The Birmingham Stallions and the United Football League (UFL) made an announcement today naming former Alabama and St. Louis Battlehawk signal caller, AJ McCarron, the new head coach, replacing Skip Holtz. This announcement was made on the WJOX 94.5 FM radio station in Birmingham, by none other than McCarron's former teammate, Greg McElroy on the station's "McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning" show.
This announcement comes after Coach Skip Holtz, who led the Stallions to the playoffs each year since their rebirth in 2022, winning three consecutive championships, stepped away from the UFL and the Stallions on Monday. There has been much speculation on the reasoning, however in his statement he said "This is simply the right moment to pause, reflect, and look ahead." Quarterback J'mar Smith said in a post on X that there is a potential restructuring of the rosters with a potential expansion-style draft where each team can protect certain players.
Every team is getting blown up. Coaches have an option to protect certain players within guidelines
— J’Mar Smith (@jMar_Smith) December 18, 2025
While this has been the ongoing rumors, this seems to provide a bit of clarity of why Coach Holtz may have resigned his position, however the league has not made an official announcement regarding this. Coach McCarron did say ther will be a two day draft mid-January in an interview on "The Coach JB Show with Big Smitty."
With all of this there has been a bit of a mixed reaction from fans so far, with the potential reallotting of the rosters, Coach Holtz' departure, and polarized perceptions of Coach McCarron, being the primary dividing lines. New investor and head of UFL business operations, Mike Repole, known for his marketing expertise selling his companies, Vitamin Water and Body Armor, to Coca-Cola, has also been the subject of a lot of controversy. This Summer, with the rumors of the Stallions being relocated circulating, Repole took the opportunity to do a case-study on the Birmingham market to gauge fan engagement by saying they had to sell 5000 season tickets in a week.
There’s been a lot of buzz about which cities will host @TheUFL teams in 2026. The interest has been huge — and we’ve seen #SaveTheStallions everywhere.
— Repole Stable (@RepoleStable) August 16, 2025
I love the passion!!!!!
But here’s the truth: hashtags and petitions don’t fill stadiums.
The Birmingham Stallions are one of…
Some fans viewed this as genius, while others viewed it as a pompous act. Things only further got divisive when the league announced the departure of former VP of Football Operations, and the last senior leader of the legacy USFL, Daryl Johnston.
Statement from The United Football League about Daryl Johnston: pic.twitter.com/iwg58rxdlU
— United Football League (@TheUFL) November 12, 2025
With the fans divided in their views of this new era of the UFL, the announcement of Coach Holtz' departure, Coach AJ McCarron taking over and the rumors of the player redistribution finally fanned everything into a flame, with some fans trying to sell their season tickets.
Statement from The United Football League about Daryl Johnston: pic.twitter.com/iwg58rxdlU
— United Football League (@TheUFL) November 12, 2025
Many others are optimistic of the direction of the league. Since Repole has taken over, the social media outlets for the league have been more active than ever before in the off-season. There are ads in host cities, and the edgy posts by Repole only add to the success by feeding the algorithm by having people debating with him and others in the comments. The AJ McCarron hire is just the icing on the marketing cake since the last time he was in Birmingham, was the highest attendance since the inaugural game in 2022.
The paid attendance figure of 14,056 for the Birmingham Stallions is a record for the team since it’s return to spring pro football in 2022.
— Mike Mitchell (@ByMikeMitchell) May 11, 2024
With the chaos ensuing, we hope to get some more clarity in the new year. This should help everyone with their perception of the new era in the UFL. As we wait, we will still continue to update through the standard channels on Facebook and X. So stay tuned as things are just heating up for year 3 of the UFL.