Is this the most underrated coach in Football? By Tyler Duke

What if I told you that the same team would win a championship 3 years in a row with different quarterbacks each year? Wouldn’t you expect that coach to be a sought-after coaching candidate for the NFL or even college if they succeeded in a lesser league?

This is the reality for Skip Holtz as he just won his third championship in a row as the head coach of the Birmingham Stallions all while having different quarterbacks each year. The biggest question Holtz faces is whether he will draw any interest from other professional leagues or if he will be back in Birmingham for another year.

How did Skip Holts get here?

Skip is the son of legendary coach and announcer Lou Holtz, Skip has served as head coach for UConn, University of South Florida, and Louisiana Tech before taking the head coaching job in Birmingham. Holtz also had a stint as the Offensive Coordinator of Notre Dame.

Why is Skip Holtz still in Birmingham? There are many reasons Holtz is still in Birmingham coaching the Stallions, Holtz has had many failures in the college football landscape which could be the reason why the NFL and college football are unwilling to take a chance on him.

The primary reason though has to do with the league he is coaching in an unproven league in the UFL,  as well as the USFL in 2023, and 2022. While the argument can be made that we don’t know how close UFL competition is to college or even the NFL what Holtz has been able to do in Birmingham is incredible

In 2022 Holtz coached the Stallions to a 9-1 record winning with J’Marr Smith as their quarterback throwing for just under 1600 yards although this team had a solid run game as C.J. Marable ran for 401 yards and Bo Scarborough ran for 352 yards. This was also the year of Victor Bolden as he had a great year returning punts and kickoffs and had 415 receiving yards. What’s so interesting about this year is that this was the worst quarterback play the Stallions would see of any of their 3 championships while J’Marr Smith had close to 1600 passing yards he threw for 10 touchdowns and 6 interceptions meaning he didn’t take care of the ball. The Stallions would beat the Philadelphia Stars 30 to 33.

In 2023 it was Alex McGough who was the Stallions starting quarterback after his play in the 2022 USFL championship got the Stallions the lead late in the fourth. McGough had the best season of his career he threw for 2,105 yards with 20 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. C.J. Marable would have 524 yards with McGough running for 403, the Stallions would have a record of 8 wins and 2 losses while beating the Pittsburg Maulers 28 to 12. McGough would leave the Stallions after this year and join the Green Bay Packers as a wide receiver.

The 2024 season would be different for the Stallions as they were playing in the UFL the Stallions would again have a nine-win and one-loss season this time it would be the combination of Adrian Martinez and Matt Corral early on before Adrian Martinez would eventually be the full-time starter for the Stallions. Adrian Martinez would have 1,750 passing yards with 13 touchdowns and just three interceptions. Adrian Martinez would win the UFL Most Valuable Player award in the UFL’s inaugural season and the Stallions would cement their place in UFL history as the first champions of the UFL as they would shut out the Brahmas 25 to nothing.

So while Skip Holtz doesn’t get a lot of attention as an elite coach right now that doesn’t mean he won’t in the future. As we can see Holtz was able to win championships with different ways of engineering offense the first year was a run-heavy scheme, with a quarterback that wasn’t extremely accurate or efficient with the other two years playing to his best players' strengths on offense which just happened to be his quarterback. It isn’t often that we see offensive-minded coaches change their entire system every year but Holtz has done that in his first three years in Birmingham and he has been rewarded for it with three championships. 

While it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to see Skip stay in Birmingham because every sports league needs recognizable faces as the NBA has Lebron James and the NFL has Patrick Mahomes there is always a question on how long will Skip Holtz stay in Birmingham before he moves on to greener pastures whether it be the NFL or college football.