Category: Alternative Football

In April of 2022, Skip Holtz – and the modern United States Football League – embarked on a new spring adventure.

“This isn’t rebuild, this is build,” Holtz said then. “When we get into next year, we’ll still have a good nucleus of this team back, and you’ll then have ‘rookies’ … you’ll have new guys. But in this case, everybody was a rookie, everybody was a freshman coming into this year. Now they’ve got a lot more background and been around a lot more football (than college freshmen), and have a lot more knowledge with their age and how much football they’ve played, but they’re all freshmen in this defense and rookies in this offense.”

Two years and two USFL championships later, Holtz and his Ponies are again part of a new league thanks to the formation of the United Football League.

This time, however, the drill is familiar.

“Oh, I have a lot of comfort because I’ve done it for two years,” Holtz said on Tuesday. “Probably a lot more than I did week one, year one, because year one I’d never been in professional football. I didn’t know what the scheduling was gonna look like, I didn’t know what dealing with the players was going to be like, so overall I would say I now have a comfort level for what spring football is all about.”

But Holtz likes to point out that with each different season comes a different team, and that means the UFL Stallions won’t be quite like the USFL iteration.

“My comfort level with this team compared to last year is totally different,” he said. “So many new faces. So, it’s a lot like year one as far as putting the team together. But from my comfort and confidence level, probably much more year three than year one, if that makes sense.”

Birmingham opens its third season in a new league – a product of the USFL and XFL merger – on Saturday when it faces the Arlington Renegades. The battle at Choctaw Stadium between the two-time defending USFL champions and XFL champions is set for noon on FOX.

“When we put all this together, which was about two weeks ago, we made the cuts down to 58,” Holtz said. “And then we really have had a great two weeks – very competitive two weeks – and great work at practice. We had some hard decisions to make to go from 58 to 50, and after we made our final decision, we really have just been gearing everything towards what game week looks like.

“I don’t know what the exact numbers are, but I would imagine it’s somewhere to 50 to 60 percent of the team is new from last year. So, there’s a lot of familiar faces, but there’s also an awful lot of new players that are on this roster.”

Stallions fans know guys like running back C.J. Marable, receivers Deon Cain, Marlon Williams and Jace Sternberger and linebacker Scooby Wright.

And of course there’s quarterback J’Mar Smith, who was knocked out of action in last year’s season opener but returns to the 2024 lineup healthy.

There’s plenty of intrigue in the quarterback room, however, as Holtz said former Carolina Panthers QB Matt Corral and ex-Nebraska/Kansas State signal caller Adrian Marinez have performed well.

“It’s been a lot of fun for me,” Holtz said. “There is a lot of talent in the room and obviously J’Mar and I go back a long way. And I think it’s really hard to hide from the talent of both Adrian Martinez and Matt Corral. I think the job that both of them have done picking up this offense, really starting in January when these guys signed, meeting with them on Zoom calls and watching film, has been great.”

Holtz declined to name a starter – or even hint at the depth chart – but said he likes to play more than one quarterback when possible.

“I think it’s that close … I think it’s that tight,” he said. “And it’s one of the reasons that I feel very comfortable that I will play more than one quarterback. I don’t think this is going to be just a one quarterback team.”

Regardless of who hits the field first on Saturday, Holtz said all the players are ready to finally get started.

“We’ve got a big work day today and again tomorrow,” he explained. “Thursday we’ll be polishing up the game plan, and then Friday we’ll walk through it and Saturday we’ll play the game. I think there’s an awful lot of excitement. I think our players are tired of going against each other.

“I think they’re ready to start watching a little bit on Arlington.”

St. Louis Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht admits he’s very “NFL-centric” when it comes to running a football team.

And why wouldn’t he be?

The former National Football League tight end spent 12 years competing on the gridiron’s biggest stage, playing for five different teams.

But when it comes to spicing up the game – and tweaking the rules – he’s all-in.

The United Football League will debut next weekend with a combination of innovations used by the XFL and USFL. As part of those leagues’ merger into the new entity, mixing and matching rules was to be expected. And Becht is excited to see how it all plays out.

“I’m totally for the way the NFL does it, and that’s where our guys want to be,” Becht told me on Thursday. “But I look at it a little differently … I think about the entertainment value. We’re in the entertainment business, too. I think about when it’s my guy who can make a one-handed catch in the back of the endzone and he taps one toe down, I mean – hell – let’s make that a touchdown, right? That’s college-esque, but it’s entertaining and something that can be tabled.”

“Receiver needs only one foot in bounds” isn’t in the UFL rulebook this spring, but there are plenty of other twists that will give fans a different experience from watching the NFL.

Becht was part of the XFL 3.0 in 2023, and one of the more dramatic alterations involved kickoffs.

The kicker lined up at his 10 while the rest of the team stood at the opponents’ 35-yard line – five yards away from the receiving team.

The kicker and returner were the only players who could move until the ball was fielded.

“I wasn’t in favor of the XFL kickoff originally when I came here, because I had never seen it or had seen what it did,” he said. “But then I did like that because, you know, less running, guys were a little closer, and you didn’t have the contact.”

The UFL opted to go with the USFL kickoff; it takes place from the 20-yard line and a kickoff out of bounds will give possession to the receiving team 30 yards from the spot of the kickoff, or at the spot where the ball went out of bounds.

A kickoff that’s untouched by the receiving team may only be recovered by the kicking team up to 20 yards from the spot of the kick.

“I do understand why the league went the traditional way, just because the NFL still does it and (the UFL) wants to keep it close. We do have some tweaks where there’s a zone where guys aren’t colliding as much, and I’m okay with it. It’s something that can be revisited next year and if it does (change), it does and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

“The NFL has talked about using the XFL rule, but they haven’t had the votes to really make that change yet.”

Becht is also a fan of the coach challenges, although he wouldn’t mind taking it a step further. In the UFL, a coach

can challenge any ruling, including “fouls or potential fouls,” once in a game if the team has a timeout remaining. A successful challenge will preserve the timeout, while the timeout is lost on an unsuccessful challenge.

“With the challenge flag, it’s so hard to figure out when to use it,” Becht said. “(Something to consider is) if you did use it early and you weren’t correct, you get another one after that. But I really do think it’s a quick process because (XFL head of officiating Dean Blandino) was pretty quick and (USFL head of officiating Mike Pereira) gets those things pretty quick. That’s something that can be tabled for next year.”

The UFL has eliminated the extra point and will have tiered conversions that can be scored via a run or pass; two forward passes are allowed on one play; overtime games will be decided via a conversion “shootout”; and a fourth quarter 4th-and-12 scrimmage option from the 28-yard line is an onside kick alternative.

And Becht says that like the NFL, any rule can be reevaluated at the end of the season.

“I’m all in for everything that the league has decided on because the majority of the stuff is the same as last year,” he said. “And things can always be revisited next year and we can have those conversations (with UFL executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston). We can do the data, we can run the analytics on it and see, you know, does it make sense to maybe change it, and I think that’s what’s good about leadership in our league.

“They’re willing to have those conversations each and every year.”

The Battlehawks, who finished the 2023 XFL season with a 7-3 record and led all spring leagues in attendance with an average of 35,104 fans per game, travel to face the Michigan Panthers on March 30. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. CDT on FOX.

The first time I met running back Darius Victor he was playing rock/paper/scissors with a group of kids outside a doughnut shop in Homewood, Alabama. It was the day before the New Jersey Generals and Birmingham Stallions were set to lift the lid on the new United States Football League in 2022, and he was there to hype the new spring gridiron product.

The last time I talked to him he was sitting in the postgame presser after the Generals had lost to the Stallions in the Year 2 USFL season opener, 27-10.

And next time?

Hopefully that’ll come on April 13 when the Stallions host Victor and his new team, the Memphis Showboats, at Protective Stadium. He’s one of those guys you instantly like – and cheer for even if he plays for a team you might normally cheer against.

After the Generals and seven other teams failed to make the cut in the USFL-XFL merger that created the new United Football League, Victor was one of the hottest commodities in the dispersal draft.

The man who made “Thick Thighs Save Lives” a rallying cry (and a T-Shirt slogan) during his USFL days now takes his wrecking ball running style to the land of the Delta Blues.

“It all feels pretty good,” Victor said during a training break at UFL Central in Arlington, Texas. “We’re coming together as a team and picking up the plays that are being installed. I think we’re doing pretty good. We’re meshing together. We all have the same type of common goal, and that’s always good when you’re trying to build a team and win ballgames.”

Victor – a 5-9, 209-pound dynamo – is a veteran of spring leagues. The 30-year-old has been on training camp rosters with two NFL franchises and one Canadian Football League club, but he first earned notice as a member of the New York Guardians in XFL 2.0 in 2020.

That league was cut short largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Victor returned to the new USFL in 2022.

He did not disappoint, earning Offensive Player of the Year honors with 1,131 rushing yards (1,433 rushing and receiving) and 18 total touchdowns.

Last year the Towson State product rushed for 554 yards, had 189 receiving and scored seven TDs – even managing to throw for one.

“I’ve been very grateful for these leagues,” he said. “Without these leagues I wouldn’t still be playing,  so I’m just grateful for the opportunity for these leagues to pop up and for me to be able to show the world that I can still play football.

“I appreciate the opportunity, and it’s extended my football life for sure.”

Memphis offensive coordinator Doug Martin has high praise for the ‘Boats’ new ballcarrier.

“Victor’s exactly what we saw when we played against him last year,” Martin said. “He’s hard to bring down. He’s really bright, he’s really intelligent … he understands the game really well and understands past protections really well. He’s probably a little bit ahead right now because of that.”

Victor likes being in Martin’s system and he’s also a big fan of new head coach John DeFilippo, who coached the New Orleans Breakers last season and replaces Todd Haley in Memphis.

“He’s a great guy,” Victor said. “He’s a player’s coach, for sure. He always has a player’s best interests at heart no matter what’s going on and what we’re doing. And it’s crazy … he’s like a database of random plays and information. He’s very knowledgeable. He’s been around the game for a while and it’s great just to pick his brain and learn from him.”

Memphis opens the season on Sunday, March 31, when the Showboats travel to Houston to take on the Roughnecks.

It’ll be another opportunity for Victor to live up to his “Thick Thighs Save Lives” motto.

“It’s a way for me to pay homage to my lineman,” Victor said. “They have thick thighs, and I hide behind them. And I also plan to break a lot of tackles with my thighs.

“So, watch for it.”