New Stallions coaches Prepare for Friday Night Unknowns

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 24, 2026

By Steve Irvine

Unknown is a big part of the preparation for the coaching staffs in Friday night’s UFL opener between the visiting Birmingham Stallions and Louisville Kings. As Stallions head coach AJ McCarron joked during a Tuesday teleconference “you close your eyes and hope for the best.”

In this case, McCarron and his staff are planning for a first-year UFL franchise, a first-year head coach in Chris Redman, an offensive coordinator in Steve Logan who is certainly well known in the coaching world but run an offense since working with the Birmingham Iron in 2019 and a defensive coordinator in Jamie Sharper who has never filled that role.

How do you prepare for that?

The biggest part could very well be to take care of yourself.

“I think it's more than anything, the first game comes down to all right, can you take care of the football?” McCarron said. “Can you not hurt yourself? Can you not have stupid penalties - false starts, offsides, bad holding calls, defensive pass interference when it's obvious. It's little things like that that you can control. And then the other biggest thing is tackling. I think when you look at any level, whether it's high school, college, NFL, here, the teams that can tackle the best and make those tackles are also successful in those probably first three games when guys are trying to get used to playing with live bullets.”

In this case, there is also not an advantage for either team when the football is kicked off at 7 p.m. at Lynn Family Stadium on Friday in a game televised on Fox. Redman and his staff are also preparing a first-time head coach and a new staff. So both could very well take the same approach.

“I mean, you try to do the best you can,” McCarron said. “Even if it's running your base stuff, you know, you have answers for any coverage. Then it's the guys understanding what their tools are in the toolbox. And the communication on the sideline or during the play and facing different coverages throughout camp and understanding ‘Hey, this is versus this coverage (or) we have to run the route this way versus this other.’ It changes.”

One bit of news that McCarron confirmed on Tuesday is that will help in the Kings’ preparation is that Matt Corral will be the quarterback starter for the Stallions on Friday. Corral, who has been with the Stallions for at least part of the past two seasons, won the job over Michael Hiers and Taylor Elgersma.

McCarron also detailed what he wants to see from his team on Friday night and the rest of the way.

“Well, I just hope we play with an intensity and grit that nobody else wants to match for 60 minutes,” McCarron said. “I want us to fly around to the ball. I want us to all have a little chip on our shoulder (when we) go out there. Listen, when you step inside the white lines, you're allowed to be another person. You're allowed to have a swagger, a confidence, a cockiness, whatever you want to call it. That's part of playing sports. If you don't have that and you allow self-doubt to creep in, you're doomed.”