Navy's playoff-caliber roster rolls into Birmingham to face a UAB program still finding its footing under a first-year head coach.
Bush’s Picks
NAVYUAB
NAVYUAB
OverUnder
Best BetNavy
Navy's talent and program stability should be too much for a UAB team that opens a new coaching era with an unsettled quarterback room. The Midshipmen were a ranked, 11-win team a year ago and return the scheme that made them the nation's top rushing attack. UAB's ceiling right now is competitive, not favored.
Navy
+Finished 2025 at 11-2, cracked the AP Top 25
+Returns nation's No. 1 rushing offense under Cronic
+Favored to win the American this season
−Loses top skill weapons Horvath and Heidenreich
−Woodson has only 3 career starts at QB
UAB
+Mortensen's first game was a 24-point upset of Memphis
+Full offseason now to install his system
−Program has gone 9-21 over the last two-plus years
−Quarterback job still unsettled among 3 candidates
Navy hands the keys to Braxton Woodson this fall after he started 3 games over the past 3 seasons, including a turn against Notre Dame last November. He's replacing Blake Horvath, which is no small task, but the Midshipmen's option attack has never been about one guy touching the ball. UAB, meanwhile, is still sorting out its own quarterback room, with Ryder Burton the frontrunner after a strong close to 2025 that included a 20-of-27, 3-touchdown outing against Memphis.
Alex Mortensen took over as UAB's head coach after Trent Dilfer was fired mid-season, and his first game in charge was a stunner — a 31-24 upset of a then-undefeated, No. 22 Memphis team as a 24-point underdog. That's the version of UAB Mortensen is trying to build toward full-time, even while the roster is still short on returning starters. Navy, by contrast, arrives as one of the most complete rosters in the American Conference, and the early line reflects that gap.
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NAVY Navy
UAB UAB
The Midshipmen finished 2025 at 11-2 and cracked the AP Top 25, a result that puts real expectations on this group before a snap has been played. UAB's rebuild is measured in a different currency entirely — foundation-building, not conference title contention — and that disparity is going to shape how this one is bet as much as how it's played.
Navy Midshipmen
Sep 12?@ Florida Atlantic—
Sep 5?vs Towson—
UAB Blazers
Sep 19?@ Louisiana—
Sep 12?vs UL Monroe—
Sep 3?@ Illinois—
Recent form.
Offensive coordinator Drew Cronic's system produced the No. 1 rushing offense in the country in 2025, and it wasn't just grind-it-out ball — Navy also had one of the highest counts of 60-plus-yard explosive plays in the FBS. That combination of ball control and big-play juice is what makes the Midshipmen dangerous against a UAB defense that's still being rebuilt from the ground up under new leadership.
Navy Midshipmen
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
UAB Blazers
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
UAB's ceiling this year is a bowl bid; the floor is a fourth straight season of 4 wins or fewer, and that range says plenty about where this program sits relative to Navy right now. A Friday night trip to Birmingham is the kind of game Navy is supposed to handle if it wants to be taken seriously as a playoff contender out of the American.
