Category: Alternative Football

Back in February – before he’d even assembled his new team – Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz figured the inaugural United Football League season might be a mixed bag for his crew.

Week two of the 2024 season didn’t change that opinion.

On Sunday at Ford Field, Holtz’s team earned a hard-fought 20-13 victory over the Michigan Panthers. While the Stallions’ offensive engine spat and sputtered against Mike Nolan’s defensive-minded 11 in the Motor City, it never completely ran out of gas.

“It’s great to win, you know?” Holtz said. “I mean, we came up here and we had one objective, and that was win the game. You don’t know how it’s always going to play out, you don’t know how it’s going to happen. You don’t know if you’re going to try and win a 7-3 football game or if you’re gonna try and win a 43-42 football game.

“But as we’ve talked about as a team, everything we try and do is that our offense and defense complement each other. If it’s winning football, it’s a winning formula. I was really proud of what our players were able to do today.”

So, what made the biggest difference in this afternoon’s clash?

Take your pick … this one was all over the road.

Stallions kicker Chris Blewitt, who had five field goals for the Pittsburgh Maulers during his USFL days, nailed four against the Panthers today to salvage some spells of inconsistency by the offense.

“Offensively, proud of the way we moved the ball, but I thought our red zone offense was pitiful,” Holtz said.

Blewitt outscored Michigan’s Jake Bates 12-6; the Panthers legend-in-the-making kicker had field goals of 62 and 53 yards, following up on last week’s 64-yard, game-winning boomer.

And the winners’ defense was outstanding, forcing two turnovers (A.J. Thomas had an interception and Dondrea Tillman forced a fumble), registering seven tackles for loss and closing the day with six sacks.

“I thought defensively we created some turnovers and I thought we were stout,” Holtz said. “I mean, we gave up one big play that resulted in points but other than that, I thought defensively we played an excellent football game and kept the ball in front of us. There were some guys that were all over the field.”

One was cornerback Lorenzo Burns, who was in on seven tackles with six of them solo to lead the team.

“I think first of all, Coach Holtz does a good job,” Burns said. “I wouldn’t be back if it wasn’t for him and my teammates. You know, we just feed off each other out there, making each other better each time we go out there and play. So, I’ll just play my role and whatever happens, happens.

“If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.”

In the Stallions’ dual QB system Adrian Martinez got more bang for his buck than Matt Corral, going 8-15-0 for 88 passing yards and rushing for a team-high 66 yards on eight totes.

Corral finished 5-12-1 through the skies with 53 yards.

“They’re both really solid quarterbacks and maybe I’m taking stats away from one by getting two quarterbacks ready, but as I’ve told both of them, it’s what we’re trying to build as a football team,” Holtz said. “They both came here to get film and we’ve got a lot of guys on this roster that came to get film.”

C.J. Marable was once again double-trouble in service of the Ham, rushing for 54 yards on 14 carries and catching three balls for 29 yards. The ground game amassed 162 yards.

Ricky Person Jr. was the only Stallion to hit paydirt, scoring on a one-yard dive late in the second quarter.

In the end, though, it came down to a defensive stand – one that Birmingham made harder than it had to be.

Linebacker Scooby Wright was flagged for a late hit on Michigan signal caller E.J. Perry on the game’s final drive, and then defensive end Taco Charlton gave up 15 more yards for roughing the passer.

But with time running down and the ball on the Stallions 14, Perry suffered a fourth down courtesy of Charlton, effectively ending the game and extending Birmingham’s win streak to nine games dating back to the 2023 season.

Was it pretty?

Not always.

Was it exciting?

You bet.

Birmingham (2-0) stands alone as the only unbeaten club in the USFL Conference, while Michigan drops to 1-1.

The Stallions wound up with 302 yards to just 205 for the hosts, and limited Nolan’s crew to 47 ground yards.

Perry was 20-33-1 for 203 yards and a touchdown, but it wasn’t enough against a team that finds a way to win even if that way might not be what it’s used to.

Scoring plays: Birmingham, Chris Blewitt, 34-yard field goal, 5:42 first quarter, Stallions 3, Panthers 0; Birmingham, Blewitt, 30-yard field goal, 10:11 second quarter, Stallions 6, Panthers 0; Birmingham, Blewitt, 38-yard field goal, 4:35 second quarter, Stallions 9, Panthers 0; Michigan, Marcus Simms 76-yard pass from E.J. Perry, 3:16 second quarter, Cole Hikutini one-point conversion catch, Stallions 9, Panthers 7; Birmingham, Ricky Person Jr., two-yard run, :26 second quarter, Kevin Austin Jr. two-point conversion catch, Stallions 17, Panthers 7; Michigan, Jake Bates, 62-yard field goal, :00 second quarter, Stallions 17, Panthers 10; Birmingham, Blewitt, 20-yard field goal, 7:16 third quarter, Stallions 20, Panthers 10; Michigan, Bates, 52-yard field goal, 4:16 third quarter, Stallions 20, Panthers 13.

Standout stat: 330. That’s the number of days since the Stallions last lost a football game. That came in a 27-20 setback to the Houston Gamblers on May 13, 2023, in the second season of the USFL.

Next up: Birmingham hosts its first UFL home game next Saturday when the Memphis Showboats come to Protective Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CDT on FOX.

OTD in 1984: The Birmingham Stallions of the original United States Football League improved to 6-1 on the season with a 24-17 victory over the Jacksonville Bulls in front of 43,654 fans at the Gator Bowl.

Joe Cribbs scored on a 11-yard TD run late in the game to break the tie. He finished with 135 rushing yards.

Stallions quarterback Cliff Stoudt was 14-28-1 for 221 yards.

OTD in 1985: The Stallions slipped to 5-2 on the season with a 15-14 loss to the San Antonio Gunslingers at Alamo Stadium with just 8,873 fans looking on. The winners got three field goals from Nick Mike-Mayer while Birmingham’s chance to win with under a minute to play died when Danny Miller missed a 37-yard field goal try.

In the modern United States Football League, the Birmingham Stallions had a perfect record against the Michigan Panthers, beating them 33-17 in 2022 and 27-13 last year.

You can forget all about that now.

The Week 2 United Football League matchup between the clubs on Sunday at Ford Field is something of a reset for both, who enter the contest coming off season-opening victories.

Birmingham downed the Arlington Renegades, 27-14, on UFL launch weekend while Michigan nipped the St. Louis Battlehawks, 18-16.

“I don’t think we can look at last year’s game,” Stallions coach Skip Holtz said. “I don’t think we can say, ‘Well, we beat them last year’ … I think it’s a totally different team. They may have some of the same schemes but they’ve got a new offensive coordinator (Marcel Bellefeuille), who I think is making them better.”

The headline for Michigan, of course, was Jake Bates’ 64-yard, game-winning field goal. The winners’ offense generated 280 yards on the day with 168 coming through the air.

QB E. J. Perry was 12-24-2 for 176 yards with running back Wes Hills – the USFL’s leading rusher in 2023 – amassed 85 yards on 11 carries is his first game with the Panthers.

Wideout Devin Ross had two catches for 46 yards in the win and looks forward to Sunday’s showdown.

“Clearly, they’re a good team,” Ross said. “They’ve won the (USFL) championship two years. They have a lot of good D-linemen … a lot of speed on the edge. I feel like it’s gonna be a great game. They have good personnel and great coaching.”

Defense was the Panthers’ strong suit last week, with the ‘Hawks’ passing attack limited to 199 yards and QB A.J. McCarron sacked 3.5 times.

Kai Nacua led the charge with 11 tackles.

“We had a practice against (Birmingham) a couple of weeks ago,” Panthers coach Mike Nolan said. “It was a practice, not a scrimmage, but I think both teams felt like they got a lot of work out of it. Look, they’re  a very good football team. They’ve won the league two years in a row and they beat a very good team the other day and it wasn’t very close.

“Early in the season it’s hard to say what the matchups look like. We’ve got one game and they’ve got one game to look at of us, and based on that I know, they’re a very good opponent.”

Holtz knows his team’s first trip away from the Arlington hub will be a challenge.

“Mike has been a longtime college and NFL coordinator, and he’s the head coach but when you look at him, you also see a defensive coordinator. He’s got great fundamentals and I think his team plays hard.

“He knows his defense. He knows what he wants to do. There’s a lot of people that you go against that you may hurt him in the first half, and they can’t make the adjustment until the second half after they’ve had a half to talk about it. With Mike, if you hurt him, the very next play, he’s plugged it up.”

Following a couple of early turnovers – and a first half that ended with the score knotted at 11-all – the Stallions took control against the Renegades.

Quarterback Matt Corral had 201 passing yards and TD toss, while backup Adrian Martinez rushed for 52 yards on three carries before having to leave the game with a foot injury.

Waiting in the wings in former Stallions starter J’Mar Smith, who was a major reason Birmingham won the inaugural USFL title in 2022.

“Like (offensive line coach David Deguglielmo) told me, having J’Mar is like you’ve got a fire extinguisher under the sink,” Holtz said. “You’ve got a guy that’s played an awful lot of football. If the dam breaks, you got a fire extinguisher to put out any mess that’s been made.”

There were seven different pass catchers for Birmingham, with Deon Cain reeling in three balls for 66 yards and a score.

Tight end Jace Sternberger had two receptions for 32 yards.

“I gave the way we played like a six out of 10,” Sternberger said. “I felt like for everybody it was a typical first game, and we still scored 27 points. We want to always score more than 30.

“I played against (Michigan) last year and they’re a well-coached team. Very, very, sound defense from a technique standpoint.”

C.J. Marable had 18 carries for 67 yards against Arlington while Ricky Person Jr. contributed 31 yards and scored a rushing TD.

Kyahva Tezino had six tackles in the win, and Chris Jackson and Carlos Davis finished with five each.

Davis also had a sack and forced a fumble.

“I was really pleased with the way we played defensively,” Holtz said. “With that being said, I think we can play 20 or 30 percent better – just some of the misalignment situations, things that we can correct. I think we can be a pretty good defensive football team.”

The game kicks off at 11 a.m. CDT with ESPN providing TV coverage.

Back in January, I did a bit of a flip-flop – all in the same column.

That’s when the United Football League announced that it would pay homage to the merger of the United States Football League and XFL by keeping their names alive in the form of UFL conferences.

While writing that I didn’t care for it and hoped to see the USFL and XFL abbreviations retired, I warmed to the idea as part of the fledgling circuit’s inaugural season.

Considering all the jawing between fans of the “old” leagues, I figured maybe they could get it out of their systems  by the end of the 2024 campaign. A little infighting might be fun.

On Wednesday, I asked Birmingham Stallions tight end Jace Sternberger how long he thought the USFL vs. XFL rivalry might last. Birmingham – the two-time defending champion of the USFL – is coming off an impressive 27-14 victory over the 2023 XFL champion Arlington Renegades.

Thus, Skip Holtz’s team and the USFL earned braggin’ rights in the blended family feud.

Sternberger, however, doesn’t think the “us vs. them” dynamic will last.

“I think it’s gonna die … it’s gonna fizzle out,” he said. “I think right now it’s kinda fun to say, and I know on our team we’re more joking because we had to hear about it from a lot of guys who aren’t even in the league anymore, like older XFL guys, but that was more like poking fun.”

The Stallions’ former league finished 3-1 in opening week, with the Michigan Panthers topping the St. Louis Battlehawks, 18-16, and the Memphis Showboats nipping the Houston Roughnecks, 18-12 (the Roughnecks are the USFL Gamblers rebranded).

The only intraconference XFL game saw the San Antonio Brahmas defeat the DC Defenders, 27-12.

Obviously, Sternberger’s opinion is just one of many; with more than 400 players in the league, I’m sure you’ll find a few who’ll want to take the trash talk as far as it’ll go.

But it makes sense that as the season progresses, the teams will be more concerned with their current identities, not their former ones.

Defenders quarterback Jordan Ta’amu is one player who has already fully embraced the merger.

“I love how the USFL and XFL combined,” Ta’amu said. “I love the eight teams that they chose to keep. I expected this level of competition … I think this is the best level of competition that we’ve seen in spring league football because it’s kinda like all-star teams from the 16 teams we had last year.

“After they shrunk it down to eight, it’s the best competition we’ve seen in the spring in a long time.”

You had to realize with two professional spring leagues competing against each other, the only realistic options were the merging of two or the dissolution of one.

In a way, we got a bit of both.

Only half of the USFL and XFL came together, meaning eight of the 16 USFL and XFL teams didn’t make the cut.

That’s not to say that sides called the New Jersey Generals and Seattle Sea Dragons are gone forever, but if they do come back, they’ll have no ties to their old leagues other than repurposed nicknames.

And really, if the UFL survives and thrives, I’m hoping expansion teams won’t be confined to a USFL or XFL box.

In other words, if Los Angeles get a franchise, maybe give strong consideration to calling it something besides the Express (original USFL), Xtreme (original XFL) or Wildcats (XFL 2.0).

And once more cities are added, perhaps the USFL Conference and XFL Conference designations will have run their course. Personally, I like “Legacy Conference” and “Heritage Conference,” but In the grand scheme of things what you call a division or conference is a small matter. The key now is for all the teams in the UFL to grow strong together, regardless of where they came from.

“Week in week out, we’re really not thinking about that anymore,” Sternberger said. “It’s fun and it’ll get some clicks here and there, but at the end of the day, we’re all pushing toward the same goal and want to do the same thing.”