The Birmingham Stallions will open the United Football League season on Saturday with Matt Corral at quarterback.

The Stallions announced the choice for starting quarterback on Thursday night.

When Birmingham coach Skip Holtz talked to reporters on Tuesday, he said the decision on the starting QB for the season-opener against the Arlington Renegades hadn’t been made, but he did state: “I feel very comfortable that I will play more than one quarterback.”

In addition to the former Ole Miss standout, Adrian Martinez and J’Mar Smith are the quarterbacks on the Stallions’ roster.

After an injury wiped out Corral’s rookie NFL season in 2022, he spent the first two weeks of the 2023 season with the New England Patriots. Martinez was in camp with the Detroit Lions as a rookie last season but didn’t stick with the team. Smith opened each of the past two seasons as Birmingham’s starting quarterback.

“Matt, I think, has an incredibly quick release,” Holtz said on Tuesday of Corral. “I think he’s very accurate with the football. He’s got a lot of playmaking ability with his arm because I think his arm is really live and active. And I say that because I think he can throw about any throw on the field from the out to the field to the deep ball all the way across on the other side. He’s got a very strong arm and a very quick release.”

Earlier in the week, Holtz said the decision on the starting quarterback was going to be “tight.”

“I don’t think this is going to be just a one-quarterback team, and the other guys are on the bench,” Holtz said. “I think in Year 1, very similar, we played J’Mar and Alex (McGough) both, and I think they both deserved to play. Alex got hurt and J’Mar kind of took the reins and did a great job for us. And then in Year 2, J’Mar was the quarterback and then he got injured, and I though Alex did a great job of taking the reins.

“But right now, I think we have a very talented quarterback room. But even better than that, I think we have some great people who have really bought in, have great attitudes, that are working well together, that are helping each other. And so I feel really good right now that we’re all pulling the rope in the same direction. …

“I think we’re going to be able to have two quarterbacks active, and I think they will both play on game day. We’ll learn a little bit more as we go through the course of the season on how these guys are going to handle some pressure situations and how much ice is in their veins, so to speak, as a quarterback.”

Birmingham won the championship for both seasons of the rejuvenated USFL. Since the Stallions captured the 2023 title, four USFL franchises and four XFL franchises joined to form the United Football League.

That makes this more like a restart than a third season, Holtz said.

“I think there’s a lot of players that have been here that have done this that probably feel very confident,” Holtz said. “But I also think this is going to be a lot like Year 1 when we played New Jersey in the opening game and everybody was excited what it was going to be like. How are a lot of these new faces going to respond to adversity? How are we going to gel as a football team? How are we going to execute under pressure? To win that opening game, we had to execute a two-minute drill. How are we going to handle that type of situation? I think there’s a lot of unknowns with this team, but I definitely think there’s an awful lot of talent.

“As I’ve said before, I think we have more talent. You know what? So does everybody else, so I think the league is going to be much better. Really interested and excited to see how it’s all going to play out. I think probably a lot of unknowns.”

The Stallions play the Renegades at noon CDT Saturday at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas. FOX will televise the game.

The Renegades won the XFL championship last season, making the first game of the United Football League a matchup of 2023 league champions, although since they won those titles, the teams have been remade by the merger and two dispersal drafts to consolidate 16 teams into eight.

“In the game of football, there hasn’t been a three-peat champion since the Packers going back before the Super Bowl,” Holtz said. “There’s a reason: It’s not easy to do. I think with all the variable to two drafts, having to release some of your players from a protected and unprotected standpoint probably broke up some of your depth. Having all the new faces, I think it’s probably more starting from scratch for everybody – the XFL and all of the USFL teams – than it is: ‘OK, here we come. We’re back for Year 3. Same mold, same team, same schedule, same environment.’ A lot of new things, so it’s probably a little bit different than it’s been the last two years.”

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