Category: Alternative Football

The Birmingham Stallions (8-0) and San Antonio Brahmas (6-2) find themselves in almost identical situations heading into Week 9 of the inaugural United Football League season.

Both have already locked up spots in their respective conference championship games, and both will play the same foes in Week 10 that they’ll meet in the opening round of the postseason.

But before Birmingham faces Michigan twice and San Antonio tangles with St. Louis in back-to-back contests, the USFL Conference rep Stallions and XFL Conference’s Brahmas go toe-to-toe in the Alamodome. And Saturday’s 2 p.m. showdown (on ABC and ESPN Xtra on SiriusXM) could potentially be a sneak preview of the UFL Championship Game.

“San Antonio has a really good football team at 6-2, and statistically they’re probably the best defense in the league, giving up the fewest amount of points,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “I think they pose some problems for our offense, and I think it’s got a chance to be a great matchup and we’re looking forward to it.”

True, the Brahmas have allowed only 131 points this season, placing them at the top of that category.

And San Antonio safety Jordan Mosley leads the UFL in total tackles with 67, teammate Tavante Beckett, a linebacker, is second with 63, and LB Jordan Williams is tied for third with 58.

“Coach Phillips, if you look at his track record of success and what he’s done, especially with his defensive background, his football team right now is very aggressive,” Holtz said. “They’re built on speed … it’s not so much the problems they give you schematically as much as it is athletically with what they’ve done.”

Yet, as tough as the Brahmas resistance is, the Stallions are No. 1 in total defense (242.8 yards per game), with safety A.J. Thomas’s three interceptions tying him for first in the league. And nose tackle Carlos Davis has six sacks, which gives him a share of the top spot in that group.

On the flip side, Birmingham leads the UFL in all major offensive categories, which has the full attention of Brahmas boss Wade Phillips.

“Their offense is No. 1 in the league and their defense isn’t quite as good as their offense, but that makes them a good team,” he said. “The things they do well has them undefeated at this point and they haven’t lost a game in two years. They’re doing it with a lot of the same people and running the same offense they’ve run for three years.”

By way of comparison, the Stallions score 29.5 points per game to 20.4 for the Brahmas; put up 371.8 yards on average to 295.6; and have tallied 27 touchdowns to 19 for the Texas club.

“Ricky Pearson just continues to be a warrior and a force running the ball,” Holtz said of his back, who has 329 yards and six rushing scores. “He’s doing a really nice job. And I think (quarterback Adrian Martinez) has been very diligent and calculated with what he’s doing in the way he’s running the offense right now.”

Martinez is the circuit’s rushing leader with 431 yards (he’s also scored three times running the ball) and is 102-169-2 passing for 1,375 yards and 13 touchdowns. He had a hand in five TDs and totaled 217 yards in last Saturday’s 35-28 victory over Houston.

“Their quarterback leads the league in rushing and has more yards that (San Antonio running back) John Lovett, but he can also pass, too, obviously,” Phillips said. “You can force him to throw the ball, but he had 200 and something yards last game. He’s the leading MVP player so far this year.”

Thirteen different receivers have caught passes for Birmingham, with Deon Cain amassing 400 yards and three touchdowns on 29 catches and Marlon Williams scoring four times and racking up 251 yards on 19 receptions.

Jace Sternberger also continues to excel, and has been on the paydirt side of two tosses while racking up 291 yards.

Chase Garbers started the season at quarterback for San Antonio but was sidelined due to injuries after going 75-106-1 through the skies for 586 yards and six touchdowns. Phillips said he’s available on Saturday, although Quinten Dormady has run the offense in five of  the Brahmas’ eight games.

Dormady is 85-142-6 for 974 yards and five TDs. He was outstanding in a 20-15, Week 8 win over Arlington, going 17-25-0 for 320 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Jontre Kirklin has 45 receptions for 421 yards and five touchdowns, with Cody Latimer contributing 35 catches for 366 yards and a score.

Lovett paces the ground game with 422 yards and five touchdowns.

“They’re hard to run against, but I think we’ll be able to run the ball against anybody, so we’ll see,” Phillips said.

As for the Stallions, it’s a matter of rinse and repeat as they seek their 16^th consecutive victory dating back to 2023.

“I think what we have to do right now is we have to continue to get better and continue to strive for improvement as we get ready for the playoffs,” Holtz said. “We’re excited about where we are, and excited about the opportunities in front of us.”

Skip Holtz is 32 games into his pro football coaching career and has been calling the shots as the head man for 305 games in all.

During that time, his message has never changed.

“We didn’t try to go 21-3,” he said last summer after his Birmingham Stallions won their second consecutive United States Football League championship. “We tried to win one game at a time, and every time we’ve taken the field, we’ve just tried to win one game.”

The “1-0 mentality” continues to serve Holtz and company well in the United Football League. At 8-0, Birmingham is the league’s only undefeated team. Since starting their spring football journey in April, 2022, the Stallions are 29-3 and are currently riding a 15-game winning streak.

Thing is, Holtz and his team aren’t talking about that last part.

At all.

“I didn’t even know what that number was,” Holtz said on Tuesday. “I mean, honestly, we don’t talk about it.”

He then started adding up the numbers.

“We’re 29-3 right now, but we didn’t start out three years ago to go 29-3,” he said, repeating a familiar theme. “We started out to try and beat New Jersey in the opening game. We’re fortunate we won that game and then we tried to win the next one and the next one … when it’s all over, I think we’re gonna look back and go, that 15-game win streak, or 16 or whatever that number ends up being, is a great accomplishment.

“But right now, beating our chests or patting ourselves on the back about what we’ve done just means our eyes aren’t forward.”

Birmingham’s last loss came in its final USFL season in 2023. The Stallions were upset by the Houston Gamblers, 27-20, which dropped their record to 3-2 and – at the time – third place in the South Division.

Holtz’s crew then proceeded to win their next seven, capped off by 28-12 conquest of the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL Championship Game.

Birmingham has the distinction of playing in the first and last games of the modern USFL.

In 2024, of course, the winning has continued. Saturday’s foe –the San Antonio Brahmas – stand in the way of 16 straight “Ws.”

To put the accomplishment in perspective, the longest winning streak in professional football history is 23. That belongs to the Indianapolis Colts, who won nine in a row to end the 2008 National Football League season and started the 2009 campaign with a 14-game winning streak.

The Calgary Stampeders lead the way among Canadian Football League franchises, stringing together 22 victories over the 1948-49 seasons.

And when it comes to alt-football leagues (excluding the myriad semi-pro clubs), both the Hartford Knights of the Atlantic Coast Football League (1968-69) and Carolina Storm of the American Football Association (1982-83) won 20 in a row, while the Charleston Rockets finished 14-0 in the second season of the Continental Football League (1965), but lost the final game of the 1964 season and opening game of the 1966 campaign.

The Rockets join the 17-0 Miami Dolphins in the Perfect Pro Season Club: the Stallions need four more victories to join them.

“We don’t talk with them about yesterday’s history,” Holtz explained.  “What happened yesterday is over, it’s in the books … you can’t change it. All you can do is learn and grow from it. Tomorrow’s a mystery because we don’t know what tomorrow brings. We don’t know what the injury situation is gonna look like. Today is where our focus needs to be.

“And right now, the talk in the team meetings and the talk on the practice field is what we’ve got to do today to get better and what we have to do today to prepare for our upcoming game.”

With three upcoming clashes against San Antonio (an XFL Conference playoff qualifier), Michigan, and Michigan again in the USFL Conference Championship Game, Holtz says the Stallions are, for all practical purposes, already in the postseason.

And that makes the “1-0 mentality” more important than ever.

“When it’s all over, when the season’s done and we don’t have anything in front of us, I think we’ll look back and we’ll say, ‘Wow.’ It’s kind of like climbing a mountain. You can’t get halfway up and start looking down and say, ‘Look at how far we’ve come.’ You wait until you get to the top and when you get to the top, you look back, You take a deep breath.

“That’s kind of how we’re looking at this season. We’re climbing a mountain and as soon as we start looking up or looking down, we’re gonna lose our footing. Our focus is, what do we have to do today? We have a saying around here … just be where your feet are. Our feet are today.”

Despite everything the Birmingham Stallions have accomplished in 32 professional spring football games, the Houston Gamblers were the proverbial thorn in their side.

A head-scratching loss to the dice-rollers derailed what would’ve been a perfect season in the modern United States Football League’s debut, and last year the teams split their regular season clash.

Birmingham has suffered three defeats since starting play in April of 2022, and two of them have come against the club repping Texas’ largest city.

But now that the Gamblers have rebranded as the Roughnecks – and joined the Stallions in the United Football League – the thorn has been removed.

And so has another obstacle in Birmingham’s path to perfection.

Skip Holtz’s charges completed a season sweep of Houston (1-7) on Saturday at Protective Stadium, improving to 8-0 and notching their 15^th consecutive “W”  dating back to 2023 with a 35-28 victory.

“We talked about we weren’t going to take a week off, “Holtz said. “We’re not getting ready for somebody down the road, we’re trying to go 1-0 each week. That’s our approach. We treated this game like any other.”

Make no mistake about it, Curtis Johnson’s hard-luck team was a tough out. The ‘Necks played hard from wire-to-wire, looking a far sight better than they did in a 32-9 loss at Rice Stadium on April 27.

But after the Stallions turned a 15-14 lead into a 21-14 edge thanks to another patented, clock-beating drive to end the second quarter, they were able to keep Houston at arm’s length.

“This Birmingham team is a juggernaut,” Johnson said. “Before the season, we all knew they were the flagship team in this league. They’re good at every position … I don’t see a weakness. And Skip Holtz, I’m telling you, he’s the king of spring.”

The Roughnecks’ last real shot at an upset came with under five minutes to go in the game. Trailing 35-28, they started at their own 24 with a chance at a potential game-winning score.

But they ended up going backward, and were forced to punt the ball away with 2:50 to go.

At that point Job One for Birmingham was to run out the clock, and the UFL’s lone unbeaten team held the ball until there were only 14 ticks remaining.

However, a punt and penalty gave Houston the ball at its own 42, and the visitors passed their way to the Birmingham 24 with one second left.

A DeMarquis Gates sack of QB Reid Sinnett ended the threat – and the game.

And it didn’t come a moment too soon; Holtz’s team was plagued by turnovers and mental mistakes all night, making the coach as relieved as he was happy when the final horn sounded.

“Everybody wants to look at records, that they’re 1-7, but it doesn’t matter,” Holtz said. “You’ve still gotta put the ball on the tee … you’ve got to play the game. And if you have stupid penalties, you get a stop on third-and-one and you rip your helmet off – I don’t know why, but you rip your helmet off – and then get a 15-yard penalty at the end on a punt for grabbing somebody’s facemask … we certainly did not play a very clean game.”

Adrian Martinez overcame a shaky (well, shaky by his standards) start to finish 19-31-1 through the air for 173 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for two more scores and 44 yards.

He connected with 10 different receivers with Deon Cain, Amari Rodgers and Binjimin Victor all reaching the end zone.

Ricky Person Jr. led all rushers with 63 yards.

Although the defense gave up 311 yards, A.J. Thomas got a pick on the third play of the game – his second interception in as many weeks – Jordon Thomas forced a fumble, and Gates, Kyahva Tezino and Damon Lloyd were in on eight tackles each.

Sinnett and Nolan Henderson shared time behind center for Houston, with Sinnett going 6-13-1 for 99 yards and a touchdown and Henderson finishing 9-14-0 for 97 yards.

Keke Chism had 80 receiving yards on seven catches and Mark Thompson got two scores out of his 54 rushing yards.

“We won the first game (against Houston) and this game was much more entertaining than the first one,” Holtz said. “I thought they really did a nice job. They had a new plan, and it’s just nice to win against anybody because the teams are so evenly matched across the board, and that was through two drafts and free agency and everything that’s happened during the offseason.

“There’s a lot of talent that was dispersed to a lot of different teams, and everybody’s got talent. I want to applaud Coach Johnson and his team … they’ve just been snakebit this year.”

Scoring plays: Birmingham, Deon Cain, 9-yard reception from Adrian Martinez, 8:53 first quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 6, Roughnecks 0; Birmingham, Binjimin Victor, 12-yard reception from Martinez, 4:41 first quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 12, Roughnecks 0; Houston, Mark Thompson, 37-yard run, 2:58 first quarter, 2-point conversion pass from Nolan Henderson to Justin Hall, Stallions 12, Roughnecks 8; Birmingham, Ramiz Ahmed, 44-yard field goal, 14:15 second quarter, Stallions 15, Roughnecks 8; Houston, Thompson, 2-yard run, 1:56 second quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 15, Roughnecks 14; Birmingham, Martinez, 4-ard run, :07 second quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 21, Roughnecks 14; Birmingham, Amari Rodgers, 10-yard reception from Martinez, 9:58 third quarter, 1-point conversion pass from Martinez to Jordan Thomas, Stallions 28, Roughnecks 14; Houston, Henderson, 3-yard run, 4:22 third quarter, 2-point conversion failed, Stallions 28, Roughnecks 20; Birmingham, Martinez, 8-yard run, 1:24 third quarter, 1-point conversion run by Larry Roundtree III, Stallions 35, Roughnecks 20; Houston, Braedon Bowman, 2-yard pass from Reid Sinnett, 7:21 fourth quarter, 2-point conversion pass from Sinnett to Justin Hall, Stallions 35, Roughnecks 28.

Standout stat: 14. Number of points Birmingham scored off a pair of Houston turnovers. Ultimately, that proved to be the difference.

Chavis out of action: Birmingham defensive coordinator John Chavis is dealing with illness and didn’t make the trip from Arlington to Birmingham for Saturday’s game.

Secondary coach Corey Chamblin stepped in as DC for the night. The Birmingham native is in his second stint with the Stallions after previously serving on the 2022 staff.

Up next: Birmingham plays its final regular season road game of 2024 next Saturday, 2 p.m. CDT, when it faces the San Antonio Brahmas at the Alamodome.

The game will be televised on ABC.

OTD in 1984: The Birmingham Stallions of the original United States Football League routed the Chicago Blitz, 41-7, in front of 8,578 fans at Soldier Field.

Quarterback Cliff Stoudt threw for two touchdowns and 229 yards, and the winners also scored two defensive TDs. David Evans picked up a fumble and returned it five yards for a score in the first quarter, and later in the frame, Chuck Clanton tallied a pick-six on a 41-yard return of a Vince Evans pass.

The Stallions improved to 11-2 with the win.