Stallions Head To Michigan In Search Of First Win of 2025 Season
APRIL 4, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Steve Irvine
The rearview mirror is now clear for the Birmingham Stallions as they move forward with the UFL season.
Gone is the season-opening embarrassment, particularly on the offensive side of the football, against the D.C. Defenders. The focus is now squarely on a Friday night visit to USFL Division rival Michigan Panthers with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. CT at Ford Field in a game televised on Fox.
“The response that I got was exactly what I wanted, one of frustration, one of get it straight,” said Birmingham Stallions head coach Skip Holtz, whose team is 26-5 since beginning in 2022. “I thought the sense of urgency, they were dialed in this week. I thought we had far and away our best week of practice. I think it was probably a good wakeup call that, you know what, you can't roll the ball out and beat anybody. I mean, even if you went through last year's games, I think we won seven games that were like one-score game. So they're all going to be close. Every game is going to be close. And even as bad as we played offensively, with 43 seconds to go, we had the ball on the 18-yard line with a chance to win it.”
However, unlike they’ve done in the past, the Stallions squandered the opportunity with sacks on the game’s final two play.
“We weren't able to get it done, but I think it was probably good for our football team,” Holtz said. “I don't mind losing the game as long as we can grow from it, learn from it and we can get better. And as we go through this, I feel in the big picture of things, this was probably something that was needed for everybody.”
Holtz included himself in that equation. One mistake he made, Holtz said, was neglecting the running game when calling plays. The Stallions rushed for 122 yards on 20 carries but the bulk of that came on late-game scrambles by quarterback Alex McGough. Those scrambles resulted in 84 yards on eight carries while running backs CJ Marable and Ricky Person produced 39 yards on 12 carries.
For an offense that is traditionally strong in the running game, that is not good enough.
“When you look at the overall statistics, we only averaged about three yards of carry,” said Holtz, who is the team’s offensive play caller. “I probably got a little bit pass happy, a little bit early, with a quarterback that was trying to find his way back into being a quarterback again after a couple of years. It's something that we have to establish, and, you know, one of the things that has been one of the keys to our success is we've been one of the leading rushing teams in this league for the last couple of years and I don't want that just to be Alex's feet. When Alex scrambled in some passing games, he made some huge plays for us, going down the stretch, but we've got to do a better job in the run game of trying to establish something, get a running back, working downhill, and trying to establish a run, and I probably left it a little bit early last week.”
That will begin with Person, the physical 6-foot, 217-pound North Carolina State product, who 29 carries on six carries last week. It won’t include Marable, who is inactive this week for personal reasons. Playing without the versatile Marable, who scored the team’s lone touchdown last week on a 12-yard reception, will hurt. But Larry Rountree played well when called upon in three games last season.
Running the ball against a physical defense, which is led by linebacker Frank Ginda and a strong defensive line. Memphis rushed for just 69 yards on 24 carries, an average of 2.9 yards per carry, in the season-opening loss to Michigan. The Panthers also have one of the top pass-rushing units in the UFL, which will challenge a Stallions offensive line that played a big part in eight sacks allowed in the opening loss. Defensive end Breeland Speaks didn’t have a sack in the opener but he did have 18.5 sacks the past two seasons.
“I think there's a couple of things that I can do to help,” Holtz said. “I think, obviously, the sense of urgency we talked about with our offensive line, what we're doing from a protection standpoint. Alex's mindset, where he can help with that as well. And also with myself and some of the things that I'm trying to do.”
Offensively, the Panthers rode quarterback Bryce Perkins in his first UFL start. Perkins was 16-for-19 passing for 163 yards with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Samson Nacua and carried the ball six times for 14 yards with a touchdown.
“We know what kind of talent Bryce Perkins brings to the table,” said Stallions “We know what a dynamic player he is on offense. I would just say, man, we just play our football. We don't want to make too much of one player and then we focus on him and then they come out and do something else. So I think we just kind of stick to the script of what we did from last year pretty much.”
The Stallions beat their division rivals three times last season, beginning with a 20-13 victory at Michigan in the second week of the season. Birmingham closed the regular season with a 20-19 win over the Panthers at Protective Stadium and then beat Michigan 31-18 in the USFL Division championship game.