While the UFL appears to be just another Spring football league that has tried to provide a lasting alternative to football. What separates the UFL from the others is its real legacy as a league. The UFL’s legacy is to provide opportunities for players, coaches, and front-office personnel to grow professionally, and it has successfully done so. A large number of UFL players have moved on to NFL opportunities, and several UFL coaches have moved on to college football opportunities. In addition, former Birmingham Stallions GM Zach Potter is the next UFL product to make an impact on a bigger stage at the University of Connecticut.
Zach Potter spent three seasons as the General Manager of the Birmingham Stallions. During his time with the Stallions, Potter worked with Birmingham head coach Skip Holtz to build the best team in modern Spring football history. While Potter served as the GM of the Stallions, Birmingham won back-to-back USFL championships and the inaugural UFL championship.
The next step in Potter’s career was leaving the Birmingham Stallions and moving to the college football level, where he became the GM of the Sacramento State Hornets. While serving as the GM of Sacramento State, the Hornets turned their 3-9 record in 2024 into a 7-5 record in 2025. Potter’s success has opened the door to move on to the FBS level as the GM of the UCONN Huskies.
The Huskies have recently made a change at the head coach position, replacing Jim Mora with former University of Toledo head coach Jason Candle. Potter has a pre-existing relationship with Candle because Potter played on Toledo’s defensive line while Candle was the head coach there. The Huskies are working to turn their reputation from a top-performing college basketball program into one that also builds a nationally competitive football program.
UCONN is an independent at the FBS level, which means that if they want to have a chance to play in the College Football Playoffs, they will most likely need to go undefeated and may still need some help. Candle has established himself as a high-performing coach at Toledo, where the Rockets were a perennial Mid-American Conference power. In 2025, the Huskies posted a 9-3 record and will play against Army in the Fenway Bowl on December 27th.
Whether Potter can help the UConn program become a national football power is unclear. But Potter comes to the Huskies with a wealth of experience in building a championship team. If Potter is able to help UCONN take the next step in their program-building process, Potter will become the first UFL representative to lead a team to the College Football Playoffs at the FBS level.
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2 Comments
by Ken Granito
I think there are some mixed signals going on with the UFL. Mike Repole calls the UFL a development league something which is already a problem, hut lets follow this through as a development league. With regards to head coaching. The UFL is largely like the 2023 version of the XFL. They went with known football talents at the coaching position, but they really were inexperienced. Coaches such as Anthony Becht, Rod Woodson and Terrell Buckley were taking 1st head coaching gigs and none of them made the playoffs. Their plan was to pay players a little more and came away with with experienced NFL players. The USFL took a different approach and went with experienced coaches with the idea of developing players like Brandon Aubrey, KaVonte Turpin, Jake Bates, etc. I find it funny that the UFL wants to use inexperienced coaches and lesser players, by going after players regionally instead of best overall. It seems to me putting the best possible product on the field is not really a priority, but hoping the players come to their locales. Let’s think of this. They are trying to get players local fans can identify with. The problem with that theory is if they are big enough fans to recognize the names, they will also recognize the football sucks as their coaches are inexperienced. The development players will start to dry up. Current NFL that played in the legacy UFL were mostly coached up where I don’t really see that happening this season. Just mulling some stuff over.
by Gary Winter
I agree with Ken G. Inexperienced coaches are not going to be developing players while they’re trying to learn how to run a football team. They don’t even have a GM to help them out. This is a very shortsighted way to run a league. RP may not realize it, but fans are more concerned with their team winning than where their coach or players went to college. Where did Mike Nolan or Skip Holtz go to school? Doesn’t matter does it? They can coach. Unfortunately for the fans, they probably cost too much to retain. You should have eased into this Mike instead of making all of these poor decisions at one time. Fans are not going to care for this. Of course, you have much of their money already and I’m hearing you won’t refund it. Another nice move, eh?