Quarterback Alex McGough will not be along for another championship run by the Birmingham Stallions after playing a pivotal role in two league titles. According to the UFL transaction report released on Tuesday night, McGough has returned to injured reserve.

But Birmingham will have another quarterback option in its quest to four-peat because Matt Corral has returned from injured reserve. Corral joins a depth chart that features current starter J’Mar Smith, Andrew Peasley and Chase Cookus.

Also coming back from IR in time for another postseason is long snapper Ryan Langan, who has been with the team through three championships.

The Stallions open the United Football League playoffs against the Michigan Panthers in the USFL Conference Championship Game at 2 p.m. CDT Sunday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham. ABC will televise the game.

The Stallions used four starting quarterbacks to compile a 7-3 regular-season record, the best in the USFL Conference and one game better than Michigan.

The quarterback line started with McGough. McGough had been on the field when the Stallions won two USFL Championship games and earned the USFL Most Valuable Player Award for the 2023 season.

In the USFL Championship Game on July 3, 2022, McGough threw a touchdown pass with 3:09 to play to give the Stallions the lead on their way to a 33-30 victory over the Philadelphia Stars. McGough was in for Smith, who had left the game with a leg injury.

In 2023, Smith sustained a dislocated finger during the opening game of the season. McGough stepped in and won the league’s MVP Award. He capped the campaign by throwing for four touchdowns in Birmingham’s 28-12 victory over the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL Championship Game.

McGough returned from the NFL’s Green Bay Packers to Birmingham for the 2025 campaign and started the first two games of the season. But on the Stallions’ first snap of the second game, McGough sustained a shoulder injury that landed him on injured reserve and kicked off a series of quarterback injuries for Birmingham.

Corral took over for McGough, completed a 21-12 victory over the Panthers on April 4 and started the next two games. But in a 23-16 victory over the Houston Roughnecks on April 19, Corral left in the fourth quarter with an injury that sent him to injured reserve, too.

Corral rejoins the Stallions right at the point where he made a key contribution to Birmingham’s United Football League championship in 2024.

Corral started three of the Stallions’ first four games last season, but he gave way to Adrian Martinez, who came on to win the UFL Most Valuable Player Award.

That didn’t keep Birmingham coach Skip Holtz from pulling Martinez from an 18-18 game against Michigan in the league semifinals for Corral, who responded with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes as the Stallions advanced to the UFL Championship Game with a 31-18 victory.

Corral’s injury this season put Case Cookus into the lineup at quarterback. Cookus started three games, but he left a 33-25 victory over the Houston Roughnecks on May 11 with a fourth-quarter injury.

That put Smith under center for Birmingham, and he was on the field for two touchdown series as the Stallions completed the biggest comeback in UFL history to beat the Roughnecks.

Birmingham lost its first game with Smith as the starter 29-28 to the St. Louis Battlehawks on May 17, but defeated Michigan 26-22 on May 24 and the Memphis Showboats 46-9 on Sunday.

Although he was working at Dunkin’ when the season started and didn’t join the Stallions until Corral’s injury, Smith has completed 52-of-80 passes for 758 yards with six touchdowns and one interception and run for 90 yards and one touchdown on 22 carries since returning for Birmingham.

McGough originally came off injured reserve with three games remaining in the regular season, but he never got on the field.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.