Category: Alternative Football

The two-time defending USFL champion Birmingham Stallions have played like champions through their first three games in the United Football League, and on Saturday they’ll try to improve to 4-0 against a former XFL club.

The DC Defenders (2-1) come to Protective Stadium for a 6 p.m. kickoff, hoping to derail Birmingham’s perfect start and keep pace with St. Louis and San Antonio atop their conference. It’ll be the second consecutive week Skip Holtz’s team has played in front of a partisan crowd.

“We have a DC Defenders team coming in that had the best record in the XFL last year, and they returned a lot of starters off that team,” Holtz said. “Jordan Ta’amu, their quarterback, is a very talented individual from Ole Miss and they can score a lot of points. They have scored a lot of points, and right now they’re tied for first place in the XFL Conference, so we’ve got a real challenge coming in this weekend.”

Ta’amu has connected on 52 of 101 passes for 627 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions.

Ty Scott paces the receiving corps with 152 yards and a score on eight receptions.

Those two played key roles in DC rallying from 11 points down with 2:08 to play to stun the Arlington Renegades, 29-28, last week.

After cutting the deficit to 28-26, Ta’amu and Scott hooked up for 19 yards on the fourth-and-12 onside conversion play, ultimately setting up Matthew McCrane’s 49-yard field goal to win it.

Michael Joseph has been far and away the team’s top defensive player, with 16 solo tackles and 19 takedowns in all.

“I think (Defenders coach and Alabama native) Reggie Barlow does a great job with that team,” Holtz said. “As I said, they were 10-2 last year and he was the Coach of the Year, and they are 2-1 this year, so it’s got all the makings for another great atmosphere, another great environment.”

The Stallions are the lone unbeaten team in the UFL, and not only set the pace in the USFL Conference but lead the circuit in myriad statistical categories.

They’re No. 1 in total offense (374 yards per game); all-purpose yards (513.3); total rushing yards (432); rushing yards per game (144.0); yards per reception (15.6); rushing touchdowns (five) scoring (26.7 points per game); total defense (226.0); fewest rushing yards allowed (126); fewest rushing yards average (42.0); and fewest rushing TDs (none).

Birmingham is coming off a 33-14 rout of the Memphis Showboats, one that saw the winners put together their most complete game of the season to date.

“Really proud of the team and what they were able to accomplish,” Holtz said. “I think the defense set the tone with two out of the first three plays in the game being sacks, and I thought our front seven – really our defense as a whole – challenged everything. I thought (defensive coaches) John Chavis, Bill Johnson, Corey Chamberlain and Deric Riley, all did a great job.”

Holtz pointed out that last year the team managed 17 sacks for the entirety of the 2023 season and hit that mark in just three games in 2024.

Aside from the strong defensive play – through 12 quarters Kyahva Tezino has been in on 22 tackles with 14 unassisted, followed by Chris Jackson (17/13), Lorenzo Burns (17/13) and Carlos Davis (10/6 and the UFL sacks leader with six) – the offense had a breakout game against Memphis.

Adrian Martinez went the distance at quarterback, and now has 448 passing yards and a team-high 161 rushing yards.

Martinez is the top rusher in the league followed by C.J. Marable, who has churned out 140 yards.

“Offensively, to see Adrian Martinez get his opportunity from wire-to-wire and to throw for 334 yards and to see him run for 44 yards was great,” Holtz said. “And I thought Ricky Person Jr. ran really hard, and our offensive line did a great job of protecting our quarterback.”

Despite Martinez’s excellent outing, Holtz says Matt Corral is still very much in the picture at quarterback. In fact, he’s listed as QB1 on Saturday’s depth chart.

“I named Matt the starter at the beginning, but knew that we were going to roll both of them early,” Holtz said. “Adrian had a great week (of preparation) last week, so we made the decision to go wire-to-wire with him.

“Both these quarterbacks are here to get film, but they’re both good enough to win with and we need to find a way to manage the room and play them both, because I do think that we’re going to need them both before it’s all said and done.”

Deon Cain leads the receiving corps (and the UFL) with 240 yards and a TD.  Person Jr., Jace Sternberger and Marlon Williams have all made an impact as well, cracking the 100-yard barrier in receptions.

One major change on Saturday will be at kicker. With Chris Blewitt nursing an injury, recent signee Ramiz Ahmed will handle field goal chores against DC.

Holtz hopes for another energetic crowd on Saturday.

“I was very appreciative of the fan base, the noise they made (last week),” Holtz said. “It was really nice to be back in Protective Stadium. You know we’ve been (in the Arlington hub) for about six, eight weeks now, and it just reminds you when you come back to Birmingham what a special place it is and how much it means to us on the field.”

Linebacker Scooby Wright has a big personality – no one will argue that point.

He also has plenty of talent to go along with it.

Whether running down the field with his hand atop his helmet, mimicking a fin (“I had to go Sharkdog on them … half shark, half dog”) or running a pick-six into the end zone and finishing with a somersault to cement the Birmingham Stallions’ 33-30 USFL Championship Game win over the Philadelphia Stars, the man is a force of nature.

But as he settles into his third year with Birmingham – and is an integral part of one of the United Football League’s most formidable defensive units – he has become a veteran leader for the 3-0 Stallions.

“It’s been a great year,” said Wright, who has been nursing a right knee injury this week. “My teammates get better every week and we just look forward to bringing a great product to the field.”

During his prep days, Wright was an all-purpose player. He didn’t care where he played – he just wanted to be on the field.

“In high school, I kind of did everything,” he said. “It’s kind of funny … I was talking to someone a few days ago, and I said I used to return kicks and return punts and stuff, so it was kind of fun looking back because there’s no way in hell I could do that now.

“But really, I just love playing football. To be honest, it didn’t really matter what position I was playing or anything, I just always see myself as a football player.”

When healthy, Wright was one of the greatest defensive players in Arizona State University history.

He was Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 as a freshman and a consensus All-American as a sophomore, earning the Lombardi Award and Bronko Nagurski Award, among others, as well as Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

By his junior year he was limited to just three games due to injury, but closed out his college career with 145 solo tackles in 27 games, 14 sacks, an interception and six forced fumbles.

College success didn’t translate to more of the same in the NFL – at least not yet.

Following stints with the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals, Wright opted for an alternative pro football path.

The Arizona Hotshots of the ill-fated Alliance of American Football signed him in 2019, and he managed nine tackles before the league folded after eight games.

A practice squad job with the New England Patriots later that year lasted less than two weeks, and by 2020 he was with the DC Defenders of XFL 2.0.

That iteration of the league hit the halfway mark before crumbling under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, he managed 17 tackles in four games.

Since then, he’s been a staple of the Stallions, first in the reimagined United States Football League and now with the UFL. Despite being injured for most of the 2023 season, Wright managed 34 solo tackles and 31 assists, with three sacks and 23 tackles for loss.

This year he has five solo tackles and three assists.

“I played lot of football on my day,” Wright said. “I think the thing that we’re trying to adopt here and as a team is just trying to win every day. We want to control what we can control. Try not to not look too far forward, but just stay in the moment. “Stay focused, stay prepared. Just do what you do … just try to win.”

The Birmingham defense has put on quite a show over the past three weeks. The unit leads the UFL in interceptions (three), sacks (17), passes defended (18 with 15 breakups), and paces the circuit in total defense (226 yards allowed per game) and scoring defense (13.7 points per game).

“We know how good we can be and how good we are, and know where we want to go,” he said. “So, I think it’s just a matter of attacking the day and just staying motivated.

“I mean, instead of just being one guy deep or two guys deep, we’re able to roll guys through. If you’ve watched games, you notice at the linebacker position we kind of rotate a little bit to keep guys fresh.”

The Stallions face the DC Defenders (2-1) Saturday at Protective Stadium with a 6 p.m. kickoff. It’s the second consecutive home game for the USFL Conference leaders and “SharkDawg” is happy to be back in the friendly confines. Since the team is housed in the Arlington, Texas, hub throughout the week, trips “home” are even more special.

“I definitely miss Birmingham,” Wright said. “I miss living in the city and miss all the fans. It’s great seeing them and just being out in the community.”

Like most of the spring football circuits that have come before it, the United Football League has several unique rules – most of which are designed to add excitement to the game and provide a different product from the NFL and college ball.

With just three weeks of its inaugural season complete, you’d have a tough time finding an innovation that has provided more drama than the UFL’s fourth-and-12 onside kick option.

In week two, the San Antonio Brahmas used the scrimmage play to retain possession and ultimately turn a 19-8 deficit to the Memphis Showboats (with just 49 seconds to go, no less) into a wild 20-19 victory.

“You look at the onside kick in the NFL and there’s a one percent chance of making it,” San Antonio coach Wade Phillips said. “It’s not a play even worth looking at. But with fourth-and-12, you have a chance. It’s not a high-percentage play, now, but we executed it. We made a great play to make the first down.

“It keeps the game exciting and gives you the opportunity to make an ‘onside kick.’ The NFL is looking at a lot of rules we’re utilizing and they ought to look at that, too. It’s exciting, that’s for sure.”

Last weekend it was the DC Defenders’ turn, flipping the script on what appeared to be a certain loss to the Arlington Renegades and changing it into a stunning 29-28 victory thanks to a fourth-and-12 conversion that set up a game-winning field goal.

“We stayed in the fight,” DC coach Reggie Barlow said. “We had to get the fourth-and-12 and my man (quarterback Jordan Ta’amu) managed that well.”

Trailing 28-26, Ta’amu hit Ty Scott on a 19-yard gainer on the onside kick alternative to give the Defenders a fresh set of downs and chance to win.

“It’s crazy,” Ta’amu said. “Everything was just so surreal. It felt like a dream.”

DC comes to Birmingham this Saturday to take on the unbeaten Stallions at Protective Stadium. And while Skip Holtz’s club has had no need for such theatrics thus far, the coach is glad the play is available.

“What we have to do now when we practice every day, is practice the 1-point play from the two, the 2-point play from the five, and the 3-point play from the 10 … and I carry probably eight to 10 plays from the five-yard line, which is more than I’ve ever carried,” Holtz said. “But you also have to then practice a fourth-and-12 play.”

As Phillips said, it’s not a high-percentage option, but it’s far better than the awkward, rarely successful onside kick.

“As far as maintaining an onside kick, really, you’re hoping for a bounce,” Holtz said. “You’re hoping for a bounce or hoping for a fumble, or you’re hoping that they misjudge it and the ball takes a crazy bounce. Otherwise, you’re not going to get it.

“I like the excitement of a fourth-and-12 play and having the opportunity to continue your drive, especially when you’re trying to make the comeback.”

The roots of the rule date back to the Alliance of American Football, which played a partial season in 2019 before folding.

There were no kickoffs at all in the AAF, with offenses starting possession at their own 25-yard line. However, if a team trailed by 17 points or there were five or fewer minutes remaining in a game, it could attempt what was called an “onside conversion.”

Just like in the UFL, it was a fourth-and-12 play from the 28.

The option was also available following a safety, only the ball was placed down at the 18 in that instance.

Last year the XFL had a fourth-and-15 play from the 25 along with the traditional onside kick.

“We haven’t had to use it yet, fortunately, because we’ve had a lead,” Holtz said. “But it is something that we practice along with the (conversion plays) every day.”