Author: Scott Adamson

Skip Holtz is 32 games into his pro football coaching career and has been calling the shots as the head man for 305 games in all.

During that time, his message has never changed.

“We didn’t try to go 21-3,” he said last summer after his Birmingham Stallions won their second consecutive United States Football League championship. “We tried to win one game at a time, and every time we’ve taken the field, we’ve just tried to win one game.”

The “1-0 mentality” continues to serve Holtz and company well in the United Football League. At 8-0, Birmingham is the league’s only undefeated team. Since starting their spring football journey in April, 2022, the Stallions are 29-3 and are currently riding a 15-game winning streak.

Thing is, Holtz and his team aren’t talking about that last part.

At all.

“I didn’t even know what that number was,” Holtz said on Tuesday. “I mean, honestly, we don’t talk about it.”

He then started adding up the numbers.

“We’re 29-3 right now, but we didn’t start out three years ago to go 29-3,” he said, repeating a familiar theme. “We started out to try and beat New Jersey in the opening game. We’re fortunate we won that game and then we tried to win the next one and the next one … when it’s all over, I think we’re gonna look back and go, that 15-game win streak, or 16 or whatever that number ends up being, is a great accomplishment.

“But right now, beating our chests or patting ourselves on the back about what we’ve done just means our eyes aren’t forward.”

Birmingham’s last loss came in its final USFL season in 2023. The Stallions were upset by the Houston Gamblers, 27-20, which dropped their record to 3-2 and – at the time – third place in the South Division.

Holtz’s crew then proceeded to win their next seven, capped off by 28-12 conquest of the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL Championship Game.

Birmingham has the distinction of playing in the first and last games of the modern USFL.

In 2024, of course, the winning has continued. Saturday’s foe –the San Antonio Brahmas – stand in the way of 16 straight “Ws.”

To put the accomplishment in perspective, the longest winning streak in professional football history is 23. That belongs to the Indianapolis Colts, who won nine in a row to end the 2008 National Football League season and started the 2009 campaign with a 14-game winning streak.

The Calgary Stampeders lead the way among Canadian Football League franchises, stringing together 22 victories over the 1948-49 seasons.

And when it comes to alt-football leagues (excluding the myriad semi-pro clubs), both the Hartford Knights of the Atlantic Coast Football League (1968-69) and Carolina Storm of the American Football Association (1982-83) won 20 in a row, while the Charleston Rockets finished 14-0 in the second season of the Continental Football League (1965), but lost the final game of the 1964 season and opening game of the 1966 campaign.

The Rockets join the 17-0 Miami Dolphins in the Perfect Pro Season Club: the Stallions need four more victories to join them.

“We don’t talk with them about yesterday’s history,” Holtz explained.  “What happened yesterday is over, it’s in the books … you can’t change it. All you can do is learn and grow from it. Tomorrow’s a mystery because we don’t know what tomorrow brings. We don’t know what the injury situation is gonna look like. Today is where our focus needs to be.

“And right now, the talk in the team meetings and the talk on the practice field is what we’ve got to do today to get better and what we have to do today to prepare for our upcoming game.”

With three upcoming clashes against San Antonio (an XFL Conference playoff qualifier), Michigan, and Michigan again in the USFL Conference Championship Game, Holtz says the Stallions are, for all practical purposes, already in the postseason.

And that makes the “1-0 mentality” more important than ever.

“When it’s all over, when the season’s done and we don’t have anything in front of us, I think we’ll look back and we’ll say, ‘Wow.’ It’s kind of like climbing a mountain. You can’t get halfway up and start looking down and say, ‘Look at how far we’ve come.’ You wait until you get to the top and when you get to the top, you look back, You take a deep breath.

“That’s kind of how we’re looking at this season. We’re climbing a mountain and as soon as we start looking up or looking down, we’re gonna lose our footing. Our focus is, what do we have to do today? We have a saying around here … just be where your feet are. Our feet are today.”

Despite everything the Birmingham Stallions have accomplished in 32 professional spring football games, the Houston Gamblers were the proverbial thorn in their side.

A head-scratching loss to the dice-rollers derailed what would’ve been a perfect season in the modern United States Football League’s debut, and last year the teams split their regular season clash.

Birmingham has suffered three defeats since starting play in April of 2022, and two of them have come against the club repping Texas’ largest city.

But now that the Gamblers have rebranded as the Roughnecks – and joined the Stallions in the United Football League – the thorn has been removed.

And so has another obstacle in Birmingham’s path to perfection.

Skip Holtz’s charges completed a season sweep of Houston (1-7) on Saturday at Protective Stadium, improving to 8-0 and notching their 15^th consecutive “W”  dating back to 2023 with a 35-28 victory.

“We talked about we weren’t going to take a week off, “Holtz said. “We’re not getting ready for somebody down the road, we’re trying to go 1-0 each week. That’s our approach. We treated this game like any other.”

Make no mistake about it, Curtis Johnson’s hard-luck team was a tough out. The ‘Necks played hard from wire-to-wire, looking a far sight better than they did in a 32-9 loss at Rice Stadium on April 27.

But after the Stallions turned a 15-14 lead into a 21-14 edge thanks to another patented, clock-beating drive to end the second quarter, they were able to keep Houston at arm’s length.

“This Birmingham team is a juggernaut,” Johnson said. “Before the season, we all knew they were the flagship team in this league. They’re good at every position … I don’t see a weakness. And Skip Holtz, I’m telling you, he’s the king of spring.”

The Roughnecks’ last real shot at an upset came with under five minutes to go in the game. Trailing 35-28, they started at their own 24 with a chance at a potential game-winning score.

But they ended up going backward, and were forced to punt the ball away with 2:50 to go.

At that point Job One for Birmingham was to run out the clock, and the UFL’s lone unbeaten team held the ball until there were only 14 ticks remaining.

However, a punt and penalty gave Houston the ball at its own 42, and the visitors passed their way to the Birmingham 24 with one second left.

A DeMarquis Gates sack of QB Reid Sinnett ended the threat – and the game.

And it didn’t come a moment too soon; Holtz’s team was plagued by turnovers and mental mistakes all night, making the coach as relieved as he was happy when the final horn sounded.

“Everybody wants to look at records, that they’re 1-7, but it doesn’t matter,” Holtz said. “You’ve still gotta put the ball on the tee … you’ve got to play the game. And if you have stupid penalties, you get a stop on third-and-one and you rip your helmet off – I don’t know why, but you rip your helmet off – and then get a 15-yard penalty at the end on a punt for grabbing somebody’s facemask … we certainly did not play a very clean game.”

Adrian Martinez overcame a shaky (well, shaky by his standards) start to finish 19-31-1 through the air for 173 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for two more scores and 44 yards.

He connected with 10 different receivers with Deon Cain, Amari Rodgers and Binjimin Victor all reaching the end zone.

Ricky Person Jr. led all rushers with 63 yards.

Although the defense gave up 311 yards, A.J. Thomas got a pick on the third play of the game – his second interception in as many weeks – Jordon Thomas forced a fumble, and Gates, Kyahva Tezino and Damon Lloyd were in on eight tackles each.

Sinnett and Nolan Henderson shared time behind center for Houston, with Sinnett going 6-13-1 for 99 yards and a touchdown and Henderson finishing 9-14-0 for 97 yards.

Keke Chism had 80 receiving yards on seven catches and Mark Thompson got two scores out of his 54 rushing yards.

“We won the first game (against Houston) and this game was much more entertaining than the first one,” Holtz said. “I thought they really did a nice job. They had a new plan, and it’s just nice to win against anybody because the teams are so evenly matched across the board, and that was through two drafts and free agency and everything that’s happened during the offseason.

“There’s a lot of talent that was dispersed to a lot of different teams, and everybody’s got talent. I want to applaud Coach Johnson and his team … they’ve just been snakebit this year.”

Scoring plays: Birmingham, Deon Cain, 9-yard reception from Adrian Martinez, 8:53 first quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 6, Roughnecks 0; Birmingham, Binjimin Victor, 12-yard reception from Martinez, 4:41 first quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 12, Roughnecks 0; Houston, Mark Thompson, 37-yard run, 2:58 first quarter, 2-point conversion pass from Nolan Henderson to Justin Hall, Stallions 12, Roughnecks 8; Birmingham, Ramiz Ahmed, 44-yard field goal, 14:15 second quarter, Stallions 15, Roughnecks 8; Houston, Thompson, 2-yard run, 1:56 second quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 15, Roughnecks 14; Birmingham, Martinez, 4-ard run, :07 second quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 21, Roughnecks 14; Birmingham, Amari Rodgers, 10-yard reception from Martinez, 9:58 third quarter, 1-point conversion pass from Martinez to Jordan Thomas, Stallions 28, Roughnecks 14; Houston, Henderson, 3-yard run, 4:22 third quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 28, Roughnecks 20; Birmingham, Martinez, 8-yard run, 1:24 third quarter, 1-point conversion run by Larry Roundtree III, Stallions 35, Roughnecks 20; Houston, Braedon Bowman, 2-yard pass from Reid Sinnett, 7:21 fourth quarter, 2-point conversion pass from Sinnett to Justin Hall, Stallions 35, Roughnecks 28.

Standout stat: 14. Number of points Birmingham scored off a pair of Houston turnovers. Ultimately, that proved to be the difference.

Chavis out of action: Birmingham defensive coordinator John Chavis is dealing with illness and didn’t make the trip from Arlington to Birmingham for Saturday’s game.

Secondary coach Corey Chamblin stepped in as DC for the night. The Birmingham native is in his second stint with the Stallions after previously serving on the 2022 staff.

Up next: Birmingham plays its final regular season road game of 2024 next Saturday, 2 p.m. CDT, when it faces the San Antonio Brahmas at the Alamodome.

The game will be televised on ABC.

OTD in 1984: The Birmingham Stallions of the original United States Football League routed the Chicago Blitz, 41-7, in front of 8,578 fans at Soldier Field.

Quarterback Cliff Stoudt threw for two touchdowns and 229 yards, and the winners also scored two defensive TDs. David Evans picked up a fumble and returned it five yards for a score in the first quarter, and later in the frame, Chuck Clanton tallied a pick-six on a 41-yard return of a Vince Evans pass.

The Stallions improved to 11-2 with the win.

The Birmingham Stallions (7-0) have not only locked up a playoff berth in the inaugural season of the United Football League, they already know who and when they’ll play in the USFL Conference championship – the Michigan Panthers at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 8.

Birmingham is coming off a 30-26 victory over St. Louis in what was, to date, the circuit’s marquee game.

The Houston Roughnecks (1-6), on the other hand, are going nowhere after Week 10 of the regular season wraps up.

Making matters worse, they were tantalizingly close to a major upset of San Antonio last weekend – leading 12-3 with 12:36 to play – only to fall 15-12 on a walk-off field goal.

Yet, while it would be easy to dismiss Saturday’s game between Birmingham and Houston at Protective Stadium as largely meaningless, it most certainly isn’t.

Not only are the Stallions seeking a perfect season (and their 15^th consecutive victory dating back to 2023), a win – coupled with a Michigan loss to Memphis – would secure a host spot in the conference title game. And, of course, both teams want to give their players more chances to get looks from the NFL.

“We have to get ready to do it all over again Saturday against what I think is a really good Houston football team,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “I know everybody wants to look at their record at 1-6, but when you look at it, especially the last three weeks, they’ve played San Antonio, who’s one of the better teams in the XFL Conference and tied for the first; they’ve played St. Louis, and actually gave up less points to them than we did, giving up 22; and they’ve played Arlington, who has one of the top offenses; and they played us.

“They’ve had four quality opponents over the last few weeks.”

The Stallions’ 32-9 win over the Roughnecks in Houston on April 27 was the worst loss of the season for Curtis Johnson’s team, which has been formidable on defense for much of the season.

They lead the UFL in both interception returns (with five for 176 yards, including a pick-six), and tackles for loss (40).

Offensive woes have plagued them from the start, however.

“Our defense has been outstanding,” Johnson said. “But we have too many unforced errors, especially on the offensive line, and when we get in the red zone, we’ve got to score touchdowns.”

Houston has played three quarterbacks this spring (Reid Sinnett, Jarrett Guarantano and Nolan Henderson) but they have yet to find consistency moving the ball through the air or on the ground. Sinnett will get the start on Saturday with Henderson backing him up.

Justin Hall is the Roughnecks’ top receiver with 352 yards and a touchdown, while T.J. Pledger IV has rushed for 208 yards and caught 15 passes for 91 more.

Pulling off an upset of the league’s only unbeaten team will be a tall order.

Birmingham’s Adrian Martinez has gone from a part-time starter at quarterback to an MVP candidate, leading the league in rushing yards and quickly climbing up the ladder in passing stats. He is second in the UFL in total offense with 1,589 yards.

And while Martinez tops the charts churning out yards on the ground, Ricky Person Jr. leads the way in rushing touchdowns with six.

“I know last year people liked to say I’m just a downhill runner, but I feel like I’m able to showcase my abilities in Skip’s offense,” Person said. “I want my quarterbacks to know they can throw to me out in space and I can make people miss, and catch the ball out of the backfield. But I can also run … I take a lot of pride in that.”

Birmingham is the only UFL club to have eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in rushing with 1,017 (145.3 yards per game).

The receiving corps also continues to be a strong suit of the two-time defending USFL champions, as the Stallions lead in yards per reception (14.3) and are second in most aerial TDs with 12.

Deon Cain has racked up 371 receiving yards and scored twice, with Jace Sternberger contributing 261 yards and two scores.

Holtz’s crew is No. 1 in total offense (2,652 yards), all-purpose yards (3,623) and scoring (201 points).

Birmingham has the best rushing defense in the UFL, allowing only two TDs and 376 yards down low. The unit is also first in the takeaway department with 13, while Carlos Davis continues to rule the sack brigade with six – all of them solo.

“It’s going to be a great challenge for us this week,” Holtz said. “We just have to put yesterday behind us, and tomorrow’s not here yet. We’ve got to focus on today and what we’ve got to do to get better as a football team so we’re playing our best ball at the end of the year when we get into the playoffs.”

Saturday’s game is set for 7 p.m. with TV coverage provided by ESPN2. The contest can be heard on ESPN XTra on SiriusXM.