For players, the UFL offers a chance to jump ship to the NFL or stay in the sport for as long as possible. What is the appeal of the UFL for big-name coaches?
“I love the game of football,” said Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz, a former Division I coach at East Carolina, South Florida and Louisiana Tech. “I love the life lessons it teaches you. Football is tough. It's tough. It's physically tough, mentally tough. But the lesson football teaches you is that life is tough.”
Phillips, head coach of the San Antonio Brammers, has been in the business since 1969 and has worked for 10 NFL teams, serving as a full-time or interim head coach six times. He had been away from the game since 2019, but found himself drawn back to his calling when the XFL offered him the chance to manage his hometown team, the Houston Roughnecks, last year.
“This is my job. It's a job I love,” Phillips said. “They gave me the opportunity. I didn't get that opportunity in the NFL, but I still wanted to coach, and I'm grateful they gave me that opportunity.”
At 76, Phillips stays active by doing what he loves most, and comforting loved ones too.
“Well, my wife wants me to get out,” Phillips said. “We've been together a long time, 55 years, so it works out well. And I've spent most of that time coaching. Coaching is something I love, and my wife knows that. She loves that I'm coaching. Like I say, I'm blessed to have a job at my age.”
That feeling explains why joining a league that may seem like a step down to the outside world feels different to those on the inside.
“I love this game,” said Stoops, the Arlington Renegades coach. “… I enjoy the strategy of the game. I enjoy the camaraderie and the friendship of the team and being with other guys who love the game, coaches and players. So it's a combination of all of those things that I really enjoy.”
Stoops shocked the football world in 2017 when he retired from the University of Oklahoma. After 18 seasons in Norman, a 2000 BCS national champion and 10-time Big 12 Conference champion, Stoops wanted some free time, and the freedom to do what he wanted while he was there. In 2020, he used the free time on his calendar to join the XFL and coach the Dallas Renegades before the coronavirus pandemic forced the league to cancel the 2020 season. Stoops stayed on and led the rebranded Arlington Renegades to the XFL championship last season. When the XFL and USFL merged to form the UFL, he returned for his third season as the Renegades' coach.
“When I retired from Oklahoma, nobody believed me at first, but then I realized there was nothing wrong,” Stoops said. “Obviously, I wasn't being pushed out. I just wanted my own time and space. Like the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for. You can have too much of your own time and space. It's that simple. This takes up part of my year. I get to do what I love, which is coaching football and being with a bunch of guys who love football. They're fun people to be around. When I leave the field, I don't have to go to academic meetings. I don't have to go to compliance meetings. I don't have to go to recruiting meetings. I don't have to call Johnny's parents because Johnny's not coming to class. That's how it is. I love football, I love players who love the game and love to play, and they're easy to coach. It all comes together.”
Holtz, the 2023 USFL Coach of the Year, compiled a 29-4 record in spring football and won USFL championships in 2022 and 2023. (His Stallions have the UFL's best record this season and will face the Michigan Panthers in the USFL Conference Finals.) He coached in college for 34 seasons, 22 of them as head coach. But when Louisiana Tech fired Holtz in 2021 after nine seasons and seven bowl appearances, he was eager to move on to his next role.
“I've rediscovered the joy of coaching 22- to 30-year-old athletes who are trying to restart or establish their careers,” Holtz said. “It's really refreshing…”
“I've enjoyed spring football more than any other job I've had as a coach, and that's because the crowds are so enthusiastic, so engaged. Everybody's here for a reason. They're not here just because they're getting a paycheck. They're not here just because they're getting a scholarship. They're here because they want to get better. They're here because they want to improve their game. They're like sponges.”
in front Holtz, who will take over as head coach with the Stallions in 2022, had his wife try to convince him to retire.
“I'm not done yet,” Holtz said. “I'm not ready to get out on the boat and go fishing or play golf or whatever. I feel like there's so much more to do in life. I'm 60 now and I just don't feel like it.”
All eight UFL teams practice and train in Arlington, Texas, and travel across the U.S. for weekend games. Each team has the same facilities and resources, something the coaches say they appreciate even if it's different from what they're used to.
“There's nothing that can compare to what we have in college,” Stoops said, “It's different, but we have what it takes to be successful. I think it's incredibly positive. The things we have to work with are really good and good and positive and help the players and help us as coaches. But you can't compare it.”
“The NFL certainly has a lot of perks and the NFL was not going to disband the team that I was coaching. [like with the Roughnecks staff and players being let go during the XFL-USFL merger]”We'll have to wait and see how the merger goes, but I think it's going to work out. Obviously, I thought the XFL was going to work out, but I think in the long run, this league has a better chance,” Phillips said.
The UFL does not disclose salaries, and Holtz acknowledged his salary is not close to what he made as a college coach, but said he is paid fairly and did not get into coaching for the money.
“It gives me the opportunity to chase a dream instead of chasing a paycheck,” Holtz said of the UFL.
Phillips said money wasn't an issue in his decision to participate in the spring football league, while for Stoops, the salary justified the investment of time and energy.
“Obviously it was worth it, or I wouldn't have done it,” Stoops said, “… If you're comparing my salary at OU to a spring football league that's just starting up, you're not comparing apples to apples. This is going to be good. It's going to be successful and very successful. I know it will be. But it's going to grow over time.”
Holtz, who was once reluctant to coach professional football, said he would listen if the NFL called. Including his time last year as a special assistant to interim coach David Brown at Northwestern, Holtz has coached 34 games in the past 14 months. And he said he enjoys coaching spring football so much that he turned down multiple college opportunities.
Winning is important to these coaches, but they also said they will be rewarded if their players perform in the NFL.
“We help them to showcase their abilities and talents in a place where others can see them, giving them more opportunities. [the] “Obviously when you start out, you want to win, whether it's the NFL or not, but the most important thing is to give our players a great experience, to allow them to continue to develop and to give them a strong platform to showcase their talent and ability,” Stoops said.
Reggie Barlow of the DC Defenders, named the 2023 XFL Coach of the Year, said he got the job because of the mentors who shaped him from youth football through his eight-year NFL career as a wide receiver and returner. He wrote down lessons he learned from them about the game and life in a notepad. Like Stoops, Barlow wants to shape his students into NFL players, but he also wants to guide them in the transition to life after football.
“They're things that feed my soul,” Barlow said. “And that's why I do this. The two most important days in our lives are the day we're born and the day we realize why we were born. And I believe that God above put me here to serve in this capacity, so that's why I'm here to serve.”
