After hiring former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer before last season, despite the fact that Dilfer's coaching resume was limited to his time coaching high schoolers at Lipscomb Academy in Tennessee, it could at least be said that the Blazers were rebuilding last season.

The team went 4-8, its worst record since 2013. But perhaps a step backward was acceptable under a new coach.

Problem is, the Blazers have been worse this year, at a miserable 1-6. The one win came in the opener against Alcorn State. The six losses have all come by a margin of 10 points or more, including a 71-20 blowout loss to Tulane.

All this has put Dilfer's job status in serious jeopardy. Dilfer was signed toa five-year contract that pays him $6 million over five years, and for a school that is not a cash cow like UAB, hiring and firing coaches making seven-figure salaries is not an easy thing.

But it was the hiring of Dilfer to begin with that was the problem, according to a Substack article from former Ringer writer Rodger Sherman.

As he wrote on Twitter/X: "I wrote about UAB's disastrous decision to take a good football program and put Trent Dilfer in charge, perhaps the worst college coaching hire in the last decade. (And there have been a lot of bad ones!)"

In his breakdown, Sherman points out that Dilfer was never a wise hire to begin with, but that he was brought into UAB at the same time as Deion Sanders headed to Colorado. The comparison--prominent ex-NFL players taking over programs in need of a jolt--was obvious, but ended there.

"UAB hired Dilfer at about the same time that Colorado hired Deion Sanders -- another Super Bowl winner who became a media member as NFL analyst after his retirement. The only difference is that Sanders is wildly charismatic while Dilfer is abrasive and off-putting, Sanders was a Hall of Fame player while Dilfer didn't even play well in the year he won the Super Bowl," Sherman wrote.

"And perhaps most importantly: Sanders actually proven himself as a college coach and recruiter with an exceptional run at Jackson State while Dilfer had never coached a college team before. Dilfer was clearly unqualified."

For UAB, that has become clear. Dilfer's team might not win another game. They'll have a chance against Tulsa on Nov. 2 and against Rice on Nov. 23, but the Blazers will be hefty underdogs against everyone else on the slate.

Not what UAB was expecting, for sure, when Dilfer was hired.