In its season-opener on Sunday, Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz wants his team to “pick the ball up, throw it to first base.”

It’s the right time of year for that kind of talk, as Holtz made the remark on Thursday – Opening Day in Major League Baseball. But the Stallions play in the United Football League.

Holtz mixed sports to illustrate his first-game emphasis: Birmingham needs to do the routine routinely when it plays the DC Defenders on Sunday to start the franchise’s fourth season.

“I’m more concerned in this opening game with us,” Holtz said. “How do we play assignment-wise? Not blowing assignments, giving our players the opportunity to make the routine play and not trying to make everything hard. Trying to eliminate lost-yardage plays. Trying to eliminate busted coverages where you’re giving up big plays on defense.

“The unknown of how your team is going to respond when things go bad. Do they start howling at each other, do we start barking at each other or do we start picking each other up? How well are we going to work together as a team? We have so many new faces, I think before we can worry about our opponent, we got to make sure we take care of our business.

“I use that saying all the time: Pick the ball up, throw it to first base. And in opening games, you got to be able to make the routine play. If you can make the routine play and eliminate the catastrophic plays, the turnovers, the pick-sixes, the big sacks, things along those lines, if you can eliminate that, you give yourself an opportunity to be in the game at the end of the game.”

The Stallions play the Defenders at 2 p.m. CDT Sunday at Audi Field in Washington in the final game of the UFL’s opening weekend. ESPN will televise the contest.

“Ready to play an opponent,” Holtz said. “For 30 days, we’ve been going against each other. We’ve had some very spirited practices. I say that from the standpoint that I am constantly trying to slow them down. As we’ve gone through 30 days, they are itching to get started. …

“I’m excited to see what this team can become. We’ve talked a lot about every year you have a new football team. We have some new faces, but we have some new personalities, new chemistry. We’ve got to continue to try to jell as a football team, and that’s going to be a work in progress.”

The Defenders open the season one week after announcing coach Reggie Barlow had left to take over the football program at Tennessee State. DC quarterbacks coach Shannon Harris is the interim head coach, but the Defenders’ coordinators – Fred Kaiss on offense and Gregg Williams on defense – remain unchanged.

“When your coordinators stay the same, for us, I can’t see them reinventing the wheel at this point,” Holtz said. “They promoted the quarterback coach. The offensive coordinator stayed the same; the defensive coordinator stayed the same. I’m sure he’s probably going to have some wrinkles with his involvement in the offense, but we’ve got to pretty much go on what we can see. Now, first game, you never know what you’re going to get.”

Birmingham won the USFL championships for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. After the USFL and the XFL merged to form the United Football League, the Stallions won another title in 2024.

In each of those championship seasons, Birmingham used more than one quarterback, even though a Stallions quarterback has been the league MVP in each of the past two campaigns.

One of those has returned to Birmingham, with 2023 MVP Alex McGough back after spending time with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. Also returning is Matt Corral, who started three games last season.

Holtz was not ready to say on Thursday which quarterback would start on Sunday.

“I think they’re both doing a really good job,” Holtz said. “I feel very comfortable with either one playing right now. I think obviously they both have a year under their belt. They’ve both started for us. They both won for us. They’re both very talented players. I’ve got to make that decision (Friday).”

Thursday’s participation report listed McGough as limited at practice because of a left quadriceps injury.

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