I feel like this first ever UFL championship comes down to who shoots J.R? Between San Antonio and Birmingham, this is one of those Cowboy it up style of fan bases meeting in archtown. Wade Phillips is a true Texan. Then the Stallions fans wearing their cowboy hats waiting to slaughter the Brahmas like they did back in the days of the Alamo. The state of Texas versus the state of Alabama in a true hoedown. A true battle of the south in spring football. Let’s see if we can decide on the winner.

USFL CHAMPS: BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS VS XFL CHAMPS: SAN ANTONIO BRAHMAS

STALLIONS (9-1) Playoffs (1-0), BRAHMAS (7-3) Playoffs (1-0)

CONFERENCE RESULTS

Stallions knocked off the Panthers 31-18 to win the USFL conference.

Brahmas knocked off the BattleHawks 25-15 to win the XFL conference.

HEAD TO HEAD THIS SEASON

Brahmas beat Stallions 18-9 in week 9 their only meeting of the year.

We take the hot tub time machine back to 1985 in spring football of the original USFL.

They were the San Antonio Gunslingers of the USFL back in 1985 as they played the Birmingham Stallions once when it counted in regular season. The Gunslingers won 15-14 versus the Stallions on April 7th of ’85.

The only loss of the year to the Stallions was from the Brahmas who snapped a 15 game winning streak dating back to 2023 for Birmingham. The Brahmas have beaten the two best teams in the league as they took care of the BattleHawks in St. Louis to get here last week. The Stallions had a game with the Panthers. They pulled away from Michigan late in that contest to beat the Panthers for the 3rd time this season. The Stallions had the best record in the entire UFL. The Brahmas were number two seed and prevailed in the XFL Conference game.

QUARTERBACK

Adrian Martinez has been one of the best quarterbacks in the UFL. Martinez is a duel threat who can beat you with arm or legs. Chase Garbers is a pocket passer that wants to pick you apart with precision passes. Garbers only played in 5 regular season games as he tallied up 750 passing yards with six touch down passes and two interceptions. Martinez tallied up 1,750 passing yards and had 15 touchdown passes with 3 interceptions. With the legs, Martinez was numbered in the league in rushing yards with 528 and scored 3 rushing touchdowns. Grabers completes 68.6% of his passes while Martinez is completing 58.5% of his passes. Garbers is the key to the Brahmas success. Back up quarterbacks you have to favor the Stallions. If I was a Stallions fan, Martinez makes me nervous the last few weeks as he has struggled behind center. He was taken out of the game last week for back up Matt Corral. Corral is my X factor in this game. Coming in Brahmas have the better QB 1.

EDGE: SAN ANTONIO

THE PLAY MAKERS

The Brahmas have the best two headed monster at the running back position. John Lovett is the guy they run in between the tackles as he had 5 rushing touchdowns for the Brahmas. Then Anthony McFarland can create havoc out of the back field and really juice up that passing game. McFarland can get chunks of yards in open field. He is a game changer.

The Brahmas offensive coordinator AJ Smith has one of the best offensive minds in the UFL. He has a trio of talented wide receivers that can make big plays that feature Justin Smith, Marquez Stevenson, and Jontre Kirklin. Kirlin finished number two in the UFL with 614 yards with 56 catches.

The Stallions have the best tight end in the game with Jace Sternberger. Sternberger hauled in 42 passes for 454 yards with 4 receiving touchdowns. The Stallions use a slew of running backs along with Adrian Martinez escaping the pocket for chunks of yardage. Ricky Person is a Stallions back that has found the end zone six times this season. The Stallions also have weapons in the aerial attack. They have Deon Cain, Marlon Williams who had 4 touchdown catches this season, Kevin Austin Jr. and Amari Rodgers.

EDGE: DRAW

In the regular season the Stallions offense were number one averaging 347.5 yards per game. The Brahmas averaged 296.6 which is 4th in the UFL. The Stallions led the league averaging 26.5 points per game. The Brahmas averaged 19.3 points per game which is number 6 in the UFL.

DEFENSE

The Stallions and the Brahmas are the best two defenses in the league. The Stallions’ Taco Charlton can get to your quarterback while AJ Thomas can steal the ball from your quarterback for the Brahmas. Both units have a ton of talent on the defensive side of the ball. The Brahmas defense is only giving up 15.3 points per game which is the best in the UFL. The Stallions are number two giving up 18 points per game. The Stallions defense leads the league in takeaways with 17. The Brahmas are surprisingly last in that category. The Brahmas have tallied 32 total sacks while the Stallions right behind them with 29.

EDGE: DRAW

HEAD COACHES:

Head to head Wade Phillips beat the great Skip Holtz only a few weeks ago. It took 55 years of coaching for Phillips to reach his first championship. Holtz has found himself a niche in spring football. Holtz is looking for a three peat as he’s coming into this game winning back to back USFL championships. He is 31-4 as the head coach of the Stallions. That’s impressive.

EDGE: DRAW

I feel that I’m more a USFL guy than an XFL guy. The Stallions would be the team I root for in this first UFL championship game. This game should be a doozy. Two dominating defenses should keep this game a close affair and winner takes this first UFL championship in the last minute of the game. I like the Stallions roster depth. I like they have done this, been to this point before, and had great success. In close games I like the Stallions kicker, Chris Blewitt, over the Brahmas kicker, Ryan Santoso, who has struggled down the stretch. I think it is very hard to beat Skip Holtz twice in one season. Matt Corral could be the guy that saves Birmingham like he did last week. Chase Garbers is still playing with that sore wrist, so we can’t forget about that. His back up is Quentin Dormady which the Stallions would love to see just because of takeaways. In the end I’m picking Stallions in this one. Until I see a team knock them off I have to go Birmingham.

OUR PICK: BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS