Case Cookus ReadY To Step In As Stallions QB Shuffle Continues
APRIL 25, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Steve Irvine
The Birmingham Stallions will have a different look at quarterback on Friday at Protective Stadium.
Spring football veteran Case Cookus will get his first start in a Stallions uniform. It will come against the Memphis Showboats, who employed Cookus last season. Cookus will be backed up by Andrew Peasley, who was added as the No. 3 quarterback when Alex McGough was injured on the first offensive play of the second game. A familiar Stallions face – J’Mar Smith – was added on Thursday to serve as the No. 3 quarterback. Matt Corral, who was hurt on the final offensive series of last week’s win over the Houston Roughnecks, was originally slated to be the No. 3 quarterback against Memphis but he is not healthy enough to play.
“We didn't know that Matt was going be out until (Wednesday),” Stallions head coach Skip Holtz said on Thursday. “And so, we went to work. I said, you know what, we got to get somebody in here that knows the offense, somebody that could function in a game if we got to a third quarterback. I said, nobody knows it better than J’Mar Smith. We called J’Mar and said, you know what, this is where we are. Would you do it? He said, you know what, I'd love to. I'd love to come back and be around the guys and be here for a weekend. I'm really excited that he's back. Who knows what it's going to lead to, who knows where it's going to go, but certainly I’m excited that there's somebody not only with his talent and abilities, but somebody with his experience that was willing to come back and help us out if we need it.”
Smith was at the forefront of the Stallions USFL championship season in 2022 and began the following season as the team’s starter. However, his 2023 season ended in the first half of the first game because of a broken hand and McGough went on to win USFL Player the Year honors. Smith served as the No. 3 quarterback behind UFL MVP Adrian Martinez and Corral in 2024.
“He called me right before the (2025) season started and just said, ‘I'm not ready to do this right now,’” said Holtz, who also coached Smith at Louisiana Tech. “It's not that ‘I don't want to come back.’ It wasn't one of those. He was not ready, I respect that. So, we moved on and brought Case in here.”
Holtz said he tried to call Smith when McGough went on the injured reserve list but could not reach him. He had to make a quick move to bring in a No. 3 quarterback at that time, so the Stallions signed Peasley. This time, though, he was able to reach Smith and the former Stallion quarterback was at Protective Stadium on Thursday doing a conditioning test to see if he was ready to play if needed. Smith waved Holtz down midway through Holtz’s media interview to let him know he had passed.
“I'm just excited,” Holtz said. “The guy is a lot like a son to me. I mean we've been around together for a long time with six years of college life together and three years in the USFL and UFL. We've spent a lot of time together. I have great respect for him and I'm glad he's going to be here this weekend for sure with Case now as the starter.”
If things go right it will be Cookus playing the entire way in a USFL Division game that kicks off at 7 p.m. on Friday. It will be the first time since Cookus started a game in Protective Stadium since last April when he was 15-for-22 for 139 yards with a touchdown before being replaced in the fourth quarter of the Showboats 33-14 loss to the Stallions. He started seven of the 10 games in Birmingham as a member of the Philadelphia Stars when the USFL played the entire 2022 regular season in the Magic City.
“The year I spent here was one of the most fun years I've had in my life,” Cookus said. “We go into this 2 ½ week camp, no one really knows what the USFL is. We got all these guys from all over and you never met before, no one really played together. Obviously, I was with the Stars at the time, and we had so much fun. A few of us lived together in Vestavia and we just had a blast. Obviously, we were able to win some games, go to the championship. I didn't know much about the food, and there were so many things to do here in Birmingham. Because I'm a California guy, I didn't really know much about Alabama at all when I first got here.”
Cookus played two USFL seasons with the Stars and was with the Stallions for nine games last season. His spring football stats, to this point, include 4,654 passing yards with 34 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Cookus was signed by the Stallions just before training camp opened and was slotted behind McGough and Corral on the depth chart.
“It was a little weird,” Cookus said. “You come into the year, expecting to kind of be the three, maybe having a shot at the two. specially kind of be the three, maybe a shot at the two going the whole year. Alex goes down and Matt goes down last week. It kind of happened very fast for me. But, you know, I feel very comfortable. I prepared for it. I don't even know how many games (I’ve started) now in my life here as a professional and four years or so in college. I have a lot of starts under my belt. But definitely just trying to get on the same page with Skip. That’s the biggest thing for me this week.”
He actually got a head start last week when Corral was hurt while running the football deep in the Stallions territory with about six minutes left in the game. Cookus came into the game with the Stallions leading, 20-16, and served as a lead blocker for CJ Marable on his first snap as a Stallion. The decision to block wasn’t met with enthusiasm by his teammate. Cookus said center Keaton Sutherland told him not to do that again. They weren’t happy on the sideline either.
“Our offensive line coach (Dave DeGuglielmo) said ‘You know what, that's really stupid’,” Holtz said. “And he pointed to the backup quarterback and he said, ‘Because I don't even know his name and he’s the next guy in the game.’”
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Cookus smiled when asked about the play on Thursday.
“Yeah, it's tough, you know, because I feel like when I cross the lines a whole new person comes out,” Cookus said. “I get really competitive. I'll say stuff and I'm like ‘Wow, why did I say that?’ You get out there, you just want to play and have fun because it is such a great game. You know, I know we're quarterbacks, but we're football players too. And it always fires up the guys when you get in there and mix it up with them.”
But there is a time and a place.
“Now, I probably shouldn't have done that,” Cookus said. “It's your first rep and you see something happen. You're like, well, I'm going to go throw a block. And then the safety hits me and my (throwing) shoulder was sore for a few days after that.”
Before we get to what happened after that block, we’ll take a quick look back at Cookus’ third season at Northern Arizona when the Lumberjacks were playing at Montana. Cookus made a quirky bit of history on that day when he was ejected for targeting after making a downfield block on a linebacker.
“It was a funny experience and funny story to tell now,” said Cookus, who threw for 12,082 yards and 105 touchdowns in his college career. “I'll pull it up every once in a while on like Twitter or something. Unofficially, I was the first quarterback ever to get ejected for targeting.”
He might still be the only quarterback ever to accomplish that distinction.
Now back to three plays after his lead block against the Roughnecks. Cookus did what he did best, completing a perfectly thrown pass to Davion Davis that gained 36 yards and got the Stallions out of the goal line shadow.
“He’s cold sitting on the bench for two hours and 45 minutes and it's like Case you're up,” Holtz said. “It's like 3rd-and-8. What do we got? A deep corner route, man coverage under. You got to throw the perfect ball over the guy's outstretched arm and into your own guy’s hands. You can't throw it too far. But to drop back, to make the read, to throw the throw he made, backed up in a one score game that if we have to punt, they get the ball back with four minutes to go. Instead, he takes a drive from the 1-yard line all the way down to their 35. And we kick a field goal to win by seven. Magical, you know what I mean? One of those magical notes. But it seems like we've had a lot of those here at Birmingham. I mean, it seems like we've had a lot of those magical moments.”