UAB firing Trent Dilfer as its head football coach opened the door for one of the coolest stories in college football on Saturday.

Alex Mortensen, the son of ESPN NFL legend Chris Mortensen, replaced Dilfer as the team's interim coach. He would make his head coaching debut in Birmingham on Saturday against a ranked Memphis team.

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The younger Mortensen played college football at Arkansas and Samford before a brief stint in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans in 2009. He was most recently the offensive coordinator at UAB before his promotion.

It's really cool to see Mort's son coaching a college football team, and it just makes us miss the late ESPN NFL insider even more than we already did. It's great to see football stay in the family in such a special way.

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We love it. Good luck, Coach Mortensen!

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Meet UAB interim coach Alex Mortensen, son of an ESPN legend

Reporting by Cory Woodroof, For The Win / For The Win

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