McCarron Meets With Media To Discuss UFL Draft
January 16, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
By Steve Irvine
A.J. McCarron finally got some good sleep after a dizzying pace through the process of building his first roster as the Birmingham Stallions head coach. Then, the former University of Alabama quarterback, who is dipping his toes into the coaching waters for the first time, got back to work.
“Listen, I thought we had an unbelievable draft,” McCarron said. “I was super proud of my staff and the amount of hours we put in for the past three and a half weeks. Having late staff meetings, going through this long list of players that we were given and kind of breaking everybody down, watching every bit of film. If we couldn't find film, contacting coaches (and) agents to find film on them, to find correct numbers. Y'all would be surprised, that's a mystery in itself to find a correct number for an agent and a player. We've pretty much got commitment, I would say, by at least probably 98 to maybe 99 percent of our team and our guys we drafted. Now we got to keep adding to it, which we've been busy doing that since the draft ended. You know, get those guys cleared on January 20th and add some more pieces to this team.”
Not long afterward McCarron offered a nugget of information when talking about what is probably the top wide receiver group in the process of putting a team together.
“On the 20th, we'll have two more surprises to add to that room as well,” McCarron said. “So as long as they get cleared, I think it'll be just as big of news as our draft was, if not bigger.”
That’s big news considering McCarron and his staff already have a wide receiver room that include Stallion returnees Deon Cain and Marlon Williams, as well as proven professional football veterans Marcus Simms, Daewood Davis, Samson Nacua, Justyn Ross, Laviska Shenault Jr., Cam Echols-Luper and Jaydon Mickens. They also drafted former Tulane receiver Mario Williams, but he signed a NFL future deal with the Los Angeles Rams.
“I love every pick we made on offense, especially the receiver room,” McCarron said. “I think when you go through that list of guys, you have so many weapons.”
McCarron also drafted former San Antonio Brahmas running back Anthony McFarland after using what can described as a crafty veteran move, even though he’s new at this process.
“It's a little cat and mouse of this draft,” McCarron said. “Nobody else could get in touch with him (before) the draft. He picked the phone up for us early in it. And we said, hey, we're going to take you early. We knew where we were picking in the draft. We said, if you don't answer the phone leading up to this thing, guess what? Nobody else is going to take you. They don't know if you're going to play. So that's what happened and we were able to get them.”
Now, the Stallions staff is concentrating on signing free agents to not only fill out the roster but enhance it.
McCarron also revealed that his coordinators will be Tyler Siskey on offense and Kevin Sherrer on defense. Cody Latimer, a former NFL and spring league wide receiver, will coach the wide receivers for the Stallions.
“Tyler Siskey, we go way back,” McCarron said. “He's an absolute genius when it comes to building rosters. He did it for Coach Saban, did it at Ole Miss. I mean, he has a track record of just being great. He's also been an OC. He's been a passing game coordinator, receivers coach. And then my D coordinator is Kevin Sherrer. Kevin was with me at Alabama under Coach Saban with Kirby Smart, left with Kirby Smart to go to Georgia, left Georgia to go with (Jeremy) Pruitt to Tennessee. Ended up leaving Tennessee to go to the Giants with Joe Judge. Was a D-coordinator at Georgia Tech, D-coordinator at Georgia State.”