2024 UFL - Teams, logos, coaches, stadiums, players

[ROD-BOT]

Guide to the UFL: Logos, coaches, stadiums and players to watch for all eight teams

The XFL and USFL have merged to form the UFL, and here are the teams, coaches and key players who will take the field later this month.

www.espn.com

What is the UFL? Teams, logos, coaches, stadiums, players​

We're less than a month away from the debut of the United Football League, which is the product of a merger between the XFL and USFL. Starting with the March 30 matchup between the Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions, eight teams will play a 10-game season that culminates in a championship contest June 16.

Before we get to that, here's a handy cheat sheet on the UFL basics, complete with the logos, stadiums, coaches, quarterbacks and other key players to watch in the league. The UFL has a two-time national championship winning quarterback (who has also started an NFL playoff game) in AJ McCarron and the youngest brother of a Super Bowl MVP, but we'll start things off with the defending XFL champions and their College Football Hall of Fame coach.

Arlington Renegades

Stadium: Choctaw Stadium
Coach: Bob Stoops
Quarterbacks: Holton Ahlers, Luis Perez, Drew Plitt, Lindsey Scott

The Renegades come into the UFL fresh off the 2023 XFL championship. They are led once again by Stoops, who won 191 games and the 2000 BCS national championship in 18 seasons at the University of Oklahoma.

As far as the quarterbacks, Perez is a spring football icon, as he quarterbacked Arlington to last year's XFL title. He has also played in the Alliance of American Football, the 2020 version of the XFL and the USFL. Ahlers threw for 13,933 yards and 97 touchdown passes at East Carolina, while Scott is a dual-threat QB who passed for 11,934 yards and 127 touchdowns at Incarnate Word while adding 2,988 yards and 32 touchdowns rushing.

Other players to watch: Vic Beasley, OLB (Clemson, former first-team All-Pro with the Atlanta Falcons); Marquette King, P (Fort Valley State, second-team All-Pro with the Oakland Raiders); Marquel Lee, LB (Wake Forest, played four seasons with Raiders)

Birmingham Stallions

Stadium: Protective Stadium
Coach: Skip Holtz
Quarterbacks: Matt Corral, Adrian Martinez, Jalen Morton, J'Mar Smith

Holtz, the son of College Football Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz, has excelled in spring football, leading the Stallions to a 21-3 record (including playoffs) and consecutive USFL titles. Prior to Birmingham, Holtz won 152 games over 22 seasons of college football.

The quarterbacks are led by Corral, who was a third-round draft pick by the Carolina Panthers in 2022, and Martinez, who started five seasons at Nebraska and Kansas State. Smith, who was the starting quarterback on Birmingham's 2022 USFL championship team, will also be a factor, while Morton has spent time in the Canadian Football League.

Other players to watch: Travin Howard, LB (TCU, Super Bowl champion with Los Angeles Rams); Gary Jennings, WR (West Virginia, fourth-round pick of Seattle Seahawks in 2019); Amari Rodgers, WR (Clemson, third-round pick of Green Bay Packers in 2021)

D.C. Defenders

Stadium: Audi Field
Coach: Reggie Barlow
Quarterbacks: Deondre Francois, Jalan McClendon, Jordan Ta'amu

Barlow returns to the Defenders after leading them to the XFL championship game a year ago. Prior to D.C., Barlow compiled an 83-58 record as a coach at Alabama State and Virginia State over 13 seasons. He also played eight NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Ta'amu was the primary quarterback for the Defenders last season and has played three professional football seasons in the 2020 and 2023 versions of the XFL along with the USFL in 2022. Francois was on the XFL's Orlando Guardians last year, while McClendon also played in the XFL for the Vegas Vipers.

Other players to watch: Gareon Conley, DB (Ohio State, first-round pick of Raiders in 2017); D.J. Swearinger, DB (South Carolina, eight-year NFL veteran); Preston Williams, WR (Colorado State, four-year NFL veteran, primarily with Miami Dolphins)

Houston Roughnecks

Stadium: Rice Stadium
Coach: Curtis Johnson
Quarterbacks: Jarrett Guarantano, Nolan Henderson, Reid Sinnett

Johnson is in his second year of coaching spring football, as he led the USFL's Houston Gamblers to a 5-5 mark last season. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Tulane for four seasons and a longtime assistant at the college and NFL levels, spending 11 seasons with the New Orleans Saints under Asshole Face.

Sinnett is the only quarterback to have professional playing experience, seeing time with the San Antonio Brahmas last season. He also had brief stint on the active rosters of the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals. Guarantano was briefly on the Denver Broncos' active roster in 2022, while Henderson had a brief offseason stint with the Baltimore Ravens.

Other players to watch: Reuben Foster, LB (Alabama, first-round pick of San Francisco 49ers in 2017); Ryan Izzo, TE (Florida State, played three seasons with New England Patriots); Ethan Westbrooks, DE (West Texas A&M, played five seasons with Rams)

Memphis Showboats

Stadium: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium
Coach: John DeFilippo
Quarterbacks: Case Cookus, Cole Kelley, Troy Williams

DeFilippo is in his second season of coaching spring football, serving as the head man for the USFL's New Orleans Breakers last season. Prior to that, he spent more than two decades as a college and NFL assistant, mostly as a quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator.

Cookus is playing his third season of spring football, spending the previous two years with USFL's Philadelphia Stars, where he combined to throw for 3,629 yards and 27 touchdown passes. He'll compete with Kelley, who threw for 1,534 yards and seven touchdown passes for Memphis last season, and Williams, who threw for 1,414 yards and six touchdown passes for the USFL's Pittsburgh Maulers.

Other players to watch: Daylon Mack, DT (Texas A&M, No. 6 player in 2015 ESPN 300); Dylan Moses, LB (Alabama, No. 5 player in 2017 ESPN 300); Vinny Papale, WR (Delaware, son of former Philadelphia Eagles WR Vince Papale, the inspiration for the 2006 film "Invincible")

Michigan Panthers

Stadium: Ford Field
Coach: Mike Nolan
Quarterbacks: Davis Cheek, Danny Etling, Brian Lewerke, E.J. Perry

Nolan brings more than four decades of coaching experience, the most recent being a 4-6 record with the Panthers in the USFL last year. Nolan also spent three-plus seasons as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and served as a defensive coordinator for eight NFL teams.

Etling was a seventh-round pick of the New England Patriots and has been on the practice squad of seven NFL teams. Lewerke had a brief stint on the New York Giants' active roster in 2021. Perry has bounced between the USFL and NFL the past few seasons, while Cheek played one game for the USFL's Breakers last year.

Other players to watch: Kai Nacua, S (BYU, five-year NFL veteran and oldest brother of Rams WR Puka Nacua); Samson Nacua, WR (BYU, older brother of Puka Nacua); Breeland Speaks, DE (Ole Miss, second-round pick of Kansas City Chiefs in 2018)

San Antonio Brahmas

Stadium: The Alamodome
Coach: Wade Phillips
Quarterbacks: Quinten Dormady, Tom Flacco, Chase Garbers

Phillips moves to the Brahmas after a successful stint with the Roughnecks in the XFL last season in which he led them to a Western Division championship. The 76-year-old was an NFL fixture for nearly 50 years as a defensive coordinator and head coach, compiling a 90-73 record (including playoffs) in nine-plus seasons as a head coach.

The headliner among the QBs is Flacco, the younger brother of longtime NFL signal-caller Joe Flacco. Dormady was the primary starter for the XFL's Orlando Guardians last season, throwing for 1,507 yards and 10 touchdown passes. Garbers was on the Las Vegas Raiders' active roster for the final two games of the 2022 season.

Other players to watch: Donald De La Haye, K (UCF, YouTube account (@Deestroying) has 5.77 million subscribers); Teez Tabor, DB (Florida, second-round draft pick of Detroit Lions in 2017); Kade Warner, WR (Kansas State, son of NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner)

St. Louis Battlehawks

Stadium: The Dome at America's Center
Coach: Anthony Becht
Quarterbacks: AJ McCarron, Brandon Silvers, Manny Wilkins

Becht returns for his second season coaching the Battlehawks after leading St. Louis to a 7-3 record in the XFL last year. He spent 11 seasons as a tight end in the NFL with five teams after being selected by the New York Jets in the first round of the 2000 NFL draft.

Along with winning two national titles at Alabama, McCarron has spent nine seasons in the NFL, most recently with the Bengals in 2023. McCarron threw for 2,150 yards and 24 touchdown passes for the Battlehawks last season. Silvers was the primary starter for the Roughnecks last year, throwing for 1,551 yards and 13 touchdown passes, while Wilkins returns after serving as St. Louis' backup last season.

Other players to watch: Hakeem Butler, WR (Iowa State, fourth-round pick by Arizona Cardinals in 2019); Wayne Gallman, RB (Clemson, six-year NFL veteran, primarily with New York Giants); Jahcour Pearson, WR (Ole Miss, XFL's leading receiver in 2023)

MORE: HERE

 

[CGI_Ram]

Welcome to the UFL! Laying out the new(ish) league heading into the 2024 season

The XFL and the USFL have merged into the UFL, and training camps are about to start. Here's how the league got to this point and what to expect.

www.espn.com

UFL 2024: What to know about rebranded spring football league​

The spring/alternative football industry is running out of original acronyms.

American football fans have seen the rise (and fall) of three different versions of the XFL. There have been two USFLs, two UFLs and one AAF. The surviving pieces merged this winter and, after scanning the historical landscape, resurrected "United Football League" as the name of the new venture.

The third UFL, this time owned equally by Fox Sports and the former investors of XFL 3.0, opens training camp Saturday in Arlington, Texas. Its eight teams will play a 10-week season with no bye weeks that kicks off March 30, and the league boasts a combination of advantages -- strong financial backing, multiple national broadcast partners and a blend of previous templates -- that its predecessors did not.

"The right thing for spring football," said UFL CEO/president Russ Brandon, "is to have one focused league. And I think we all are very confident that this league will be here well beyond our years."

Brandon, a longtime NFL executive with the Buffalo Bills, joined the XFL for its 2023 season and will run the UFL's day-to-day operations. Former USFL front office chief Daryl Johnston is the executive vice president of football operations, and the eight coaches are an equal blend from the USFL's and XFL's 2023 seasons.

"We're going to be a much, much more talented league with a lot more depth at the critical positions," Johnston said. "I think our staffs are going to be stronger. You're taking eight teams [in the USFL] and eight teams [in the XFL] and combining into eight. You're pulling the best of the players and the best of the coaches into the UFL family."

Here's what you need to know about the UFL at the start of training camp:

How will UFL training camp work?

All eight teams will report to the league's headquarters in Arlington and practice at surrounding facilities. Teams will be allowed a 75-man roster. Once the regular season begins, rosters will shrink to 50 players per team.

Those Arlington-based facilities will continue to serve as practice sites during the regular season. Teams will travel to their home markets for games only, like the XFL did in 2023.

What are those teams (and markets)?

The league is made up of four former XFL teams and four from the USFL. The one overlapping market was Houston, where the UFL decided to rebrand USFL's Houston franchise with the XFL Houston team's name.

Here are the teams, their home stadiums and their head coaches:

USFL conference

Birmingham Stallions (Protective Stadium, Skip Holtz)
Houston Roughnecks (Rice Stadium, Curtis Johnson)
Memphis Showboats (Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, John DeFilippo)
Michigan Panthers (Ford Field, Mike Nolan)

XFL conference

Arlington Renegades (Choctaw Stadium, Bob Stoops)
D.C. Defenders (Audi Field, Reggie Barlow)
San Antonio Brahmas (The Alamodome, Wade Phillips)
St. Louis Battlehawks (The Dome at America's Center, Anthony Becht)

What is the profile of a typical spring football player?

The AAF, XFL and USFL have sent hundreds of players to NFL tryouts, offseason practices, training camp practices and/or regular-season rosters. Some of them were still in the league during the 2023 season, including Los Angeles Chargers tight end Donald Parham Jr., Atlanta Falcons quarterback Logan Woodside and Dallas Cowboys returner KaVontae Turpin.

But Johnston said he has been surprised at how many spring football players in the AAF, XFL and USFL don't necessarily have an NFL opportunity in sight.

"I've expected the majority of our players [in past seasons] would be like, 'I've got to get my chance to get back up there to the NFL,'" he said. "But you start to find that there are a lot of guys who are at peace that their NFL window has closed, but they love the camaraderie of the locker room. They love the day-to-day grind.

"... That's been the really inspiring thing to me, is there is a number of guys in our league who just love the game and want to keep playing it as long as they can."

Who are some of the players in the UFL?

There are a handful of players on UFL training camp rosters with NFL name recognition, including former New York Giants running back Wayne Gallman, who is allocated to St. Louis. The UFL also dipped into the social media world to sign YouTube star Donald De La Haye, also known as "Deestroying," who was a placekicker at UCF. He is assigned to San Antonio.

But there will be a good deal of personnel turnover over the next few weeks, and generally speaking, leagues are viewed through the lens of their quarterback talent. To that end, the UFL has pursued a mix of spring league veterans and former NFL backups. The list includes AJ McCarron (St. Louis), Matt Corral (Birmingham), Danny Etling (Michigan), Case Cookus (Memphis) and Tom Flacco (San Antonio), brother of longtime NFL quarterback Joe Flacco. The quarterbacks in last season's XFL championship game, Luis Perez (Arlington) and Jordan Ta'amu (D.C.), will also return.

Some spring leagues have paid quarterbacks above-scale salaries to attract bigger names, but as of last month, Johnston said the UFL had opted against that approach.

UFL players receive $5,500 per game week in accordance with their partnership with the United Football Players Association, a union the UFL has recognized and negotiated with.

"Our quarterbacks are paid the same as everybody else," Johnston said. "The approach is to be fiscally responsible there. We've gotten some pushback from some of them, which is understandable, because they can say everybody knows how valuable this position is and how it should command a higher salary.

"We're a start-up league trying to get our feet underneath us to be successful here and for a number of years moving forward. There's a good argument for both sides. How do we manage this situation in a way that is positive and good for both sides of the equation? ... It's hard to thread that needle."

Who controls the finances?

Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks represents the interests of 50% of the UFL board, while the other half is comprised of members of the XFL 3.0's ownership group: Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital Partners, Dany Garcia and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Fox Sports and Disney/ESPN are both broadcast partners. All 43 UFL games will be televised on ABC, Fox, ESPN, FS1 or ESPN2 and streamed on either ESPN+ or the Fox Sports app.

The season will start March 30, with four teams (two from each conference) advancing to the playoffs, which start on June 9. The UFL championship game will take place June 16 in a city to be announced later.

The opening-week schedule (all times Eastern):

Saturday, March 30

Birmingham Stallions at Arlington Renegades (1 p.m., Fox)
St. Louis Battlehawks at Michigan Panthers (4:30 p.m., Fox)

Sunday, March 31

D.C. Defenders at San Antonio Brahmas (noon, ESPN)
Memphis Showboats at Houston Roughnecks (3 p.m., ESPN)

 

[den-the-coach]

Saturday, March 30

Birmingham Stallions at Arlington Renegades (1 p.m., Fox)
St. Louis Battlehawks at Michigan Panthers (4:30 p.m., Fox)

Sunday, March 31

D.C. Defenders at San Antonio Brahmas (noon, ESPN)
Memphis Showboats at Houston Roughnecks (3 p.m., ESPN)

Go Battlehawks. The Washington Commodes could not come up with a good name & logo and this St. Louis team did it in two seconds.

 

[Merlin]

Solid coaches across the board. Love seeing Wade out there at his age doing it, good for him.

Showboats are such a great name.

 

[Allen2McVay]

I am so focused on the NFL Off-season, I will probably not watch but I will root for ...

The Stallions because of Travin Howard ... his interception was the nail-in-the 49ers' coffin in the 2021 NFCC.

The Panthers because of Puka's brothers Kai and Samson Nacua.

The Brahmas because of Wade Phillips, who I thought was a huge factor in McVay's early success.

B-T-W ... I think it's great that former-Ram Ethan Westbrooks is still playing (with the Roughnecks).
Interesting Fact: Since 2018, Ethan Westbrooks has played just one more NFL game than me.

 

[den-the-coach]

I am so focused on the NFL Off-season, I will probably not watch but I will root for ...

The St. Louis Battlehawks because of the great people in St. Louis.

There I fixed it for you.

 

[CGI_Ram]

View: https://x.com/eadyiofficial/status/1773054845575917633?s=61&t=lgp1gRmUcyNSF5v7CIHwMg

 

[dieterbrock]

Cant believe they ditched my New Jersey Generals

 

[VegasRam]

Solid coaches across the board. Love seeing Wade out there at his age doing it, good for him.

Showboats are such a great name.

What is this "at his age' crap.

 

[Ramhusker]

Keep an eye on the Kickers!

And I adopted the Stallions because they are the closest to me.

 

[Ramhusker]

Go Battlehawks. The Washington Commodes could not come up with a good name & logo and this St. Louis team did it in two seconds.

View attachment 64657

Agree


The Washington Commodes are being sued by The Native American Guardians Association, which has been trying to get the Commodes to change the name back to Redskins.
The lawsuit states:
“The logo on the Redskin’s helmet is an actual person, it’s Chief White Calf. Every time they go out on that field, they were honoring Chief White Calf and they were battling on the football field with the same honor and integrity and courage. They should continue to honor that.”
Via NBC Montana.

 

[Memento]

LET'S GO, BATTLEHAWKS!

I might be going to a game on the 20th of April.

 

[Memento]

Agree


The Washington Commodes are being sued by The Native American Guardians Association, which has been trying to get the Commodes to change the name back to Redskins.
The lawsuit states:
“The logo on the Redskin’s helmet is an actual person, it’s Chief White Calf. Every time they go out on that field, they were honoring Chief White Calf and they were battling on the football field with the same honor and integrity and courage. They should continue to honor that.”
Via NBC Montana.

They should be the Red Hogs. Honors their heritage, their best players, and it's a unique name.

 

[RhodyRams]

I'll jump on the BattleHawks band wagon if there is room

 

[Angry Ram]

Motor them boats!!!!

And go Roughnecks!

 

[Merlin]

What is this "at his age' crap.

That post was damn near a month ago. Hell of a grandpa nap you just woke up from.

 

[VegasRam]

Touche’
Anyone familiar with the expression “hoisted on your own pitard”
Well played.

 

[Loyal]

Motor them boats!!!!

And go Roughnecks!

Houston homer!

 

[Loyal]

I'll try to catch a Battlehawks game, but I normally am underwhelmed by the talent in these minor league teams and quit watching.