Category: Alternative Football

If you decide to pore over Wade Phillips’ coaching resume, you might want to pack a lunch.

It’s gonna take a while to get through.

Since starting as a graduate assistant at the University of Houston in 1969, Phillips has held 22 different positions. And over the past 45 years, he has made stops at one high school, three colleges and 10 different NFL franchises – including head coaching stints with the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys and interim gigs with the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans.

Considered one of the best defensive coordinators in NFL history, Phillips has served the DC role eight different times with seven different big-league teams.

But the past two years he’s taken his experience to spring football – last year with the XFL Houston Roughnecks and this season as head man with the United Football League’s San Antonio Brahmas.

And while he has a Super Bowl ring as an assistant with the Broncos, he is one win away from walking off the field as a championship-winning head coach for the first time.

The Brahmas (8-3) face the Birmingham Stallions (10-1) on Sunday in the UFL Championship Game in St. Louis, and the team from Alamo City has Phillips’ fingerprints all over it; a smothering defense and blue-collar approach.

With his 77th birthday a week away, he stays in the game because the game is an integral part of his life.

“It’s coaching, you know?” he said. “It’s what I do. I mean, that’s what I’ve done. I’m probably not good at anything else. I like coaching, I like being around the players, I like the strategy of the game and the reward of winning. It’s a neat feeling and a cool feeling for everybody.”

Before joining the Roughnecks in 2023, Phillips’ most recent coaching job was defensive coordinator with the Rams from 2017-19.

But he showed he still knew how to draw up Xs and Os when he came to spring ball, leading the Roughnecks to a 7-4 record and XFL South Division title.

When the XFL and USFL merged to form the UFL, the Roughnecks were effectively disbanded. The nickname and locale remained, but the club was simply the USFL Houston Gamblers rebranded.

Phillips was then moved to the Brahmas, who limped to a 3-7 mark under Hines Ward during the 2023 XFL season.

Predicted to be an also-ran in the new league’s first year, San Antonio has the top-ranked defense in the league, is the only team to defeat Birmingham, and holds a 4-0 mark against the USFL Conference.

So, how different is coaching at this level versus the highest level?

Other than money, Phillips says it’s the same.

“It’s not any different,” Phillips said. “These are grown men and I try to treat them like grown men. But also, you preach character and I think it’s important that you have the right kind of players and right kind of people. So, I just emphasize certain things that I think will help them not just in football, but in life itself.

“But, no, it’s not different. It’s coaching, it’s organization, it’s organized the same way because you’re the head coach and everything comes to you.”

Stallions coach Skip Holtz has long admired Phillips, although he certainly hopes to flip the script on the 18-9 regular season loss his team suffered to San Antonio in Sunday’s rematch.   

“With all the years of him walking up and down the sidelines and watching professional football, the success that he’s had, his character … it’s hard to do it,” Holtz said. “It’s very difficult to be a head football coach. I think it’s even more difficult to be a head football coach with the success that he’s had year in and year out. I think he does a great job. He’s done it with character. He’s a great man … I think he is. I have always been a fan of his.”

And if the Brahmas walk away with the UFL crown, will Phillips walk away from coaching?

Don’t count on it.

“They’ll probably run me off some time,” Phillips said. “But as long as I’m healthy – and that’s a factor at my age, I understand that – but as long as I’m healthy and can contribute, which I think I have, I don’t set a time limit.

“But I get older every day … I know that.”

Since the United Football League is in its first season, there is no “Comeback Player of the Year Award.” But if officials decided to overlook that small detail, San Antonio Brahmas quarterback Chase Garbers would likely be the runaway winner.

Garbers, who’ll guide his team into action against the Birmingham Stallions on Sunday in the UFL Championship Game in St. Louis, suffered an injury to his left wrist on April 14.

It was so severe that the Brahmas announced it was season-ending, thus opening the door for Quinten Dormady to assume the starter’s role.

Dormady did well, but Garbers battled back – playing with a brace on his wrist – and returned to action against the Stallions on May 25.

He helped spearhead an 18-9 victory over the two-time defending United States Football League champions, and has played in every game since, albeit in pain.

His status was in question going into the XFL Conference Championship Game last Sunday, but he went the distance in San Antonio’s 25-15 victory over the St. Louis Battlehawks.

“Chase had a great game,” San Antonio coach Wade Phillips said. “He handled the crowd noise really well. He had pain in that hand that had been broken, but he came out and was determined to do well. I could see it in practice.

“It showed in the game, obviously. I’m sure there was some pain in that left hand, but he really played well.”

While Garbers did have two turnovers – including a fumble that resulted in a scoop-and-score – he also went 15-21-1 for 197 yards and two touchdowns. A potent rushing attack helped the winners amass 410 yards of total offense and beat St. Louis for the first time since the clubs began XFL play in 2023.

A week earlier in the regular season finale, San Antonio fell to St. Louis, 13-12, with Garbers playing sparingly.

“It was a good team win in all three phases,” Garbers said. “It was really complementary in the run and passing game. Our running back room is really, really good. To go there two weeks in a row, face a hostile crowd and beat a  really good team, means a lot.

“Overall, the offense played well. Obviously, there are some things to clean up, but we’re working on that going forward.”

During the regular season Garbers played in five games, going 96-140-2 for 765 yards and six touchdowns. Entering the biggest contest of the year, he insists he “feels fine.”

“Unlike the majority of guys on this team, I had five weeks off of football in the middle of the year, so I had time to relax and get the body right in time for this playoff run,” he said.

While the Brahmas (8-3) have shown they can win regardless of who is taking snaps, Birmingham coach Skip Holtz understands why Garbers will get the call when they face the Stallions (10-1) for the championship.

“I think he is probably one of the most underrated players in this league,” Holtz said. “Not because he’s flashy at what he does, but because he’s just solid at everything, and he does a great job of playing in their system.

“He doesn’t do anything to get them beat, so I think that’s a huge testament to him and to that football team.”

Birmingham Stallions head coach Skip Holtz has likened the change in his defensive staff to “getting on the roller coaster three-fourths of the way down the hill.”

And after the exit of defensive coordinator John Chavis following Week 7, it sure looked like the unit might derail.

In the first game after Chavis was no longer with the club, the Stallions gave up 311 yards in a 35-28 victory over the Houston Roughnecks, a team with only one win on its resume.

A week later Birmingham went down to its first defeat in more than a year, yielding 329 yards in an 18-9 loss to the San Antonio Brahmas.

These days, however, the defense appears to be back on track.

With Corey Chamblin calling the shots, the Stallions have rebounded with back-to-back victories over Michigan (20-19 and 31-18), the last setting up a rematch with San Antonio in Sunday’s United Football League Championship Game in St. Louis.

During that stretch Birmingham has allowed just three touchdowns, and effectively shut down the Panthers in the second half of both games.

“I think Corey Chamblin is an excellent football coach,” Holtz said. “I’ve always felt that. He’s been a head coach up in Canada (the Saskatchewan Roughriders), he’s been a defensive coordinator … I’ve told him all along that if that position ever becomes vacant – and I love John Chavis, and I wanted him to stay here forever – but I told Corey, ‘If that position ever becomes available, I’m not even making a phone call or interviewing anybody. You’re my guy.’”

The players have rallied around the new DC, and the crew once again is playing like one of the best in the UFL.

“The defense has made some great adjustments at halftime,” Holtz said. “As it’s evolved, I think our players have great confidence in our defensive staff. I think Corey and Bill Johnson (defensive line) and Daric Riley (linebackers) and the addition of Anthony Blevins (assistant) have really come together since they got on the roller coaster three-fourths of the way down the hill, and I think they’ve done a great job.”

Birmingham leads the league in defending the run, allowing just 77.3 yards per game, and is second in rushing touchdowns given up with eight.

During the regular season, safety A.J. Thomas ranked first in the circuit in interceptions (three); linebacker Kyahva Tezino was third in tackles (38 solo, 70 in all); and nose tackle Carlos Davis tied for second in sacks (seven).

In last Saturday’s USFL Conference Championship Game, the Stallions forced four turnovers, with defensive back Ike Brown snagging two interceptions, fellow DB Daniel Isom picking off another, and defensive lineman Dondrea Tillman forcing a fumble.

Brown said players on both sides of the ball are there to lift each other up.

“We’re all a team, so we all have to get behind each other,” he said. “When the offense is on the field, the defense is on the sideline rooting them on and when the defense is on the field, the offense is on the sideline rooting them on. It’s just the  mindset we have.”

A boost in the title clash will be the return of JoJo Tillery, who was activated last week.

Even though the safety appeared in just five regular season games, he has an interception and 16 tackles and gives the resistance another solid weapon.

“JoJo is more than just a football player, JoJo is a leader,” Holtz said. “He’s vocal, he’s outspoken. You don’t ever have to ask, ‘Where’s JoJo on the practice field, or on the game field,’ you know where he is.

“He’s the one that’s running his mouth. He communicates. He’s loud … he’s vocal.”

Although Tillery didn’t play in the loss to San Antonio, he hopes to get a chance to help his team reverse their fortunes in the battle for UFL hardware.

“We always talk about the next game being the most important game, so we always try to go 1-0,” Tillery said. “But for me it’s more personal because I didn’t get to play the first game. So, just sitting at home and not being able to help my guys fight and try to get that win, it hit hard. So, yeah, it’s definitely trying to, I guess, get some revenge.”

Ultimately, Holtz said the defense has embraced Chamblin’s style and he’s confident the unit is in good hands going forward.

“Corey’s experience is certainly coming into play with a lot of the adjustments that they’re able to make,” Holtz said. “To sit the players down and say, ‘OK, they’re doing this, so we’re going to do this. They’re doing this, so we’re going to do this. And these are adjustments we’re going to make.’ And the players buy into it, and they go out and they execute it. They’ve done an excellent job with it.

“In the second half of the last two games, they’ve given up three points – none last week. They’ve done a really nice job with that.”

Sunday’s game is set for 4 p.m. CDT on FOX.