Ryder Burton on the UAB offense: 'It starts with me'

Ryder Burton does not flush bad tape. He watches it. Six or seven times, by his count.

UAB's quarterback stood at the microphone two days after the Blazers' 30-10 loss at South Florida and took the blame for an offensive performance that produced zero points after the first quarter. He did not hedge. He did not distribute responsibility. He pointed at himself.

"There's definitely some things that we can do better as an offense, but it starts with me," Burton said. "I've got to play better football. Like Coach Mort said, I've got to have a better understanding of my internal clock and getting rid of the ball on time. I can do a better job of that."

Head coach Alex Mortensen, speaking earlier in the same press conference, pushed back.

"Look, I don't care, like, I'm just telling you this guy's a pretty freaking good player, okay?" Mortensen said. He pointed to Burton's two-minute and overtime performance in the comeback win over East Carolina and said the development will continue. Quarterbacks coach Danny Mitchell has been working with Burton on processing speed, using NFL tape to illustrate how the game's best quarterbacks get the ball out.

"Sometimes you've got to tell them, 'Hey man, you can take the cape off,'" Mortensen said. "'You can't save every play.'"

Burton took six sacks and lost two fumbles against South Florida — both returned for touchdowns. Diehard's PFF film room breakdown detailed the pressure Burton faced and the offensive line's role in the collapse.

Burton knows the line is part of it. He described what happens when a quarterback starts pressing behind a struggling offense.

"Sometimes when you are struggling as an offense and you're sitting there, you're just like, 'I want to feel the offense moving forward,' sometimes you can get into a head space where you focus on trying to make something happen that probably isn't there," Burton said. "We call it kind of hoping and praying on a route or a concept."

The antidote, he said, is trust. "You got to just have trust and faith that the concept's gonna work the way it's supposed to, and if not, then you live to fight another day, and that's kind of the unfortunate thing about playing quarterback is sometimes it's not always within your control and the faster you learn to accept that, usually the better off you play."

Asked how much he studies the first quarter — when UAB went right down the field and scored — versus the three quarters that followed, Burton was direct.

"I'm not one for the cupcakes and rainbows," he said. "The first quarter we did what we're supposed to, right? We executed the way we're supposed to. We did things the way we're supposed to, and we did what we're coached to do, and it's not rocket science — went right down the field and scored."

Burton's season numbers back up his own assessment that the offense needs to be better, but they also show where the weight falls. Through eight games, he is 104-of-194 (53.6%) for 1,333 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions. The rushing column tells the rest: 70 carries, 178 yards gained, 188 yards lost — a net of minus-10. UAB converted 4-of-16 third downs against South Florida.

Burton said the path forward is accepting when a play is dead. "I've got to be better at learning when to say when and accepting defeat and moving on to play the next play because I think that's where we can take a real jump as an offense," he said.

Mortensen framed it differently. He described poise as "a learned trait, something I've had to work on," and said Burton is going through his first run as a full-time college starter. "I think with every rep he's going to get better at that," Mortensen said.

Burton also credited UAB's defense, led by coordinator Todd Grantham, for keeping games within reach.

"I'm extremely grateful for Coach Grantham and for those guys. I mean, heck, I see it every day, so I'm glad somebody else is finally feeling it besides me," Burton said. "It's a great feeling to know as a quarterback that you don't have to be perfect in order to win the game."

He named linebacker Muaaz Byard and defensive back Jo Pierce as examples of the defensive leadership, and said that with those players holding up their end, the offense does not need to be spectacular. "As long as we play sustainable, efficient offense, we're gonna have a pretty good day at the office as a team," Burton said.

Burton threw a block for running back Rod Robinson II on the opening drive touchdown — a play the broadcast announcers highlighted.

Burton said he had been waiting for the moment since spring practice, when he threw a block on teammate Ike Esonwune. "Ike's like, 'But if I hit you, it's gonna be a problem.' I'm like, 'Ike, like I promise you I'll do it in the game,'" Burton said.

"Those running backs, they put their body on the line for me every play. It's the least I could do," he said. "I'm a competitor too, and just trying to get Rod a chance to get in the end zone and, you know, if it's my body on the line, so be it. Never been scared of a little smoke."

Was his coach happy with the technique? "I got ran over a little bit, but we did enough," Burton said. "He got in the end zone, right?"

UAB (4-4, 2-2 American) hosts Charlotte (1-7, 1-3) at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday at Protective Stadium on ESPN+.

Beyond the football, Burton spoke about Saturday's Children's Harbor game — his second. Children's Harbor is a nonprofit that supports families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at Children's Hospital of Alabama, adjacent to the UAB campus. For the annual game, UAB players wear the names of those children on the backs of their jerseys. As UAB's quarterback, Burton's jersey gets visibility.

"I think it's incredibly special to represent something like this, to have the opportunity to showcase that child and their family and everything that comes along with it," Burton said. "You win as a quarterback and it's all the team. You lose and everybody wants the quarterback's head, right? So hopefully there's none of that going on. I'm just happy to give that family an opportunity to kind of have some limelight with everything they're going through."