Stallions add nfl veteran to defensive staff

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MAY 30, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

While it’s not the spring football experience he originally expected, Anthony Blevins is glad to get back to coaching, even if his return to coaching has unique circumstances.

Blevins, a Birmingham native, who graduated from Pleasant Grove High and UAB, will serve as a Senior Defensive Assistant Coach for the Birmingham Stallions to finish the 2024 season. He was hired on Monday, nine games into the UFL season, to fill a spot that became vacant when Stallions defensive coordinator John Chavis chose to leave the team because of an illness. Stallions head coach Skip Holtz said during a Tuesday teleconference that Ensley native Corey Chamblin would officially move to the defensive coordinator role and Blevins would join the staff.

Blevins, who lives in the Dallas area, expected to spend the spring as the Las Vegas Vipers head coach in the team’s first XFL season. However, that plan changed after Las Vegas wasn’t included when the XFL and USFL joined to form the UFL. For the first time since his coaching career began in 2003, Blevins wasn’t part of a football coaching staff. However, he is still under contract by the UFL and is considered a head coach in waiting when the league expands or a job becomes open.

Two weeks ago, Blevins visited the Stallions practice, just to get out of the house to watch some football and visit with the Birmingham staff. Chavis was not feeling well during the week and was unable to travel to Birmingham for the Stallions victory over the Houston Gamblers. Chavis returned to practice early last week but decided to leave the team after not feeling well enough to coach in last weekend’s loss to San Antonio.

“Talking to Skip, talking to Corey, they were like ‘Something might come up here in a week, few weeks. Don’t want to expand on it right now, but we may have a spot open,’” Blevins said of his practice visit. “They pretty much asked would I be interested if something became available. I was like, ‘Yeah, just call me. As long as the league is okay with it, I’m all for it.’ I’m still on the payroll from the league. They’re still paying me from when I signed my contract. It was an easy transition in that way. I’m locally here in Dallas, so it was really kind of easy. It was kind of a plug and play type deal.”

For Holtz and his team, it’s been a difficult two weeks without Chavis, one of the best defensive coordinators in the business, who has been with the team since the return of the USFL in 2022.

“Two weeks ago, when John was dealing with a medical issue and he missed a game, we tried to put band-aids on it to get through,” Holtz said. “We were fortunate in the Houston game, we were able to score enough points to win. But, you’re also coaching a coach down. You only have three coaches on defense. The role that Corey Chamblin was playing, (while) Coach Chavis was calling the defense, echoing the call to the secondary, getting the personnel on the field, getting your certain packages in on defense. There’s nobody there to take that role. This isn’t like college where some of these (programs) have 80 guys on staff. There are no GAs, there are not volunteer assistants, you have have four (defensive) coaches. When you’re down one, it was significant. I think we all were putting our fingers in the holes in the dam to try and keep it together.”

The Stallions are getting a veteran coach in Blevins. He was a college football assistant coach, including serving for a year as the secondary coach at UAB, before starting a career in the NFL. He coached in the NFL from 2013 to 2022, working with cornerbacks, linebacker and special teams with the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants.

But this is still a tricky transition for Blevins, who had to hit the ground running on Monday. He started to learn the defense, started to learn the defensive terminology and started to learn where he fit into the defensive staff. He said, thus far, he is serving as a “liaison” for the secondary and linebackers and doing whatever is needed from him. Chamblin was the team’s secondary coach and Chavis handled the linebackers.

His arrival comes with the playoffs on the near horizon. Birmingham closes the regular season on Saturday against the Michigan Panthers, with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. at Protective Stadium. The same teams then open the playoffs with a USFL Division game on June 8 at Protective Stadium. The winner of that game plays in the UFL Championship Game on June 15 in St. Louis.

“It definitely makes it exciting, just being able to get back on the grass again,” Blevins said. “I haven’t coached in a football game in over a year. It’s motivating, it’s fun. Any time you get a chance to chase a championship it’s fun. Some of the most exciting times when I coached in the (NFL) was the years we went to the playoffs. Those are great opportunities. When you do it with great people that makes it that much more special. To put it in perspective, there are guys who played in the (NFL) 10 years that don’t even get to the playoffs. When you get a chance to play for the championship, it makes it special. Then try to help bring another championship to my home city, it’s pretty special in itself.”

Blevins not only played at Pleasant Grove and UAB but he also played in his hometown for the Birmingham Steeldogs in Arena football and Birmingham Thunderbolts in the original XFL. Coaching for his hometown team is a big deal to Blevins. And he gets to do it alongside Chamblin, a fellow Birmingham native. Both are 47 years old.

“I ended up knowing Corey professionally,” Blevins said. “I knew of Corey before he probably knew me. Corey was in the CFL and had a lot of success. I finally met him a few years back, kind of in passing. We actually spoke when I got the head coaching job in Vegas. He was in San Antonio (in the XFL)  last year with Hines Ward. I didn’t know him growing up in Birmingham or anything like that. But we got a lot of the same people, a lot of the same connections. Working with another Birmingham guy has been fun for me, kind of nostalgic in a way.”

Now, they’re working together with the goal of helping bring another championship to the city. Blevins said it’s also an opportunity to find out what spring football is all about.

“First of all, you’re coming in with Birmingham, a team that’s had success in the spring league,” Blevins said. “They’ve had success in how they do things and just being acclimated to the spring league. Like this week will be the first time I’m experiencing two teams flying on the same plane. There are a lot of differences from where I came from. This will give me a little bit of heads up of what to expect when I actually get into my (head coaching) job.”

The final piece of the puzzle for Blevins, at least the next two weeks, is he finally gets a chance to experience Protective Stadium. He’s never had the opportunity to be in the stadium – as a coach or spectator – during a game. However, it won’t be the first time he wants the Stallions to win.

“I’m excited about my first game at Protective Stadium,” Blevins said. “And working for the Stallions is kind of nostalgic. When they were here in the 80s, for the three or four years the USFL was around, the Stallions were my favorite team. Cliff Stoudt, Joe Cribbs, Joey Jones. I still remember all those guys, just kind of growing up in Birmingham.”