The Birmingham Stallions are up first in Week 2, and head coach Skip Holtz will get an opportunity to get the bad taste out of his mouth after a stunning upset last week to open the 2025 UFL season.
Alex McGough & Co. will look to rebound from an 18-11 setback to the DC Defenders in Week 1 with another road contest, this one against the Michigan Panthers (1-0) on Friday (8 p.m. ET on FOX).
This week, Holtz said Birmingham is focusing on playing a cleaner game. The Stallions finished with 10 accepted penalties for 71 yards in their loss to the Defenders. Birmingham averaged just over six penalties a contest last season.
“If we want to win, we’ll clean them up,” Holtz said. “And if we don’t, we’ll continue to be a heavily penalized team and [make] it hard on ourselves to try and find a win in a very competitive league.”
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That contest is followed by the Defenders (1-0) hosting the Memphis Showboats (0-1) on Saturday (8 p.m. ET).
The weekend concludes with the Houston Roughnecks (0-1) facing the Arlington Renegades (1-0) on Sunday (noon ET), followed by the St. Louis Battlehawks (1-0) taking on the San Antonio Brahmas (0-1) later that evening (6:30 p.m. ET on FS1) in a rematch of last season’s XFL Conference final.
Here’s a closer look at five things to watch for Week 2.
1. Is Birmingham preparing for a quarterback change?
“I tried to roll two quarterbacks last year, and it really didn’t work with the personalities involved, so I went with one,” Holtz said after being asked if he considered making a change at QB with McGough struggling in his return to spring football. “I’m not going to get into every other series trying to change quarterbacks. Matt [Corral] is very capable.
“I did give it some thought at one point, but really it had more to do with taking sacks than being able to see the field or trying to throw the football.”
McGough completed just 43.5% of his passes for 89 yards in the Stallions’ season opener. He was also sacked eight times. Birmingham’s backup, Corral, started three games last season and was brought in for an ineffective Adrian Martinez to spark the Stallions’ offense during the 2024 postseason. The Ole Miss product finished with 614 passing yards (including the postseason), with five touchdown passes and three interceptions.
With only a handful of days to prepare for Friday’s game, Holtz said that he’s taking a look at the quarterback situation this week before making a decision on whether to stick with McGough or start Corral against the Panthers.
2. Showboats head coach Ken Whisenhunt returns
Memphis offensive line coach Jim Turner served as the interim head coach in the team’s Week 1 loss to Michigan at home last week after head coach Ken Whisenhunt took a leave of absence due to personal reasons. Receivers coach T.J. Vernieri stepped in to call plays for the offense in place of Whisenhunt.
The Showboats got some good news this week, as Whisenhunt returned to the practice field and is expected to coach against the Defenders this weekend. A longtime NFL offensive coordinator who served as the head coach for the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans, Whisenhunt replaced John DeFilippo after Memphis moved on from him this past offseason.
This week, Whisenhunt is tasked with managing a two-quarterback system, with Troy Williams and E.J. Perry both getting playing time in Week 1. “When you’ve got two good quarterbacks, you have to try and find a way to manage that, so that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s never easy, but we’re thankful that we have two guys in Troy and E.J. that can do it. Whether we go with that as we progress or not, I don’t really know.”
3. A budding rivalry between the Stallions and Defenders?
Things got a little chippy after the Defenders’ victory for head coaches Shannon Harris and Holtz when the two shook hands at midfield.
“You told me I was the doorman at the headquarters,” Harris could be heard saying to Holtz on the TV broadcast.
Holtz disputed that claim, tugging at Harris’ shirt as he walked away. “Yes, you did,” Harris added.
“I don’t want to go too far into that,” Harris told reporters postgame when asked about the incident. “We’re fine. I want to be a professional at all levels. I talked with some of his coaches on his staff … to make sure we were on the same page. We’re good, and we’ll just leave it at that.”
Both teams are 1-1 all-time in the UFL, with Birmingham eking out a 20-18 victory in Week 4 last season at home.
“It’s an emotional game, and he was very upset,” Holtz said about the incident. “I respect him. I respect their team. They’ve got a good team. They played a good game. I congratulate them. They made the plays that they needed to on the field. I thought they had a good game plan on offense and defense.
“I don’t know, I wish I could tell you more about what that was all about, but I’ve got to worry about some of the issues we’ve got to fix right now on our team.”
Perhaps the next meeting will be in this year’s championship game?
4. “Knights of Columbo” leads St. Louis’ offense
Anytime an offense rushes for nearly 300 yards, the offensive line has a lot to do with that production. Head coach Anthony Becht felt that he would get improved play from St. Louis’ front five, and that certainly was the case in its Week 1 blowout victory over Houston.
Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Marc Colombo took over as the Battlehawks’ offensive line coach, and the results have been good thus far. Columbo’s group includes left tackle Jaryd Jones-Smith, left guard Steven Gonzales, center Mike Panasiusk, right guard Abdul Beecham and right tackle Juwann Bushell-Beatty.
Nicknamed the “Knights of Columbo,” that group up front helped St. Louis’ offense rack up 31 first downs, along with setting team records for rushing yards (273) and total yards (460), in Week 1.
“Clearly, he’s got to get credit for what he did to get these guys ready,” Becht said about Columbo. “But I think all our players raised up, and we see a big picture here. It’s a great start.”
5. Can head coach Curtis Johnson get Houston back on track?
After a disappointing 1-9 campaign last year, Johnson and the Roughnecks didn’t begin this year much better, getting dismantled 31-6 by the Battlehawks to open the season.
Johnson owns a 6-15 record during his tenure coaching Houston, losing by an average of 10 points per game. Johnson finished 5-5 in his first season coaching the then-Houston Gamblers but is 2-13 in his last 15 games. At some point, Johnson needs to start earning some wins to help turn the tide for the Roughnecks.
“It’s about our team,” Johnson said. “I don’t think it’s about any other team. The first thing we’ve got to do is [not] turn the ball over. We’ve got to possess the ball, and if that means I’ve got to get simpler on offense, then that’s what we’ve got to do. But we can’t just turn it over and expect something good to happen.”
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him at @eric_d_williams.
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