Category: Alternative Football

The Birmingham Stallions have been the most dominant football team of the current spring era.

They won back-to-back United States Football League championships, have been victorious in 30 of the 34 games they’ve played, and have never had a losing streak.

But all dynasties eventually fall, and Saturday at Protective Stadium the Michigan Panthers get their chance to topple an empire in the United Football League’s first playoff game.

Michigan (7-3) matched Birmingham (9-1) almost blow-for-blow last Saturday, losing 20-19 when All-UFL kicker Jake Bates’ 53-yard field goal missed the mark on the game’s final play.

“It’s always nice to win,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “It sure beats the heck out of the alternative. When you go back and you look at this game, there were a lot of things that were very positive but, obviously, a lot of things we need to clean up.”

The USFL Conference Championship Game could be – and should be – another clash that goes down to the wire. This time, though, it’s all or nothing.

“I see a difference, just in the building,” Holtz said. “I see a difference in the attitude, the tempo at practice … it’s playoff time. There’s an excitement, there’s an energy, there’s an enthusiasm right now. I think these guys are really ready to go play and hopefully we can execute much better as an offense and a defense than we did a week ago.”

Quarterback Adrian Martinez – named All-UFL quarterback on Wednesday – has rushed for 530 yards this season, 288 more than the next closest Stallion (running back Rickey Person Jr. with 342). Although he split playing time with Matt Corral earlier in the season, his legs – and arm – helped him become the clear No. 1.

Martinez is 134-229-3 passing for 1,749 yards and 15 touchdowns, and his 2,277 yards of total offense makes him a leading candidate for player of the year.

Last week, however, he was sacked five times.

Holtz doesn’t anticipate a repeat of that on Saturday, saying it was more a case of poor execution that the Stallions being bullied by the Panthers’ “D.”

“Two of (the sacks) were poor decisions by the quarterback where we should have thrown the ball away,” Holtz said. “(Martinez) will be the first one to tell you. I’m not trying to throw stones at Adrian … he’s been unbelievable and made good decisions all year. But on those two, he just needs to throw the ball across the line of scrimmage and we’re good.

“So, when you go back and look at it, it’s not like we’ve got to find a way to double-team this guy or that guy. We’re not going to change schematically. We’re just going to have to make smarter decisions and execute our offense better.”

Michigan coach Mike Nolan, who was named UFL Coach of the Year on Thursday, said Martinez will likely be unleashed in the conference championship game.

“Well, I believe he’ll probably run more this week,” Nolan said. “I think there was a little bit of protecting him from that standpoint, which is very understandable. You want to keep him healthy, and he is a huge part of their offense and a huge part of their success.”

All-UFL tight end Jace Sternberger has 454 receiving yards and four touchdowns for Birmingham; Deon Cain has scored three times and accounted for 436 yards; and Marlon Williams has four touchdowns to go along with 313 yards.

Defensively, Kyahva Tezino leads the way with 70 tackles (38 solo), while Damon Lloyd has been in on 44 and DeMarquis Gates, 37. Gates also has three tackles for 21 yards in losses.

All-UFL safety A.J. Thomas has snagged three of Birmingham’s eight interceptions this season.

Nose tackle Carlos Davis – also on the All-UFL Team – paces the sack crew with seven, and hopes to add to that total against an offense that has trended upward week by week.

“I thought they got a lot better throughout the year, and I think they do a good job with their quarterbacks,” Davis said. “The quarterbacks are mobile, and that’s something that we’re gonna have to stop this week, just keeping them in the pocket and not letting them get out to make plays or run down the field. And, they’ve got some great wide receivers, as well.”

Michigan’s QB room features Danny Etling, Bryce Perkins and Brian Lewerke.

In seven games, Etling is 69-114-2 for 787 yards and three TDs, while Perkins has played in four games and gone 30-38-1 for 664 yards and two touchdown passes.

Both signal callers are effective runners, although the ground game is currently led by RB Matthew Colburn II with 423 yards and four touchdowns.

Nolan said earlier in the week Etling will get the start, but Perkins was likely to play. On the depth chart released on Friday, however, Perkins was inactive and Lewerke was listed as the backup.

“Our quarterbacks all kind of run the same show,” Nolan said. “We don’t have one that’s a runner and one that’s not, it’s both guys.

“All of our quarterbacks, as matter of fact, are capable of using their legs when they need to and being in the pocket as well.”

All-UFL wideout Marcus Simms has caught 23 balls for 426 yards and three touchdowns, while Siaosi Mariner has two TDs and 346 yards.

In last week’s game against Birmingham, Mariner had 110 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.

Michigan has three players with at least 40 tackles; Kai Nacua (47), Bryce Torneden (42) and Javin White (41).

UFL Defensive Player of the Year Breeland Speaks has 9.5 of the Panthers’ 30 sacks.

Nacua, Speaks, Daniel Wise and Nate Brooks are All-UFL selections.

Nolan suggests both teams will stick to their normal game plan, although there could be a few more “trick” plays.

“I think they’ll take their chances with maybe some kind of exotic play, whether it be a reverse pass or something you have in your pocket,” Nolan said. “You don’t use it in the game like the other day … you usually use plays like that when the game has a little bit more on the line. So, if there’s anything in the way of an exotic play, it would probably come this week.”

Game time is set for 2 p.m. with ABC televising and ESPN Xtra on SiriusXM providing audio coverage.

“Bring a friend,” Holtz said. “We need people and that home field advantage. Let’s light that place up. We’ve got a great crowd, they’re loud, they’re into it, they’re vocal – they make a difference.

“And I just think about if we could try and fill that lower bowl, oh, my gosh. I mean, it would be absolutely awesome.”

Twin brothers are almost always close, and that’s certainly the case with Carlos Davis and Khalil Davis.

Both were standout athletes at Blue Springs High School in Missouri, and both earned football scholarships at the University of Nebraska.

Khalil Davis was the Cornhuskers’ defensive player of the year in both 2018 and 2019, and the defensive tackle had eight sacks as a senior and was team leader in tackles with 45. He had 116 takedowns during his playing days in Lincoln.

Carlos Davis, meanwhile, finished his Nebraska career with 125 tackles and nine and half sacks from his defensive end spot, but also became an All-American in track and field.

Today, both are professional football players.

Khalil Davis helped parlay a standout 2023 season with the United States Football League’s Birmingham Stallions into a roster spot with the Houston Texans, and now it’s Carlos Davis – a member of the United Football League Stallions – who hopes to use Birmingham as a springboard back to the NFL.

Thing is, they were almost teammates on the 2023 squad.

Carlos Davis was signed by Birmingham in October, 2023, but released from his contract two months later when the Atlanta Falcons came calling.

Khalil Davis stayed in the Magic City, ending his lone USFL season with 29 tackles and a sack.

So, did Carlos Davis ask for any brotherly advice when he was re-signed by the Stallions in January?

“Heck, yeah,” the All-UFL nose tackle said on Wednesday. “I mean, that was my whole decision. I really wanted to play with Khalil when he first did it, but I didn’t know too much about (the league). So, I kind of watched him go through it and then I was sold about halfway through the season.

“I went to about five games, so I knew some of the players and I had met some of the guys, and it was just the best fit for me, to be honest.”

Carlos Davis has seven sacks this season, putting him in a tie for second most in the UFL. He has 13 solo tackles and 10 assists, including four tackles for 29 yards in losses.

He has also forced and recovered a fumble, and helped the Birmingham defense become one of the stingiest in the circuit.

“There’s multiple things we can do to disrupt the game, but it starts with us up front,” he said. “We take pride in being that group that just kind of gets the defense going and just stepping up. We’ll disrupt the game any way we can, batting balls down – I mean, to me that’s more demoralizing when a quarterback’s trying to throw and we swat one down.

“So, any way we can disrupt the game, we’re going to do it.”

One off-the-field disruption came with the change at defensive coordinator. In late May, John Chavis and the Stallions parted ways. That moved Corey Chamblin to the DC role and Dr. Anthony Blevins – originally tapped to be head coach of the XFL Vegas Vipers before that team was dissolved in the XFL/UFL merger – was added to the staff.

“Both of them just have a couple of different styles of coaching,” Carlos Davis said. “With Coach Chavis, we were limited a little bit and could only run certain things. But after he stepped away, we just were able to open up the playbook a little bit more, and just do a little bit more things.”

Carlos Davis hopes a winning game plan is in place for his team’s third meeting with the Michigan Panthers. The teams clash in the USFL Conference Championship Game at Protective Stadium on Saturday, and Birmingham is looking for a sweep of their rivals after topping them 20-13 on April 7 and 20-19 last Saturday.

“It really just comes down to the coaching and everybody buying in,” he said. “I feel like every group is bought in and you know, we trust the coaches and we listen to them and they give us a great game plan to go out and execute.

“It’s really on us to go out there and do what they ask.”

Once this season is over, Carlos Davis wants to get back to the big league. He was on the active roster for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2020-22, and has 12 NFL tackles on his resume. And while he’ll listen to all offers, he really hopes a club running a 4-3 defense will give him a look.

“I’ve seen the production coming from a 4-3,” Carlos Davis said. “I’ve had a little bit of production on the 3-4, but honestly, I’m trying to go to where I can create the most plays, and that’s a 4-3 defense.”

On January 20, 2022, I was sitting on my futon and furiously hammering out a story about the Birmingham Stallions’ new head football coach … Gene Chizik.

Remember that?

His name had been leaked earlier – along with some other men who would be part of the reimagined United States Football League – and I was hardly excited.

Yes, he had won a national championship at Auburn, but he was also notorious for shielding his players from the press. Maybe he’d be different as a pro coach but maybe he wouldn’t, and that had me worried that covering Birmingham’s latest alt-football team would be a challenge.

But as we quickly learned, Chizik wasn’t named head coach of the Stallions, instead accepting a job as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach for defense at the University of North Carolina.

However, almost as soon as the Chizik hire was nixed, Skip Holtz got the nod.

“I’m thrilled to be coaching in the USFL and I can’t wait to get started,” Holtz said via a USFL press release. “The opportunity to build a new league from scratch, with the support we have, is unique. I’m also really excited about having the chance to build something in Birmingham, a city that I know will embrace the USFL and the Stallions.”

I met that news with a shrug.

My points of reference were that he was Lou Holtz’s son and had spent the previous nine seasons as head coach at Louisiana Tech. As a UAB grad and UAB fan, I was morally obligated to despise the Bulldogs – at least when it came to athletic competition. So, to have a guy that led them for nearly a decade take over a team that would play in the Blazers’ home stadium was just … off-putting.

Then, on January 31, I went to his news conference at Protective Stadium and started warming to him. If nothing else, he talked a good game.

“You look at the draft and when training camp starts and you wake up thinking, ‘I’ve got to do that and I’ve got to do that and I’ve got to do that,’” Holtz said. “But that’s all part of the excitement and the energy and the fun of what we’re building.”

All that was less than two and half years ago but man, it seems like ancient history now.

And after two USFL championships, 30 victories, a transition to the United Football League and another banner year in the Ham, I can’t imagine anyone else but Holtz running the show.

What he’s accomplished in the latest incarnation of spring pro football is phenomenal, and he’s done it with good humor and class.

I asked him on Tuesday to look back on his decision to try something new.

“You know, I had just been fired from Louisiana Tech and I was frustrated,” Holtz said. “I felt like we had a lot of success there as we went to seven bowl games in a row and won six of them in a row … we had a lot of success for a program that had never been to back-to-back bowls. So, when I got fired, I felt like it was unfair and felt like it was unjust. I had to have my little pity party.”

With 151 victories on his resume, it was only a matter of time before someone came looking for him. That someone was Brian Woods, who would become president of the new USFL.

“I got a phone call from Brian Woods, who asked me if I was down at our beach house down in Florida,” Holtz said. “Then he asked me if I would come meet with him in Orlando because he wanted to talk to me about an opportunity.”

That opportunity was to take the reins of one of the new teams that would usher in the USFL’s 2022 season.

“I felt like I needed a fresh start,” Holtz explained. “I felt like I needed something new, and I always say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I was ready to get out of the college game and when I sat down and met with Brian, he sold me on it. I loved the idea and the business plan that FOX (Sports) had put together.

“I came out of lunch and I called my wife and she said, ‘How’d your interview go?’ And I said, ‘I took it.’ She said, ‘You did what?’ and I said, ‘I took the job … I’m going to be a coach in the spring league.’ She goes, ‘What team? and I said, “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me. He said he’d figure that out later.’”

Fortunately for Birmingham gridiron fans, that team was the Stallions.

Holtz and general manager Zach Potter have worked together to create quite a product, one built from the bottom up and molded into the best in the “offseason” gridiron business.

Just think about it … when all the coaches in the USFL assembled in Birmingham for the initial draft, they all had the same pool to draw from. They all shared similar information, and the scales were not weighted in favor of one team or the next.

Holtz promptly put together the best club in the USFL’s first year, then the best in its second, and – so far – the best in the UFL’s inaugural campaign.
But it’s not like he’s had the same guys year after year … or even game after game.

In leagues like the UFL (and the USFL and XFL before it), there’s going to be massive turnover. Some guys will get NFL shots, others will go to Canada, and a few will see seasons and/or careers end due to injury.

But through it all, Holtz’s teams have been able to maintain a remarkable level of excellence.

“It has been probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had,” he said. “Definitely one of the most enjoyable jobs that I’ve ever had. Working with these young men, helping them grow and develop … the thing that I love about coaching is the development. And you’ve got a group of young men that are in this league because they want to play football.

“They’re not prima donnas. They want film. Everybody makes the same money and all they want is to get better. ‘Coach, help me get better. What do I got to do? How do I do this?’ They’re asking questions. When my wife and I look back at getting fired by Louisiana Tech, we see it as a blessing.”

Ruston’s loss has been the Magic City’s gain, and here we are again, with the 9-1 Stallions boasting the best record in the UFL, and playing the Michigan Panthers (7-3) on Saturday in the UFL Conference Championship.

Will the dynasty last forever?

No dynasty does.

It could end Saturday at Protective Stadium, or eight days later at The Dome in St. Louis in the UFL Championship Game.

Then again, it could extend into 2025, in which case pundits will wonder if Birmingham can turn a three-peat into a four-peat.

Regardless, Holtz has proven time and time again just what an outstanding coach he is.

He might not have been the Stallions’ first choice, but he’s shown he is absolutely the best choice.

Birmingham is lucky to have him.