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Go figure. The winner of the 2025 UFL Championship game is the team that lost its head coach at the start of the season and had dropped two straight games heading into the playoffs.
The DC Defenders put up 31 points in the second quarter and went on to outscore the Michigan Panthers 58-34 in the second-ever league title contest in St. Louis on Saturday night. As the interim head coach, Shannon Harris guided the team to an 8-4 final record. He replaced Reggie Barlow in an interim capacity on March 23 after Barlow resigned to become the new head coach at Tennessee State University in the Football Championship Subdivision of the FCS. At TSU, he replaces former NFL running back Eddie George who spent four years with the Tigers before deciding to move up to the FBS as the new head coach at Bowling Green.
Michigan had a 13-6 lead going into the second stanza. The Panthers needed just six plays to go up 6-0 on a 35-yard run off left tackle by Nate McCrary out of D2 Saginaw Valley State. He was the leading rusher in the 2021 preseason for the Baltimore Ravens in the National Football League with 163 yards and a TD, but was still waived before the start of the regular season. A little sidenote - the Ravens have the second-best odds to the Buffalo Bills at FanDuel.com Sportsbook to win Super Bowl LX.
Jordan Ta'amu (Ole Miss) then dominated DC's first possession as he ran or passed on 9 of the 12 plays and concluded the drive with a 26-yard deep pass down the right side to Jaydon Mickens (Washington Huskies) who was Tampa Bay's punt returner in Super Bowl LV.
With the score tied at 6-apiece, Bryce Perkins (Arizona State, Arizona Western, Virginia) went back to work for the Panthers and captained a 74-yard drive that ended on the 7th play with a 38-yard scoring strike to Siaosi Mariner (Utah, Utah State) who also caught the PAT for a 13-6 Michigan lead.
DC got a field goal on its next possession and forced Michigan to a 3-and-out, after which a four-play 63-yard drive produced 19-yard scoring pass deep right to Cornell Powell (Clemson) from Ta'amu
DC forced a Michigan fumble on the following kickoff and took over on the Panthers' 7. Ta'amu's 1-yard run and his 2-point conversion pass to Briley Moore (Kansas State, Northern Iowa) made it 23-13, Defenders.
Again, Michigan had to punt and DC went up 31-13 with a 5-yard TD run by Deon Jackson.
Perkins followed with a short pass to the left side that Malik Turner turned into 71-yard TD to cut the gap to 31-19. But DC scored 21 unanswered to widen the lead to 52-19 to put the game out of reach. Perkins would add a couple more TD pass in "trash time" and wound up with 4 on the day as threw for 338 yards and had a pick that led to a DC score.
Ta'amu also threw 4 TD passes with no picks while racking up nearly 390 yards through the air, and added 28 yards rushing and the aforementioned short TD run.
Mickens had 6 catches for 132 yards and a TD reception for the Defenders.
Turner had 10 catches for 168 yards and 3 scores for the Panthers.
The official announced attendance was just 14,559 and that appeared to more of a distributed number than a 'bodies in seats" count. But who could blame the fans of the St. Louis Battlehawks for not showing up en masse, as they usually do for their own team. Especially, after they were favored to advance to this title game for the second year in-a-row and failed both times.
Legend:
SoS=Strength of Schedule
SoV=Strength of Victory
c=Clinched Conference
p=clinched playoff
x=won conference championship game
e=Eliminated
| XFL Conference | W | L | PCT | PF | PA | Home | Road | Conf | ConfPct. | Streak | SoS | SoV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c-St. Louis Battlehawks | 8 | 2 | .800 | 231 | 163 | 4-1 | 4-1 | 4-2 | .667 | Won 6 | .440 | .413 |
| p,x-DC Defenders | 6 | 4 | .600 | 225 | 224 | 3-2 | 3-2 | 4-2 | .667 | Lost 2 | .480 | .467 |
| e-Arlington Renegades | 5 | 5 | .500 | 229 | 168 | 3-2 | 2-3 | 3-3 | .500 | Won 2 | .500 | .340 |
| e-San Antonio Brahmas | 1 | 9 | .100 | 136 | 274 | 0-5 | 1-4 | 1-5 | .167 | Lost 6 | .580 | .600 |
| USFL Conference | W | L | PCT | PF | PA | Home | Road | Conf | ConfPct. | Streak | SoS | SoV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c-Birmingham Stallions | 7 | 3 | .700 | 244 | 167 | 4-1 | 3-2 | 5-1 | .833 | Won 2 | .460 | .429 |
| p,x -Michigan Panthers | 6 | 4 | .600 | 245 | 198 | 3-2 | 3-2 | 3-3 | .500 | Lost 2 | .480 | .350 |
| e-Houston Roughnecks | 5 | 5 | .500 | 183 | 201 | 2-3 | 3-2 | 3-3 | .500 | Won 2 | .500 | .340 |
| e-Memphis Showboats | 2 | 8 | .200 | 148 | 246 | 0-5 | 2-3 | 1-5 | .167 | Lost 2 | .560 | .400 |
Home team BOLD, Attendance, venue and location in parenthesis.
USFL - Sunday, June 8 - Michigan 44, Birmingham 29 (10,928 at Liberty Stadium in Houston)at Protective Stadium in Birmingham | 3:00 PM | ABC
XFL - Sunday, June 8 - DC 36, St. Louis 18 (27,589 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis)
Saturday, June 14 - DC 58, Michigan 34 (14,559 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis)
Arlington - Bob Stoops (16-21)
Birmingham - Skip Holtz (39-8)
DC - Shannon Harris, interim (8-4)
Houston - Curtis Johnson (11-19)
Memphis - Jim Turner (2-8)
Michigan - Mike Nolan (18-16)
St. Louis - Anthony Becht (22-10)
San Antonio - Payton Pardee (1-7)