Stallions home opener is Saturday

The Birmingham Stallions professional football team will play in front of their home crowd at Protective Life Stadium in Birmingham for the first time this season Saturday after having to open with two games on the road. The Stallions return home undefeated at 2 and 0 and in sole possession of first place in the USFL Conference. They play the Memphis Showboats (1 and 1) in what is an important conference matchup.

The Stallions are in the Ultimate Football League (UFL) this year after the USFL and XFL merger. The Stallions won the USFL championship in both seasons of the USFL's existence and are hoping for similar success in this new league.

Birmingham defeated the Michigan Panthers 20 to 13 last Sunday to secure their second win this season.

"It's great to win," said Coach Skip Holtz. "We have got some guys that really bought in."

The Stallions will need to improve on their red zone offense as the season moves forward. They had five scoring drives; but had to settle for field goal attempts on four of those drives. Fortunately for the Stallions, kicker Chris Dewitt was four for four on his kicks.

"I think our red zone offense was horrible," Holtz said. "We made a lot of mistakes down there. We have got to get that cleaned up."

This is Holtz's third season as the Stallions head coach.

Starting quarterback Matt Corral was held to just five completions on twelve attempts for only 53 yards and threw a costly red zone interception. The Stallions use a two-quarterback system where Adrian Martinez is more of a dual threat style athletic quarterback. Martinez contributed 88 yards passing and 65 yards rushing.

"Adrian Martinez was able to extend some plays with his feet, so did Corral," "We have two quarterbacks. I think they are both really solid quarterbacks. Maybe I am taking stats away one guy by getting two quarterbacks ready." "Right now, I plan on getting both quarterbacks ready and see how it progresses."

Corral has only completed 51.5% of his passes and has one touchdown on the season; while Martinez is at 47.6% and no touchdowns through the air.

Running back C.J. Marable is the teams leading rusher on the season with 121 yards on 32 attempts. Martinez is second with 117 yards on 11 attempts.

"We have just got to keep getting better," said Holtz. "I think this is the best talent we have had since we have been here."

Saturday's game will be at 6:00 p.m. and is televised on Fox.

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