Category: Alternative Football

Skip Holtz and Bob Stoops have already made history in alternative football.

Holtz guided the Birmingham Stallions into action in the inaugural game of the modern United States Football League in 2022, and also coached in its last contest in 2023.

His club claimed league championships in both USFL seasons.

Stoops was on the sidelines as head coach of the Arlington Renegades during the debut of XFL 3.0 as well as that circuit’s finale.

And yep – he and the Renegades won the title.

So, it’s only fitting that the two coaches face each other in the debut of the United Football League, the spring league born of the USFL/XFL merger. Saturday’s clash will be a battle of champions, and another first in the annals of spring gridiron competition.

“The players have had some great work,” Holtz said. “I think they’ve been very attentive in getting ready for an opponent and the excitement that that brings. Every day I can feel it with the football team on the practice field … totally different vibe than what we’ve been going through for the last four weeks. “The last four weeks have been camp, everybody’s trying to survive, everybody’s trying to make the roster. But right now, there’s a lot more excitement and a lot more energy. I really like the way the team is coming along right now.”

Stoops says he understands the hype surrounding the UFL lid-lifter, but realizes that whatever happens Saturday is just a first step in the journey.

“We’re all in the United Football League now,” he said. “But you’ve got the two champs that you’re going to start the whole thing off with, and there’s some extra pride in that, sure. But you know, it’s a long year. And we just want to start off in a good, positive way for our fans.

“Hopefully we have a winning culture and these guys have been an absolute pleasure and a joy to coach … wonderful young men that work hard and enjoy and love football. If you’re gonna do something you want to win, win big and win championships.”

Birmingham was dominant in two USFL seasons, losing only three of 24 games. Arlington was 4-6 last spring before winning two postseason contests and seizing the XFL crown.

And while comparing the teams is natural, both sides are quite different a year later.

“You look at guys like (wide receiver) Deon Cain, (tight end) Jay Sternberger, (running back) C.J. Marable, (safety) JoJo Tillery, (cornerback) Lorenzo Burns, (quarterback) J’Mar Smith … these are all guys that have played a major role for us in the last two years, and I think they’re all very confident. But this is not the same league we won two years in a row, nor is it the same team that won it two years in a row. There are a lot of new faces that we’re talking about. All four defensive ends are new, and three or four defensive linemen are new.”

Quarterbacks Matt Corral (listed as the starter on the depth chart) and Adrian Martinez (he’ll be Corral’s backup on Saturday), wideouts Amari Rodgers and Binjimen Victor, nose tackle Carlos Davis, defensive end Taco Charlton and kicker Chris Blewitt are just a few of the many new additions to the 2024 Stallions roster.

Cain likes the upgrade.

“You can definitely see that talent and competition has impacted us,” he said. “It’s great to have this merger because a lot of the guys have so much talent. Looking through the lenses of other teams, you can see it’s going to be a good league.”

He gets no argument from his coach.

“I think there’s a lot of unknowns with this team,” Holtz said. “But I definitely think that there’s an awful lot of talent. As I’ve said before, I think we have more talent, but you know what? So does everybody else. And so, I think the league is going to be much better and it’s going to be really interesting and exciting.”

Stoops agrees.

“I feel like we have a much stronger team overall right now than we did a year ago,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have a good blend of run and pass. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the experience back with (quarterback) Luis Perez, (running backs) Deveon Smith and Leddie Brown, and the receiver room. I really think Chuck Long, as the offensive coordinator here, through camp has done an exceptional job with what we’re doing.”

Perez is no stranger to spring football fans in Birmingham. He was the starting quarterback for the Birmingham Iron of the ill-fated Alliance of American Football in 2019, and in 2022 he was behind center for the New Jersey Generals, who played all their regular season games in the Magic City due to the hub format.

After starting the 2023 season with the Vegas Vipers, he was traded to the Renegades and was a huge factor in the team’s turnaround.

“I had some stuff I worked on this offseason, just trying to get better and improve my game,” he said. “In football you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse, so you always have to have to be improving in all aspects of your game.

“I think the biggest thing right now and the biggest difference from last year is coming in with a full year under my belt coming in and having a better command of the offense.”

While Perez is the guy for Arlington, Holtz has hinted that he plans to play two quarterbacks in the opener.

Kickoff for Saturday’s UFL debut is set for noon CDT on FOX.

Roughly three hours later, another chapter of alternative football history will be in the books – and a standard will be set.

“I think every team is going to play hard,” Holtz said. “I think every team is going to be disciplined and every team is going to be talented. But I think it’s going to be the team that has the most discipline and does the little things the right way … those are going to be the teams that come out victorious.”

In the pass-happy world of professional football, running backs can sometimes be afterthoughts. And in a 10-game season – which is the format of the United Football League – a ballcarrier has to display all-around talent quickly or he’ll be shown the door.

C.J. Marable knows all this.

And he also knows that when his opportunity arises, he needs to make the most of it.

Last season he was quite the multi-threat for the Birmingham Stallions, racking up 525 rushing yards (4.4 yards per carry), 235 through the air and 319 on special teams.

His three rushing TDs and two more as a receiver were key to Birmingham’s USFL championship repeat, and now he’s ready to display his talents to the UFL.

He gets his first chance on Saturday when his former USFL team battles the Arlington Renegades, a charter member of the 2023 XFL, in a clash of league champions.

Kickoff is set for noon CDT with FOX providing TV coverage.

“It’s very exciting,” Marable said Wednesday during a practice break from Arlington, Texas. “Especially playing an XFL team, because I think a lot of people thought that the XFL was way better than the USFL. So, you know, we can’t wait to go out there and just to prove those people wrong, and let them know that, hey, we have an expectation and that expectation is to win every time we step out on that green grass, no matter who we play. We want to three-peat.”

Marable headlines a stable of running backs that includes Ricky Person Jr. and Larry Roundtree III.

Person had 83 yards and a TD for the Stallions last season while Roundtree played for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2021-22 and was on the Houston Texans practice squad a year ago.

“You know, when we came in (to the USFL) we didn’t know what to expect,” Marable said. “We didn’t know the playbook, so we were just out there learning. Now in year three, we have a couple of veterans on the team. A guy like myself, I know the playbook like the back of my hand so I can help out a new guy like Larry Roundtree.

“We meet in the hotel, we stay up all night, study the playbook and different things like that, and he knows he can come to me and ask questions and different things like that.”

Although there’s a mix of old and new faces on the team this year, Marable said Birmingham is determined to claim the first UFL title and the third in a row since forming in 2022.

“Camp is going great … very impressive, especially the (offensive line).I can feel the spirit and I feel like the line is really showing what they can do in how they’re performing. “They’re tremendous, and at the quarterback position, all our quarterbacks (J’Mar Smith, Matt Corral and Adrian Martinez) are ballers, and it’s very impressive to see. All of them go out and compete every day.”

After Saturday’s game against Arlington, Birmingham will head  north to Detroit to play the Michigan Panthers on April 7.

The home opener is April 13 against the Memphis Showboats, and Marable said he “can’t wait” to play before a pro-Stallions crowd at Protective Stadium. “I miss Birmingham and being there where people recognize you when they see you in town and support you,” he said. “I just can’t wait to go out in Week Three and show everybody what we can do with this Birmingham-style offense.”

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.”