The Birmingham Stallions will play the Michigan Panthers in their next two United Football League games. The Stallions already own a 20-13 victory over the Panthers on April 7.

But the Michigan team that Birmingham beat in Week 2 of the season isn’t the same as the Panthers who will oppose the Stallions in the regular-season finale on Saturday and the UFL playoffs on June 8.

“They’ve changed quite a bit,” Birmingham coach Skip Holtz said. “They’ve changed philosophies. Offensively, they’ve become much more open. They started running their quarterback much more after our game. They had an injury to their starter. Their backup went in last week and is very athletic. They started running him a lot more. Doing the zone read. They got away from a traditional professional offense – the pro sets and just turning and handing the ball off. A lot more RPOs, zone reads, utilizing their quarterback running game and playing the game much more wide open offensively. …

“Definitely offensively, it’s a totally different game plan put in to try to stop what they do now to what they did eight weeks ago when we played them the second week of the season.”

Michigan quarterback E.J. Perry went down with a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 4. The Panthers haven’t lost since even though they’ve played three quarterbacks and lost Wes Hills, the 2023 All-USFL running back, to a season-ending quadriceps injury along the way.

Danny Etling started at quarterback the first two games after Perry’s departure, then missed two games with a hand injury. Brian Lewerke started those two games before Etling came back for Sunday’s 26-22 victory over the Houston Roughnecks.

During its last three games, Michigan has brought Bryce Perkins off the bench for an offensive jolt. Signed by the Panthers after Perry went down, Perkins has completed 30-of-37 passes for 343 yards with two touchdowns and one interception and run for 144 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries.

In its first four games, the Michigan offense averaged 98.75 rushing yards and 168.25 passing yards. In the past five games, those averages have risen to 144.6 rushing yards and 178.4 passing yards.

Hills ran for five touchdowns in the first three games after Perry’s injury, and Matt Coburn III has helped the Panthers push forward on the ground with 336 yards and three touchdowns on 69 carries over the past five games.

The Stallions and Michigan square off at 1 p.m. CDT Saturday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham. ESPN will televise the game.

The teams will line up again at 2 p.m. June 8 at Protective Stadium in the USFL Conference Championship Game. The winner will advance to the UFL Championship Game on June 16 in St. Louis.

The Stallions’ leading tackler, linebacker Kyahva Tezino said the Birmingham defense could gain beneficial insight about the new-look Michigan offense this week before the postseason game next week.

“I think it’s definitely a good test, just for the players to get a look at the type of players that they have,” Tezino said. “Maybe they’ve cut some people and signed some new people – a different quarterback. It’s definitely a good look for us, and it’s a good idea for us to play them before the actual real test.”

The “actual real test” will be an oddity for Holtz.

“We play Michigan back-to-back, which is very unique,” Holtz said. “Something that I have not been involved with. But something that we’re going through and putting two game plans together this week as we present it. Then we’ll learn some of the things they’re going to be doing to us that we’re going to have to make adjustment for for Game 2.”

Michigan’s five-game winning streak carries a caveat: The four teams beaten by the Panthers have a combined record of 9-27. Two of the victories came against the 1-8 Memphis Showboats.

“I think (coach) Mike Nolan has done a really good job with that team,” Holtz said of the Panthers. “They’re on a five-game winning streak right now coming in here. They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now. We beat them early in the year at their place 20-13, and they had the ball with two minutes to go in the game trying to find a way to get in the end zone, and our defense held them. We know it’s going to be a tight game.”

While Michigan is on a winning streak, the Stallions lost their last time out. The 18-9 setback against the San Antonio Brahmas on Saturday was Birmingham’s first loss this season and ended a 15-game winning streak for the franchise.

“We need to come back,” Holtz said. “We need to get back on a winning track. We need to get back to where we’re executing at a high level because you want to be playing your best at the end of the year.”

Holtz is happy to be playing two more games at home, giving the Stallions another opportunity to send into the end-zone bleachers the particular cadre of fans who pull off their shirts in crucial situations and swing them over their heads like Pittsburgh Steelers’ Terrible Towels as veritable bared-back riders in support of Birmingham.

“Excited that we have the opportunity to play it at home,” Holtz said. “It’s supposed to be about 80 degrees on Saturday, so, please, we need people to come out, support the Stallions here. We’ve only got two guaranteed games at home with Michigan the next two weeks.”

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