The Stallions won their third straight championship this past season and its is time to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly that comes with it. Link to become a channel member - / @zombphoxufl
I see this as a good sign for Birmingham. As a Stallions fan even before they came back along with less than half of the USFL, I had high hopes for them. All of the 2022 games would be in Birmingham, and you knew the Stallions would take advantage of it, which they did. Fast forward to today, the Fearless Horsemen racked up a combined 32-4 record in a 3-year span, including playoff victories and the 3 spring league titles, 2 USFL proper and the 1 UFL. Now there is a buzz going on throughout the city of Birmingham. People in Birmingham want to see a winning team on the field, and they have it. The fanbase builds up. As long as the Stallions continue to win, more fans will show up, more interest will build up. Look at the Chiefs and Patriots of today, the Steelers of the 70's, the Niners of the 80's. The Cowboys. Now their fanbases are enormous. Granted we're talking Spring football, where the weather gets too predictable, fans wouldn't go when it's raining, and Birmingham is in the heart of SEC country where the Crimson Tide and Auburn are Kings of Alabama. That would be understandable to make an excuse for the attendance woes. But why should the Stallions struggle at the gate when they have such a successful product on and off the field? The Stallions have the right personnel running the team, staying consistent throughout the season, and not just meeting but exceeding expectations. It makes running a team in a region where college football is a way of life, a rite of passage if you will, just a walk in the park. And you can't dare to lose sight of what this team is about, which is winning. That should be your marketing angle. Do this, and the Stallions will be around for way more than 3 years.
The marketing definitely needs to include how good the team is, but I think they also need to make true die-hard fans who will stay through thick and thin, as while the numbers were bad in Memphis, no one can say that the fans that were there didn't love the team. Hopefully Birmingham keeps winning (and I think we all expect them to lol) but if they start falling to a .500 we need to see the attendance stay relatively similar to what it is when they are winning, and if we do see that we will see some real success there.
This just goes to show how good they are at team building and coaching. All they know is winning and they've now completed a three-peat within two leagues. This is by far the most dominant spring football team i've ever seen and one of the most dominant football teams in general
They are definitely something special. Going from QB to QB without almost any problem is incredible. Not to mention the defense which has always been a solid unit no matter who is on it as well.
Now I didn’t watch the Video but. I think the Stallions winning 3 in a Row and things will get boring thing wouldn’t be as bad if this was considered a completely different Leauge. Now I love that the UFL treats this as a continuation of the USFL and XFL. That also makes the Boring Problem Apparent
I think it would be best for the league to have the Stallions lose at least 3 games next year as the fact that across 3 seasons they have 4 total losses is insane.
@@ZombPhoxUFL I think the Stallions are gonna have a down season. Battlehawks gonna get way better I hope. Memphis too. Michagan is primed to beat them.
ZP you can't say that Birmingham's attendance is ugly. In my opinion it was great. Basically 10k fans on average with absolutely zero marketing of the UFL in Birmingham. The city of Birmingham only has a population of 192,000 people. The UFL had Birmingham playing at home during Alabama A-Day game and Talladega. Which on those days Tuscaloosa and Talladega would've been the most populated cities in the state.
The issue isn't the number itself, but when you consider how great the team is it becomes a problem. I do agree with the UFL marketing being poor and definitely hurt attendance somewhat, but it's not like Birmingham was doing much better (if at all) in 2023. If the team wasn't so good it is very reasonable to say that the attendance average would've been under 8K, especially when you consider the average attendance was inflated from the 14K number in the McCarron homecoming game. I hope next year the attendance improves with better marketing and better scheduling, but we need to see them hit 10K+ every game to be a true success, as I would not call last year a success with attendance.
My whole issue with this would be the fact parity is important(ig outside of soccer(more unique sb winners in the past decade than champions league winners in the past 50) And while its fine say the Stallions win 2 maybe 3 more Any more than that without a new champion could be bad sign for the league And while I wouldnt penalize the Stallions I would invest money into helping a couple other teams find good gms/coaches However if expansion is in the works for 2026 Nola(outside of the playoffs) famously gives them fights so them and Michigan should lowkey solve that issue themselves somewhat Now as a side note: The USFL prolly might not be decided per say The way the league works anybody can come out of nowhere so the final spot would be open
And a final note On the 4 losses trend that will fix itself when longer schedules come into play(longer schedule = more games = more film on you= better gameplans against you= more opportunities to lose) Add longer contract lengths to the league and gg If you can keep a core group of say 14 guys offensivly and defensively(like the Stallions unironically have) everyone should start competing better And since the Stallion's biggest edge is unironically the GM with a HC as a secondary concern Spend a couple bucks if it gets to be an issue to get good GMs and coaches Tho Im sure when a nfl franchise hears abt the Stallions GM they may throw a couple bucks at him which also will solve the Stallions somewhat
I wish people wouldnt' stress the SHUTOUT as much as they do. The Brahmas could have scored a FG there, but they were down so much 3 points would have been meaningless EXCEPT to shut the "SHUTOUT' people out. Going for the TD was THE play there if you had any hope of coming back. If they kicked the FG, I would have written "Game Over" in my notebook.
That is true and I agree with them needing to go for the TD over the FG, but the history books will have most people in the future viewing the game as a shutout and won't mention that fact.
I think a lot of teams that recorded shutouts over the course of history did so by putting the other team in a position where a field goal did them no good. But I do understand the sentiment of the original comment.
I definitely agree with that, many shutouts happen because of games being blowouts and the losing team needing a TD to get back into it instead of a FG, but naturally as you alluded to history does not remember you having the option to go for a FG, they remember that you scored 0 points.
Birmingham is an anomaly. I don't understand how you could have such a great team and organization and cannot get at least 15K+ per home game. I know a lot of that is marketing and will likely be addressed. I think the other QB-poor teams should trade for a couple of Birmingham's QBs. QB play is what makes a team go, especially on offense. I watched a whole season of bad QB play (except for Memphis) and thought "Birmingham has TOO many good QBs on their team, how did that happen?". Anyway, I hope all the teams do better in the marketing phase of availing and selling their teams to their cities, it would definitely go a long way.
It really is crazy to see how Birmingham can't get to 15K+, I get the argument of the city having low faith low faith in the team surviving, but the Stallions have now been in Birmingham for three straight years and next year they need to see their attendance improve to prove that it is a good market.
As a Showboats and Stallions fan here I love seeing a dominating dynasty it might just be me because we are witnessing history that hasn't happened much in our life times winning 3 championships in a row but I can definitely see that it can get predictable and no one wants that I'm just gald the UFL still had amazing ratings which is amazing
You make some good points. A lot of that applies to the NFL as well. AFC West is boring because the Chiefs are gonna win the division. The NFL will get boring if the Chiefs keep winning.
It's still crazy to think that a couple of years ago people hyped up the AFC west as this incredible division when Russ went to Denver, man that aged poorly 😂!!!
I appreciate the take, but there was only good as far as I see it. The “XFL was better quality football” nonsense has disappeared, because folks would look foolish to argue that at this point. USFL was better than or at least just as good as the XFL. As far as future competition, the Panthers may have been the second best team in the league and at least gave the Stallions a run in the playoffs, while the Brahmas did not. The other USFL teams can continue to improve to the Stallions level just like the XFL teams can try to.
The XFL was deeper as far as competitive teams and the USFL had the best team. That was what I always said and I think it played out that way this year.
USFL division is kinda boring because there are only 3 true USFL teams in the division. Get rid of the Roughnecks (or put them back into the XFL division), they are an XFL team. Bring back the Ganblers, or the Breakers, Generals, Stars, Maulers, or Bandits. If the Roughnecks were to win the division then the championship game will be 2 XFL teams, and I have no interest in the game
They struggled against the xfl conference and only dominated a xfl team once and that was championship but I do agree with u on the usfl conference but I also think Michigan has almost caught up to them so I don’t see them being as good as this year goin forward especially the battlehawks I coach becht os goin to build his team to beat them facts ‼️
I really am worried about the USFL conference next year, hopefully Houston and Memphis have great off-seasons to make it a competitive conference. I do still view that Birmingham was dominate against the XFL for the most part as the SA loss was naturally the exception, but in the DC game Birmingham did everything in their power to lose the game and still won and I think most people agree if they showed up to that game like they did for most of the season they would've won by 10+, with Arlington the game pretty much ended after the end of the first half TD since the second half was a total blowout. St. Louis was a close game, but Birmingham still looked like the better team throughout. I do think that if Becht gets a new OC and can keep a lot of his offensive talent the Battlehawks could be a legit threat to Birmingham in 2025, especially if their defense is as good as it was this past season.
@@ZombPhoxUFL Birmingham did not look like the better team when they played the battlehawks I’m sorry if they never would’ve injured our qb that game was ours and the dc if Barlow makes one or to better decisions they win that game easily I don’t man I guess we see stuff differently because u can look at the games they played the xfl conference n and games they played the usfl conference n it’s a huge difference
@allaroundhustle Nah watching the film they looked like the better team The Hawks were competitive The Stallions were just better And the injury while unnecessary can be argued as a defender tryina get a sack
The Stallions are a problem for the league. Their dominance probably doesnt help build fan bases in other markets and at the same time, it doesnt seem to be helping to build much of one in Birmingham either (not a ticket buying one anyway). There isnt really many upsides for the league in terms of the Stallions continuing to win. Not only for aforementioned reasons, but a championship team would be a huge boost for others markets. Its kind of being wasted on Birmingham at this point. Sure, their games will get a little more viewers from the other markets but thatll happen for whoever is the best team. I honestly believe if the Stallions win another one next year that the league needs to move on from Holtz even if he wants to stay. Things would be seriously boring at that point for every other market.
