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.”