For the fourth time in four years, the Birmingham Stallions ended up right where they expected to be when the 2025 UFL regular season came to a close: in the postseason, hosting the USFL Conference Championship Game at Protective Stadium.
But the route they took to get back to within two wins of claiming a fourth consecutive professional spring football league title was circuitous. The Stallions entered their first season without former general manager and wunderkind Zach Potter and with some new faces making their way to Birmingham out of sheer necessity.
The Stallions, who have never looked like an unbeatable team even when they have been virtually unbeatable, have made finding ways to win their hallmark. This season stands as the best example of that, especially at quarterback.
What began with a former league MVP and championship-caliber QB in Alex McGough quickly became a near-season-long exercise in triage by coach Skip Holtz, who also acts as quarterbacks coach and playcaller. In 10 weeks, he’s been forced to play five different quarterbacks and start four.
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Not one Birmingham QB has started more than three games, and only one has not been forced to miss playing time due to injury. And yet the Stallions enter the postseason sitting at 7-3 with an offense and defense that is playing so well that they beat the Memphis Showboats 46-9 in their regular-season finale.
With so many changes in place, from injuries to new individuals running his offense, how has Holtz managed to come through this season with not only a winner, but a team that looks capable of taking the 2025 UFL crown?
“I don’t know,” Holtz said with a brief chuckle as he attempted to put a season unlike any other he’s coached into context.
In 10 regular-season games, the Stallions have suffered injuries on the offensive line, defensive line and both cornerback positions. Still, the circumstances surrounding the team’s quarterback room were unique. Just two of the five QBs on Birmingham’s roster this season, McGough and Matt Corral, were present for the first five days of installation at training camp. Veteran Case Cookus joined the team a week late and was thrust into duty after McGough and Corral went down with injuries. Holtz even brought in former Wyoming QB Andrew Peasley to play meaningful snaps.
That is when it became clear that Holtz wanted J’Mar Smith to return to the team. Holtz not only needed a player he could trust, but someone he was familiar with. When Corral went down, Holtz knew he needed to get a QB in his room who knew his offense, his scheme, and could give them a chance to finish the season with an offensive identity.
Skip Holtz and J’Mar Smith #1 of the Birmingham Stallions talk to the media after a 33-25 victory against the Houston Roughnecks. (Photo by Butch Dill/UFL/Getty Images)
“I tried to call J’Mar, but he was getting a new phone or something, and didn’t call me back,” Holtz said. “And so I went and moved on Peasley, not thinking that he would be interested.”
Eventually, Smith got in touch with Holtz and let him know that he was indeed interested, but the timing didn’t work, as an offer had already extended to Peasley. Corral suffered a shoulder injury and was placed on injured reserve by the Stallions, and that’s when Smith got the call.
Holtz found a roster spot and succeeded in getting Smith on the sideline in time for Birmingham’s game against conference rival Houston in Week 7. Down 25-6 at halftime, the Stallions looked like they were on their way to another loss, which would put them squarely on the bubble to make the postseason with just three games left in the regular season. And then Cookus, who started that game, reaggravated a knee injury. Holtz put his former Louisiana Tech star quarterback in, and the Stallions finished with the biggest comeback win in UFL history, scoring 27 unanswered points in a memorable 33-25 win.
J’Mar Smith #1 and Marcus Baugh #85 of the Birmingham Stallions hug after their team’s 33-25 victory against the Houston Roughnecks. (Photo by Butch Dill/UFL/Getty Images)
In that game, Smith looked like the player he was at Louisiana Tech, where he averaged better than 3,000 passing yards per season as a three-year starter. The former Bulldog standout, who has thrown for more than 10,000 yards with Holtz as his playcaller, showed off his elite playmaking ability, completing 3-of-5 passes for 63 yards and adding a rushing score in the victory.
It was then, in that Week 7 comeback win over the Roughnecks, that Holtz found his quarterback. Since then, the Stallions have gone 3-1 when Smith is under center, including going 22-of-31 for 306 yards and two touchdowns against conference-title foe Michigan in Week 9.
“I still had my questions after the St. Louis game [Week 8],” Holtz said. “But it was after the game against Michigan that I said, ‘There you go now.’ That’s when the thing went off where you went, ‘All right, that’s our guy.'”
Smith has relished the opportunity to lead the Stallions into the postseason as QB1. Though he started the first-ever USFL game for Holtz, he has never had the chance to be “The Guy” in the postseason, and now, Smith’s son will get to see his father play for a championship too.
“I’m literally thinking about it, getting chills,” Smith said of playing in front of his one-year-old son. “It’s just one of the big things that was very special to me about having this opportunity to play again.”
It’s a gorgeous moment for Holtz and Smith, who have known each other for 11 years — half of Smith’s life — across college and professional football.
Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz and quarterback J’Mar Smith (8) celebrate a win over North Texas on September 29, 2018. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“A lot of people can’t say that they’ve been with their coach this long, especially playing football,” Smith said. “In my situation, me being a quarterback and him being an offensive playcaller and coach, it is a great connection, a great feeling.
“You understand what he wants. You know the offense: front, back, side-to-side.”
Both Holtz and Smith admitted that their connection has been a true strength over the last four weeks, and that is quite possibly the reason the Stallions could win the UFL title.
In a league where change is a part of the game and being comfortable with the unfamiliar is the best trait you can possess, Holtz and Smith have the one attribute every coach and player in the UFL craves: chemistry built on experience, earned trust and an insatiable desire to be better tomorrow than each was today.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.
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