More than four years past his final game for UAB, Austin Watkins is still playing with what he calls the “Coach Clark mentality.”

The Birmingham Stallions wide receiver spent three seasons with coach Bill Clark at UAB, and the Blazers played in the Conference USA Championship Game annually.

Watkins described the mentality as: “Just go hard.”

“Coach Clark, he definitely helped me a lot,” Watkins said.

Watkins had 57 receptions for 1,092 yards and six touchdowns in 2019, becoming the third UAB player with 1,000 receiving yards in a season. The next year, Watkins earned All-C-USA recognition.

Watkins is looking forward to playing in Birmingham again again.

Watkins made his first return to the Magic City in 2023 in his first stint with the Stallions. That was in the USFL, which merged after that season with the XFL to form the Stallions’ current affiliation – the United Football League.

In the USFL, the Stallions trained in Birmingham as well as played their home games at Protective Stadium. In the UFL, the Stallions still play their home games in Birmingham, but the league holds practices for all eight of its teams in Arlington, Texas.

“I miss Birmingham, for sure,” Watkins said from the Stallions’ training camp on Friday.

He said he hopes to get some hot lemon-peppered wings from the American Deli while in town.

After UAB, Watkins joined the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted rookie. He sustained a broken foot in the 49ers’ 2021 preseason opener but was able to join the NFL team’s practice squad later in the season.

In 2022, Watkins was on the rosters of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders before entering the USFL in October by signing with the Tampa Bay Bandits. The Bandits moved to Memphis and became the Showboats, and the Showboats shipped Watkins to the Stallions in a trade on Jan. 11, 2023.

Watkins caught a 61-yard touchdown pass on Birmingham’s first offensive snap of the 2023 season, which ended for the Stallions with a 28-12 victory over the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL Championship Game.

A month later on the same field as the USFL title game, Watkins caught a 22-yard touchdown pass to provide the deciding points in the Cleveland Browns’ 21-16 victory over the New York Jets in the NFL’s Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.

Watkins spent the 2023 season on the Browns’ practice squad. In 2024, he went through the offseason, training camp and preseason with the Philadelphia Eagles, but didn’t survive the cut to the regular-season roster limit. That led Watkins back to the Stallions for the 2025 spring season.

“Just trying to prove a point,” Watkins said of his return to Birmingham. “I belong in the NFL.”

In the 2023 preseason, Watkins had 16 receptions for 257 yards and two touchdowns. He led the NFL in preseason receiving yards by 62, but he didn’t make it past Cleveland’s practice squad.

“In the UFL, there’s talent,” Watkins said. “If you can play, you can play. But in the NFL, there’s a lot more to it. You got a lot to deal with, like draft picks. It’s a lot more to deal with. It’s not just: I’m better than this guy; I’m playing. There’s more to it.”

Watkins said the time spent in the NFL “definitely helped me, for sure. More on the mature side. Just knowing what to expect, how to read keys on the field, how to take notes and stuff.”

With the Stallions “definitely looking good on both sides” in training camp under the tutelage of a “great coaching staff,” Watkins has high hopes for the 2025 campaign.

“I just want another championship,” Watkins said.

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