J’Mar Smith, Passing Game, Lead Stallions To Victory
MAY 25, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Steve Irvine
Birmingham Stallions head coach Skip Holtz had an excellent view of his team’s third down execution during Saturday’s 26-22 UFL win over the Michigan Panthers at Protective Stadium. Yet,even Holtz had difficulty trusting the numbers while perusing the stat sheet in his postgame press conference.
“I don’t know if this is accurate, but we were 11-of-13 on third down, which is pretty stinking good if that’s true,” Holtz said.
Quarterback J’Mar Smith and wide receiver Deon Cain quickly grabbed a stat sheet to see if Holtz was reading that correctly.
Not only was it correct but nearly every one of the third down conversions came in a timely manner. Three of the team’s four touchdowns, including a pair of 19-yard touchdown connections from Smith to Cain, came on third down. Three of the conversions came on a game-winning 11-play, 72-yard fourth quarter drive that took 5:25 off the clock and culminated on one of Cain’s touchdown receptions with 2:22 left on the clock. The Stallions converted on all eight of their third downs in the second half.
Perhaps the most impressive part of it all was very few of the conversions came during comfortable situations. Only three of the conversions came on 3rd-and-3 or less. There were conversions on 3rd-and-26 on a 26-yard pass from Smith to Cade Johnson and 3rd-and-24 on a 48-yard pass from Smith to Jalen Camp. There were a pair of 3rd-and-10 situations with the first one converted on a 57-yard pass from Smith to Johnson and both coming on a fourth-quarter touchdown drive. All of the conversions came because the Stallions made the play. None of the conversions came because of a Michigan penalty.
“You try to stay out of third and long situations because you get behind the chains they can do anything on defense and it’s hard to get the first down,” said Smith, who was 22-of-31 for 307 yards with two touchdowns passing and added 30 yards on seven carries. “So a couple of guys made some great plays. Get the ball in their hands, they get the first down and we go score a touchdown. That’s what happened. It’s a credit to the guys, the skill guys, the o-line and everybody else. Coach Holtz is just giving us a job to go out and execute.”
What was ultimately the game-winning drive in a game that featured the top two teams in the USFL Conference began just after Michigan (6-3 overall) took a 22-20 lead on a 2-yard run by Toa Taua with 7:47 left in the game. The Stallions (6-3 overall) used runs by Smith and C.J. Marable to convert a pair of short yardage third downs before eventually facing 3rd-and-7 from the 19-yard line. Smith got the ball to Cain at the 10-yard line. Cain sidestepped the first defender and was grabbed by safety Kai Nacua at the 5-yard line. Nacua, who is one of the top defenders in the UFL, couldn’t stop Cain from dragging him into the end zone for the go-ahead score.
“Really just trying to make a play,” said Cain, who has six catches for 170 yards with four touchdowns in the past two games. “I seen that (Nacua) wasn’t really trying to tackle. He was just trying to just get at the ball. So, if you don’t tackle my legs I’m going to keep it moving. Obviously, the end zone was close (and) I gave it 100 percent effort to get in the end zone. J’Mar gave me a great ball to catch and run, at the end of the day I got to do the rest.”
After that it was up to the defense to preserve the lead over the final 2:20. Michigan was 73 yards away from the end zone when the drive started and had a 1st-and-goal from the Birmingham 9-yard line with 21 seconds left. Michigan quarterback Danny Etling spiked the ball to stop the clock on first down, misfired on second down and narrowly missed a touchdown connection to Jaylon Moore on third down. Etling tried to squeeze the ball between three defenders to tight end Cole Hikutini on fourth down but defensive back Shyheim Carter knock the ball down to end the threat.
“I would’ve liked to have gotten the stop with two minutes to go on about (their) own 30-yard line, but nonetheless we made the stop,” said Holtz, whose team also had two rushing touchdowns by Larry Rountree III. “We didn’t let them in the end zone but we certainly made it exciting and took it all the way down to the wire.”
With the win, Birmingham moves into a first place tie with Michigan in the USFL Conference but the Stallions own the tiebreaker with a pair of wins over the Panthers. The victory also improves the Stallions record to 7-0 against the Panthers since spring football returned in 2022. Each team has one more regular season game remaining before they meet on June 8 at Protective Stadium in the USFL Conference championship game.