Fox Sports is thinking Friday night football for the UFL next season. If you remember the movie The Last Boy Scout with Bruce Willis, the plot was based on a football league that played games on Friday nights and of course shoot-em up action with the Die Hard actor. Friday night lights also brings us the great Texas high school games that had a movie and a series. It may work like the NFL has the Thursday night game. TGIF with the UFL. Week 8 the Stallions remain at top of the power rankings totem pole. The Showboats continue to sink into bad football cinema. We have some movement in the rankings. The playoff picture is getting crystal clear. UFL Power Rankings are transforming and rolling out in front of your eyeballs. Enjoy!!!

#1. BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS (7-0) SAME SPOT FROM LAST WEEK

The game the spring football world has been waiting for is the Stallions vs the BattleHawks. This match up features the two best quarterbacks in the entire UFL. This game should and will be the UFL Championship with these two teams left standing. The XFL powerhouse vs the USFL powerhouse. Last Sunday the Stallions prevailed and Adrian Martinez showed he is the best quarterback in this league. Martinez completed 21-33 passes for 230 yards with three touchdown passes. No mistakes. He even used his legs to scamper for another 60 yards. He managed to hit his trio of play makers at the wide receiver position with a touchdown strike. Deon Cain, Marlon Williams, and the game winner goes to Kevin Austin Jr. The Stallions defense limited AJ McCarron to 161 passing yards. It was a great game but at the end the Stallions show they are still the team to beat in spring football.

#2. ST.LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS (5-2) SAME SPOT FROM LAST WEEK

AJ McCarron returned to his ole stomping grounds where he was part of the football factory at the University of Alabama. Seems like Alabama these days are producing a spring football dynasty in the Stallions. Overall the game of the year was what a typical fan would want with teams exchanging scores and multiple lead changes. The football gods made it happen. At the end, the BattleHawks were not as crisp as they usually are on offense. The day and game belonged to the BattleHawks running back who scored three touchdowns: two on the ground and a receiving touchdown. McCarron was under 200 yards passing and threw an interception and suffered an ankle injury in the biggest game of the UFL this season. None of McCarron’s play makers in the receiving core made noise. The BattleHawks defense battled all game long. St. Louis had a lead late in the game. It was suddenly erased by the Stallions. How would this game play out in St. Louis? If these two teams make it to the championship, St. Louis is the host for the first ever UFL Championship. Could be a fun rematch. Maybe the Stallion will be like the Patriots going for the perfect season. Then the BattleHawks could be the Giants and play spoilers. Anything could happen.

#3. MICHIGAN PANTHERS (5-2) SAME SPOT FROM LAST WEEK

The Michigan Panthers strengths are their defense and running game. They have the best kicker in the UFL in Jake Bates. The Panthers still winning despite musical chairs at the quarterback position. The Panthers original starting QB to start the season, EJ Perry, is done for the season. The Panthers were rolling with Danny Etling the last two games. The team is 2-0 when he is the starter. On a trip to the nations capital to play the Defenders, a tough place to win, the Panthers were looking to former Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke for leadership. Etling was listed as the team’s emergency QB number three on the pecking order. It was Lewerke’s replacement that helped the Panthers pull out a big win on the road.

Bryce Perkins came in and completed 11-13 passes for 116 yards. Perkins has some NFL experience as he started a game for the Rams in 2022. On that day he completed 13-23 passes for 100 yards with touchdown pass but two interceptions. Perkins had the strong running game behind him as Matthew Colburn II averaged 8.6 yards per carry as he exploded for 137 yards on the day. Wes Hills had another rushing touchdown – his 5th in the last three games. You know who had three field goals? Mr. Bates. The defense held the Defenders to 9 points.

#4. SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS (5-2) MOVED UP ONE SPOT FROM LAST WEEK

The Brahmas pulled out another miracle at the end of the game versus Houston. It looked like the Roughnecks would be serving up Brahma burgers in Texas BBQ, but San Antonio somehow ties the game being down 12-3 in last minute of the game. Despite penalties and fumbles on the last drive, it was the back up quarterback Kevin Hogan converting a 3 point play after a John Lovett rushing touchdown to tie the game at 12. The Brahmas would get the ball right back after Reggie Roberson Jr. fumbled the ball on the kick off.

Then the Brahmas kicker Ryan Santoso gives San Antonio a walk off win with time expired on a 51 yard field goal. Wade Phillips gets the victory against the team uniform and city of Houston he coached last year in the XFL. The old Roughnecks are the Brahmas. While the Gamblers of the USFL adopted the Roughnecks name.

#5. ARLINGTON RENEGADES (1-6) MOVED UP TWO SPOTS

Finally the former XFL champions of last year, the Arlington Renegades, earn their first win in the new UFL. I guess they say 7 is the lucky number as it took that many tries to finally give head coach Bob Stoops a victory in the UFL. The Renegades have lost some close affairs this season. Two games they lost in a game winning field goal in walk off fashion. The Renegades have been playing well. They bombarded the visiting Showboats putting 47 points on the score board. They Renegades had 415 yards of offense in the game. They forced 4 turnovers of which two were interceptions. The Renegades defense leads the league in interceptions. This first win was a full team effort. Luis Perez continues to show that he is the king of the Spring fling. He completed 27-32 passes for 296 yards with three touchdown strikes. He leads the entire UFL in passing yards with 1,626. The tight end Sal Cannella hauled in another touchdown as he has back to back weeks finding the end zone.

Deveon Smith gets his first 100 yard rushing game of the season as he also had two rushing touchdowns. Look for the Renegades to play spoiler the last three weeks of the season.

#6. DC DEFENDERS (3-4) DOWN 2 SPOTS FROM LAST WEEK

The beer Snake has lost its home field edge in the Defenders world. The Defenders dormant offense scored 9 points in a home game last weekend versus the Panthers. The Defenders were held to 58 yards on the ground. Jordan Ta’amu did throw a touchdown pass but was replaced by the back up quarterback hoping for some kind of spark. Ta’amu had a 70 yard strike to Ty Scott very early in the game but the Defenders offense could not get much going after that. They went to the former Vegas Viper quarterback out of the XFL.

Jalan McClendon had 73 passing yards completing 9-14 which did not lead to anything special for the Defenders. It might be worth a try to give McClendon a start because Ta’amu has been vanilla all season long. Does the beer snake grow bigger when the Defenders lose?

#7.HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS (1-6) DOWN ONE SPOT FROM LAST WEEK

When your kicker is all of your offense, you know your team may have problems. The Roughnecks had a win in their grasp leading the Texas BBQ 12-3 with a minute left in the contest. A face mask penalty marches the Brahmas down to the red zone and they find the end zone with a touchdown. The Brahmas needed a 3 point conversion to tie the game. They got that. Then the following kick off Reggie Roberson Jr on the return coughs up the football and Brahmas take the gift wrap ball to a victory. Mark Thompson racked up only 38 yards on the ground. The Roughnecks went back to Jarrett Guarantono as the quarterback as he was the day 1 starter. He only passed for 121 yards in the air. That left the Molson beer man as the teams leading scorer for the day.

JJ Molson was 4-4 in the field goal department & accounted for all of the Roughnecks points for the day. Including a 62 yard blast off the foot of Molson. The Roughnecks are officially eliminated from the playoff contention. This team may have been eliminated after the first week of the season’s coin toss.

#8. MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS (1-6) SAME SPOT FROM LAST WEEK

The Showboats have lost 6 straight since winning their season opener. The ghost of Todd Haley seems to be with this team as they were blown out of the waters by the Renegades. They gave up 47 points which has to be the record this season for most points given up. The Renegades were winnless and now the Showboats have given Arlington their first win of the season. The dueling quarterbacks are not working for Memphis as Case Cookus and Troy Williams served up an interception to the Renegades defense. For Williams he now has 5 interceptions for the season. Cookus has 4 interceptions for the season.

Darius Victor, once that star general for New Jersey in the USFL, was once upon a time ago a force for that team. Victor has been a bowling ball knocking down defenders like pins.

This season with the Showboats, Victor has been abused by the pins aka the opposing teams defense. Versus the Renegades, he was held once again to 33 yards. For the season, Victor has 82 carries for 239 yards with one touchdown. That equals out to no motor boating in Memphis this season. The league may want to bring the Tampa Bay Bandits back next season to replace the Showboats who originally were replaced by Memphis.