UAB facing uphill battle in Knoxville, is Trent Dilfer facing the same?

There's never a good time to take on the Tennessee Vols inside the magnificent edifice with the orange and white checker squared end zones. That's exactly what is next on the docket for the UAB Blazers on Saturday. On the heels of an excruciatingly heartbreaking loss to long time nemesis Georgia, a game in which the Volunteers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, the margin of error for Rocky Top to remain viable contenders for the CFB playoff suffered a hit, albeit one that is not insurmountable. The Blazers, fresh off an uninspiring win over an Akron team that came in to Protective Stadium scoreless in their first two games, made the Zips look like contenders instead of pretenders. Yes, the Blazers, at least cosmetically speaking, are off to a 2-1 start, but let's not kid ourselves. UAB found themselves fighting for their very lives before ultimately eeking out a narrow win over FCS member Alabama State, and were harrowingly close to an embarrassment on Saturday versus perennial MAC cellar dweller Akron. Any prospect for a Tennessee letdown this weekend was extinguished when the Vols gifted Georgia a win. So, if UAB has any semblance of a chance to escape Neyland Stadium with what would be considered an upset of epic proportions, they're going to have to look completely unlike a UAB team has resembled under third year head coach Trent Dilfer. In spite of their 2-1 start, the Blazers have not resembled a team in any of their previous three games that has looked the part of being capable of emerging victorious. Which begs the question, is Dilfer capable of jarring UAB out of a two season funk, where entering the 2025 campaign his teams posted just seven wins in twenty-four games? It's possible, of course...if you were to ask Lloyd Christmas.