stallions win streak now stretches over a year
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MAY 15, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Steve Irvine
It’s been an entire calendar year, plus a day or two, since the Birmingham Stallions lost a football game. The winning streak has reached 14 games with half of those coming in the 2024 season. One of those wins came in the USFL Championship Game and they were the first UFL team to qualify for the playoffs this season.
The streak began a week after the Stallions dropped a 27-20 decision to the Houston Gamblers on May 13, 2023 at Protective Stadium. On Saturday night at Protective Stadium, Houston will once again be on the opposite sideline with the Stallions trying to extend the winning streak.
However, don’t expect the winning streak to become a motivational point for Skip Holtz and his team.
“I can speak for myself, that doesn’t do anything for us,” Holtz said during his weekly teleconference on Tuesday. “Every game we win, doesn’t spot us an extra point for the next week. Like, if you’ve won seven in a row, you start plus-seven and if you win eight, you go plus-eight. All it does is put a bigger target on your chest.”
Building that target began in 2022 when the Stallions dominated the USFL in the league’s return. Birmingham finished 11-1, including a win over the Philadelphia Stars in the USFL Championship Game. In 2023, the Stallions were 10-2 with a triumph over the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL Championship Game. This season, the Stallions are the league’s only unbeaten team with a 7-0 mark.
Add that all together and, under Holtz, the Stallions are 28-3 with a pair of championship rings. That record hasn’t been built with the same script week after week. At times, the offense has carried the team. The defense has keyed the success at other times and special teams have led the way in a few wins. The common theme, though, is the approach.
“We’ve talked a lot about handling success,” Holtz said. “That’s been a big message I’ve talked about with this football team. It’s easy to stumble with success, because we live in a society that wants to pat itself on the back. It wants to say ‘Attaboy, great job, you guys are really good.’ When you start believing all that, that’s when you are susceptible to failing. Right now, our job is not done. We just want to make sure we focus on the next task and I think it’s a real testament to these players.”
The Stallions have faced plenty of roadblocks, particularly with injuries, in each of their three seasons under Holtz. This year, for example, the linebacker spot was filled with proven players at the beginning of the season. It was so loaded, in fact, that some questioned if there were enough snaps to keep all the linebackers happy. On Saturday, in a game matching what are could be the two best UFL teams, Kyahva Tezino was the only one of that group healthy enough to play. Elijah Sullivan and Damon Lloyd used their increased snaps to combine for eight tackles in the 30-26 win over the St. Louis Battlehawks.
Finding a way to win, even with different rosters yearly, is not just what they do, but it is part of the culture.
“I give a lot of credit to Skip and the culture he’s built here,” said quarterback Adrian Martinez, who has accounted for 1,589 yards and 11 touchdowns this season. “I know coming in it was said there’s been 50 percent turnover from year in to year out. From year one to year two to year three, there’s been a couple of things staying the same and one of those things is Skip. I think he’s done a great job of building the culture and making sure there is a standard. He knows what it looks like, what it should look like, week in and week out. (The) 1-0 mentality, I think a lot of guys bought into that and I think that’s a lot of why you see the success on the field.”
Holtz agrees that culture is a big part of the success. He also said that the veteran Stallion players have a lot to do with making sure the rest of the team understands the culture.
“Yeah, there’s new faces but, we have a good enough number of men that are helping install the culture to the new guys coming in,” Holtz said. “It’s like ‘Hey, we don’t do it that way here. This is how we do it. This is what’s important to us.’ I think they understand the mentality.”
That mentality also breeds an unselfish approach that has led to wins.
“We got a lot of talent on this roster,” Holtz said. “I don’t think you’re winning just because of talent. I think when you get a talented team, that’s all pulling the rope together in the same direction. There’s a lot of talented teams that lose. There’s a lot of talented teams who become disgruntled. When you get into that pettiness, that tears apart the culture of a football team. You look at, when Ricky Person makes a run, the first guy there to greet him is CJ Marable. And when CJ Marable makes a run, Ricky Person is the first one. When Kevin (Austin Jr.) runs that long play, the receivers are in a dead sprint (to be) the first one that’s gonna be there to celebrate with him. They’re just genuinely excited about each other. They’re a genuine togetherness.”