CANTON, Ohio — Sitting in the center of the table in the heart of the Tom Benson Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night, Birmingham Stallions Coach Skip Holtz was asked a simple question: The man sitting to his right, Alex McGoughONE NFL midfielder?
That is a fair question. McGough did not start the season as the team’s starting QB, but took over, created an MVP season and ended it all with a 28-12 USFL Winning the championship first Pittsburgh Maulers.
Holtz, who spent most of his life developing senior football players in college, especially on the attacking side of the ball, didn’t hesitate. He didn’t hesitate. He has been measured, even while shining, as the first back-to-back champion head coach in any professional sport since golden empire warriors (2017-2018) and is the first coach in the 21st century to win the title in his first two seasons as a professional head coach.
He assessed McGough, steady, and said, “I think he’s as good as I’ve ever met, and I’ve met a lot of NFL quarterbacks.”
And Holtz Have around a lot of NFL QB. 2015 at Louisiana Technologyfor example, his midfielder is Jeff Driskelwho has been the NFL quarterback on six teams since 2016.
But with McGough, Holtz has found a special quarterback – someone he trusts will help him map out his weekly game plan, swap out playstyles according to scenario, capture the heartbeat of a team of players. who may not spend more this season together as teammates.
And then go win.
That’s why we’re talking about McGough this season.
Watch Alex McGough’s Monster Day at the USFL Championship
He presents himself as an athlete. You certainly don’t play college for Butch Davis, as he did, if you don’t. Pete Carroll really wants to keep McGough Eagle list where he tried McGough safely before breaking up with him. As former Super Bowl and national title-winning offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien measured McGough in Houstonhe tried to bulk up McGough so he could be their version Taysom Hill.
He’s a rudimentary, elite midfielder when play is broken, but too unreliable to read defenses and operate at a professional level. Then Holtz drafted him, he played him as much as he J’Mar Smith in 2022. He taught him not only how to foul Stallions but also how to play in that position in a way that can win football games, put good plays on tape and help him. It’s his second time in the NFL.
That’s what the USFL is for Holtz — a launch pad for talented players and coaches to find their way back to. Holtz hired a 21-year-old as his general manager. He signed with the MVP of the USFL Championship Game Deon Cain because he’s a national title winner at Clemson. He allowed the former all-American defender Scooby Wright to create the energetic identity of what has become the Birmingham defense.
[How the Stallions became a USFL power: ‘We wanted to build a dynasty’]
“I think everyone who created it had a chance,” Holtz said.
And those opportunities change lives. Working for his father, Lou, who was in Saturday’s title game, Skip wanted the chance to call plays and become offensive coordinator at Notre Dame. His father rejected him. When Bobby Bowden, head coach at State of Florida, knowing Lou wouldn’t raise his son to OC, he told the Irish head coach that he would hire Skip to run the FSU offense. And that’s how Skip Holtz became an offensive coordinator, the kind of guy with a claim to the national title in the ND.
Over the past two decades, Skip Holtz has sought to give those opportunities to those who deserve them. McGough is one such player.
McGough was that player when the former NFL player picked the first round Reuben Foster met him in the pit, helping him move ahead in fourth and first place to generate revenue on the drop.
McGough was that player when he turned a missed play on the third goal into his first conceding 11 yards. A face-covered penalty sent the ball to the Maulers’ 42-yard line. After the penalty was assessed, Holtz made a 42-yard route for McGough found davion davis in the end zone for the first TD of the game.
He was that player when the Stallions were nine – a one-point game in the USFL – and he gambled, scrambled, turned his back on the defense, ran to his end, chased and stripped by Foster by Foster. .
Through it all – successful gambles and unsuccessful gambles – McGough finished with a total of 307 yards and four passes. McGough is that player – someone who, given the chance, could be special.
Highlights: Stallions top Maulers for second title in a row
He was exceptional enough to average 350.5 yards and 4.5 touchdowns in the USFL knockouts, completing 39 of 56 passes. He’s special enough to be the only QB Carroll drafted while Russell Wilson is a Seahawk. He was selected in the seventh round in 2018 — Brock Purdy was a seventh round selection in 2022, and he came out on top San Francisco 49ers to last season’s NFC Championship Game.
McGough was crowned MVP next year General of New Jersey widen KaVontae Turpin won that honor in 2022. Turpin went on to be a Pro Bowl returnor for dalas cowboy.
The path is there for McGough to not only earn an invitation to NFL training camp, but it could also push his career to the next level.
NFL Europe, the forerunner of the modern USFL, developed Jon Kitna from the Barcelona Dragon into the successor to Hall of Famer Warren Moon as a starter for the Seahawks. That tournament also developed Jake Delhomme as a starter for Carolina Newspaper in 2003. Shaun Hill left Amsterdam Admiral – where he is now head coach Philadelphia Star coach Bart Andrus – and played 11 seasons, making 35 appearances at the highest level of professional football.
Brad Johnson leaves London Monarchs and transforms into a Super Bowl champion quarterback with Tampa Bay Buccaneers and selected Pro Bowl twice. Kurt Warner left Admiral and became a two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl champion.
But none of those men achieved in NFL Europe what McGough did in the USFL, winning the league MVP and championship. And the game is still slowing down for him.
McGough, who has been playing professionally for six years and turns 28 in November, is at his peak. He is playing his best football and has developed into the type of player that Holtz, who has coached football for 36 years, calls “my offensive coordinator.” He’s someone Holtz completely trusts to make a call, make a game, win the game.
In the NFL, they have a word for it: Wingers.
RJ Young is a writer and national college football analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young. Register “The number one college football show” on Youtube. He’s not on StepMill.
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