Mounting injuries preventing stallions from finding identity

APRIL 29, 2025 - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

By Steve Irvine

The Birmingham Stallions reached the midway point of the UFL season with two losses. It’s not unprecedented that Stallions, the best spring league football team over the past three seasons, got their second loss in the fifth week. However, when a team has won three championships, starting 3-2 to start the season can cause a bit of panic outside the locker room.

This past Saturday, fresh off a loss to the previously winless Memphis Showboats, Stallions head coach Skip Holtz was asked during the postgame press conference if his team was slipping or if it was simply a matter of parity.

“No, I think there is a level of parity, but I also think we've lost 10 starters on offense,” said Holtz, whose team plays host to the San Antonio Brahmas on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Protective Stadium. “We’re on our third starter at quarterback after four games. There's not any continuity. I feel like every week we're starting over again. There's always distractions. It's like we've had a Deon Cain miss a game, CJ Marable miss a game, Ricky Person has missed a game. Now we're on pace. We've got Marcus Baugh, who we didn’t have (last) weekend because he's having a baby out in California. He was our other tight end. So at the end of the game, when we lost (Jordan Thomas), we only had one tight end. And our two-point package has always had two tight ends.”

It’s all led to a frustrating time for Holtz and his coaching staff.

“I mean, it's like you feel like you're putting your finger in holes in the dam and you don't have enough fingers and toes to plug them,” Holtz said.

The Stallions, who are tied for first with Michigan in the USFL Division, added two more players to the injured reserved list this week. Long snapper Ryan Langan and backup offensive lineman Lachavious Simmons were hurt in last Friday’s game. Langan has been with the Stallions for every game since the beginning of the 2022 season. Langan and Simmons were replaced on the roster by long snapper William Mote and offensive lineman Grant Miller.

There also was some movement in the quarterback position. J’Mar Smith, who was added to serve as the No. 3 quarterback last week, was waived on Monday. That means that Matt Corral, who took as the No. 1 quarterback when Alex McGough was hurt on the first offensive play of the second game, is probably ready to return as the No. 3 quarterback at worst. Corral missed last week and Case Cookus took all the quarterback snaps in his first action with the Stallions. McGough is also eligible to come back from the injured reserve list after this week but there has been no announcement about his progress from a shoulder injury.

Several starters and key contributors, including center Cole Schneider, safety Kenny Robinson Jr. and defensive end Ronnie Perkins, missed last week’s loss to the Showboats. Getting those players and others back would be a start toward getting on a roll in the final half of the season.

“My frustration is not the loss,” Holtz said following the Memphis game. “It’s not everybody is catching up. We just got to get some consistency going and that has probably been the biggest difference between this team and teams in years past. I don’t think we’re slipping. I just think continuity, keeping everybody healthy and having everybody out there and getting better week one to week two matters. I feel like we've got a really good football team.”