“This has been built over a very long process, a lifetime journey of football,” Holtz said. “And for me, having been very blessed to have some unbelievable tutors in this game, working for Bobby Bowden, working for Earle Bruce and working for Lou Holtz. … Here’s what you learn: It’s not whether you run it, it’s not whether you throw it. There are certain things that are really important in a football game.
“We have a formula that we break down with our football team. I go over it every Friday night in my team meeting with them. I cover it again Saturday morning on how you win. And then we cover it every Sunday when we break down our opponent. It’s a five-step process and it’s got seven areas in game day. It’s a rather complex formula, but when you put it up on the board, it normally equals success, so I think that’s what our players have really brought into.”
For Holtz and Birmingham, the formula has equated to a 22-3 regular-season record and a 4-0 playoff mark since the revival of the USFL in 2022. The Stallions carry a 12-game winning streak into their UFL contest against the Memphis Showboats on Saturday.
Holtz said he might have the formula, but it’s the players that have provided the proof of the theory’s soundness on the football field.
“The big picture with the success that we’ve had here in spring football, we’ve had some great players and we’ve had great coaches and great teams,” Holtz said. “But we’ve talked a lot about, from the very beginning when this started, that everybody’s got talent. Talent is not what’s going to win, and we’ve got to have a formula for winning. And I think our coaches have done a great job of selling it our players, and our players have bought in and they believe in it.
“They’ve bought into it, they believe and they’ve made it work. In the three years that I’ve been here, I haven’t made a tackle, thrown a pass, scored a touchdown or carried the ball. But just trying to get these players to understand what it takes to win, that has been a very fulfilling and rewarding process for me.”
The Stallions play the Memphis Showboats at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis. ABC will televise the game.
“It always gets a little bit tricky playing the same team twice,” Holtz said. “… I think this is a team that’s evolving. They have a different quarterback than we played the first time we played them. They are schematically really starting to figure out who they are. They’re creating a lot of yards, and what they’re doing defensively, they’ve had a number of big plays. I think they pose a different challenge this week than they did three weeks ago when we played them.”
Case Cookus started at quarterback against Birmingham. The Showboats will have Troy Williams under center on Saturday. Memphis has lost its four games since starting the season with an 18-12 victory over the Houston Roughnecks.
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