The starting quarterbacks for the teams in the final game of Week 7 of the XFL season are former Coastal Alabama prep stars – the St. Louis Battlehawks’ AJ McCarron from St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile and the Houston Roughnecks’ Brandon Silvers from Gulf Shores.

But an arm injury has put the unique QB matchup in jeopardy. Silvers did not practice on Friday, and the Roughnecks’ injury report listed his participation status for Sunday’s game as questionable.

The Battlehawks and Roughnecks are scheduled to square off at 1 p.m. CDT Sunday at TDECU Stadium in Houston. ESPN will televise the game.

McCarron is four years older than Silvers, but he knows the younger quarterback.

“I know B,” McCarron said on Wednesday. “We train together some in the offseason every year. I’ve known him for a while. He played high school ball down there in Gulf Shores, and I tried to keep up with him a little bit while he was at Troy while I could.

“He’s played awesome. It’s awesome to see him playing well. It’s been two tough weeks for him, two losses in a row, but he had his team at 4-0 and sitting on top of the league. He’s been a great player for a while, and it’s always good to see someone, especially from your hometown, succeed and play well. I’ve been proud of him.”

After St. Paul’s, McCarron went to Alabama, where he started for two BCS national championship teams, earned All-America recognition as a senior and finished as the runner-up for the 2013 Heisman Trophy.

McCarron spent eight seasons in the NFL before joining the XFL this season. In six games with St. Louis, McCarron has completed 131-of-194 passes for 1,322 yards with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions. McCarron leads the XFL in touchdown passes.

After Gulf Shores, Silvers went to Troy, where he was a four-year starter. Silvers set an NCAA freshman record for completion percentage, earned first-team All-Sun Belt Conference recognition in 2016 and helped the Trojans win 21 games, including two bowls, in his final two seasons.

Between Troy and the Roughnecks, Silvers was on the offeseason roster of the NFL’s New York Jets and played quarterback for the Alliance of American Football’s Memphis Express, XFL’s Seattle Dragons and Spring League’s Conquerors.

For Houston this season, Silvers has completed 123-of-199 passes for 1,300 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions.

The Roughnecks won their first four games in 2023 but closed a three-game road trip by losing to the Seattle Sea Dragons 21-14 on March 16 and D.C. Defenders 37-26 on Monday night.

The Battlehawks also have a 4-2 record, with both losses coming against the Defenders, the XFL’s only undefeated team.

Houston holds a 1.5-game lead in the XFL South after the Arlington Renegades dropped to 3-4 with a 24-15 loss to the Seattle Sea Dragons on Friday night.

Seattle’s fifth consecutive victory moved the Sea Dragons to 5-2 – one-half game ahead of St. Louis as the teams battle for the XFL North’s other playoff spot behind the Defenders. Each XFL team plays a 10-game regular season.

If Silvers can’t play, the Roughnecks have been using Cole McDonald as a change-of-pace/short-yardage quarterback this season. While Silvers is a dropback passer, McDonald has 131 rushing yards and 211 passing yards this season.

Seattle’s victory over Arlington gave the North an 8-1 record against the South in interdivision games in 2023.

McCarron doesn’t think that stat is worth thinking about for the Battlehawks on Sunday.

“It’s football,” McCarron said. “You play week-to-week, and it doesn’t matter who you have. You’re going to get the best from everybody, everybody’s best game. Listen, that’s what I was preaching last week. Vegas came in 1-4, and I said multiple times that was the best 1-4 team I’ve seen in a long time. You got talent all over the field.

“We’re both 4-2 this week. They’ve had two tough weeks back-to-back. They were undefeated for a reason at one point, and they’re a super-talented team. They got talent all over, so if we show up with that mentality, we’ll get our asses whupped, especially playing down there, so we got to show up and play our ‘A’ game and be the best version of the Battlehawks that we can be.”

McCarron and Silvers aren’t the only former Alabama prep standouts involved in Sunday’s game. John Yarbrough from Homewood High School is the Roughnecks’ left guard.

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