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Todd Archer
Arlington, Texas – So what is the secret sauce of Birmingham’s stallions?
“Great players. Great coaches. And surpassing his chief coach,” said Stallions Skip Holtz coach at the beginning of this month in UFL media days. “This is how we have been able to win.”
The stallions won the UFL inaugural championship in 2024 and won USFL championships in 2022 and ’23. And despite Holtz’s proclamations, it is a great reason why Birmingham has won so much.
“He is a teacher, then he is a coach,” said Field Marshal Alex McGough. “You can respect that. When someone makes a mistake, not just will destroy them completely.”
In the last three regular seasons, the stallions have gone 26-4, including a 9-1 mark a year ago. They have won with three different field marshals: McGough, J’Mar Smith and the MVP last year, Adrian Martínez, who is now with the New York Jets.
Martínez passed for 1,748 yards and 15 touchdowns and ran for 528 yards and three touchdowns.
McGough returns after two seasons inside and outside the Green Bay Packers practice team, where time spent time as a field and open receiver. Holtz was not ready to say that McGough will be the headline, pointing out Matt Corral’s experience.
“You need two quarterbacks in this league,” he said.
And Holtz knows that the stallions must be ready.
“When there is a team that is winning at that stage, everyone surrounds the calendar,” said Holtz. “It’s like, ‘ok, when do we touch the bosses (Kansas City)? When do we touch the stallions?’ In the 70s, it was: “When did we play cowboys, steelers or Dolphins?”
Holtz’s message to the players who pointed out the three franchise championships was that these do not apply to this year’s team.
“We have to go from scratch and we have to find a way to win a game and a difficult game with DC on the way to start the season,” said Holtz.
Players like the opportunity of a mob of four.
“I always say that pressure is a privilege,” McGough said. “Not many people can say that they have a goal in them. I think it is a privilege. We go through hard work and winning and sustained success, so I think we will be ready for it. We accept all the challenges.”
Still going
Wade Phillips’s first training work was in 1969 in Orange (Texas) High School. He has trained football at some level during all but five years since then.
At 77, Phillips returned for his second year with San Antonio Brahmas of the UFL. There is no older chief coach in MLB, the NBA, the WNBA, the NFL, the NHL, MLS or NWSL, according to ESPN Research.
“It’s a lot of fun for me,” said Phillips, who was the coach of the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys, as well as the interim coach in three different places. “It is a perfect setting. I can train football for four months and I am out of the rest of the year. Do what I love to do and then I have a free time and be with the family.”
If Pete Carroll, who is 73 years old, can train the Las Vegas Raiders, could Phillips return of the NFL?
“Well, they hadn’t called me,” he laughed.
Phillips, whose defenses have confused quartbacks for years, is not sure how much he wants to continue training.
“While enjoying it,” said Phillips, “and while keeping me close.”
Find a field marshal
Whether at the XFL or UFL, the St. Louis Battlehawks knew what they had in the Quarterback in Aj McCarron in the last two seasons. The former Alabama star compiled a 12-5 record and launched for 3,732 yards with 39 touchdowns and 10 interceptions
This year, St. Louis is looking at Manny Wilkins, Max Duggan or Chevan Cordeiro.
“Three types that can throw the ball very well, can do all the pitches, but everyone has the ability to take it out and run and do some additional things,” said St. Louis coach Anthony Becht. “I think that is important in this league, and I am tired of being crushed by other teams. So now that is a problem with which they have to deal with all the other things we have on offense.”
Wilkins started two games last year. He was with the Packers in 2019, but moved to the music industry before returning to football two years ago.
“Knowing the type of attitude I have when we enter the battle is probably a little easier in their minds, knowing the level of detail, the approach, all those things I have,” Wilkins said. “I think that may calm down his minds when it comes to having a new quartback that has not been your headline for two years. For me, having those two openings, the first time a game began in six years, he took a break from the ball for a moment, but to have that opportunity to get the anxieties, butterflies, all things that are natural, you only need representatives.”
Duggan took TCU to the National Championship game against Georgia in 2022. He was with the Los Angeles Chargers during the last two summers.
“If you told me at that time how my career was going to be, I really didn’t know,” Duggan said. “There are many ups and downs. Simply stay faithful to the game, work hard, see what happens, I am excited to be here. It is a great league and a place for men to develop.”
Time to win
From 1999 to 2016, Bob Stoops never had a losing record in Oklahoma. He lost five games in a season just three times. When Stoops begins his fourth season with the Arlington Renagades, he is ready to win.
“If you’re going to do something, you want to win it,” Stoops said. “Yes, we want to win more than we have. Definitely.”
Stoops has a 9-16 record in three seasons (two in the XFL, one in the UFL), but has a championship. They won the 2023 XFL championship, despite a 4-6 record.
His field marshal was Luis Pérez, who is still the headline and comes from a season in which he led the UFL in air yards, TouchDowns, qualification of pins and terminations. An invitation from the training field to the Chargers, where he was one of the final cuts.
“It is understood,” Pérez said about the mandate to win. “When we arrived this year, when we had our first meeting, it was: ‘Very good, boys, last year in the past, the page turns, it is time to move on.” We made some mistakes, and we have to fix them this year and move forward and start 1-0 every week. “
Back
After spending more than 30 years of training, including 16 as a NFL chief coach or offensive line coach, Tom Cable was enjoying life in Idaho.
“I caught more fish, I triggered more elk than most people,” Cable said.
But last summer he visited his son, Zach, who is an assistant coach of the Chicago Bears, in the training camp.
“I was in the field for five minutes and I thought, ‘I miss the teaching,” Cable said. “Then, yes, you can say that I lost that part safely.”
Cable is the coordinator of the career game/offensive line coach for the Houston Roughnecks. Chief coach Curtis Johnson is more than happy to have a coach who calibrates in his staff.
“He will improve our boys,” Johnson said.
Cable, 60, is happy to be training again.
“It’s football. He’s teaching,” he said. “Specifically, you are trying to take and help young people go to where they want to go. It is really a trip driven by a purpose. That has always been mine. Some boys are trying to find their way in the game, find their way back to the NFL or find their way in the NFL. All you want to do is help them do that and see production in the field.”
