Stallions’ holtz says mvp martinez will start, but corral will play in ufl championship game

JUNE 12, 2024 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

Adrian Martinez has been the Birmingham Stallions quarterback starter for the bulk of the season. His status won’t change on Sunday when the Stallions play the San Antonio Brahmas in the inaugural UFL Championship game in St. Louis.

After last week, when Matt Corral came off the bench and directed the final two scoring drives of a 31-18 USFL Division playoff win over Michigan, most thought that Stallions head coach Skip Holtz had a bit of a quarterback quandary. On Monday, Holtz was firm while discussing his quarterback plans this week.

“We have gotten here with Adrian as our starting quarterback and right now Adrian will be the quarterback,” Holtz said on Tuesday. “I don't know what's gonna happen the third or fourth series, you know what I mean, but right now Adrian will be our quarterback. But, I won't hesitate to play two, just like I didn't (hesitate) at the beginning of the season. Now that we are in these games that mean everything, I will not hesitate to play two with where we are now.”

Martinez was announced as the UFL Most Valuable Player on Monday. In the regular season, he threw for 1,749 yards and 15 touchdowns and was the UFL rushing leader with 528 yards on the ground. He accounted for 18 touchdowns overall.

However, Martinez hasn’t been as productive over the past three games as he was earlier. In the final two regular season games, in a loss to the Brahmas and a win over Michigan, he was a combined 32 for 60 for 374 yards with an interception. He also accounted for just one touchdown each game while taking every offensive snap in both contests. Last week, in the playoff win over Michigan, he was 10 of 19 for 164 yards with an interception and a touchdown. He rushed for just eight yards on four carries and lost a pair of fumbles before being replaced by Corral in the third quarter.

“I don't feel like what we did Saturday was an earth -shattering move,” Holtz said. “I don't feel like it was as earth shattering as everybody else does because I watch those guys every single day in practice and know what they're both capable of. They're both capable of helping us win a football game. Right now it's playoff time, it's about it's putting the guys in there that you think are gonna give us the best chance to win.”

That begins with the practice plan that Holtz and his offensive staff had for the quarterbacks each week.

“Both quarterbacks have rolled reps,” Holtz said. “Adrian has not gotten any more reps than Matt has during the week of practice. We do our team periods with six play racks and each guy gets three. When we go through and do this, I mean, they get three for (one), three for the other. We have rolled them all year, I think it's important to continue. These quarterbacks are here to be developed and you want to play in the games, but I also think that there's a lot of development that goes on in the daily reps you get in practice. Right now I'm not trying to make this a huge quarterback controversy.”