The past 24 hours has been lively for the Birmingham Stallions. They lost their general manager, the UFL announced the 2025 schedule, and they re-signed two key players.
Let’s break it down further.
General Manager Zach Potter
For the past three years, the Stallions have been led by a wunderkind alongside head coach Skip Holtz. Zach Potter was 21 years old when he became General Manager of the Birmingham Stallions. Holtz joked on the 3 Man Front radio show that Potter was the "coffee guy in the back room" when Holtz hired him back in 2022. At 22, he helped lead the team to its second championship. And at 23, he helped them secure a third. While other young adults his age were trying to finish college, Potter had successfully built a dynasty out of nothing.
Of course, that sort of success never goes unnoticed. It was only a matter of time until someone came calling. And on New Year’s Day, it was announced Potter was no longer the best kept secret in Birmingham. He accepted the General Manager position at Sacramento State, an up-and-coming FCS program.
Now, with less than three months until the 2025 season kicks off, the Stallions are without a general manager. It will be interesting to see what they do. Does Skip Holtz take the reins and run the personnel side of things on top of being the head coach? Do the Stallions rush to hire someone before the NFL season ends and more players become available? Or do they take more of a wait and see approach, allowing things to develop at their own pace? Whatever they choose to do, it will be next to impossible to find someone as impactful as Potter has been to the Birmingham Stallions organization.
2025 UFL Schedule
Yesterday the 2025 UFL schedule also released. The Stallions will have five home games at Protective Stadium along with five road games around the country. The Stallions start on the road in weeks one and two before returning home for their first home game in week three.
New to the UFL this season are Friday night games. The Stallions will get an early
chance to try it out as their first home game will be on a Friday night, April 11th at Protective Stadium. Kickoff will be at 7pm, and it will be interesting to see if moving to Friday nights improves attendance and viewership. The Stallions second home game on April 25th will also be a Friday night kickoff, while the remaining three home games will be on Saturday or Sunday.
In addition to their home matchups, the Stallions have some exciting road games in 2025. They will open on the road against the D.C. Defenders, who are known to have a rowdy atmosphere with their “beer snake", a slew of cups extending across multiple sections of seats. In week eight, they travel to St. Louis to take on the Battlehawks, the undisputed attendance champions of the UFL. The Battlehawks averaged almost 35,000 fans last season, and they are sure to have a huge crowd in attendance to see what a three-time football champion looks like.
Player Re-Signings
While losing Potter stings, the Stallions got some good news yesterday when it was
announced All-UFL tight end Jace Sternberger is back for 2025. Sternberger has been
instrumental to the Stallions success over the past two years, and fans have been
clamoring for him to re-sign for months.
Sternberger was not alone, though. The Stallions also re-signed 2023 TE/WR
La’Michael Pettway. Pettway was a key part of the Stallions 2023 championship run, and it will be great to have him back in Birmingham after he spent 2024 in the NFL.
Last week it was announced that former Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral had re-signed with the Stallions for 2025. With Corral at the helm and guys like Sternberger lining up alongside him, the Stallions are poised to four-peat this spring. Quality football in Birmingham. Get to a game. Giddy Up.
