and shut the Blazers’ passing attack down in the second half. Without those lightning delays, UAB might at least have had a punchers’ chance on the road against one of the best teams in the American Conference.
Like Army, UAB comes into this weekend’s game trying to prove something. With games against FAU, UConn, Rice, and Tulsa remaining on the schedule, a UAB win this weekend would set the team up for its first would-be bowl appearance of the Dilfer Era. That might just save Dilfer’s job and cool down his seat a bit.
Offense
Former Florida QB Jalen Kitna leads a decidedly pass-happy attack. In four games, the Blazers have run the ball just 113 times versus 152 passing plays. Part of this comes from playing catch-up against Tennessee and Navy, but most of it happened because Kitna is without doubt the Blazers’ best offensive player. He’s gone 108/150 passing this year (72%!) for 1,256 yards and 8 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions and 7 sacks. Friends, that is outstanding accuracy. With that, the Blazers average a whopping 320 yards passing/game against just 117 yards rushing.
UAB uses three different running backs, but RB Jevon Jackson tends to carry the load. Jackson has taken 51 carries this year — twice as many as Isiah Jacobs, the team’s #2 back — for an average 5.5 yards/carry and 3 touchdowns. Interestingly, the Blazers have run for 8 touchdowns while throwing for just 7.
WRs Corri Milliner, Iverson Hooks, and Brandon Hawkins Jr. each have at least 17 catches this year with Milliner standing out as the team’s deep threat while Hooks looks like the best possession receiver. Jackson and Solomon Beebe, the team’s primary kick returner and #3 running back, also catch quite a few passes out of the backfield. Beebe in particular has taken 14 catches for 159 yards. He looks deadly when he gets the ball in space. Surprisingly, UAB tight ends have caught just 8 passes this season out of 110 total team receptions.
Army’s defense will need to play a deep zone to avoid giving up long passing plays this week, but they’ll also have to watch for swing passes out of the backfield. However, this UAB team struggles to stay committed to the run between the twenties, and we probably won’t see too many tight ends leaking out into passing routes. Hopefully, the Black Knights defense can use that to get a few stops.
Jalen Kitna completed 38 passes for 364 yards and two touchdowns at Tennessee. His 38 completions tied a school record and he has now thrown for over 300 yards in three straight games.
— UAB Football (@UAB_FB) September 23, 2025
His average of 314.0 passing yards per game ranks him 8th nationally. pic.twitter.com/Mv6FIwkJIP
Defense
The Blazers get into shootouts every week because their defense hasn’t been able to stop anyone. This team gives up an average of 482 yards of total offense (130th) alongside *41* points (133rd) every time they play. They’ve allowed 22 touchdowns this season, 11 on the ground and 11 through the air.
Worse this particular week, the Blazers come into this game with the FBS’s 128th ranked rushing defense. They’ve allowed every bit of 223 rushing yards/game on a whopping 5.0 yards/carry. This team has been absolutely terrible on third downs, allowing opponents to convert 57% of their opportunities. That is nuts. It puts them 132nd in the FBS in third down defense, ahead of only UMass and UCLA so far this season.
Friends, Army’s offense absolutely must make that work. If the Black Knights ever intend to get right on offense, this has to be their week.
With that said, UAB’s defense has a few playmakers. S Pierre Royster leads the team with 29 tackles and an interception. LB Devin Hightower comes next with 26 tackles. DE Chris Burge has 17 tackles, including 2.5 sacks. The team as a whole has 8 sacks this year.
UAB stands tied with Army at 112th in turnover margin. Both teams sit at -3. UAB has recovered 2 fumbles and Royster has the team’s lone interception. UAB’s offense has lost 3 fumbles in addition to Kitna’s 3 picks.
A statement from Sirad Bryant via his Instagram account:
— UAB Football (@UAB_FB) September 20, 2025
First off I would like to apologize to Max Gilbert for stepping on his foot. Not only that, I would like to apologize to my teammates, coaches and also to Blazer Nation. What I did was inexcusable no matter the… pic.twitter.com/PdvHfdUn4S
Special Teams
As noted, RB Solomon Beebe has been good in the return game. He averaged 31 yards/return against Akron and will be someone to watch for a Black Knights team that has at times struggled with kickoff coverage at times this season. This is definitely not the week to allow some craziness to keep the score closer than it has to be!
PK Jonah Delange has been a perfect 15/15 on extra points this season, but he’s gone just 4/5 on field goals with a miss from around 30 yards out. P Patrick Foley averages about 41 yards/punt. Foley tends to drop punts inside the 20 as often as he hits touchbacks.
Jeff Monken Weekly Press Conference- September 30th, 2025 https://t.co/LG3wiLpa7g
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 30, 2025
Final Thoughts
On paper, this match-up should strongly favor the Black Knights. While Army has struggled against teams that can run the ball well, they’ve been much better against less balanced offenses — even good ones like Kansas State’s.
If the Black Knights can hold onto the football and finish drives, they should have every chance to win this week. However, they’ve struggled with that at times this season, and indeed, with what we’ve seen so far, it’s all too easy to imagine it happening again at UAB. Moreover, UAB comes into this game off a bye week, so they’ll have had plenty of time to prepare for Army’s offense. Worse, Army’s defense in particular has played a lot of snaps over the past two weeks. So the Black Knights will need to execute on offense and really hog the football in order to get a win, and they’ll have to do it against a team that’s ready for them.
Can this Army Team do that?
Bettors aren’t convinced. The line on this game opened at Army (-10) but has since slid to Army (-7). Pro bettors have mostly taken the Blazers plus the points. Nationally, it looks like folks want to see Army turn it around before they start believing again. As of this writing, the Over/Under sits at 57.5, down from 59.5.
We should at least have decent weather this week. Birmingham is expecting sunny skies with low humidity and temperatures in the mid-80s. That’s about what we had last time Army played at Michie Stadium. Since this is an American Conference road game for the Black Knights, ESPNU has coverage, starting at noon. If you’d prefer the radio call, use the Varsity Network. That might be a good move this week. You can use your DVR to sync Rich DeMarco’s call with ESPN’s video feed.
Friends, this is a game that the Black Knights absolutely have to have. We know what the formula should look like, and at least right now, we shouldn’t expect too many surprises.
Run the damn ball. Don’t turn it over. This is not complicated.
We’ll see how it goes.
Go Army! Beat UAB!!!
Cover image via Flickr: West Point – The U.S. Military Academy.
